Decision Guide
Rent, Buy, or Send It Out?
Every finished top faces the same question. Here's the per-quilt math on all three answers — and the quilts-per-year number that actually decides it.
The short version
Finish fewer than a handful of quilts a year? Send them out— it's the best money in quilting. Finish one a month and like the idea of doing the quilting yourself? Rent frame timefirst; it's the cheapest way to learn whether you love it. Quilting weekly, for a guild, or for customers? Buying stops being an indulgence and starts being math.
Send it out
Per quilt: roughly $75–$250+Best for: Most quilters, most of the time
Professional longarm quilters price by the square inch — commonly around 2–3¢ for an edge-to-edge design, more for custom work — so a throw runs under $100 and a queen lands in the low-to-mid $100s, plus batting and return shipping if you mail it. You get a professionally finished quilt, zero equipment, zero learning curve, and your piecing time back. The trade: turnaround time (weeks to months for the good quilters), and the quilting design is a conversation rather than your own hands.
Rent time on a longarm
Per quilt: roughly $40–$100 in machine timeBest for: Hands-on quilters with a shop nearby
Many quilt shops rent frame time on their longarm — typically $15–$35 an hour after a one-time certification class ($50–$150). An edge-to-edge design on a throw takes a first-timer two to four hours; you'll get faster. This is the overlooked middle path: you quilt it yourself, on real equipment, for a fraction of ownership cost — and you find out whether you actually enjoy longarm quilting before a machine the size of a sofa moves into your house.
Buy your own
Upfront: $5,500–$40,000+Best for: High-volume quilters and anyone quilting for others
Ownership only pencils out at volume. Against a $150 average send-out cost, even an entry-level $6,000 sit-down longarm takes about 40 quilts to break even — several years for most hobbyists, one busy year for a charity-group workhorse or anyone taking paying customers. Below that volume, buy because you love the craft of quilting itself and want it on tap, not because the spreadsheet says so; above it, the machine pays for itself and then starts earning.
If the math says buy
Start with our brand comparison to pick a lane (hand-guided vs. computerized, sit-down vs. frame), then price it at a dealer that actually knows the machines. Sewing Machines Plus carries the major quilting and longarm lines online, with real humans on the phone.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to have a quilt professionally longarm quilted?+
Most longarm quilters charge by the square inch — commonly around 2–3¢ for edge-to-edge (pantograph) designs, and 4–6¢+ for custom quilting. That puts a 60×72" throw at roughly $85–$130 edge-to-edge and a queen around $150–$250, plus batting and any shipping. Our longarm cost calculator estimates it for your exact quilt dimensions.
How much does it cost to rent a longarm machine?+
Typical shop rates run $15–$35 per hour of frame time, usually after a required certification class costing $50–$150. A first edge-to-edge throw takes most people two to four hours of machine time, so renting generally halves the cost of sending out — in exchange for your afternoon and your own quilting decisions.
How many quilts a year justifies buying a longarm?+
As a rough break-even: divide the machine price by what you'd pay per quilt to send out. A $6,000 entry machine at $150 saved per quilt is about 40 quilts; a $15,000 machine is 100. Quilters finishing a dozen or more quilts a year, quilting for a guild or charity group, or planning to take customer quilts reach those numbers quickly; a few-quilts-a-year hobbyist may never.
Is a sit-down longarm cheaper than a frame longarm?+
Generally yes — sit-down (table) longarms start around $5,500–$8,000 since you're not buying a 10–12 foot frame, and they fit in a normal sewing room. The trade is that you move the quilt instead of the machine, which is closer to domestic free-motion technique. Frame machines cost more and need serious floor space, but handle big quilts with far less wrestling.