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Voyager 17 comparison
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Joined: Aug. 26, 2008
Posted: May 5, 2007, 11:21 AM
I did not have a local distributor that I knew of to see the Voyager 17, but sent for as many brochures and received a few videos from companies so I could compare as many of the quilting machines on the market as possible. After deciding on the HQ16 I threw away all those brochures so my input on this machine is from memory. I do remember even though it had a long throat space it wasn't nearly as tall as the HQ16. (Sorry but I don't remember the exact height) This makes it more difficult to have a larger quilt on your frame. As you quilt, you need to turn the end of the quilt and each turn gives you more "bulk" and gets larger with each roll. This roll needs to fit in your throat area. For this reason you want to have as much height in the throat area as possible. After reading through all the brochures and trying out a few machines in the area, my husband and I felt the HQ16 to be the best value for the price and all the features included on this machine. There are many quilting machines on the market now. Prices are from somewhat inexpensive to VERY EXPENSIVE. The Voyager 17 was a less expensive machine but check out all the features on other machines and decide what features you really need to have. You want your quilting experience to be fun and enjoyable! Some of the frames cannot accomodate larger quilts either and you would have to stop and turn your quilt (not just roll it on the frame) to keep quilting. It all depends on what YOU WANT and get what meets YOUR NEEDS! Sorry I threw out that brochure, it would have been nice to have all the measurements and info. to really compare side to side, both machines. Good Luck to you on your decision! (Sorry, I'm also not sure if all my terminology was correct when using my "throat" explanation so I'm just hoping you knew what I meant! If you look at the picture at the top of the page you can see the roll and how much space there is to roll the end of your quilt as you go.)