My wife LOVES her Innova longarm machine! For two years or more we researched longarm quilting machines: Tin Lizzie, APQS, Handi-Quilter, Nolting, Gammill (briefly - VERY pricey!), and others. Being the computer person in the family, I did a lot of the researxch on the Internet, reading the reviews of many of the brands. I recommmended that Linda take a good look at the Innova, which seemed the best machine, and the best "bang for her buck". Then we saw the Innova at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show and immediately were attracted to it. The quality of the machine, the top-notch customer support, even the friendliness of the dealers were attractive to us. Linda tried it out at the MA Quilt Show two years in a row, and enjoyed talking to the traveling rep, Heidi Farmer. When last year Valerie Schlake, a quilting friend of my daughter in Richmond, Va, switched from being a Gammill dealer to Innova, we checked it out again, and with some inheritance money, bought the 18" Innova and 10-foot frame and installed it in Linda's newly-redesigned sewing room. She has done numerous baby quilts and a couple of full-size quilts, my daughter has used it, and my wife's sister has done two full quilts and a baby quilt on it. (Now she too wants an Innova.)
Linda does not have the Lightning Stitch, and hasn't needed it thus far (she's had the innova about six months, since Feb. 2013).
We highly recommend it!