I can hardly believe I did it, but look at this! I long-armed a quilt!!!
A friend of mine bought her long-arm at the Paducah AQS last year and she kindly offered to teach me how to use it. How quickly do you think I said “YES!!!”? Yes, I'm blessed with wonderful friends like that!
I’ve been thinking I would enjoy doing long-arm quilting but wasn’t sure… and you know, that’s a LOT of money to spend only to find out you don’t really like doing it. I’ve been quilting my own quilts on my Janome 6600P domestic machine since I started quilting. Only one of my quilts is done by the local long-arm quilter, simply because I can’t afford to buy fabric AND pay to have my quilts quilted. And I do okay at quilting on my DSM; usually I'm happy with the results. Here's a recent sample:
But it’s a real JOB!!! It’s hard work, and it takes a long time, and it ties up my favorite machine until I’m done. So, I just don’t get a lot of quilting done. I have 24 quilt tops in my closet needing to be quilted!!!! This is getting to be crisis time people!!!
So when my friend said I could learn to long-arm on hers, I jumped at the chance. And, of course, I’ve found that I LOVE IT!!!! I practiced for 3 weeks before I dared to try a real quilt, and this one is just a simple mystery quilt that I did not mind experimenting on. And of course I chose a super-simple pantogram design called "Daisies". Not perfect by any means, but not the disaster I expected either, and so much fun!
Needless to say, my mind is now buzzing with schemes and plots to figure out how to afford my own long-arm machine! Maybe if I’m a really good girl, Santa will bring me one in his sleigh this Christmas ;*} I wonder how he'll get it in there? I better get started baking him some cookies now!!!
Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=
It looks amazing! Good job!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job!!! Looks good ;-)
ReplyDeleteYour quilting is beautiful, Teresa. I think you do a wonderful job on your domestic machine, as well! I have just been going the rounds trying to choose a machine just to dedicate to machine quilting--but not a long arm. I know I can't afford that. I looked at the Janome 6600 and really liked it, but it has more bells and whistles than a machine dedicated to FMQ needs. Decisions, decisions. I know what I want--an HQ Sweet 16, but I can't afford that, either. : )
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your dilemma.
The quilting on your first attempt looks great! I love that daisy pantograph. What kind of machine does your friend have? Perhaps your friend will invite you again and you can start working on your pile of quilt tops!
ReplyDelete