Thread: Discouraged Long Arm Newbie... It's Harder Than I Thought!

Hello all.. I've recently purchased my first long arm machine and frame. I have been quilting and sewing for just about 10 years now and I'll say that it has humbled me along the way. I started quilting mostly baby quilts on a tiny 32 inch round kitchen table using a sewing machine I bought on sale at WalMart for about $80. I've moved up to better machines, bigger tables and now have a big quilting room and just when I felt comfortable quilting on my home machine my frame arrived and whalla.. I feel like that beginner quilter again...

I've wanted a longarm and frame for a while but couldn't really afford it. Then I found a combo deal and purchased a Hinterberg Stretch frame with the Viking Voyager 17 inch long arm machine for just under $4,000. The machine feels a bit clunky to me as I estimate it is at least 10 years old (refurbished) but it works. It came with a SLR and I've put together one twin sized quilt with it so far. I've got a queen sized and another twin sized quilt top waiting in the wings to be quilted.

But here's the thing... I feel like someone has taken my training wheels off my bike and I'm 4 years old again. The first project I simply did a meandering stitch to get used to the controls. If feels so different operating the machine from the handle rather than having a foot pedal.. the instruction booklet is right, these machines are like nothing I've used before. So tonight, in between quilt tops I attached some fat quarter sized practice "sandwiches" to the frame and thought I'd try to do some free hand patterns, practice tracing a line and see if I can do a simple feather. OH BOY.. I stink at this!! It is so difficult and I am embarrassed at how terrible I am at moving this machine around.. I couldn't create a pleasing design to save myself.

I know that a lot of the fantastic intricate quilting that we see is done with a computer aided machine, but did any of you who do this free hand have this hard of a time getting used to creating presentable free hand quilting designs?

I'm discouraged and hope I didn't just buy a $4000.00 meander machine : \ I could use some encouragement right about now..

Keep on practicing when i first started using mine. i put together some old sheets
with batting and i practice every day for a while. it took me two times before i felt
i could do a quilt. i made a quilt out of them and binded them and they are nice
and warm my husband likes them in the winter. dont give up.

You are right--it is alot harder than it looks, but as everyone else has said, it just takes practice, practice, practice. Stick with it, you'll soon love it and have no regrets. I was like you--I thought since I had a stitch regulator there would be no learning curve. How wrong I was! The stitch regulator just shortens the learning curve, as it turns out. You'll know you're on your way when your circles no longer look like squares with rounded corners, lol! Try to enjoy it!

dont give up, just keep practicing, hold your handles loosely, (not with a death grip), breathe, relax and have fun with it. you will get better, it just takes time.

Originally Posted by AshleyR

I know exactly how you feel! I have a "basting machine" taking up half of my bedroom!! Right now, I don't have the time to invest in learning how to do it, because, thanks to my cats, who seem to think they own everything... I have to take a quilt off after each session! However, my machine is not as nice as yours! I'm not 100% sold on quilting on a frame yet. I don't *enjoy* it the way I enjoy quilting on the table. However, I do see the draw of it, so I'm determined to use it correctly, even if it's not as much fun!! I'm sure once we get the hang of it, we'll love them!

Try using tin foil on your quilt when you are done. Just lay it across it and your cats will leave it be, I had the same problem and tried it and now they don't bother it at all.