A LQS has a long arm you can rent by the hour, so I took a mini course today and then just played on a plain piece of fabric sandwich for 45 minutes.
Learned how to load the quilt sandwich, thread the machine, start and stop and then I was on my own.
There will certainly be a learning curve. My FMQ was not nearly as good on the long arm as it is on my DSM....couldn't back track to save my life and my pebbles looked pretty jaggedy. Kept getting a flat spot on my swirls. Paisley looked OK, though. I think it doesn't feel as steady because on your DSM you can keep your hands down on the material and with the long arm your arms are out in front of you more, so you're less stable. I'll have to play with it some more to get a more solid position.
All in all, lots of fun and the owner remarked when she came back to check on me that most people just meander at first, but here I was doing FMQ!
(I get bored easily.)
After I was done, the owner and I loaded another quilt, so I got extra practice doing another one.
I had brought along my queen sized batik quilt which is half way done on my DSM and the owner says it shouldn't be a problem to load it on the long arm to finish. Good thing because otherwise I don't think I'd ever finish it.
Looking forward to booking time on my next day off to work on a baby quilt.
Watson