Originally Posted by
Peckish
Please don't think that you will buy a longarm, load a quilt on it, and start quilting and making money immediately. There is a huge learning curve even with computerized systems. You.Will.Need.To.Practi. How good you get and how fast you get that good depends entirely upon you and how much effort and time you put into learning and practicing. Practice every day and take classes.
Peggi,
Thank you for taking the time to share these additional thoughts. I found the Longarm University post to be valuable and a reminder to me that I need to spend more time at their site. I am definitely leaning toward the big-girl machines as I really don’t want to struggle against a machine that is not particularly competent at its job and I also don’t want to go through the trouble of re-how I g such a machine once the honeymoon is over. The more ai read about Innova, the more I tend to think that is the direction I Want to head in.
All this said, I want to emphasize that I am not laboring under the illusion that this is a skill I will need little-to-no time to develop before hanging out a long arm shingle. Knowing myself, I will need to practice for a good while before I will feel confident enough to offer services to others. Quality is definitely something I care very much about. My question about computerization/robotics was not asked out of a sense of money-making urgency, but rather from trying to get a sense of what role that technology is playing in others’ businesses.
As for my local scene is concerned, I have been getting a handle on that for about the last year or so. Pre-Covid, I had been attending monthly meetings of a long arm group at one of our SM dealers and networking with the other members there. We also have a MQG chapter here as well as a general quilt guild and again, Covid has slowed things down a lot as far as meetings are concerned. I also took a half-day class in order to rent the Gammill at one of our LQSes so I know the basics of their non-robotic machine. I do need to have more specific and pointed discussions with other pro quilters in my area, but initial discussions suggest that there still is room in the market for another pro long armer In the area. In a nutshell, I have started the kind of local research you describe but I am not done yet.
Your generosity with your knowledge is very much appreciated.