Am I the only one?
#22
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Maryland
Posts: 378
It's not as if a longarmer goes from piecing to long arming. I too did many a quilt with a do exotic machine, then moved to a nine inch throat and then a mid arm. There are quilters out there who will do a quilt for less than you quote. Check personal ads in quilt magazines.
#24
Originally Posted by raedar63
I absolutly love to look at all the quilts that are posted on here and all over the internet for that matter. The thing is, I find myself getting so discouraged about making quilts because I do not have a long arm. I hear it roughly a 150 dollars and more to have one longarmed and that is for stippling.I have almost came to the conclusion to find a diffrent hobby and try to sell all of the tops and stash I have accumutated.Am I the only one that feels this way. I guess I am, and have been in a funk feeling like I am wasteing so much money buying nice fabrics to make quilts.
#25
I made my first quilt around 1985. Up until recently I hand quilted. My hand quilting is adequate, just adequate. I have tied many a quilts as well. I have an unknown amount of UFO's stashed everywhere. I have always been apprehensive about sending a quilt out for LA from the expense aspect, and even if I could afford to own one there is absolutely not a speck of space in my home to house one. I have narrowed my quilt construction down to lap quilts, wall hangings, runners, etc so I can easily quilt them on my DM I even took a large queen sized UFO and chopped it up into a couple of pieces so i could more easily quilt. My next experiment will be quilt as you go.
Don't give up, there is always some sort of alterntive to keep you quilting and enjoying it.
Don't give up, there is always some sort of alterntive to keep you quilting and enjoying it.
#26
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 605
Originally Posted by raedar63
I absolutly love to look at all the quilts that are posted on here and all over the internet for that matter. The thing is, I find myself getting so discouraged about making quilts because I do not have a long arm. I hear it roughly a 150 dollars and more to have one longarmed and that is for stippling.I have almost came to the conclusion to find a diffrent hobby and try to sell all of the tops and stash I have accumutated.Am I the only one that feels this way. I guess I am, and have been in a funk feeling like I am wasteing so much money buying nice fabrics to make quilts.
#27
Originally Posted by fayzer
Originally Posted by raedar63
I absolutly love to look at all the quilts that are posted on here and all over the internet for that matter. The thing is, I find myself getting so discouraged about making quilts because I do not have a long arm. I hear it roughly a 150 dollars and more to have one longarmed and that is for stippling.I have almost came to the conclusion to find a diffrent hobby and try to sell all of the tops and stash I have accumutated.Am I the only one that feels this way. I guess I am, and have been in a funk feeling like I am wasteing so much money buying nice fabrics to make quilts.
I know where all my mistakes are, and I bet everyone knows that for their own quilts, but non-quilters don't get out their magnifying glass and look for mistakes. Do not dispair! One of the first quilts that I made was a queen sized one that I designed using Quilt Wizard software. It is comprised of 12" blocks and many of them are cut off and not straight, and many of the points in the stars don't match, and some of them are cut off, too. It's on the sofa in my family room and gets used all the time. On the label on the back I put the date and wrote a note about how I didn't think it was very nice, but that I was a rank beginner. Maybe someday it will end up at a yard sale when my kids clean out my house after I die. :-)
There's a picture of it below and you can see the points cut off in one of the blocks! I also quilted it using my Janome 4100QDC and I had to wrestle with it, but it can be done.
I only stitch in the ditch and have never sent anything out for LA as I assumed it was really expensive. Thanks for the link to Happy Crafters - their prices seems quite reasonable to me. Now, the only problem that I have is that Happy Crafters is in the States and I am in Canada. Does anyone know of any LA quilters in Canada that don't cost an arm and a leg?
Beginner quilt with lots of errors
[ATTACH=CONFIG]279735[/ATTACH]
#29
Originally Posted by Sadiemae
Originally Posted by jmabby
Originally Posted by Lacelady
I did several queen sized quilts on my domestic before I got my HQ16 sit down. Firstly, it makes a huge, huge difference if you have your machine sitting level with the surrounding table surface. Those silly little clip on things that Bernina supplied me with were useless. If I hadn't had a cabinet, I would have bought a cheap table and cut a hole in it, with a shelf under to sit the machine on.
Once you have the machine level, then the easiest way I found was to just puddle the quilt, so the part I was working on was flat under the needle. Rolling it up in a big sausage didn't work for me at all. It is a bit heavy to work with, pulling and pushing around, but I made it work for me, and its perfectly possible, just a bit tiring. Don't lose heart. Try it first with some smaller projects, I did all my FMQ learning on Project Linus quilts.
Once you have the machine level, then the easiest way I found was to just puddle the quilt, so the part I was working on was flat under the needle. Rolling it up in a big sausage didn't work for me at all. It is a bit heavy to work with, pulling and pushing around, but I made it work for me, and its perfectly possible, just a bit tiring. Don't lose heart. Try it first with some smaller projects, I did all my FMQ learning on Project Linus quilts.
#30
I, too, share your feelings, and the machines themselves are cost prohibitive. So my solution is to make only little quilts now. I have a lot of tops and fabric for more, but I can't afford the quilting and I can't do it myself.
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