I think I need a drink!
 

Ok, I finally put a kids quilt on to be my first "piece" and it's as if I never practiced! I've drawn an idea out on large paper and practice drawing my kites, tails and various loops. How do I transition from the border area back to the center quilt area. Especially going back and forth- Should I just ignore the borders and just quilt side to side for these first efforts? I'm wanting to do basically loops and kites on a rail fence block quilt. It has a border then a narrow inner border. This is my first real thing to long arm. I've made lots of quilts on my Singer 15-91 and am really getting frustrated with longarming. I also run into the clamps so I put a yard stick under the cords to hold them up a bit. I'm used to quilting distinct areas- border, shashing, blocks. I've watched several videos but doing and watching are not the same!

No help with FMQ, I just use pantographs. To avoid hitting my clamps I made 4 straps (I have 4 clamps), one for each clamp. Each strap (don't know what to call them) is 3inches wide by about 9 inches long. I pin (I use long straight pins) these straps to my backing & batting as I would place my clamps then clamp to these straps. Works for me. For the straps I just used some drapery fabric folded as I would binding and zigzagged the length every inch or so. Probably over kill. I just thought it would be less lightly to stretch.

I'm sorry, but I don't longarm, but have a Sitdown sweet 16. But just thinking about this,if I understand your quandary, if you want to keep your borders quilted differently, wouldn't stitching in the ditch on the borders be first up before starting to quilt your piece? That way you have somewhere to travel with stitches and your borders are stabilized before quilting the interior with your kites and loops filler. Just a thought from one who has only watched videos of longarmers, but I know on my own, ditching to stabilize is most always first on the agenda. Good luck with your project!

There was an interesting discussion a while ago on how to quilt the different areas of a quilt.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...ml#post7444544
It's all a matter of preference, experience and your chosen quilting pattern. If you do decide to move between sections, like borders & blocks, you may need to tie off one area before quilting another. You need to think about how you are going to quilt the entire quilt and possibly design transitional designs so you don't need to tie off to move. for instance if you planned a meander or cross hatch design in your inner border, you may be able to quilt right over to the blocks.
As far as running into the side clamps, your yardstick can work, but this is why long arm quilters require additional backing fabric.
You might want to consider an edge to edge for your first quilt or two. This will get you used to how the machine moves, then move on to different motifs in different areas.

First your putting yardsticks to raise your clamps is what I have been doing for 20yrs...it really is the solution for that prob. My method....do first border, begin inside work...up to side borders.....baste edges of those sides as you roll up...finish your end horizontal border...remove from rollers...reposition, having your basted borders now horizontal and do your final two borders. As far as fm the design your wanting to. You can premarital the spots you want the kites to be at with maybe a chalk mark, and when you get to one, or near enough, do it......just keep moving and it will begin to flow for you....don't put yourself on super speed, take it slower....

Is it an edge to edge or are you not quilting kites on the border...not sure by your description...
you might try to get a chalk pencil and draw out your design...sometimes I do that for the first feather spine if I'm not sure where I'll end up..

OMHO, great advice from Geri B. The only thing I do differently is the yard sticks. I started off using yard sticks but as I advanced the quilt I would always "drop" the stick on the floor. I bought two old fashion cheap white curtain rods (the ones that are about 3/4" wide that come out from the wall and are adjustable). One for each side. The bent ends of the rods catch my take up and supply roller, do not fall off and easily slide into place.

Thank you all- I slept on this-

I'm struggling with starting at Kindergarten after sewing forever! My husband keeps saying "it's just like cultivating row crops- you gotta relax". He's right and the good thing is I won't be taking out any plants if I wobble a bit!

I use my seam line ditch between body of quilt and border to travel and tie off. I tend to work from one side of the quilt to the other. So my first quilting is the top border and if I can I tie off the border quilting on the edge where it will be covered by binding. When I get done with the top border I usually have wrapped around the corner in my design to the sides. Then I start my middle design in the ditch quilt all the way across and tie off in the opposite ditch. Cut threads and restart my other side border. For my side clamps I try to have excess backing fabric so hitting them isn't an issue. But sometimes I don't always have that extra backing. I have an Innova and my rack setup allows me to wrap my side clamp bungees up and over my rack rail so they are elevated up a bit. In worst case scenarios, I move the side clamp so I can quilt that area.

Relax and have fun and don't worry about being perfect. While the quilt is on the rack your nose is 18" from your work if that. Once the quilt is off the rack and washed any mistakes that seemed glaring to you when in close proximity will be hard to find once looking at the whole quilt.

we all do this differently and the good thing about it is we are all correct! I usually (after basting down the top and the two sides that in the work space) will do a SID between borders and center of quilt--or I can use that for the travel line if doing each block separately (i.e. maybe a quilt with sashings) But if I'm doing a border to border design with something separate in the borders, I'll do the SID, then starting at the bottom left of my work space, do my center design from L to R, up/down until I've covered the work space, I usually then do the border from the left, top, right--hopefully not having a design that I have to turn the quilt at the end to do the side borders--check DeLoa Jones info on how to do that. Then I'll roll the quilt and repeat.

At my long arm guild on Thurs, our speaker, shared an idea to avoid those collisions with the side clamps (which I know that having enough backing is suppose to prevent that, but seems it doesn't always), plus it gives a more even "pull" to the side and thus more square quilts. She used a strong canvas, ticking, etc cut to about the width of her work space (from belly bar to take up bar) that is about 8- 12" wide. She encased a yardstick or ruler in the one side of the rectangle of canvas and clamps to that, while pinning the other side of rectangle to the sides of backing. Says you do have to unpin before rolling. But said you're only using about 3-4 pins so not a huge deal. I'm going to work on this set up tomorrow for my own machine.