Long Arm questions ????
 

I am wandering down the longarm road, and have a few questions for those with more expertise.

1: Wind your own bobbins or buy pre-wound ones?
2: Poly or cotton?
3: Did you take classes to learn or did you just hop in and teach yourself?

I am debating about attending one of the HQ classes at their headquarters vs buying the DVD's vs attending an educational event in a nearby state.

I wind my own. They never seem to have the colors I want and I don't buy that many. I use what ever thread I like. My machine is not too picky. I seem to gravitate to Permacore and Omni ( look like cotton but are poly wrapped poly) and Glide (trilobal poly). You will need to try a few and see what you like and what works in your machine. I find that cotton is VERY linty. My machine does not like lint. I started with a used machine so I jumped in with no classes at all. There WERE tears. I have since upgraded and took all the new owners classes that were available. DVD and good manuals are invaluable too! Half of what they tell you will go in one ear and out the other! Find someone you can call to be a mentor. Good customer service is a must. Good luck on your journey!

I wind my own bobbins. A stand-alone bobbin winder came with my Innova and it does a great job of winding quickly and perfectly. I use both poly and cotton threads, but mostly poly since it is less linty and has a nice sheen. I had some lessons with purchase of the machine (mostly just understanding how to operate it), and since then I have taken a couple of Craftsy classes, read lots of books, watched videos on YouTube, etc.

1 - I wind my own and also like using magnaglide from filtec because they have consistent tension
2 - prefer poly
3 - I read through machine quilting forums www.mqresources.com and the forum for my type of machine at apqs.com. I attended a few machine quilting shows and took classes, dvds, and doodling help alot.

please note there is a learning curve. groups who make donation quilts will gladly give you lots of tops to practice on. it's a fun journey.

I use both but have to say that I really do LOVE the Filtec prewound bobbins. I use white for light backs and gray for darker backs.

I also wind my own. I have had my machine for 10 months and I am scheduled for a class next week. I picked up the quilting OK, but I want to know exactly how to perform maintenance, and I now have a list of specific questions.

Mine's a midarm 15" Bailey. lt winds bobbins perfectly, but you do get more thread on prewounds. As for thread, it depends on the project. The polyester is finer, so it works well for fine, close quilting ( l've even used machine embroidery thread for special heirloom style projects). The cotton heavier threads show up more, so they're less suitable for quilting that's close or has a lot of backtracking. l use it for te cotton patchwork charity quilts l do.

I wind my own, I use Superior So Fine in the bobbin and I like King Tutt on top. I did take classes, had a great instructor who said "call me if you have questions" I did and still do. Have a great dealer too. If I have problem with machine I call them, they hang up on me and call right back! It is a long distance call. The one time I had to take it into them. They met me at the back door before they opened, had it fixed and back to me by noon the next day. It is a 6 1/2 hour trip one way.

Wind my own- a winder comes with the machines. Owners classes are great to take advantage of, classes can certainly give a good start, help avoid all the problems that may come up on your own. Good dealer, local service and classes make the journey much less stressful.

I wind my own with a stand alone winder. I use whatever thread I have that matches my project but bottom line is the one I use most. I did not take any classes other than learning the loading process. I just jumped in with both feet and felt like I could practice on plain muslin. I did many sandwiches and cut them down for drag-around quilts for the grands. They didn't care what they looked like. Just be sure to give yourself time to learn and lots of practice. It is so much easier to do than sitting at a domestic machine and fighting it under the arm.

I wind my own with the built-in winder. I like matching my bobbin thread to the top thread and don't want to have to buy tons of prewounds to ensure a color match. My machine (Gammill) isn't picky at all about thread - I've even used Isacord embroidery cones to get the color I wanted (okay, I wanted that color right now without waiting and I had it on hand with my embroidery supplies) - no problems. You just need to see what your own machine will tolerate.
If your machine comes with lessons, by all means take them. Mine offered a maintainance class that was extra but well worth it. After you've gotten used to your LA, take classes from some of the nationally known quilters if you get the chance. You'll be surprised at all the tricks and techniques you can pick up from them but it really helps to know what you're doing before you take the class so you're confident trying what they're teaching. And watch a lot of Youtube videos - won't cost a thing and some of the best quilters (Judy Madsen and Angela Walters are two) have great videos out there. Good luck and have fun with it.

Thank you everyone for your responses!!! I am going to spend the weekend playing with my new addition!! I am sew thankful to have the feedback and advice from everyone here. I agree that YouTube, boards and the Internet are the best resources for learning; that is how I learned to quilt in the first place!! Thanks again!!!!

I also wind my own bobbins as my winder works great. I use what thread in the color I'm looking for so it could be cotton or poly or embroidery thread. Also have used metallic embroidery thread. I've never had any lessons/classes in making quilts or in quilting. Just read a lot and tried my hand at it. Sometimes a bunch of mistakes, other times it works out okay. I live in a small town so not much options for classes or purchasing of supplies so mainly use websites for ordering.

I wind my own as I generally like to match top and bobbin threads.
As for threads, I have gone to www.metroemb.com for thread. As the name says, it is an embroidery thread so it's made for high speed machines, trilobal poly. Awesome thread and extremely inexpensive. No lint.
I am one of those fortunate ones who's machine isn't picky on thread and my tension rarely goes whacko!
Love the classes and have watched every Jamie Wallen video out there. He goes into all kinds of things besides just quilting like timing, tension, etc. There is also one out there called TNT, Thread, Needles and Tension. Awesome video and well worth the few minutes it takes.
Have fun!
Jane

1. Wind my own bobbins.
2. Poly is recommended.
3. Take as many classes from the dealer as possible.

I bought a lovely LA but the lessons were minimal and service poor. Learned a big lesson there. I can call the company and do for help and will take additional lessons soon from another dealer for $$.

I have a stand alone LA bobbin winder that came with my machine when I bought it used years ago. It only has one speed, so I bought a pedal cord so I can regulate the speed.

I do both. I have the Magna-glide prewounds (love them, suggested by my dealer) and the Superior Bobs (they're okay, but they're on cardboard). If I can't find a color pre-wound or want Invisible on the back that I want, then I will wind my own. As far as thread goes, I have used cotton and poly. I found the King Tut (cotton) lintier than poly, that said, it worked fairly well in my machine with just a little tension problem between it and my bobbin thread (Superior BOB), but I am about to try Fil-Tec's cotton and see how it works in my machine.

I am finding that just like DSMs, different threads work differently in different LA machines, so it becomes a matter of personal preference.

I definitely agree that if the dealer offers classes, take them. It is fun to play when you get it, but if your dealer offers them, the classes help so much, especially for tips on tension and maintenance for that particular machine. When you take a longarm class at a show, the classes pretty much assume that you understand the basics of using a longarm, unless it states that it is an introduction to longarming class.

Thanks everyone!! I wish I was able to purchase locally, everywhere I went I hit walls with trying to buy one from somewhere close (close for me is 1-2.5 hrs away) I never imagined it would be so difficult to buy a longarm; I guess it must be nice to be so profitable that you don't have to call potential customers, this happened at 3 different shops. In the end I ordered online and a month later I finally have all my parts, ordering online was no better. I can get bad service anywhere, thus my reluctance to "pay to take a class" from any of the places I went, and I am skeptical as to the "service I will receive" if I encounter any issues with my machine. I am trying hard to not be a negative nelly, but darn it what happened to customer service!! Sorry for the rant, thanks for letting me vent.

1. I've always used prewounds.
2. I don't care. But I prefer Glide.
3. I took three classes from Linda V. Taylor at an AQS quilt show in Paducah several years ago to get me started, and now I love, love, LOVE Angela Walter's Craftsy classes :)

I use both. I've bought some from Superior Threads and use them when I have the color I want (they have an extensive selection of BottomLine prewounds, but I would go broke buying them all) and I have lots of BottomLine cones that I wind myself. My Innova came with a stand-alone bobbin winder and works very well. I use Superior Threads almost exclusively with my Innova - King Tut, So Fine, BottomLine, Razzle Dazzle, metallic, Glitter, Halo, Lava, silk, Nite Lite, Rainbow - all work beautifully. YLI and Signature work as well, but are super linty. King Tut is cotton and has more lint then the poly threads, but no where near as much as the other cottons I've tried. I had 3 days of lessons that came when I bought my longarm - mostly to learn how to use it, I've gone to many classes over the years, but craftsy classes are fabulous and I don't have the expense of travel and I can go back and "take" the class as many times as I want! I also have many books on longarm quilting...great for ideas to keep my quilting fresh, new and interesting to me!! It is so much fun to quilt when you have a quality machine!! One important thing to make sure you get with your longarm is free 24/7/265 tech support...really important to be able to get help on the phone whenever you need it (it generally isn't M-F, 8-5!).

1. Wind my own bobbins. My machine uses the large, M size bobbins.
2. Both if you are talking about either thread or batting. I prefer Poly thread. Don't care which batting...customer's choice on both.
3. Jumped right in there.

I went to youtube and watched every video I could find.. I didn't care the make of the machine. My first longarm was a converted industrial machine (big green monster)...so brand was not relevant. I now have a TinLizzie18LS & love it.

I wind my own bobbins (M) and almost always use the same thread on top. I like Superior, especially So Fine, King Tut (heavier, cotton so more lint) and starting to really like Omni I sometime have problems with Glide--think its me, but I get more loops on back.
I bought used and had taken certification classes at a LQS so I could rent LA time--so basically plunged in. But since I have taken classes from Angela Walters, Jamie Wallen, Dusty Farrell, Kim Bruner, Pat Barry, Sally Terry , DeLoa Jones, and Linda Taylor(and a maintenance class from her husband Rick--definitely suggest a maintenance class!) Learned something from each one of them and highly recommend taking classes at large shows, check out YouTube, Craftsy, and get some books--I turn to Angela Walter's Shapes almost like a reference book.

If you get a chance to go to Salt Lake City...take it. You will learn so much. There are also events at shops that are run by trained HQ field educators and those are also well worth the time and money.

Mostly wind my own bobbins - some Glide pre-wounds, Poly - So Fine, Omni, Glide. Took a few classes, watched all the videos and then went to HQ Academy.