When I bought my QM they told me to quilt from right to left.

Hi, i work my long arm both ways and up and down, i see no differance. i like worhing from left to right because i can keep up with the pattern better. Good luck with your quilting. Arletta

I go all directions and have never noticed the stitches underneath are different. Sounds wierd to me...

Wow, I have an Innova 18" and I go all directions. I don't do pantos, just hand-guided free-motion quilting. I don't notice any difference in the feel of my machine or the quality of my stitches, no matter which direction I'm going. I do know that the needle is bent in different directions, pulling it away or towards the hook, but in a quality quilting machine, it does not make a difference in your stitches. That is the big difference between a machine built for quilting and a machine built for sewing - on the quilting machine it it expected that the machine will go in all different directions and still produce a good stitch. A sewing machine is not made to be stitching in all directions and that is why it is so much more difficult to have good stitch quality when quilting using a DSM.

I have a Tin Lizzie and I go all directions. A feather meander has to go in all directions or it would not be a meander. I wonder about anyone who would make such a statement as this lady did.

Cynthia

Long Arm Quilting machines are designed to sew left to right standing in front of the machine and right to left standing behind using the laser on a pantograph or board. This is the way the bobbin is designed to pick up the thread and make a stitch. When it is ran in the opposite direction, the stitch does not form correctly, not to say you can't get by with it, as usually the batting will make it less noticeable. I was an HQ dealer for 4 years and took my training in Utah at the HQ headquarters. Long Arm machines are pretty forgiving and do make circles and lots of other shapes, but if you really look at the stitches, you will see your best ones will be as stated above, left to right in front of the machine.

I don't have anything to reply on but I would like to be told how to use a double needle?

this is interesting. I too, was told that you had to always quilt left to right and that made no sense to me - so glad to hear others say you can do it both ways.

Did you sell the HQ Sixteen Sit Down? I am considering purchasing one in the near future. Does it matter how I quit on that?

I just took a class from my Long Arm dealer. As I understood it, they go any direction. They go best left to right, because that is the smoothest direction the bobbin unrolls. You will have fewer backlash or thread breakage issues if you primarily go left to right. That said, Long Arms are the only machine able to go any direction any time...but best left to right.