Longarm for diagonal straight line quilting?
 

Hi everyone - I was wondering if any longarm quilters could let me know how successfully they've been able to do straight line quilting on the diagonal and if so which machine they have.

I am a quilt artist making big wall hangings in Essex linen, up to 2m x 2m. My Janome MC 8400 is just not cutting it - the stitch consistency isn't good enough.
After some great advice on a previous thread I'd decided on a Juki SS machine - but I want to take my business up a gear and I'm wondering whether I should bite the bullet and get a longarm.

The catch is - I only do straight line quilting. I'd say half the time my lines are parallel verticals or horizontals so a longarm with channel locks would really speed things up for me in that respect. But the other 50% of the time my lines are diagonal - and worse, they are perspective lines so they diverge and are not parallel. It's hard to explain what I mean, but these are picture quilts - you can see some here on my IG account https://www.instagram.com/kate_williams_studio/. (I hope we're allowed to link, apologies if not!)

I guess what I would be doing is FMQ but in a perfectly straight line. But is this totally unrealistic?

I'd also need the stitches to be perfectly regular - would a stitch regulator solve this problem?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

Beautiful work! I think a longarm would make your life much easier! It sounds to me as though you have no need of the computerized/robotics so you should be able to find a longarm that has just the channel locks for your horizontal and vertical needs, and a ruler would help you achieve the other line work you need. Longarms come in a wide range of prices with various bells and whistles.
We have some amazing long-armers here that I am sure will chime in with more information. I highly recommend YouTube for videos about longarm’s there are some amazing people who post their tutorials and just videos of them working.

Straight diagonal lines are difficult on longarm. You would need to use a ruler as you quilt to get the lines straight. I do not know of any longarm that would have channel locks on the diagonal and I am not sure how you would put the quilt on the frame on the diagonal. Longarm do have stitch regulators. However, longarms are great for quilting. I don't know if you can get a computer program to do diagonal lines. If you think you want a longarm, I would see if I could find a shop that offers classes and also rents out time on one of those machines before deciding to buy.

Oh gosh a ruler for the diagonals! That had literally never occurred to me @tallchick I'm an idiot. I sort of know how to do my own thing but my knowledge of quilting is pretty limited otherwise... I will investigate YouTube. Now I'm very interested to hear from any longarmers about which basic longarm they'd recommend for straight lines only...!

This is a great plan @sewingpup . Im in the UK and longarms are less common here I think so I will do some investigating about classes/tryouts.

I can see that using a ruler would be a bit of a pain, but probably still less of a pain than shoving a huge quilt through a SS machine trying to keep everything straight and smooth? I would save a lot of time on the horizontal/verticals with the channel locks I think. Maybe I will have less perspective in my designs going forward ;-)

I have an APQS Lucey which has a 26-inch neck. You definitely can use the stitch regulator to do ruler work. You need the thicker 1/4-inch rulers for ruler work. I like using my little 8-inch ruler the best as it is easy to hold and move but I have also used my 12 inch one. Longer than that, it just is too awkward to use. You will also need to get a ruler base which attaches to the machine and is used to support the ruler, so it does not tip. gallery: mctavish quilting studio here are some examples of quilts Karen has done on her APQS

Ruler quilting or robotics would be the way to go on a longarm. Channel locks only do 1 axis - horizontal OR vertical - at a time, not angles.

I agree with sewing pup. Take a beginning longarm class to fully put a longarm through its paces and see for yourself if it will do what you want it to do. I have one of the best, highest-rated longarms on the market and even on this unit, diagonal quilting is not the easiest or most trouble-free thing to do.
I'm also wondering if you're aware of the costs. They are NOT inexpensive by any means.

As Peckish shared, LA machines are not a cheap investment…especially if you add a computer. My machine has channel locks that travel horizontally and vertically but I use rulers for cross hatch and other diagonal quilting. Good luck in your search. It took several years of classes and demos at quilt shows before I decided on which model was right for me.

Good luck with your search for a machine. Used set-ups (somewhat less expensive) are available but since you're in UK I don't know. The robotics and computer add significantly to cost.