My first quilt on the long arm!
 

This is the first quilt I've done on my long arm. I wanted something quick and simple, so I made a simple jelly roll quilt and did an all-over (free hand) loopy-loop with an occasional leaf.

All went well ... for the most part. I had mistakes (like widing the take-up roller coming off the top instead of under - fixed that), more mistakes (I keep forgetting to lower the pressure foot lever), learning curves (my bobbin makes a rattling sound when it's almost empty - this is the time to STOP), but most of all fun!! I enjoyed the process. I was amazed though how much time "other" stuff takes (loading the quilt, advancing the quilt, raising the take-up roller ... etc) than the actual "quilting".

The batting I chose was defective so I had to use a different batting.

Then the bobbin winder died on me after winding the first bobbin. Of course, the bobbins for my long arm don't fit any of my domestic machines. Hubby to the rescue ... he held a hand held drill with a rubber wheel on the end against the wheel of the bobbin winder and we were able to get three bobbins wound. What a genius!!

I was hoping to have two quilts quilted by today, but alas ... life got in the way and I only have one done. But I'm more comfortable with the machine and the whole process!!!

Oh ... forgot to add the best part. It's all STRAIGHT! I was terrified that because I floated the batting and top that it would get wonky but it's straight!! I'm VERY happy with that!!

Size - 50 X 80. I used a standard jelly roll ("Coconut" Bali Pops) and added some rows to each end cause hubby said "longer!".
Batting - an 80/20 blend I got on sale *somewhere* and happened to have in the back of my car when the wool batting I originally chose failed.
Thread - King Tut. It has a very slight variegation.
Top and backing are all batiks.
Longarm - Voyager 17 on a Hinty frame - top and batting "floated". Zippered leaders (I made them myself with pillow ticking - LOVE them!).

Here's my quickie. Front, close up of the quilting, and the back. I hadn't taken the zippers off the quilt yet .. pretty much unzipped it and took the pictures immediately!!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]453133[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]453134[/ATTACH]

And the back ...[ATTACH=CONFIG]453135[/ATTACH]

That's so great - so glad you're enjoying the long arm-ing even with the challenges - so cool that DH helped out too! Enjoy!
PS - your quilt looks great too!

looks very nice isn't la fun way of quilting??????

Nice! I like the warm colors

What a great story of your first quilt. As far as the time it takes to prepare and load a quilt, you are never told this when you are shopping. They tell you how easy it is but you never get the details and that's the way it goes. Once you have done a few you learn what your machine likes and it does get quicker and easier.

You are brave to actually do a quilt your first time on the machine, bravo for you. I just loaded solid material several times for practice before I even thought of loading a quilt. YOU ROCK!

The quilt turned out very nice.
Merry Christmas and peace in the New Year

Oh I did that!! I bought some cheap fabric and loaded it up with some cheap batting. One piece of advice I got was to just quilt ... don't pay attention to tension, just get used to the machine. So that's what I did for the first several blocks. Then I played with the tension until I got that right. Then I just kept playing until I ran out of fabric. It was a small lap size piece when finished. One thing it taught me was that my leaders were rotten, so the next several weeks I spent researching different leaders, how to make leaders, how to attach leaders. I finally bought some pillow ticking and some zippers and made my leaders yesterday. After that .. up went the quilt!!

You did a beautiful job!!

Hurray for you!!!

Your quilt looks wonderful I love the colors! Maybe Santa will bring a bobbin winder so DH won't have to use the drill. Brilliant idea though. Would not have thought of that one.