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!!

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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.

Great job Dog House Mom, love the colors and what you did with your quilt. The first ones that I did took me a long time to load and fiddle with but, the more I do the faster it goes. I now load a king size in about 30 to 35 mins. I give you thumbs up for doing a quilt for starters, most of us do a lot of practice pieces before even trying a quilt. I took a class one time and the teacher told me that as long as we keep doing practice pieces our getting better takes a whole lot longer as we are always in practice mode. She said to jump right in and start doing real quilts (as she called them) and we not only get better much quicker, we have something to show for it. No one ever says "look how lousey that was quilted", they just see the nice piece of work that you have done from start to finish. You have done a fantastic job.

Course all the prep work makes the actual quilting go better! You did a nice job on your quilt and should be proud!!

Great job!

Nice colors! What are the zippers for?

That looks just beautiful. A least you had the nerve to try something free motion besides stippling...lol
The colors and fabrics are gorgeous too, and yes the husband is a genius ;-) Merry Christmas

fantastic! great job for a 1st quilt! It'll go faster as you get used to it. Keep having fun with your new toy!

I'm glad you were able to overcome the challenges and quilt an actual quilt. Both sides are very pretty.

Congrats and welcome to the L/A world. Try prewound bobbins....less stress!

Looks great. I like to use the LA at my LQS. They do the set up and take off and I do the quilting. Lots of fun and none of the set up problems as they handle it all.

What a great First... I'm sure it will get easier as you gain confidence on your machine and as you learn all it's nuances

My longarm (purchased used) didn't come with a bobbin winder but I love the Super Bobs prewound bobbins from Superior. If you have a featherweight you can wind your bobbins on that.

You are right...the non-quilting time is greater than expected but gets a little faster.

Nice job!

You did a great job on your first quilt. Congratulations. You took on more than I might have when you discovered the faulty leaders. Smart job. Where did you find zippers that long? Did you buy the machine new? Have you worked your way through the bobbin situation yet? If you have older sewing machines, just keep trying their bobbin winders 'til you find one that has the same size stem as your LA bobbins. That happened to me with my first quilting machine, and a SM repairman told me how to find one that would work. Love your work, keep on keeping on (talk the hubby into loading for you (my son loads mine and most of the time, quilts them).

This is just GREAT!! So glad you are having fun with your new LongArm…..

JoAnn

Making the leaders was easier and quicker than researching which kind I wanted, how to make them, how to load them, etc! The zippers I found online - I ordered "10 gauge" which is a pretty large zipper used for sleeping bags. I think it was zippers.com ... and they have all kinds of sizes.

My long arm is a used Voyager 17 which I understand is a "stretched" Vintage Singer - so I was quite surprised when the bobbin didn't fit ANY of my vintage Singer or other brand machines (I have 14 vintage machines). My husband did have a good idea though ... I could replace the bobbin winder motor with a motor from one of my vintage machines - just need to figure out how to affix the ball bushing.

I'll skip on talking hubby into loading the quilt for me, he already did/does enough by A) letting me house the machine at his shop, set the frame up for me, balanced it, rigged up the electrical wiring so none of the wires interfere with the motion of the machine, helped me install the leaders, and came through in a pinch on the bobbin winder. He's very supportive, I want to keep it that way or instead of supportive it will be cumbersome to him.

thanks everyone for the kind words. I'm hyped to get my next one loaded. Going to attempt something more complicated.

Very nice job.

Looks like you had FUN, FUN, FUN :)

Great story about getting to know your LA. My LA and I circled each other for a few days before I just jumped in. I was delighted with my first quilt and although I am still a beginer I am very happy with my results. You have done a great job and after reading about your earlier batting problems it is so good you did not give up. Well done!

Well done!!! I was in your shoes 5 years ago and I'm still having a love affair with my Innova!!! You will get faster on the loading - however, you should be able to load your quilts quickly having the zippered leaders and basting the backing on them. I still pin but it doesn't take me long at all. Does the Voyager have an extension base so you can use rulers? I love using rulers when I FMQ. For your next quilt, try some custom quilting...do an arc between the points of each piece of a block - this really teaches you how to control your machine and how to hit a specific point. Love all the squares and triangles in a block and you can give each and every one of them some special attention! My favorite LA quilting book is Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters - she gives you a diagram of how to make the different motifs. Another great practice thing (I still do it when I want my quilting to be a specific size/location) is to use a water-soluble pen to draw on your fabric what you want to quilt and then follow your lines with your machine. Just a spritz of water and the blue lines disappear and your quilting looks fabulous!!!

I also have a muslin sandwich that I attach to my dead bar with a long magnet (supposed to be used in the kitchen for knives) and then I lean against my belly bar to hold the end of the sandwich in place and every time I change my bobbin or my top thread, that is where I go to make sure that my tension is perfect - no frogging on a customer's quilt that way :)

Do you have a stitch regulator on your machine? I have never seen a Voyager, so I am clueless about it and I have only owned an Innova. Welcome to the wonderful club of LA quilters!!! Have fun - it's not brain surgery and the worst that can happen is that you have to frog your quilting!

Congratulations!!!!!
on your first completion ..... what a great way to spend your holidays! :)

You did a great job....Have fun....

Awesome job! I just started LA in mid-summer--everyone tells you that once you jump in you'll just zoom up on the learning curve and I just didn't believe it--but it really does happen (although I'm not totally where I want to be of course!). Is there a long arm quild near you? I joined one and love it--everyone is so helpful and answers all those questions about tension, etc.

I just love my long arm. I purchased a used machine about a year ago. I'm still learning things with each new quilt. Have made plenty of mistakes but in the end they all seem to turn out. Can't wait to learn some more

Your quilt is lovely! And I love that your hubby is so involved. Makes it more fun, doesn't it?

DHM, you did a great job! Now onward to the next quilt :)

Well done you! I'm so pleased you got there - I hope you have many happy hours together. :)

Agree ... now if she'd only hurry and get that binding done! :D

Pah! I just can't hurry binding! I don't know what it is but I make what seems like a million stitches and I look at my progress and I've only done 1/2 of the short side of the quilt!

Onwards ho to the second million!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D