I have a small quilt, fabric shop in my neighborhood. I've been knowing the owner for a long time. She knew I did oil painting, so she ask me to do a painting for her. And how much would I charge. Well.. I said, I will do your painting in exchange for teaching me how to use that long arm quilting machine sitting over there. She said., OooK. So she has the painting, already framed and hanging and I told her I didn't want to start till after the holidays. She is going to put one of her quilts in the frame for me to learn on. Wow, that's scary. I have so many tops needing quilted, I thought this would be a great thing to learn, and then I can rent her machine to quilt my tops when she's not busy. So what have I got myself into, how hard is this ?? Like I said, I'm a little nervous...lOL LOL Any pointers from you professionals????

You are in good hands!! Deep breath (some insert glass of wine here) and just let the quilt talk to you!! I have not tried a pantograph yet but cannot wait!!!

I have traded quilts for paintings. The first was a painting of my son's dog, a Tibetan Spaniel, which turned out really wonderful. The second was with the same painter, a painting of one of my Yorkies, and the third was a very very large landscape to go above my fireplace. All of us ended up being very happy with our trades.

You ARE in good hands. Is she going to teach you more than meandering design??? If so, don't give it a thought, you'll do fine. If she's going to teach you more detail, then I suggest you buy 2 old sheets at a thrift store and some cheaper batting and have her let you "practice" on that. It'll make you more comfortable....you can play without worrying about losing $$$$. Then have her help you on a real quilt. Oh - I did this and even "drew" a quilt design...so I'd learn control within the designs.

I just got my LA this summer and I am only on my second quilt. I also draw out designs a lot! Got myself a big pad of paper and just go to town. I doodle at any given opportunity. I am getting really good at drawing free hand feathers so I will try those on my next quilt. On my very first quilt I drew out the block and then drew my quilting designs on the block. I practiced on a one yard sample sandwich made with super el cheapo fabric and a piece of W&N. I knew I wanted to do pebbling so I practiced that a lot. I would be nervous learning LA for the first time on a real quilt. I think a sandwich of fabric you don't care about is better. I do not want to fall into the trap of doing nothing but meander so I really push myself to do anything but, in fact I have yet to do meander on my LA, even on the practice piece I did anything but. Here is a link to pics of my very first quilt off my LA that I just completed a few weeks ago.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-77776-1.htm

It was a combination of using a stencil (you can still see the chalk in pics) and all freehand with no marking. I have not yet done pantos. I did take a class at a not so local QS on an HQ16. In that class they taught us how to load the quilt, follow a design using the laser light and using the groovy boards. Then they let us play doing freehand whatever we wanted. I ended up buying an Innova which just felt much nicer to me when I tried it. You will be fine. Just relax and have fun. I absolutely love LAing.

I took several classes on the longarm, just loosen up and enjoy, don't stiffen your shoulders and make sure the table is the right height, good luck!!

I can't wait to see some of your work! Get ready to post pictures:)

If you can paint you can do this. It is the same smooth sweeping motions. Many teachers suggest drawing the pattern on paper first. You may even sugggest stretching paper instead of a quilt and practicing with an empty needle first.