As a long armer,should we check you out also?After all,it's our work that goes out too.And I'm sure any problem that is noticable will be blamed on the long armer.Right?

Very enlightening! I quilt my own quilts only because it is just my thing. If/when I choose to take a quilt to a longarm, this is some valueable information to have. Thanks for posting.

I took a class - intro to long arm machine - at our LQS and realized just how hard it really is to do well. Thank you for your comments.

Thank you, As with any process the pro knows somethings the novice does not and we need to know more so you can do your part better. Thank you. I feel that when I take my first piece to be long armed that my work will be better prepared and I will get a better result. Thanks you so much. My local long arm gal will appreciate your time and effort to keep us informed too.

Your so right. If you don't longarm, you have no point of referance. This is why I don't longarm for anyone but myself. There are just way too many variables, and I don't want to deal with the stress of it all! :-)

You are spot on!!! After spending all the money and time to make a top, a little more effort to make it better always results in a better quilt.

Lu in TN

Hello, I think sharing this info is great. Thanks.
My problem is, I've been quilting for less than 3 years and little by little things are coming into focus. We all have to make our mistakes. :-) I will review this and I'm sure in time it will make sense. I've never sent out to a LA yet. I think about it. I'll probably just do my own meandering on one of my tops that's not quite up to snuff.
But I'll try to carefully watch for the things you mention. Most of my tops now are well formed. Paper Piecing has really helped my tops! haha

Take care. Enjoy the LA'ing! I can't wait to have enough room for one.

I learned from your post about the tautness of the layers, but will this fix the problem of matted, and messed up bobbin threads on LAQ? I could not wait to own the frames and machine, but after two horrible attempts have not touched the setup since. Bobbin thread always skips, mats, and knots, and I have broken so many needles I spend more time working on these problems than anything else. I am so frustrated with it, I have gone back to my machine quilting.

My sister & I bought a LA and we have had a lot of people offer to pay us to quilt a quilt for them. This is why I don't do it. I am fine just quilting our quilts. I have a had hard enough time doing that . lol I sure admire the ones that do.

LA Quilting
 

Very well said crashquilt... I also am going to bookmark this and refer to it often.. and maybe print it off for my customers.