Thanks for the info. I would like a nice page that I could print listing the Do's and don'ts of getting a quilt ready for the longarmer. The first one I sent out luckily turned out great. She said mine was good. Yeah!!! She also showed me one someone else brought her that had a very wavy border. She did a good job of quilting out the waves.

Sure wish the quiltingboard had a "Like" button like Facebook!

Thanks. I don't LA but its good to know what I need to do to make the LAing easier.

I have done many quilts with degrees of problems. I do let people know, after I have gone over the quilt, What problems I may have with it. Sometimes this becomes a sewing lesson and people improve their piecing and are glad about it. Others are not so willing to think they have a situation with their quilt that may cause a problem. Oh well! I let everyone know there are no garuntees and I'll do my best with what I'm given. LAM quilters are not mirical workers although some times it seems like it!

peace

peace

I can only dream about being in your position!

Your post is very informative. I have a LA but only do my own, I have enough problems with my own quilts I will never try to work on someone elses!

Great post! I quilt my own stuff on my DSM or by hand, and don't anticipate ever sending anything out, but I was fascinated by your article, and learned a ton of stuff that I will keep in mind as I piece. Thank you for taking the time to write it.

Alison

You were in my house when I loaded that last quilt I did! Seriously, good commentary and I think the points you brought up are ones LA'ers get all the time. Thanks from all of us who LA!

As a long-arm quilter, I always stress the importance of accurate measuring and cutting, 1/4 inch seams and pressing. But then I always press a top(mine or a customers) before I load it on the machine. I float all of the tops, no matter what size and it seems to help with most wavy borders. However, I have gotten some tops that were sewn with anywhere from 1/8" to 1/2" seams with puckers already in the seams and to say those are a challenge is a mild understatement. Puckers will show up and there really isn't much you can do about it except try to hide them and most of the time it works. But you know what, the quilt still turns out beautiful and the customers end up happy and that pleases me. So far I've been fortunate enough to not receive a quilt that is beyond salvation. It's very gratifying to see pleasure in a customer's face or to get a thankful e-mail if it's by mail. It just makes my day!
Oh, and I want to add the importance of the backing and batting to be at least 3" bigger on all 4 sides. Way important!