lindaschipper

Watson....I'm envious! Purchased a long arm frame from Grace and now that the parts have all arrived, I'm thinking what have I gotten myself into?? My Janome machine fits on the frame, but has a 9 inch throat and will be limited to the quilts that can be done. I'm so envious that you have had someone show you and help you to load the quilt...that will be the scary part to me. Will be doing east patterns for a while until I get the hang of it all.

feline fanatic

So happy to hear you had fun Watson! When I did this I came to the same realization you did, that in order to get as good as wanted to be I had to put in the time and practice and I knew I wouldn't get it with sporadic rental time. My shop was much further away than yours (over an hour away).

I never did a meander either. I jumped straight in, head first with trying all the wonderful things I wanted to do like pebbles, feathers, leaves and vines, etc. Yup those first attempts looked pretty awful. LOL Take a look: My new longarm

Yes my circles were "squarcles" and my backtracks were echos. Backtracking deadon is still a crap shoot to this day. There are always circumstances where I don't hit it perfectly but when looking at the quilt as a whole you never notice them and I have seen show quilts with ribbons where there are missed backtracks in places. Only a computer guided setup can hit the mark every time.

Unlike you, I was never any good at FMQ on my domestic. I am much better at longarming. I find the movement more natural.

To this day I still don't do a big meander. I will do a tiny one as a fill but it is my least favorite of quilting motifs. I would prefer to do a panto if doing an all over.

Watson

Here's part of what I came up with.... It was fun. I'll take a baby quilt next time.

Watson

[ATTACH=CONFIG]578455[/ATTACH]

Macybaby

GEMRM - when I want to do a bit of practicing while I have a quilt on the frame (one that does not take up the enitier frame, of course) I take a leftover backing that I've cut off a quilt - so it may be 15" wide by 110" long, wrap one end around the takeup bar and pin it (so advancing the bar does not affect it. Then run it under the deadbar and let it hang over the front rail. I lay batting and then float something to use as the top. I float all my quilt tops so that part is no big deal. I'll pin it to the backing if needed.

I do this if I've got a quilt with very little "extra" on the sides for thread changes and other testing. By pinning it to itself and not the takeup bar, I only need it long enough to span the frame. I just have to watch as I advance the quilt so my scarp does not start to wrap around also.

caspharm

Glad you had so much fun. That's how I started as well. I lived in a condo and was able to rent LA time at my LQS. That was what I did for several years until we retired and I was able to get my own.

lblank42

Watson, I'm impressed with your fmq the first time you were on a long arm. It's great! I too rented a longarm at an lqs. I couldn't follow the pantographs very well (shaky hands) but the fmq was a little better. But no matter what, it was lots of fun!

Fabric Galore

I also took FMQ lessons on a long-arm at a quilt shop. I did several quilts but I felt like I was trying to drive a large truck. I tried one of the machines the LQS uses to quilt tops for customers and it was like driving a sports car. I guess they use the cheaper models for beginners but it was a disheartening experience for me. I'd rather use my DSM to do my quilts. The one thing I really loved about the long arm was I didn't have to baste the sandwich together. I think I might use the long arm to baste my sandwich together and then do the quilting at home.