kiangel16

I am new in this too, I just bought my machine 11 month ago and I been practicing in muslin sandwiches. I also been reading a lot of book and looking at video but what really help is practicing. I wish I can practice more but I am getting better with my practice. Another thing is get paper and pencil and practice to build up muscle memory that help a lot. I asked people in this business and all of them told me the same thing, you need to practice at least for a year before you take a customer. I already make 3 little quilt for myself and they came out nice. I know everybody is different so you try what is best for you. I think you need to concentrate in practice and them the rest. If you go to handiquilter.com click on education and them webinar they have how to start a longarm business with Angela Walter is really informative and will help you with some answer you looking for. Good Luck

Geri B

Yes your backing fab must be straight before you attach to leaders, or when taken off the machine it may not lay straight.....if you can get to the show in Springfield Illinois..if you can afford take at least one hands on class......get a magna doodle, kids toy, for practicing. Or lots of scribble paper and just doodle away....get as many how to long arm books as possible..see if library can get some thru inter library exchange...or try used book stores...or just sales on web.....don't be afraid...you have invested lots of $$$$$ in this and it is only a machine, you are the boss! If you keep it lint free, find your comfortable speed, you will just dance! Don't try to do difficult intense quilting motifs right off the bat....let your hand, mind, eye coordination get used to this new thing and your skill will expand. As fat as pantos..a great way to quickly do e2e designs???just pick a few that blend well into each other so doesn't look like RR tracks...and if you don't follow a line perfectly no one will ever know !

jude by the sea

Omg wow so many wonderful responses, thank you all so much! Doing this alone I wonder...but reading all your responses has been so great! Thank you all so much! I hope we get more responses as each and everyone of you have had wonderful input!. I really love this board! I think you all have made me feel like maybe I am doing this the right way....stitch by stitch, trail and error! Thanks again for all of your responses! Stupid question though...when you guys tear your fabric do you go back to the cutting board to make it straight without torn edges. I know silly question, but again inch by inch, stitch by stick and a whole lot of support really helps. By the way today was a wonderful day practicing! Things came together for me and I now can't wait to put a quilt on but....maybe one more practice piece? Am I still afraid to get on the horse? Probably but it's never stopped me before so I will have to think what's next, practice piece or one of my quilt tops I have piles on my loom! Let's see where I am at tomorrow, thanks to all of you, this us a great support board!

AllyStitches

Thank you for posting this thread-- it has been so helpful for me. Someday I'll have a long arm, but right now I'm learning on my short arm and frame. Lots of good advice here!

sewbeadit

You have made some little quilts, stick one on there and go for it. Have fun and relax.

farmchick

On the subject of cutting the quilt back, I recently took a class by Renee Haddadin where she talked about that. I had always heard too that ripping the ends made a square back, but as she pointed out - IT DOESN'T! She demonstrated this by ripping a small piece of fabric and then folding the fabric in 4ths keeping two sides together, it was pretty obvious that the ends hanging down were not square! She showed us how to correctly cut the backing at the class and I thought she might have a youtube video on it but I couldn't find it. However, this is a pretty good tutorial on it if your interested in looking: http://www.quilting-tidbits.com/quilt-backing.html. According to Renee it is very important to have a square back!

Bobbielinks

Yes, the backing fabric needs to be square and even in order to pin it to the leaders to avoid puckers in the backing when the quilt is quilted. I do not like to rip my backing fabric to square it up, I prefer to cut it. Picture your backing fabric as a sheet of lined notebook paper. Fold the paper (backing fabric) in half with the lines running horizontal, place a safety pin on the fold at the top of the paper (backing fabric), open the folded fabric up (lines are still running horizontal) and now bring the bottom edge of the fabric up to the top edge. Spacing your hands about a yard apart and holding both the top and bottom edges even with one another, with your index fingers between the layers, "walk" the fabric between your hands back and forth until the two layers fall straight down without any "ruffles". When you no longer have any ruffles, unpin the safety pin and pin through both layers of fabric. The safety pin should go through the same hole at the top fold and a new hole in the fabric folded up to meet the top edge. The folded fabric can now be laid on the floor or large table and smoothed out to the sides, place a cutting mat under the fabric edges that need to be squared; place a ruler along the edge with a line on the fold and square up the edges as you would square a fat quarter getting it ready to use. You may need to move your cutting mat up depending on how large your backing fabric is. Move to the other side of the backing, cutting mat under the fabric, ruler on the fold and square up that side. Before moving the fabric off the floor or table place a safety pin on each side you just trimmed at the fold. Remove the safety pin at the top of the fabric. You are now ready to load onto your longarm frame; centering the safety pins over the center of the leaders on the frame, start pinning the backing onto the frame at the centers, working your way out to the edges. You should now have a squared and centered backing that will roll smoothly back and forth on your frame and ready to load the batting and quilt top. Good luck, take your time, and your backing will look as great as your front!

jude by the sea

Farmchick! One I like your avatar name...thank you so much for the above tutorial! It always helps when I have a visual. I would love to know where the person in the tutorial got that ironing mat! Does anyone out there have one that big with the grid? This looks like it could make squaring up easier! I know I can make one that large but I really like the grid and I would rather quilt than take the time to make it. My practicing is creating an addicted monster....all I do is dance with my machine and when I am not I dream about designs and how to accomplish them. My poor husband, we talk then next thing you know I am telling him about my day at the long arm! I made some flowers, feathers and just designs yesterday.....so much fun, I can't believe it! Now to get up there and begin my day....psst. The next couple of days is going to be hard as hubby is taking me to high mountain lake for 3 days.....how do I leave my sewing room? I have so much to learn in long arm quilting its hard to break away! Thanks for all this feed back!

farmchick

Thanks, I am married to a farmer hence the name! I got my mat at Joann's. They are rolled up in the store so it takes a little to get it to lay flat but it works fine for me! I am with you on the learning end, I have only had my longarm for 2 years now. Like some of the others, I pretty much just jumped into doing quilts right away. I gave my customers a good price so that they wouldn't mind if I practiced on their quilts. Still can't seem to master the perfection that I see in the quilts that I admire! Keep having to remind myself to give it time!

farmchick

Oh, forgot to say that its not an ironing mat! I did try ironing on mine once in a pinch and it warped the plastic a little bit - so don't iron on it!