gwanma

I am not familiar with the process of long arm quilting but have seen some really beautiful pictures of their work. How is this done? Free motion? or is there a pattern they follow? Is the long arm computerized and goes on its own? How do they keep the patterns so perfect and same throughout the quilt? I have done some free motion quilting on my sewing machine and no two patterns are the same...I'm such a novice but I am too lazy to draw the patterns onto the quilt.

kathy

all of the above, it can be done all those ways, pantos are paper patterns you follow witha laser and are pretty consistant, i think the computer programed designd are most perfect and consistant but i have seen some freehand that is the most beautiful work i've seen

ckcowl

some long arm quilters free hand everything
some use pantos (paper patterns they lay out and follow with a laser stylis
there are rulers/design boards some quilters have and use- and some have computer capabilities- where they can design their patterns and make the machine do the stitching...they still have to stay close- and keep (involved) you can't just start a machine and walk away to come back sometime later and find a finished quilt-
it takes work-regardless of the machine capabilities....just like piecing the quilts in the first place.
there are lots of tutorials you could watch to see a quilt being quilted by a long arm quilter.

gwanma

thanks, I wondered how they got those patterns to be so perfect. And I know what you mean about the ones that don't use patterns, they are still really wonderful. I will see if you tube has any videos on long arm quilting.