Letting others use my LongArm

I had a comment from Michelle that she has some friends with LongArms which are off limits to her (and everyone except the owners I suspect). That saddens me! I am not sure why people are so afraid of someone else using their machine?

Just last weekend, a young friend of mine visited. She showed interest in the LongArm so I let her design and quilt a wall hanging. I wish I had thought to take pictures of it, because it was an amazing piece of work! My 7yr old, disabled daughter loves quilting on my LongArm, and so do her young baby sitters. In fact, one of them designed, pieced, and quilted a quilt for her new baby sister. She is so very proud of that quilt.

Twenty-five ladies have come to my studio to learn how to use the machine since I began rentals in February '09. Some of them may never come back to do their own quilts, several have returned, and others still will. Every one of them, however came to the studio with some fear and anxiety (except Jill - she was gung-ho and ready to quilt!). And they all ended the training with a surprised feeling of, "Wow! I really CAN do that!!!" What fun to see their confidence build!

And after all of this, guess what? My machine still runs just as smooth as it always has! So, Michelle, and anyone else who lives further away - have your LongArm friends read my blog and even contact me. Perhaps I can give them some pointers that will help relieve their anxieties.....If that doesn't work, grab a friend (or come solo) and come out to my studio for a three, four, or five day retreat. Bring all your quilts that are ready to be quilted and I'll share with you an amazing experience! :)

First Blog

Hello Everyone,

After being in the Long-Arm Quilting buisiness for over a year now, my friend has convinced me that I need to blog about it. So here I am! :) I live in a cabin in the Uintah Mountains and really enjoy quilting in my design studio as I watch the deer, moose, and squirels run around my yard. It's such a treat!

My machine is a Gammill Optimum with the Statler Stitcher. For those of you who are not quite sure what that means, it's a HUGE quilting machine where I can quilt free-motion and use any of the 1600+ computerized designs.

I have recently started renting out my long-arm. No...it's not portable. People buy punch-cards and come up to my studio to quilt their quilts. I have heard of so many people who would never let others use their long-arm, however I have had nothing but positive experiences so far. If any of you have any comments on this idea, I sure would love to hear from you!

The project that is getting ready to go on the machine next is a Butterfly. It's actually a class by Linda Taylor. I'll post a picture of it when I'm finished.

Since I don't have any current pictures to post, I'll post the one of my first quilt. The black and white outline is the pattern. I took it from a mandalla coloring book and turned it into the quilt you see below. Aside from the borders, there were not any straight lines! The quilting was all done on my home sewing machine (pre-LongArm days!!). If you look closely at the quilting pattern in the orange border, you'll see that it's the same pattern as the mandalla.

Well that's all I have for now. I'm off to bed so I can get up early and start working on that butterfly!

--angie