Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Today was the big day for trying out the long-arm machine at my friend Gail’s. I spent most of the morning getting ready for our date. I still had two borders to stitch on the practice quilt and then I needed to piece the backing and cut the batting. That part of the prep is no quicker than if I were to quilt on my domestic machine but the bonus with the long arm is that nothing needs to be sandwiched. I had enough time before leaving to get everything cut for our demo tomorrow night.

It took a long time to get everything set up on the long-arm frame. Gail did most of the work and I just rolled and pulled when I was told to. She also wound the bobbin and threaded the machine. Once I got going though she left me to “do my thing”; I find that “my thing” looks a lot like my very first free-motion quilting attempt. Because this was just a practice I tried a few different motifs as I quilted my way down the quilt – there are some attempt at spirals, leaves, flower and my more comfortable meanders and loops. None if it is any where near good enough but I know it will just take more practice.

It was certainly a quick way to get a project quilted. I was at Gail’s shortly after noon and I was finished before three. I think one big difference from the domestic-machine quilting was that I was encouraged to go slower whereas I try to increase my speed on Ruby. Also on Ruby my loops are quite small but with the long-arm they are much larger; in fact it is difficult (at least for me) to make small loops. Gail seemed okay with the job I did and, now that I’m home, each time I look at it I’m a little less critical. I won’t be bragging to anyone about my success but I’ll be brave and add a couple of photos. As with domestic-machine quilting I will still need to add binding but there’s no hurry for that.

All in all I enjoyed the experience. I’ll do at least one more practice quilt before I feel confident enough to do something “real”. Gail suggested I try some placemats; apparently you can put a whole bunch of placemats on the backing and then quilt from one to the other without stopping. That might be a good way to get better at certain motifs and placemats can always be used at home where no one sees them.

My evening will be spent cleaning out my sewing room. We are getting a corner desk (a freebie from a friend) and we’ll pick it up tomorrow afternoon. I have to make room for it which means I not only have to clean up, but I also need to rearrange.

Wish me luck!