A Quilty Road Trip

I had been planning this road trip for a very long time. In June of this year, I decided that I had to get over my fear of my longarm machine (yes, I fear it a lot!) and take the APQS maintenance class that was happening next week. I wanted to learn how to keep it running happily, fix simple issues, and time the machine if I ever needed to.

The June class was full when I inquired, but I managed to get a spot in the October class. Looking at the map, I realized that the APQS showroom was also just 2 hours away from Missouri Star Quilt Company and 3 hours away from Quilting Is My Therapy. I'd always wanted to visit those shops, so my quilty road trip plan quickly came together.

I arrived at the APQS showroom in Des Moines, Iowa full of apprehension. I'm not particularly mechanical, and I wondered if I would be able to absorb all this information. As it turns out, the class was limited to 6 students, which was a good thing.

Out of all of the classes I've taken in recent memory, this was by far the most educational. I walked in knowing nothing and walked out with my head about to explode. It was so much information. I can't say I absorbed everything, but ... I did time a machine! I won't look forward to having to do it, but I could now if I needed to. That's worth the price of this class alone, but I also learned lots of other things, so I would say this was an excellent class.

After class was over, I drove over to Hamilton, Missouri, to begin the shopping leg of my trip. Hamilton has a real small-town America feel, and it was very nice and different from where I live. Missouri Star Quilt Company took up a good part of 2 buildings, and I really like how the shops were all divided into themes.

After Missouri Star, the last shop of my trip is Angela Walters's Quilting Is My Therapy. As everybody who reads my blog regularly knows, I am one of the biggest fangirls of Angela Walters, so visiting her shop is quite a special experience. I didn't get to see Angela because she's hosting a retreat several blocks away, but her shop is just such a beautiful little haven of color and fun!

After that, it was time to stop for the evening at my sister-in-law's place before heading back to Chicago. I ate too much and spent too much, but I had a great time and feel more confident about keeping my longarm happy. And last but not least, at the end of a shopping trip is the part where I take all the stuff out of the bags and see how much damage I did, right?

The Lenni Chronicles

I've spent a week with my APQS Lenni now, and even completed a quilt on her. The first day was horrible, but then things got a lot better. I started to trust that she wasn't going to flip out on me randomly, and she started to behave better with me.

Day 0:

Arrival day was awful. I ran into a multitude of problems (repeated thread breakage, shredding, skipped stitches, loops, threads cut on the bottom), but I've since figured out the cause of almost all of them:

The needle wasn't completely facing forward. It was at a slight angle.

The bobbin tension was far too loose.

The extended ruler base attachment wasn't on properly (I think).

The top thread wasn't threaded properly and missed a guide.

After the dealer left, I collapsed in mental exhaustion. I was terrified that I had gotten a lemon. It would be one thing if the machine just didn't work at all, as that's something I can get replaced under warranty. It's another if it works mostly, but just has little issues here and there that make quilting a lot less fun, but can't be considered truly broken. But I decided to start on a real quilt. When I first started, I was so paranoid I checked the tension on the back of the quilt every 30 seconds (which quickly gave me a headache). After awhile though, I got more confident that she wasn't going to just break randomly.

Day 1:

Shortly after I started for the day, my thread broke. I figured it might be a fluke. After rethreading and restarting, things started going badly. Really badly.

I panicked, but then I remembered the words of Leah Day: "If things were working fine and then started going wrong, think about what you changed." The only thing I "changed" was I rethreaded the needle. I looked at the thread path, and sure enough, when the thread broke the thread jumped out of a guide, and I didn't put it back in the thread guide. I rethreaded it correctly, and after that, things were smooth.

Day 2:

Since I couldn't fit my 12-foot Lenni in my sewing room, she's placed in the unfinished storage room in the basement. That means she's far removed from my sewing supplies, so I had to figure out some solutions for storage. Well, the area under the frame is not used at all, so it's the perfect place for some stacking bins!

I also got a pretty little rolling caddy, which is perfect for holding my seam ripper, my drink, my ruler, and my phone. When not in use, it tucks away perfectly under the frame as well.

Day 3:

Today was smooth sailing. I'm having so much fun quilting. Dare I say ... the most fun I've had machine quilting yet? In some ways, my stitching looks better than it did on my midarm, because I don't have funny stitches resulting from dealing with drag. On the other hand, it's harder to control. In my mind, I know where I want to go, but I can't always get the machine to go there. Even though Lenni is one of the lightest machines I test drove, it still has a fair amount of inertia, especially in stitch regulation mode. I know it's something I will be able to control in due course, but it will take time.

Day 4:

I decided to float my quilt tops, because really, who needs extra pinning? This means I find the top roller bar wholly unnecessary. One of the features I read about that I should look for in my machine is easy access to batting while quilting, and well, my machine doesn't have that feature. However, with the top roller removed, I'll be able to access it if I need to much more easily.

So, as soon as I get my Texas Hold'em Bracket (an accessory by APQS for people who remove their top rollers so that the brakes still work) I'm removing the top roller!

Day 5:

My eyes hurt. I always knew the storage area where the longarm is kept doesn't have great lighting, but I figured I don't need great lighting because the LED light on the sewing head is strong enough, and I can see exactly where I'm stitching, right?

Turns out ... the contrast between the strong LED light and the weak overall lighting in the rest of the room is causing some serious eye strain. So ... I'll have to get more lights.

Day 6:

On my midarm it's easy to check the back of the quilt ... I just flip the back up. On a longarm, I have to crawl around under the quilt. Doing that too much gets exhausting quick, and it really gives me a headache. I realize the solution is one of those nifty cameras that get attached to the sewing head so it shines on the back of the quilt, and I'll get to see the back of the quilt on a display somewhere. Something like this. However, I do not want to mount a big display on top of my machine, as any weight on the sewing head equals extra momentum I have to manage. So, I'm going to build my own solution.

Day 7:

And ... voila, a finished quilt! (minus the binding) I'm pretty happy with it. There are a few issues (varicose veins, sigh) but I learned a lot for my next quilt.

***

I can say it now ... I love longarming, and I'm ecstatic I have Lenni now! It is so fun, and so much faster than my midarm, and I'm no longer afraid of doing big quilts. The beds in my house might finally get some quilts!

She's Here. She's Looking At Me!

Oh. My. Gosh. I realize I should be excited. But what I'm feeling now, is utter terror!

Lenni arrived over the weekend, and it was delivered and assembled by my local APQS dealer, Quilt Barn Studio. After teaching the usual including loading, bobbin, maintenance, threading, and tension adjustment, we turned her on to test her out. That's when everything went up in flames.

I ran into a whole gamut of problems right away. First there were a lot of tension issues, then, lots of skipped stitches. After that, the top thread broke repeatedly, followed by loops on the top and a whole mess on the bottom every 30 stitches or so. After a lot of troubleshooting and fixing most of those issues, something really strange started to crop up. My top thread broke every once in awhile, but only after the stitch is formed. The top looked perfect and continuous, but the bottom had top thread tails hanging out. We couldn't figure it out, and it eventually went away, but now I'm afraid it'll come back with a vengeance. In fact, I was so paranoid that I find myself checking the bottom of the quilt every 30 seconds!

I placed the machine in my basement storage area, for that's the only place it'll really fit. It's a bit distanced from my sewing room where all my supplies are kept, so I'll have to figure something out in terms of storing thread and other supplies.

I figured the best way to get better at quilting on a longarm is to ... quilt on a longarm. As soon as the dealer left, I unloaded the practice top, and loaded a real quilt. I then did some simple piano key ruler work.

Yowza. It's tough work. I'm hurting all over just from that little bit! (Partially caused by excessive crawling around checking the tension on the back of the quilt.) But I'm not going to give up.

My first day of longarming certainly didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. But I tell myself that this was the hardest day. From now on, things can only get better, right?

Love At First Stitch

When I bought my Handi Quilter Sweet 16 in July of last year, I never dreamed I would outgrow her so quickly. But outgrow her I did. I got tired of dealing with basting, and managing bulk and gravity. I found myself compromising on my vision, and I found myself dreaming of a real longarm. (Literally. I had dreams where I was longarming.)

The decision of which longarm to get, however, is a confusing one. What brand? What size throat? Does it matter if there is a local dealer? Do I want to pay for extra features? Do I want a computer?

The advice I always hear is to test drive as many machines as possible, and to talk to as many brands as possible. So, I visited dealers with a blogger friend and went to a quilt show, and I played with tons of machines between Gammill, Bernina, Handi Quilter, A1, APQS, Q'nique, and Innova.

From all of the machines I drove, there are some I can rule out immediately because I had a hard time controlling them. Some were nice. Some were really nice. And then ...

Love at first stitch. It's real.

When I tried the APQS Lenni on Bliss for the first time, I fell in love. With every other machine I've tried, I had to manage the resistance and momentum to some degree, and I just thought it was something I have to learn to live with. But with Lenni, it just felt perfect, and it felt right. Lenni moved so easily and beautifully that I felt like I was quilting on air. It truly was a blissful feeling.

The only other machine that came close to feeling like Lenni did was the Handi Quilter Avante. But ... Lenni wins!

Longarm Quilting With Linda Taylor

Since I was getting serious about a longarm, I figured this is a good time to actually take some classes. If longarming is definitely wrong for me, I would want to know before I spend such a heavy chunk of money on a machine! So last Saturday, I attended a whole day of longarm classes with Linda Taylor (whom Angela Walters called the "godmother of machine quilting") during the International Quilt Festival.

Both classes were for beginners, although I quickly realized I was one of the few people in the class who did't have a longarm at home, and hence was more beginner than most. The first class taught pantographs, and although I don't see myself doing a lot of pantographs (because I like custom quilting), I've always been curious how they worked. Here is my first attempt:

I must admit, it was really fun and mindless to just trace a pantograph. I enjoyed it more than I expected, because there's no stress here. This might be the way to go for charity quilts, baby quilts, or very busy quilts where it's not worth it to do custom quilting. My second pantograph attempt was a ballerina, which was a bit more difficult, but not too badly so. After that, I worked some freehand quilting to embellish her.

The afternoon class was all freehand quilting. This is where I realized that just because I know how to do these designs on a sit-down machine, it doesn't mean the skill translates very well to a longarm. Sure I know in my head how it's supposed to look ... but I don't have very good control over the machine, and it doesn't really end up looking like it does in my head. In particular, any design with traveling was really, really tough. Here's my class sample:

I didn't do the frames or the pretty outer border design, as that was already done for us. I just had to fill in all of the spaces with filler designs. It was very fun to do, and since I didn't intend for this sample to actually become something, I allowed myself to be pretty sloppy ... and it was pretty sloppy. Some designs are definitely easier on a longarm (such as wavy lines) than on a sit-down, and some designs are much harder (anything with traveling, or really small designs).

I think I'm officially addicted to longarming. After I got home, all I wanted to do was to longarm some more, but I don't have a machine yet. In conclusion, I think longarming is almost certainly in my future. (But what machine to get? That's a dilemma for another blog post.)