Longarm: Changing The Game

A year ago I took some classes at the American Quilt Society's meeting in Des Moines to see if I should get a long arm quilting machine. In the year before that my spouse and I plus two of our kids had all moved from queen sized to king sized beds, and I knew from preious experience that I could not quilt that size on my beloved Bernina 1130 machine. So it was a choice between sending them out to be quilted and quilting them myself with a new machine. I signed up for three separate classes and in between them I went up to the exhibit hall and tried out the various long arm quilting machines. They had similarities and differences, but I immediately discounted the ones that were way more expensive and the ones that were too industrial feeling for me. The later may be a mistake, as they are also ones that need less maintenance and are built to be used more than I will ever be able to use mine, but I was just too overwhelmed by them. I didn't feel that I could approach them, either physically or in my mind's eye, so I had to cross them off. I do not know anyone who has a long arm so I was going to be largely on my own if I took this plunge and I needed a machine I could wrap my head around. One year in, I have come a long way, and I have so much further to go! I have made mistakes often, but learned how to fix them, and I have made over 50 quilts, most of them small, but not all of them. I have started to think more about the quilting, not just about the piecing, and I have given away quilts to babies like I used to when I was younger. It was a very good decision and my only regret is that I didn't get to this point sooner.