Joy of Long-arm Quilting

Over the past couple of years,  I have had the delightful opportunity to use the long-arm quilt machine at Happy Wife Quilting.  Jen, who runs the home-based shop, guided me through each step.  

The initial set-up requires accuracy to make sure the quilt top is straight.  Once you are ready, you follow a pantograph for the design.  It takes a bit of practice to follow the design with the laser light, but with a few tips from Jen, I managed to quilt 3 large scrappy quilts, several other large quilts and a baby quilt.  Not all at the same time, mind you.:)

Happy Wife Quilting's New Long Arm

I really enjoyed using the long arm.  It was a very zen-like mode once I got into the swing of things.  Long-arm quilting gives the quilts such a quality finished look.

Some quilts that I long-arm quilted at Jen's were approximately 90 x 90 inches and took about 5 hours from setup to finish. The smaller sizes were finished in a few hours.

The binding was sewn on at home with my walking foot and then the excess batting and backing were trimmed away. 


My quilts are always finished by hand sewing the binding around the edges.  The label is applied at this time as well.  

Long-arm quilting - love it!!