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!!

Scrappy Quilt

Oh yes, it started out so simply. I wanted to clean up and organize (once again) my quilt area. Sure, I had a stash of material ready for projects but I also had a stash of remnants - all of those smaller, left over pieces - some dating back 25 years with lots of memories. I had a lap-sized quilt in mind and started cutting (and piecing) 2 1/2 inch squares and tossing them in a container to ensure randomness when piecing.  Also did some piecing to create some unique 2 1/2" squares.

In what can be described as a positive example of ‘mission-creep’, over the next three weeks and 100 plus hours, the project had grown into a queen-sized with colours randomly chosen to create my beautiful scrappy quilt.  Made from 1,400 pieces sewn to form fifty-six 10-inch blocks, I added a one-inch sashing around blocks and two-inch border to finish the quilt top.

After piecing, I went to Jen’s at Happy Wife Quilting to try my hand at machine-quilting. What a treat to use the long-arm quilter - I want one!  

With Jen's setup and guidance, I easily finished the quilting in less than a day.    I discovered, straight lines in patterns require plenty of practice, so I chose a pantograph pattern called "Vertigo" with lots of curves.  The batting was my favorite, Warm & Natural.    I hand-stitched the green binding to finish the quilt.

 
The backing was originally purchased for a smaller size so I applied some creativity to make it wide enough.  

I’m really quite happy with the results.  ALL of my remnants and some of my good stash are gone.  And after making so many quilts for relatives and charities, this time, I have a quilt made just for me! 😊