So a while ago, I took a longarm certification class. I made 2 quilts there (yes, I haven’t posted them yet, but I will) not including the 2 tiny practice ones. And when I went in the last time to take a step up to a bigger quilt, I had a horrible time of it. The thread kept breaking. I was dealing with a lot personally so after 3 hours or so of frustration, I gave up and figured I would come back later when I was in a better state of mind.
Well, by the time I decided to do so, it turned out the old place was no longer doing longarm rentals. Fortunately, there’s another store called Always Quilting in the area that does do them. So I signed up to do their class. It actually took a few months to get in because they fill up fast!
But this place is great! They provide everything and they’re really there to make sure things don’t go wrong and to help you out every step of the way. And the people are all so super nice at this place that I just love going there and supporting them. Oh, and they also have 3! machines you can rent!
During the class we got to try things out on a non-stitch regulated machine. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be to keep the needle moving at a reasonable pace. This is good to know in case that ends up being the machine I end up renting at some point. The first design we tried was loops.
The second design we practiced was stippling or meandering. There were 6 people total in the class. Two of them were these two ladies who came together and were just too funny. I would take a quilting class with them any day!
The third design was done using a pantograph design and controlling it from the back of the machine so you could trace the picture. This was an interesting idea and maybe at some point I’ll use it if I have a very thematic quilt, but in general I like to just freehand and be creative with it.
And finally we were told to let loose and do whatever we wanted for the last practice set. I had wanted to try paisley so I did. I’m not thrilled with how it turned out. It’s fine, but now that I’ve re-read some of my books, I think I could do better.
All in all, it was a great class. I’ve already quilted 2 quilts there (posts coming up) and it was a blast. I’m going to try to make sure I have a date on the calendar, ideally once a month. I find the longarm quilting so therapeutic because you just get in this zen mode when you’re quilting and creating. So, even if I don’t have a quilt top, I can always do some whole cloth quilts with maybe some contrasting thread.
