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Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Long Arm Loaded!

A couple of weeks ago I heard about a class being offered in my area by APQS about long arm quilting machines. It piqued my interest, so I enrolled - it is free - figuring that anything I could learn in a free class would be helpful and useful as I muster up the courage to actually quilt something on mine!

Figuring, too, that I ought to at least try to do something on mine before the class as a way of refamiliarizing myself with my long arm, I took to the sewing room on Sunday evening to make a backing for my Moda Love quilt made earlier this year.


After a couple of hours of fabric selection, measuring, stitching, pressing - gosh, I dislike grunt work associated with backs! I finally was ready to head to the long arm and begin loading. I was excited and determined - at last! - to do this!!

I loaded the back without any refreshing of memory from the manual or from YouTube. Afterwards, though, I did check a video to be sure I had done it correctly. I had! Whoo-hoo!!

I proceeded to then layer the batting and the top onto the backing, stretched it to the proper tautness, and basted across the top! I was doing it!!!


Then, trouble. Hesitation. Not mine, but the machine's. It would go, then hesitate, then go, then hesitate. Over and over! It resulted in stitches that were monstrosities because I was moving the machine but no stitches were being made. UGH. I only worked in one outside corner, so I will easily be able to remove what I've done, but now have a situation on my hands.

So today. I am off to Columbus to this APQS class. I hope to get some answers for fixing my hesitation problem. I am glad I did what I did because I will be more confident in my questions and my focus. I expect it will be a sales pitch, but I don't mind. My machine is a Tin Lizzie - not APQS - but long arming is long arming, regardless of the brand name.

Think of me later this afternoon, and pray that I come away with some knowledge and answers!

Bonus - my daughters are meeting me for dinner! Yay! (Repeating that happy dance!)

Happy Quilting, Friends!

2 comments:

  1. It's amazing how quickly we become rusty when not using something. I hope you learn a lot and gain some confidence in your class. Enjoy the evening with your daughters!

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  2. Sorry to hear about your little problem. Is your machine stitch regulated? If so, one of your encoders may not be sitting properly. This happened to the machine I quilt on at church with our quilting ministry. We had bought this machine and it was already set up and we moved it to the current location. I had no idea this could be the problem until I had quilted on it for a while on manual mode and then one day I saw one of the encoders in the air and figured out the problem and tightened it down and the stitch regulator was back in business!

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