Taking Your Quilt to A Longarmer

Over the past few days I have had three clients bring me their quilts for quilting. It has been so much fun to visit with these quilters because we had a chance to really brainstorm not only about their budget for the services but also the vision that they have for their quilts. One of the things that I have started doing, along with trying to have samples to help with their decisions, is having preview paper and a plexiglass sheet so that I can actually draw out the design and place it across the quilt. What a difference this has made when it comes to visualizing what design might be the most appropriate both in aesthetics and in size/scale! Another step that I like to take is having the client look at the possible threads and then laying them across the quilt in a meadering line. Seeing how the thread looks across the body of the quilt is a great way to make a decision.

Of course, there are some clients who want me to make the final decisions or simply say, “it’s up to you” and I love that they trust me to do that for them. However, it is really fun to work through the quilt with a client and have them “see” how their ideas might look when brought to fruition. That being said, the next time you meet with a longarmer, you might enjoy going through the process that I just described;it is a very creative exercise.

Guest Blogger: Patricia Ritter (Designer, Quilter, Teacher)

Patricia Ritter is a a talented designer of both patterns and quilting motifs through her company, Urban Elementz. Today, she is sharing her method of loading a quilt on a machine quilting frame. Note: Visit Patricia’s website for great pantos, design boards and digitized designs, http:www.urbanelementz.com 

Preparing A Quilt Sandwich by Patricia Ritter

1. Square up your backing fabric. Mark a straight line approximately 2″ across your backing fabric from side to side on the wrong side of the fabric. Then mark the center of your backing fabric at both the top and the bottom.
2. Lay your quilt backing wrong side up across a table with the marked line facing towards you.
3. Lay out your batting across the backing, aligning the top of the batting with the 2″ line on the backing fabric. Let the remainder of the batting hang down.
4. Beginning at the center, pin your batting to the backing. Using your regular domestic sewing machine bast the batting and backing together, making sure to keep the edge of the machine’s foot with edge of the batting (and the edge of your marked line).
5. Now mark the center of your quilt top. Lay your quilt top across the backing/batting sandwich. Beginning at the center pin your quilt top to the batting, backing sandwich, matching its top edge of your quilt top along the stitched line you created in step #4.
6. On your regular domestic sewing machine, baste stitch your quilt top to the backing batting sandwich.
7. Take the entire “sandwich” to your quilting frame. Lay the completed sandwich across the bars of your machine and attach the top edge of your sandwich to the take-up roller. Remember to start at the center and work out in both directions.
8. Flip the quilt top and batting over the take-up roller out of the way. Line up the opposite edge of your backing with the back roller of your frame. Again starting at the center and working out in both directions attach your backing to the back roller.
9. Roll your backing fabric onto the back roller. Straighten and remove any wrinkles in the backing fabric so it is completely flat and square. Now flip the batting and quilt top back into place. Straighten and remove any wrinkles in the batting and the quilt top so it is completely flat and square.
10. Now you can begin your quilting.
11. When reach the bottom of your quilt, spray a little temporary spray adhesive on the wrong side of your quilt top to hold the edge down, and beginning at the center and moving out in each direction, baste the bottom of your sandwich together.

Guest Blogger: Wilma Hurt, Longarm Quilter

Wilma Hurt

I have attended many classes, watched many videos, and read many books about longarming, and in each and every one, I learned something.  Sometimes it was months before I had an opportunity to use some of the techniques I had learned, but I believe I have used at least once each technique I have learned.  Recently I had a very large medallion quilt and had not been able to put a quilting design together in my head.  The blocks were Dresden Plate and set in a medallion setting, with plainblocks in between, so there was lots of space for quilting designs.  I knew what to do with the borders (feathers), and I knew what to do with the blocks, but I wanted to do something besides feather wreaths in the plain blocks.  Not knowing what to do, except to start, I did just that.  I did SID, quilted the Dresden Plate blocks and then quilted the entire border.  Then I drew a blank.  I unzipped the quilt and laid it out on the floor and looked at it.  I knew immediately what I wanted to do.  I wanted another freehand feather border inside the first border which would be continuous around the entire quilt.  I marked the spine and then fences around the entire quilt.  Quilted that and then unzipped again and laid it on the floor.  Then I decided to do a feather border on a portion of the center of the quilt.  Unzipped, placed on the floor,and then I decided to do one inch crosshatching in all the spaces that were unquilted.   This was my own quilt, which is probably why I had such a hard time deciding how to quilt it. 

Wilma can be contacted at her business:

Wilma Hurt
Country Lane Quilting
Cibolo, TX 78108
210-566-1973
wilmalou2001@yahoo.com