question for long armers

It is indeed wise to consider your market. A friend of my sews little girl clothing but she markets in places such as Atlanta. She couldn't get diddly here on the coast. You don't have to limit your longarming to local, of course. The dear hearts who longarm for me are a million miles away (more or less). And if you can bear to talk about it, what was/is the status of that @#$! BabyLock? Polly

"Musicmaker" I'm seriously considering turning part of my piano studio into a long

Way back when I *might* have been able to afford a longarm I was also teaching quilting classes and I worked with a vast array of skill levels in my student quilters. As bitchy as it may sound to some what kept me from considering the idea too seriously was some of the quilts I'd have to work with when doing the quilting. If a quilt came in with awful wavy borders there's no way I could keep my big mouth shut about how that could have been avoided. And 'unfortunate' fabric and/or color choices would have sucked all the joy out of me. And I think the truly beautiful quilt tops might have intimidated me- was I good enough to do the quilt top justice? Then there's the difficulty in pricing your work and justifying your price to a client if asked.... another bugaboo for me.

This is just me and I know I'm more than a 'tetch' goofy in my thinking at times... many times... often. But these are situations you'd have to face sooner or later. Can you deal with them?

I wish you the very best in whatever you decide about a longarm... and I'd LOVE to have a longarm for my own personal use. But not to quilt for the general public. ;-)

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

PS: C'mon over and spend some time at Gammill Quilting Machines in West Plains- working with their machines (they have trade-ins of many of the other major longarms, too) and taking classes from some famous professional longarmers. I moved only 15 miles away and you can stay with us... me 'n' my HairyButt Gang!

you might check out the Tin Lizzy. The company just came out with a

26" throat machine too. There is a yahoo forum for Lizzy people and lots of great info. The basic Lizzy (18" throat) is a lot less money than the bigger, machines. But it has a lot of the same stuff, and many people love their machines. (You may even find one of the older models on sale because they are closing that model out.) Support is wonderful, if there are questions and you can't get answers from a local dealer you can always contact the factory in Utah. Ernie (owner) has even been known to give out his cell phone number to people to be able to work out any operator questions.

Do remember that *Any* long arm machine has a bit of a learning curve. They are not the same as a home machine, or even an industrial 'regular' sewing machine. It takes being able to be comfortable with making lots of adjustments and so on on your own. And you will be playing with tensions, both top and bobbin.

Good luck, do some looking and testing if at all possible,

Pati, > I'm seriously considering turning part of my piano studio into a long

Polly, how did you find your longarmer(s)??

--Heidi

Here at rctq, Heidi. Kathy Applebaum did some lovely quilting for me. When she had some injuries to deal with, Louise took up the challenge. (My piecing is far from perfect.) Louise quilted 'Noel' for my DH and it is a treasure. Now she's quilting the one with 52 one-earred mice and I can hardly wait to see what they said to her. There are several other longarmers here in our precious group. I do just fine with crib quilts but just can't haul a big quilt around on a SM - not to mention that I don't do wonderful stitching like the longarmer artists can. They add magic. Polly

I am one of the long armers in this group. I have a listing on the group page but can't for the life of me remember how to get to it! It must be that I'm suffering from CRS syndrome...........

Maybe someone can point me in the right direction. In the meantime, if you are interested in searching for a quilter, checkout my photos in webshots (the addy is in my signature). I love to get new customers!!!

~~~~~~~ Laurie G. in CA

is a link to the site

Thank you, Mary. I knew there was one but I too am afflicted with CRS. Polly

YW...... I have it saved to my desktop.

Polly, having been told by EVERYONE that the quest plus was in perfect working order, I sold it for 1000 on Craigslist to a lady in CO. I haven't heard from her so I'm hoping that it works for her and I never hear from her. So I'm back to being a 1 machine quilter, which is another reason I'm investigating a long arm, or at least a mid arm with an excllent frame.

Leslie, having received the best possible training from Neil Moore in how to teach piano, and knowing how to refuse students (customers) without rancor or criticism or even negativity if they won't agree to my guidelines, I believe I'd be able to deal with the public. 10 yrs ago - no way. Today, it's like this. If you have a certain standard, and you get a potential customer who wants to set the rules and change your standards, you can actually praise them for their confidence and certainty and at the same time inform them that you prefer not to work under those conditions, and suggest they find someone who quilts more to their liking. (:

I'm definitely NOT going in with the lady in Mattoon. She doesn't have a good reputation, and has a lot of medical problems that may actually force her out of the business sooner than later. So I'm still considering my studio - so much space, and only 10 or so students locally a week using it!

Musicmaker

Even if I had the room for a machine, I'd hesitate, because for me it would become a job. I wonder if I'd still enjoy it if I HAD to do it?

Julia > From what I can see there are a LOT of LA machines around these days.

Thank you, Mary!

\

There's a nice new book out on quilting careers that you might invest in. It's called "Insider's Guide to Quilting Careers" by Linda Hahn and Merry May. They cover a good variety of careers quite well and found experts in each field to write the section on that field. Like copyright is written by a copyright lawyer and uses actual quilting examples. At any rate, it's worth looking at.

marcella

I was curious because I have an HQ 16 and am thinking about the future .

52 one-eared mice???

--Heidi

> Here at rctq, Heidi. =A0Kathy Applebaum did some lovely quilting for me. = =A0When

They just called to me, Heidi. Very simple appliqué border. The mouse body is sort of an egg shape; then a tail and a yo-yo for an ear. I became rather good at yoyoing toward the end - use strong thread, color doesn't matter and take long stitches. That is one place where dainty tiny stitches are not good. Little stitches make it harder to pull the center in nice and tight. I hope they behaved quietly while visiting Louises' longarm. Polly

"heidi I was curious because I have an HQ 16 and am thinking about the future .

52 one-eared mice???

"Polly Esther" Here at rctq, Heidi. Kathy Applebaum did some lovely quilting for me. When

I can't speak for the entire Midwest, but here in eastern Nebraska there is always a need for more good longarmers.

The quilt store I work for (Country Sampler) has Statler Stitchers in both locations. We are currently taking reservations for September quilting. The machine basically is run 7 days a week, all day long. We do both customer quilts and store samples. We schedule one quilt per day. Some big 'uns take longer; smaller ones are done faster, but allow us to work in ours.

I do know that one local lady had set up a studio in a bay in a small nearby strip mall and lasted a little over a year. I'm not sure what the problem was there, but it wasn't lack of unquilted quilt tops in the area!

I'd thought of buying my own machine and setting up in the basement here at home. I got that out of my system pretty quickly. I love quilting, just about every part of it. But if I bought a machine that cost that much, I'd feel compelled to quilt for others. Then it would become work for me. Just my thoughts.

And I would agree with earlier comments about problems with some quilt tops. You do have to be able to say 'no, that's a quilt top that I can't do.' Really wavy borders, lumpy seams, puffy batting, t-shirt quilts with thick decorations, etc. Just say no. :> And blame it on the 'calibration of the machine.' No one is quite sure what that really means, but it's better than the truth. :>>

joan

Can't wait to see it!

--Heidi

> They just called to me, Heidi. =A0Very simple appliqu=E9 border. =A0The m= ouse body