Thursday, June 24, 2010

No I’m not switching from being a hand quilter to a machine quilter – but I had a fun experience today of trying out a AQS Millennium Long Arm (I hope I have that name right).  EDITED:  it is a APQS Millennium Long Arm 8:27PM  CJ from “From My Studio – Created by CJ” lives about 15 miles from me and invited me over to play :)   We have been following each others blogs for sometime now and finally met about a month ago and get along well.

This is the APQS Millennium - CJ loaded a"sandwich" to practice on. I had never tried one out and it was fun seeing how it works. It is always nice to know how other quilters do things - especially when it is totally different than your own. I was almost afraid to touch it at first! I didn't want to break anything LOL

I believe she called these sheets of yellow - "pattern boards" -but I could be wrong on that - correct me if I am wrong CJ. You lay them out on the backside of the set up and follow with the laser dot. I know I am not explaining all this right I bet! LOL (EDITED: the yellow pattern boards you follow with a stylus not the laser) 8:27PM

This is a "pantograph" a drawing - you follow the lines with the laser dot - believe me this is not as easy it is sounds. I gave it a whirl and my design was way off! I can see it takes a lot of practice to get it right.

I came away from this with a new understanding of machine quilting.  Hand quilting and machine quilting are very different indeed – both take time and patience and both create beautiful quilts.

CJ is starting up her long arm machine business for the public and if you click on the link  at the top of this post it will take you to her blog – on her side bar you will find the link to her brochure that list her prices.  I saw her quilting up close and personal :) and I recommend her to others who want their quilts machine quilted.  She does a really good job – I have seen some other machine quilting locally that I would not recommend and would never ever refer people to use.  She does a really professional job and uses really nice thread, batting (quilters dream mainly) and nice fabric for the backings or you can supply your own I believe.

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