LongArm Quilting

I’ve always been a bit curious about The Grace Company’s line of quilting frames and machines. (Here)

They offer a variety of sizes and frame/machine combos from table top(!) to king, from use your own sewing machine to computer-driven beauties.

My efforts at free motion quilting - needs work 😂

So when a local-ish quilt shop (only 50 minutes away!) offered a ‘come try it’ class, my buddy and I took them up on it. 

Two hours of hands-on instruction on both a queen-size non-computerized machine (the Q-nique 16) and a king-size monster with an iPad controlled sewing unit (Q-nique 21x) later, we were tired and a bit overwhelmed. Turns out dragging the quilting head - especially the extra heavy computerized unit - over yards of fabric is harder than you’d think.  

The shop’s purpose in offering the class wasn’t so much to sell us a machine - although they’d be happy to do that! - as it was to get us comfortable using the set-ups so we’d rent time to longarm our own quilt tops. Were they successful? Maybe?? We’re both on the fence - it was a lot more physical than we expected (standing for 2 hours on a cement floor didn’t help), plus the cost ($25/hour)… but the possibilities are intriguing.