All About Longarm Quilting

All of your Longarm Quilting Questions Answered

Quilt maker: Raquel Riche IG @richeraquel

Jenae Alves shares everything you need to know about Long Arm Quilting.  Jenae is a member of the Quilters Candy Membership, and shares even more tips in the membership.  She is a talented quilter and a good friend.

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From Jenae

I’m a self taught quilter and started quilting my own quilts on my domestic sewing machine. I fell in love with quilting! I made baby quilts and before I knew it, I was making larger quilts.

It was harder to quilt because of my machine’s size.  When I purchased a midarm quilting machine that helped.  After a while I outgrew that, as well.  I finally purchased my APQS Longarm quilting machine with a throat space of 26 inches. A few years later I started my quilting business, Vintage Stitch by Jenae. 

My APQS Lucey Longarm on a 10 foot table. I’m able to quilt up to a queen size quilt.

Why do I need a Longarm quilter?

• There’s a certain look or design that you want, but you’re unable to do it yourself.
• Your quilt is too large to quilt on your domestic machine. 
• You’ve tried quilting your own quilt tops and it’s your least favorite part about making a quilt.

Do I need to provide my own batting?

Most longarm quilters have batting available to purchase.  I offer 2 types of batting, 100% cotton and 80/20 blend of cotton & polyester. These are the most popular among my customers. If you want a type of batting your longarm quilter doesn’t offer, you will need to provide that.

Types of Long Arm Quilting

EDGE TO EDGE:
Edge to Edge Design, or E2E design, refers to a design that is quilted from one edge of your quilt to the other.  It is a repeating pattern.  When it comes to designs, the options are endless. There’s so many to choose from! If you have trouble deciding you can always chat with your longarm quilter for help.  Note: E2E is usually cheaper than the next option. 

This is doing E2E Longarm Quilting using a printed pattern and following the pattern line with a stylus

E2E Longarm Quilting with a computerized quilting system. This is the style of quilting that I offer.

CUSTOM QUILTING:
Custom quilting is another style of quilting. This means the quilter free hands the design on your quilt.  It’s more artistic, time consuming, and of course, personalized.

What’s the process for quilting my quilt?
Each longarm quilter is different.

For me, I have a quilt form you can fill out on my website. Once the form is filled out and submitted, you’ll receive the address where to mail your quilt or if you’re local we can schedule a pick up time.

Once I’m ready to quilt your quilt I’ll contact you to choose a thread color and go over any other details. The quilt is loaded on to the canvas leaders that are attached to rollers on the quilting frame. The backing fabric gets loaded first. Then the batting and the quilt top lay on top of the backing fabric. Like this picture:

Nearing the end of the Longarm Process.

Once quilting is done, I unload the quilt and trim/cut off the extra backing fabric and batting. When it’s finished I will send a PayPal invoice for payment. I’m available during the whole process and I can even send you pictures of your quilt if you’d like! 

Can Longarmers attach quilt binding for me?

Each quilter is different, but I DO offer that service. A lot of quilters love having their binding done for them.

Adding binding to a longarmed quilt.  Quilt maker: Raquel Riche IG @richeraquel

Tips for sending your quilt to a longarm quilter and some questions to ask:

• Make sure they offer the style of quilting you want.
• Ask what their current turnaround time is.
• Remove all buttons and embellishments from your quilt as they can damage the quilting needle.
• Don’t pin or baste any of the quilt layers.
• Your backing fabric needs to be larger than your quilt top, at least 4 inches wider on all sides.
• Check to see what other requirements they may have

COUPON CODE

Quilting is my passion and I love helping others finish their quilts. I hope this information has helped you gain a better understanding of longarm quilting and ease some of your worries about sending your quilt to be longarm quilted. Whether you do your own quilting or hire a longarm quilter the important thing is finishing your quilts so you can enjoy them or give them to someone special. As always I’m available to answer any questions you may have. You can reach me on IG @vintagestitch_by_jenae or visit my website at vintagestitch.co. For $10 off longarm quilting service enter code QUILT10 when you submit your quilting order form! (expires 8/31/20)  

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I hope you found this insightful!  Be sure to check out my other guest blog tutorials like this one on Quilt Retreats.  Happy Quilting!