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Is George a longarm or a domestic machine?


Mrs.A

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I recognize that George is a bit of a hybrid...a sit down, push through machine with a longarm's capacity. My question relates to entry forms for quilt shows & such:

When they ask if the quilt was quilted on a DSM or a longarm, what is the correct answer? Thanks for weighing in, Nancy in Tucson

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This is my understanding: push the fabric around - it's a DSM; push the machine around - it is a longarm. I know ther are lots of people who use their DSM on a frame and that does muddy the waters. I am no expert so others should chime in.

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hmmmmm good question....my first thought was LA, but then hmmmm. I guess that would have to be answered by the quilt show experts.....do they still classify it a LA because of the size of the throad and the ease in which its used.

Dawn....do you know the answer? Or maybe someone from either MQX or MQS can answer this?

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I'm pretty sure George is a longarm machine except you SIT rather than STAND.

I would say that a DSM (sewing machine) has feed dogs. George does not have feed dogs. He is exactly made like a longarm except he does not have wheels.

You could ask George's "mom" Claudia Clark Meyers (member name "snowquilter"). She is the person who got George started and She's the longarm queen and has racked up many awards on her George.

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But.......most people who machine quilt on their domestic machine drop their feed dogs.

I would call it the longest arm or longest neck domestic sit down machine on the market.

If someone says they have a short arm, mid-arm or longarm, I automatically think of a machine on wheels.

I guess you could see this many different ways.

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Very interesting question indeed.........When ever I tell anyone about my George, I say I have a" "quilting machine" and instead of putting the quilt on a frame and moving the machine about, I move the quilt around on a rather large table with a lot of space in the machine." I have never thought of George as a DSM because I can not piece the quilt on it. So to me his is a quilting machine. It will be interesting to see what the show experts call him.

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My dealer has said that George is a longarm quilting machine. A domestic machine would be the one you are able to use for many varieties of sewing. Since George has only one function I wouldn't classify him with other machines that have more functions. I wouldn't call a dsm that is put on rollers on a frame a longarm.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Miss Jacque,

By chance do you know the number of inches for a "short arm" a "mid-arm" and you did say over 15" is a long arm? I'm just curious. For example, the HQ16 quilts 16" according to our LQS owner who is selling them (but I don't know the actual size of the arm-it must be longer). She said it is a long arm, although I was told by someone else that the HQ16 is a "mid-arm." She also told me my Liberty, which has a 20" arm, but only quilts about 12" is a mid-arm. I think APQS calls it a "long arm." These terms are really confusing to me.

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APQS only manufactures long arm machines. According to Quilter's Catalog, a longarm is anything over 18 inches, a mid arm is 11 to 16 inches and below 11 inches is a shortarm. There is no official industry definition or government regulation.

It really depends on the company that manufactures your machine. We could go further and explain the differences between machines that are made for multi-directional stitching and those that have been adapted for multi-directional stitching.

With all of the domestic machines being adapted for longer arm width/depth, maybe it is time for some industry standards. A domestic machine that has been adapted with a longer throat is not the same thing as a machine that has been manufactured for multi-directional high speed stitching.

If it really matters, there is plenty research on the web that discusses purposes of different machines.

Sandra

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  • 2 months later...

Boy, I sure am late in weighing in on this discussion, but I hope my comment will help.

When I enter my own quilts (not the ones done with Marilyn Badger) I enter them as having been quilted on a domestic machine.

The thing quilt shows are mostly looking for is the method of quilting, and, even though George was a longarm head in his former life, you quilt by moving the quilt around under the needle, not moving the machine around over the quilt---and that makes it the domestic method of quilting.

Have fun entering your quilts. I hope to see them at future shows.

Claudia Myers

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Our longarm guild had a healthy discussion about this with regard to categories for our next show. I decided to ask around, here's MQAs response:

"Here are the definitions NQA uses for their Annual Quilt Show:

Stationary Machine: The quilt is moved by hand under a sewing machine to do the quilting.

Track-mounted machine: The sewing machine is moved over the surface of the quilt to do the quilting.

For more definitions for NQA's Quilt show, please check our website www.nqaquilts.org and click on 2009 Show."

The others I emailed did not respond.

Anita

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I see that the real need for the question is NOT just to say what kind of machine you have but to know what category to enter in at quilt shows. I hope you will get some more responses Anita.

I suppose this is something that you'd have to ask the show you're entering.

At our State Fair it breaks down the categories in to main divisions 1 person/ 2 or more persons then in each list there is every sub-category - how it's pieced hand/machine then how it's quilted a)hand b)home machine c)long arm. It's really great, but I don't know from that which the George would be considered.

There's also no spot for computerized and we have a lot of HQ's and their computers around now.

Interesting to see how the shows keep up.

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I've noticed on the quilt entry forms they have separate categories for quilting by moving the machine on a track/rail system and also a separate category for quilting by moving the fabric. So, that way you are competing apples to apples and oranges to oranges. It is a good thing they recognizes this on the entry forms.

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