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This is a small version of the butterfly quilt pattern drafted by Sherrie I love orange and I am making most of my quilts this year with orange in them. anybody have a killer name for this quilt....it is always funto play with one of your own quilts.... I hope you enjoy , many of the designs I have not done before but have found a couple I will do again for sure back of the quilt close ups of the background this one I have named bubble wrap rulers and freemotion oops I see a thread.... more thread that will get cleaned up

Sew Tweet, a pattern by Chitter Chatter Designs. I hand appliqued and embroidered the blocks in 2014; along with completing the top. Finally this year, I free motion quilted it on my Mille. This was a very fun project began by me and Lisa E. in 2014. It was my first attempt at embroidery; I was so blessed my Mother used to do all my embroidery, but she has since passed away. The blue birds remind of Cinderella birdies!!

Once in a while a quilt comes along that is just special. "I Woolly Love Ewe" was one of those, I love the design and the title, and I was thrilled when Wendy asked me to custom quilt it for her. Isn't the black sheep super cute? I am really happy with the way it turned out, and it looks even better now that it is bound and washed. I love the picture Wendy sent me of the finished quilt, the little girl seems to agree with me on the black sheep (I have permission to share this picture online.)

With all batting, the scrim goes next to the backer---so it faces down. With that said, most scrimmed cotton batting has the scrim buried within the layers. The fibers are needle-punched into the scrim (a sheet of very strong and very thin polyester) and the key to placement is the direction of that needle punching. Your machine needle should go through in the same direction as the needle punching. So look at the batting---one side is smoother and has tiny visible holes (dimples). The other side will be rougher-looking and a bit raggedy (pimples). So the rule is "show your dimples---up---and hide your pimples---down". Another way to tell is most batting is folded with the "good" side out, just like fabric. That good side goes up and the uglier side down---look for the center crease/fold line. Make it a mountain instead of a valley when it's loaded. Poly batting may have a chemical scrim---an application of a chemical that bonds the poly fibers on only one side. That side feels much rougher and it will be placed next to the backer. Hope this is helpful.

The number of quilters with longarms and mid-arms has risen like crazy in the past four years in my area. If you can spend the five to seven years left to sharpening your skills while taking a few customers here and there, go for it. It hasn't impacted my business, but I do primarily custom and have little competition. My quilts come from those who save the big ones and the special ones for me---I do 4 per month and sometimes struggle to get them done. Mine is a different situation so if you are able to analyse the competition, see if you can figure out a niche market. Are there lots of overall/e2e quilters so you'll be competing with them? Are there Modern quilters looking for a kindred-spirit longarmer? Is the custom market fully covered? Also, would you be happy to purchase a used machine to start out and upgrade to a new w/computer later? Please remember as well, the longarmer who advised you only has her best interests at heart---not yours. Though her advice may be spot-on, don't be deterred until you do some more research.

Even if you sew scraps of fabric to all four sides, if the quilt top is the same size as the back, it's absolutely impossible to avoid quilting the extra strip's seam line into the quilt while quilting it. Trust me in my 15 years of longarm quilting, it is nearly impossible to accomplish this very difficult and extremely stressful situation. I would contact customer and ask her to provide you with larger backing fabric that is at a minimum 8" wider and 8" longer than the quilt top. My job is to quilt the customer's quilt without pulling my hair out... it's not my job to perform miracles due to the failure of the customer to provide ample backing fabric. IMHO.

Baby quilt I made for a friend. Nursery is done in these colours and theme is sheep

This is one I just finished for a friend. She pieced the quilt and I quilted it. I thought it turned out really well. I used Quilter's Dream Batting, and light gray thread on top with white on bottom.

Have you tried searching this forum? There have been many storage ideas throughout the years. Here's my favorite, easy to move and fairly cheap to make:

I still find it amusing that folks think stitch in the ditch is an easy and cheap way to get their quilt quilted.

Custom work using rulers - this is a highly specialized skill that take months, if not years to perfect. If it were me, I would charge by the hour, not by square inch. Don't underestimate your time and skills. I rarely do ruler quilting for customers because it's so expensive. I find other ways to quilt, or I choose to use minimal amount of rulers and then freehand the rest (combination) Find the going rate for custom heirloom quilting in your area, or ask other quilters in your area what they charge for ruler work. If I were doing ruler work, I would charge at least $35 per hour. For estimates, you could guess that it takes 40 hours and give them a quote. I'm not giving my time away for minimum wage. No way! I've had many customers ask me to SID their quilt. I kindly explain the costs and time involved and I offer other solutions for them.

Look what I got to quilt! It's a pink themed Halloween quilt, to display at our local hospital during the month of October. Pink because it's breast cancer awareness month. The Jackson Hole Quilt Guild rotates a quilt display every month at our local hospital. The nurses and patients really appreciate it. We've had a hard time in years past trying to find a pink quilt for the October display. So we had the bright idea to make a quilt just for that. Different people made the applique blocks, others sewed them together with sashing and border. I quilted it, and just handed it off to another member to attach the binding. A terrific collaboration. Last May I took a few classes from Judi Madsen in Salt Lake City. I just LOVE her work. So, you will see that she inspired this quilting. The bat bra block is the one that really got me started with the quilt designs. The lady who made it drew a spider in a web on the cleavage, so clever and so easy to quilt that design! Judi had just posted an applique quilt that she'd finished that had bugs in it. She gave the bugs motion by quilting a swirly design under them. I thought the ghosts need that swirly design too. Remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?! I used a wool batting, glide thread with magna glide bobbins. Love those magna glide bobbins! Angela Huffman is a great source for them and her delivery is super fast. Thanks for looking!

IMHO, when they changed the forums, several years back, it got MUCH harder to post photos and follow threads - we lost a lot of followers at that point. I know there are those who will NEVER be on Facebook, but FB doesn't have the restrictions that this forum has - and those of us trying to help customers on the various APQS pages get instant notifications when someone needs help, instead of needing to check in here several times a day (although I try to do that anyway!). I love Facebook for the ability to follow my family, both close and extended, and the ability to help my customers quickly, easily, with links to files and photos. If you don't do Facebook, then it's up to you - and the rest of you that don't do FB - to make this the forum that you want!

My DH outdid himself today. I was using curtain rods to support my clamps and I asked if he could make something for me ... he sure did!!

I know that I am one person who is thankful to be an APQS owner, and thankful to know that there are people with expertise and knowledge building these machines, and available to help me out. That gives me some confidence in jumping in to work on my craft. I hope that all of you who will be enjoying this appreciation day, know how much you are appreciated by all of us out here in sewing land!! Thanks for all you do!

Can I share my news? Had a call this evening to tell me that I won 1st for Longarming at Quilts UK, Malvern on my Customer Mary's quilt...WooHoo! It was a stunning top even before quilting! Marys Feathered Star Applique 2 by Borderline Quilter, on Flickr Marys Feathered Star applique 1 by Borderline Quilter, on Flickr

Hi Pat, Connie's suggestion about your leaders is good. However, I don't know if you want to...or need to buy new leaders, or if you want to give your current leaders a "hair cut" ... There's plenty of extra canvas on you rollers, if you want to try the hair cut route. These are the steps: Pin the take up leader to the bottom leader, overlapping the edges a few inches. After pinning, pull these two pinned leaders taught as much as you can. As you roll out the take up leader and roll the bottom leader canvas that's pinned to it, do this until you have about 12 inches or so of fresh new section of canvas from the top leader. Next, if you have channel locks, turn on the horizontal channel lock and using a cream colored thread in top and bobbin, slowly sew a line across on the fresh new section of the take up leader. While everything is still pinned together, roll forward until you have about 12 inches or so of fresh new section of canvas on the bottom leader. Repeat with channel locks on stitching a line of thread across the bottom leader. Leave the pins in. It's easier to trim the brand new straight line while everything is taught. The thread line you sewed on each leader is a line as a guide to carefully cut your brand new fresh clean straight edges for both take up leader and bottom leader. You will want to clean up the edges on your top leader, too. Repeat steps for pinning the take up leader to a fresh new section of the top leader (about 12 inches down), stitch a line across the top leader leader. Leave the pins in. It's easier to trim the straight line while everything is taught. Viola!

Something like that, I imagine - we've seen a lot of facebook friends suffer through the same thing! But Mark Caraher is looking into it and will get the bad posts gone!!

Good points, but a couple of hints. You can remove the front take-up roller if you exclusively float your quilts. It won't enlarge your stitching field, which is set by the frame configuration. You won't be able to stitch any closer to you than you do now. But it may mean easier access since you don't have to lean over the roller. Micro-drive handles are available for APQS machines. They are helpful for microstitching and control. They attach below the regular handles, which are loosened and pushed up out of the way. The micro-handles can then be used for ruler work and they independently pivot up out of the way, so you can stitch using one handle. They keep your hands very close to the top. The down-side is not ready/easy access to your controls, but in SR mode, it's not an issue. I suppose it's all about what you get used to and how easy a work-around is for perceived issues. I baste in manual with speed slow and head moving so I make 1/4" stitches. Or if I'm basting the sides, SR on and longest stitches. APQS innovates all the time, so maybe your wish-list will eventually be a reality.

I use glide thread top and bottom not problems. Do you ask your customers where they bought the minkie? There are some really terrible copycats out there. I have problems with the cheap brands. I prefer "cuddle" over minkie, it comes out perfect every time.

Hi - Thought I would update - I spoke with the Amazing Amy and it might be I can just do a belt adjustment ! She sent me videos, and once I find Allen wrenches and do a little Yoga to slow my heartbeat down, I'll be doing this chiropractic adjustment on my machine …

You have several things to look at---it doesn't have anything to do with the brake. First, make sure the backers you load are perfectly on-grain. This can be done with tearing the fabric instead of rotary cutting. If it's always on one side, your rollers may not be perfectly parallel or level. Just a small bit high on the right side will cause that side to roll tighter, which magnifies with every advance. Use a long level to check for horizontal level. Then adjust the bolts that attach the roller to the frame until the roller is level. Unfurl your leaders when you check for level so you are on bare metal and not the canvas. The front roller can also be off as far as distance between the take-up rollers. If the right side is farther out, it will roll tight on the right side. The solution is looking at the bolts that fasten it to the frame. You need to count the bolt-threads on each bolt, left and right. If the numbers are off---make them match. You can also count the bolt-threads on the back roller attachments if you don't have a long level. Finally, your leaders may be un-square/off. There are lots of tutorials that show how to fix warped or saggy leaders. Usually having (or making) a straight edge, then pinning the leaders together works well. Pin them, spritz them with plain water, tighten them, and let them dry. Hoping this is helpful!

I mounted 3 baby quilts at once. I used the same length of backing fabric for all 3 but used different battings. Used my faithful 2002 Millenium.

I have my customers put the parts in a seal-able bag (like a big Zip-loc) and drop it in front of my garage. I put out a wire bin on a small table that is under cover. We may talk at a distance. They put any instructions in the bag. I wear protective gloves, wipe the bag thoroughly with a disinfectant, then it goes into an un-used, un-heated shop for three days (or longer). I phone to discuss choices of thread and quilting. After quilting, she picks up in the same way and she uses whatever method she's comfortable with to assure it's safe. I'm in Washington State where people are advised to disinfect anything that comes into your living spaces. And I have a hubby with some lung problems so I'm not taking any chances. So far no one has balked and everyone is dropping off. I do four quilts a month so it isn't a parade of customers. One thing that stuck with me was a statement that "if you overreact, you'll never know if it was the right decision. If you under-react, you will know immediately". Stay well and safe. And if you decide it's necessary to stop all contact, provisions are in place to provide benefits to self-employed workers.

Update,..... I did point out mistake to customer and we both decided it needed to be fixed. so,... spent an afternoon picking out stitches, and 10 minutes to restitch the Feather,... I was happy to do it as it was my mistake,.... I always point out mistakes if any,.. big or small and let the customer decide,.... this one I knew she would want fixed,.... She is very pleased with the end result!!! and so am I!!! Thanks for looking ,.... Happy Quilting,... Laura Love the combination of the two,... Simple,.. with a pop!!! I used a double Cotton Batting on this one,.. wanted the feathers to stand up and take center stage,... Matching Glide Threads in the Grey, Burgundy and White Areas,... Thanks for looking,... ** can you see the mistake? Found it after I pulled it off the frame,.... :0)

Yep as Sharon says. You need to release it to advance or roll the quilt. I did some adjusting of mine at first without loosening the brake....yikes....what a mess.....the Velcro did move out of place leaving a goopy mess.....I cleaned it with rubbing alcohol I believe...it took a while....then ended up applying a new valcro strip.....good news though....I haven't had to replace it for several years.....I have had to take my Allen wrench and tighten the handle a few times though.....I bought one of those multi sized allen wrenchs that had the same size in it.....I like it better because you have a bigger handle to use when tightening.....

The purpose of the brake is to keep the roller from moving, so be sure to release the brake before you advance or "rewind" your quilt. You should have received an angled "Allen" wrench with your APQS machine. You may find that over time, the brake handle doesn't hold the rollers as firmly as it once did. The angled wrench is used to set the handle in a position that will enable it to hold firmly. If you purchased a used machine, you may or may not have the instructions for this, but you can find info with a quick forum or google search. And you are correct, there are NO stupid questions. We ALL had to learn about the brake! Be blessed as you fall in love with longarm quilting!

Ditto on missing the old gang!

I agree, people DO think that is easy. I got a last minute quilt last year, for a parent's 50th wedding anniversary. All blocks with photos or drawings. She wanted a "quick" "simple" stitch in the ditch. She was shocked when I explained that this was a custom job and how difficult so called simple stitching is. Super king size and she'd budgeted only $100. LOL Wanted me to bind it too. When I gave her the cost, she almost fainted. Finally took it on after she talked to the rest of the family and they helped with the cost, but she decided to bind it herself too. She still had to pay over $600. I got that one done and out! in three days. All ruler and hand guided.

Barb--serendipity! I have this issue in hand and will happily send it to you without charge. I cleaned my sewing room a month ago and found all my back issues to put aside and loan to members of my longarm group. Look for an email from me.

I haven't been on this forum for quite a bit but I wanted to give a huge shout out for APQS Service. My Millie is a 2005. I mainly quilt for myself. After finishing a charity quilt and loading my own, my stitch regulator decided to choke. I had movement from top to bottom but not left to right or right to left. I called service and also posted a message. Angie did a wonderful job of helping me to isolate the problem. In my case, my carriage encoder went bad. It took a number of emails back and forth with me including pictures and whether the test worked or not. Angie was patience and even put up with my twisted sense of humor through out. Angie mailed me a new encoder for my carriage and with the excellent instructions, I took off the old one and attached the new encoder. Instant resolution! It took a bit to get to the bottom of the problem but it was finally isolated and fixed. My Millie and I are happy to report that I am once again stitching. If you ever need service, just know that you will be in good hands. Gail S. aka Quiltfaerie

My DH outdid himself today. I was using curtain rods to support my clamps and I asked if he could make something for me ... he sure did!!

Shana, I agree you have to be careful due to trolls etc. I couldn't read the post your were referring to but I know they are here. I usually look really close at the number of posts the person has submitted and the topic title before answering something. The forum isn't what it used to be, most members and new owners have migrated to the Facebook Group but I still love the forum. I find the "search" element to be easy to use. I miss the closeness this group had too. I get lost on Facebook, here this minute gone the next, LOL.

Back to Quilting! That was an easy fix! Thanks for your advice.

I agree with Sharon. I found the APQS video by Dawn Cavenaugh on YouTube to be the most helpful. I must have watched tit ten times before I attempted my first pantograph. Then when I did start one I had a brain cramp at the end of the first row and had to go back and rewatch that part of the video (with lots of pauses) before I moved on. I’ve done three pantograph now and I’m hooked! I love them. Stick with it Dee Dee and don’t give up. I made a busy scrap quilt so hide boo boos the first time. It turned out good. This is a quilt I just made for a wedding gift. I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

I agree with Shana. Save yourself to quilt another day. Do you have a set of rules for customers? It's a good rule of thumb to add your requirements to the invoice or contract when you accept the customer's quilts.

Hi Pat, It's hard to see if the canvas has stretched or after years of rolling become off square. It's probably time for new canvas leaders. I have a 2009 Millie and mine is the same, I'm getting ready to change them out. If you go to the online store, parts and notions and search canvas, it will come up. The price isn't bad and well worth your sanity.

I've seen those posts, as well, but I am positive that the folks at APQS are not behind them. I don't know who in the company is responsible for the FB page, but I'm sure they will have the garbage cleared out soon. And you don't need to unfollow APQS, just "hide" the ads you dislike.

Hi fellow quilters. I am needing help with this Irish Star. I made this one, so there is not a problem with how I do this. I made three of these and two of them I used a panto on. I am wanting to custom this one. I have attached a picture of one with the Panto on it, and also pictures of the one I am wanting to custom. I have drawn a complete blank on what to do. As you can see, there are three different blocks in this quilt, so it should not be so confusing, but is. Thanks for any help you can give.

Once I had a huge d cup in my batting. And it was polyester batting too. I made a slit in the cup and trimmed it so the batting edges met. Then used a very light stabilizer pressed over it to close it up. Worked great. I don't know of any other way to fix bulges in the batting and as to wrinkles, pull them out as flat as you can. Once quilted, they won't show. For thick spots in polyester batting, I removed some of the thickest spots by pulling it off and patting it down.

All I can say is, some people are absolutely clueless (I mean absolutely completely clueless) to the heart and soul and thought and love that the quilter goes through in making a one-of-a-kind ---"BLANKET" ... these people are absolutely clueless. Even though you never received a thank you it doesn't mean they did not appreciate it. Trust me, every one of us has had this happen to us. What I do is I make and give quilts because it makes me feel good and I love doing it. It's a gift that I chose to give. What happens to my gifted quilt after I have given it is no longer in my control. I'm sure that some of my gifted quilts are being used in a not so flattering ways. I'm willing to accept that fact. I know that most people are grateful and are thankful and treasure them. Sending you a hug. Don't ever stop creating and giving the things you love. It's something that makes you special and kind.

I dislike Moda fabrics for exactly that reason. Rather than being dyed, it appears that the fabric is "painted" and the back side is very light colored. When you sew on it, some of the threads roll over showing the light color of the "wrong" side. The "pokies" aren't really the batting showing through but a problem with the under lying fabric. Jim

WOW! Gorgeous quilting! Great job and choice of colors! I think I would name it "Fire Fly"!

Here's the last quilt of the year off the frame. It had lots of fullness issues so I had to heavily quilt it. I also got to use my quiltazoid to make the stars. I also meant to put a star in the middle but I forgot. There's so much fabric under there though that its probably best that I didn't try. Jess Mariners compass by butterflyjess03, on Flickr image by butterflyjess03, on Flickr image by butterflyjess03, on Flickr image by butterflyjess03, on Flickr

Gorgeous quilting, and piecing. It is an outstanding job. Cagey

I keep mine covered with a sheet.

I had that problem with the cheap batting Joanns sells. If someone brings me that I refuse to use it anymore.

your daughter is lucky could have such nice bag

I talked to Quilters Dream customer service and one suggestion they had was lay batting out on bed and wack with a yard stick. Sent pictures but haven’t heard anything else. Next time I will be a wacking !

Naming quilts is one of the things I struggle with. a couple of the cool names I have been given are "a Flutter of Orange" Orange you glad we have Butterflies" Butterfly Sunset