Gail O

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. 

Thanks!

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

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.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon
2 extra large eggs, or 2 large + 1 egg white
6-8 plums
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place a sheet of parchment paper over the bottom disk of an 8-9 inch spring-form pan. Fasten the ring around the disk with the parchment paper secured in between. Cut off the excess paper. Grease the sides of the pan.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
In the electric mixer, cream 1 cup of sugar with the butter. Add the eggs one at a time. Slowly add the flour mixture. Scrape the bowl and mix again.
Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Slice the plums into eighths. The easiest way I’ve found to do this, is to run a knife around the plum to halve it, then do the same to quarter it. Split each quarter in half. The little sections should pop off the pit with your knife.
Place the plum slices around the top of the cake in a pretty pattern. Make sure they are close together. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice over the plums. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Make SURE not to over bake! Cool for 15 minutes in the pan, and another 10 minutes out of the pan before serving!

Ok, as it is the backing, then the bobbin tension is winning.   Thus you have to tighten the top tension or loosen the bottom tension.  
A technique I have learned is to write your name in cursive in the overage areas of the quilt sandwich to check your tension settings.  You normally have to change directions when you write your name, and you have already learned the muscle memory to write it well.
 

I have been quilting for about 10 years & have gotten into free motion quilting in a big way. I love the quilt part & some ladies have been asking me to quilt for them. I have no idea what to charge. I use a Sweet Sixteen to quilt on. This is the most recent quilt that I completed.
I would appreciate some guidance.
Thank you
Lydia.F.

If you are looking for a hartley table for stencil quilting and can't find one, buy two small curtain rods and glue them to the bottom of a cookie sheet. For something prettier, have a piece of acrylic cut as a top.

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. 

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!

We flipped my wheels last night....life is once again  gliding smoothly along!

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! 
 

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. 
 

How old are your canvas leaders?  The leaders can/do stretch over the years.  One side may have stretched more than the other.  This would cause your quilt to roll uneven.  Most of the time the canvas stretch cannot be seen with your naked eyes.   If you have zippers on your leaders, zip them together and roll a few times forward and backwards.  You can also zip them together an roll fairly tight, spritz with water and let dry.  There's probably a "how to" on this website, I'll try looking for it when I get home from work.   I'm sure others will chime in with this idea.  Oh no zippers, you can pin.  New leaders are also reasonably priced in the APQS store but try correcting the ones you have first.

Whatever marker you choose may become embedded in cotton quilting thread. A soft toothbrush and a spritz of water will remove most.  This is usually not a problem with polyester threads.

You can use the water or air soluble markers.   The water soluble usually have blue ink and the air soluble usually has purple.   DO NOT IRON over these soluble  marks or they become permanent.  If you live in a high humidity area the air markers may disappear to fast for you.   Have you tried using the white chalk and turn on your black light?  Sometimes we forget most APQS machines come with black light.  I use the gray chalk marker on most items I have to mark.  Stay away from the yellow, pink and blue chalks, they do not wash out.   I also use the Crayola washable markers (like you buy for kids)  but test that the color I use will wash out (put it on test scrap fabric and rub out with a paper towel or wash cloth).  The Crayola markers are a lot cheaper than sewing markers but as I stated test before you use on the quilt.   Hope this helps.

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 !

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. 

Strap with a hunk of painters tape a small knitting needle on top with a cork on the end to hold the thread. Works great.

Wow!  That is stunning. Love it!

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!!