Mary Beth

Yay!!! Congratulations!!!

This small quilt is a gift for a new mom to be's baby shower next weekend. I've known this lady for about 25 years since she was about 12. It took her a long time to meet Mr Right and now they are expecting their first - a little boy. This pattern is a MSQC and is in the tutorials. 2 charm packs used with poly blend batt and glide threads. 

I will just add, quilting is very rewarding because you become a part of the history of that quilt. You may be the only person who knows that, but to me that was very rewarding. It is hard work, and to be honest, you will need to set aside time for family. But you should do that anyway. It may take a little time to build your business, and you will need sell yourself, but there is plenty of business out there.

Jennifer still gets teary-eyed when she looks at Haylee's quilt. 

Thank you Heidi. I have been wondering too. 

I remembered I had the email of her DIL and emailed her.  Rita is still in the hospital.  She had breathing related complications but seems to be doing better as of this week.  I'll let you know if I hear anything further.

Praying for you Rita, and for hubby.

Thank you for your support. Kay an I have got so much pleasure from working with so many talented people over the past 15 years. So many have told us that our Giant boards have let them continue to quilt after suffering from arthritis and  back pain.
Cheers,
Michael and Kay

I only quilt for myself (when I have time   ), and for my church group.  We have delivered over 50 quilts so far this year to one of our mission organizations, and I've quilted a large number of them.  We make twin or larger sized quilts for this mission.  I use several of the Circle Lord long boards - especially the Swirls, Milky Way and Egyptian Eye.  They're wonderful time savers, and the children love circles on their quilts.  The CL products are great time savers.  When I have enough coins saved I'll be ordering some other boards, and I do plan to get a computer some day - but I won't ever give up my CL boards.

Your quilt is making the rounds. My ex-sister-in-law is my friend on FB. She just shared the picture with me!! You are famous!!!

Your quilt is making the rounds. My ex-sister-in-law is my friend on FB. She just shared the picture with me!! You are famous!!!

Well, I did it!  I ordered a new Lucey with Bliss rails, and it will be here soon.  Would have loved a Millie but the budget was already stretched.  Thank you all for the help.  I'm really glad I chose APQS.  Now to get my space in order for the big day

Hi all!
I am a new Lenni owner! I have owned another longarm for about a year, however I went to a road show recently and I fell in love with Lenni!
I am so excited I cannot wait for Lenni to arrive.
I have been reading the forums and I am looking forward to getting to know you all!
Thanks
Beth

I have tried several different brands of printing fabric, some more successful than others. My favorite is by EQ (Electric Quilt) and is used on an inkjet printer. They have several different thread counts for 8.5 x 11 with one type being available for 11 x 17. I have also tried the freezer paper. Won't do that again. (I have a couple of examples on my blog where I created pillows.)

Bonnie, I have used Bubble Jet Set to treat "regular" fabric that I want to use in my printer, and it has worked well for me.  After I iron the fabric to the freezer paper, I zig zag across the top edge before loading it into the printer, because I had issues before with fraying and separating in the printer.  The Bubble Jet Set makes the ink permanent.  I haven't used it lately, so I don't remember the process real well, but I just followed the directions on the bottle.
 
When white fabric works with my project, I use Printed Treasures.

I took what you all said to heart and really thought about the size.  Right now I am leaning towards the Lucey.  My only concern is doing small scale work like micro stippling.  It felt a little jerky with the regulator on but I'm sure there are techniques to improve this if I play with the stitch knob?  My other choice would be to wait for a used Millie with Quilt Glide.  For those with this feature: Do you used it often?  Does it make a big difference?

Hi everyone.  I love how fast, ideas discussed by quilters become a commercial product!  I just received my Nancy Notions catalog and low and behold, what did I see in it as a product?  Something called an "ironing cradle" which could also be used under your frame to keep your fabric, quilt, etc., off the floor.  It's only a max of 65in for now but give them time.  It looks like a long foldable laundry frame, with "heavyweight plastic" for the cradle.  It's on sale for $79, gotta love it!  PS: I'm not saying I invented this gizmo but saw and heard others talking about a cradle to keep your quilts off the floor on here many times. 

All great tips.....I watched Renae's video and really found it helpful.  I think I am going to go with the Red Snappers to begin with and see how that goes.  I'm sure almost anything is
better than pinning.

I had zippers on my old machine. I absolutely hate those pins. They tear my hands up. I always had a feeling they were not perfectly centered, so I was not real happy with them.
 
When I purchased my current machine, I ordered the Red Snappers. I went to Youtube and found out how to attach them and purchased 6 cheap tape measures to apply to the leaders to make sure I had my quilts centered. That was on youtube too. Renae Haddadin had great instructions. 
 
If I can avoid pins I will do it!!

I think the smaller throat space is going to limit you by some of the tools or designs you use, however, there are a lot of people who have the Lenni and love it. That being said, how many of them would trade for a larger space if the money were not an issue, maybe that is the question to ask. I had a Millie years ago and sold it. When I was ready to buy again, I knew I wanted another Millie, or something with a larger work space because I didn't want to be rolling my quilt to work on a larger block, or whatever. I actually ordered a new Millie last year in November, but then I decided I didn't want to spend that much money to quilt for just me. If I were going to quilt for customers, there is no question in my mind, Millie it is. I found a used Freedom/Freddie, same throat space, only lacking vertical channel locks, no thread cutter. I had no problem losing those features as long as I had the throat space. You seem to be sold on the Lenni, and it seems to suite your needs, so if that is the one, then go for it. It is all a personal preference. Really, no one can tell you which one to get, we can only give your our opinions, and like they say....we all have one   I will be waiting to see which machine you finally settle on. I know this is not an easy process. 

I think the smaller throat space is going to limit you by some of the tools or designs you use, however, there are a lot of people who have the Lenni and love it. That being said, how many of them would trade for a larger space if the money were not an issue, maybe that is the question to ask. I had a Millie years ago and sold it. When I was ready to buy again, I knew I wanted another Millie, or something with a larger work space because I didn't want to be rolling my quilt to work on a larger block, or whatever. I actually ordered a new Millie last year in November, but then I decided I didn't want to spend that much money to quilt for just me. If I were going to quilt for customers, there is no question in my mind, Millie it is. I found a used Freedom/Freddie, same throat space, only lacking vertical channel locks, no thread cutter. I had no problem losing those features as long as I had the throat space. You seem to be sold on the Lenni, and it seems to suite your needs, so if that is the one, then go for it. It is all a personal preference. Really, no one can tell you which one to get, we can only give your our opinions, and like they say....we all have one   I will be waiting to see which machine you finally settle on. I know this is not an easy process. 

You could always check out a used Millie. I purchased a used Millie that was 4 years old at the time I purchased it. I absolutely love my Millie!! I have never had any problems with my machine at all. In fact I have owned 3 APQS Machines, all purchased used and never had any issues with them. My first was a non-stitch regulated Ultimate 2 (same throat size as the Lenni), I upgraded to a Ultimate 1 (same throat size of the Millie) with an add on stitch regulator and finally up graded to a Millie. After having my Millie it would be really hard to down grade to anything else.

Just a note, these two are girl pirates, Heidi!!!!!

So cute!!

T-shirt quilts are time consuming from start to finish. Do not short change yourself. Your time is valuable. Normally the people who brought me t-shirts, had no clue about quilts for the supplies needed. My price quote included the price of the fabric, stabilizer, then preparing the block and quilting. The joy on the customers face is normally worth the work....but it is a lot of work.