Zora Posted July 23, 2009 Report Share Posted July 23, 2009 I saw the Quiltazoid at MQS, and was impressed. Now that many of you have posted pictures, I am REALLY impressed. But now for the dumb question. How do you get identical motifs in the blocks? Are these pattern boards, or are these freehand spirograph things. And, if freehand, how in the heck do you get them to be identical? Ah, I am so confused! It will be a few months before I am ready to buy any really cool accessories, but I like to research VERY carefully before I plunk down any cash. (It took me 6 years to finally get my machine, which is still in boxes in the basement awaiting the completion of the quilting room while I am longarm quilting in my sleep!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quilting Heidi Posted July 23, 2009 Report Share Posted July 23, 2009 Lynn, The Quiltazoid offers both templates and spirographs (no other system on the market has that capability that I'm aware of). For the templates there are some that you mount and stitch around and that is it. There are others that you stitch an 1/8" of the design, rotate the base, stitch, etc until you get all the way around. Most of the templates can be worked continously, except of course something like a nested circle or star. You can do your normal tie off and on for that. I prefer to tie and bury and don't have a problem with that. The spirograph designs can be stitched and done with one rotation or you can move the postion by say 1/4" or 1/2" and stitch it again. This gives a sort of celtic looking design. There are so many different designs you can stitch. In my sampler some of the designs are stitched just as they come. Others I embellished. The embellishing was so much fun. For instance I would stitch a star and then fill it with a feather design. I drew gridelines to get the continuity that I wanted. The feather wreath on the sampler is simply a template that you stitch by turning the design, super quick and I figured out a way to stitch it continuosly so no starts and stops. It was a whole lot of fun. There is really no problem with replicating designs. You just move it to the new position and stitch it again. In fact it is quicker to do that because you won't have to change any gears or template guides, just move, center and stitch. I hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witha'K'quilting Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Lynn - Each spirograph is formed by a set of gears. If you pick a certain spirograph design and want to repeat it throughout the quilt as a center block motif, you can accomplish that very easily. You set the Quiltazoid once for the pattern, then just move the Quiltazoid to the next block and re-center the pattern by finding the center of the quilt block. As Heidi and I have both played with the new Quiltazoid, we discovered how much fun it can be to add freehand embellishments to the motifs. The spirograph patterns have given me a base per se to start with. The freehand designs that you can add make this tool unlimited in its application. Hope this helps. If you visit www.quiltazoid.com and view the spiro attachment product, I think some of what Heidi and I have said will "click". I hope your room gets finished soon so you can longarm quilt while you are AWAKE. It is such a better experience in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkle Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Question: Doesn't the Quiltazoid require a leveling or dead bar to attach to? My APQS Ultimate II does not have this type of leveling bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quilting Heidi Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Angie, You do need that bar to work it from the front but I'm not sure if Adam has come up with a way to attach to Ultimate II from the front. The nice thing is for those of you that can't or don't want to use from the front you can attach it to the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewlinzi Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 How does the quiltazoid do clamshells along a quilt? I guess you need to move it along a bit?? Still trying to decide on some sort of giant templates or wondering if the wonderful quiltazoid will do it all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witha'K'quilting Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Linzi...sent you a u2u. It is rather simple actually. You do need to move the quiltazoid along after stitching half circles. Go from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock then repostion the quiltazoid and restart at 9 o'clock. It is easier to explain when you are actually looking at the quiltazoid. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerriVB Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Linzi--with a board you are stuck with one size of clamshell--where with the QZ you can make your clam any size you want. Just a thought. Need to decide what is important to you. I like working from the front! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witha'K'quilting Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Good point Terri. The clamshells can be variable size using the Quiltazoid. I too love working from the front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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