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rineps

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Hi Friends,

 

What is the minimun size of the space needed in a room in order to quilt with a 14 foot table.  Just doing some space planning to figure out where this "girl" is going to go when I pull the plug and make the purchase. 

 

Thoughts and advice are welcome.

 

What is the dimensions of the rooms you quilt in?

 

Thanks,

Patrice

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Currently my longarm resides in my boy's old bedroom and it is 12' X 19' with a closet taking up part of that. I have a 12' table so I do have a desk in there, my treadmill & a gun safe. With all that stuff it is small, but I  can walk around the entire table and have 3' behind the machine and 3 or 4 on the front side. I store all my other stuff in my regular sewing room. It works but is not as efficient as I would like.

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The bigger the better! I was very blessed. My sweet hubby built my space for me. It is 39 by 14. I filled it up and then he added a 14 by 14 plus a bathroom!  Yes, it is not attached to the house.

My suggestion is to plan for more than you think you need!  Good  luck and I know you will love you new machine!

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Minimum for just longarm 15x5. I currently have the family room and a bedroom. Not near enough. Get as much room as you can but if you are trying to make existing room work you can put the motor end for the fabric advance in a corner or closet or put casters on the longarm to move it so you can work from both sides. I have heard of people crawling under their machine to get to the other side. It is nice to have designated spaces so you don't have to put everything away to work on something else.

Shirley

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My room is 13 x 32.  If I only had the longarm with 14 ft table I'd say it has to be at least 18ft long, enough for 2 ft on either side or one side pushed against the wall (that is how I have mine) and then the other 4 ft on the other side.  Technically you won't need more than 6 or 7 ft wide but I would be cramped.  I have all my sewing stuff in this room and would love for it to be wider but it works.  

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If I had any idea 14 years ago when we were building this house that I would have a 14' longarm, I would have planned differently !!!   haha   My Sewing Room is a combo room of Sewing Room, Utility Room and Mud Room.   We do have a finished basement where my Millie lives.   So glad we went ahead and finished that basement at the time of building !!!!   So, get as much space as you can possibly get.   You will not regret it.   I would love to have my sewing machine, fabric and longarm all in one space, but I don't.   I COULD move my sewing machine to the basement, but then I wouldn't have the nice view outside or the natural light to work by. 

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I think what you are asking is how much room all around the machine table do you need.  I'm assuming your room layout is already there and cannot be adjusted. 

 

I have a 12 ft table.  I have walking space behind it...about 2 ft at the most.  You will want to be able to walk behind your machine and you HAVE to be able to if you do pantos.  I have the motor advanced side smack up against a wall.  No walking around that side.  I have about 4 ft on the other end because it is the entrance to the room, but you will want enough space to go around your machine to the backside.  In the "olden days" I was able to squeeze through a very small space to get the back.  I have about 3 ft at the narrowest point in front of the machine before I am up against a cutting table.  You want enough room to move around when you are loading your quilts and quilting.  My room is about 13' x 25'.  However, along the years I have managed with a whole lot less space and I still used my LA.  I had a time when I crawled under the machine to get to the back...oh I couldn't do that now...my body would rebel for sure, but from your pic you are young and healthy looking so it's a possibility for you. 

 

Let us know how you work this out. 

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Patrice,

You've received great advice so far from the gang about "ideal" space. Just to help you in your room planning, if you are adding a motorized fabric advance to your table it adds 8 inches to the length. so a 14-foot table is physically 14' 8" long. The end opposite the fabric advance (the left side of the table when facing the needle) can go flush against a wall.

The physical footprint for the machine "front to back" is 5 feet. As earlier mentioned, you will need more room on the table side of the machine where pantographs are executed than you will on the needle side. We advise new customers to allow 8 feet for a minimum.

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If you have a room in mind you can take the measurements given above and mark out where the machine will sit with masking tape. I put tape down on the floor when I was waiting for my machine to arrive. It allowed me to determine if I had enough room to walk around the machine front and back. Worked great. My machine is in a finished basement along with my sewing table, cutting table, powder room and small seating area around a TV...biggest challenge was working around the support posts. Have fun planning!

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Take all the room you can get! hehe!  My room is 15' x 24 or 25' (can't quite remember which).  I also do custom sewing so I have two large cutting tables in my room with two sergers, two machines and the long arm set up all the time.  I have no closet space so all fabric, supplies and batting is along, under or beside something else.  It is cramped but cozy, and I never thought I would have filled it so quickly!

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I have a 23 foot by 23 foot room that I keep my long arm in - with a 14 foot frame.  We use part of the room as a living area (isn't my family tolerant of my sewing habit?? lol*) so my frame is towards one wall.  I have power advance on one side so there isn't enough room next to the motor for me to get by - I have to walk around to the other side.  I have plenty of room on the other side and just enough to bend down...there are french doors by that side so I didn't want to block them or I'd have moved it so I could walk around both sides.  Still - even with that much room it feels like a monster!!!  I'm really glad I just got the bigger frame though, so far most of the quilts sent to me have been HUGE.  Lol*

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Hi,

 

This is my first post...my machine should be arriving in two weeks and I am excited...I finally got around to measuring my room it is going into...I figured I would have enough but...it would be just enough...my room is 20 something by 10.5  I wasn't too concerned with the length..just the width...I was hoping to be able to keep my cutting table up...but..I think that will come down and live just outside the room in the larger part of the basement....I will call my quilting studio..."my quilting dungeon" or maybe "the dragons lair"  "Lucey and the dragon" has a ring to it.  yep...I think that is it.  .  I have had a wanna be long arm for a while which also lived in this basement room but it had sagging bars and a nine inch neck...on a 10 foot frame so...I meandered and meandered and meandered..Yep..I did manage a few queen sized quilts on it...but it wasn't fun.....I am getting a bit overwhelmed by all the gorgeous quilting I see on this forum...yikes!  I know I will have to at least attempt something beyond meandering now.  I am just so excited....I have been digging out my old quilt design books and watch all the videos.  I do have my sewing machines set up upstairs so I really am ok with just using my "dragons lair" to do the quilting.  It is not a pretty space....but I am happy!  This will be fun...Now to just get all this snow moved so my machine will not have to be snow shoed in.....Lin  (from pretty, but very snowy,  northern minnesota)

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Thanks Ladies - We are planning on finishing the basement and I am going to move everything (sewing machines and all) in the new space.  I have an opportunity to do this right, with respect to electrical outlets, lighting. storage, work stations etc.  I have been googling "sewing rooms" for the past couple of weeks and I'm trying to make sure that I don't miss anything with the planning.  Where do you all store your extra HUGE ROLLS of batting?  How do you manage that.  I know that one will be on the longarm but do you have another one always waiting in the wings? 

 

How about quilting walls?  Do you all have a design wall?  What is the best size?

Electrical outlet for the longarm?  Should it be in the ceiling or is the wall appropriate?

 

The space is relatively huge and my sweet husband is giving the entire space to me. 

 

I would love to see pictures of your space that would be awesome if you want to share.

 

Thanks Friends,

Warm Regards,

Patrice

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Patrice,

 

In my humble opinion, lighting is more important than the location of the outlet. None of my rooms except for the Living Room and Master Bedroom were big enough for my 12' with fabric advance, so I get the garage. When I was doing wood work I installed two fluorescent shop lights. Later I installed track lighting in addition to the shop lights for all over lighting. It works perfect for my long-arm. As for the outlet, my cords are routed underneath the table and I use one tri plug extension cord.

 

I would like to know about the rolls of batting myself. I have one that came with the machine and still have it in plastic. I usually just use individual packaged warm & natural or hobbs.

 

Design Wall - I bought the Fons & Porter that hangs on the wall. Almost not big enough for some of the quilts that I've put together, but hangs so high that I have to use a ladder. Probalby didn't think that one through.

 

You've joined a great forum. There is so much knowledge, advice, and help on here.

 

James

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Sewingpup,


 


Welcome to the Forum and the family! It sounds like you are ready to move past the meandering stage once you get your new "real" longarm. Do not be intimidated by the photos you see posted here! Use them as inspiration...and remember that the only difference between those posting those photos of beautiful quilts and you is that they've simply had more practice time. :) We hope you'll post lots of photos too, because we can all learn something!


 


Here's a quick hint regarding how to use the Forum photos to their fullest extent. Start a "new folder" on your computer's desktop or its picture folder and label it something like "quilting ideas". Then when you see an inspirational quilt, click on the image if it's in thumbnail version on the forum to enlarge it. Then right-click on the image and select "save picture as". Give the quilt a name you'll recognize, and then be sure that the file path will save it to the picture folder you specified earlier. That way all of your inspiration will be in one easy-to-find location. :)


 


Patrice,


 


You are one LUCKY girl to have all that space! I'm sure you'll get lots of ideas from the gang about ideal quilting space arrangements. Here are a couple more hints from "corporate" that may help you. :) The machine will draw no more power than a household iron, so at least in terms of that you don't need to worry. If you purchase the Bliss track, it makes your machine glide like butter, but any amount of cord drag can cause it to drift where you don't want it to. With a ceiling outlet, that might happen.


 


Regarding the batting rolls, you can order an optional batting bar for underneath the machine if you didn't already. Personally, I started with my batting there but then removed it after a few weeks. It is probably because I'm not as "careful" as I should be, but I quickly grew tired of picking off threads, lint and other debris that invariably found its way on to the batting roll and stubborly clung there. I ended up storing the batting rolls vertically on spinning stands. (Two 1x4 boards crisscrossed, screwed together, with a 2x2 board coming straight up from the center to mount the bolt tube on--plus casters so it would spin).


 


Many quilters use up some of their wall space and mount the batting on the wall using closet pole brackets to support a pipe or dowel inserted in the batting tube's center. (If you can find pole brackets that come out a bit farther than standard closets it is easier for puffy poly batting.)


 


Enjoy this stage of the process! Once that machine arrives all of a sudden all you can think about is quilting, not furniture rearranging. :) Have fun!


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I have my 14' frame set up in one of the bedrooms upstairs that is 14+' x 17+', in addition I have 2 other bedrooms with my quilting goodies in them (so my quilting is taking over the house). :P  In my last home my quilting room was in the basement and I called it "The Dungeon", now my quilting room is upstairs in this house and I call it "The Crow's Cage"!

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What you think you need for outlets double it. When I finished the basement I went along the walls and marked where I wanted outlets. But I had figured out where things were going to go. Son wanted to know why 4' off the floor don't have to bend over and the don't get covered up. I put two at the end of the longarm. I have a power strip plugged in and ran underneath the table and attached under the frame in the middle where I have the longarm and power advance plugged in. Under the table I have plastic drawer units holding threads under the panto side. A dresser type unit and plastic drawers under the front of the machine holding quiltazoid rulers and thread cards.

On one wall I had a challenge as the water meter and sprinkler system box and water drains were part way down the wall. I put a closet there and between there and the wall with the window I have three rolls of batting hanging on closet rods and on the other I put my lighted drafting table.

Lights I need more but since I haven't finished the ceiling yet it is easy to add. I had him put in outlets in the ceiling and they are all on switches so it is easy to add flourescent lights.

If I ever get it cleaned I will post pictures. It is called my Hole.

Shirley

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Patrice,

 

I've tried multiple power options and settled on zip tying a power strip under my machine near the middle.  Then the cord isn't usually in my way.  If you can have a power strip installed above your machine centered that would probably work well.  I still need a design wall.  I have the flannel just haven't taken the time to get it together!  I wish I had a better open space for a design wall near my sewing machine but it would have to be smaller to fit there.  I'm feeling the need to play with my space again and move things around to get the "perfect" fit but I've been down that path  2 or 3 times already.  The set-up I have right now seems to work pretty well for me.  I keep 2 rolls of batting under my machine . I just used a piece of rope with hooks on the ends.  When I need to change the roll I just take off the hook and feed it through the next roll of batting.  This has worked out good for me since I don't want to give up too much of my floor space.  

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  • 2 years later...
  • 2 months later...

I'm trying to decide which end of of the studio my future long arm will go. Plan is for a 12 ft Millie, with fabric advance.  Hubby just took out a wall for me so now my room is approx 24 ft long, with a window on each end.  One end of the room is 10 ft across, and the other is only 8.5ft across..  My preference, if it can make it work, is to put the longarm in the narrower end, as I will have just a bit more clearance for where the 2 doors come in, but also a bigger leftover space for a sewing room....the more space the better!   (and I guess I can always switch it around down the road if it really doesn't work.)

 

Yes, there are 2 doors side by side, about the middle of the long wall and I plan on keeping them both for resale, as these are the 2 biggest upstairs bedrooms in my house. If the wall needs to go back up, it is an easy-ish fix.

 

Dawn said in an earlier post the minimum for width  was 8ft.  So with 8.5....guessing 2 feet on back, 1.5 on front? Can this width be done without casters?       Does anyone else manage with such a narrow space? Is it possible to use carsters/sliders as well as hydraulics? 

 

Philippa.

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