Quilt Glide: Can Stitch Length and Idle Speed be Adjusted Independently on Newer Machines?

[Rebecca Grace]

The only video I could find on the APQS YouTube channel for Quilt Glide was about 10 years old, and they were demo'ing the brand-new Quilt Glide feature on the old style beige Millennium.  On that machine, Quilt Glide had a button that you turned slightly to engage the feature at a slow speed, but then if you turned the button more you could increase the needle's idle speed and fine tune it to what you were doing.  I have a white "new style" Millennium, a 2013, and instead of a button or knob like that I just have a Quilt Glide button to engage or disengage this feature on my touch screen.  On my machine, the same buttons that increase or decrease stitch length in stitch regulated mode are used to increase or decrease the motor speed in manual mode.  Surely APQS did not take away the ability to adjust stitch length and Quilt Glide idle speed independently when they came out with the new touch screen interface, did they?  What am I missing?  To clarify, I am trying to figure out how I could set a low Quilt Glide idle speed in conjunction with a relatively short stitch length, so that the machine doesn't cycle up and down quite so fast when I stop moving it.  Is there some other knob somewhere that does this?  Is there a newer video or tutorial that I overlooked?  

[jimerickson]

I don't really have any idea, because I've never had experience with APQS's Quilt Glide.  However, what I know from my Intellistitch regulator, is that "manual" is not stitch regulated, so the only control you have over stitch length is the speed at which you move the machine, or the stitching speed you set.  If the stitch length is controlled by the machine, it would be stitch regulated, not manual.  Jim 

[Rebecca Grace]

Jim, here's a video from Jamie Wallen (Quilter's Apothecary) that explains this hybrid operation mode: https://www.longarmtv.com/longarm-cruise.html.  On HandiQuilter machines it's called Cruise Mode, on Innova I think it's called Start Speed, and on APQS it's an upgrade option called Quilt Glide.  You're operating the machine with stitch regulation, the only difference is that when you stop the machine head, the needle pulses up and down rather than coming to a complete stop.  I tried it last night with some tight back and forth fills and really loved it -- much smoother operation than quilting that particular fill in pure regulated mode, yet the stitch regulator is giving me those beautiful even stitches.  Love love love!!  From the APQS Facebook forum feedback I received, it looks as though you cannot adjust that idle needle pulsing speed independently of the stitch length on the new style APQS machines, but that's okay with me because the pulsing speed that the machine defaulted to worked just fine for me.  :-). 

[jimerickson]

That sounds a lot like Intellistitch's manual with stop/start, except rather than pulsing, the Intellistitch actually stops stitching until you move it again.  You can turn that Intellistich feature off and have it stitch when you stop, but why would you want to?  Jim