When I posted about the Thanksgiving sewing I worked on over the holiday weekend, I wrote about saving the quilt top for a special purpose. As it turned out, I didn't finish it in time for my experiment and it wasn't suitable anyway for my...longarm quilting class!
I have been thinking about longarm quilting for a while and the idea of it went into over-drive while reading Angela Walters' posts about longarm quilting as a business. I have been toying with that prospect over several weeks, doing research and even going as far as writing a business plan. The final step in my decision-making process was to actually use a longarm and see if it was something I would enjoy.
I attended a fibre festival and got my hands on a HandiQuilter brand longarm for a couple of minutes. It was interesting and so different than quilting on a domestic sewing machine. After much consideration I knew I wanted to stick with the Gammill machine and I found a quilt shop that offers lessons.
I brought along a piece of fabric with a printed panel on it (actually, 3 panels of the same image) to practice on. It took quite a while to load the quilts as another student (that's her arm) and I shared one machine. We each got a turn trying a pantograph pass and a little bit of free-motion work.
I'm not denying that it was really fun to experience the freedom of quilting on a longarm - the machine head just simply glides along rails in
any direction over the quilt top. The stitches (using the stitch regulator) were absolutely beautiful - even and perfect! (Here's a photo of the other lady's panto on a bit of muslin used to extend her quilt top to the same length as mine - you can see the stitches more clearly on the plain fabric).
After much contemplation I decided that now is not the right time for me to invest in this significant piece of machinery. Not only would it set me back over 10K, the 12-foot+ table would dominate my studio space and eliminate my cutting and piecing tables...and my Horizon would have to be moved to another room. Price and logistics aside, I am not sure I want to invest my time in quilting customer quilts - a necessity if I want to finance the machine.
Although I feel a bit melancholy about the decision I made, I know that I haven't shut the door on this concept completely. I will definitely revisit the subject next fall when my kids have flown the coop and I might just need something of my own to keep my nest full. In the meantime, I will keep on exploring my love of the modern quilt movement, improving my free-motion skills, and working on the quilts and art I still long to create.
P.S. Here is a link to Leah Day's post about why she doesn't want a longarm machine. It's interesting to read her take on things and some of her points relate to my decision. That being said, she is definitely an opinionated woman and while I agree with a lot of what she writes, I am not so black and white about the issue. The comments are very interesting to read as well.
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.ca/2011/09/7-reasons-why-i-dont-want-or-need.html
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