Session 2: Is There a Longarm in Your Future?

Historically, longarm machines have been used for commercial purposes, in the commercial industry for quilting, comforters, and quilts. It's been in, oh, maybe about the last 25 years that they've started showing up in homes, and the early machines were commercial ones that people bought for their homes. In the last, oh, say 10 years, the longarm industry has absolutely exploded with options for the home quilters. Every time you open a quilting magazine, you will find at least six advertisements or more for longarm quilting machines. So, what exactly is a longarm? Well, historically, and still today, a longarm machine is a large machine. This is my machine in my studio. The machine itself is 4 feet long this way, in length. And the table that it sits on is 14 feet long. A longarm is indeed a large machine that sits on a carriage with wheels that moves along this frame. The frame has a tabletop on it where you can put your patterns to trace, and there are rollers on the quilting machine, as you can see, there's three of them on this particular model, for mounting your backing and your top, and your batting just floats in the center. The arm of the machine is from the needle to the inside vertical posts. That's true of any sewing machine. And this arm on a longarm can be up to 30 inches long. And the harp, which is the vertical space under the machine, can be up to 12 1/2 inches tall, so that there's plenty of room to roll the quilt, and we're going to discuss this a little bit more in the following sessions. It may also have an onboard bobbin winder. That's on the opposite side of the machine. This mechanism is used strictly for winding bobbins. The machine itself is oriented 90 degrees out from your domestic machines. So, if you took your machine as you're facing it, and turned it 90 degrees to the right, the needle and the machine would be facing you. So as you can see, here's the needle, and then these are the handles and my buttons for operating it. This is working on the needle side of the machine. But there are also controls on both ends of the machine. In this case, there are controls, basic controls, on the back of the machine. That's because we do quilting from both sides of the machine. Our custom work is done on the front side, and our panto work, or tracing, is done from the back side of the machine. Patterns are roll patterns. They're long, and they go underneath a piece of plastic on the table. You can see that maybe a little bit better here. I've got a cutting mat on top, but underneath that, and on the far end of the table, there's plastic that lifts up, and you can put your pattern under there. And then, you use either a laser light or a stylus to trace your patterns as you sew, and that's how the stitching goes onto the machine. It can also be used for your blocks, your borders, your sashing patterns. A pantograph is what I call wallpaper for a quilt. It is the same pattern. It is repeated side to side, top to bottom, over and over on the quilt. And that is a very popular style of quilting with a longarm machine. There are other differences between a traditional sewing machine and a longarm machine. First of all, the major difference is you stand up to quilt. So when you're quilting, you are standing at the machine, and you are physically moving it. Typically, on the machine, are two tension adjustments. There's your primary adjustment and an intermittent, or the primary adjustment and then the intermittent tension. And we will discuss these further in a later session, and I'll have some close-ups that you can see there. Typically though, on your tension guides, there are no markings for the adjustment. You're basically doing it by feel and flying blind, which is different than your domestic machine, which usually has markings for the tension. You don't have a presser foot. So, the foot does not rest tight against the fabric. You only have what we call a hopping foot. The hopping foot is round. It is about 1/4 inch wide, and we use the foot itself as a guide when we're quilting. The speed of the machine is controlled by your movement of the machine, as is the stitch length. So, unless you have a special feature called stitch regulation, which we're going to, again, talk about in a later session, you control the speed, you control the stitch length, and you determine how consistent your stitch length is by how fast or slow, and how consistently you're able to maintain that movement. Typically, the machine will use a rotary bobbin, and it's mounted underneath the bed. It's very different than your drop-in bobbin. Again, I'll show you that in the later session, and most machines will be using what we call an M bobbin. It's a larger bobbin that holds more thread than your typical domestic machines. Although there are a few domestic, and BERNINA is one of them, a few domestic machines that are using M bobbins now. The machine is straight stitch only. You don't have any zigzag. You don't have any little fancy stitches. Straight stitch only. There's no reverse, there's no needle up/down. And your needle has a round shaft. Normally, on your domestic machine, there's a flat side to help you insert the needle correctly. On this one, it's totally round, and you have to make sure that the needle is inserted correctly, and that the eye is facing in the right direction. So with all of that, why do I want a longarm machine? What's the advantages? It doesn't sound like it does as much as my domestic machine does. Well, the advantage is there's no need to pin the layers first. Because of the roller system, the layers are kept taut, and you also have clamps on here. So, your backing is nice and taut, and you don't have bunching on the back, as long as you load the quilt properly. You also don't have to fight with the quilt under your domestic machine. There's plenty of space, and you're actually guiding the machine over the quilt, and you can see a larger area as you're quilting, instead of just this little tiny, oh, maybe 12-inch area that you're working on under a domestic machine. You can see more of the quilt at once. But is a longarm for you? It sounds wonderful. Everybody wants to have one, but it's a big investment. And I can't tell you how many people I know who have bought a frame machine, which is a smaller longarm, or even one of the big ones, and they just collect dust for a lot of reasons. When I say it's a big investment, it's a big investment in terms of cost, time, space, tools, and learning curve. The cost can range anywhere from $5,000 to over $30,000 for a computerized machine. So, you really need to take a deep breath and say, "Why? Why do I want this? Am I going to be using it for business or pleasure?" What is going to be your return on investment? And with return on investment, I'm talking your initial costs, plus, like I said, space, time, learning the new skillset, the tools you have to buy, for how many quilts you're going to be doing per year. If you've only got a couple of quilts that you're going to be doing, it may or may not be worth it. I know there's a lot to be said for saying, "I did the entire quilt myself, from design to binding." And there is a lot of satisfaction in it, but it may or may not be worth the cost. And there are alternatives, that we're going to discuss later. Is it a retirement machine? We are seeing a huge trend in the industry of women who are retiring, especially people in technical fields, who are buying the full-blown computerized machines, and think nothing of putting down $30,000 or more for a quilting machine because they deserve it. It's what they want. They want the best, and instead of a sports car, they're buying a longarm machine to drive. How maintenance-oriented are you? How technical-savvy are you? Because, maintenance is a way of life with a longarm machine. There's usually a lack of local dealer support, especially for the commercial-grade machines, such as the Nolting and the Gammill machines, just as two examples. They are dotted across the United States, and you may or may not have a dealer in your local town. You may have to travel a ways. More importantly, if the machine breaks, they may be having to travel to your home, and there's a huge travel cost involved with that. So, you learn how to fix your own machines. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent on my back under the machine, phone to my ear talking to tech support, doing maintenance on my machine. So, do you mind laying on your back to fix the machine? Or, do you mind laying on your back to look underneath and check your quilting to make sure that the stitches are even, and that the tension is good? Do you mind getting your hands dirty? Can you follow directions, technical directions, easily? These are things to think about before you buy the machine. Because once you buy it, you can't take it back. You have bought that machine, and it's yours, for better or worse. What's your level of tolerance and determination? And the reason I ask that is, because this is a whole different way of quilting. With a longarm machine, you are moving the machine over the quilt, rather than moving the quilt under the machine. And, too many machines gather dust because people are impatient, and they just get frustrated learning this new method of quilting. A good example to compare it to is writing. With the longarm machine, you are the pen, writing on the paper. You are guiding the machine over the quilt, and it's just like how we write. Conversely, it would be like taking the paper and moving it under the pen is how you're quilting right now. So, it's learning two entirely different methods for quilting. And, some people adjust easier than others. Again, in order to do it, you have to have patience with yourself, and it will take time to be proficient. You are learning a new skill, and there's also new terminology that you have to learn. And that just takes time. How much space do you have? I want you to take a good look at how much space my machine is taking up. It's taking up a good percentage of my basement. You have to consider the size of the frame. And then, there's what designers call the 3-foot rule Kitchen planners, architects, interior designers, they all live and die by the 3-foot rule, which says you need a minimum of three feet to walk around any object, such as your kitchen island. There typically is three feet. So, you're going to need that space around your machine. You also need it in order to be able to operate the machine, to get to the batting. If you have storage under your machine for batting, like mine does. You also need a place to store all of your longarm tools. And, this is a good photo here of some of my tools that I have. And we're going to talk about all the different tools that you'll need. I've got them on this wonderful baker's rack right behind my machine, all of my bobbins, and books, and maintenance tools. I've got to have somewhere to store them. I have to have somewhere for the batting, the thread, the patterns. For instance, in my longarm studio, I have all my threads across from the machine, so they're easy to get to. I also quilt professionally, I have for over 15 years now. So, when clients come, this is an easy way to pull out the thread and audition it. We put the quilt on the table. This is a little bit better picture of it, so you can see that this is just one possible way to store threads. It's on pegboard, and there's dowels in the pegboard, and the drawers pull out. So it's a very, very nice system. But how do you know if you have enough space? The best thing to do, is do a layout. When we were designing our basement, my son, who's an engineer, did up a CAD program for me. And in the light blue, you can see that he drew that three-foot space around all of my tables, but particularly around the longarm, so I would know if this machine was going to fit in here, and what was the best way to orient it. Once it's in place, you usually are not going to move it, unless your machine is on casters. Pretty much, once it's set, that's where it's going to live. They're extremely heavy, depending on the model that you buy, and we'll talk about that a little bit later, too. So, this is a good way to do it. If you don't feel like doing it on computer, just get some graph paper. This is quarter-inch graph paper. Draw your table, or proposed longarm, to size, along with the other items that will be going in your room, cut them out, draw your space on the graph paper, and put them in, and move them around. If it does not fit on the paper, it will not fit in your home, in the space that you're looking at. It just isn't going to happen. Stop being wishful thinkers. You cannot put it in if it's not going to fit. You will need to either have a bigger space, or you will need to pick out a smaller machine. So, these are some things that people don't always think about. They don't realize just how big it is. I mean, I saw them at shows and yeah, they were big, but it didn't really hit home until the beast was in my basement, and I walked in and went, "Oh my gosh, that thing's huge." And everybody that walks into my basement goes, "Oh my gosh, that's huge." It just takes your breath away, because it really is bigger than you think. And once you put it in, it does eat up the space, and tend to close in your work area. So, these are just a few things to consider, to determine, is the longarm in your future? And if you still think a longarm is for you, then it's time to choose the machine, and that's what we're going to discuss next.