Session 7: Building a Longarm Library

I'm a firm believer in having a reference library. I love to have books at my fingertips for inspiration and to answer questions quickly. Call me old school. I like my library. So today I want to share with you some of my favorite books. The first one that is just, I could not have started quilting without it is by Linda Taylor. Linda Taylor is one of the pioneers of the industry and an amazing quilter. She wrote "The Ultimate Guide to Longarm Machine Quilting "How to Use any Longarm Machine, Techniques, Patterns, "and Pantographs, Starting a Business, "and Hiring a Longarm Machine Quilter." This was a wonderful book for me setting up my business, but just to really get started with what is a longarm. You have to remember when I started, there were not a lot of books. There weren't classes. So I was grateful for this. This one shows you step-by-step pinning on, loading the quilt, batting, threads. You name it, it's in here. Very, very well-written book. She shows you how to use the templates, how to use the different guides and rulers, and talks about different issues that you may have. And then there's quite a gallery in here particularly of her work, plus some different patterns that you can practice with and and get started with. So definitely add Linda's "Ultimate Guide to Longarm Machine Quilting" to your library. Another pioneer whose book I could not have been successful without was Carol Thelen. Carol was an aerospace engineer and she really looked at the longarm in a little bit different way from that engineer's perspective. And hers is "The Complete Guide to Choosing, Using "and Maintaining a Longarm Machine." And again, Carol is very detailed. She will talk about the basis of using your machine, how to get set up, how to get started. And she is a wonderful for her maintenance tips and a common sense approach to the longarm in different techniques. And her machine, in fact, both of their machines, Linda's and Carol's, were hand-guided machines. Neither one of them had the computerized machine. I know Linda has since gotten into the Statler Stitcher side of things, but both of their background is in hand-guided machines and they are wonderful, wonderful books to have. They are literally textbooks. "ABCs of Longarm Quilting" came out in the more recent years in the early 2000s. The "ABCs of Longarm Quilting", it's by Patricia Barry. This is a very good book. Nice, nice, nice color photographs. She has the Statler Stitcher. It shows a lot about the table, the rollers, how things are done, the basic operations. And it's not just based on the Statler Stitcher. This is based on general longarm machine, and it's laid out very simply, very easy to follow, very step-by-step. Talks about the stitch regulator. I think you will find this is a wonderful, wonderful book all about loading the quilt, everybody has little tips for that you can also gain a lot from. And then she also has quite a few projects in here that are good for you for getting started and bonding with your machine by doing just different quilting and then turning your practice quilts into projects. So I like Pat Barry's book. I think you'll enjoy that one. The last one and the newest book on the market is called the "Longarm Quilting Workbook "Basic Skills, Techniques, and Motifs "for Modern Longarming." This is by Teresa Silva. And I was actually honored to be asked to be the technical editor on this book and double check what Teresa was saying and offer my own tips for the book. I love the book because she takes a little different approach. She spends just a brief time talking about the machine and setting up, but she, and the tools, but she immediately goes into the quilting, the how to quilt, the different motifs, and shows you exactly how to do them, especially the continuous line quilting, and very easy step-by-step how to do the actual techniques. And then she comes in with some different projects that the quilting is just drop dead gorgeous, but she gets you into quilting and having wonderful pieces that you can practice on. So I was really, really impressed with her concept. And I think this is a must have for you library, also, "Long Arm Quilting Workbook" by Theresa Silva. There are also numerous books, I just couldn't bring them all on the airplane to the studio, numerous books on different techniques such as the McTavishing by Karen McTavish who developed the technique. There are straight-line quilting, there's continuous line. There are just all kinds of books out there for how to and for inspiration. So by all means, get out there, look up for some, look up different books on the internet or at your local quilt shop, and start getting into the longarm quilting. I think you'll really, really enjoy it more if you have these books for inspiration.