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I am a wife, mama and grandmama getting through life by hanging on to a needle and thread.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Armed And Dangerous

I believe that I know just enough about machine quilting to be dangerous...enough to operate the machine, but not really enough to know what I am doing! I have so much to learn and who better to learn from than the experts and professionals? This month I joined the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild's Armed and Dangerous group, which is made up of guild members who have long, mid and short arm quilting machines and frames. In just one meeting I learned about proper tension, thread type, batting and the importance of changing the needle with each quilt! Most of those lessons came about from this one little Project Linus quilt that gave me fits while I was trying to quilt it. It turned out alright, but a lot of the problems that I had with it could have been easily avoided if I had known a little more about machine quilting on a frame. My thanks go to those ladies who are so willing to share their knowledge with a beginner! Hopefully with some more practice and a little information from my quilty friends I won't be quite as "dangerous" when operating my machine!

8 comments:

Marina Louw said...

The best thing you can do is practice, to subscribe to a magazine for machine quilters like Machine Quilting Unlimited and to join a online machine quilting forum. I see things that way that I would never see otherwise and I learn something new every day. Hang in there, it becomes easier as the time passes. Happy quilting!

Barb said...

That is wonderful that you came across this group. The internet is awesome!

andsewon said...

Looks good to me! Glad you found a group to help you out!
Internet is awesome for sure!!
Lola

Jocelyn said...

Wow what a great way to learn about long arm machine quilting. We don't have anything like that where I live.

Jackie's Stitches said...

What a great support group! I love the featured quilt You're meandering looks wonderful!

Rene' said...

I like the name of the group. So great that you have that resource to turn to. I think your quilting looks great. Project Linus is definitely benefitting from your quilts.

Angie said...

Love the cute name for the long arm group. I find DVD's made by long arm quilters are really helpful. I learn by watching, more than reading. I have found a local long arm group too! We are meeting in January. Looking forward to it. Your quilting looks good to me! We are our own worst critics you know! :o)

Mary Johnson said...

It's good that you found a local group to learn from. I will tell you that I don't change my needle with every quilt anymore -- I did when I started but it's one of those things in quilting that everyone has a different opinion about...however, if I'm having problems with a thread, one of the first things I do is change the needle.

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