Learning my new Q24

 I recently purchased a BERNINA Q24 long arm with Q-matic (computer program) for my shop. My favorite local long arm quilter recently moved away. I knew I would need to find another way to get my shop samples quilted and so would all of her other customers. So I decided to go into the long arm quilting business myself.

The machine arrived about two weeks ago. I've been watching the video class I purchased from BERNINA as well as reading through the workbooks I received trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can. I know all about the machine itself. Loading quilts onto a frame is a little different than basting them but the video class about loading a quilt was very good. It only took a couple times and I'm comfortable with loading a quilt on the frames. 

The Q-matic computer program is a bit more daunting. I have used a couple of computerized quilting programs in the past - all of them were not user friendly. I'm happy to say that the Q-matic is pretty user friendly. I only needed to quilt two practice pieces before feeling comfortable enough to try a "real" project. I have a bunch of digital quilt tops I've collected over the years from various fabric companies. I'm starting with those to practice on. I'll bind them and sell them during the month of November when my shop sells finished items (old shop samples) to support local charities. 

Below is a short video I did of my first practice piece.

If the embedded video doesn't work for you, you can watch it on YouTube: Q-matic Practice Video

Below is the first digital sample I quilted.

Here is a close up shot so you can see the quilting design better.

Is the quilting perfect? No. Do I care? No. I'm learning. For this one I intentionally ran out of bobbin thread so that I would have to learn what to do when that happens. Spoiler: the Q-matic makes this super easy! I had to resize the design, flip it over, and shift it around. All of this is pretty easy to do with Q-matic once you learn how. So now I'm just trying to practice these steps so that I can do them without having to refer back to a video or the workbook. 

When I started my second project I decided that I would not allow myself to watch or read for help. I want to try to figure it all out by myself. So far, so good!

Right now I am only using the designs that came with my computer system. Once I get better with it I'll probably need to purchase a few more designs. There were several that my previous long arm quilter used that I would really like to own too. But for now, I've got plenty to play with.