Several Customer Quilts I've Quilted Recently

 Terri M. is finishing up projects. She brought me four things to quilt recently. This lovely Christmas applique quilt is the first one Glinda and I quilted for her. I used a new design I purchased recently called Holiday Garland for this one.

The second project Terri M. brought in recently for quilting. I used our Bluster quilting design for this one which is just a good, swirly geometric design.

This is the third quilt from Terri M. that she dropped off recently for quilting. I used our Loose Scrolls design for this one and it turned out great!

The is the last project from Terri M. that she dropped off recently for quilting. This is a set of 8 placements. Terri wanted Soft 'n Stable for her batting. This is the first time I tried using Soft 'n Stable for batting. It worked just fine but I did learn a few things. I should have opened up the Soft 'n Stable the night before the let it relax a bit. Will definitely do that next time!

Karen C. brought me these similar quilt tops to quilt up for her. Glinda and I were happy to do that for her!

I've been very busy quilting for customers. I am accepting mailed projects so even if you aren't local I am still happy to quilt something for you. All I ask is that you let me know when you've mailed the box so that I can be on the lookout for it. I'll let you know when it arrives. All the information about my long arm quilting services can be found by clicking the following link:

Alamosa Quilt Company Long Arm Quilting Services

Off the Long Arm

 Glinda (my Bernina Q24 long arm machine) and I quilted 6 customer quilts last week!

First we did this beauty for Diana B.

Next there were three from Terri M. The first two shown below are from the same kit. The kit was for the first quilt but she had enough fabric leftover from the kit to make a second, coordinating quilt. These will go on twin beds in the same room and she wanted the quilting to be the same pattern with the same thread.

And then we quilted up a couple of baby quilts for Kristy D.

The above quilt is a current kit I have for sale in my shop. If you would like a kit for yourself click the link: Timberland Trails Row Quilt Kit

This fun pinwheel quilt is for a grandchild whose name is Dottie. She used only polka dot fabrics for the pinwheels which I thought was super fun!

Off the Long Arm

 I've been so busy actually quilting things for folks that I haven't had time to share with you how it's going. The short answer is, "It's going great!" I'm still building my long arm quilting business and getting the word out to folks that I'm doing long arm quilting now, but I'm happy with how it's going so far. I'm not swamped with quilts to do for customers, but I am getting a few each week. So it's manageable!

The first quilt I have to share was made by Sherrie L. She is a part-time local resident.

Sherrie chose this fun modern style pattern. It is one of the designs that comes with my Bernina Q24 Q-matic program. I call this one "bubbles" because it's real name is just some letters and numbers.

Another quilt from Sherrie L.

For this one Sherrie chose a floral pattern. It's not quite a poinsettia, but it's close enough.

This quilt was brought to me to quilt by Vicki B. It was made by a relative who has since passed away.

I picked an allover floral design to coordinate with the embroidery blocks. This quilt was huge! And Vicki doesn't sew so I finished the binding for her too. The quilt was a challenge to long arm because the workmanship was not the best. None of the sides were straight. Some of the blocks were larger than others. Puckers were just pieced right in to the seams. Yet, it still turned out really nice!

This last one was made by Duchess R. I've quilted several things for Duchess. She likes geometric quilting designs and bold thread colors.

She picked this lime green thread and a design called Cottontop. It's one of the designs that came with my machine.

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.