Longarm quilting

Longarm quilting is the process by which a longarm sewing machine is used to sew together a quilt top, quilt batting and quilt backing into a finished top. The longarm sewing machine averages ten to fourteen feet in length and consists of an industrial sewing machine head, a ten-to-fourteen foot table, and several fabric rollers on which the fabric layers are placed. The use of a longarm quilting machine to finish a quilt top can significantly reduce the time spent hand quilting or machine quilting a quilt and is a large factor in the recent gain in popularity of this process. Knight, Lois. "Longarm Quilting? What Is That?." Resources for Long Arm Quilters. 19 July 2007. 18 Mar 2008 ]

History

The advent of the sewing machine brought about a newer idea known as the “quilting machine,” which made its debut in 1871. The first quilting frame and machine was comprised of only two bars that allowed the user to move the quilt and the frame beneath the machine to quilt straight, parallel lines on the fabric. Around 1877, the design had been modified several times, and began to look similar to the design quilters now know as a longarm quilting machine. Although electricity was not available, the machine ran using a hand crank system that moved the machine along the rails and over the fabric."Machine Quilting in the 19th Century." Harts Cottage Quilts. 2006 . Harts Cottage Quilts. 18 Mar 2008 ]

Almost thirty years later, the designs and patents for quilting machines had taken on some of the most drastic changes. While the Depression era caused a decrease in the interest in sewing machines and an increase in hand sewing, the quilting machine still managed to take on new and exciting designs. Not until the past twenty years has the longarm sewing machine become a popular and familiar concept to quilters. "The Cozy Quilt Patch." Long Arm Quilting Machine. 2000. 18 Mar 2008 ]

The quickness and ease with which a quilter can have a quilt top finished by a longarm quilter has caused an increase in recent years for quilting. These machines allow quilters to have their pieces finished without going through the time-consuming process associated with normal machine quilting or hand quilting.Sewers can now take their finished quilt tops to professional longarm quilting businesses and pay a small fee to have their quilt produced by a long-arm quilter. This has also helped to create a surge in the quilting business and an overall increase in interest in quilting as an art form.

Equipment

The longarm quilting machine comes equipped with a sewing machine head, a worktable, several fabric rollers, and a metal frame. The overall dimensions of the machine can range from ten to fourteen feet in length by two-and-a-half to four feet in depth. The machine comes equipped with a table region. The table size can range from ten to fourteen feet in length. Larger table sizes can accommodate up to king sized quilts. Typically, the table contains a flat region on which a layer of thin, clear plastic lies, in which patterns and other designs to follow can be placed."Compare Quilting Machines." American Professional Quilting Machines. 2008. APQS. 18 Mar 2008 .]

The sewing machine head is large and made of industrial strength metal. It can be either hand-guided or computer guided, with controls to guide the machine on both sides in either instance. For a full range of movement, the sewing machine head is placed on wheels that run on metal tracks along the frame of the machine. The sewing machine head can also come with a laser pointer, which can be used to guide the quilter along patterns placed underneath the clear plastic region of the table. The hand-guided machine head contains handles onto which the quilter can guide the machine along the fabric to sew the design of choice. The computer-guided machine head is hooked up to a computer system that allows the quilter to choose the design of choice to be sewn onto the fabrics. With the push of a button on the computer's keyboard, the longarm sewing machine will sew the chosen design onto the quilt without any physical assistance by the longarm quilter.

The frame of the machine consists of several rolling bars onto which layers of the quilt are placed. On one side of the machine, two rollers, known as the feeder bars, are present with a muslin leader onto which the backing and the quilt top can be attached. Material is attached by sewing pins or sewing zippers to the muslin leaders and then the material is stretched tight over the belly bar, which ensures that the layered material is smooth and taut according to the sewers’ desires.

The backing of the quilt is attached by sewing pins or zippers to a third roller, known as the “take-up” roller. The take-up roller is the region onto which the quilted regions can be moved to allow the quilter to gain access to a new region of quilt top. The backing, quilt top, and batting are commonly basted together by a single-row of stitching, but can also be pinned together onto the muslin leader on the take-up roller. The stretched region of fabric that spans between the take-up roller and the feeder rollers is the area over which the fabric layers are actually sewn together into the finished product. The longarm quilting machine typically comes with electronic controls that allow the user to adjust the fabric that spans the area over which the machine runs.

Types of longarm quilting

The two major styles of quilting typically done by longarm quilting machines are pantograph designs and custom work.

Pantograph designs

A pantograph is a long design that spans the length of the longarm table. The longarm quilter will take the pantograph design and place it beneath the plastic layer on the table and then trace this design using the laser found on their machine head. The design typically spans the length of the quilt and can be repeated in rows to produce an all-over design on the quilt top. This method of longarm machine quilting is popular due to the minimal amount of work required by the longarm quilter.

Custom work

Custom work is done when the sewer wishes for the quilt blocks to contain individual designs in each block or area of the quilt. This method is typically more time-consuming for the longarm quilter and is a more expensive method to having your piece quilted. Depending on the type of quilting work desired by the customer, the process can require additional time and resources for the longarm quilter. Some sewing styles, like meandering, which entails an all over fill-in design, require less attention to detail and can be done quickly. Other styles and designs, like feathers and motifs, require the longarm quilter to pay more attention to details and alignment and therefore can be time-consuming and costly designs.

Manufactures of longarm quilting machines

Ten major companies in Northern America currently manufacture and sell longarm quilting machines. Similar to models of cars, longarm sewing machines come in all different types and sizes. Sizes can range from smaller machines that allow the quilter to produce a small baby quilt to large machines that can accommodate sizes larger than a king sized quilt. A longarm sewing machine can typically range in cost from $10,000 to $30,000 with additional features of the machine costing more. Machines are generally hand-guided but can be computer guided through the use of an additional module. Each manufacturer produces different models of longarm quilting machines, with different features and options.Roth, Cindy. "Long Arm Newbie." Long Arm University. 2006. Long Arm University. 18 Mar 2008 ]

Due to the high cost of the machine, there also exist several small business owners that have their own longarm quilting machines and choose to quilt other people’s quilts for a fee. The price to have your quilt sewn together by a longarm quilter can vary depending on the type of quilting requested, the size of the quilt, and the expertise of the longarm quilter.

ee also

* Quilts
* Quilting
* Sewing Machine

References