How to use a Longarm Quilting Machine

hi there and welcome to Sparrow studios my name is Brady Sparrow and my husband Matt and I own this 3,000 square foot studio where we sell service and rent a pqs long arm quilting machines over the past four years we have taught hundreds of quilters how to use a long arm to finish their quilts today I'm going to demonstrate that process for you so let's get started so the first thing you need to do is to lay out all three of your layers to ensure that everything is going to fit there's nothing more frustrating than getting to the bottom of your quilts and realizing that your backing was not large enough or your batting so what you are looking for to begin is that your backing fabric is four inches bigger than your quilt top on all four sides next you want to make sure that your batting is a minimum of two inches bigger than your quilt top on all four sides so you're going to lay it out just as if you were basing it but there's no pins going to be involved so you want your backing but the right side down you want your batting to be next making sure that it's right side up and on top of it all you're gonna lay out your quilt top right side up now I can hear you thinking how do I determine if my batting is right side up most batting's are manufactured through a process called needle punching and we want our needle to go through in the same direction that there is did so what I'm looking for on the right side are dimples or needle holes where I can see that the needles have entered into the batting on the wrong side of the batting I'm gonna feel little nubs bumps I call them pimples so when I'm laying out my batting I'm making sure that my dimples are up and that my pimples are down I'm hiding those pimples just like when I was a teenager so now I can see that all three of my later layers are in fact gonna all fit together and the next thing I want to consider actually should probably consider this prior to doing anything is your backing fabric if it needs to be pieced you want to use a horizontal seam a horizontal seam is going to roll onto the roller in a single turn versus a perpendicular seam which is going to roll on and create a thickness at the center of your quilt which will create a fluttery edge so if we've got that horizontal seam it'll just roll on a little bit smoother I'm not saying you cannot use the other alternative but we'll just get slightly better or easier results if we do a horizontal if you like to use minke for your backings you want to ensure that the stretch of that minke is gonna run right to left if you load it front to back you're gonna distort that minke throughout the process of quilting your quilt there's nothing you can do to avoid it so do your best to load the stretch right to left my favorite batting to use is hobbes 80/20 it's very durable it does not stretch or pull apart easily so it takes a bit of abuse when I'm loading it onto the frame I can do it quickly and it will maintain its shape if you use a cotton batting you'll probably find that it's a bit more linty so you'll want to clean out your bobbin case more frequently you'll also want to stitch closer together with a cotton batting as it tends to lose its loft and migrate out to the stitching lines after wear and tear and laundering so just some factors to keep in mind now I'm going to show you how to fold your quilt up either for storage or for transporting just somewhere where you're gonna rent a long-arm quilting machine or just to your long-arm quilter whatever your end result is going to be so I know that's the top edge of my quilt so what I'm going to do is fold across the width and when I fold across the width I know that I'll unfold across the width when I go to lay load it on to the frame just makes things a little bit easier for myself and I don't have to remember measurements because I immediately followed on my head anyways you see I've folded this to about the width of a hanger and that will allow me to transport it on a hanger or even hang it on a hanger just to keep in my closet I'll set that aside for now next I'm gonna do the exact same thing with my batting again folding to about the width of a hanger and again I can just set that aside if I were actually transporting this quilt I would do the same thing with my backing fabric because I'm not I'm just going to drop this into the frame for now and what I want to tell you about now is something called leader grips it's a quick load system that we use here at sparrow studios and how that works is we've sewn a dowel into the canvas leader and then over top of that we've got a plastic grip that just clamps over top of the dowel and it holds the fabric in place for us it allows me to load a queen-size quilt in a matter of minutes versus pinning which tends to take 45 minutes to an hour plus I'm not gonna pin myself bleed all over my quilt so before I get loading my quilt the first thing I'm going to do actually the first thing I'm going to do is introduce you to the rollers of the machine this front roller is called the quilt backing roller will roll the entire backing on to this one the next one is our quilt top roller we aren't going to use that today this roller here with no canvas on it is the leveler bar and this far back roller is the pickup roller your finished quilt will be entirely rolled on to that once we're finished this process so now what I'm gonna do is lengthen this front roller and I'm gonna bring it around the quilt top roller and back on to itself I like to arrange the dowel so that it's just at the very front of the quilt backing roller and then I'll Lock this blue lever to keep everything from shifting around I'm gonna toss my quilt back over the back of the freight and I'm gonna bring the front edge about an inch past the dowel these are my leader grips it's just a player clear plastic channel and how I like to attach this as I Center it with my right hand so that I'm sure it's over the dowel properly and then I just start pressing it on with my left hand centering it with my right hand keeps me from cracking the dowels when it's positioned poorly I'll line up this next one or the other one left off and I'll continue my way across until the entire grip has been attached to the dowel once it's on there I'm gonna drop this into the frame and I'll loosen that blue lever and start rolling my quilt backing on to this front roller I'm gonna do a single turn and then I'll smooth out from Center then from there I'll bow I'll stop about every second or third turn and continue to smooth out from Center I'm making sure that it's nicely laid out over the back roller the better I have it laid out back there the better results I'm gonna have up here once that far edge drops down like you just saw it's time to stop and then I'll relock my blue leaver now I need to attach this loose end to my quilt my pickup roller so just like I did at the front I'm gonna lengthen this roller which I've already done and I'm gonna roll it over on top of itself and I'll take that loose edge and put it back up over there now I'm just going to go around to the back so that I can detach the other side what I'm looking for at this point is a nice smooth flat surface I don't want more belly on this side or more belly on this side I can see that it's currently uneven so I want to flatten it all out if I were to take it and purposely skew it even a quarter of an inch I immediately get this funny draping which I do not want so that's another thing to look for once I've got it nice and flat all the way across I'll attach my other grip this time I'm gonna start from the other side but it really doesn't matter just start at one end and make your way across continuing to make sure it stays nice and flat again line up to the last where the other one left off and push it on the entire way then we can drop this into the frame now as you can see I've got quite a bit of slack there that I need to take up so my pickup roller is not controlled by hand I've got a motor at the end of the roller it's called the power fabric advance on a peak us machines and it is controlled with this pedal on the floor I'm hoping you can see that there's a green and a white pedal the green is gonna roll my quilt forward the white brings it back towards me so right now I'm gonna use green and pick up all that slack I want to take that dowel and leader grip just past the leveler bar because the dowel is quite thick it will hinder the movement of the Machine and interrupt the fluidity of my design which I do not want so I take it right out of the way and you can see immediately where my four inches of extra fabric has gone at the top now that this is nice and flat I'm ready to load my batting so when I loaded my backing on I threw the back of the bulk of it all the way to the back this time I'm keeping the bulk at the front and because I prepared this by folding earlier I know I just have to open it up across the width my goal at this point is to give myself about three no two-finger wits worth of space at the top so again that's two finger widths worth of space between the top of the batting and the white level or bar once I've got that fairly straight I'm gonna smooth along the front a little bit of static electricity helps me keep things keep things in place then I'm gonna grab this top edge and I'm accordion folding it towards myself and I'm gonna jam that under this bar jam it right under the quilt top roller you'll see my precise two finger measurement brings my batting right up to my leveler bar and I'm gonna smooth that out and now I'm ready for the quilt top again I'm gonna keep the bulk at the front and again I'm unfolding across the width I'm going to Center this over my back and I go to three finger widths on either side and I'm happy with that at the top I also want three finger widths between the quilt top and the white leveler bar and once more I'm going to smooth along the front roller and accordion fold the quilt top towards myself and stuff it under that quilt backing roller

Channel: Sparrow Quilt Co.

Views: 221,951

Rating: 4.8263059 out of 5

Keywords: PANTO CLASS, apqs longarm, apqs, sparrowstudioz, sparrow studioz, longarm rental, pantograph, stitch regulator, loading a quilt, bobbin thread, bobbins, Pop-Up Longarm Rental, Longarm Quilting, prepare a quilt, advance a quilt, stitch a pantopraph, Machine Quilting

Id: pEGU_3KhgO8

Length: 14min 20sec (860 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 01 2015