Why do I longarm quilt professionally?

So why longarm professionally?  Good question, right?  I think the biggest reason why I decided to longarm quilt professionally, or in other words, quilt quilts for other people, is because I love, love, love longarm quilting and really don't want to make that many tops, or for that matter make to own that many quilts.  Providing a custom longarm service for other people allows me to quilt such a variety of quilts.  You know when you go to a quilt show and look at all those spectacular quilts, that feeling you get . . .  well, that's what I feel when I look at a pieced top and wonder how I should quilt it.  And then when I see it coming together, that's an awesome feeling.  I love that.  

This quilt shown above is a perfect example.  When I first received it, I looked at it and thought . . .  "perfect candidate for an edge to edge design."  And it would have been, but . . . .   I got up my courage and tried something different.  Crossed my fingers and prayed that it would turn out beautifully.  And it did, well, at least I think it did.  That is such a sigh of relief when I unroll it from my longarm rollers and look at the whole top, and smile.  

So, if you're willing to allow me to custom longarm quilt a quilt for you, how about having it done for FREE.  Yes, FREE.  Refer another quilter to me.  If that quilter hires me to quilt for her/him, as a thank you for the referral, I will be happy to quilt a quilt of similar size for you for FREE.  For EVERY quilt I am hired to do, I am happy to quilt another for FREE as a thank you for the referral.

Thank you, Hannelore

Stitches of Kindness

Stitches of Kindness is a local organization here in the Traverse City, MI area.  It is such an awesome organization.  Many of you know it's founder, Lin Alessio.  She does an awesome job with this goup.  

Did you know that they just did their yearly dispursement of quilts to local organizations . . . hospice, EMS, North Flight, and more.  They donated about 150 quilts and blankets!!!!  Yes, that's NOT a typo . . .  about 150 quilts and blankets in 1 year!

I've custom longarm quilted a few quilts for them over the past few weeks (the one in the picture above is one of them) and plan on quilting many more.  I'm happy to do this at no charge to them.  If you're in a position to help, or would like to destash fabrics, battings, threads, patterns, etc.  they would be grateful.  Any and all donations, especially batting, would be awesome.  All donations are tax deductible.  Call the Grand Traverse County Senior Center Network at 231-922-4911 if interested in making a donation and/or joining Stitches of Kindness.

Thank you,   Hannelore

I quilted this on a domestic. Free motion quilted. One of many.

While I've been quilting on a longarm for only about a year now, I have been free motion quilting on a domestic for a number of years. 

This quilt is a Jinny Beyer design. I pieced this myself. Then quilted it. It's a queen size. 

Quilting on a domestic taught me much. Patience and control top the list.

I think the biggest difference between quilting on a domestic and quilting on a longarm, is that quilting on a longarm is much faster. I had no idea. For instance, this quilt took me a week to quilt on a domestic. But probably would have only taken about 8 to 10 hours to quilt on the longarm. 

 

It looks like a mess, but let's say it's an organized mess. It's really very do-able. I spray baste all the quilts I do/did on my domestic. And I quilt from the outside in. I know that's different than what other quilters say, but I think that if you're gonna stuff, wad, crumple that sandwich under the throat of your machine, it will do better if that part has already been quilted. I've done a couple dozen quilts like this, very successfully.

 

I did a lot of various feathers on this quilt. Mostly in the black fabric areas in and around the blocks. In the sashings and borders I ourlined the motifs in the border prints. These are all Jinny Beyer fabrics. I love her border prints. And because I think feathers and curves go great together with straight line work, I did some ruler work in one of the black borders. 

This was a fun quilt to make.

It is for sale. Check it our in my etsy shop.