Longarm Quilting Machine
The most frequent response to hearing about a longarm quilting machine is, what is that? And truthfully, I also had never heard of them until recently and became more intrigued about their function.
My primary impulse in wanting to learn about this machine was increasing my ability to work on larger-scale fabric projects that can be difficult to maneuver on a standard sewing machine. There was also its time-saving potential, as the final step of quilting, an almost finished piece is often also the most time-consuming one. I wanted to know more about these machines and understand their design. I contacted the Fabric Shoppe in Camarillo, California, and set up an afternoon training.
But first, what is a longarm quilting machine? To understand its purpose, it’s probably best to visualize the operational mechanism of standard sewing machines, which evolved over several centuries since the first recorded invention of a mechanical device specifically for sewing in 1755 England. Over the years, the sewing machine has transformed from a foot-operated treadle mechanism to the more complex electrical models that we are familiar with today; the longarm quilting machine is essentially the same concept but with a moveable, computerized sewing head (the “brain” of the sewing machine) and a worktable with a frame and rollers for the fabric that allows the user to move the material to be quilted with increased speed and agility. To picture this further, when you are sewing on a standard sewing machine, the amount of actual depth on the machine bed (the distance from the needle to the inside edge of the unit) will also, by default, determine what the user can sew, as the dimensions of the machines are fixed. Big projects, ones that involve thicker fabric, multiple layers, and wide dimensions, require the sewer to be strategic. By contrast, a longarm quilting machine offers enormous possibilities, as the sewing mechanism itself is moveable and “floats” over the project. As I understand it, the longarm refers to the machine’s reach and its ability to sew a greater expanse of fabric than a typical sewing machine.
To get to Camarillo, I drove west towards the Pacific Ocean through areas rich in agricultural history, past thousands of acres of working ranches and farms, filled with orchards of citrus and avocado. Located at the urban edge of this area, the Fabric Shoppe had their longarm quilting machine located in the back of the store, near smaller tables where customers of all ages were working on various projects. Made by Handi Quilter, a company based in Utah, near Salt Lake, their product brochure logo states “designed by a Quilter, for Quilters,” which sounded good to me. After I got an overview of the machine and was able to identify its different parts, I began by threading the unit and winding the bobbin. Next, I got training on attaching the backing fabric to each of the two rollers, known as feeder bars, using pins (although snaps or zippers are commonly used as well), laying the batting material over that, followed by the quilt top (in my case, scrap fabric), and making a fabric sandwich of sorts. Once those layers were tightly rolled up on the bars, the stretched layers were held tight on the sides with clips to prevent shifting, and I was ready to explore the versatile features of the machine on its computer panel. I went over its basic stich-making capabilities, one by one, and worked with the machine, both fast and then more slowly, to understand the speed and how my gestures affected the stitches as they were sewn below me. While the longarm quilting machine has the ability to sew from side to side, creating super straight stitches, I learned that it can be unlocked from its gears. What does this do? It allows the user to sew freeform, and now I was deep in my artmaking element. The stitching itself became a form of drawing with thread on fabric, and like mark-making, every sewing gesture that my hand made was revealed on the surface, in this case, the fabric and not paper. After playing with that for over an hour, it didn’t take much for me to understand how I could use a longarm quilting machine for yet-unimagined future projects.
All in all, my training confirmed that longarm quilting machines are fast and incredibly innovative. The scale of a project becomes less of a factor, and it’s possible to think in bold and large dimensions, which is super exciting to contemplate. It’s a tool, and one with enormous possibilities. As I drove back towards my studio, I felt that all of my questions had been answered, leaving me with a single new one: when can I get a longarm quilting machine? And, of course I hope that this question will be answered sooner, rather than later!