Quilting Dream Come True: I Bought a Longarm!

It's been a dream of mine to have a longarm for a couple years now. I first put it on my goal list for 2017, then again on my goals for 2018. Honestly, it was much more dream than goal though. However, once this year started, it became clear that a longarm needed to become a priority.

I made 52 quilts last year, and am on track to far surpass that this year. I am often making quilts for magazines, fabric companies, and other clients on very tight deadlines that don't allow time to send the quilt to a longarmer. A few months back, I learned I would have just that type of situation in June/July. I was going to need to make a queen sized quilt start to finish within about a two-week turnaround time. This would be the largest quilt I've made on such a short deadline. I knew my Juki *could* quilt it, but the time it would take and the frustration it would cause just didn't make sense. I began a serious search for a longarm solution.

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I started by trying to find a place locally that I could rent longarm time. Nope.

I tried finding someone locally that could custom quilt it on my deadline. Not in my budget.

I tried to justify doing it on my Juki. Bad idea.

So I went to the internet in search of a longarm. Within just a few days, one was listed on the Facebook Marketplace near me. My husband did not think it was a good choice.

The very next day, another one was listed on Facebook Marketplace. It was a deal too good to be true. Instead of talking me out of it, my husband said, "If you can make room for it, you can get it." I immediately got a tape measure, starting rearranging our basement, and called the seller.

Within a few days, we rented a trailer and made the two-hour drive to get it.

On the way home, we had to drive through torrential rains. Once home, the trailer got stuck in our gravel driveway - about 100 feet from our house. We had to haul each piece in the rain from the driveway into the house (all while I was about 28 weeks pregnant!). Once inside, we had to use fans, dehumidifiers, and towels to attempt to dry all the pieces. We had to call the neighbor to come over with his tractor to get the trailer unstuck from the driveway. It was not a good start!

Once dried, we reassembled the longarm in our basement. There was dirt in the tracks and the canvas leaders were no longer straight. I began to worry that my "too good to be true" deal might actually have been a terrible decision.

I made a trip to the store to get a paintbrush and Expo wipeoff board cleaner. The tracks cleaned up amazingly well!

I rolled and unrolled and rolled and unrolled the canvas leaders. I pulled and stretched them several times to attempt to get them straight again. Within a couple days, they rolled completely straight on the rollers.

I cleaned and cleaned and oiled the machine.

I pulled out one of my charity quilts that was waiting to be quilted for the first test run. I loaded the quilt, but left the thread and all settings on the machine just like the seller had left it. I held my breath and began quilting. It worked fabulously!!

I unloaded the quilt and then tried another. And another. Each time, the quilting was perfect.

I kept myself from getting too excited though, as I REALLY wanted to be able to quilt with Aurifil 50wt thread on the machine.

I decided it was time to invest in some repairs and upgrades. I bought a new bobbin case spring, titanium needles, track wax, and Red Snappers.

While waiting on the shipment to arrive, it was time to make the queen-sized quilt with a two-week deadline. Once the quilt top was finished, I didn't have time to stew over whether or not the longarm would work. I just had to jump in with both feet!

I installed the Red Snappers, applied the track wax, replaced the bobbin spring, and put in a new needle. I threaded the machine with Aurifil 50wt and loaded another charity quilt. A couple of minor tension adjustments was all it needed, and it quilted beautifully! With Aurifil 50wt!!

In order to use my 50wt spools, I had to use a cone over the cone holder, then a crayon to hold the spool on top of that. As Tim Gunn would say, "Make it work!"

I loaded a deadline quilt (still a secret that I can't share yet!) and free motioned an all over swirl design with Aurifil 50wt. It worked perfectly!

Then I loaded the big one. It was going to require multiple thread colors and custom quilting that I had not practiced on anything but paper before. The quilting was very time consuming. But the longarm handled it like a pro! I can not show you this quilt yet either, but I'm so giddy over the quilting!

Now it was time to celebrate!!

Right after finishing the big deadline quilt, we moved across the state. The longarm is assembled again in our new home and already back to work. It's sewing just as perfectly as it did before!

I'm so excited for all the options a longarm provides!

My longarm is a 24" 1989 Gammill on a 14' table. It has no bells or whistles. It does not have a stitch regulator, can not accommodate ruler quilting, does not have channel locks, and the foot can not be changed.

But. I got a fantastic deal on it, I am learning to work within it's limitations (and find ways around them!), and I know we will create many (many!) beautiful quilts together!

But now I need your help!

1. My machine needs a name! I want something clever and creative (like The Green Apricot's "Juan the Gammill Camel"). Do you have any ideas?? Do you name your sewing machines? What are their names? Maybe it will spark an idea for me!

And 2. What accessories are must haves? What tricks do you know? (I already have Red Snappers and magnet bars from Harbor Freight.)

Now that my longarm dream has come true, I'm going to have to come up with a new big dream/goal for 2019!


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