These past two weeks have flown by and I am exhausted. I have not made much progression my projects but I have made small strides towards starting the quilting business.
I went to the Beginning Long Arm Class with Patty Butcher of Katydids Quilting Studio. Tatianna went with me. When we got there Tatianna looked at the other participants, turned to me and said "I am the only one under fifty." She has to put up with me dragging her to all these things and often there is no one her age there. Mostly it is because no twenty five year old can afford a long arm machine. But she is a good sport about it and we have a good time together. The other ladies really liked her as well. I don't think she felt too out of place.
The class was very informative. The first part dealt a lot with setting up a business. The other three women have actually started quilting for other people. They even set up their business licenses and everything. I am not even close to that yet.
Next we talked about batting, thread, needles and bobbins. Patty strongly suggested we have more than one bobbin case. In fact she suggested we have on for each type of bobbin we use. But at the very least we should have a spare. I will need to order one or two. She also went over bobbin tension. She suggested a you tube video about tension. It is done by Jamie Wallen (You-Tube Video). I watched it and I really think it is a good resource. Everyone gets so worked up about tension. If you start out with the right bobbin tension adjusting the top tension will be a breeze.
She had several examples of batting. And talked about the right side (dimples) and wrong side (pimples) of needle punched batting. Most batting is needle punched. Some batting it is easier to tell which is which. Patty gave us a tip for figuring it out. Take a needle and poke it through the batting. The side that it goes through easier is the right side and you want that facing the quilt top.
Patty also showed us several types of thread. I have Superior thread but I have heard good things about Glide and I think I might like to try that. Patty also said she like the thread she got from Connecting Threads. I used live in Vancouver, Washington, not far from the Connecting Threads store. I had been in the store but not for quilting supplies. I wasn't into quilting as much back then. I was doing tole painting at that time. Connecting threads had a sister company called the Artist's Club that sold decorative painting supplies. The two shared a store front at that time. This was over 12 years ago though so I don't know if they are still part of the same business. I have bought from them online though.
Patty also showed us the way she loads a quilt. She uses a snap system on the backing leader and the take up leader. I bought a set for my long arm. I just need to quilt the quilt on it before I can install them.
She also has changed out the tension clamps on her machines. She has OXO clamps on hers. They are much wider. She told us that if we were going to change the clamps out to make sure to get a bigger washer because the holes on the OXO clamps were bigger than the ones on the clamps that came with the machine. As I was wandering through the her studio I saw that Patty already had kits made up to make this change. So needless to say I bought those as well.
Patty showed us some free style quilting and ruler work. She showed us rulers that she felt were a good investment. She told us who made them and where we could buy them. She never once mentioned she had them there in the studio. I, of course, found them. The others also found things they wanted.
Patty was a little surprised that we were buying things. She never once tried to sell us anything. The improvements she made to her machines were not part of the class but we all asked about them. I love going to a class and not getting the hard sell. I also love some of things she had done in her studio set up. It gave me ideas for when I get to build my studio outside the house. That will have to wait a couple of years but I have plans and ideas.
The only down side was, we learned that the QuiltPath camp won't happen until March at the earliest and only if she can get enough women interested. That class is $500.00 dollars and runs over three days. It is however being offered online. I will have to look into that. It may be cheaper doing it online.
All in all it was a good learning experience. I got a lot of good information. I will definitely consider taking more classes. Right now, I am eager to start doing more custom work. I just need to find the time to do it.
Hopefully this week I will get more quilting done and have time to make the improvements to my machine.
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