Welcome
Welcome to Quilting Plus More (QPM)! This is the start of a new chapter in my business. My business offers free motion custom quilting and digitized edge-to-edge pantograph quilting. I want my site to offer more than quilting services as I want to learn new areas of quilting and share my adventures in quilting and some of my other interests with you. There are so many fantastic artists out there it amazes and thrills me. I want to start pushing myself into uncharted (for me) areas. Stayed tuned, there will be more on that to come. I decided to start a blog to push myself to start branching out and help me to not chicken out which I have a tendency to do. I am going forward….pushing on and putting myself out there to learn new techniques, skills, meet people, share, and learn. While my new adventures take shape, I am planning on sharing some of what I have learned since I began quilting with my longarm and will share quilts that are completed along the way.
When I started longarm quilting, I discovered that the bobbin casing comes out of the machine. Oh really! All I could think about was “I wish Mom was here!” As you can imagine, my learning curve was pretty big. Here is a little background of me as a quilter.
Below is the first quilt I started (2000) and the second quilt I finished in 2008 on my domestic machine.
Below is the second quilt I started (2006 class) and the first quilt I finished in 2007.
I dabbled in quilting during high school, just a couple years ago ;-), with a couple of unfinished projects.
It wasn’t until 2000 that I picked it up again when we moved from the west to east coast. This was my first time on the east coast and not working outside the house, so between sightseeing, raising a school ager with many activities, and home stuff my quilting time took back seat. I took my first quilting class in late 2006 (I couldn’t find the paperwork showing the exact date) and finished that quilt in 2007. I quilted it on my older domestic Kenmore sewing machine (where the drop-in bobbin never needed adjustment, and rarely did the top tension need tweaking) with free motion quilting and straight lines via a walking foot. What fun! I ended up finishing a couple quilts on my domestic machine, but dreamed of owning a longarm!
I would attend quilt shows and have to test every longarm on the show room floor! Sound familiar? Fast forward to 2013, I purchased my first long arm from The Longarm Network, at that time their name was The Virginia Longarm Network. An 18” Innova™ basic machine with PantoVision™ came home! I thought I had died and gone to heaven! I found through trial and error that free motion without PantoVision™ was for me. I quilted many quilts on my 18” Innova™ machine ranging in size and loved that little guy….after I traded it in we dubbed it the Love Bug. Now in my studio is a 26” Innova™ longarm with Lightning Stitch™ and Auto Pilot™ with Mach 3 software. So exciting! I went from 15 inches of throat space to 23 inches…Oh yeah! Holy smokes, I died and went to heaven again! Now, I am working on learning the intricacies of Auto Pilot’s™ Mach 3 software. I am comfortable free motion quilting with my new machine and with the software for edge to edge digitized pantograph quilting. Time for the next level of Mach 3! I am taking classes at Birds of a Feather February 10-12, 2017 to start that process. What is Birds of a Feather you ask? It is a conference hosted by The Longarm Network and sponsored by Innova Quilting Systems that is geared toward many facets of quilting. The conference is open and applicable to those using all types of quilting systems and offers a wide range of classes. You should check it out at http://thelongarmnetwork.com/. Don’t wait too long as classes are filling up fast.
I received a text and phone call in August 2016 from two (2) customers. Surprise, they each entered into the local county fair, unbeknownst to me, a quilt I quilted for them and both quilts won ribbons. A Best In Show and First Place in Free Motion Quilting. Wow, I was thrilled (and speechless) to say the least! These quilts were quilted on my little Love Bug 18” Innova™ basic Longarm. You don’t have to have all the bells and whistles!
Please browse my new website, and let me know what you think. The website is still under construction so content will change. Check out "Our Work" to see some quilts showing some of my latest work. The Flying Geese, Whole Cloth, and the Metro Hoops (pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful) quilts were pieced and quilted by me. The last two (2) I had the privilege to quilt for their owners.
Thank you for visiting and reading my blog. I hope you like it and journey along with me here on the blog and social media.
Happy New Year!
Julie
