Friday, April 10, 2026

A Day in the Life of a Longarm Quilter

 Started 'unquilting' a client's quilt yesterday. Now, why am I doing this?

Well.............. I loaded a beautifully pieced quilt top Tuesday morning. The plan, quilt Baptist Fans. Baptist Fans are directional and I knew that.  I spent time looking over the top. Looking for indications of directional piecing. Didn't notice anything ( more on that later). I started quilting the piece on Tuesday afternoon. The design I use I need to relocate after each pass to make sure everything lines up. Worked until about 8 on Tuesday night and then all day on Wednesday. This was really looking good and I was happy.

Thursday morning I started working around 10:00 in the morning. Everything was going great. I was happy and I was more than half way down the quilt.

Sometime around 2 or 3:00 I rolled the quilt and I discovered that I should not be happy. There were some trees.....upside down. Then I saw some baskets, up side down. Remember that I said that Baptist Fans are actually directional?  BUMMER!!! This is not going to work for sure. And, I cannot send this out of my studio like this, so, I called the client. I explained what happened. I offered her a couple of options and told her what I would do if this happened to me. That would be to totally take out all of the quilting, turn the top and requilt the entire top. That is what she told me to do. 

So, I immediately pulled the quilt off of the machine and started the 'unquilting' process. 

That brings me to 6:00 on Friday afternoon. I have worked on this project all day. I still have at least a day of 'unquilting' to do, maybe 2. However, it's time to stop for the day.

I love my job, but there are times that I wish I did not need this income. Then I just laugh at myself and keep on going. After all, this is my fault. Not the quilts or the clients..............Mine.


I'll get back to this tomorrow. As soon as it is 'un-quilted' I'll put it back on the frame, in the right direction, and restart the quilting. 

I really do love my job. :-)

Joyce-One Loose Thread

 


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