Deb from New York asked:
Hi Renae, I am in the process of buying a long arm machine and frame. I already have experience with free motion quilting on my sewing machine, so I don't really need too much help with that. My question relates to the DVDs and CDs. How much of this will help me with getting some longarm experience? It appears that the DVDs demonstrate and focus more on the short arm machines, which I already know. I'm sure there are other tips in there as well, but could most of that be gotten from the books? What about the Design Builder Mastery and Skillbuilder Mastery? Do they have class instruction as well or just patterns? I'm just trying to find the best package for me. Thanks~ Deb

Hi Deb,

Given your experience I think the most helpful product would be Design Builder book, CD, and panel.  The panel does not have quilting design printed lines.  The different blocks, borders, sashing, and corner posts allow practice with long arm tools, techniques or free hand.  The book explains some techniques such as laser light, templates, and pantos.  It also gives twelve ideas for quilting each block and ideas for sashings, corner posts and borders.  The CD prints out the designs so they could be used with an upper or lower laser light, Golden Threads/Quilt and Tear paper, traced, or just used as a reference for free hand. 

Skillbuilder Mastery book might be helpful in selecting and creating different designs for squares, triangles, octagons, stars, and borders.  The CD rom prints all the designs on Skillbuilder 1 & 2 panels and in Skillbuilder Mastery book.  

You might also find Feather Fundamentals helpful for learning to quilt different feathers depending on your experience with feathers.  That information is the same for both systems.

Good luck with the long arm. I use both long arm and domestic but I have better control on intricate quilting with my domestic machine.

Renae

I'm excited about the upcoming HMQS class schedule. I'm teaching three different quilting classes on the domestic machine.  My classes are Feather FUNdamentals where we will quilt a table runner "quilt as you go style" with traditional, formal, and free form feathers.

I'll be teaching Introduction to Machine Quilting which does exactly what the name suggests. This class covers the basics to get quilting from pin basting to free motion technique using quilt sandwiches and Skillbuilder 1 practice panel.

Fills with Skill reaches beyond stippling by learning to quilt great fill designs. No marking is necessary this time and we will use Design Builder panel to fill elements, blocks, sashings and borders with a variety of fills. The small colored block is from the top of the quilt and the white is showing the back.

Loretta asked  - Is it possible to remove the printed designs on Skillbuilder panels after quilting the project?

No. The printed lines do not wash out on Skillbuilders. We do not currently have the ability to print both permanent and temporary lines. The purpose of Skillbuilders is practice so one suggestion is to quilt it multiple times with different colored threads.  You can also use a busy print on the back and then make a bag putting Skillbuilder on the inside (see the One Yard Tall Tote pattern in the Free Patterns and Projects tab). Because it is a learning tool, Skillbuilder doesn't have to look perfect and you don't have to keep it!

Thanks for asking,

Renae