Yesterday, my friend Gret & I went to o2b Quilting and learned how to use the APQS Freedom and Millenium longarm quilting machines.  It was an interesting experience for both of us, and we learned A LOT during the day.  As hard as it was for both of us to admit it, I think the big thing that we learned is that we’re never going to become professional longarm quilters!  Neither of us have any creative or artistic abilities on our own, so doing free motion quilting is out for us! And although I’m going to go back and quilt a ‘Quilts of Valor’ quilt, and possibly another small quilt top of my own, I am totally OK with sending my quilts off to someone else to be quilted.  I figure there’s a reason that they’re the expert, and that I work in an office all day!  Yes, doing it myself would save me money on the quilting itself, but it’s an hour drive each way and it’s several hours of my time, so in the end, I figure it’s a wash.

At the end of the day (after a couple of glasses of wine at Four Daughters Winery), we were both glad we had the experience of the day.  I would encourage others to do it as well.  If nothing else, we learned some things about thread & batting selection, how to piece my backs together (vertical vs horizontal seams), and more.

My first attempt…

Gretchen working away…