Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Teaching a Teen to Longarm

I am blown away by this teen's focus on learning to longarm quilt.  This is Danni.  She just turned 17.  She is entering this quilt in the county fair this year.  Her mom and I have been great friends for years.  Danni will be a high school senior this fall.  I love that the love of quilting continues with this generation.


Danni selected her cat fabrics after she selected her border fabrics.  She selected a aqua/greenish dot backing after she finished the quilt top.  She quilted it using my Circle Lord giant template board called Loopys.  It was a great choice for a beginner.  She caught on how to keep the stylist in the groove very quickly.  Her loops look lovely!



She hardly ever broke a thread.  She had the luck of the bobbins with her.  The bobbin ran out at the end of the quilt EVERY time except for ONE!  Lucky!  It only took her close to eight hours from start to finish.  I'm very excited to see what she does next.


She caught on quickly how to start and stop the thread!  She also caught on quickly when to work from which side of the machine.  She never complained about anything -- not once!


She didn't comment on any of my quilt mess.  I did have some time to sort fabrics while she quilted.  I stayed close, but tried not to micromanage.  Here she is selecting a design board from the treadmill.

See the orange shoe box on the table by the iPhone?  That is where Danni keeps ALL of her fabric!


I did manage to clean off the table and put away my tools.  I organized blue fabrics into three different bins -- light, medium, and dark.  That will help in the future.  I managed to pull out all of the unsorted fabric bags that people gave me and put them all on the table for future sorting.  I hope to take an updated picture this week.  I also put Owen's toys in HIS room (which is arranged similar to this one -- ugh!)  I'm happy to have three tables that I can now utilize.


5 comments:

The Joyful Quilter said...

Way to go, Danni!! Kathy, nice with on the sorting. Keep up the good work!

patty a. said...

Did Danni piece the top too? She looks like she is doing a great job with the quilting! It is so nice of you to mentor her. I can see that there will be more quiltmaking in Danni's future!
It is a big job to sort thru and straighten up your fabrics and supplies. My fabric storage room is a mess right now. I must find the time to straighten it out.

Kathy S. said...

Yes, she pieced the top as well. This is her third year with a quilting project at the fair. The first year was a knotted quilt. Last year she quilted it on a domestic sewing machine. This is the "advanced" category year. She also presents the quilt to the judges vs. the judges just looking at a pile of quilts. Fun, fun! I think she is going to do well! I also see more quilts in her future.

Bonny said...

Yeah for Danni! What a nice person you are to teach her this wonderful hobby she will have for her entire life!

Needled Mom said...

She did a wonderful job on the quilting. I think you have created a lifelong quilter.