Beginner Friendly Longarm Quilting

This week, I wanted to slow down a bit and share a beginner-friendly quilt video.  In this video, I quilt a baby quilt panel with really simple outline designs.  But I also wanted to share a second long version video.  This video is 37 minutes long and all in real time with minimal editing, and the sound of the machine with some quiet classical music in the background.

Watch the YouTube Video here

Watch the LONG VERSION here

My client, Sally, really loved this panel and wanted minimal quilting.  This kind of hurt my soul as I love to add more detail, but that's also kind of the fun part about quilting for other people.  I have to bend my personal aesthetic and follow a prompt.  So I outlined the panel blocks and stitched around the characters of the quilt.

Working on panels like this is such great practice for a beginner quilter.  These panels are reasonably priced, and lots of times you can find older style ones for next to nothing in thrift stores or your friend's stash 🤣. 

I love practicing my stitch-in-the-ditch and my outlining skills; even as a professional quilter, it's important to keep these skills sharp.  These panels are such low impact, even with all of the starts and stops I did on this quilt, I only spent about 3 hours quilting it.

In the center part of the panel, I had to add a little bit of ghost quilting (make sure to check out my whole Ghost Quilting Series from earlier this year).  I added some stars to fill in a couple of the more open areas of the quilt panel.  I wish I could have added more quilting, but I was working within pretty tight constraints. 

Here is a before and after.

And finally, the entire quilt altogether.... I really wish I could have added more quilting, but as I said, Sally really wanted this quilt done a certain way. 

The reality is, even if I think this quilt needs more quilting, this was cost-effective for Sally and will still make a really great gift for a baby ❤️💕❤️

Thanks for being here this week.