A long awaited dream !!!

After many years of dreaming and saving not to mention accummulating tops I purchased a longarm quilting machine.  It's the Handi Quilter HQ18 Avante.

It arrived yesterday and I have already spent a few hours playing with it.  

It took about four hours to be assembled and after a quick demo by the dealer I got some calico and had a bit of a practice.

It's very smooth to move and only requires the lightest touch to stitch.

My daughter (12 years old) also had a play and found it quick easy to use it.

There was no time like the present, so I took the plunge and loaded a 'real' top which I recently completed using my scraps.

It quilted through the many seams without any effort and it looks quite acceptable given the limited experience I have.  But I am under no illusions that many more hours of practice will be required to reach an acceptable level of workmanship. 
I need to increase my thread stock, watch some tutorials, buy some rulers and other gadgets to expand the designs, get to know all the features of the machine and at some stage do a class to pick up experience from other people.

The best thing so far is that I now only have 13 tops to quilt instead of 14 !!!

Keep tuned for more interesting blogposts soon.