Longarm Kick Butt Session
On Memorial Day weekend Sue and I got a chance to spend a whole day with our friends, Carol and Ken. It was such a nice day! We chat and laugh about every topic you can imagine and maybe even some you can’t. It was also a kick butt longarm session with several new lessons for us thrown in to keep us on our toes. We had seven (7!) items in the “longarm bag” as projects to-be-finished. We completed six of them and used three different pantographs. That’s a new record for us, I think! So, without further ado here are the details and information about what we learned.
First Longarm Kick Butt Project
Well, this is actually two projects. The two car quilts that we made for Dominic and Chase had some leftover layer cake pieces, exactly half (20). One features Hot Wheels while the second one is all about Thomas the Train. Since they are in similar color palettes, we decided to use one 3-yard backing piece for both projects. We never tried anything like this before! Lesson #1 learned.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Fluffy-Clouds_panto.jpeg?resize=413%2C550&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Back-to-back_quilts.jpeg?resize=413%2C550&ssl=1)
The panto we used is called Fluffy Clouds and we used a light blue/baby blue Glide thread. Since the backing is one piece, we could have loaded the quilts either way. We elected to load them the usual way for two reasons: first, that would be a LOT of pining on the leader/end pieces (I think that’s what they’re called), and second, the panto is directional. Sort of, anyway. Clouds can really go in any direction but we wanted the clouds to go across both the Hot Wheels and the Thomas piece.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Hot-Wheels_Thomas.jpeg?resize=550%2C412&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Hot-Thomas-backing.jpeg?resize=550%2C412&ssl=1)
Here we are, after we took it off the longarm. Ken happily popped over for a snapshot. He very nicely didn’t comment that he needed a wide-angle camera. HAHA! We were giggling, as I wanted to point out just how little space we allowed between each piece. In the second picture, you can see the blue we used as the backing for both pieces.
Third Kick Butt Farm Animals
The next project we quilted is the Coloring On the Farm leftover layer cake pieces. Colt received the first quilt from 20 fabrics, and here is the second quilt. I love that we were able to make two car quilts from one layer cake using our Vincent’s Garden free pattern. For this quilt top, we switched to our favorite, good-for-every-purpose gray Glide thread. I also believe we reverted to the “Loop the Loop” panto by Urban Elementz. Why argue with success? We love that design.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Farm-animals-quilted.jpeg?resize=550%2C412&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Farm-backing.jpeg?resize=413%2C550&ssl=1)
For the backing, we had a light green polka dot fabric that we had made a few quilts from many moons ago. MANY moons. The backing piece was generously long but the batting turned out to be a wee bit short. Carol said that wasn’t an issue! After the first row was quilted, she separated the layers and gave the batting a good tug. No holes were formed or anything, but you can just barely see that the batting ended up about an inch longer than the top. It was gently encouraged to grow just a bit in length. Lesson #2
Fourth Kick Butt Dr. Seuss
The Dr. Seuss piece that had been in timeout and thinking about itself for three years has been quilted! Woot woot. This was another quilt top that the batting ended up barely long enough. Sue and I measured it on the design wall and cut the batting to size. I swear we did! But after multiple attempts to make the batting fit, we ended up engaging Lesson #2 to make it work. Good thing we are open to learning, and Carol was such a good teacher. She did remind us that she had batting . . . HA. We didn’t need it.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Seuss-short-batting.jpeg?resize=413%2C550&ssl=1)
We were laughing so hard by the time Ken took the “show-the-backing” photo of Dr. Seuss. It turns out, Carol is too short to be in the middle of Sue and me. All we could see is her laughing eyes. Another one off Millie the longarm, and there is extra backing for the next and last Dr. Seuss quilt.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Seuss-backing.jpeg?resize=413%2C550&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Seuss-backing2.jpeg?resize=413%2C550&ssl=1)
I forgot to mention that we used the gray Glide thread and good ‘ole “Loop the Loop” panto to quilt this project.
Five and Six Longarm Kick Butt Learning
Finally, these two small hexagon toppers taught us the most important lesson of the day. We tried a new-to-us panto called Tannenbaum. I forgot to take a picture but this image is very similar (exact match). The Tannenbaum panto we used had a 2012 date on it. For these two toppers, we used the gray Glide thread and quilted over the batting for which we had plenty! The tree images show up fairly well on the batting, so I thought I’d share how nifty it looks.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Tannenbaum-panto.jpg?resize=514%2C514&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Tannenbaum-quilting-closeup.jpeg?resize=711%2C535&ssl=1)
Lesson #3 came during the advancement of the quilt tops. While the quilting design covers almost 10″, you advance the quilt only 5″. The green and red pictured areas on the image reflect the shadow areas of the panto. It took us a few misstarts to figure out how to pick up the couple of shadow tree shapes that we missed on the first pass.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Reindeer-backing.jpeg?resize=550%2C412&ssl=1)
Another nifty thing about these two toppers is the backing fabric we chose. It has pine trees on it that exactly mimic the shape of the panto! That it has been in our stash for eons is just another bonus. You can almost hear the snap of the whip marking another happy completion. Or two, in this case.
Wise Winnie the Pooh
I’ll leave you with some wise words from Winnie the Pooh. This seems very fitting considering the wonderful day we spent together with such good friends.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Wise-Winnie.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Apple-blossoms.jpg?resize=750%2C500&ssl=1)
I also took a picture of an apple tree in blossom from early May. I just love the delicate blossom leaves and the color palette ranging from white to light pink to darker pink. The yellow and gorgeous green just bring the blossoms into focus, don’t they? God does good work. Until next time, keep the faith and sew on.
♥ ♥ ♥
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What wonderful finishes!!! I wish I could quilt that many in a day!! But soon I am going to load up a bunch of little items on a big backing and just go to town!
It looks like SO much fun to be with Carol! I’m know you are feeling so good after those finishes, and they are really cute. I love that Christmasy panto. Nice work Roseanne and Sue!
Sounds like you have good guides through this learning process!
Wow, way to go ladies!! The pantos look great with the quilts. It’s nice to learn and have fun at the same time! I love my gray Glide thread. I just finished a quilt in winter blues and it looks silver and is perfect for just about any quilt! I always use silver Bottom Line in the bobbin for this thread. Glad you had a fun day!! I love that Pooh meme and the photo of the apple tree in bloom!
what a hoot of a session you three had and amid all the laughter (with a few fits thrown in for good measure I’m sure), you got SO much done! Looks awesome. I love that Christmas tree panto.
Such wonderful projects! I love each of them and can’t believe how much you and Sue are accomplishing! Way to go! Sending hugs!
Oh Winnie the Pooh is so wise. Love all the quilts you got quilted – great feeling of accomplishment I bet. I am rather jealous of the pantographs, they are awesome. Love that you had so many laughs – good for the soul.
It’s fabulous when you can use the same backing with several projects, I do it when I can. I am so happy for you gals that you are really enjoying the longarm process! We can tell you were having a blast by seeing your expressions;) What type of batting are you prefering?
Imagine my surprise to open up my browser and see a wonderful post from you (I’d been laying/lying? in bed this morning thinking of you!) Anyway, you two have been super busy will such interesting projects. Love the pantos you chose and the way you loaded two quilts at the same time. Seeing those happy smiles makes me smile too. Quilting with friends is the best. And what a wonderful guy to snap those photos. And you find some of the best sayings from very great sources to include. Sounds like Memorial Day was a great success. Hugs, my friend.
The quilt projects turned out beautifully! Carol is not only a wonderful friend but a great teacher! Best to keep her around! Sounds like a great day was had with lots of fun and learning…good friends are everything! Love the apple blossom photo…pretty color inspiration! 🙂
Great accomplishments Roseanne! You are so lucky to have a friend with a long arm that teaches you the techniques. It is fun to hear that you enjoy each other. I can almost hear the laughter! Not much happening by me as the end of the school year is extremely busy! Summer will be here soon and I can’t wait!
Wow, beautiful stitching there. I wish I could stitch like that for quilting. Cute quilts and even cuter faces, all so happy. My Sue has a beautiful smile, doesn’t she.
Sounds like a fun day with friends while also getting a lot of quilting done! Really cute quilts, too, Roseanne. Great to see what you’ve been up to!
You guys did great! What a fun group of quilts and lots of binding to do now. The pantos you used were perfect…clouds may be on farm animals in some way shape or form. It is fun when you can quilt a couple of things at once! I have some birthday table runners I will do that way – I hope I have enough backing! Fun to see the smiling happy quilters, learning, quilting and having a lot of laughs!
I think I have almost as much fun reading about your day as you four had enjoying the day! What great progress – so many fun quilts! That apple tree blossom photo would be a great color palette for a quilt . . .
Wow, what progress! I wish I were a mouse in the corner, listening to all that laughter. It’s good for the soul!