Today was my big day at Quilted Joy http://www.quiltedjoy.com/. I signed up for a class to get certified so that I can rent the machine to finish my quilt tops and future projects.

Kathy was my instructor. She was so nervous to be teaching me, because I was her first student! Yay me, she was very patient and a great teacher. We both learned a ton of good tips from the owner of the shop Angela Huffman. All of the machines were by APQS and they were all on 10′ or 12′ sized frames.

Here I am ready to rock and roll. All of the layers are rolled, basted, and ready to go. These machines are very intimidating and expensive; I highly recommend taking a class somewhere to try them out and practice before investing large sums of money.

This is the paper pattern that sits on the back side of the machine that I decided to use as a guide.  I was following this design by using a laser light that is attached to the handlebars of the machine.

You can see from my first try, the stitches are all over the place.  It was very difficult to follow the pattern with the laser light, it definitely takes practice, practice, practice.

It took me approximately 2 hours to finish stitching this quilt on the machine, so it’s much faster than using a traditional sewing machine. I will be going back and renting time. I want to continue to hone my craft and learn so I can make my mojo magic.