Recipe for Success - Space in your life. Space in your home. Space in your head.
Recipe for Success in Longarm Quilting
One of my favourite quotes is from "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Sainte Exupery. I first read his beautiful book when I was at school. Later in life, in my mid twenties when I was spending time in Paris on a regular basis I decided to improve my French by reading the French version. When I got to the phrase that had struck me as a child I wrote it down in my journal and I've transcribed it into the front page of every journal since.
In English one translation reads. "It's very simple. It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."
The original French. "Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."
It applies to many things. Sometimes we can persuade ourselves in our head that the reason that we can't do something is for X, Y or Z reason when deep in our heart we know it is because we aren't applying ourselves. But it might be because the situation just isn't right.
In 2019 Pete and I met Bill and Weeks Ringle of Modern Quilt Studio at the Houston Quilt Show. We chatted to them for a while as they are very interesting people and we loved their Modern Quilts style. I've been a big fan for years. Weeks suggested that in order to be creative you need space.
You can apply her proposition to longarming as much as to any creative pursuit. To have SPACE for a longarm you need all of these things -
- Space in your life.
- Space in your home.
- Space in your head.
If all three things don't align you might find that you will struggle to accomplish the things that you aspire to do. The result is dissatisfaction.
For some people their house will never be able to house a longarm. Our UK homes aren't the same as USA ones. Garden rooms are an alternative if you have enough in your garden. If you can get planning permission the benefit is a shape that is customised for you that can be longer than a standard UK or European bedroom without radiators in the wrong place, door that open inwards, eaves that you hit your head on and floors that bow! We have seen them all.
Here are some alternatives that we visited in 2020 and 2021.
Here are some ideas for space in your home..
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| A basement in France that houses an Infinity with Pro-Stitcher |
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| A garden room with heating in winter and cooling in summer. It houses an Infinity with Pro-Stitcher |
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| You can see what a beautiful and inspiring view it has. |
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| The space where we installed a Capri with InSight Table |
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| The outside of the beautiful Capri installation. This customer had spent time in the States and the inspiration of being stateside showed. |
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| Just enough room for a Capri with InSight table and the lovely retriever can keep a watchful eye. |
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| Garages are actually great shapes for Studio 2 frames. This space would be big enough for an Amara. |
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| A modern insulated garden room with enough space for a longarm and sewing machine & design wall. |
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| A Garden Room installation in Scotland. Relaxing after a 12' Studio 2 frame installation! |
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| A loft room installation but with lots of head room. |
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| A beautiful garden room. In this setup the one above is for sewing and for friends to visit. |
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| This one is for the longarm. |
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| A beautiful use of space - an Amara on a Studio 2 Frame. |
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| A large room houses the longarm perfectly and a separate room is for piecing. |
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| A new purpose built longarm and sewing / hobby room. |
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| Planning permission was required for this garden room. There were various options for the orientation of the frame as visitors also will use the room. |
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| The exterior of the garden room which is in a conservation area / listed building |
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| A perfect size room for a longarm. |
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| A professional setup - two longarms. One is a Studio Frame with an Avante. The new one is the Gallery 2 Frame with Forte and Pro-Stitcher for computerised quilting. |
Space in your Head
We can't help you with your personal retirements plans. However, we can recommend that you don't compare your progress to others. As Handi Quilter Ambassador Kelly Cline said on our Handi Quilter Academy in 2018 and regularly reminds quilters on her Facebook group "Comparison is the thief of joy."
I have gone through this process myself and have temporarily moved into the quilting "non creative" group until I can have space in my life. Running a longarm business is time-consuming. I have also been doing wedding photography for a few years pre-Covid (although Covid has put paid to that!). I loved the immediacy, dynamism and emotion of photographing weddings in particular. But, the quilting side has temporarily been limited to quick quilts for grandchildren and small projects.
My creativity buzz comes from talking to our customers and getting pleasure vicariously as I see their progress over the years. I will never forget being at the Houston Quilt Show when Annelize Littlefair took First Place with her Quilt "Nostalgia" in the Traditional Quilt Category in 2019. I felt like a proud parent as her quilt was revealed! She was on our very first Handi Quilter Workshop. She had invested many hours in workshops and education over the years and it had paid off. The depth of detail and skill was incredible. Pete and I had seen it as work in progress and it felt like a world class quilt. We were delighted that she had entered it at the Houston Show.
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| Nostalgia by Annelize Littlefair |
Training and Support
Groups like Longarm Learning Curve (as of 2022 there's one for International and a separate one for UK only to give a more local feel for our UK customers) are a great place to find safe and positive reinforcement.
These particular Facebook groups are for Handi Quilter owners only and we send a link out when customers purchase a machine. There are other groups for if you are assessing whether to purchase a machine. Bear in mind that if you see other groups where people have lots of problems it's probably because those without problems are busily quilting away at home!
If you are looking for objective feedback from existing owners we are very happy to put you in touch with owners. Email us and we can normally find people close to where you live as we have hundreds of Handi Quilter owners throughout the UK and Ireland.
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| Handi Quilter Ambassador Stuart Hillard with his Amara 20" Longarm with Studio 2 Frame |
Technical suggestions on the Facebook Group "Longarm Learning Curve" are appropriate for Handi Quilter machines. Administrators on the International group are Handi Quilter Ambassador and Educator Lynda Jackson and myself, Liz Holpin. Lynda is the admin on the UK group, which has recently been started to create a more personal feel for UK customers. Plus there are many experienced contributors on both groups so that the advice is moderated by educators and engineers.
We always recommend that if customers have purchased a machine from us that they contact Pinhole Quilting directly or the Handi Quilter engineer who installed their machine in the first instance. Our Pinhole Quilting email is monitored on a regular basis, even when we're out of the office.
Workshops and Training
Pinhole Quilting run Foundation Workshops for new customers and provide further education and training opportunities to expand the knowledge of Handi Quilter owners and quilters.
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| Workshops with Handi Quilter Ambassador and Educator Lynda Jackson and Handi Quilter Educator Abigail Sheridan de Graaff and Pinhole Quilting's Liz Holpin |
Looks out for further details of our Open Days in 2022 and sign up our email newsletter to find out more about other events. Subscribe to our Facebook page, Subscribe to our YouTube page and Instagram as these are announced.
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Facebook Live - 11am Saturdays
Most Saturdays at around 11am we do a Facebook Live where we talk about all things Longarm so join us for our weekly chat - we'd love it if you joined us!
Most weeks it's live from our Pershore Quilting Showroom - this was Facebook Live on 8th January 2022.
We did do a Facebook Live on location on 28th January 2022 which you can watch here. It's a bit of a long commute to do it live from Little Cayman every week but it was nice to get some warm weather for a change!
If you have any questions about Longarm Quilting or if you would like to Test Drive a longarm, are interested in seconduser machines or have any other questions please email us at quilt@pinholequilting.co.uk
Liz and Pete from Pinhole Quilting
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