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Leon[_7_]

On 11/24/2013 10:55 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 23 Nov 2013 23:56:36 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 11/23/2013 8:04 PM, Mike Marlow wrote:
Leon wrote:

Thank you Mike, That walnut that I used painted up reeeeel nice. ;~)

But... you didn't use pink, or even yellow...

Yeah that sewing machine was an anniversary present to my wife 9 years
ago this coming spring. In our old house where we had only one room,
the living room, that large enough to set it up she had to set it up
and disassemble it every time she used. The long poles and tracks
all broke down short enough to be stored away. That worked out since
she only used it about 5~6 a year. The machine actually only has one
job, quilting/combining the top, bottom, and middle layers of a quilt.
Before getting this machine sewing those sections together, with a
regular sewing machine, was a 2 day event for each quilt, with the
long arm machine it is a 2~3 hour event for a king size.

I showed my wife the picture and she knew immediately what it was and went
on to talk about how expensive it is to have someone with one of these do a
quilt for you. My wife makes quilts but she does it the hard way on her
Janome (sp?) that I bought her for Christmas a few years ago. Days - yes...
and more than just a couple.

My wife charges 1 1/2 to 2 cents per square inch to quilt a presewed top
and bottom. I think that is way too cheap IMHO, A king sized quilt
goes for $150 to $200 depending on the details of the stitch pattern.

That does seem cheap. SWMBO paid $1600 for our quilt six or seven
years ago. Quilts aren't cheap and that's a significant part of the
work.

The prices I mentioned are strictly for the mating of three main
sections of the quilt. While that is a pretty tedious and time
consuming job on a regular sized stationary sewing machine it only takes
a few hours to do on the long arm machine. The tops however can take
even longer and are only assembled with a regular style sewing machine.
Tops can take weeks to cut out and assemble. That is not so boring as
doing the actual quilting of the three sections but must be carefully
cut out and assembled. My wife makes quilts from start to finish while
many quilters will simply put together the tops and bottoms and hire
some like my wife to do the mating of the layers.

Now get this. My wife's long arm machine is pretty basic, strictly
manual, although it does have an expensive option that controls the
stitch speed according to how fast you are moving the machine. The
needle moves faster when you move fast and slows when your movements
slow for curves or what ever. She can up grad this machine so that it
is completely computerized and the machine moves and sews the pattern
selected by itself. These robot type machines range in price from
$15K~$50k. 8 years ago I paid about $7k of her machine with the $1500
stitch regulator option.

I thought it was cool 'cause it looked like a machine. A real machine.
Chrome rails, sitting on a nicely painted walnut base, and in a room clearly
designed for just that purpose. Even a guy can appreciate what yer wife has
there.

It is a machine alright... heavy. FWIW I also designed and built the
unfinished rails and leveling system that the tracks are attached to.
The tracks are white. The rails and track had to be broken down and
reassembled each time she used it at out other house. No more of that
fortunately

Ah, so you didn't do it for her. ;-)

LOL. She, my son, and I would set it up and break it down. I built a
special cabinet to house the machine, the poles which broke down into 12
pieces, the end brackets and carriage and a ton of other stuff. The
fold up tables went under beds, behind beds, the tracks went into
closets....

We got to where we could assemble and level the tracks in about 15~20
minutes start to finish. I don't miss those days, it went up in the
living room and stayed there 2~5 days and it totally blocked the TV. ;~(