Laura's quilt

You can't really see it here but I got Laura started quilting her quilt. She's never used the longarm before so we picked something really simple. This is what I try to teach the new longarm owners.

When you practice on muslin you have 2 things working against you. First, it's boring so it's hard to motivate yourself to quilt on something that's not going to actually be anything. Secondly, and more importantly, you can see every mistake.

When you start quilting it's important to spent time getting comfortable with the machine but you also want to quilt and you can do both!

Laura is quilting easy overlapping wavy lines. The consistent inconsistency makes patterns like this work well. But the thing that really makes it work is the blending thread color. Once this quilt is washed and on the bed you will just see the pretty softness of the colors. No one will be looking at the individual wavy lines. 

It was a great way to get her on the machine and comfortable quilting alone. This is exactly how all new owners should approach quilting. Start simple and add a skill  with each new quilt. Leave the muslin for later when you want to practice a specific motif.