cgroark

Agreed. I use zippered leaders and can load a quilt in an hour. I also float my top (unless it is queen or king size) so that saves time.

Jagsd3

Same here....about 45 minutes to an hour. The first time it took a little longer but goes quickly now.

Shelbie

Spending some time with a LA quilter is a valuable experience and one that I would reccommend to any quilter considering buying a midarm or long arm machine set-up. I have a whole new appreciation for our long arm quilters now. I also know now that I don't want to invest in one of these machines and uderstand why they charge what they do. I could never justify the cost of long arm set-up for just my quilts and I've decided that I don't want to do this for a living. I might have wasted a lot of money and been badly disappointed if I hadn't spent a day with Chris.

dmyers

I think with time you'll get faster, just like anything else. I used zipper leaders, but I still pinned my backing to the zippers. I had zippers just incase I had to take the quilt off the frame and when I zipped it back on it was still the same as the first time I put it on.

Ripped on Scotch

I think I have it down to just under an hour for a bigger quilt. But I don't do it that often so that seems like a long time some days but in comparsion to the amount of time it takes to finish it, I love it. I used to hate the pinning and sandwiching so the LA is great I end up with much less issues on the back.

We have the zippered leaders but very rarely take them off... only when we get frusterated with a quilt so we take it off, do a different project and then put it back on to finish it later.

My mom has a quilt on there right now so last weekend I made a baby quilt on my regular machine and it was killer! Oh well, I have 2 more tops ready to go on the rack so I think i have a busy weekend ahead of me.

I have to have 1 done for Monday (it's a guild challenge)

j

Chrismah could you move to AZ, I would like you for a neighbor, the house next door is empty. -- J.

bizybess

Maybe the reason it took so long was because she was teaching you how to do it. There is talking time and demo time. If she was doing it all by herself it would probaly be a much shorter time.

Lori S

Oh.. no I 've got an empty one here by me!! I'll even offer some cooking.

#1piecemaker

I was wondering how long it takes to load one. I guess if it took 2 hours, it would be worth it in the long run; considering it takes me several weeks to quilt one by hand.

azdesertrat

i agree with that!