feline fanatic

Congratulations on your new long arm. I just got an Innova myself and only loaded my very first "real" quilt on it this past week. So far I am pleased with the results.

Here are some things I am doing aside from PPP.

Doodle. Doodle alot! I have a big pad of art paper and pencils and I sit and doodle when watching TV. If I have an idea for a quilt I doodle it out, several times. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much that doodling translates to muscle memory when longarming. A whiteboard and dry erase markers work well too.

Don't be hyper critical of yourself and your newly forming skills. Allow yourself to make mistakes, go outside the line, have wonky feathers or pebbles that are all different sizes and not quite perfect circles. It is quite ok to not have every element perfect and uniform in size.

Do not under-estimate having good lighting!

I did buy some stencils to play with. I find I like them a lot. I have yet to invest in any pantos. I did purchase two ruler templates, a straight ruler and a continuous curve.