A longarm quilting machine is a specialized sewing machine system built to join a pieced quilt top, its batting and its backing into a finished quilt in one pass, rather than by hand or on a standard home sewing machine. A complete longarm system typically consists of an industrial-grade sewing machine head, a frame running roughly ten to fourteen feet in length, a table surface under which a pantograph pattern is placed as a guide, and several rollers that hold and advance the three fabric layers as they are stitched. The machine head travels across the mounted layers and can be steered by hand or driven by computer control to stitch a chosen design over the whole quilt. Because the machine works the full width of the quilt in continuous passes, longarm quilting is markedly faster than hand quilting or quilting on a standard machine, and the equipment is used both by home quilters who own a frame and by professional longarm quilters finishing tops made by others.
Facts
Introduced When (Circa) OriginThe idea of a dedicated quilting machine debuted in 1871, following the earlier invention of the sewing machine. The first quilting frame and machine used two bars to move the quilt beneath the machine, and by about 1877 the design had developed into the form now known as a longarm quilting machine. 1 Sources
1. Longarm quilting (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationHistory section, paragraphs 1-2Quote, History section, paragraphs 1-2
The advent of the sewing machine led to an idea known as a “quilting machine,” which made its debut in 1871. The first quilting frame and machine consisted only of two bars that allowed the user to move the quilt and the frame beneath the machine to quilt straight, parallel lines on the fabric. By roughly 1877, the design had been modified, and began to look similar to the design quilters now know as a longarm quilting machine.
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