family member – Quilting With Care

Well, if you have seen Instagram, we received a few boxes the other day and I asked what you thought they held.

If you guessed a longarm you are correct!

This feels like a dream come true, but even better than that because I never knew I could have this dream.

I was one of those crazies that could walk around a quilt show and then spend hours staring at the longarms, trying each one, looking for my favorite. It wasn’t long until I had my favorite- APQS, Millie, to be more specific.

If you have ever wondered the journey of a newbie longarmer, you are in the right place. I will, of course, continue sewing, sharing, and designing quilts, I will just add in this ginormous tidbit.

I thought I should share a little back story for you.

Several months ago I started sewing at a fabulous quilt shop in Barnsdall, OK (Red Barn Quilting) who is an APQS dealer. Brenda is the owner and such a fabulous person. I started renting from her to learn more, still never in my wildest dreams thinking one would come home in the future. I love learning new things and diving head first.

After spending more time around the APQS machines, watching hours upon hours of videos, and reading hundreds of blogs I was convinced and in love.

My mom is the actual owner, I’m just like the big sister. Monday evening Millie found her way to my parents’ house which is only about 45 minutes from where I live and work. By Tuesday, I was antsy and trying to find any way to get my hands on Miss. Millie. Tuesday after work, my car was pointed north and I was on the way to Millie (Errr I mean my parents).

My mom and I picked up dinner then headed to the house to begin assembling Millie. There were many freak out moments, lots of laughter, and maybe even a few squeals. Once we finished dinner, we gathered the tools listed for assembly.

A quick trip to the neighbor’s house for something we couldn’t find (or really didn’t want to waste any time looking for) and we were ready to go!

The first thing we opened was THE box. The one where lights shoot out, angels sing, and everyone squeals. That box would be the one. It even has notes around the box warning of such things.

A red bow adorned the machine and I was smitten. Even the bow was perfect, not scrunched or flattened—amazing!

Now with the manual and fabulous step by step instructions and pictures we were armed and dangerous. At one point I did compare the process to assembling IKEA furniture but with MUCH BETTER instructions. There are literally pictures of each step, what to do, what each part looks like, close ups, and so much more.

Although there were quite a few pieces (it could have been much, much worse), APQS makes it so user friendly and simple to assemble.

On with the show!

It took us about 4 hours, but if we were trying to, it could probably be assembled a little quicker. We had chatty moments and needed to clean more to make room for Millie.