There really is a Santa…and his name is Scott. As in my husband Scott. Scott has been working hard making room for a new addition at The Quilted Pineapple. One of Santa’s little helpers left Missouri today to make his delivery Friday. I’ll give you a little hint…it’s not a four legged gift, well it might have four legs on the table, but I do know it has one longarm on it!!! YES, I have an A-1 Elite Longarm Quilting Machine en route to my home as we speak! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it! My feet have hardly hit the ground since I found out the delivery date! I have been dreaming of owning a longarm ever since I laid my eyes on one! Actually, I never knew about longarms until a few years ago when my friend Patti showed my one at a quilt show. I thought everyone either hand quilted or dsm quilted their quilts because that’s what I did. Little did I know!
I have been on a quest trying to find the best longarm for me. It has been a quite a journey with so much research! I asked anyone and everyone who owned a longarm about their machines. Oh and the test driving! I finally narrowed my search down to three machines…
The A-1 Elite. This picture was taken at the very talented studio of Jamie Wallen. His website is worth a visit, if you are not familiar with his work. It’s phenomenal!
The APQS Millenium. This picture was taken at my very good friend Pat’s studio. She has been a mentor to me.
The Gammill. This was taken by my friend Patti at the Gammill dealer. Guess who’s test driving the Gammill?? Patti joined me on a one day, 12 hour longarm marathon test drive! Thanks for all your patience, Patti!
All three of them were amazing machines, but the A-1 was the machine for me. The A-1 was my favorite right off the bat. I made sure to really test drive the others just to make sure. Trust me, I tried to look for every reason not to love the A-1, but I kept going back to it. I just really bonded with the machine and with Jamie. One thing I repeatedly heard from LA owners was “make sure you have a good dealer, a dealer you like and a dealer you can trust.” Well, I definitely found that with Jamie. Scott came with me to Jamie’s studio to support me with my final decision. Jamie’s studio is super cool! It’s in downtown Kalamazoo MI located in the old Gibson Guitar Factory. Gibson guitars used to be made in Kalamazoo before they moved the company to Tennessee. I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life and never knew that! Who knew?
When I go back, I’m going to take lots more pictures! We spent 3 HOURS with Jamie that day! We had such a good time there. Scott was very impressed with not only the A-1, but also with Jamie. It has been so wonderful that Scott has been so supportive. With Scott 150% on board, I called Jamie later that day to tell him to put the order in! Jamie is coming the beginning of January for a 2 day “set-up and train me” on the machine. It’s just too busy right now to try and do all the set-up and training now. January, February and March are my downtime, which is a welcome change from the November/December season! That will give me tons of time to practice every day on my new machine! 🙂 I’ve been saving quite a few of my own tops to practice on. I plan on quilting for others soon! I’ve already had several ladies contact me. I’m so excited!! Hopefully, soon I’ll be posting pictures of my new quilting skills!
