At The Heart Of Quillting

This shop is located in an industrial type area of Beloit down a not very busy road. The first time I drove up I was like What? But inside it has a thriving Longarm Quilting business.
Longarm quilting, you ask, what is that? Well, a very small percentage of people still sew. Then a subset of those people make quilts. From that small sample you have an even smaller group who have HUGE 12 or 14 foot long tables which have heavy duty big old industrial type machines on wheels mounted on those tables. That group of people are Longarm quilters, yours truly belongs to this miniscule subset of American society. These machines do the stitching which combines the pieced top, the batting and the back of quilts. These machines cost about the same amount as a brand new Aveo and go up from there. Completely crazy! But it’s my hobby so I think of it like a boat or a motorcycle which also cost a lot!
These longarm quilters have by and large, replaced hand quilting which used to be done at Quilting bees. It’s faster and easier on your wrist! Yes, I know it sounds very crazy but those of you reading this review are lucky enough to get a peek behind the curtain of Longarm Quilters’ lives!
I purchased my Gammill brand Longarm from At The Heart of Quilting which was delivered to my home, quite a feat in itself. I then spent two days here in 2010 learning how to use it. I have been slowly getting used to it for the past two years and so I was ready for more knowledge. Lucky for me, At The Heart of Quilting offers retreats for women like moi and we learn more about our machines and get to talk to like minded souls. Plus, we eat a lot of chocolate while we learn. Sweet!
As part of the retreat, we get to buy all kinds of gadgets and tools to make our machines even more clever. Before I left, my husband said «Try not to spend a lot on fabric.» I promised I would not and I didn’t but he forgot to mention gadgets and longarm doo dads. Good thing I only come here every two years!
The training, the retreats, the customer service and the quality of products here are all top notch. My machine has a six year guarantee and once when I was having problems with it I called and Cathy patiently talked me through it and solved my issue completely. Even the delivery was magnificent — it had to enter in pieces through second story french doors and then shimmy over a railing to my sewing loft where it was put together. (When we sell the place, we are throwing in the Longarm!)
If you want to sew or quilt, this is not the shop for you. But if you want to enter the dream world of a Longarm quilter, honey, this is your spot!