Baby girl was born today!! Finally. I will be delivering the quilt on Sunday.

Thank you! A long arm machine is like a sewing machine that is computer guided and has an arm that stretches over the surface to be quilted, so you can imagine some of them have a very large stitching area, the one in the picture is quite small. The shop I usually use can handle quilts up to 140 inches across. It stitches through the quilt top, batting, and backing. It is much faster than hand quilting. I am patient, but I don't have that much patience to do it by hand. When the quilting is done I will bind the edges and then give it a quick wash. The washing relaxes the fabric, washes out the sizing, and allows the quilting to puff up a bit. Then it is ready for the new baby.

@HippieChick58

That's brilliant! Good to know.

I have always wanted to make a quilt, but lack the patience to sit and hand-sew a million tiny stitches.

This dates back to age five. My grandma taught me to embroider. Sewed all afternoon, a feat for a hyper kid. But when I stood up, I had sewed it to my skirt! Burst into tears.

As an adult, I taught myself to embroider using a book. Had fun making Christmas stockings.

@LiterateHiker I taught myself needlepoint in HS, and counted cross stitch as an adult. I've been sewing since I was big enough to reach the sewing machine. I learned crochet from my mom, and knitting from her sister and a neighbor. I used to make lots of my kids' clothing, and yes matching dresses every few years. I had crocheted Christmas stockings, I think on of the girls has them now.

@LiterateHiker And hand sewing, like in clothing. Nope, that isn't for me. I don't even like hand hemming, but I will do it with clothing where it is necessary. When I made dresses for my girls they often had deep hems with lace or something where the stitching line was. Deep because they kept growing up before out, and the lace or ruffle would hide the machine stitching.

This is actually one of the easiest and quickest of all the quilts I do. I keep coming back to it because it looks so intricate, and yet it is so simple.