It’s noon and a hungry quilter has decided not to eat lunch until her quilt is set up on a longarm machine and the first pass of her tractor quilt has been quilted. She starts the setup: pin, roll, (that was wrong) unpin, unroll, repin, reroll. She gets the back on the machine and is ready to quilt when she realizes the setup on the back is wrong; she retracts and repeats her previous steps: unpin, unroll, unpin, re-pin, roll, re-pin. But this is when her plan starts to unravel. With the backside of the quilt once again placed on the machine, she notices that she has totally missed one bar.
![](https://i0.wp.com/brownbirddesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/main_la-1.jpg?resize=962%2C600&ssl=1)
It all became too clear: never quilt on an empty stomach.
I didn’t have lunch that day until 4 p.m. which is around the time the idea for this post was born. Please, my fellow quilters, eat before you quilt on your longarm! To ensure that I don’t experience another four hour quilt setup again, I decided to catalog this longarm tutorial. Hopefully it will help you out as well. Also, I want to give a huge thanks to my big sis from Big Mama Quilts for letting me use her longarm whenever. She spoils me rotten!
![Longarm view from above](https://i0.wp.com/brownbirddesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/longarm.jpg?resize=576%2C396&ssl=1)
Attaching The Quilt Top
![The first step in setting up your quilt on a longarm is adding your quilt top. you see the seams on top](https://i0.wp.com/brownbirddesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/setup1.jpg?resize=576%2C364&ssl=1)
- Find the center of the quilt top and mark it.
- Pin the quilt top to the center of the measured cloth on Bar A.
- Seams will be facing you. Roll up the quilt top.
- You will be able to see the bottom edge of the quilt top and Bar B.
![Roll the quilt to up](https://i0.wp.com/brownbirddesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/setup2.jpg?resize=576%2C100&ssl=1)
Attaching The Quilt Bottom
![Then add the quilt bottom to the longarm](https://i0.wp.com/brownbirddesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/setup3.jpg?resize=576%2C364&ssl=1)
- Find the center of the quilt bottom and mark it.
- Pin the quilt bottom to the center of the measured cloth on Bar B.
- (You will not be able to see the seams when attached to Bar B.)
- When you pin the other back side of the quilt to Bar C, you will be able to see the seams.
- Make sure that the quilt bottom is behind Bar D. Roll up the quilt back attached to Bar B until tight.
![](https://i0.wp.com/brownbirddesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/topview_la.jpg?resize=576%2C352&ssl=1)
Unroll the quilt top just enough to meet the quilt back that is attached to Bar C.
Add the batting between the quilt top and quilt bottom. Then using a basting stitch, sew a straight line on the edge of the quilt top that will attach the quilt top with the batting to the quilt bottom.
The Comments
Michelle
I don’t know how many times I have to fix my setup!!! Awesome post!!!