August 6, 2023
Dear Friends,
Five hands and a thumb is what it took to get our Avante back in order. Almost hate to tell you about it because I’ve been telling you about how dependable our first longarm machine, our Avante, has been. And still is except for one fixable issue it had.
We bought our Avante back in 2014. In those day, HandiQuilter longarms had fixed handlebars. There was no way to adjust them or re-angle them.
One of the accessory feet you could get, and still can, is called the micro-foot. It is tiny and open-toed, and made for creating free-motion micro-stippling, which was a great way to make some of the negative space on your quilt stand out with pizzazz.
With the fixed handles, you had to lean in real close to watch your stippling, leaving your elbows behind your ears in one of those weightlifters’ poses and you back leaned over at half-mast. More than 15 minutes of this made your back and shoulders feel like you just got off your horse after a 12-hour ride.
To alleviate the problem, HandiQuilter came up with “micro-handles.” We bought a set. These were installed in addition to the regular handles and enabled you to hold your hands down close to the needle. Made for better, easier control and reduced pain. In those days, the Avante also came with a quilt-from-the-back kit installed for using pantographs and groovy boards. Our Avante always had Pro-Stitcher, so we never had use for the pantograph other than just trying out for fun.
One day recently, a girl came into the shop and wanted to learn how use the quilt from the back function and the use of pantographs. That was when Donna discovered the back handles were no longer working. She had to move her pantograph class to the Simply, a 16-inch throat space longarm machine that was working fine.
Next day, I called HandiQuilter tech support about the Avante. They said I needed to ship to them both the front and rear handlebars, along with the C-Pod (the machine’s power supply) because all three of these things were interconnected electronically. Got the parts sent, HandiQuilter did their magic, and three weeks later got them returned. The rear handlebars and C-Pod were simple enough to re-install, but the front handles presented a problem.
You had to hold three items stacked in place and aligned for shoving three bolts down through the three aligned holes to hold things together. After a bit of trying, it was clear I could not do that balancing act alone. The stack went like this: First, the micro-handles bracket, then the Pro-Stitcher tablet mounting bracket, then the heavy-duty front handles unit. Held in place by hand, these all slid out from under each other with the holes refusing to stay in line with only two hands trying to do it all.
“Donna, I could use a hand with this!” She started to assist in keeping everything lined up . . . and now there were no hands left to get the bolts in place through the holes. Donna said, “Kim’s got two hands, maybe she will help.” “Kim, can you give us a hand for a minute?” So Kim came over, held the last piece down with her thumb while deftly wiggling the bolts through their holes and screwed them down with the final hand needed for the job. It was a tricky maneuver, but together we all got it done. Turned the machine on, and wallah (Have to Google to see if that’s a legit word), it worked exactly as it should and as expected.
Yup, this Avante (12-foot frame) has been a really good machine and has a lot of years left in it yet, now that Kim, Donna, and I ganged up on it to get it to fly right. On Saturday, Donna also installed a brand new Pro-Stitcher Tablet with the latest and greatest Pro-Stitcher update. And the good news for you, is we are selling it. It’s a good deal for you because we have always taken care to maintain it properly. We’ve got the thing at an attractive price. If you’re interested in a bargain longarm, this may be just the ticket for you. And as with all our machine customers, we’ll continue the be your service tech for this machine and will keep your machine running for a long time to come.
Chip
