MY STORY
I’m Melissa Snyder, and
I’m a Longarm Quilter.
I partner with quilters of all styles and skills to complete their projects with E2E longarm quilting.
Longarm Louise aka Melissa Snyder
When I started quilting in 1998, I would crawl around on the floor and baste my quilts. Then I would finish them with straight line quilting on my domestic sewing machine. I quickly decided, this was NOT for me. I was a very prolific quilt top creator, but didn’t want to “risk” sending my quilt top off for longarm quilting. As a result, the tops kept piling up, and nothing was getting finished. My best friend and quilting buddy purchased a Tin Lizzie longarm and let me borrow her quilting machine. I was hooked! I began saving and daydreaming about a longarm quilting business.
When I first purchased my INNOVA longarm quilting machine in 2014, I practiced and doodled and practiced some more. I even quilted a few with my burgeoning free hand and ruler longarming skills. Later that year, a guild member finished a quilt top that it didn’t turn out how she expected. She asked if I wanted to use the top for quilting practice. Of course I said yes! Apparently she liked my quilting (A LOT) and told several guild members. Before I knew it, I was “longarm quilting for others” as they say.
My First Client Quilt
Pieced by: Lynn Thomas (@lynn.thomas)
Quilting by: Melissa Snyder (@longarmlouise)
Pattern: Park Bench by Jaybird Quilts (@jaybirdquilts)
Fabrics: Sunnyside by Kate Spain for Moda Fabics
Since then, I’ve quilted 500ish quilts, taught a few classes, and won a couple ribbons. I began having shoulder issues from all this, and decided it was time to adjust my methods. I traded in my original machine, and upgraded to an INNOVA M24 with AutoPilot computerized longarm quilting software and Grand Format Embroidery.
First Place in Modern Quilts at Quilters Guild of Indianapolis Show 2017
Second Place in Modern Quilts at Indiana Heritage Quilt Show 2018
Second Place in Lap Quits at Quilters Guild of Indianapolis Show 2019
I still have some of those original quilt tops I pieced during the prolific Y2K era. I finally “risked” having them quilted edge to edge by this great longarmer I know. (*wink, wink* That would be me. LOL) I wish I would have sent them to be finished years ago when they were fresh and new and I was excited about them.
After twenty-ish years, these older tops didn’t really spark joy for me anymore. But, I’m a finisher. I’ve been loading these old tops and they are coming alive again after being quilted. It’s like hugging an old friend, and realizing, “Oh, I’ve missed you.”
Don’t let this happen to you. Hire me (or someone else) to longarm quilt your tops as you piece them, and you will get 20 years of joy from your beautiful creation. However, if you’ve been waiting all this time to finish those UFOs, pull those tops out of the vault, dust them off, get them longarm quilted, and be reunited with an old friend.
