(set: $handmade to 0)(set: $handed to 0)
''The Longarm''
The quilt top is pieced. Every block is yours: the t-shirts from old conventions, the squares you cut on the kitchen floor, the seam you ripped out three times.
Now it has to be quilted, and the longarm is waiting in the corner of the studio.
[[Guide it by hand->Freehand]]
[[Load a pantograph and let it run->Pantograph]](set: $handmade to it + 1)
You take the handles. The stitch regulator evens out your speed, but every curve is a decision: a loop here, a feather there, a straight line where the fabric wants to rest.
It is slow. Your shoulders ache.
[[Keep going->Thread Break]]
[[Hand the rest to the machine->Pantograph]](set: $handed to it + 1)
You choose a pattern from the screen: (either: "swirling feathers", "interlocking stars", "a meander", "tiny pixel hearts"). The machine plans its path and begins, edge to edge.
It is fast. It is very even. You watch.
[[Watch the whole time->Thread Break]]
[[Go make tea->Unattended]](set: $handed to it + 1)
When you come back, the thread snapped an hour ago. The machine stitched on without it: a whole row of needle holes and no thread.
Someone has to rip back, rethread, and restart in the right place. The machine does not know it broke.
[[Fix it->Thread Break]]The thread breaks. It always does, sooner or later.
You rethread the needle, find the last good stitch, and (link-reveal: "decide")[ where to begin again].
[[Finish the quilt->Label]]Every quilt gets a label stitched on the back.
(if: $handed is 0)[''Pieced and quilted by hand.'' Nobody asks whether it counts.]
(else-if: $handmade is 0)[''Pieced by you. Quilted by the machine.'' At the guild show, someone asks whether it counts.]
(else:)[''Pieced by you. Quilted by you, and by the machine.'' You are not sure how to divide the credit, so you write both.]
[[What would your label say?->Reflection]]Replace this passage with your own question.
Where did you make a choice? Where did the tool make one for you? Which steps did you want to keep?
[[Start again->Start]]