Tell Your HQ Story

Historically, quilting has been romanticized but was often used to ease the separation, as a bedding necessity, protection from the elements or even attacks, and even to help slaves escape. As one visits historical sites, quilting is very evident and often gives folks a sense of connection and helps tell a story. One can see how perhaps they were used to sustain the body and spirit as they faced challenges.
For me and my friends, quilting is a hobby to perfect, an escape from reality, and opportunities to give creative and unique gifts to family and friends. The hobby might be a little extreme when you drive more than 1000 miles on a quilt run with a car full of friends collecting fabric and good memories all the way. The hobby has also taken possession of a 20 x 20 bedroom plus walk-in closet which is now fondly called the studio and everyone hangs out. Lastly, the hobby necessitated the purchase of Handi Quilter long arm.
The story actually begins in the mid 90’s when I was first introduced to quilting by a good friend after being a long-time sewer. I found it a great way to use up all those scrapes and at the same time allow me to play with color, designs, and my creative energy. I soon got involved with a bunch of ladies with the same compassion and we formed the “Friday Friends” since that is when we meet. Rain or shine, tired or energetic most of us would show up every other Friday sometimes to only moan and groan about the week, to gleam ideas from the talented members, or just for the social outlet. Through this common interest, we still meet today although we have lost some members and gained new, it is what brings us together. Our passion for quilting is relentless but has led us to greater horizons and the purchase of many items. One such item is the HQ Pro-Stitcher which makes our lives incredibly easier.
It was when we came to the realization that pinning a quilt to shove under our traditional home machines was creating much back pain and minimal completion of quilts that our desire to find an easier way became a necessity. We looked at several machines, talked with fellow quilters who had quilting machines, and spent hours comparing price and features of the different long-arm machines available. It wasn’t till one Halloween shop hop that we meet Richard and realized that the Handi Quilter was now at the top of our list since it was American made, less temperamental, computerized, and of course came with Richard to answer all of our questions.
Well, the whole drive home the girls and I talked about the sales pitch to my husband. We came up with a wonderful list of positives…. such as he wouldn’t have to rub my back or neck anymore after I pulled and tugged a quilt through my Bernina, psychotherapy at home, no more scooting around on our hands and knees as we tried to pin a quilt, and after all the Handi Quilter would do everything and much, much more. So while we were safe in the car, I called my husband and gave him the first pitch which he agreed that it might be a good idea. How much he asked? Well, I took a deep breath and said just a few 0000’s and it would be coming out of my salary. He asked, “Are you sure about this?” to which I replied, I think so. Richard gave me all the facts and information which I will be glad to share when I get home. Well, we all took a deep breath in the car and said, step 1 accomplished.
My, our dream became a reality that January when we purchased the HQ18 Avante. We had the perfect place for it to go, upstairs in what was now being called my quilting studio. All of the best quilting buds where there for the delivery, set-up. It was as if we were giving birth! The excitement was contagious, it was very difficult to be patient while the machine and table got set-up but somehow we managed to stay out of Richard’s way. That night and the next days that followed, we played, experimented, and literally started rummaging through unfinished projects to see what we could finish the fastest and put on the machine. My family thought I had deserted them since we only came down stairs for bits of nourishment and quickly retreat to the studio and the Handi Quilter. It seemed as if we couldn’t get enough! Indeed that is true, we have completed over 70 plus quilts, we are constantly searching for new digitalized patterns, or creating our own, and just love the sense of accomplishment that we have created a one of a kind memory. In fact, we are so often found in my studio, my family has affectionately named it the ‘sweat shop’ which of course as turned into the “Sweat Shop Friends”. The Handi Quilter has brought together lifelong friendship, an endless supply of unique gifts for every occasion, and a world to escape to when the harsh realities of life are too much.

I own the following HQ machines: HQ18 Avante, HQ Pro-Stitcher

I have been a quilter for many years, but having four kids meant little space (or time!) to quilt as much as I wanted. My sewing was relegated to the dining room table or the utility room, and I always had to send my quilts out to be quilted, or struggle to baste, roll and try to quilt on my domestic sewing machine. As the kids have grown and left home, I finally acheived at least a sewing room of my own, but I still felt a quilting machine was out of my reach. In 2005, our daughter moved back in with her three children so that we could help with the kids while she finished nursing school. I packed up my sewing room and compressed two households into one. I had to have a creative outlet of some sort, so I knitted for those years, because setting up a sewing machine was next to impossible. Our daughter earned her BSN late in 2007, and moved out, but by that time my mother was rapidly failing and we moved her in with us. Unfortunately, she broke her hip about 6 weeks after she moved in with us, and had to go to a nursing home. In the meantime, our oldest son needed to move back home in the middle of changing careers, and our second son returned home from his second tour of Iraq. there were no jobs easily available at that time because of the economy, so of course we had him stay with us. Sewing room on hold again! Eventually, jobs were found, careers planned, marriages occured and we are once again empty nesters! I have quite a few friends that sew and quilt, even a couple with quilting machines of their own, so I started looking at their set-ups. One friend in particular had a mid-arm machine and small frame set up in her home. I realized that might be possible for me too. I started looking out for frames, and found one on Craig's List. We took a Saturday and drove to check it out. I ended up buying it thinking I could maybe make my domestic machine work with that particular frame. It took another entire Saturday to re-assemble the frame (thanks to my sweet husband), but what a dissapointment! My domestic machine would probably only allow me to quilt about 2 inches at a time. So, I began looking for a mid-arm machine. I called several sewing machine shops in the area, and most told me they rarely had mid-arm machines for long. I also contacted Pam Barr at the Quilt Depot in Grapevine Texas. She told me she didn't carry used machines, but she sold Handi Quilter machines and also rented time on them. We decided to go there and just look (I still didn't think it was possible for me to have a longarm machine). As soon as I tried just a few stitches on that HQ18 Avante I was hooked! My husband who is in machining and builds prototypes for Bell Helicopter was very impressed with the construction and quality of both the machine and frame. Pam encouraged me to check out every machine brand I could find to make sure I could get the one that "fit" me best. I did do a little more shopping, but the Handi Quilter was just so impressive. I even shopped around on E-Bay a little, but my husband kept telling me "You need to get the "good one"" I haunted the Handi Quilter web site, checking out the videos and all the options. Then I saw the "financing available" button! I was really excited then. We wanted to get all our "toys" ready for retirement while we can. We decided to apply for credit, and the rest as they say is history. I applied, was approved, and ordered the HQ18 Avante as soon as I could. I took off work the day the machine was to arrive. I was so excited! I just kept looking at all the boxes and pinching myself to make sure it wasn't a dream. Pam and Deedee drove to my house (an hour from her studio) on a Thursday, assembled the frame, and set everything up. The following Saturday, Pam trained me, and I went home and got busy. I'm still learning, and I have run out of quilt tops, but I have completed three quilts so far, with the fourth loaded and ready to quilt. I am sold on Handi Quilter's quality, customer support and web site. This has been a great experience from the start, and I am proud to be part of the Handi Quilter family!

I own the following HQ machine: HQ18 Avante

My HQ Story 2011 by Karen Lindley It came! It finally came! Of course I am talking about my new HQ Fusion. Now all I have to do is figure out how to do this thing called quilting... Several years ago, my mother gave me a suitcase filled with Sunbonnet Sue quilt blocks that her mother had made but never finished. I did not know my grandmother, she died before I was born. I had never quilted before so I dutifully kept the quilt blocks and put them in my "Some Day" pile. The local quilt shop, Erica's Craft and Quilting, advertised a beginning quilt class, "How to Make a Quilt from Start to Finish". I enrolled in the class and a passion was unleashed. The result of the class was a blue 9-patch quilt. The actual quilting was done on my sewing machine and done with straight diagonal lines. Effective, but I knew there was so much more. I needed to learn everything I could and I needed to practice and master this new art. I finally felt comfortable enough to begin working on the Sunbonnet Sue's. There were 20 blocks, measuring 12" by 12". I chose to make 3 versions of this wall hanging. A blue version, that I gave to my Mom for Mother's Day, a green version that I gave to my brother, and a yellow version that I kept for myself. What fun it was to pick out the fabric!! I was brave enough to stitch-in-the-ditch and do some stippling on this quilt with my sewing machine. And to think I began on a 1914 treadle sewing machine. I retired from teaching in the spring of 2010. I taught Mathematics at the High School level for 34 years. That fall my sister-in-law (also my best friend) died suddenly. I turned to sewing and quilting as a means of survival and escape. I needed to figure out who I was going to be in my next life. From a lifelong love of mathematics and geometry it was a logical step to piecing quilts. I started taking more classes at Erica's. One class in particular offered a Show-And-Tell session. I brought the Sunbonnet Sue quilt. I had us all in tears when I talked about sewing that quilt and realizing my grandmother was working on these blocks in hopes of a granddaughter and now her granddaughter had finished her UFO for her! And that night I purchased my HQ24 Fusion. I had done some research on-line. HQ offered the most versatility for the home quilter. I dreaded wrestling a bed-sized quilt through my sewing machine and HQ offered a king-size plus frame. I was impressed with the easy way a quilt is loaded onto the frame. The variety of educational videos on the HQ website offer many techniques to become a better quilter. Since quilters are artistic people, it makes sense to tap into their visual learning styles to explain techniques and applications. The video tour of the company showed their dedication to the quilting enthusiast. I came away from the website inspired to make clouds, and feathers, and wreaths, and... I have been quilting non-stop ever since. The "girls" in HQ Club are inundated with photos of my projects. I'm sure some of them are thinking, "Oh no. Not another one already!" I just tell them I am making up for lost time and keep on quilting. I still have a lot to learn, but I am having a wonderful time learning. My Fusion makes quilting so much fun! I get the quilt loaded and sit for a moment imagining the possibilities of what design to put where. Mom was watching me one time and commented, "I can almost see your grandmother and great-grandmother watching you and smiling." And you know what? I smile back , and send a thank you to them (and HQ) for starting me on my way to this wonderful world of quilting.

I own the following HQ machine: HQ24 Fusion

My story really begins with another brand of quilting machine. I bought it from the quilter who quilted my first king size quilt. She was upgrading to a bigger machine and my wonderful husband knew I would love having her machine. But where to put it? Not HIS garage. I decided to fix up the shed on our property and set it up out there. I had used that machine for almost five years when Hubby and I were shopping at Meissner's in Sacramento. He called me over to see the new HQ Sixteen. WOW! We bought it, sold the old one and I have loved using it ever since. My shed is not fancy enough to be called a studio or even a shop but it's a quiet, peaceful place to do what I love. The only interruptions are when I need a potty break or Hubby comes out to admire and check my progress. I have made quilts for our seven grandchildren, neices and nephews, charity and lots of friends. I always charge my friends for the quilts I do because that way they will bring me more. They wouldn't keep me busy doing what I enjoy so much if they thought they were taking advantage of me. It's also nice to be able to support my quilting habit with a little extra cash.

I own the following HQ machine: HQ Sixteen

My HQ Story… Janet Smith My name is Janet Smith. I live in the suburbs of Chicago. I learned to sew when I was about 8 years old. At the time, my father worked in a clothing store in Michigan. One day, a few weeks before Easter, Dad took us to the store and instructed us to pick a dress from a specific rack of clothes. I drifted to a different rack and found a dress that I fell in love with! I wanted it so badly and I was so disappointed that I could not have it. Dad tried very hard to explain that he just could not afford the dress I wanted and in my eight year old mind I just did not understand it, I cried all the way home. Dad sat me down and he encouraged me to learn to sew. “I’ll buy you all the fabric you want!” he told me. Well before long, my sisters and I were all sewing and Mom no longer could get time to use the one sewing machine we had. So he bought a second machine and we had both of them humming while we made clothes. All the while Dad was keeping his promise and buying fabric for us. As a matter of fact, he carried fabric in his business until the day he died, 33 years later! We have always had access to beautiful fabric! I made all of my clothes for many years. When I married and had my children, I bought a Kenmore domestic machine and made all my children clothes. Dad had by then bought a Ben Franklin’s Dime Store and he added lines of fabric and patterns to his store inventory. We struck up a deal. I would make samples for him to put in the window and hang in his store. He would provide the fabric and patterns in my size and the sizes of my children. Before long these clothes were being worn by my children. Then I owned my own home and began making curtains, pillows and home décor items. I used my Kenmore for 23 years very nearly on a weekly basis! In the 1995, after remarrying and finding myself with three stepdaughters, I decided that It was time to look at a new sewing machine. Not for me but for my stepdaughters! I thought I would purchase a basic machine for the girls to learn to sew on. Since they stayed with us regularly, I thought they might enjoy learning to sew. I discovered that sewing machines had really changed and so had the things that people were sewing on them! That Christmas I bought a basic machine for my stepdaughter and a computerized embroidery machine for me! It was at a local fabric shop where I bought MY sewing machine that I discovered quilting. My interest in sewing once again took off like a speeding bullet train. I dabbled with machine embroidery on my domestic machine and eventually bought an industrial embroidery machine and started a small embroidery company. My day time career was in the computer industry and my evenings were spent learning to digitize. While I enjoyed embroidery, I kept drifting back to my quilting. Before long I was using my embroidery machine to quilt when I wasn’t using it to embroider. A few years ago, the company I was working for was closed and I lost my job. While I was unemployed and looking for work, I began to quilt even more. I found myself paying someone else to quilt my big quilts because it was too cumbersome to use my embroidery machine for anything larger than a lap size so I began to look at quilting machines. I went to several machine quilting shows and test drove machines. I would look at the prices and wonder how I could afford them due to my lack of employment. I would test them at the machine shows and dream about the day that I could afford it. I had been steered to the “big boys” by ladies who already had quilting machines. I looked at them …. the Gammill’, A-1’s, Nolting, Innova , APQS and others but I just could not see how I could afford the price tag. I had all but decided on an A-1 when I went to the 2010 Milwaukee Machine Quilting show. I tried the Handi Quilter and then I went back to the A-1 booth. Back to Handi Quilter and back to A-1. I decided at that time that Handi Quilter was the one for me. I also made another decision that day as well. I decided that I would look at gently used machines because of my background. I repaired computer equipment for years and have maintained and fixed my industrial embroidery machine on the rare occasions that it has needed to be fixed in the 11 years that I have owned it. A properly maintained machine will last for a very long time. SO last October I began my search for a gently used sewing machine, a machine that I hoped to be able to pay cash for. It was also important to me that the machine be local to the Midwest so I would not have to worry about shipping. I would drive to pick up my new baby myself! I found the perfect machine in southern Indiana, an HQ Sixteen owned by Kathy Morrison, who was upgrading to a HQ18 Avante with HQ Pro-Stitcher. She was working with Mike Giloman at “The Machine Shop” in Highland, Illinois. He took her machine in as a trade in and I bought it from him. He checked over the machine and in January brought it to me and installed it in my studio. I have named her Lucy and we have had so much fun getting to know each other. I am still practicing on my own pieces and charity quilts. I have several people who are patiently waiting for me to feel comfortable enough to quilt for them. I hope one day to add HQ Pro-Stitcher to my machine since my background is in computers. But it is important for me to learn how to use my machine manually for now. I have so much to learn! I thank my father everyday for teaching me how this hobby can blossom into a life long passion of learning new things. It is a passion which I depend on no matter what is going on around me. I find that when I am sad, if I sew, I will soon feel better. When I am depressed, if I sew, I feel that my spirit is soon lifted again! If I am anxious, when I sew, I am soon calm again. When I am troubled, if I go sew, I will regain my confidence again. When I am happy there is nothing in life that is more fun to than sewing! With this in mind, I have begun my latest new learning journey and I am so happy that Handi Quilter has come along for the ride! Happy Sewing! Jan

I own the following HQ machine: HQ Sixteen