Shirley Norman
Shirley for Ji

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First, I went through long arm curiosity, then long arm envy, and then long arm lust. I visited every website, and read every ad, to see which was the most affordable and had the built in stitch regulator. I had never driven a long arm, and did not make the Paducah pilgrimage this year, but had my friends test drive the long arms there. It was the price difference that made the choice for the HQ18 Avante easy.
I have no delusions of grandeur, and no plans to quilt for others. We have national winners in our quilt guild, and a few others that are quite good. But, I make a LOT of charity quilts and this was my “justification” mantra.
I need classes, but can’t afford them, and I hate the learning curve, but luckily I have a lot of big quilts with busy patterns to practice on.
I have a teen-aged grandson, Reed, who was on a rare visit. He asked me what this machine was. I did not have a quilt loaded at the time. So I asked him to help me load my birthday block quilt I had just finished piecing.
Towards the end of the visit I invited Reed to use the extra side fabric to try a design. I showed him a sample of some leaves on another quilt and he tried that and went to bed. The next morning, he started the complicated pattern he designed on the spot, and I told him he had to finish before his plane left, because I couldn’t duplicate it.
The quilt was special because my friends made the blocks, but now it is a treasure.

I own the following HQ machines:


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