Roxan Bixler
Roxan loving her HQ

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I have been interested in crafts most of my life. I still like to color using fabric instead of crayons. I am an avid counted cross stitcher and decorative painter till 10 years ago discovering quilting. Sewing had been part of life, making Barbie clothes and sewing clothes for 4-H and even double knit leisure suits for DH, ugh! The natural progression was to quilting. Working with texture, color and design plus the history quilting brings…………what could be better? Doing puzzles intrigues me so quilting fit right in adding other favorites such as color, texture and the tactile features fabric provides. Soon after completing the struggle of trying to quilt using my machine I thought there had to be an easier way to accomplish this task and the search was on. Researching the gamut of quilting “helpers” I discovered the Handi Quilter rail system and it was just the ticket. Using my machine and quilting finished tops was very gratifying. But as natural progression took over, more power needed!!! While shopping at “Rising Star” quilts in Watertown SD, a demo HQ Sixteen was set up for a “test drive” and the temptation was more than could be ignored. I was hooked but needed to process the info and chat with DH. He was a bit skeptical but not totally against the idea, aha my foot in the door! Daughter and I were attending a quilting retreat and thank you cell phone, DH called and asked me if I was indeed interested in that big sewing machine deal in Watertown, the guy called and a promotion for free shipping was going on and he needed to know today if I wanted one. Discussion with daughter and DH ensued and a resounding YES was the response, thus I am the proud owner of an HQ Sixteen for 4 years now. I love it! It does what I ask of it and never complains. I especially like to use pantographs and templates. I like the way the machine looks too! We recently moved from the farm into town and the prerequisite for purchasing a home was a room large enough for my HQ and we ended up knocking out a wall to accommodate my machine. Now we are adding on a quilting studio for even more space! I am excited to design a quilting studio from scratch. All in all the HQ Sixteen does what the “big girls” do and takes up less space and the price is right. But never be satisfied, always look to improve, so an HQ18 Avante is starting to call my name!! I’ll have to check it out!

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