I have been sewing for about 60 years, and quilting off and on for about 40. During those 40 years I have been married to my husband, Alan, and have traveled around the world with the Air Force. My first quilt was mad in Turkey, with scraps of fabric. My second big one in Germany, and so on. Years later we had retired, and gone back to work, when he received a great opportunity to run a frontier Indian hospital in the northern Nevada tier. We moved to a very isolated area and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I was asked to teach some sewing classes, and the ladies all wanted to learn quilting, so I started a sewing group. We made a lot of children's quilt tops. When the time came to quilt them in a group, not very many people wanted to do it, and I didn't have the energy to do them all on my home machine;, though in times past, I have done many that way. Soon our second son out of four announced he was getting married (and would need a king sized wedding quilt), and I knew it wasn't the last wedding quilt to be made. After research, I made the leap, ordered an HQ 16, and promptly turned a bedroom into a quilting room. I started by quilting 23 children's quilts in time for a project Linus meeting and then a queen sized quilt for a Doctor who was moving from the reservation. By the time I got to my son's quilt I had plenty of experience. I have moved twice since then, and continued quilting for many of the Indian ladies, and others throughout Alaska, Idaho, Utah, and California. Now, I have a two car garage, made over into a quilt room, and have just been elected the President of the local quilting guild of about 200 women. I continue to quilt for others and for myself, and love my HQ 16. I had often thought that naming a machine was silly, but have found myself referring to my HQ 16 as a friend, and have just about decided on a name. We now live in a town known in southern California for the second largest collection of power generating wind turbines and in their honor, I will be calling my friend Wendy. Wendy and I have about twelve quilt tops waiting to be worked on in the near future and then on to the Christmas projects!! I do so enjoy quilting and all the friends I make as I participate in the many quilting opportunities.

I own the following HQ machine: HQ Sixteen