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