Janet Cunningham

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I love quilts. I love the fabric. I love the challenge of the different patterns. I love the process of making the quilt. And now I love quilting on my HQ Sixteen. I do not know where my love for quilts began, but I know I have always wanted to quilt. The only quilt I remember in our home while I was growing up was a quilt on my grandmother’s iron bed. Years later when my Mother gave me that almost-worn-out quilt, I learned that it was a quilt made by a group of church ladies for my great-grandfather who was a circuit rider minister in the 1800’s. Day-to-day life happens and my time was taken by other activities and I did not make quilts. My first completed quilt was for our teenage son’s new waterbed in 1990. I have been addicted to quilting ever since! Or, I should say at that time I was addicted to piecing the tops of quilts. I began tying my quilts to complete them. Then I progressed to trying to quilt on my sewing machine. And then I began taking my quilt tops to a lady who had a long-arm quilting machine. Wow! That was a machine I wanted! We did not have room in our modest home for a machine that size so I continued to take my quilt tops to her to be quilted. Several years ago we moved to a different home that has a basement family room which has became mostly my quilting/sewing room – and there is room for a quilting machine! When the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo Show came to town, I went to try all the quilting machines. After trying all the different brands and sizes of quilting machines, it was the HQ Sixteen that I wanted. I purchased it that day. The Handi Quilter is so easy to use that it wasn’t long before I was quilting! I could stipple anything! And I could “groove” with my groovy boards! But I was timid about free-hand quilting other than the stippling. My husband encouraged me to go to the Handi Quilter retreats to learn all I could about my new machine. I attended both sessions and learned so much --- thank you Kathi, Cheryl, Hatty, and Vicki for sharing your knowledge! You were all so caring and patient. Stippling, groovy boards, pantographs, rulers, free-hand, trapunto! Wedding quilts, baby quilts, charity quilts, scrappy quilts, doll quilts! Table runners! Quilted vests! Quilting fabric for making tote bags! I can do it all! I can quilt day or night! Did my love of quilts come from those long-ago church ladies who made my great- grandfather’s quilt? Wouldn’t they have loved to have been able to quilt with a Handi Quilter?!

I own the following HQ machine: HQ Sixteen

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