I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to say that someone else worked on my quilts. I have to do it all myself. Quilting on my DSM gave me a “cramped” feeling. I took a couple of classes in quilting on a DSM, but it didn’t help. I also rented time at a longarm sewing studio, but that didn’t satisfy me either. Then….I got the “bug”. I wanted a longarm machine, but in reality, a midarm would be the perfect fit…not only size, but price. Many hours of investigation and a visit to every booth selling longarm and midarm machines at an International Quilt Festival in Rosemont, IL and I knew it was going to be an HQ16. The Sewing Expo was about to take place that fall in Rosemont, so I trekked down to the show, with one purpose in mind. To buy my HQ16. The vendor was just inside the entrance…prime location! The booth was hopping with interested people, all trying out the HQ16, so I scooped the loop and checked out the other booths, and machines..one more time. Nothing much interested me…I wanted my HQ16! I finally had my opportunity to play with the HQ16 floor model. As soon as I started sewing, my mind went into a quilter’s transe…birds sang, flowers sprung up through the carpeting and the sun shone through the ceiling! Everyone around me disappeared and I was in my own world. A wonderful place indeed! Quilter’s Heaven! Needless to say, my order was placed and my machine arrived about 6 weeks later.
My machine was one of the first models, without stitch regulators. It has taken me some time to find my speed (52, thank you) and although I would love the stitch regulator, I have managed to create an even stitch without one.
Baby (that’s her name) sits proudly in my quilting studio, which is directly off my dining room. She’s so pretty, I don’t mind her being seen by dinner guests. In fact, it very often starts a conversation about her. My quilting has been slow, but steady. I work full-time and am away from home 11 hours each workday, so my quilting time is either on the weekend or sometimes I take a vacation day just to quilt a special project. I’ve made many baby quilts and my grandson has already received 5 quilts in his 5 years! His next one will be a guitar quilt for his big-boy bed. Most of my quilts are wall/art or lap quilts. At this point in time I only have room for a 6’ table to hold Baby and the portable professional frame, so I am limited as to the size of quilt I can load. I love the free-motion side of quilting and prefer the front of the machine to the back/panto-type of quilting. At times I use Golden Threads’ yellow tissue to mark my designs, pin them in place and quilt through them or I use an eraseable pen to mark my designs. My latest quilt is a Kaleidescope quilt made by using Ricky Tims’ method of construction. I have submitted it for possible inclusion in his new Kool Kaleidescope Quilt book.
What does the future hold for me? Hopefully, a room addition and a Fusion with a Studio Frame or a QuilTable, if I have anything to say about it!
Happy Quilting!
Sue

I own the following HQ machine: HQ Sixteen