Suzette German
"Rita" and me

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I started quilting 17 years ago and rapidly progressed from hand quilting to machine quilting to REALLY wanting to move to the next level with a longarm machine. Machine quilting on my sewing machine just left me sore and frustrated. I purchased my Handi-Quilter at Red Hen Fabrics in Marietta, Georgia, and aside from initial cold sweats over the investment, I have never looked back. It was a great purchase. Shannon Baker from Red Hen set up my machine and told me that it needed a name. “Rita” started out in my dining room and now lives proudly in the sewing room that my husband finished upstairs just for Rita and me. Shannon was incredible. She told me that she was included in the Handi-Quilter purchase and gave me her cell phone number with instructions to call anytime I needed her. I called her at home on Sunday afternoons more than once with questions, and she came to my house for updating the software. She instructed and encouraged me along the way. I love free motion quilting and the Handi-Quilter makes it so easy to put the quilting design to fabric.

Rita lives in my sewing room, but she is shared by my three best friends. Our idea of a perfect day is sewing and quilting and giggling the afternoon away. We have made charity quilts, challenge quilts, baby quilts, wedding quilts, holiday quilts, sympathy quilts, graduation quilts, and quilts that have no good reason except fun. Our skills have improved, we are definitely more productive, and because we complete more quilts, we are able to explore techniques and do projects that wouldn’t be accomplished without Rita. The quilts are a happy by-product of the real treasure. Our friendships have deepened during the hours spent with fabric, rotary cutters, sewing machines, and our girl, Rita the Handi-Quilter.

I own the following HQ machines: