The Christmas Wreath

In late 1991, during the break between college semesters, I needed something to do. When I saw a quilting magazine with a Log Cabin quilt set to look like a Christmas wreath I was hooked. I took the magazine to the fabric section of the local craft store. If the fabric in the picture was a white background with small red hearts, that's the fabric I choose. If the fabric was a dark green with tiny spots of red, that's what I chose. Who knew the difference between polyester or cotton fabric, if it was the right color, I got it.

Long story short, somehow I cut and stitched this wall hanging then used the stab method to quilt the layers together. During this time my children were in elementary school and one of my sister's friends had a 4 year old son with a rare blood disease. Shortly after I finished the quilt and after a two year struggle, the child died and the family had a fund raiser to donate to Texas Children's Hospital in memory of the little one. I donated the wall hanging to the auction and eventually was told that a family member of the boy's mother purchased the wall hanging and gave it to the mother. I am told that it is part of the family's yearly Christmas decorations. So began my quiltmaking life and all the emotions and memories that comes with the process.

Lots of Tops!

I love making scrap quilt tops…. loads of them! But I also like to finish them so I did a lot of hand quilting in my early quilting career. I longed for and dreamed of buying a quilting machine to stitch my quilt tops together faster. In 1993 my father died. I was an engineer working for a NASA contractor. My father's death made me realize how short life is so in 1994 I decided to quit my job to be at home more with my kids.

My Quilting Machine Line Up

This is where the dates aren't quite as clear. In 1994 or 1995 I discovered a small quilt shop nearby and went to investigate. There in the back room and piled high with bolts of fabric and various quilting supplies and thread was a short arm quilting machine on a 10 foot frame! I asked if it was for sale and the next day it was in my garage. I remember my husband putting it together, looking at my kids and saying "Kids, this is Mom happy!" I was truly in heaven with my little machine with its 8" throat. I got all my tops quilted and finished.

Just about that time, the one and only professional quilter in the area was closing her shop. When word got out that I had a machine, my professional quilting career began. I soon realized that if I was going to run this as a business I needed a more efficient way to work and that meant purchasing a machine with a larger throat. Probably within a year, I purchased a Gammill Premier (18" throat). I was able to trade in my short arm machine to help lower the cost. This was a constant speed machine, no bells or whistles but just having that extra throat space made my business more efficient and profitable.

It Started With "The List"

When I started having access to the internet (who knows when that was) I found "the list" for longarm quilters. I learned so much from these people who had machines like me and were operating professional machine quilting services like me. I was able to contribute much information as well. Mostly I shared things that happened when I made mistakes so I was able to tell people about them and they could avoid making the same ones.

The time now is around 1997. I know this because when my Grandmother died, she left me some money I used to build a small studio in my back yard. When I saved enough money, I was able to upgrade to a larger throat size to make my quilting even more efficient. I sold my Premier within a few days to a wonderful lady whom I still keep in touch with. She used it for many years then sold it to one of her friends around 2008. My next machine was a Gammill Classic (26" throat). I believe this machine had the needle positioner. The needle positioner allows you to raise or lower the needle with the push of a button. Without this feature, you must turn the handwheel several revolutions to get the job done. The needle positioner might seem like something insignificant but this little feature probably saved me about 30 minutes per quilt. With the needle positioner and the larger throat my business soared.

The Book

I found that people new to "the list" asked the same questions so I decided to write down all I learned and publish a book. The book was typed by me, copied at the local copy shop, bound with a plastic comb and sold on the internet.

Stitch Regulation

Now we're in the age of computer quilting and stitch regulation. What a boom this was to our business. One new innovation was the invention of the IntelliStitch by Kasa Engineering Services. This slick product could be retrofitted to your existing machine in about a few hours and I was thrilled with mine. Talk about taking your quilting to the next level! Stitch regulation not only makes your quilting stitches look better but cuts your quilting time way down.

Self publishing my book was a lot of work so I decided to submit a proposal to Martingale Publishing (That Patchwork Place). My first book "Long-arm Machine Quilting: The Complete Guide to Choosing, Using and Maintaining a Long-arm Machine" was published in Spring of 2002. The next year my second book "Professional Machine Quilting: The complete Guide to Running A Successful Quilting Business" was published. This opened many doors for me… many, many doors!

My Giant Printer

At the end of 2003 I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of longarm quilting when I got my Statler Stitcher. I sold my Classic, with the wonderful IntelliStitch, to a neighbor. When my husband saw the quilting machine stitching on its own he said "That's just a giant printer." Well it was much more than that!

For 13 years or more I lived, worked, slept, wrote about, travelled for, taught classes in and ran a shop for quilting. I met countless wonderful people in our business and made friends I still have today. Late in 2005 my kids were out of high school and either in college or starting careers and my husband and I decided to move to a neighboring city, closer to his workplace. At that time I felt completely burned out and decided to make a clean break. I sold my machine to another neighbor, sold all my quilting supplies and returned to engineering.

The Dark Ages and The Renaissance

I found that, after so many years of being self-employed, it couldn't be tied down to a desk. I lasted under a year in engineering and decided to try my hand at real estate. I love real estate and the first year was easy. The next two years were hard. Maybe my heart wasn't in it. People asked me if I missed quilting and at that time I didn't. But as time went on I found myself missing quiltmaking and retreats and teaching and writing about quilting. Mostly I missed the company of other quilters. The last straw was when someone told me they paid $85 for my first book. There is still a place for me in the quilting world and I'm ready to step back in.