Beth: Lawrence, KS

home based quilter

I started quilting in 2018 when a neighbor in CT taught me how. She had an awesome quilting room with 3-4 sewing machines, and she set me up with the pattern, fabric, batting, thread, machine, etc. I did most of the work at her house and finished sewing at home on my own machine. I had never intended to make an actual quilt, but wanted to make table runners, placemats, etc. In October of 2019 my oldest brother passed away from Cancer after just 3 short months. My sister-in-law started talking about a t-shirt quilt, and I told her I didn’t want anyone else cutting up my brothers t-shirts but me. I made 5 quilts from his t-shirts. One for his wife, daughter, son and 2 grandsons. I had to add new t-shirts with a picture of my brother and the recipient to all of the quilts, and it took me about 18 months or more to make them all, but it was so worth it. The first one was made on my little brother domestic machine with about 5” of throat space. After that I bought a baby Lock machine with 11” of throat space for the 2nd one. That was too much work as well. That’s when I bought my Grace Q’Nique 15 Pro machine, which I used to finish up the remaining 3 quilts. I learned from every single quilt and have done a few more since then. I’m just starting to custom quilt. My feathers are getting better as are some other techniques like stones. I’ve given away all but 1 quilt so far—I really wanted one for myself to snuggle up to while watching tv so I made a 3 yard quilt, which was very quick and easy and finished it with more of a rectangular shaped meandering, to make it look like circuits on a circuit board. As a retired IT Professional, it fit my personality and the fabric. I feel I have outgrown my 15Pro and would really like the 21X elite with the continuum II frame. My problem is space in my sewing room. I would also like to get the QCT5 Pro—I think it will all happen one of these days, but until then, I’m going strong with the 15Pro.

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