My First "Longarm" Machine

To understand this story, you have to know that we don't do debt. We don't even consider buying something if we can't pay for it. I may complain about Vince being a penny pincher but I so much appreciate that he is frugal and we'll never have to worry about paying our bills. We're blessed that Vince has a good job and neither of us are very materialistic. I'd rather do almost anything than go shopping and that includes car shopping, clothes shopping . . just about everything except fabric shopping! But when we moved to Kentucky in 1997, I left behind my longarm quilter, Martha, in Sulphur, Louisiana. I kept making quilt tops and after about a year decided I'd better find a longarm quilter locally. Found one but she only did pantos. Didn't want that. Found another one and she only used poly batting. Didn't want that. What's a girl to do? So, I began looking at that 26 x 28 family room in the basement and thinking how a longarm might fit in there. I didn't have a clue how much they cost at the time but I planned out my most convincing speech for Vince, knowing they weren't cheap and doubting he'd see the use in getting something that size for my hobby. He thought it was a great idea! So, we ordered the info from Gammill, who was really the only name that came to my mind since I knew little about longarms. The packet arrived and oh, those machines looked so nice. They sent a video so we sat down and watched it together. Vince thought it was a pretty neat setup. Then he saw the price. WHAT?? No way. So, he decided we'd find a used machine. At this point, he took over the research and figured out there's a short arm machine and it doesn't cost so much. He suggested I start out with a short arm and see if I like machine quilting. It's a lot of standing, it takes a certain amount of commitment. Ok, sounded reasonable. Then, he called Mr. Murphy, the local sewing machine guru, to see what he recommended. So happens that Mr. Murphy has a used machine in his warehouse and if we want it, we can have it for $500. WHAT?? We've been looking at spending $15,000 or more and we can get one for $500? We'll be right there. So, we hop in the 1986 Ford pickup truck, and go down to Murphy's. This was the ugliest machine I had ever seen. I'm standing there shaking my head NO! Vince says "we'll take it!" I was so upset. The wooden table had vinyl with cigarette burns, it had an on/off switch. No speed control, no front handles. Everything had to be done from the back at full speed. It was NOT what I wanted. Vince wasn't being frugal, he was being cheap and I was not happy. Well, Mr. Engineer came home and took everything apart. I was kinda happy because I figured he'd never get it back together again and I could go back to the original plan for a new longarm. He changed out the vinyl on the table and put a nice black and white remnant that we got for $5 from the floor covering store. He put a speed control so I could go slow or fast or in between. He had his friend who makes stuff make front handles. We figured out that the "wheels" ran on rollers from sliding glass doors so we ordered new rollers. What a difference! It worked and I kinda liked it. I didn't have a lot of quilting space because it was a short arm machine but I had my own machine and it was paid for and I had fun! Eventually friends started to hear that I had a "longarm" and they asked me to quilt for them so Sunshine Quilts was born. Here's a quilt I did for June in Baltimore. She wanted "echo" quilting. Heck, I didn't even know what echo quilting was. Not even sure how I figured it out but it surely came out pretty. This quilt won at the MD State Fair and then I just kept getting more and more contacts. This was in 1998 of 1999 and the business hasn't slacked since then. After a couple of years, I couldn't keep up so I discussed with Vince getting another machine. I had done my research and knew I wanted an APQS Ult. I. I really wanted a Millennium but didn't have the cash. I had been saving $$ from the quilting I had been doing and wasn't going to spend more than I had saved so we found a used Ult. I that APQS had and it came with a warranty. I sold the old short arm and ordered the Ult. I. I used the Ult. I for 2 or 3 years and continued to save some of my quilting income and then, in the spring, 2004, I finally had enough to get the Millennium. So that I wouldn't have to be without a machine for any amount of time, I traded the Ult. I in on the new machine and was able to keep it til the Millennium arrived. And here's the Millennium, quite different from the machine I started with, huh? Judy L.