
My name is Debbie MacLeod and I live in Island Lake, Alberta, Canada. My blog shares my quilting projects and my website showcases my quilting business. I am excited to be a guest blogger – thanks, Michele, for the opportunity!
I have been piecing quilts since 1990, have been machine quilting my own quilts since 2000, and quilting for others since 2001. My desire to machine quilt came out of not being able to hand-quilt (a skill I deeply admire), so I took a class and discovered that machine quilting was for me. I started quilting for others soon after on my Husqvarna Lily. That machine is a workhorse and has quilted close to 200 projects on it! Of course, the dynamics of quilting on a domestic sewing machine takes its toll on your back, neck and shoulders and I wanted to try a larger machine.
My chance came in 2002 when I started working at a local quilt store on their longarm, a Gamill with Statler Stitcher. I enjoyed the work but found that my creativity was just not being used with a computerized machine. I wanted to quilt my own patterns!! The answer came for me in 2005 when I purchased my HQ16. I could now be as creative as I wanted too!! I love my machine and have been quilting madly ever since.
At first, I only quilted freehand patterns – I just wanted to be free –LOL; however, it soon became apparent to me that if I was quilting for others I would need to offer pantographs – which I now do. For me, quilting is my creative expression and I often piece tops just to quilt them! Many, many times I am figuring out what I am going to quilt before I have chosen the fabrics for my next quilt!
Over the years many people have said to me, "How do you know what to quilt", "What made you chose that design – it looks great", so I thought I would write about choosing quilting designs – either for yourself as a machine quilter, or choosing designs with your longarm quilter.
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