Quiltingboard Forums - Hello from Orlando, Florida....

Hi everyone. My name is Bobby... I just turned 29 on the 17th of this month and I'm a single guy from Orlando, Florida. I have a small one bedroom apartment that I share with a big fat cat named Jasper. My hobbies are sewing and collecting vacuum cleaners.... I've loved vacuums since I was a kid and I have about 56 machines in my collection. I work two jobs, (one is in timeshare, the other is an overnight security guard), and I've been to college for a few years, but have not finished yet.... I plan to go back for either IT or nursing some day soon....

I've been sewing since I was a teenager. My grandmothers always quilted, and one of the still does, but she believes that hand quilting is the only true quilting... she said there's no love put into it if you do it by machine. I strongly disagree with her! The ONLY reason I started quilting was because I love playing with sewing machines. I had home ec in middle school and loved every second of it... I used to bake a lot as well, but haven't done so in a while as I've been focusing more on sewing. In the early 2000s, I got a job at Sears where I sold vacuums and sewing machines... I already knew all about the vacuums because of my passion for them, but the sewing machines were new to me for the most part. I loved it! I learned what made a quality machine and what good features were....

As I said, when I started quilting, I did it just because I needed something as an excuse to play with the sewing machine and didn't want to get into making clothes or anything like that... Now that I've done a little more quilting (I've got about 7 quilts that I've started and not finished, apparently that is just the way it goes with quilting!), I'm starting to enjoy the entire process from buying fabric to cutting and assembling the quilt.... watching it all come together is really fun. The sewing machine has just become the tool that "glues" everything together rather than the primary reason for doing it as I shift my focus from playing with the machine to actually caring what the final product looks like.

I've done a little paper peicing and I took a quilting class a few years ago at a shop in Orlando... I never finished the top because I wasn't happy with the class (I didn't put the last two borders on).... I thought the class was going to teach technique and it didn't, it just taught how to make the one short stack pattern that the class was about. The teacher didn't show us how to use an acrylic ruler properly... she had a plastic square with slits cut out and had us use that to save time.... she forgot to tell us which line to use to start from when cutting with that tool and half the class including me cut the material wrong.... I spent most of the time showing the ladies in the class how to use their machines.... many of them couldn't even thread their machines or wind a bobbin, and I had so much fun doing that! The teacher didn't have time for that because she was busy helping people cut (wrong!), so I felt like I was really helping out. She had us label or stacks of cut fabric with numbered paper labels... then she got hot flashes and turned on all the ceiliing fans at once and our labels blew all over the place before we had a chance to stick pins in them... I only hope I didn't moon anyone when I bent down to chase mine under the cutting tables.... nobody complained anyway :)

I love sewing machines and notions.... I have two machines and 6 irons, 2 Rowents, an Oliso, a GE, a Sunbeam, and a vintage Univeral travel iron which is really handly for setting up by the machine.

Both of my machines are Brothers, though not the the kind you find at Wal-mart.... I love them each dearly. They are my babies! One is a vintage metal straight stitcher from the early 50s and it's truly a work of art. I never use it, because I'm spoiled by the features on my computerized machine.... I bought a Brother PC-420 as a birthday present to myself when I turned 26 and it's been bliss ever since. Push button thread trimmer, needle threader that works, knee lifter, walking foot, speed control, push button start.... it truly has all the features I need and has been a good performer as well. I know that I can't be a sewing machine snob since I don't have Elna, Pfaff, Bernina, Janome, or Viking, but that's OK for now... me and my humble Brother, we do just fine :) I check Craig's List regularly and if anyone ever sells a high end machine for a good price, I'm going to snap it up. I also want a serger, emobroidery machine, and treadle machine eventually, but not while I'm still living in a one bedroom apartment... I simply haven't the room. Even now I have to sew on the desk in the bedroom... though just moved a folding table and my machine to the middle of the living room because I'm working a big quilt and needed more room and support...

I recently got a few things to help the quilting go a little more smoothly... silicone dots for the ruler that keep it in place and a quarter inch foot with a guide. What a difference they both make!

Anyway, that's a bit about me, perhaps too much :) ... I'm glad to have found you guys. I read and post to another quilting forum every now and then, but I figured you can never have too many quilitng friends. I know there is a guild here in Orlando, but their meetings are always when I am working.