Quiltingboard Forums

Hi all, Im Rob from Virginia. I've been quilting off and on for a number of years. I started out back in the late 70's early 80's making sculptural quilted wallhangings that started out as flat 4 patch quilts and then gradually the 4 patches became 3 dimensional as they progressed down the wall. Also did a lot of quilt inspired drawings back then. Now I do a variety of quilting and piecing along with decorative stitched wall hangings and mixed media work. Some of the quilts I do use traditional pieced blocks, others are more free form and don't use patterns at all, just depends on what I feel like doing with the fabric I've got. I also do a fair amount of free motion quilting and am currently trying to finish up a bunch of UFOs in my studio. I have three sewing machines: 1. a Brother PC420PRW that I use for decorative stitching, piecing and FMQ. 2. a Brother VX560 mechanical machine I got new back in 1981 that was for many years my main machine for piecing, FMQ and FMembroidery but that is now mainly my backup machine, and 3. a 1955 Singer Featherweight (221) that I found at a junk store a couple of years ago and use for travel--I've got a hand crank for it that I sometimes put on it when I want to use it somewhere where there's no electrical outlets. I'll probably be looking at getting a new (or used but new to me) machine in the next year or so since my biggest machine, the PC420s throat space is only 7 and a half inches which makes it tight for quilting larger quilts.

I'm really glad to have found this board and have been having a lot of fun looking at peoples work spaces on the mission organization forum and looking at the quilts people are making from their stashes. And I've already received helpful advice on the main forum about finding a machine that would better suit my needs than the two that I'm currently using for FMQ. What a great community!