About Judy

I began quilting in the early 80's when I came across a little quilt shop in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where we were living (which is also home!). Back then, most all piecing and quilting was done by hand so that's how I learned. I thought using the machine was cheating and I was never going to use the machine on my quilts!

But there were so many quilts that I wanted to make so I figured that if I used the machine to piece them, no one would know . . especially if I hand quilted them. The pile of unquilted tops began to grow and by the early 90's, I'd been quilting about 10 years and even though I had worked full time outside the home during some of that time, it was obvious that I was never going to get all my tops hand quilted. Martha Vincent lived near me in Sulphur, Louisiana and she was an excellent machine quilter and I had her quilt a few of my tops.

In 1997, we moved to Kentucky and I no longer worked outside the home at all. Then the pile of tops really began to grow. I began looking for a machine quilter and didn't find a perfect match. One that I found only did pantos and I had quite a few quilts that I didn't want quilted with a pantograph. One that I found only used poly batting and I didn't want that either. What's a quilter to do?

I explained to my husband that I needed a longarm, which sounded like a fine idea to him, until he heard how much they cost. He began looking for a used machine and oh, goodness . . he found a very used machine. I was pretty sad about this find but Vince was thrilled. It was cheap! He added the front handles and a speed control (because it only had on and off when we got it) and I used it for two years. Looking back, I don't know how I did it but I did.

Through the years, I've had a couple of machines but I now have an APQS Millennium, which I love. Quilting is my passion and I love designing, piecing and quilting.

My favorite type of piecing is traditional, nine patch type blocks and my favorite type quilting is feathers. I hope I have many years of quilting in my future.