Freddie

Summer 2020. This is the post about how I got Freddie. It ended up more heartfelt than I intended.

Backstory: When I first started quilting, I watched Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting. It was there that I was introduced to longarm quilting machines (and the amazing robotic software). At first, I thought: Fascinating, but who has room for one of those?! Several years later, I jumped into the world of Instagram where I came across people who longarm quilted for a living. I thought that seemed like such an awesome job! I would love to be able to quilt my own quilts with fancy, intricate patterns and help others quilt theirs! It also seemed so much easier than pin basting a quilt and shoving it through a tiny sewing machine!

When I was on a family vacaction one year, we were near an APQS dealer, so we made the trip over to check out the machines! It was fun to get to see these machines, but again I thought: Where would I put one? After a lot more studying and discussion with my parents, I decided this was something I wanted to pursue.

It was just over 2 years to the day from when we visited that shop to when I had a longarm (with software) in my home! (I did manage to find the room for it, haha!)

I feel unbelievably blessed to be able to make this dream a reality. I had put a down payment on a longarm machine, but kept delaying it because it wasn’t the right time. A longarm quilting machine of my own was a dream but I didn’t know when, or if, it could become a reality.

Fast forward, and this year brought some unexpected curves and changes to where I thought I was headed. It’s definitely been a hard year. I learned to trust God more than ever and He has been so faithful to be with me and guide me.

Also backstory: I grew up singing the old hymns like: Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus. The chorus goes like this:

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

It’s so true! It seems like no matter what He’s brought me through - How I've proved Him o'er and o'er (or more like how He’s proved Himself to be trustworthy) - and how much I think I trust Him, there’s always room to trust Him more.

I didn’t expect to pursue my dream of being a full-time longarm quilter this year, but here we are! God brought this about when I least expected it - truly - and I couldn’t have been more surprised, or more thankful!

Freddie arrived on July 17 and my parents and I assembled him that weekend! I kept coming downstairs (where Freddie is) finding it hard to believe I actually had one of these machines in my home! Sometimes it’s still hard to believe! The software for Freddie was delayed, but was finally ready for install in early October!

Since then, I’ve been busying learning - and having fun! There are days when there’s a challenge I can’t figure out and it may leave me frustrated, but 99% of the time, this doesn’t even feel like work because I enjoy it so much! Plus, I like problem-solving and I get alot of time to do that now, haha!

There’s a sign in my studio that says: “So very thankful, forever grateful, unbelievably blessed.” I found it at Hobby Lobby and it couldn’t be more true! May I never forget His faithfulness!

“if we are faithless,
he remains faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.”

2 Timothy 2:13