We have 3 APQS longarm quilting machines here at Creations SewClever, affectionately (well, usually!) known as Sewfee, Sewnya, and Sewnie, the Stitchin’ Sibs.  Each has a story and a personality!  Perhaps you’d like to meet the gals that will be dancing on your quilts!

Sewfee is our oldest girl.  She came to us about 8 years ago, when we were in a different location.  Sewfee is an APQS Ultimate II and we adopted her thinking we’d be happy to just be able to meander and stipple all over our customers’ quilts.  Sewfee immediately made it clear that she had a strong personality and a mind of her own!  Like the little girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead….sometimes Sewfee was very, very good, and sometimes she was horrid!!

Most of the time her attitude was a direct reflection of our place along the learning curve of longarm quilting!  Because of Sewfee we became adept at machine maintenance!  Now our shop manager, Jan, can practically tear her down to the nuts and bolts, and put her back together again.  Sewfee will purr under Jan’s care.  [My job as shop owner is to hold the light and hand stuff to Jan as she operates on our girls!]

After a few years and a few hundred quilts, we made two big decisions.  First, it was time to move our shop to a larger location.  Second, it was time to adopt a sister to keep Sewfee company.  Six years ago we adopted Sewnya, an APQS Millenium longarm machine and Sewfee’s bigger and more elegant sister.  From their first meeting we entered the world of Sibling Rivalry.

To keep piece between these siblings they each had separate “bedrooms” in our new location.  We moved to an old (1800’s) funeral home, our final resting place.  Now we not only had the competition between the stitching sibs to contend with, but we alsew learned we were home to a resident ghost whom we named Sewjourner.  Sewjourner is a man (how did THAT happen?) from the mid-1940’s and he can occasionally keep things quite stirred up.  Put a gentleman ghost on the second floor with these two quilting sisters, and it’s hard to predict what might happen! 

Years passed.  We had our occasional temper-tantrums and emergency surgeries, but all-in-all, Sewfee and Sewnya learned to get along fairly well.  Sewnya, being the more elegant, did all of our custom quilts.  She had to concentrate and hone her skills as she was called to work on the masterpiece quilts that had been brought to the shop for quilting.  Sewfee was content to dance and play on the simple quilts that just asked for meandering or stipple.  Sewjourner generally just annoyed the girls [and amazed the staff] with his infrequent appearances and frequent noises.  We had grown into a big, noisy, happy family.

And then one day, surprise!  A new baby was on the way.  About 4 years ago we adopted baby Sewnie.  Sewnie is another APQS Ultimate II – with One Big Difference!  Sewnie is “the blonde”.  Because her table is blonde wood, compared to the dark wood table of Sewfee, we use that as the excuse for her occasional loopy behavior.  Once a third sibling entered the family, poor Sewfee’s nose was really bent-out-of-joint.  To appease her, and to help with the huge influx of quilts requesting Custom Quilting, Sewfee had elective surgery to add a stitch regulator to her capabilities.  Now she is nearly as grand as Sewnya!  Her specialty is semi-custom quilting, but she is flexible and an over-acheiver (being the oldest!) and will alsew do custom work as well as general meandering and stippling.

If you’re ever able to visit us, [We’re dying to show you around!] we’d love to introduce you to “the girls” and let you watch them in action.  What you’ll immediately recognize is that your quilts are as important to Sewfee, Sewnya, and Sewnee as they are to the rest of the staff here at Creations SewClever!