I already share with you that I now have an APQS George quilt machine. I would like to share with you a little bit more about the new guy in my life! (As it turns out, he has MANY brothers if you’re looking…)

George is a handsome guy, let me tell you! He even has some nice scrollwork “tattoos” on him. He has an impressive 20″ throat space, and even with all that room he takes up a very small foot print in the studio. The table he sits in is 24″ x 60″, which is still big enough to support quilts pretty well. I will say that I quilt some bigger quilts, and to make life just a bit easier, I have set an old kitchen table I had in the studio already up behind him to support the weight. I needed the table anyways as it’s also my cutting area. If you only have room for George, rest assured that if you need assistance with the weight of the quilt there is a much less space costing solution. Patsy Thompson has a great post about suspending your quilts.

I also have the interchangeable hopping foot kit. There is an open toe option that is perfect for going around applique, and when I am working on art quilting. It provides me a near complete view of the area I am working in with no “hidden” bits. The higher hopping foot is great if you want to work with rulers on the George. (Yes, it can be done. More to come on that later!)

The thing I think I love most about George, is that he is oriented just like a domestic sewing machine. Many of the other sit down long arm machines are not. This has meant virtually no learning curve to working on him versus my domestic machine. It also means that my view of what I am quilting is not impeded at all. When working on a sit down machine like this, having the machine oriented like a longarm (meaning lenghtwise away from you) is pretty much a waste of the space you’re getting in the throat area. Why is that? Because, do you really want to be leaving over reaching 20″ away from you? It’s bad for your back!

The only modification I have made to my George, isn’t because he is found wanting, but rather my studio is. I have added Red Bandana 15 LED Light Kit that I purchased from Spool. It’s not that George’s already bright LED lights are not bright enough, it’s because the area where I want him situation in the studio is poorly lit. With this (removable) light strip, my entire quilt under the machine is lit well. This is very helpful when I am working on dark fabric quilts, as well as art quilts.