Longarm giveaway winner uses Freddie to make quilts for veterans

Corintha Russell believes winning a Freedom longarm quilting machine in the 2014 Great APQS Longarm Giveaway was meant to be.

Her quilt guild had just taken on a challenge to make patriotic quilts for 90 veterans scheduled to take the Columbus, Ohio, Honor Flight this fall. The national program transports military veterans who served in WWII and Korea to memorial sites in Washington, D.C. to reflect on their service.

Winning the Freedom was a dream come true for Russell. She carried her phone with her everywhere, hoping she would get the call from APQS letting her know she was the sweepstakes winner. Russell was absolutely ecstatic when Dawn Cavanaugh called to let her know she was now part of the longarm quilting family.

Since receiving Freddie in July 2014, Russell has quilted 56 of her guild’s 90 honor quilts made to recognize the veterans. And that’s with next-to-no longarm quilting experience.

“One of my friends bought a longarm and she was absolutely terrified of it. It was almost a year before she got up enough courage to actually use it,” Russell said. “Before I won Freddie, my only longarm experience has been at quilt shows where you play with them for five minutes and then say, ‘Maybe someday.’ It does take a certain amount of courage to jump in there. But the APQS machine is so easy to handle.”

Russell’s secret to hitting the ground running was to purchase the Quilt Path computerized quilting system as an add-on to her prize. The automated system makes it easy for Russell to design and lay out her quilting patterns. Plus, she has more than 200 quilt-ready programs to choose from for her next quilt.

“I cannot say enough about Quilt Path,” Russell said. “Quilt Path has made me look like a star.”

While cranking out dozens of quilts, Russell did encounter an issue with her machine that required service. After trying to diagnose the issue over the phone, the APQS service department decided to send out a replacement bar for free to fix the problem.

“That is part of the wonderful APQS warranty. I just put the old one back in the box and sent back to them. The new $680 part was covered under my warranty.”

Russell is so happy she entered the Longarm Giveaway. Not only has it made a big difference in the Honor Quilt project her guild undertook, but she also now has a quilting studio that is complete with a longarm to finish all her projects.

“In my opinion, that is the best thing I ever did,” Russell said. “I love Quilt Path and I love my Freddie. I cannot say enough wonderful things about APQS.”