Advances in sewing machines have gone beyond the standard personal machine. Today’s market includes computerized and programmable sewing machines and large machines attached to frames specifically for quilting. These large machines have encouraged the development of professional machine quilters ranging in skill from those who do standard allover patterns to masters of the craft who turn quilting into thread painting. From another perspective, quiltmakers who enjoy the construction of tops but not the quilting take advantage of professional quilters for the portion less appealing to them. Jessica Hartman