The Other Half

I enjoy watching the men at quilt shows.  I would hazard a guess that men are probably out numbered by 100 to one at most shows.  They often have that glazed look of someone who would rather be somewhere else. All those fabric stalls that make our hearts race just don't have the same appeal to the average guy. But men generally do love our machine quilting frame. Their glazed look disappears and the eyes come into focus, here at long last is something they can get excited about, a tool they understand.Quilters are often married to engineering types. They like to stand there, arms folded across their chest and figure out how it works. They ask all the right questions too. Like why the wood won't warp and how all the parts fit together and extend. They appreciate the genius behind the simplicity and recognize a great piece of kit when they see it.

This is an old photo from years ago from my SuperQuilter days. But I get a kick out of it because it's June Barnes husband and he did talk her into getting a frame.You can follow the link to find out more about this award winning English machinequilter. June had an exhibition of her work just across the aisle from our stand in 2004. You can't help being inspired by her machine quilting!

I often get enquires from husbands who want to purchase something special. A month ago I received a phone call from a husband who'd seen our frame at the Festival of Quilts last summer. He rang up and said, "I want to purchase your 10 foot New English Quilter frame and the10 foot purpose built table and the JUKI sewing machine and the speed control Nifty grips to go with it. He wanted a copy of the new DVD too. No questions. No discussions. Just a credit card number. I have to admit that I love this kind of phone call. Anyway two hours later, I had a phone call from another husband. It was like deja vu. He also just wanted to order the whole set up for his wife. He'd seen it at the show and was ready to make the purchase.  Well, it's one month later and these are two happy ladies! I'll finish the story in the next post.