Sunday in Salisbury

The spire of Salisbury Cathedral

Sunday was a glorious spring day, clear and warm.
I'll let the pictures do the talking.

These yew trees must be hundreds of years old!

scroll work on a gate

lovely lines

arches draw the eye upward

to glorious texture in stone

Machine Quilter Clinic

Jackie and I have decided to offer
a short form of our Machine Quilter Retreats.
We're calling them Machine Quilter Clinics.
Many people say they'd love to come to a Retreat
but don't have the time. We hope this is the answer!

The Machine Quilter Clinics will run from 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. We'll offer morning and afternoon tutorial sessions. Just like our longer Retreats, we'll plan the sessions around what the people coming want to learn.We provide quilting frames, sewing machines and all the materials.  Mill Lodge will provide  elevensies, a cooked lunch and afternoon tea and cakes. We'll have a good selection of Superior Threads available to try and buy too.

Our first Machine Quilter Clinic will be 

Monday April 7th. 

from 10 am to 4 pm

The venue is the lovely 

Mill Lodge 

at the top of Cannick Hill in Lincoln. 

Mill Lodge has provided a lovely space for us to use 

with plenty of room to spread out, 

 lots of natural light 

and easy on site parking. 

If you're struggling with machine quilting

don't suffer alone

come to our Machine Quilter Clinic

we're just what the Doctor ordered!

Our Machine Quilter Clinics provide

personal morning and afternoon

 machine quilting tuition

all materials included 

elevensies, cooked lunch,

 afternoon tea and cakes

and free parking too

all for£99.

If you are travelling any distance 
and would like to stay for the night 
we will help you book a room nearby.

Call or email Martha

to book your place

01526 378057

marthamilne@tiscali.co.uk

March Petwood Retreat

Jackie, Cathy and Diane looking at Juliet's quilt top

One of my favourite parts of our Machine Quilting Retreats are the afternoon sessions when we audition threads on the various quilt tops that the participants bring. It is inspiring for everyone to see the quilts.  It's fun to try out lots of different threads and to collaborate about how to quilt it .

Juliet with her Kaffe quilt

As you can see from the photos below
everyone learns from everyone else!

Cathy watching Jackie doodle a new design

Diane considering which thread and pattern to use

Cathy showing Juliet just how she arranged the blocks

Joy mastered a new line design!

Juliet making butterflies

a 'peicing detail' on Juliet's granddaughter's quilt

We all fell in love with this pieced pattern. I want to do a version where I add machine quilted details on the faces and clothes.

Mardi Gras, Carnival and Pancakes

Mardi Gras Parade New Orleans 2014

 I'm so happy when the days get longer, heralding winter's end. Today, my friend Debbie, a fibre artist in New Orleans will celebrating Mardi Gras.
.

Debbie's family photo from last year's Mardi Gras

Debbie's husband Chris ready to ride Mardi Gras 2014

Emily's on her year abroad studying Spanish in Barcelona. She'll be going to a nearby village to celebrate Carnival.

Carnival Mask

In many places all over the world there will be masked balls, parades, light shows, costumes, dancing and all manner of revelry, while here in England ... we will make pancakes. I have to admit, I do like pancakes.

Whatever the celebration, 

Superior Threads 

has a thread to commemorate it!

Rainbows #816 Mardi Gras

Rainbows #821 Carnival

Yummmm! I can almost smell those pancakes...can't wait!

Fantastico #5001 Pancakes

These large 2000 yd cross-wound cones 

are perfect for machine quilting.

These and all the other ranges 

from Superior Threads 

are available here in the UK

 from Machine Quilter.

Fantastico 2,000 yd cone £11.99 from Machine Quilter

Inspired by Angela Walters

Angela Walters ~ long arm quilter

Angela Walters inspires me! I love her whimsical free-motion quilting techniques and although she's using a long arm, I can apply the same techniques on our smaller table top machine quilting frames.

Emily and I had the good luck to stumble upon Angela when we were visiting the Tula Pink booth at Quilt Market back in 2010. We were in awe of this Parisville Quilt created to showcase Tula's new fabric line.

Tula Pink's Parisville Quilt detail quilted by Angela Walters

 Angela noticed our Superior Threads name tags and told us that she loves Superior Threads!  So Fine #50 is her favourite thread. 

So Fine #50 from Super Threads available here in the UK from Machine Quilter

We smiled because we think that So Fine #50 is the most trouble free thread for machine quilting. We give a 3,280 yd. cone of So Fine away FREE with every New English Quilter frame because we want our customers to get off to a good start. So Fine #50 and all the other thread ranges from Superior Threads are available here in the UK from our new Machine Quilter shop.Our next order will be sent Monday March 3rd. So let me know any new orders over the weekend. You can order from the shop or phone or email Martha directly.

01526 378057
martha@tiscali.co.uk