Monday 27 April 2015

Mill Quilters Quilt Show



Moulton Windmill home to the Mill Quilters


 I spent a lovely couple of days last Friday and Saturday at the Mill Quilters 2015 Quilt Show at Moulton Windmill.


 I brought along a selection of Superior Threads for people to browse and buy.

Martha by her Superior Threads stand.
The Mill Quilters put on a great show! There were so many inspiring quilts.

Lesley with her amazing reversible quilt
 This one of Lesley's was one of my favourites. And I loved the modern feel of Ginny's quilt below.



There was a really neat tombola. If you won you got to pick from a great selection of gorgeous bags.

Mill Quilters Tombola
Wendy from Camelot Crafts brought some fabric and quilting gadgets galore.



I had a lovely time and met lots of great people. 
The Mill Quilters put on their Show every 2 years 
so the next show will be in 2017!



Moulton Windmill is the tallest windmill in England. It was a stunning venue for the quilt show.


 If you're keen to learn more about quilting,  the Mill Quilters hold weekly classes. Call the Moulton Windmill and ask for Norma if you're interested in joining the classes.
01406 373 237


Wednesday 22 April 2015

Picking up where you left off

Bunting Quilt on the 6 foot New English Quilter frame
One of the great features about our New English Quilter frames is the ability to pick up right where you left off. I was working on this quilt over a year ago. I needed to make room for a Demo so I took it off the 6 foot frame and put it to one side. I used it as a teaching tool to show how important it is to add side-sashing strips on the quilt top so that there is a place to get the tension working right before launching into the proper quilt.

on the left is the side-sashing strip where I sort my tension
But last week I decided to finish the Bunting quilt. So I loaded it back on the frame. Our frame tensions each layer of the quilt separately so there will be no rucks or wrinkles on the top or backing. I can pick up just where I left off whether it's 5 minutes or 5 months.

notice the undulating shape of the scalloped mussel shell background filler
 This red, white and blue Bunting Quilt began as a machine quilting sampler project. The top was easy to assemble with the bunting flags raw edge appliquéd by machine to a solid piece of fabric. the idea was to machine quilt something different in each flag giving the opportunity to try out a variety of patterns.


Each flag was outlined in scallops, then I used a scalloped mussel shell filler.

machine quilted with Kimono Silk from Superior Threads
I used Kimono Silk thread for machine quilting the various line designs and Bottom Line pre-wounds in the bobbins, all from Superior Threads.

an echoed ripple stipple line design
 This echoed ripple stipple design worked well with the blue crabs.

machine quilted with a JUKI TL98P Lockstitch machine
It was very satisfying to finally complete something that has been a WIP (work in progress) for a long time.

Saturday 4 April 2015

Happy Easter!

Superior Thread cones - the perfect Easter Basket for Quilters
 I'm busy making Easter baskets for the kids. Americans make Easter Baskets filled with chocolates, sweets and eggs. It's a bit like Christmas Stockings. When they were little our kids could carry their Easter baskets with them and have all their goodies in one place. I've kept up the tradition so I'm busy getting the final few bits and bobs to fill the baskets. Even though our kids are mostly grown up now, they still love those baskets.

Superior Threads - better than Chocolate!
 If someone were going to make me an Easter Basket, I would want it to be full of cones of thread!

Superior Threads - no calories!
Then I would have all the fun and none of the calories!
Happy Easter, everyone!

When you're fed up with the chocolates, we have a great selection of Superior Threads in stock. Visit our website or ring Martha for a chat. 01526 378551 or 01526 378057.