Behind the scenes at the Festival of Quilts 2015

After a long drive and several coffees, we're finally setting up our stand for the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham. We're really excited to be here, and we hope you can make it too!

We're here with Juki Sewing Machines (stand A55 in case you wondered), and we're going through the long process of putting together our stand. We thought we'd give you a behind the scenes look at our set-up...

Normally we put up the quilts ourselves, but this year Juki brought along Liv. Liv is a window dresser, and she's absolutely fantastic. She's working wonders with our stand. Here's a sneaky peak:

Liv is into making displays 3D - so fun!

Coming together. Slowly...

Juki have got some snazzy new headers this year too - we think they look great! Here's a first look:

Shiny and new!

Emily's Thread Painting is also on display. I just looooove the colours in this. Mmmmm... The threads she used are Superior Threads, which are also on sale at our stand!

Close up of Emily's gorgeous thread painting 

We're also hosting a social media giveaway at the show - you can take part while you're here! 

Come take a selfie at our stand for a chance to win a machine quilting DVD!

Festival Frenzy: Five days 'till the Festival of Quilts

5 days to go! We can't wait to see you. You can find us at stand A55 we're listed in the catalogue under 'J' for Juki. Come test drive one of the Juki Sewing Machines on our Machine Quilter frames. We've got a great selection of Superior Threads for you to browse, try and buy too.

To celebrate the Show we're hosting a social media give-away. We even made snazzy banners.

Sneaky peak of our banner for the show! 

Here's the bottom line...

Follow us on Instagram and Pinterest, and like us on Facebook while you're at the show for a free Bottom Line pre-wound bobbin! All you need is your smartphone or tablet and you can follow all our social media directly whilst at the show by just scanning the QR links on our banner.

Another sneak peak of the banner.

Get #FramedAtTheFestival!

Here's another giveaway: post a selfie of you with our frame to Instgram with the hashtag #FramedAtTheFestival for your chance to win one of our La Mer Machine Quilting DVDs. Tag @machinequilter, and you'll be entered into a draw. We'll announce the lucky winner after the show!

See you soon!

New Shop!

Our new Machine Quilter has gone live! Go have a look at shop.machinequilter.co.uk

We feature the New English Quilter, the La Mer DVD, and Superior Threads, with much more on there and coming soon!

Icing the Cake...

Every now and then people say such nice things I just have to blog about it!

"I GOT THE DVD!!!!! We are doing the HAPPY DANCE!!!

Thank you so much for your speedy delivery – when can I get the next DVD!!! We devoured it and then went back for 2nds!! We want more – I want to watch you quilt a whole quilt!! All your stitches and techniques – you make it look too easy. Good camera work also.

You and your film crew did a very professional, wonderful job. I am a major doodler and I also like to decorate cakes (piping bag rhythm) so I think I can do this. I would like to have a class with you – do you ever come to the US??

I can see that like a well trained dancer you could easily lead a

Newbie through the motions and launch them quickly. I saw the YouTube of your client – she was soo energized and encouraged and so are we (the kids all want to quilt now.) Thank you for the DVD it was MARVELOUS!!! Off to get the salt!!!"

Jill from Ohio, USA
I like Jill's cake decorating connection. Machine quilting reminds me of icing cakes too! 

First the good news...

The good news is that La Mer is all printed, packaged and ready to post. We'll be sending copies of  La Mer all over the UK and to the USA and Canada, the Netherlands, Greece and even Australia. The bad news is that a giant plume of volcanic ash  is making it's way across Europe and stopping all air traffic coming and going from the UK.This means that all international posting will be disrupted for the next few days. We'll get it to you just as soon as the planes start flying again!

Fortunately, the ash won't be disrupting the UK posting and the pre-orders for England, Scotland and Wales will all go out by first class post tomorrow. 

DVD Progress

Thanks to all of you machine quilters on both sides of 'the Pond' who have pre-ordered our La Mer DVD. I'd like you to meet my film crew, Chris and Nick from Crow's Eye Productions. We've been working together on various projects for years. 

Right now we're in the final editing stages of editing the La Mer DVD. Editing a film is somewhat like making a quilt. There's quite a bit of cutting and pasting involved and a layering of images and words and sounds. Yet the considerable attention to detail creates, in the end a seamless product. Here on the screen is an audio clip of my voice. This editing program allows Nick to cut and paste my voice the same way that we would manipulate fabric to piece a top. Collaborating on the DVD has been great fun and we're all excited to see the various strands coming together. We'll keep you posted.

'La Mer' DVD Pre-Order

This DVD is for everyone with a short to mid-arm frame, who wants to become more fluent at free-motion quilting. I’ll be demonstrating a no-mark method for learning line designs – a technique based on ballroom dancing, using line designs inspired by the sea.

The La Mer DVD will help you:

• create a bold and flowing line of stitching
• machine quilt line designs with confidence
• get the most out of your frame and sewing machine
• overcome tension problems
• find the best needles and threads
• master trouble shooting techniques to get you, your frame and sewing machine all working together smoothly.