Applied Threadology

Bob Purcell from Superior Threads has featured our La Mer DVD in the Superior Threads April Newsletter! If you are in America and want the La Mer DVD quick, get it from Bob!

Want to see how Superior Needles and Threads play out on a home quilting frame? Watch the La Mer DVD. As a graduate of the School of Threadology, class of February '09, I've applied what I've learned from Heather and Bob’s lectures and workshops to free-motion machine quilting on a frame.

The School of Threadology was a fantastic experience for me! I left Heathrow in the snow and spent a warm and wonderful week in St George, Utah. I learned from a fantastic line up of amazing teachers just how important the right needles and threads are to successful machine quilting. And I was able to put it into practice when I got home. Now there is a new purpose built teaching centre, built over the Superior Threads warehouse and office facilities right up against the red rocks.

La Mer is for any machine quilter using any sewing machine on any frame. The frames and sewing machines may vary but the needles and threads are all Superior!

There and Back Again

I've just returned from St George, Utah where I attended a Superior Threads Seminar. I left London's Heathrow Airport during the biggest snow storm in 18 years. The first stop was L.A. with Palm trees and sunshine and my first view of the Pacific. Then on to St George in a little prop plane that landed on the top of a big red rock plateau. Looking at the blue sky against the terracotta rock, I expected to see cowboys and indians comin' round the bend any moment.

The Seminar was fantastic. 60 people from the States and Canada attended. Coming from England, I travelled the farthest! There were professional long armers, and free-motion quilters as well as art quilters, shop owners and thread distributors. It was great fun to meet so many different people from all over who share a passion for quilting. There seemed to be the perfect mix of lectures, hands on activities and demonstrations as well as time to mingle and get to know each other. For the hands on classes and demos we were split into two groups of 30 so we were all able to see what was going on and had lots of personal attention from the superb teachers.

I've read the education pages at the Superior Threads website and also attended Bob's lectures when he came over to the Festival of Quilts last summer. Even so, I still had so much more to learn. The Seminar was like a mid-winter tonic - just what the doctor ordered. I've tried new things, gained insight and experience from the other quilters as well as the teachers. I've come back with a real enthusiasm to get quilting again. I'm so much more confident in knowing what thread to use on various projects. We also had this amazing demo from Heather about ways to go about choosing thread to go with various fabric. This was possibly my favourite. I now feel empowered to use colour in new and exciting ways.

All in all it's too much to cover in just one post. So I'll be picking out some of my favourite parts of the seminar and going into a bit more detail over this next week.

The Source

Before going any further, I want to give credit where it's due. Just about everything I know about needles and threads, I've learned from Bob Purcell. Bob's the president and owner of the American company; Superior Threads. He is also a captivating teacher. I mean this literally - he wraps his students in threads!

I stumbled into the Superior Threads website several years ago when I was having trouble with needle and thread breakage. I thought that this might have something to do with the thread. So I asked my American quilting friends about the threads that they were using for machine quilting. Everybody said Superior Threads.

So I looked them up. The Superior Threads website has fantastic education pages. I learned more in a couple of hours pouring over Bob's education pages than in all my previous 25 years of trial and error. This summer I got to meet Bob at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham and attend a couple of his lectures. They were brilliant. Now that I have a PhD. in Threadology I feel qualified to pass on 'the Knowledge.' Bob Purcell will be back in the UK again next summer giving a few more lectures. Sign up ASAP - they fill up fast. Meanwhile you can visit their website: http://www.superiorthreads.com/ and read Bob's education pages. I strongly recommend a visit to 'the Source'.