Glow-in-the-Dark Thread

With all the excitement about the new Star Wars, I thought it was a good time to post about NiteLite Extra Glow-in-the-dark threads. Here's a photo taken with a black light (the pink light sabre on the left!) My son's girlfriend Jade is using my JUKI TL98P straight stitch sewing machine on our 6 foot New English Quilter frame.

Follow the link to the Superior Threads education pages to find out how glow-in-the-dark threads work and how you can use them in your projects.

NiteLite Extra Glow glow-in-the-dark threadn my JUKI TL98P straight stitch sewing machine

 NiteLite Extra Glow shows up so well in Black lighting, but it shows up well in natural light too.

NiteLite really comes into it's own during these dark winter nights. I have a feeling that anything remotely related to Star Wars is going to be very popular this season. 500 yd cross-wound cones of NiteLite are available here  in the UK from the Machine Quilter shop.

NiteLite available here in the UK from Machine Quilter

Thankful!

There is so much to be thankful for!

We at Machine Quilter wish everyone a 

happy Thanksgiving with family and friends!

This year we made 'homemade' pumpkin pie from pumpkins that we picked ourselves.

The little Harlequin Squash pumpkins make great pumpkin pie. 

We sliced then open and took out the seeds. 

Then cooked them in the microwave for a few minutes.

 added a bit of sugar and spice and condensed milk. 

It was fun making the crust pretty.

Then we baked it in the oven until it turned a golden pumpkin colour.

It was beautiful and delicious. We enjoyed every bit. And after the pumpkin pie was all gone we still get to keep on enjoying the pumpkin patch quilt.

The pumpkin patch quilt' hot' off our New English Quilter frame. 

Pumpkin Patch

This year we had a pumpkin patch just down the road! 

So we got to see the pumpkins change from flower to fruit.

I thought that this fabric from Dinara Mirtalipova - Mischief Night really did capture the pumpkin patch perfectly. It made just the right border. The pumpkins we so fun to trace around! This variegated Fantastico thread was just what I needed to create beautiful texture.

Dinara Mirtalipova - Mischief Night brought to life with Fantastico # 5023 Orange Marmalade

The pumpkin patch quilt just off the 6 foot New English Quilter frame machine quilted with the straight stitch JUKI TL98P

  I created pumpkins in all sorts of shapes and sizes for the middle.

 And raw-edge appliquéd them to the black pieced background.

The fun part was adding all the detail with free-motion quilting using lots of gorgeous threads from various Superior Threads ranges. The light-reflecting tri-lobal polyester in the Magnifico and Fantastico ranges really made the pumpkins shine.

While the bold matt line from the King Tut100% extra long staple Egyptian cotton gave just the right texture for the vines and leaves. Of course the Superior Metallic was just super for the spider's web. All these threads were designed to go at high speeds for machine quilting. So I didn't need to worry about thread  shredding or breaking. 

Happy Halloween!

I hope that you enjoy your pumpkins as much as I do mine!
The pumpkin patch down the road has long since been harvested and ploughed under but my pumpkin patch art quilt is still here looking lovely.

This Juki Exceed 600 was brilliant for the piecing, appliqué and binding! 

Happy Customer

Lesley and Ian came up for a free demo a few weeks ago. 

Lesley decided to take the plunge and purchase her very own 6 foot New English Quilter frame. 

She ordered a 6 foot table too so we could custom the table legs  to get it to just the right height for Lesley to quilt in comfort. Using a quilting frame means that Lesley will never have to baste, pin or tack a quilt together ever again! The frame holds each layer of the quilt sandwich steady and perfectly tensioned.
Lesley also purchased a new JUKI TL98P lockstitch sewing machine and a set of Nifty Grip speed control handles to replace the foot pedal.

Now lesley can glide the sewing machine over the top of her quilt effortlessly creating beautiful and bold lines of stitching. The speed control Nifty Grip handles are ergonomically designed so that guiding the machine is comfortable and puts no stress on Lesley's neck or back.

Lesley and Ian came up on Monday to collect her New English Quilter Frame, 6 foot purpose built table and Nifty Grip speed control handles. She brought her new Juki TL98P sewing machine that she'd purchased from Franklin's so that we could get it tensioned and running smoothly. We give a free workshop to customers who choose to collect their frames. Our free workshop gives Lesley the chance to run the new sewing machine through its paces and get advice and tips for getting started. When Lesley and Ian went home they were able to get the frame up and running in no time.

Lesley emailed today to say;

"I’m having such fun. 

I love my frame
 it's fantabulous!!!!!!"

Lesley is delighted to have the benefits of a long arm for the fraction of the cost. She's happy that the frame just the right size to easily fit into her car and her sewing room. 

All the after sales support from the Machine Quilter team means that Lesley will have the help she needs to become a fluent machine quilter in the weeks and months to come.

Lesley's husband Ian, just emailed me this photo of Lesley's very first 'play' on her 6 foot NEQ frame. It's such a good idea to begin with some scrap fabric and launch into some playful line designs. Well done Lesley. A brilliant beginning!

Lesley's very first play on her new frame

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.

Summers by the Sea

mom is 2nd from the right - she has great legs!

I love this photo of my mom! This was a shot of mom and her friends when they were at the University of Maryland back in the early 50's. The other special person in the photo is my Auntie, my mom's best friend and my namesake. Auntie is 2nd from the left. My mom and Auntie have stayed friends all these years. When we were little we used to visit my Auntie's houseboat in Ocean City, Maryland for our summer vacations. All those summers by the sea inspired a series of art quilts and I sent one to my mom for her birthday. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

sewing the binding with OMNI thread

JUKI HZL Exceed 600 the box feed makes binding a breeze

stripy binding for the Summers by the Sea art quilt

machine quilting detail

following the fabric lines

all rolled for the tube - no creases : )

Summers by the Sea - overview

Summers by the Sea

machine quilted by Martha and Emily Milne

on a 6 foot New English Quilter frame

with a JUKI TL98P straight stitch sewing machine

and Nifty Grip speed control handles.

All together giving the movement of a long arm

for a fraction of the cost.

Hugs and Kisses

'Hugs and Kisses' table runner on the 6 foot New English Quilter frame

 I love all things hearts! So I take a broad view of Valentine's Day and send my love to friends and family everywhere. More about that later. Meanwhile, here's a fun 'hugs and kisses' table runner that's just perfect for Valentine' Day. It's the pumpkin seed appliqué pattern pictured in the previous post. In a different colour way,  it works as X's and O's too.

The machine quilting began with simply scalloping around the appliquéd shapes. 

Scalloping is so much easier than stitch-in-the-ditch! 

Then added some echoed hearts and scallops to fill out the design.

I 





I went for white on white to get a lacy doily look.

A fast and fun Valentine table runner made with love!

Hug & Kisses made with love from my JUKI TL98P and the 6 foot New English Quilter frame

Poppy Project

Lincolnshire poppy field photo by Martha Milne

Before I had a quilting frame, I mainly loved the piecing part of patchwork & quilting. I loved the colours and shapes but I got stuck on the quilting part. After I got a quilting frame, I fell in love with texture. Now the quilting part is my favourite part of the process.

poppies and seed pods photo by Martha Milne

 I find myself working backwards. I used to make a top and then try to figure out how to quilt it. Now there will be some new quilting pattern that I want to try out and so I figure out a 'canvas' that I'd like to quilt or thread paint on.

Today on pinterest, I got inspired by poppies and decided to do a poppy project. There were so many ideas that I'll probably do more than one. but I decided to start with a Georgia O'Keeffe Poppy. 

kid's version of Georgia O'Keefe's Poppies

This looks like it will be so much fun to thread paint but I needed to figure out how to make the canvas first.

see artprojectsforkids.me

I found this art project for primary schools and decided to take the same approach. I divided the painting into rectangles and pieced them together using various scraps of red. The pieced pattern will act like a grid to help me transfer the painting from my computer screen to the quilt top.

creating the fabric grid

Now I'll raw-edge appliqué the spaces round the flower. Tomorrow the fun begins when I get to play with lots of thread on my frame!

my Juki Exceed 600 fab for piecing and applique note the thread stand
 that let's me use my larger cones