Treasure Hunt

JUKI/ New English Quilter Stand at the 2013 Festival of Quilts

Finding the JUKI/New English Quilter stand at the Festival of Quilts is like looking for buried treasure! The new online guide to the Festival of Quilts is going to make it easier to find us.  There are lots of fun links to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and Blogger.

Franklins have sewing machine shops throughout the UK

We're listed under FRANKLINS Group Limited. Franklins are the UK Distributors for JUKI sewing machines. We at Machine Quilter have been sharing a stand at the Festival of Quilts ever since 2005 when we fell in love with the JUKI TL98 P sewing machine. 

Martha Milne with her JUKI TL98P on the New English Quilter

We're just where we were last year Stand A46  B36-38, just past the exhibition quilts on the right as you're walking to the back of the Hall. See you at the Festival!

Dream Come True

NEW JUKI QVP 18 X 10 inch long arm

Three years ago we asked a question. How long would the arm be on your ideal dream machine? Follow the link and read the post.

Just about everyone said 18 inches!

 Last year JUKI introduced their NEW 18 X 10 inch long arm across the pond.  American quilters were giving it rave reviews so we shipped an American model across the Atlantic just for the 2013 Festival of Quilts.

test driving the JUKI QVP at the 2013 Festival

This year JUKI has created our very own

 UK/European CE approved 

18 X 10 inch  long arm!

 Test drive the NEW JUKI Quilt Virtuoso Pro

 at the Franklins stand A46 B36-38.

 I can't wait!!

JUKI Quilt Virtuoso Pro 2200 (stitches per minute)

Double Takes at the Festival of Quilts

Nick Loven Film maker

I was looking through last years Festival of Quilts photos. We'd asked Nick Loven, our film maker and photographer to come and take some photos of our stand. He took lots of great photos of people trying the Juki sewing machines on our New English Quilter frames. It was a great year! There were thousands of quilters everywhere.  Camera-men are people watchers and this is what he noticed.

Too cute!

The 2014 Festival of Quilts is early   
Thursday 7th August until Sunday 10th August
We'll be with the JUKI dealers under
The Franklins Group A36/B36 

You'll be able to see Juki sewing machines, New English Quilter frames and Superior Threads all in one place. See you there!

mending with Kimono Silk

It's great having grown-up girls. We can share shoes and sweaters. When I got my sweater back it was a bit holey. The weave was loose and so I thought that it might not be too hard to mend. I had a look through my threads and the closest match was a cone from the Kimono Silk range called Tsunami.

 Here it is, all mended now. The silk thread was so fine that it just slipped between the fibres and seemed to disappear. Now it's just as good as new. Thank you Superior Threads!

mending with Kimono Silk threads #336 Tsunami

New Curtains

Grey Beach Hut curtain fabric from Terrys online shop

Once the tiles and fittings were in place it was time for the curtains.  Terrys Fabric online shop had a great nautical collection on sale for £7.99 per metre. It was amazing to find curtain fabric cheaper than quilting fabric!

The curtains came together in no time with my Juki Exceed 600.  I used OMNI thread on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. The trickiest bit of curtains for me is the hemming. But I was able to figure out the blind hem stitch using an online tutorial and the special blind hem foot that came with my Juki Exceed sewing machine.

  It's all about the folding. And the results are truly invisible!

Not bad for my very first blind hem! It looks so professional.

And here are the curtains all finished and up in the new bathroom. I've been saving ideas on my bathrooms and seaside pinterest boards. So wonderful to be able to enjoy the finished product!

We re-painted this boat-shelf to match the curtains

Double Duty

Emily machine quilting on our New English Quilter

Usually we're using our New English quilter table for machine quilting. But when we needed to redecorate our upstairs bathroom, I realized that our table would make a perfect wall paper table.

 I  set the table up in Peter's bedroom and added the end pieces to make it 10 feet long. it was just perfect for pasting the wall paper for the bathroom next door.

Chris helped out with the tricky bits and soon we had the sloping ceiling covered.

And then we were ready to add the bath.

It was so exciting to see the project coming together.

Assembling the Fabric Poles

The fabric poles on our larger 8 and 10 foot 7 inch frames need to be assembled. The poles are too long to ship as they are. But don't worry! We made it easy. Our fabric poles come with the leader fabric already riveted. It's a great feature and we didn't want to give it up. Our challenge was to keep the leader fabric in one piece but have the poles in two! This is how we solved the problem.

First unwrap the leader fabric from around the pole.

You'll need a screw driver 

and the screws that come with the frame.

There's a screw that moves in the slot above.

Push the screw and this inside bit of tubing comes out. 

It works like a tent pole or an extendible curtain rod.

Put the 2 ends of the pole together

Slide the screw over

Push it all the way to the other side

Put in the screws.

Screw in the screws

Finally put some masking tape over the gap 

and you're finished the first pole. 

Do it twice more and you're good to go!