If the shoe fits

It's just been too busy to blog. I've been wanting to get a post up about Jan McNally. Jan's a textile artist we met at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham last August. Jan has come up with a unique and quirky method for creating her projects and she wanted to see if our JUKI/Art Quilter combination could handle it.

Jan pulls fibres through bubble wrap and irons it for an initial seal. Then she pops it under her sewing machine and uses a 'Big Foot' presser foot to sew down the fibres. Jan has been doing this sitting down at the sewing machine but it was taking a long time and giving her a pain in the neck. So Jan stopped by for a visit last weekend to give it a try and see if our frame could make the process quicker and easier.

This 'Big Foot' comes in a variety of models to fit most sewing machines. Jan had a high shank and a low shank version with her. The high shank Big Foot fit just fine on my JUKI TL-98-P.

I was really excited to see how this was going to turn out! We put a 100/16 Topstitch needle in the sewing machine and popped on this high shank 'Big Foot' onto my JUKI. The shape of the foot helped to hold down the fibres so they didn't get caught in the foot. Amazingly, the sewing machine was able to glide over this bubble wrap base with the fibres all pushed through it.This was really cool!

We picked some pretty thread from the Rainbows range of Superior Threads and drew loops and swirls and leaves. Jan was delighted at how easy it was to guide the machine and how quickly she was able to cover the ground. So Jan went home the proud owner of a new 4 foot Art Quilter. I'm thrilled to see our Art Quilter put to such good use! I will keep you posted about Jan's future projects. Meanwhile, Jan let me keep the practice piece. I love it! And I'll be bringing it to our stand in Houston so anyone who visits can see it in person. We'll be at Booth 726-728 - right in the middle of the Hall on one of the center isles. I'll post a map soon.