Best Christmas Present Ever!

New English Quilter set up in Martha's home

 Kirstie came to visit our stand at the Festival of Quilts last summer. She tried our New English Quilter frames and fell in love with it. 

New English Quilter - a side view

Kirstie must have dropped some hints like anchors because her dear husband bought her our 8 foot NEQ2 frame, purpose built table and a set of Nifty Grips to go with her sewing machine for Christmas.

"However, (wide grin now plastered on face), I was an EXTREMELY spoilt Lady this Christmas.  The Husband saw fit to give in to my not-so-subtle pleadings and bought me The Best Christmas Present. EVER."

I think she likes it! And that makes us really happy!!

"...this quilting frame is just the BEST!" 

Perfect timing

Look who got a new quilt for Christmas! Tricia gave her great-grandson Finnley this gorgeous quilt! Don't they look great together?

Tricia machine quilting Finnley's quilt on the 6 foot New English Quilter

Tricia machine quilted Finnley's quilt in a couple of hours on his due date. Finnley's parents wanted to surprise the family so Tricia wasn't exactly sure what colours to choose. But I think this fresh modern green and white was a good choice.  

It was the very first time that Tricia machine quilted on a frame. Our New English Quilter frames make finishing your project fast and fun. Isn't it nice when a plan comes together!

Home for Christmas

the Milne family and Jade

With lots of our kid's grown up  and away at work and University, it was wonderful to have all my favourite-distractions-from-quilting together in one room.

Boxing day snow flurries

We even had some snow flurries for white Christmas moments.

Emily, Jade, Ben Peter, Ellie, Kate and Rosie

Wishing you and your families 
joy at Christmas 
and all the new year!

I'm Makin a List

King Tut thread in Christmas colours

and checkin it twice! This is a reminder for the UK and European readers. I'm getting the December Superior Threads order ready.

Superior Threads make wonderful Christmas presents! So if you're looking for gifts for your quilting family and friends we have lots of ideas on our website and pinterest board.

 I'm putting the order through on Thursday so it will arrive in plenty of time for Christmas. Follow this link for prices and thread descriptions. There are so many different ranges all perfect for machine quilting.

It's a good time to try something NEW! Everyone using the new Magnifico and OMNI cones are delighted with such good value for money. New colour-ways are still coming out for Fantastico so use this American site link as a shop window and email me with your list. I'll be checkin it twice!

Santa's Workshop

Linda and Paul Hayes in the workshop

Our New English Quilter frames are designed and made by Paul Hayes in Lincolnshire, UK. Paul is our genius designer and see, he does look like Santa! Paul took all the best ideas from the American machine quilting frames and adapted them to fit into smaller English and European homes. Designed to be quick and easy to set up, our frames can be ready to use in less than 2 minutes. So we can set up the frame on the kitchen table, get in a couple of hours quilting and take it down again in time for dinner.

   

New English Quilter frames in the making

Paul is inspired by the Arts & Crafts movement so simplicity is a common thread or guiding principle in the design and engineering of the frames. Our frames are made to order, designed and created by local craftsman from the finest materials. We believe that tools can be beautiful as well as useful.

 "In Britain, the Arts and Crafts Movement flourished from about 1880. At its heart lay a concern for the role of the craftsman. Inspired by the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris, it advocated a revival of traditional handicrafts, a return to a simpler way of life and an improvement in the design of ordinary domestic objects."

New English Quilter frame crafted to last a lifetime

Our New English Quilter frames celebrate a revival of the Arts and Crafts movement. They're crafted by hand guided machines using the finest materials and designed to last a lifetime. New English Quilter frames make wonderful Christmas presents for quilters. They are the gift that keeps on giving.

Secret Santa

Paul Hayes, our genius designer looks just like Saint Nick. Really!

 Every year I look for a new Santa-look-alike Christmas tree ornament for him. Here's the one I found last year.

Paul Hayes a Father Christmas look alike

We've been busy getting our Christmas orders ready. It's kind of fun to think that our New English Quilter frames are made by someone who looks just like Father Christmas!

the night shirt is spot on!

Glow in the Dark

Nitelite Glow in the Dark thread from Superior Threads

Glow in the dark thread is the perfect antidote for bleak mid-winter dark nights. 

When our kids were small, the quilted glow-in-the-dark stars made bedtimes fun.

This pattern was created with white NiteLite Extra Glow from Superior Threads on black fabric loaded on a New English Quilter frame using a JUKI TL98P straight stitch sewing machine. We found that layering the thread by stitching over the lines a few times made a bolder line of glowing stitches.

My son's girlfriend Jade, is using the thread for an art project for her University course. 

Jade wanted to show the process of 'drawing the design' on fabric with a sewing machine on a quilting frame.

Jade using the Juki TL98P to draw designs with NiteLite ExtraGlow thread

Her tutors have been mystified by how Jade has been completing her textile art projects.

We used a black light to get a good effect for the video images.

These still shots are fun too. I'll post the little video clip as soon as Jade edits it together.

NiteLite Extra Glow threads come in500 yd cross-wound mini cones for £14.95

We have white and pale blue mini cones in stock

NiteLite Extra Glow from Superior Threads available here in the UK from MachineQuilter

and one 80 yd spool of pink extra glow for £4.95.






NiteLite ExtraGlow is happy to go at high speeds on long arm quilting machines.

The cross-wound mini cones are ideal for machine quilting on and off a frame.

To order call or email Martha

01526 378551 or 01526 378057

martha@machinequilter.co.uk

SuperQuilter Spares

my schoolhouse quilt on the SuperQuilter frame

Martha at the 2004 Festival of Quilts

The SuperQuilter was my very first machine quilting frame. 

My mom gave it to me for a Christmas present in 2002 and I began selling them here in the UK in the summer of 2003.

 So when I found the old box of spare parts I felt all nostalgic remembering quilting my schoolhouse quilt 

and the early shows at the Festival of Quilts and little Emily machine quilting her first stack and wack Daisiez Quilt!

little Emily machine quilting her first quilt!and  Emily's first try quilting her Daizez quilt. 

Here are some photos of the SuperQuilter spare parts available to purchase:

SQ carriages top and bottom

• Top carriages £10 each (2 available)
• Bottom carriages £10 each (3 available)

SQ right hand side arms

• 3 ratchet end side pieces £5 each (2 sold 1 remaining)
• 3 non-ratchet end side pieces £5.00 each

6 replacement wheels for the carriages

• 4 carriage wheels £5.00

replacement levers for the side arms

• 5 ratchet engagers complete with screw fixings £1.00 each (4 sold 1 available)

set of 3 extension bars for the fabric bars

• set of 3 extension bars for changing 6 foot to 8 foot bars £5.00 (1 set available)

upright side standing pieces

• side piece uprights including non ratchet end side arms £25 each (1 sold 2 available) This is probably the easiest part to break and well worth a spare!

3 ratchet end pieces, 3 non ratchet end pieces and 6 pins

• bag containing 3 ratchet end pieces, 3 non-ratchet end pieces and 6 pins £5.00 (2 sold 2 available)

4 black knobs

• black knobs £1.00 each (4 sold zero available)

Prices do not include shipping. If you like any of these give me a call:

01526 378551

or email: martha@machinequilter.co.uk

When they're gone 

they're gone!

NEW Number

Guess what? We're moving! (BUT not yet!)

Just across the county nearer to Boston 

to be closer to my husband's work.

So our contact details will be changing. 

Meanwhile you can still reach us at these numbers:

01526 378551
01526 378057 with answerphone 

or by email:

 martha@machinequilter.co.uk

If I miss your call

please email me with your number 

and I'll ring you back as soon as possible.

Learning Together

Tricia in Martha's studio

Tricia was expecting her great grand child and so of course she made a quilt.  When Tricia came to visit, the baby was due any minute.

Tricia quilting loop-de-loops

Since we were on a tight schedule we decided to work together.

Tricia, although an experienced stitcher and avid piecer, had never used a machine quilting frame before, so we decided to go for a simple loop-de-loop pattern.

Tricia learning to nestle one line of stitching into the previous line

The loopy pattern is perfect for a beginning machine quilter. The circles help you to move, every-which-way across your available space. 

Loops are a fun pattern and easy to create a bold and flowing line of stitching.

Tricia loves hearts but was not quite confident enough to quilt them on a gift quilt. So we decided to quilt it together. 

loops and hearts quilting detail

Tricia quilted a line of loops. then I quilted a line of loops and hearts.

Then Tricia quilted another line of loops. And so on. It was great fun learning to nestle the lines of quilting into each other.

Tricia withthe finished quilt hot off the frame

And it turned out just great! I think that the binding and the baby came at around the same time.

Here's a close up of the machine quilting. Bear in mind that this was the very first time that Tricia machine quilted on a frame.

Now notice the bold and beautiful line of loops that Tricia quilted.

It is just as flowing as the line of loops and hearts that I did. Well done Tricia!!

We used the 6 foot New English Quilter, with the Juki TL98P sewing machine and Superior Threads.

We used a silver Magnifico on Top and a silver Bottom Line underneath. The silver threads created a lovely subtle texture on this fresh modern style baby quilt.





The right tools make machine quilting fast and fun. What a fantastic little quilt! ... And look who's arrived!

Tricia's new baby great-grandson

baby Finnley

There is nothing quite so beautiful as a sleeping baby! Congratulations Tricia! And here baby Finnley is on this new quilt.

Baby Finnley on his new quilt

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

KING TUT Price CUT

King Tut 100% extra-long-staple Egyptian cotton from Superior Threads

We're having a Really BIG sale on our in-stock 2,000 yd King Tut cones. King Tut is one of Superior Threads most popular ranges. King Tut thread is 100% extra-long-staple really-grown-in-Egypt cotton designed for machine quilting.

King Tut 2,000 yd. cross-wound cones designed for machine quilting

Egypt is the perfect climate for growing cotton and produces the long fibers that make King Tut such a low lint thread. Egyptian cotton grown in other places just doesn't compare. That's why Egyptian cotton is so expensive and also why it's worth every penny.

King Tut is designed for long arm machine quilting. Gammills love it! And if it works great at long arm speeds it is going to be brilliant in ordinary domestic machines. 

#945 Cinnaberry and #912 St George King Tut cones 

King Tut creates a beautiful bold line in a matt finish. It comes in plain, tone on tone and variegated colours. The colour change is one-inch, which means that you'll never get blocks of colour or a stripy look that comes from the 6+ inch colour changes of other threads. It costs more to create a one inch colour change on our variegated threads but we think it's worth it!

#934 Nile Delta s shows off the one-inch colour change in King Tut variegated threads

Right now we have over 200 cones of King Tut in-stock!! It's the biggest selection this side of the Atlantic. But hurry, they're going fast!

 Visit our Machine Quilter shop

King Tut 2,000 yard cross wound cones

perfect for machine quilting 

usually £18.95

on sale while stocks last at £15.95

All the in-stock sale cones are marked sale in green.
Savour the season with King Tut

Nature's finest thread!