Inferior Threads

There is a secret ingredient that makes all these frames work,  The secret ingredient is thread! Thread that is actually designed for machine quilting at high speeds.

The JUKI QVP2200 long arm goes 2200 stitches-per-minute.
The Handi-Quilter Avante goes 1800 stitches-per-minute
The NEW JUKI TL QVP Mini that we use on our smaller machine quilting frames goes 1500 stitches-per-minute
Most ordinary domestic sewing machines go almost 1000 stitches-per-minute.

Many machine quilters really struggle with thread breaking and shredding. Often it comes down to the thread. People are using inferior thread. The high speeds of long arm quilting machines put a lot of stress on the thread. Poor quality thread will shred and break at higher speeds. Inferior threads are fine for slower domestic machines. But fast machines like long and mid arm quilting machines need Superior Threads.

Superior Threads are designed to flow smoothly through your long and mid-arm quilting machines without shredding or breaking whether you're stitching at 2200 stitches-per-minute or almost 1000. Using the right needle is important too.

This year at the 2015 Festival of Quilts our long arm and mid-arm machines were all threaded with various ranges from Superior Threads. We especially like the Magnifico and Fantastico light reflecting tri-lobal polyester threads because they are beautiful AND strong. Designed for long-arm quilting machines, they are happy to stitch at high speeds without shredding or breaking. This makes for happy quilters with less down time.

Our cat Tipsy thinks that this cone of Fantastico is a purrfect match!

 Fantastico comes in variegated colours with a one inch colour change. This creates gorgeous layers of stitching where the colours are evenly spread out through out your quilt.

Fantastico is available on 2,000 yd cones here in the UK from Machine Quilter for £13.45

Magnifico comes in plain colours on 3,000 yd cones for £9.95. That's a lot of joy for under a tenner!

This quilt used 2 different cones of Fantastico; # 5024 and #5025 to match the flowers in the border fabric.

Don't forget the BACK!

Here's the quilt back. Isn't the texture lovely! We used Bottom Line pre-wounds #607 Light Purple for the back. Also available here in the UK from Machine Quilter.


Finally, here's the finished quilt on show at our stand at the Festival of Quilts 2015. It's looking lovely with the back peeking through in the bottom right hand corner. We kept the piecing simple to show that gorgeous quilting is all about the threads.
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Tulle skirts: a tulle-torial!

Here's Emily making a pink tulle skirt with little May, Annie and Teresa

Making a tulle skirt couldn't be simpler! For this project we used the Tulle Circle Skirt DIY instructions found on A Beautiful Mess blog post - it has very clear pictures, which is a must for any good tutorial! We used So Fine #50 for stitching the skirts with Bottom Line pre-wounds in the bobbin. While making the skirts was fairly easy, I did find that it got even easier when I kept the following in mind:

• When cutting out the tulle, make sure you're using your sharpest scissors! You want the lines to be clean and smooth, not jagged.
• When you cut out your elastic, always make it an inch shorter than the waist size you want. The elastic stretches, and the tulle doesn't, so if you need to slip the skirt over your hips to your waist, make sure there's some give!
• Before sewing the elastic onto the layers of tulle, I found it helpful to actually sew the layers together, rather than just pinning them. This way, you know that all the layers are together, and you won't have to unpick if you accidentally miss a layer while sewing the elastic on. 
• Really pull the elastic taut while you are stitching the tulle to it! 
• SoFine! #50 with Bottom Line in the bobbin is the perfect combination for clothing projects! 

Little May was so curious! She loved watching the sewing machine!

We used a serger, and the new Superior Threads line Sergin' General, to make the linings for the tulle skirts.

The Sergin' General blended beautifully and  gave a professional finish to the skirts.

Sergin' General is a Poly-wrapped poly core thread  specifically designed for Serging or overlocking. It's the cleanest serger/overlocker thread available with excellent strength and elongation for smooth stitches with less puckering. Sergin' General is available in 50 solid colours specifically chosen for their blending tones so you can easily find a perfect match. It's wound on convenient, 3,000 yd. cones and will fit on your serger/overlocker comfortably. 

Sergin' General is now available here in the UK from Machine Quilter. Use the American site as a shop window and email Martha with your order. 

Festival Frenzy: Five days 'till the Festival of Quilts

5 days to go! We can't wait to see you. You can find us at stand A55 we're listed in the catalogue under 'J' for Juki. Come test drive one of the Juki Sewing Machines on our Machine Quilter frames. We've got a great selection of Superior Threads for you to browse, try and buy too.

To celebrate the Show we're hosting a social media give-away. We even made snazzy banners.

Sneaky peak of our banner for the show! 

Here's the bottom line...

Follow us on Instagram and Pinterest, and like us on Facebook while you're at the show for a free Bottom Line pre-wound bobbin! All you need is your smartphone or tablet and you can follow all our social media directly whilst at the show by just scanning the QR links on our banner.

Another sneak peak of the banner.

Get #FramedAtTheFestival!

Here's another giveaway: post a selfie of you with our frame to Instgram with the hashtag #FramedAtTheFestival for your chance to win one of our La Mer Machine Quilting DVDs. Tag @machinequilter, and you'll be entered into a draw. We'll announce the lucky winner after the show!

See you soon!

SuperBOBs - pre-wound Bobbins

True confessions. 

"I hate winding bobbins!" 

That's why I love the Bottom Line pre-wounds from Superior Threads. I know that some people just love winding their own bobbins and more power to them. Bottom Line comes in 3,000 yard cones  just perfect for gals that like to wind their own.

But my own bobbins often ended up wonky and usually I would mis-calculate how many were needed to complete my project.  I'd be stuck in the middle of quilting and need to stop and wind some more bobbins. Grrrr!! Anyway once I tried the SuperBOBs pre-wounds I was totally hooked and I've been using them ever since.

Bottom Line pre-wounds hold 118 yards of thread. That's more than twice as much as on the bobbins that you wind yourself. So I can quilt twice as far as I did before without running out of bobbin thread. These factory wound bobbins are even and perfectly tensioned too. They will run smoothly even at high speeds.

Have you ever noticed that plastic bobbins keep on spinning even after you stop? That can cause bird's nests underneath. These SuperBOB pre-wounds are cardboard sided which gives just the right amount of resistance to keep the bobbin from spinning on once you've stopped.

Bottom Line SuperBOB pre-wounds come in 46 colours. Whether you're looking for neutrals, pastels or brights,  you'll be able to find the perfect match for all your sewing, quilting, binding and appliqué projects.

Bottom Line real thread colour card £3.50 available from ore  shop Machine Quilter site 

Now we've got the Bottom Line pre-wounds
 up on our shop.machinequilter website.

You might get hooked too. Then you'll have to think of something else to do with your old metal bobbins! 

Brenda for Project Linus

Brenda Pack Project Linus Lincolnshire with Fantastico thread cones

Meet Brenda Pack. As the Project Linus coordinator for Lincolnshire, Brenda keeps busy quilting the many tops that come to Project Linus. Project Linus is a charity providing quilts for all sorts of children from babies to teenagers. Many people send in tops and quilting groups across the country meet up to sandwich the tops with fleece or backing and wadding and then sew on the binding. The completed quilts are passed on to all sorts of children who need the bit of the comfort that home-made quilts can give.

Brenda uses a SuperQuilter frame and a JUKI TL98P sewing machine

To keep up with the project Brenda uses a machine quilting frame and a JUKI TL98P semi-industrial straight stitch sewing machine. You can see the Nifty Grip speed control handles that Brenda uses instead of the foot pedal. The 1500 stitches-per-minute and the extra height and width under the arm help Brenda to finish many quilts quickly. The stack of tops at the front of the photo are waiting to be quilted and the stack at the back are already completed!

a recent project under the arm of the Juki TL98P 

Brenda finds that the right threads make a big difference too. The variegated Fantastico cones from Superior Threads are ideal for Project Linus Quilts. Brenda likes to use the Fantastico on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. Together these threads give a lovely and strong finish to the quilts. Brenda said:

" I bought my JUKI TL98P lockstitch sewing machine in January and went on your January retreat, since then I have quilted 52 tops using one cone of Bottom Line in silver which I used on all the quilts." 

Impressive! Brenda lives close enough to pop round and choose threads whenever she needs some new colours. If you live further away, the new Fantastico thread booklet just out at Machine Quilter   will make it easy to order all the new variegated colour-ways from the Fantastico range. So NEW it's not yet on the site. You can email or ring Martha with your order.

Project Linus UK has a Facebook page. Follow the link to see how you can join the project.

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.

Thread Wise

This post is about thread choices. I could have called it thread 'whys' as I'll be explaining which threads I used in this last quilt and why I used them.

I pieced the top with MasterPiece thread on top and in the bobbin. Why? Masterpiece is 100% extra-long staple , really grown in Egypt cotton. I like to match the fibre content of the thread and the fabric here in the piecing process. The pieced seams in a quilt are the weight bearing seams. Think about hanging up a completed quilt or shaking the wrinkles out of a quilt. What seams are bearing the most weight? In a house not all walls are load bearing walls. In a quilt not all stitches bear the same stress. Lots of people get their knickers in a twist about various types of quilting thread. But it is the pieced seams that are the stress bearing seams. And if we want to match the thread fibres to the fabric fibres, it is most important to do this for the pieced seams. MasterPiece will bear up well against the various stresses in the life of a quilt. With 75 gorgeous colours it's easy to get a good colour match. MasterPiece is a fine weight thread, not too heavy or bulky so it gives nice flat seams and sharp points. I find MasterPiece an ideal piecing thread.

MasterPiece comes in pre-wounds! I love pre-wounds because I hate winding bobbins. Pre-wounds can hold 3 times as much thread as the bobbins that you wind yourself and they work great in most sewing machines, my Janome Memory Craft 6600 work great with pre-wounds.

Because the cotton fibres are matched in the piecing thread I am free to use whatever threads suit my fancy for the machine quilting. For this project I've used Rainbows, a variegated trilobal polyester from Superior Threads. All the fibres that make up this thread are light reflecting which gives Rainbows a lovely shine to it. This particular thread is #803 Northern Lights.

I've used a pre-wound Bottom Line in the bobbin, a soft blue which disappears into the pieced backing fabric. Rainbows and Bottom Line are a machine quilting marriage made in heaven. They work beautifully together!

Finally, for sewing the binding by machine, I've used Sew Fine on top and a pre-wound Bottom Line in the bobbin. Then to hand sew the final stage of the binding I used a red Bottom Line to match the binding colour. The Bottom Line is just wonderful for hand sewing - it disappears into the fabric and it never knots up. I find it a real pleasure to hand sew with.

In summary, I've used a mixture of cotton and polyester threads in the quilt. The choices have to do with the piecing and quilting process as well as the look and durability of the end product. I'm confident that it will wash and wear well and I'm delighted with how it looks.