What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I consider myself to be a problem solver or a fixer, without the dodgy associations of crime or MI6.

My children have often commented that they just want me to listen sympathetically, rather than come up with ingenious solutions to whatever problem they have. 

This week a non local customer, who was on a fishing trip, came into work first thing to present me with a lovely bunch of flowers. I had helped her to fix her jammed longarm machine remotely by telling her how to get everything unstuck. 

Someone brought in a battered vintage Bernina that she had inherited ...

After a long Bank Holiday weekend it is easy to get confused about what day of the week it is. Nella is still staying and I only worked for 2 days before going to Cardiff on a 2 day training course for a new job working remotely on Fridays. I will be answering emails for the Singer sewing machine helpline and trouble-shooting problems. Singer and Bernina are actually part of one UK distribution company so it is not that weird for me to have a side hustle involving a different brand. 

I brought home a “heavy duty” model to familiarise ...

My large quilt guild, Pride of the Prairie, had it's quilt show this past weekend.  We only have about 60 members, but 36 of those members entered 282 quilts & items.  I showed the 17 items I entered in the previous post.  I also had a booth with 14 of my vintage sewing machines (12 were hand cranks).

Here are some of the quilts from the show.  This first quilt is just one of the group quilts that the guild made for Quilts of Valor this past year (we made 3 Churn Dash quilts plus a few others, too).

Sharon ...

It was a positively boring day yesterday! The third-level Microsoft support called, and she took about 5 minutes to poke around my Outlook setup, then decided it needed to be escalated to a higher level! Yikes!!! But Microsoft and Google don't seem to like talking to each other, and there's an issue with syncing. Now I understand why it takes so long for my email to sync - that's always been an issue, but I never thought much about it. If Microsoft is willing to spend time on it, I'm happy to oblige! I have another call ...

I only worked a 3 day week so I could have 2 days off with Freya. She was working her job from home with Nessie’s help and it was so nice to have some company. She took Nessie for midday walks and cooked something delicious most evenings. We made a successful vegan apple cake and even delicious vegan Scottish tablet. 

It was great to have help to do some jobs that I had been putting off like hanging up some string lights (which have only come on once so far) and repotting some house plants. We had a blustery ...

I had a nicely varied week at work with a couple of customer quilts and teaching sisters to sew on their half term holiday. I really enjoyed tutoring the young people but could have done without the one who put on a baby voice, who did not particularly like being instructed;)

I am really not a fan of getting home to long dark evenings and dog walks with a torch. I was not in the mood for doing anything much after work which annoyed me. It was far too wet and dark to cut the grass and rake up leaves ...

Buying a new sewing machine can feel overwhelming—there are so many brands, features, and price points to consider! To make things easier, here are my top 10 tips for choosing your very first machine.

1. Buy the Best Sewing Machine You Can Afford

Cheaper machines often have plastic parts that won’t hold up over time. Also, some of them are not built very well and will fall apart after a few uses. New and inexpensive machines (I'm looking at you - Amazon) may work for a while but can be frustrating and short-lived. That said, don’t overspend ...

Top of my weekend job list was to paint over the water damage in my bedroom, having had a nice long hot summer to dry out. However, we have had some “proper” rain bursts this week and the wall was wet again. I have not really encountered horribly wet weather since living here, unlike the relentlessly wet winter the year before. Everything is so dry that the trees are dropping their leaves very early and when it rains it dries up almost straight away. I have ordered a waterproof raincoat (second-hand from Vinted), not just a shower Mac. I have ...

Taking photos of sewing machines is not as easy as you might imagine. Quilt Direct had a media and marketing apprentice for a while and she did most of the social media posts but I am now responsible for the “on the fly” studio posts. I had to take pictures of the new Bernina 7 Series Pro machines but they looked grey or had glare because I was not getting the lighting right. There is a bit of a weird phenomenon where videos of the machines can be flickery so I had to turn off their LED lights. I am ...

I can’t believe that I am already back from FoQ! The journey from Devon is only around 4 hours including stops, rather than a 2-day marathon to NE Scotland. One minute we were setting up the full range of Bernina longarms and a few short days later we were packing everything up again. 

I felt that this year the show was buzzing again with more international visitors, great quilts and enthusiastic traders. It seemed as almost as busy as it was pre-Covid. With 2 large halls in use, there was plenty of space and places to stop and reflect ...

Don’t be too shocked – I have done some actual sewing at last! At work I did a very nice Liberty star quilt for a customer and finally got to grips with the L890 project, “Bloom & Grow”. There were parts that I really liked on the project but others that I would probably change if I do it again or teach it as a Quilt-Along. Mainly, it is not super accurate but it is fast. The point of the project is to experience lots of techniques that the L890 excels at but sometimes I felt that it would have been ...

I am blogging in my garden! While farmers are no doubt worrying about potential drought conditions, I am basking in sunshine. I got my plant troughs filled which has created another chore for me keeping them watered. I had to take down one of my window boxes because it was dribbling mud all down the wall. Having been warned that removing the dangling wires would cause certain death by electrocution, I decided to disguise them with fake wisteria. It does need more strands to bulk it out but I think it looks jolly. 

At work I have cracked on with ...

My long anticipated Art & Stitch retreat week was a success! The amount of preparation that I did paid off and I managed to pull off the illusion of being an expert on a complex digitising program. The folk who came along all gelled nicely as a group and all went home as far more confident users of the Q-Matic with Art & Stitch computerised quilting system. 

It was a beautifully sunny week here in Devon (nearly Cornwall) so it was a novelty to have a mid-week day off. I did not head for the seaside but pottered around at home then ...

Nessie and I went on a charity shop mission to find Victorian style pictures for my arsenic green sitting room. I could not resist a barmy cross-stitch of kittens in frilly dresses. I hasten to add that it will be part of a “gallery” collection and not a main feature!

My DIY ventures continued with me spending an entire evening attempting to put up a curtain wire for curtains across my wardrobe area. After a lot of dropping tiny screws and shimmying up and down my step stool, I finished the job which would have been better attempted with 2 ...

I have no idea how people find time for hobbies in the evening after work. I am getting used to the idea of getting up at early every day, not wasting time on social media, getting ready for the day, going for a dog-walk and making sure I leave on time for work. The journey takes about 45 minutes and the worst part is the single track, bendy, hilly, bumpy stretch until I reach the main road. We had a final burst of summer this week and it was too hot to take Nessie to work if she had to ...

Thank goodness my great friend, Mo decided she would help me get organised for my move to Devon because without her I would be running around like a headless chicken. We always were a good team when it came to us having adventures so we shrink wrapped, packed, chucked stuff out, took things to the Red Cross shop, and did some wheeler-dealing at a vintage emporium. I have also been selling things on Facebook – some very popular items and many where the prospective buyers did not turn up. Gradually though, I have made enough for my van hire!

As if ...

I first attended FoQ in 2006, missed out 2007, can’t remember whether I went in 2009 and 2020 was cancelled which means I have been to 17 (I think) and at least 14 of those years I was working as a longarm demonstrator. 

Birmingham is often hot while FoQ is on and set-up day was around 30 celsius so we all melted as we got the stand ready. Thank goodness for the good humour of the UK Bernina team and everything was made ready, with just a few swear words, for the crowds on Thursday.

Thursday and Friday were ...

I am trying to sell all sorts of things on Facebook Marketplace. After some to-ing and fro-ing I have at least sold my caravan. This is both sad and a relief. I spent a lot of time and money doing it up but I have not used it at all this year and would only have gone on solo expeditions which I don’t think is as fun. The new owners want to go on occasional trips but mainly use it as a nail salon.

My second longarm machine is also up for sale because I don’t use really ...

After a weekend of torrential rain, the sun finally came back out on Monday and started drying everything out. Luckily, no water flooded into my workshop this time. The river was incredibly high when Nessie and I went for a walk. Instead of being a once in 20 years occurrence, it seems to happen annually now. 

I set myself ups for a busy week, knowing that I am going to Norfolk later this week. I did some online teaching, in person teaching and a couple of customer quilts. 

In a phone conversation with a Bernina Q-matic owner, she mentioned that ...