QuiltBlog

Well, I am stil working on the quilt.

I worked on the show quilt until 8 pm last night and have been working all day today.

As apart of my postings here, I thought a glimpse into the many, many technical support issues I handle would be helpful to everyone. Names of course will be changes or ommited to protect the innocent. *wink* So I will post these glimpses with the term "TechCall" in the title. Here we go!

I'm going to my studio to work on another wonderful show quilt designed and appliqued by Cheri Meineke-Johnson. 

Yesterday, my husband and I drove to Pocatello, ID, to see Dr. West. He is an expert  in Prolozone therapy.

The last two weeks have been extremely busy for me taping another series of Linda's Longarm Quilting. I have been so blessed to have had Gina Perkes, Deloa Jones, Kimmy Brunner, Laura Heine, and Cathy Franks here at the lodge to share their wonderful talents with all thequiltingschool.com viewers.

A vocal minority has caused alot of discssion about the topic of pattern encryption for the Statler Stitcher. The question comes down to this, "Is it worth the hassle?" Well... here's the answer and details.

We often learn much from studying what not to do. In the last issue, we covered the aspects of a proper and good stitch. This is powerful when achieving a great looking stitch out of a machine.  This article will cover what can lead to a poor stitch quality. Most issues can be divided into one of three areas; Operator, Material Quality, Sewing Mechanism Fail Points. The following information is set up in the order of frequency. In other words the mostly common problems are listed first, and so on.

Hi Everyone,

I am busily preparing for the longarm classes in Houston this year. I am very excited to see many of my friends.

If handed a gizmo or gadget and asked for my opinion, my first question would be, “Well, what is it suppose to do?”. Knowing the way something is designed to work is the first step to understanding how to make it work well. This month I decided to give a brief overview of the elements that work together to create a good stitch. The beauty of the sewing machine is that the basics of getting a great stitch are the same for the smallest sewing machines, feature filled embroidery system and longarm quilting machine. This anatomy of a good stitch includes the bottom thread, top thread, stitch mechanism timing and the sewing foot.

Computers eventually become outdated, have components fail, or loose their "POSHness" and we need to replace them. This can happen with the computers connected to the Statler Systems.

Here I am expanding my techie knowledge at Brother international tech training. It’s actually pretty fun to take sewing machines apart and learn all the gory tech details. So bring your sewing and embroidery machines! 

Here are the patterns for the Palace Basics class offered at trade shows and in store at Linda’s Electric Quilters and Rocky Mountain Electric Quilters. Happy Statlering!

I have taught an AutoSketch course and sold many workbooks. I am excited to help many quilters learn to use AutoSketch.  Here is the list of files used in those course, for all you quiltgeeks!

From time to time, longarm quilters email me questions about their quilting. I am so happy for these questions. It keeps me in touch with the quilting world and helps me analyze what instructions to prepare for longarm quilters. Just recently, I was asked this question by Patty:

Anyone who knows me, knows of my obsession with Apple computer.  I just happen to also enjoy the Statler Stitcher… along with digitizing stuff on a computer.  I have been perplexed ever since I was introduced to this industry with the lack of Apple and Adobe influence.  After all, those are two BIG names in the creative and artistic worlds.

I had a wonderful opportunity this summer to travel to Castletown, Ireland, and teach at the European Machine Quilters Showcase (EMQS). Beryl Cadman is the organizer of this event and does an excellent job. We are all grateful for this wonderful venue for quilters all over Europe.

I have received many requests on how to run a Statler Stitcher using an Apple computer.  Here’s a quick video showing how.  If you have any questions… post to my forum.

Tension is probably the top concern for quilters, since we have to deal with it all the time.  There is no “prefect” setting for all cases.  However, there are guidelines to follow that will get you to a great result.  Here are the factors that effect your stitch quality:

I have been receiving questions from many quilters lately about the Teflon washers called Bobbin Genie. I have also been reading posts on this and other lists about this product.  Many would like to know if this is a good idea.  Well… to answer this, let’s take a look at what goes on in the bobbin, and what the washer does.