Longarm Learning Curve

-

My First post

Why start a blog?

I'm a Longarm Quilter. I love drawing and painting too. Photography is a passion and I've been lucky enough to be a professional wedding photographer. I've been a part of the most incredible and beautiful weddings. Wedding photography is a dream job with the most amazing "in the moment" moments! 

So, creativity is something that I enjoy being in and surrounded by every day. I absolutely love working with our customers and genuinely get a huge kick out of helping them achieve their own creative potential. 

For my own work, it's not possible or always appropriate for me to post quilting stuff that I'm working on. However, I'd like to share some of my projects, things I'm working through as a quilter, new products that aren't necessarily things we sell but I want to share and personal projects that I'm working on both as a quilter and an artist.

So, this blog is about some of the things that are of interest to me as I progress along my own personal Longarm Learning Curve.  

We'll see how it progresses. No goals, no aims. 

Just this.

Who am I?
I'm Liz Holpin. I run a business with my husband, Pete, called Pinhole Quilting.

Setting up on the set of a Live TV show to demo a Longarm Quilting machine
 

Pinhole Quilting isn't a style of quilting, it's just a play on words of our last name - Holpin. Our first business is in photography so Pinhole Images was a great name for that. Pinhole Quilting seemed like a good name for our longarm quilting business.

Quilting Passions
I absolutely LOVE thread. It's my paint box. It provides a rainbow of colour, texture and line that can be twisted and morphed, layered and stitched to create. 

Creating something like this Dream Big panel gives me the opportunity to play with the huge range of Glide threads that we stock. One of the memorable moments for me was getting in the first Glide 1000m thread rack into our front room when we'd just started the business - Christmas!!!

Dream Big Neon


Gorgeous 1000m cones of Glide thread


And now it's in our Showroom together with the whole range of 5000m Glide - Christmas, New Year and my birthday all together!

A small selection of the 5000m Glide threads! 




I discovered Glide thread on a trip to Houston Quilt Festival in 2013 thanks to Filtec (also known as Hab and Dash) putting a sample of their Glide thread in the goody bag for the workshop I took on machine quilting with Kimmy Brunner.  This was my Facebook post at the time. I can tell I was psyched from the class from my comment at the time!




I loved the Glide thread we had used in class so we met with Filtec at the show and before we knew it we were selling their thread and people were loving it too! 

Kimmy taught such a great Feathers workshop. I knew our Longarm customers would really enjoy it so at the end of class I asked Kimmy if she would be interested in coming over to the UK to teach for us. She said "Yes" or was it "Heck YES!!!" and since then Kimmy's been over to teach with me several times. Always FAB-U-LOUS! Always FUN!!

So, now when I need to pick some threads for my projects I get to choose from all these - just a small shortlist for this audition session.
 

So this post serves as a short introduction to my new blog. 

Let's quilt!

Location: Unit 22, Highgrove Farm, Seaford Ln, Pinvin, Pershore WR10 2LF, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Glide Thread 40wt and 60wt - It's our Favourite! Find out why.

-
Image
Abigail Sheridan de Graaff is a Handi Quilter Educator and Professional Longarm Quilter. From her quilting studio in Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire Abigail uses a Handi Quilter Amara 20" longarm machine with the computerised Pro-Stitcher system to complete her own as well as customer quilts through her business Cut&Alter.   In this blog feature Abigail explores Glide 40wt and 60wt thread, the quilter's palette. But as you'll discover, Glide thread is not just for quilting. Our Glide Thread Club launched in 2020 - you can build the entire Glide 40wt thread collection with the 27 sets of 9 1000m cones. No threads are repeated so you can confidently purchase knowing you won't have two the same!  For more details visit the Thread Club pages on our website - Glide Thread Club. Before I bought my longarm machine I have to admit I knew nothing about thread, although I was not aware of this shortcoming!  Basically I bought whatever was in the local shop if it wa...
Read more

How a stitch is formed. Understand skipping stitches and shredding on a longarm machine.

-
Image
Shredding Thread, Skipped Stitches and Stitch Formation - Explained by Liz Holpin, Pinhole Quilting There is nothing more frustrating than when you're quilting along and you find your thread is skipping stitches, the thread is shredding or breaking. It can really affect your quilting mojo!  You check you thread and your needle and can't find out what is wrong. So, let's look at what the components are of skipping, shredding and the longarm needle. We'll also consider some aspects of the thread and what might be happening there.  We'll also cover Timing, Needles and in particular the High Speed or MR Needles. We hope that with this knowledge you will be able to analyse what is happening with your machine and fix your skipped stitches with less frustration so that you can get on and quilt! This information is for Handi Quilter machines. Much of this content is taken from the Technical Guidance notes written by Glen Salter at Handi Quilter Technical Support and is copy...
Read more

Facebook Live - 20th March 2021 - Words of Encouragement and Quilt Inspiration Part 2

-
Image
 I was struck this week by the importance of words of encouragement.  I know plenty of parents who have spent the early part of 2021 encouraging and cajoling their children to do their school work at home. Sometimes the roles are reversed and children are persuading their elderly parents to keep exercising despite the difficulties of lockdown. We all know how important words of encouragement can be, particularly if we are feeling isolated. Motivation becomes more difficult. It's one of the reasons why we have Facebook Groups like Longarm Learning Curve for Handi Quilter owners. You may not know it exists but within the group are all the previous HQ Owners in the UK (and worldwide HQ Owners can also join). The admins in the group are me (Liz), Lynda Jackson, Handi Quilter Ambassador and Educator and Nel Eyre a Handi Quilter Owner. We ensure the advice and guidance is on point and relevant to the group but otherwise no question is silly, stupid or unimportant. There is also a br...
Read more