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 brand new Facebook group for those who have a Handi Quilter longarm or a Pfaff powerquilter 16.0 but who haven't been on their Foundation Workshop yet. With the restrictions on travel and running workshops we were only able to run our Foundation Workshop in March and September in 2020. For those who couldn't come or who bought their machine after the last workshops ran we can now offer support, training and education through a private group run by Abigail Sheridan de Graaff, our Handi Quilter educator. There is a social element to the group so next week we'll be running an introductory meet session on Zoom.
The Facebook group won't replace the Foundation Workshop. Coming to our showroom will still be an option for those who would like to come to the workshops when they are announced. More details will be available after Easter 2021 on when they are available and how to book. If you think you should have received an invitation to the new Virtual Workshop group and haven't please email us at quilt@pinholequilting.co.uk
We were all beginners once...
On our Facebook Live on Saturday 20th March at 11am we'll be running through some examples of what it feels like to be a beginner and how we can get beyond the inevitable comparisons to more experienced quilters or the frustrations of not understanding how to get the results you expect or would like.
We'll talk about your first quilt on your machine and why it's important to choose the "right quilt" as your first quilt.
Sharing the experiences that we had and the feedback from other customers, it's important that I share my own early wobbly bits of quilting. Then you'll hopefully realise you are not alone.
This is the label from my first quilt quilted on a longarm - a Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen. The quilt top was created was at a Cabot Quilting Retreat with quilt teacher Marianne Fons. It was a two-person quilt as Chris Porter sewed a few blocks while she was running the retreat and I did a few when I wasn't running the in-house quilt shop. (At the same retreat Caryl Bryer Fallert was teaching and I bought one of her amazing quilts.)
I notice there is no date on the quilt but it was probably quilted around 10 years (and made 20 years ago!)
We'll tell the story of quilting this quilt on Facebook Live but here are some close-ups so you'll understand more about the story.
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| Look from a distance |
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| Stand well back |
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| A few thread bloopers |
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| Tension needs a little work! |
If you're familiar with the "Change Curve" you'll understand the timeline of what happens when you get a new toy like a longarm quilting machine. If you are not familiar with it we'll explain what happens when something like a longarm lands and why understanding that will help you on your Longarm journey.
Learning a new skill isn't something that we regularly do as we get older but embracing the uncertainty and skill building is all part of the process. We would love to help you along your personal longarm learning curve.
New Products..
Look out for the exciting new products that have just landed at Pinhole Quilting! They'll be up on our shopping basket website www.handiquilter.co.uk soon and I'll be doing some demonstrations of how we use them live on Facebook -
I think I"ve been at every one of these stages this week on my Moxie! lol Did pretty well with first 2 quilts, then totally messed up a mini quilt!
ReplyDeleteHaha! I'm sure you are not alone Sue! I even saw two of the Handi Quilter educators confess to making some rookie errors this week. It's important to realise that a lot of people will go through the change curve and that frustration and stages like denial are all part of the process. We're here to help so shout out if you ever need help. The FB groups are a great resource but equally we're available for individual issues.
DeleteI'm my own worst enemy! I have quilts basted & ready to go but ... trimmed because it was before I decided Moxie was joining the family! So I've been trying to baste pieces all around the edges so they can go on the frame - not always succesful! I hate to take them apart as I would have to buy more backing & batting for each project! lol
DeleteYou can put them on the frame but you might want to baste them some more before you quilt them. Just float on two rails (attach to the take up rail). It's not easy though. Try with a small one and you may do all your learning on the first one!
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