November 2008 - Posts

• June from Brother - My Island Journey

  It has been a busy several weeks of travel for me. For the past 12 days I have straddled the retail worlds of mass marketing and independent dealerships in Puerto Rico.  I have been to this island several times but this is the first time that I have visited a retailer other than International Sewing.  It was most interesting as it turns out.  During my first week here I got to host a Dreamscape for the Brother Quattro.  We had about 50 folks show up to learn more about the wonderful machine that they had been hearing about and of course they were happy to place their orders.  Several folks bought the machine before they even came to the event.  Like many of you in the US they must be patient when it comes to delivery.  A secondary part of this Friday evening event was a “show and tell.”   Many attendees brought the beautiful items that they have been sewing at home so they could share with friends and compete for prizes as well. Figure 1- contest winner There were plenty of winners but one gal that really made an impression has only been sewing for a few months.  Happily it has been with an Innovis 1500D.  When she showed an interest in sewing her mentor and manager at work recommended this machine and that she also start reading as much as she could about sewing and embroidery.  She did and I have to tell you the results are impressive. Figure 2-Heydee’s example using magazines to learn to sew Heydee (pictured in red) also brought her sewing “posse” along for moral support. Figure 3- International sewing friends The Brother dealer hosted a sewing school over the weekend and attendees took classes from me and Janice Ferguson.  Janice is a well respected Heirloom seamstress and the students loved using wide variety of Brother Machines to make her wonderful projects. As always they found it a joy to use the heirloom stitches and embroidery designs to make her special baby pillows and blankets.  Sewing for babies is quite popular on this island.  My classes focused on using your Brother machine to its fullest extent and of course I loved it every time they exclaimed, “I didn’t know that!”  One project that we made was a soft photo frame that can be found on the www.brothersews.com site under Projects- Laura’s Photo Frame. Figure 4-Laura’s photo frame Figure 5- beautiful little girl in a wonderful dress that her aunt made for her! The step in my island journey was to visit a several events being held during the annual WalMart Craft Fair.  Again more gals came who just learn more and meet new friends.  To any of you this should come as no surprise but it continues to amaze me at how many gals want to hang out with people who have the same interests as them.  They learn so much from each other and so much fun.  Below is a photo of one of my new friends Nydia Bermudez….Nydia was anxiously waiting for her new LB6770 PRW sewing and embroidery machine to arrive so that she could start making all kinds of embroidered gifts for her daughter! As it happened, Nydia had returned home to find that her machine had been delivered and she was thrilled to pieces. I almost forgot, she also ordered PE-Design Lite and she is ready to start being her own embroidery designer as well.  I love the fact that Brother has included tutorials with their embroidery software so you can learn at your own pace.  Nydia also told me that she had created a small sewing business for altering curtains and she now has 13 stores in Puerto Rico using this unique service.  I guess we are all fooled into thinking that everyone knows how to sew!  Figure 6- Nydia and June Notes: Some folks from other countries would like me to help them find places to learn how to use their new machine, unfortunately while I do get around; I am not able to make those types of recommendations.  The best bet would be to contact a local sewing or quilting guild.  Even if that doesn’t make sense to you, I am sure that you will be able to make some contacts at one of these meetings.  You will also find that there are several projects for your new embroidery machine posted on this site as well.   And don’t forget about doing research on the internet for sewing books.  Remember that is exactly how my new friends Heydee and Nydia learned to sew this year! Posted Nov 21 2008, 03:15 PM by JuneMellinger with 4 comment(s) Filed under: realize the dream, brother Quattro 6000D, Quattro, puerto rico

• June from Brother - Brother at the Houston Quilt Market and Festival

  Everyone is busy on so many counts at this time of year.  Some of you are changing over the house to have that warmer cozy look, others are visiting family members and still others are involved in a wide variety of political activities.  Whatever it is, it is keeping everyone busy and involved.  I just got back from Houston for the International Quilt Market and Festival. I have been doing this event for 14 years….whew!  I had to chuckle when I realized that for several years in a row I went to the same optician here, had a favorite nail salon and even knew the short cuts to get to the convention center. Today  I met some gals that have been coming here for 17 years, they use this show as a central meeting place and while they are at it, they are taking quilting classes and shopping for the newest products.  Below is a shot of me and some gals that I had just met at the show.  They had traveled from Virginia to the show.  They were so excited about the new machines from Brother all the the great projects that they could make.  At the show, Brother was also the host to two classrooms full of Innovis QC1000 machines.  One of the classes was a drop-in sewing room where anyone could stop by to finish up a project that they may have started in another room.  The gals loved it.  They could sew, chat and really get to know the features of this exciting machine.  That afternoon I walked into a room and there were 8 gals circled around this machine to watch a gal having the time of her life doing free motion quilting with the QC1000.  The other thing that I found to be most interesting was that little Hawaiian gal who had just received her Quattro machine before she left her beloved island to come to Texas.  Aileen could not wait to get home to try all the new features that we had shown her here at the show plus she wanted to use the Brother metallic thread she had just bought. Aileen is a wonderful cheerleader for our threads.  She even has her friends on the mainland buy Brother thread for her and send it to her in Hawaii.  Also met up with an old friend Anthony Giampa at the Vermillion Stitchery booth at the show.  You might not know this but the cross stitch designs that are in the NV4000D and 4500D are from Vermillion.  Their creator Donna Giampa also did a series of design collections that we used to sell at Brother as well.  As you can see by the attached…I loved her sock monkeys!  Donna is, of course, a fellow blogger here!  Another great Innovis QC1000 story comes from a quilt show that I attended in Atlanta last week.  I met George Siciliano and his wife Virginia while they were teaching their miniature quilting techniques in the Brother Studio.  These folks are so talented and so modest.  They are the first husband and wife team to have quilts “hung” in the museum of quilts in Paducah, KY.  George is in love with the QC1000.  He makes the most amazing quits that are generally less than 12” square.  He manages to fit 30 tiny pieces of fabric in a 1” square…honest!  The heartwarming thing for me is that he does this with our machine.  He calls it the Rolls Royce.  He likes the machine because it is so quiet and intuitive. George loves the fact that he can just sit down at the machine and start sewing at this quiet and spacious machine.  George also likes the fact that he can use the extended worktable attached to the machine, to put his quilt pieces in the correct order for sewing and that he can sew without the foot controller attached.  George has neuropathy in his legs from diabetes and as a result he prefers to slide the speed controller to it lowest speed and use the conveniently located “start/stop” button. I tried that method of sewing a quilt myself and I was surprised at how quickly I became comfortable with the process.   The quilt below is called “Illusions” and George has won an honorable mention at this quilt show. By the  way, it has 4219 pieces in this 11 inch square….no lie.  While in Houston, I filmed a show for QuiltersTV.com called Tool School.  We used a bed and breakfast for the filming.  It was a pretty setting.  We had a busy morning of filming the Innovis Quattro.  I didn’t think I could talk about this machine for 60 minutes but I did.  There is just so much to say and show.  I have to admit that I was beat like the street when I was done.  I am going over some of the questions that many of you have posed and will try to give you some quick answers: New dealers in the Tampa, Florida area- I just conducted new dealer training at Citrus Sewing in the Ocala area. Maybe you can give the gal some instructions over the internet! To Australia:  I just can’t get my threads and needles to work right.  I surely would want you to use Brother thread but I have to be honest….everyone makes good machine embroidery thread today.  You also use good needles, I use Schmetz all the time.  So what is going wrong…I would suggest that you be sure that you have threaded the machine properly, use good bobbin thread (save using pre-wound bobbins for the future, for today use ours), use a fresh embroidery needle (start out with 12’s)  and don’t forget stabilizer.  Practice on denim or cotton twill and then move on to t-shirts.  Read your instruction book too! Why does it take so long for machines to arrive?  Lots of reasons: how many we receive, who ordered machines first, how machines did the dealer order, etc.  It’s a challenge on both sides of the fence. We are still producing the NV4500D.  We never produced the NV4000 without Disney.   Best Wishes, June Posted Nov 06 2008, 12:33 PM by JuneMellinger with 9 comment(s) Filed under: quilting, brother Quattro 6000D, Quattro, houston quilt festival, vermillion stitchery