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