Events, Tools of the Trade

Alice in Wonderland Tea Party

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We’ve started a Juki Club here in the UK for people passionate about quilting. We created the Juki Club website to give online inspiration and support. We also wanted to have special Juki Club events so that we could meet up in person. For our very first Juki Club event, we hosted an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party down at the Salisbury Franklins Sewing Shop. We had Juki sewing machines, quilting machines and overlockers for everyone to try. Lots of us dressed up! Here are many of the Salisbury Franklins’ shop staff.

atp52Ikuko Leska is our Juki Club team leader. She came from the Juki Central Europe headquarters in Poland to help launch our first Juki Club event. Doesn’t she look great in the hat! Chris Roberts, in the Mad Hatter suit is part of our film team; he came with Martha Milne from Lincolnshire.  Nathan Franklin, another Juki Club team member came over from the Colchester area with extra Juki sewing, quilting and overlocker machines so there would be plenty on hand for the day.

atp6We had free Wonderland themed projects for people to make in the morning.

Everyone could choose from all-ready-prepared applique cups & saucer projects with gorgeous Alice in Wonderland fabrics. atp2
We thought it would be a good excuse to see all the fabulous features on the Juki DX7 sewing machines.

The new float function on the  Juki DX7 was brilliant for stitching these appliqued blocks.

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 We had all sorts of fun threads for people to try; 100% extra-long- staple Egyptian cotton, variegated tri-lobal polyester, metallics that actually worked, kimono silk and even glow-in-the-dark thread.

At the end people could take home a little project, or two.

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Below Ikuko and Sally are comparing notes on the Juki TL 2200 QVP Long Arm.

atp8  Ikuko and Martha are setting up the projects for the Juki DX7 computerised sewing machine.

Alice tea party 1 The TL QVP Mini straight stitch machine works beautifully on the Machine Quilter frames. It’s perfect for people who don’t have the space for a long arm.

atp10  It was good having the long arm and the mid-arm quilting frames side by side so that people could try both.

atp11Many people who came to the Juki Club event had never tried a quilting machine before. It was fun to demonstrate how the quilting frames worked and guide people through their first try on big long arm and the smaller model.

atp29What would a tea party be without cakes and drinks and strawberries? We had painting-the-roses-red cupcakes that tasted as good as they looked and heart lollies for the kids!

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Experienced staff were on hand to demonstrate the various top of the line Juki sewing, quilting and overlocker machines. Customers could ask questions, see demonstrations and run the Juki machines through their paces.atp34   As good as it is to get online information so easily, nothing beats the hands on approach!

atp39Jill Rosemary Brennan brought this gorgeous quilt to show us that she’d recently completed on one of our retreats using the TL QVP Mini sewing machine on our 8-foot Machine Quilter frame. Jill’s an art quilter with a studio in Brighton. She’s only had her quilting frame since last summer and she’s already completed several gorgeous quilts!

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IMG_2515In the afternoon, Martha hosted a free-motion quilting post card workshop. We had 10 participants. Each participant received a Little Box of Sunshine full of Alice themed fabrics, needles, thread and embellishments.Everyone had a chance to do some free-motion quilting with the Juki TL QVP Mini lockstitch machines on our quilting frames. We taught some new line designs and completed the Alice in Wonderland themed postcards on the Juki DX7 computerised machines. It was a lovely group of ladies! We enjoyed tea and cakes, of course.  Ladies left with hands full and smiling faces.

IMG_2279A big thanks to everyone who came along and especially all the people who helped make our first Juki Club event a day to remember! It was exciting to to meet together and share our love of quilting. Let’s do it again soon!

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