Sunday, July 31, 2011

500 Books Titles - All About Quilting!



We just hit the 500 titles mark this past week at our sister website, http://www.discountquiltbooks.com/. ( For now it is linked directly with http://www.laptophoops.com/ .) My wife, Merry has taken over the site. I can't enter all the books in the system and build quilt frames at the same time. In the last two weeks, she has doubled the assortment that is available for you to browse through. We still have another 500 titles to enter!!! Last weeks hot selling was Dating Fabrics - A color guide from 1800 to 1960. This book has gone out of print and we bought everything the local wholesaler had in stock. With the amazing power of our facebook fanpage, they practically sold out instantly. We have now ordered the book above, Dating Fabrics 2, from the publishing company and should have it later this week. It should be another big hit.



Our blog is titled hand quilting, well we started out with hand quilting frames and expanded into other areas. For those of you who are hand quilting addicts, type "hand" in the search bar on the site. You will be treated to many titles from well known quilters in the industry. The book pictured above, Loving Stitches by Jeana Kimball, is another closeout special at 50% off the cover price.




The Farmer's Wife by Laurie Aaron Hird is another best seller on our site. It contains letters from the 1920's farm wives and 111 quilt blocks they inspired. Also included is a bonus CD with 106 Piecing Templates. Here is a sample of the captivating introduction to the book.



The perception that city dwellers had of farm women in the 1920's was generally not favorable. It was commonly believed that the farm wife was a drudge and a slave, miserable with her life, and anxious-if not determined-to see her daughter escape from the farm when she was grown. The Farmer's Wife, a popular women's magazine of the day, with 750,000 subscribers, believed that this view was far from the truth.

"In January 1922, the editors of the magazine asked their reader the following question: "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you , in the light of your own experience, want her to marry a farmer?"

The editors asked participant to "consider this question in all its angles. Talk it over with your husband, your children and your friends. Consider not only the financial side of the question but the moral and physical viewpoint and the things that make for real happiness. You wish the best things in the world for your children. Would your daughter as a framer's wife be better off-all things considered-than she would be in the city or town?"

The magazine offered prized for the best 68 answers submitted... and by the end of the contest, the editors were overwhelmed with responses, over 7,000. Find out what 94 percent of the wives answered.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

New Square Hoops for hand quilting and so much more...

Well here it is... one of our first frames made with a square hoop. Over the years, I have had requests for a square design, but could never locate a quality source of hoops. I tried to steam bend my own, with little to no luck. Recently, I did find a source of high quality German Hoops.





These are awesome to work with. The advantages are easy to see. The square hoop is the one to use when quilting borders and blocks inside the quilt top. You can secure three sides of your quilt equally, and have the edge of the border running through the center of the hoop and quilt all the way to the edge. In addition, when a block fits inside the hoop, it allows you to quilt one block at a time, without moving the hoop.






It looks like this will be one of our best sellers. Our facebook fanpage received more comments and "likes" than any posting we had all year. Sales in the first week wiped out my stock of 14" hoops and I had to reorder almost instantly. Pictured above is beautiful quilt top in a 14" frame that one of our first customers is working on. She requested a Vented version and I was happy to make it and add it to our assortment.


Oh, I can make them in 12",14" and 16" sizes and they are interchangeable with any of our lap bases and floor frame. I have not uploaded every size and style to the website, so just send us a quick email if you do not see the size or model you want.


Our email is laptophoops@comcast.net or our phone number is 781-248-7291. Our home page is www.laptophoops.com.