This little blog keeps you posted on our unique lap frames for hand quilting. From time to time we share a quilting tip or trick or even a "How to" video. In addition, we carry one of the largest selections of quilting books available online so we often will list our new releases.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Free Hand Quilting Laptop Hoop Frame Contest and News!
A new contest was also just launched. Share your favorite quilting tip or trick and you are instantly entered to win a free laptop hoop frame. Enter before Dec. 20th, 2011 for the random drawing.
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We had a contest winner on Dec. 20th, Nancy from Texas. She won a new 14" Square Laptop Hoop. Congrats to Nancy!
As always, please pass our links on to a friend. Your support of this small family run business is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Harry and Merry Barnett
http://www.laptophoops.com/
Facebook Fan Page
Friday, September 30, 2011
Quilted Bags - Featherweight Tables - Square Hoops
New items are always coming at Barnett's Laptop Hoops! This week we started designing carry-all bags for our lap frames and the new Singer Featherweight tables. Trina, a good friend and a proud owner of a few of our lap frames has taken on the challenge of designing these beautiful and functional storage bags. She will be keeping us posted with pictures and plans. Here is a quick sneak peek at a prototype bag that holds our little 12" Collapsible Travel Frame.
Singer Featherweight Extension Tables
Here is a little peek at our "Unfinished" FW table. In the next couple days I will be staining a few of these up in various colors. I can't wait to see what it looks like with a beautiful golden oak stain an a few coats of clear. Recently, I found this website that has beautiful decals that you could apply to the table. Take a look at them on this Link...
http://www.keelersales.com/servlet/Detail?no=716
Square Hoops
These little hoops have been outselling our round hoops almost 2 to 1 these days. I actually ran out of stock this week and our wholesaler has them on backorder. I didn't want to wait or hold up our customers orders any longer - so I fired up the steamer and tried making them myself. It takes about 2 to 3 days to make one hoop, but it came out perfect. These square hoops have an advantage over traditional round hoops. This is the frame to use when quilting blocks or borders. You can secure three sides of you quilt equally, and have the edge of your border running through the center of your hoop and quilt all the way to the edge. When quilting blocks, you can quilt one block at a time without moving the hoop, since most blocks will completely fit within the square. No wonder why these hoops are selling so fast.
http://www.laptophoops.com/
http://www.discountquiltbooks.com/
Facebook Fan Page
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Thumbs up for the Mighty Travel Iron!
Monday, September 12, 2011
New Travel Frame from Barnett's Laptop Hoops - SEW COOL!
Step 2.
Clip on legs.
Step 3.
Clip on the hoop
Add quilt!
Let us know what you think. Post a comment here or on our facebook fan page.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
New Featherweight 221 Table from Barnett's Laptop Hoops
Please post comments on the bottom of the blog page or on our facebook Fan Page. I would love to hear any ideas or feedback.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Sew many new items at Barnetts Laptop Hoops / Discount Quilt Books
The thimble is a Colonial Lady Fingers and has received some great reviews. It is an open top thimble which is great if you have long finger nails. The yellow cushioned surface grips the needle and gives you a greater stitch control. It comes in 3 sizes.
The desk threader is another nifty little item that got great reviews when I posted it on our facebook fan page. This little desk threader from Clover will make threading those needles so much easier. If you are over 40, those eyes just aint working the way they use to work and a gizmo like this comes in handy. It is as simple as pushing a button and it is threaded!
What else is new??? How about books? There are too many books that have recently been entered into our website that I can't even imagine starting a list, but here are three new releases from the publishers. The Best of Fons & Porters "Tabletop Quilts" and "Scrap Quilts" along with "Make Your Bed".
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Small design change on our Original Design Laptop Hoop.
I will try to post some tip links from time to time, to keep the blog true to its original purpose - hand quilting. Todays link is all about thimbles. I have been fascinated by how many types of thimbles are on the market and how difficult it is to find a perfect fit. This post on the Quilting Board, will help you improve your needlework or at least your sore finger tips.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
New releases for Discount Quilt Books.com and maybe a new Ring Frame too!
Harry Barnett
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Featherweight 221 Book - Third Edition by Nancy Johnson-Srebro
The book I have featured today on the blog is Featherweights 221 - The Perfect Portable And Its Stitches Across History. The author, Nancy Johnson-Srebro started collecting Featherweights in 1990 when her husband put no just one, but two under the Christmas tree. She instantly fell in love with the little portable. Years later, she published her first book on the subject and it has now been revised to a third edition. If you own or are thinking about purchasing a Featherweight of your own, this is a must have book for your resource collection.
Here is a little introduction...
Sunday, August 14, 2011
New lighter frame designs from Barnett's Laptop Hoops!
I just wanted to share a couple of updates that I have made recently to the lap frames. Our Sit On Base has as slightly different set up. The first change is 3 small holes that I drilled in the pivot point. This now allows you to adjust the height of the base up or down about two inches. Prior designs had only one fixed height setting. This should help you find a comfortable height to set up your lap frame. The second change is less wood in the construction which means less weight. It may not sound like much, but I eliminated a redundant piece and cut another a little smaller and now it weighs 13 oz. less! I have also made the same change to our floor stands since they work with the same parts as our Sit On bases. The one in the picture above has the updates.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Dating Fabrics 2 - A Color Guide from 1950 - 2000
Monday, August 1, 2011
Free Hand Quilting Lap Frame from Barnett's Laptop Hoops - Enter to win!
Enter to win a free Barnett's Laptop Hoops 14" Sit On Frame.
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...
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.