Small design change on our Original Design Laptop Hoop.

Small design changes...

As of 8/15/2011 I will install the magnets onto the base of all Original Design Frames. This will make it so much easier for future customers to upgrade a frame to a model that spins and tilts. No longer will you have to screw a conversion kit magnet plate onto the bottom.

As of today, our sister website, Discount Quilt Books has over 650 books listed!!! My wife, Merry has done an incredible job adding books to the site on a daily basis. If you have not scrolled through our book selection, you are going to be in for a pleasant surprise. You may actually be overwhelmed! We still have a couple hundred more titles to enter, so if you don't see a book that you wanted, email us. We may have it, but just haven't got a chance to enter it.

Tips and Tricks...
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.

P.S. I like the posting where a woman makes her own thimbles out of bandaides, milk cartons and duct tape!

- Harry Barnett

Now on facebook - FAN PAGE

http://www.laptophoops.com/

laptophoops@comcast.net

1-781-248-7291

New releases for Discount Quilt Books.com and maybe a new Ring Frame too!

Discount Quilt Books is growing fast! Just today another 40 titles were entered on the website. To tell you the truth, I have lost count. I think we are close to having 700 book titles all about quilting listed. I will highlight a few books from time to time here on the blog. Small Wonders is a new release from Thimbleberries. It is packed with 44 little quilting inspirations. Clear and simple instructions make these projects fun and easy for any quilter. Nature's Table Toppers by Debbie Field has 18 original table toppers that celebrate all of nature's seasons. "You will find inspiration for fall holidays, your Christmas table, for fishermen, and bird-and-flower lovers." Debbie includes complete and accurate step-by-step instructions with templates for tracing. Quilt a New Christmas by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins will get you ready for the upcoming holidays. The book includes full-size templates of Christmas quilts, stockings and even a perky partridge pincushion/ornament. (Now say that 5 times fast!) Becky & Linda include a section on general quilt making and applique instructions to help guide you along on your projects.

Here is a little variation I made today for lucky customer out in Texas. I made a small change to a 16" Ring Frame - I added curves. The quilt in the background is a top that my mother started, but never got the chance to finish. Someday, I will have it finished for her.

Take care,

Harry Barnett

P.S. Click this link, answer the question and you could win a 14" Sit On Frame from Barnett's Laptop Hoops and Easy Quilts.

Featherweight 221 Book - Third Edition by Nancy Johnson-Srebro

Featherweights have a special following with quilters and become one of their most prized possessions. I inherited my mothers 221 years ago and I am sure I will proudly pass it down to one of my three daughters someday. Now, for those of you that know me...you know I can't sew a stitch or even operate one of these accurately. I am a woodworker and inventor - I can't quilt! However, I do find this little machine to be absolutely fascinating in so many levels. From the compact size, lightweight design and quality workmanship from a era that has truly gone by. It is no wonder why this little antique is adored so much and collected by so many.

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...

"Quite possibly the best known, most interesting and sought-after American sewing machine of all time is the Singer Model 221 Featherweight. A "breakthrough" machine when born, it was a winner from the start. The Featherweight represented a successful effort by a great and famous company to meet its customer's needs. you can trace the flow and ebb, the changes of taste, in its history. And the Model 221 just plain refuses to die! Even today, some twenty seven years since it left the line, the Perfect Portable is more popular than ever with a new generation of quilt makers, seamstresses and collectors. This book will help you appreciate, find and use this wonderful and beloved portable sewing machine."

New Featherweight Tables from Barnett's Laptop Hoops - Click our link to see more details.

Post your Featherweight story on our facebook fanpage and please SHARE the link with your quilting friends. You can purchase a copy on our website at http://www.discountquiltbooks.com/ , your one stop shop for hundreds and hundreds of quilting books on one website.

Take care,

Harry Barnett

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.

Older Style v.s. New Model

Speaking of floor frames... our 18" Vented Frame is now much lighter. I cut out a larger area of the base, so once again less wood means it weighs less. I may roll out the larger venting to our other sizes too.

I keep forgetting to update all the pictures on the website, but our Tilt & Spin Frames now have 4 adjustable angles v.s. 3.

Well I think that is about it for updates. If I think of any more, I will be sure to add it to the post.

Take care,

Harry Barnett

http://www.laptophoops.com/

P.S.

Square hoops have arrived and I have been busy trying to make variations of all of our designs in each of the different sizes. This has not been an easy task, so if you don't see what you want on the site, just email me and I will make it for you.

Dating Fabrics 2 - A Color Guide from 1950 - 2000

Look at what just arrived at our shop today, Dating Fabrics 2 - A Color Guide from 1950 - 2000 by Eileen Jahnke Trestain. If I am right, this will be a huge hit with quilters. Eileens Trestains first book sold out almost instantly for us and is now out of print. Eileens second book takes us from the days of poodle skirts and atom bombs to the Millennium celebrations. This book will be a walk down memory lane for many of you, with fabrics from your grandmothers era to current fabrics.

In addition to adding Dating Fabrics 2, my wife, Merry has been typing in new titles daily into our website, Discount Quilt Books. Many of the titles are all marked at 50% off the cover price! Our goal is to create the largest collection of quilting books available to you from one sellers site and back it up with great service. By the end of this Summer we should have 1,000 titles available for you to scroll through online. Our business started out as a source for high quality custom-made lap frames - Barnett's Laptop Hoops and has grown to include notions, batting and lots of books. So please take a look, buy book and pass our site on to family and friends.

You can now "Like" us on facebook too.

Barnett's Laptop Hoops/Discount Quilt Books Fan Page

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.

We are sponsoring the 2011 Fall Easy Quilts Contest. The issue goes on sale, July 12th. The frame we are giving away is our best selling design, a 14" Sit On Frame. The total prize is valued at $575, with threads, fabrics and our frame. Follow the link to Easy Quilts Contest and enter. Best of luck!

- Harry

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.