Abigail Sheridan de Graaff is a Handi Quilter Educator and Professional Longarm Quilter. From her quilting studio in Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire Abigail uses a Handi Quilter Amara 20" longarm machine with the computerised Pro-Stitcher system to complete her own as well as customer quilts through her business Cut&Alter. In this blog feature Abigail explores Glide 40wt and 60wt thread, the quilter's palette. But as you'll discover, Glide thread is not just for quilting. Our Glide Thread Club launched in July 2020 - you can build the entire Glide 40wt thread collection with the 27 sets ..read more

In this new 'virtual' world we're increasingly using our You Tube Channel. We can demonstrate how to use specific tools, discuss techniques for quilting and provide an overview of the Handi Quilter machines that we have. Plus we have created a number of playlists where we show customers how to set up and start quilting with their new Handi Quilter Longarms. We also share some of the excellent videos that are available from fellow quilters. You Tube If you SUBSCRIBE to our You Tube Channel you'll be the first to find out about new content. Here's the link Zoom We're doing more and more trainin ..read more

We were delighted to hear from Lynda Jackson, co-ordinator of the World Quilt Show entries from the United Kingdom, that quilters from the United Kingdom were among the winners at the 2019 Mancuso World Quilt Show. Congratulations to all the award winners. Carole Wood from Northampton won Best Use of Colour with her amazing quilt "Chrysler Revisited". Carole shares some of the background to her award winning quilt, her inspiration, design and quilting decisions. "Chrysler Revisited" was quilted on a Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen. Carole writes: My design inspiration was that we had a friend who ..read more

When we're demonstrating at shows visitors often comment that our machines must be for professional quilters. Well, sometimes they are bought by professional quilters, or by those who aspire to be professionals, but in fact the great majority are purchased by customers to finish their own quilts. Even if you're not particularly artistic it's possible to acquire the skills and techniques to create professional looking results such as edge to edge quilting using pantographs or groovy boards on the stand-up machines. And with free-motion quilting, it's just a question of practice! However, purcha ..read more

Welcoming our first students to the Pinhole Quilting Showroom in October felt like a significant moment in our PInhole Quilting journey. With the assistance of Handi Quilter Educator Abigail Sheridan de Graaff we held Foundation, Intermediate and Design Workshops at our new Showroom near Pershore. It was great to see how much the hands on experience really helped to consolidate their learning. In our survey after the course, 100% of attendees rated the longarm course as Excellent. Feedback from some of the students - "Practical and detailed presentations and demonstrations from very knowledg ..read more

July 2018 was a busy time. We moved into our new Showroom! From a bare shell we fitted it out in two weeks and were ready for our first customers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARPlmLbr1sg Of course we needed nice comfy furniture so we can sit down with customers over a cup of tea or coffee. After all the furniture building we needed to make sure the furniture worked. The dog was impressed.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5s2NF4SCSA Loading for Festival was a whole lot easier with the loading doors! And now deliveries go to our new warehouse adjacent to the showroom so we can easily recei ..read more

Quilting is my super-power but like every superhero I have a constant companion! Everybody needs a super power right? Well, quilting is mine...but I have a confession to make...I have a little help! I’m just finishing off my third book which will be published by Pavilion in 2019 and it’s at times like these, when I’m under pressure to deliver beautiful quilts in record time that I appreciate my Handi Quilter Avante and Prostitcher even more. I’ve always been an eclectic quilter...there isn’t a technique I haven’t tried and fallen in love with which is a big reason why my last book (and the ne ..read more

Our First UK Longarm Quilt Academy was designed for longarm quilters to enhance and increase their machine quilting skills, to be inspired by top teachers and to meet kindred spirits to enhance the community of quilters who use longarm machines. Quilters from novices to experts converged at our venue near Bristol, England - coming from all around the UK, Ireland, France, Denmark and Switzerland. Kimmy Brunner and Kelly Cline were our main teachers. Kimmy has great skills built up over many years as a longarm quilter, especially with templates. Kelly's focus is on Vintage Quilting which I knew ..read more

Threads of Minehead have launched their Longarm Quilting Machine Rental at their shop in the centre of Minehead. The new Simply Sixteen will be used by the shop and customers to quickly and easily finish quilts. Pete and Liz from Pinhole Quilting spent the day with over 40 customers at the shop showing them how to use the machine. The quilt can be any size up to King Size. Loading a pre-basted quilt is easy with the clamps. It's like a big hoop so a section of the quilt is worked at a time and is then moved on. While Pete was doing the Simply Sixteen demonstrations Liz discussed quilting te ..read more

Our first International Quilt Teacher Workshops were held at Worcestershire Wildlife Trust Conference Centre at the end of November 2017. We had four fabulous days of teaching by Laurie Tigner, Handi Quilter Ambassador. It all began with two days of Feathers - the first for Beginners and the second for Intermediate/ Advanced. These classes have laid some great foundation for students who attended. Adjusting the quilt on the Little Foot Frame. Margaret concentrating hard. Sue and Olenda Nathalie focused. Chris with Laurie. Feathers demo The Avante Sisters. Sandra should be looking worri ..read more