Handiquilter

-
I had the opportunity to take a little tour of the Handiquilter facility in North Salt Lake last week.  Handiquilter makes 24", 18" and 16" long arm sewing machines as well as my favorite the Sweet 16 sit down model.   All of their machines have parts made throughout the world but they are each assembled and tested in North Salt Lake, Utah.  

Darren, the Chief Financial Officer of Handiquilter, was our tour guide.
It's not a large assembly plant but it gets the job done.
I was impressed to find out that each and every machine goes through hours of testing at different speeds to make sure it will work properly when it arrives at your house.
Every machine is also set up and stitched with for at least 20 minutes.  The quilt sandwiches created from these hours of testing are bound and donated to local charities.
This gentleman is assembling a new machine.
And here is a tester at my favorite Sweet 16 model.
I was able to spend about 4 hours playing on several of these Sweet 16's.  I'm still saving my money for one of these babies. I love the open arm space of these machines and being able to see everywhere you are going.  Lots of power and lots of fun!

Thank you so much to my new friend Anita over at Annie of Blue Gables who allowed me to hijack her photos for my blog.  I can't believe I didn't think to bring my own camera!

Comments

Bev said…
Their facility is awesome. I was there last week too and got to try the sit-down Sweet Sixteen. Fun machine.
February 15, 2012 at 9:39 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gelli Plate Tutorial with Leaves

-
Image
Here's the Gelli Plate Tutorial you asked for! My Gelli plate has been well used and well loved. 1. Place Gelli Plate on a flat, covered working surface, and place small dots of paint onto the plate.  My demo photos are with me using acrylics and paper but it works exactly the same with fabric paint and fabric.  I like using Jacquard Textile paint when I make fabric prints. 2. Use a brayer to spread the paint evenly across the plate. 3.  I used the leaves as a resist for the first print. 4. Place the paper/fabric on top of the printing plate and smooth it out nicely to get an even print. 5.  Carefully lift up the paper/fabric. Found a photo from when I printed the fabric - see same process. This is a first print. 5.  I know that MONOprinting means ONE print but seriously, when you remove the leaves from the plate there are these beautifully textured leaves left on the plate just dying to be printed.  I couldn't ignore t...
Read more

Fabric Printing at Home Blog Tour

-
Image
About two months ago I wrote a review about the book Fabric Printing at Home written by my friend, Julie B. Booth . Today I'm going to show you one of the things I learned from her book and then give you an opportunity to win a copy of the book for yourself. I used a hot glue gun to create a design onto a toilet paper roll.  I was impatient and didn't seal the toilet paper roll with white glue or a gel medium before creating my design.   I inserted a short roller handle that one can find at the local hardware store into the toilet paper roll. . .   . . . and used my 3x5" Gelli Plate as a paint palette.  I rolled the paint across a sample piece of fabric. . . . . .first going long ways. . .  . . .and then again short ways. I really like the texture this provides whether I go once or twice across the fabric and I'm gladly adding it to my art "toolbox."  Have you tried something like this before?  What ha...
Read more

Quilt National

-
Image
My husband and I took a red-eye flight to Columbus, Ohio, and then drove the one hour to Athens, Ohio, to attend the opening of the Quilt National quilt show where my piece, Wild Flowers was being shown. Made a stop at Tim Horton's, a Canadian chain for some delicious breakfast sandwiches and donut holes. We went to the Kennedy Art Museum, on the Ohio University campus. This is the side of the building. Photo of the front of the building from the cleveland.com website. The building was designed in the 1860s by Cleveland architect Levi Scofield, and was originally part of the Athen's Lunatic Asylum. It opened in 1996 as the Kennedy Museum of Art. There were some lovely prints, paintings and exhibits. It didn't take long to tour, which was good for my knees. I was glad to be able to see this Elizabeth Catlett print. I admire her work. I've seen some of her her other prints in person, and was anxious to also see this one. Friday evening, the Quilt National show opened, and...
Read more