Superior Threads
(800) 499-1777
August 2010 Newsletter
www.superiorthreads.com
WISE WORDS FROM MOTHER SUPERIOR
We
have worked for many years to develop a wonderful silk thread -- one
that is better than those already on the market. Our #100 silk thread
is called Kimono Silk and made from the finest filament silk fibers and
processed with the most advanced technology available. Through
rigorous testing, our Kimono Silk outperformed other #100 silk threads
in every testing category including strength, twist, consistency,
elongation, and smoothness.
When using silk thread in your machine, use The Bottom Line
in the bobbin and you should have no tension problems. Choose a
matching color. The smoothness of The Bottom Line allows the silk to
stay on top and not be pulled down into the loft.
Our color cards (made with the actual thread) are now in production and will be available in October. Our silk website images are quite accurate.
For hand appliqué and invisible machine appliqué: This #100 silk
disappears, hiding stitches and allowing the fabric to lie flat.
Perfect curves and points at last!
For fine detail quilting: #100 Kimono Silk™ adds a
lustrous sheen to quilting on both longarm and home machines.
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$3.95 SHIPPING ON ALL RETAIL ORDERS CONTINUES within the U.S. 50 states. You
choose the products, we’ll choose the shipping method. (Wholesale and
business account orders have different shipping rates.)
International
orders: We now offer regular Air Mail rates on international shipping
to most countries. Air Mail rates are available for packages up to 4
lbs. International packages over 4 lbs. sent via the Post Office
require Priority Mail or Express Mail rates.
EDUCATION: How Silk Thread is Made
For
over 4,000 years, silk has been a highly treasured product. It is
often called the queen of fibers. Anciently and still today, silk
cultivation is extremely labor intensive. Silk is a natural fiber
obtained from the cocoons of the mulberry silkworm (which is really a
silk moth). The female silk moths lay as many as 700 eggs, each egg
about the size of a pin head. The eggs hatch and the silkworms are fed
a diet of fresh mulberry leaves. After about a month, the silkworms
begin spinning a cocoon. It takes four to eight days for the silkworm
to spin its cocoon, which is made up of a single continuous silk
filament thread that when unwound, is approximately 3,000 feet long.
Once the cocoons have been harvested, they are placed in an oven and
then soaked in water to loosen the silk fibers to prepare for
unwinding. One end of the silk filament is located by hand and the
silk is wound onto a reel. Because a single silk filament is very fine
and too delicate for commercial use, up to 10 cocoons are unwound
simultaneously and those multiple strands are combined to form a single
silk strand. These strands are then twisted with other silk strands to
make the final product.
Sheen: Because silk filaments are
microscopically triangular in shape, light reflects off the surface,
resulting in a high-sheen fiber.
Strength: Silk is one of the strongest natural fibers.
Texture: Silk has a smooth, soft texture that is not slippery, unlike many synthetic fibers.
Ironing: low to medium heat.
BOB'S TEACHING SCHEDULE. Thread Therapy with Dr. Bob
August 19. Bakersfield, CA. Cotton Patch Quilters of Kern County. 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Sep. 9-11. Madison, WI. Quilt Expo. 11:30 a.m. every day.
Sep. 16. Tacoma, WA. Innovations in Machine Quilting. 10:30 a.m.
Sep. 23. Huron, OH. Quilting with Machines. 7:30 p.m.
Sep. 25. Portland, OR. NW Quilt Expo. 12:30 p.m.
Sep. 27-29. St. George, UT. School of Threadology. Certified Threadologist Course
Oct. 8. Midway, UT. Utah Quilt Guild QuiltFest
Nov. 2. Houston, TX. Tri-County Quilt Guild
Dec. 6. Austin, TX. Austin Area Quilt Guild
2011
Jan 4, 2011. Casa Grande, AZ. Casa Grande Quilt Guild
Jan. 17-18. Ontario, CA. Road to California show. School of Threadology. Certified Threadologist Course
Jan. 21. Ontario, CA. Road to California quilt show. 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 22. Ontario, CA. Road to California quilt show 4:00 p.m.
SCHOOL OF THREADOLOGY
Most
School sessions are held in St. George, Utah but we occasionally take
the show on the road. The Road to California Quilter's Conference
asked us to offer our most popular session, the Certified Threadologist Course
on the Monday and Tuesday (January 17-18) prior to the January 2011
show opening. Spaces are limited so if you are interested, please
register early. Machines will be provided (or you may bring your
own). Registration is available online at the Road to California website or by telephone at 909.946.0020.
1. Sep. 27-29, 2010. St. George, Utah. Certified Threadologist Course (only 7 spots left)
2. January 17-18, 2011. Ontario, CA. FIRST TIME IN CALIFORNIA at the Road to California Quilter's Conference. Certified Threadologist Course. See above for registration information.
$30 IDEA WINNERS
Please
be our Business Consultant. Send us your ideas to help us serve you
better (products, education, website, customer service, etc.). We will
award a $30 gift certificate for the best ideas. In the e-mail subject
line, please type "$30 idea." Click here to submit an idea. This month's winning Business Consultants:
1. Jeanette Vincent. Please add more colors of the So Fine collection in the 550 yd. spool size.
Bob's note: Many are on order and the first eight colors are here. See What's New below.
2.
Myra (California). In order to use a very long length of Treasure hand
quilting thread without it knotting, cut the desired length and fold it
in half, smoothing out the curls and place magazines or books along the
length. Leave the pressure in place for a couple of days and then
quilt to your heart’s content – no knots! I cut as much thread as I
think I’ll need for the project and just pull out as needed.
3. Edye Travis (MN). Increase font size on Inventory List (esp. So Fine).
Bob's note: With the newly revised Inventory List,
you can change the font sizes in either format for online viewing. We
increased the font size for printing on the So Fine page. Font sizes,
just like the eyes of the needles, seem to shrink as I get older.
WHAT’S NEW (This Month)
1. Announcing KIMONO SILK, a very fine #100 pure silk thread by Superior
Threads. KIMONO SILK is ideal for hand appliqué, invisible machine appliqué, and
fine detail machine
quilting. 80 beautiful colors selected by Heather Purcell (Mother
Superior) including a 24-color Gina Perkes collection.
Spool sizes: All colors are available on 220 yd. spools and 1,090 yd. mini-cones.
Special
introductory price during August 2010, never to be offered again because once our spools
are in stores, we do not discount on our website.
220 yd. spools: $3.99 (reg. $5.99)
1,090 yd. mini-cones: $11.99 (reg. $17.99)
A high-resolution two-page printable color chart is available here.
Color grids (faster loading) are available here.
Even if you don't need silk thread right now, check out the interesting color names. We had a lot of fun naming these.
2. Our latest Thread Therapy video, Thread Delivery System, has been added
our Video Library.
This video teaches the difference between spools and cones and how they
should be positioned for proper use. We now have 18 different
Educational videos available in the online library and add 1-2 new
videos each week.
3. Texture Magic videos.
Six new videos featuring Mother Superior (Heather Purcell) and Annie
Unrein demonstrating Texture Magic are now posted on our website.
Texture Magic #1. Introduction
Texture Magic #2. Packaging
Texture Magic #3. Overview
Texture Magic #4. Marking
Texture Magic #5. Stitching the Grid
Texture Magic #6. Steaming
4. Revised Inventory List.
Our Inventory List has been improved. You can now choose to open in
either Excel format or pdf format. You can also choose a single
product page instead of opening the entire list (24 pages).
5. SunBurst 3,300 yds. Sunlight-activated color-changing thread is now available on 3,300 yd. cones. 8 different color choices.
6. Longarm needles assortment. Groz-Beckert SAN 11 (MR style) titanium-coated needles. Assortment set of 100 needles. Two
10-packs each (20 needles) x 5 sizes: #14 (MR 3.0), #16 (MR 3.5), #18 (MR 4.0), #19 (MR 4.5), and #21 (MR 5.0).
7. So
Fine is a wonderful thread for quilting, bobbin, binding, clothing and
craft construction, all purpose use, and even makes a great dental
floss. We have 134 colors available on 3,280 yd. cones.
Up until now, only the original 50 colors (#410 to #450) were available
on 550 yd. spools. Due to your many requests, we are adding more of
the colors to the 550 spool size. Eight are already here: color
numbers 452, 453, 457, 469, 486, 496, 504, 524. Here is a link to the So Fine 550 yd. page. All colors are in numerical order.
WHAT’S NEW (Last Month)
1. Color
compatibility cross reference chart for So Fine and Bottom Line. We
added a new tab on the main Product pages for products that have cross
reference charts.
To match So Fine colors to Bottom Line colors, click here.
To match Bottom Line colors to So Fine colors, click here.
2. Brilliant White Highlights #798 is now available on 500 yd. spools as well as 2,000 yd. cones.
3. Our newest education video about cotton thread. Please click to view.
NEED a NEW or IMPROVED WEBSITE? Bob's personal recommendation
Websites For Quilters
specializes in websites for our industry. We use them and highly
recommend them. (This is an unpaid plug for them because we like the
superior work they do.) For more information, click here. They have designed over 200 websites for quilting-related individuals and companies.
INFORMATION for STORES
Customers
use this link to find stores that carry our products. If you work at
or own a quilting-related store, please register on our Store Locator. We will list your store information absolutely FREE and help customers find you.
Bill, a 70-year-old, extremely wealthy widower, shows up at the Country Club with a breathtakingly beautiful and very sexy 25-year-old tall, tan and terrific babe who knocks everyone's socks off with her youthful sex appeal and charm and who hangs over Bill's arm and listens intently to his every word. His buddies at the club are all aghast.
At the very first chance, they corner him and ask, “Bill, how did you get the trophy girlfriend?”
Bill replies, “Girlfriend? She's my wife!”
They are knocked over, but continue to ask. “So, how did you persuade her to marry you?”
“I lied about my age”, Bill replies.
“What did you tell her, you were only 50?”
Bill smiles and says, “No, I told her I was 90.”
THANK YOU for reading. Please forward to a friend and have a SUPERIOR day.
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Bob Purcell, the Thread Professor and self-certified Threadologist.
Superior Threads: The ONLY thread with a guarantee.
Superior no ka oi
Copyright 2010 by Superior Threads. If you wish to reprint the Education portion of this newsletter, authorization is hereby granted as long as the source is clearly cited as follows: used with permission from Bob Purcell. www.superiorthreads.com
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