Merry Day #7....

 ~ Welcome to my ~

Merry Day #7!

We will continue with my stand parade. Today I will be talking about the Needlework System 4. 

This was the first floor stand and lap/table stand I ever owned. When the doctor said, "No more stitching for you." I said, "Yeah, right." and did a bunch of research and laid my money down on Needlework System 4. 

Let's dive in to the particulars about the system.

Day #2 ~ Needlework Stand Review ~

NEEDLEWORK SYSTEM 4

The Needlework System 4 company is based in Florida, completely US made product. 

It has a lifetime guarantee for normal use. 

All parts for floor/travel/table-lap/ table clamp stands are interchangeable. It is a true "system" for the needleworker.

FLOOR STAND: 

This was my very first purchase. I purchased it in 2006. I bought the floor stand (not to be confused with the travel mate which is a lighter version with the third "leg" that is shorter than the floor model.) Each of the stand types (as listed out above) are interchangeable with different type of "heads" that the company makes: Q-snap head, scroll bar head, frame clamp head, belt scroll head. 

The stands are purchased individually and then you choose which head you prefer and it too is purchased individually. 

The black arrow above shows where the head is easily attached (no matter which one you purchased) and the white arrow shows that there is a 90 degree slant radius for the top arm to get the perfect height for your stitching. The "T" bottom of the frame means that the stand is lightweight and balanced and there is never a need for weighting the stand so that it doesn't tip. The tripod bottom makes it completely secure and solid. 

I chose to purchase the Q-snap head, this one is 16 years old remember so it is showing some wear:

LAP/TABLE TOP STAND:

I also own the table/lap stand.  The white arrow shows where the head attaches (just like on the floor stand). The yellow arrow shows the unique curved arm that allows for articulating the head to the perfect angle and height for you. The pink arrow shows where the curved arm is attached and where the height is adjusted.

Here it is with the Q-Snap Head attached:

Here is is sitting on my lap with my feet down on the floor:

Here it is with my feet up:

The Q-snap frame "holders" - pink arrow pointing at them - turn 360 degrees allowing the q-snap to be easily turned for beginning and ending a thread. 

 flipped to back:

PROS OF THE NEEDLEWORK SYSTEM 4 

 FLOOR STAND ITERATION - WITH Q-SNAP HEAD 

1.) American made, I'm American, I like to purchase American 

2.) it is a solid floor stand - never tips

3.) lightweight design, with solid engineering

4.) can travel with it, because it does fold down flat, however you couldn't travel with the floor stand say, on a plane because it is bulky. BUT they do make the TRAVEL MATE floor stand that is made to travel

5.) lifetime warranty 

**I have used the warranty twice on parts that failed - all I had to do was call them, they sent me the parts, but I had to pay postage**

6.) easy to use, basically load the project and start stitching

7.) easy to maintain

CONS OF THE NEEDLEWORK SYSTEM 4 

 FLOOR STAND ITERATION WITH Q-SNAP HEAD

1.) not easy to travel with because of large footprint

2.) the tripod footprint and the way the head attaches to the frame means that although totally secure and never tips - you have to stitch in a chair that allows the third leg of the "T" to go down the center of you under the chair you are sitting in. Therefore, no recliner. You can stitch on a sofa, side chair, rocker, anything that allows the leg to go under - BUT you cannot stitch with your legs up in a recliner.

3.) as you can see from my photos the black powder coat does wear off. Now that doesn't necessarily bother me - but a buyer needs to know that. My stands/heads have been through normal, every day use for 16 years.

FLOOR STAND HACK :

In order to put my feet up (which I like to do - especially in the evening when I stitch) I put a foot stool in front of the stand and scooted it all the way against it allowing me to "straddle" the stand with my legs and have my feet up. HOWEVER, you have to push all of that back out of the way to exit your stitching area. 

PROS OF THE NEEDLEWORK SYSTEM 4 - TABLE/LAP STAND

1.) American made

2.) solid construction

3.) easy to use

4.) can easily travel with it as it all comes apart and lays flat

5.) lifetime warranty

6.) really fantastic as a table top stand

7.) base plate is nice to hold all your stitching things when you are stitching at a class or at home with it in your lap

CONS OF THE NEEDLEWORK SYSTEM 4 - TABLE/LAP STAND

 1.) it is HEAVY

2.) the large, very solid base plate makes it a little unwieldy on the lap - I'm a large woman 5' 9" and just bigger than most, so it's fine for me - however if I were a tiny person, this wouldn't be very comfortable to use as a lap stand - I sometimes place a flat pillow on top of my lap before I put the lap stand on it

Q-SNAP HEAD PROS:

1.) if you stitch with q-snaps there is no other stand (that I own) that holds the q-snap better

2.) solid design, easy to use

Q-SNAP HEAD CONS:

1.) only opens to 17 inches wide

2.) smallest q-snap able to use is: 8 inches

3.) if you make a very tall q-snap, you can't turn the head 360 degrees (you can still get to the back easily, it just doesn't flip 360 degrees)

4.) sometime the attachment to the stand no matter floor or lap (as they work the same) fails because you cannot get the screw in tight enough to allow the teeth on the attachment heads to lock tight. Which can get annoying. 

Q-SNAP HEAD HACK: 

sometimes I needed the arms of the head to open up wider than 17 inches so I came up with a hack. 

This is what it looks like looking straight down on the q-snap holder arm channel:

the q-snap holder arms have a little piece that is a stop so that the arms do not completely slide through the channels:

Take a hex tool and wrench to hold the screw in back and turn it to loosen the arm holder channels:

the loosened channels allow the stopper to slip through:

giving about 5-6 inches more width if you do it for one arm and about 10-12 inches extra if you would do it for both arms:

PLEASE NOTE:

THIS HACK IS NOT APPROVED BY THE COMPANY - THIS IS JUST MY HACK THAT I DO WHEN I NEED A FEW INCHES EXTRA. LOOSEN UP THE CHANNELS AGAIN TO SLIDE THE ARMS BACK IN AND IT'S BACK TO ORIGINAL. 

MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS:

This was my first stand. It saved my stitching hobby. I thought it was a fantastic miracle - and it was! I do think they need to do some re-engineering of a couple of things, as it pretty much has been: roll out the stand and there it is - status quo.

First re-engineer:  I think the frame clamp head (see it HERE)

could be engineered with the q-snap holders  (White CURVED plastic pieces on each side of the q-snap head) as the "head" on the frame clamp head - so that it could accept q-snaps. This would make FIVE HEADS TO CHOOSE FROM! I envision this as maybe being 4-5 inches wide with the curved white plastic tubular holder piece, in the clamp frame style, top and bottom. This would allow for wider, larger q-snaps to be used. 

I think the system can get a little costly. There are tons of add-ons which is totally great - but cost quickly becomes a factor.

Like I said in the above cons discussion, sometimes the attachment teeth on the Q-snap head fails because you can't get the screw that holds it tight enough for the teeth to engage. There needs to be some sort of engineering re-design done on that to make it easier.

 I also feel like there needs to be some sort of redesign on the floor stand to allow for recliner/feet up stitching. If the company listened and did all of these things above - they would have a solid stand that no other company could challenge - in my opinion. Because there hasn't been upgrades/redesigns, I feel like the Needlework System 4 is slowly being marginalized in the market. This stand has long been my #1 stand, however as I have bought and used other stands, I have found that other floor models have some features that totally leave NWS 4 in the dust.

 

HEY NEEDLEWORK SYSTEM 4: I have used your products for 16 years - I LOVE YOUR PRODUCT - I have solid ideas that with just a few changes you could have a stand-alone floor stand to rival all on the market! 

Until tomorrow...

Merry Day #7

Merry Christmas!

All my love, 

Vonna xxxx