Finally Finished, well almost!

After a year of work when I was able, in between two knees surgeries and multiple arthritis flare-ups, I am happy to say that I am done with Ron and Savannah's wedding/Christmas quilt! I just have to sew on the label although they got in for the holidays last night and got to sleep under it already. I'm so happy to have it done and I think it turned out well with lots of bright colors that will go with just about any color scheme except a subdued one. There is a quilting tradition that some quilters insert a humility block into their quilts since no one but God is perfect. Well, that is not a problem I have. Lots of technical oops in this quilt, but it was made with lots of love for a lovely couple.

This quilt was made with over 1000 individually cut 2 1/2" squares and the border was supposed to have about that many and they were actually cut, but by the time I got to the border, I realized that a pieced border wouldn't work. This was a quilt as you go quilt, using ideas from Sharon Pederson's books (hope I got her name correct) although it isn't a reversible quilt. Even so, for a big queen sized quilt, that is a lot of bulk to be handling! It was made on my Janome 7700 and 9000. Now onto other projects, only I think I want to go with smaller projects for a while.

New Free Embroidery Designs

Anna Bove Embroidery has just released some beautiful FREE embroidery designs to download. Snowflakes which could be placed into any winter scene and Green trees which could be placed into any outdoor scene that needs some pine trees. They also have other neat things at their store, so stop on in!

My Quilt is Finished

After a year of working on it when I had time, in between two major knee surgeries, arthritis flare-ups and generally not feeling well this year, I'm happy to report that I have finally finished my kids wedding quilt! Pictures will follow after they see it for themselves, but I am very pleased with the way it turned out. I don't think I will ever attempt such a large quilt again as it was just too heavy to manipulate even doing a quilt as you go version. At some point the whole thing has to come together for the final border and binding! Thankful that I had a Janome 9000 and a 7700 so I could switch between them to save time on thread changes!

More Machine Embroidery Sites

Thanks to Else, we have two more great sites to add to our Machine Embroidery Sites pages. Be sure when possible to sign up for the different sites newsletters so that you will know when they have come out with new designs or freebies. Like all the other sites on the lists, these ones also have plenty of freebies for you to try before you buy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all my sewing friends! We look forward to this next year. With no surgeries planned, I hope to feel better and no lost time recuperating so I can be able to get more sewing projects done. We would love to see any sewing projects you do also.

We are also looking forward to sales from our store helping to support the Sewing Project in Paraguay. the Hill's are very excited and grateful that we have taken them on with the promise of a portion of all sales that will be sent to them monthly. For more about the Project, please visit http://norbertandsylvia.blogspot.com/ to see what else you personally might be able to do.

The sewing project in Limpio Paraguay

Throughout our life, we have always given a portion of our earnings back to charitable causes whether to our church or other worthwhile needs. I'm sure those of you that have been reading my blog for a while know that I love helping assist in needed causes, such as the Project Linus quilts I make and the Little Dresses for Africa. These I do personally in between my own sewing projects. I feel so grateful for what I've been given in sewing machines , fabric and notions that I want to give back in tangible ways. We have wanted to find a charity that would be a good fit for our store,  Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts, to help support. We wanted especially to find a charity that was sewing related, helping women to learn sewing and help them to earn a living to help support their families in a respectable manner. We wanted a charity that the buyers of our goods would appreciate that a portion of their purchases would be going to help other women in their sewing endeavors. After some studying and searching via the Internet, we found the perfect charity in a recent copy of The Quilter magazine.

We will now be sending a portion of the proceeds of our pattern sales monthly to "The Sewing Project in Limpio/Paraguay". This project is run in Paraguay by Albert and Sylvia Hill. Sylvia was asked to teach women how to sew and over the years this project has blossomed. The better seamstresses are now learning how to produce Fair Trade goods to sell to help support themselves. The women are growing in self esteem and now have a way to sew and make gifts for their families as well as earning much needed income. This is a worthwhile project that helps impoverished women to be able to start their own businesses. We are very excited to partner with this project. Your purchases will help provide needed funding. You can learn more about this project here: http://norbertandsylvia.blogspot.com/

You can also make your own personal donations to the Sewing project by way of fabric, notions, sewing machines, and money. Some of the women need bus fare just to get to the sewing classes and money is needed to help pay for more sewing teachers as the project grows. They also are very much in need of those who can help to sell and distribute their Fair Trade articles that the women produce. You can send monetary donations and find out more about the project at The Sewing Project in Limpio Paraguay To enquire about the project write to the following address or to send a donation make the check payable to: "The Project for the People of Paraguay - sewing project!” Send the check, enquiries or donations to: PPP P.O. Box 251 Avon, Minnesota 56310. You will get a receipt for your donation. Thank you for your help in this cause in what ever way you can. This group also would appreciate prayers if you are so inclined.

Accuquilt Go! Baby

While looking through the latest American Quilter magazine (Jan 2012) I came upon an ad for a giveaway for the Accuquilt GO! baby. You can register at www.quiltviews.com/go-baby-giveaway It comes with two dies and two cutting mats. Value ~$250. I'm bringing this up for those of you who are interested in trying out this method of cutting templates, and it seems to be rage lately. By signing up you have a chance at winning one so you can try it for free, which for me is the only way I'll ever have one. Interestingly enough in the same magazine is an article on projects to do with the leftover fabric after cutting the dies (or what you can do with leftovers after cutting applique pieces).

For those of you that do machine embroidery, KennysKreations  combines the available cutting dies with some of their available embroidery designs to make a fantastic Rose of Sharon quilt if you would like to see what the possibilities are for these dies! I have no affiliation with either of these companies, just love to pass on information to all our sewers out there. Those that don't have an embroidery machines, you can still get great ideas for appliquéd quilts using the stitches on our Janome Horizon 7700.

Quilting Arts 10th Anniversary Postcard Quilts

Years ago I made a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish during my life. I don't know what happened to the list, but I do remember one of the items. I wanted to have a quilt of mine on the front cover of a quilting magazine. Haven't achieved that yet, but when Quilting Arts was celebrating their 10th year anniversary, they put out a request for tiny postcard sized quilts featuring the number ten. I decided that not only did I want to feature the number 10 for them, I wanted to feature my 40 some years of quilting, sewing and embroidery so I made this little quilt. Today while checking out the Quilting Arts website, I discovered that they had posted my quilt! You can see it here.
In such a small project, it was difficult to show everything, but two of the fabrics were from my first two dresses that I made for myself that I then used for scraps in my first quilt. Hard to believe that I still had some of those scraps after all this time. Other fabrics were from other quilting projects. One was a piece of batik that I picked up on a cruise with Doreen Speckmann years ago. Many significant bits and pieces.

Well I haven't had a quilt on the front cover yet, but one has been published. I haven't written a lengthy article on sewing to be published,but have had many letters to the editor published. I feel that these are all small steps towards achieving my goals and someday hopefully I will get there. If I don't, at least it wasn't because I haven't been trying!

Vintage Sewing Patterns

I have always enjoyed rummaging through sewing patterns and dreaming of what I could make with them. However, with thousands of patterns published over many years, it is next to impossible for any one person to make all the patterns. As a pattern seller, I come across many more patterns that the average sewer. Currently we have well over 7000 patterns listed in our store Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts with thousands more still to list. I find it especially interesting when I run across patterns that I made back in college and during my early married years that I had made for myself. Since I don't consider myself vintage, I get a twinge every time I see those patterns described as vintage. Well here for your study are two genuinely vintage patterns! Butterick Sewing Pattern 5388 is a great little girl's pajama pattern and Butterick Sewing Pattern 3957 is a man's pajama pattern. These are the oldest patterns to come into my possession up to this point in time. While I do try to collect and display vintage sewing notions to use and display, we sell sewing patterns and so have just listed these patterns up for sale.

These type of vintage patterns are so different than what we get now when we buy a pattern. The pattern tissues were not printed with any cutting lines or symbols but with holes and notches cut out of the pattern tissue. They were one size patterns. Butterick was the first pattern company to come out with an instruction sheet for making the garments, called a Deltor. Can you imagine trying to put together a pattern that has no markings or instructions especially if you are a new seamstress and just learning how to sew? I know of only one pattern company that does that at this point of time and that is Marfy patterns from Italy. They make seriously stylish garments and the pattern comes in a plain envelope without even a picture of the finished garment on the envelope much less any instructions or pattern markings either. Only a very accomplished seamstress would attempt their patterns at this point.

Over the last hundred years, patterns have gotten easier and easier to sew, less and less fitted and much more casual. Over the past weeks we have been listing older patterns and the difference between older patterns and newer ones is interesting. While the styles many times are classic and could be worn even currently without looking 'old-fachioned', the patterns help you to sew into the garment all those features that help keep you from looking like you are wearing something with that homemade look. I only wish I could find these types of patterns in my size range as apparently there weren't too many plus sized women around back then!

I have a dream of getting my old Singer machine that was made around when I was born into good working order, find some quality fabric from the 1950's and a pattern from the 50's in my size and make me a 'real' 50's garment! I suspect the hardest thing is going to be finding the pattern that fits me! But the joy is in the hunt!

Embroidery Library December Freebies

If you haven't seen them yet, you will want to pop in at Embroidery Library and pick up their December freebies. They are concluding their year long Blooming flower pot series with a Christmas flower pot as well as one for Chanukah. There is also a Christmas Bird Song design as well. Since they come in two sizes, that is 6 freebies to pick up in whatever embroidery format your machine takes. I love Embroidery Library not only for their many freebies but for the fine quality of their designs. 

Vintage Patterns

One of the joys of selling sewing patterns is getting to look at them, see the different styles, see how little some classic styles have changed and the different sewing techniques required. This Butterick Pattern 3326 is a good example of our older patterns. It is designed by Evan-Picone with many classic details. The jacket has a funnel neckline, two-piece long sleeves, welt pockets and is fully lined. The front wrap skirt is also fully lined and in two lengths so depending on the fashion fabric chosen can work for the office or a party. The blouse is a classic long sleeve back button blouse, with front pleats/tucks, and a stand up collar.

You may not want to use a pattern as is, especially as it may be hard to find it in your size, but taking some of the details from an older pattern can bring a special touch to your sewing. So many of our patterns today focus on how fast and easy it will be to make that those special details may be missing. Come visit our store today and see what you can find to give that couture touch to your garments!

Missing Art Quilts

Please help 4 quilts come home! Following a quilt exhibition, 4 quilts remain missing. Please check this blog to see pictures of the missing quilts and to find out how to contact the owner if you see them up for sale or at any other place. Two of them were made by Sarah Smith, who just posted a 3-part article on the Jamone site about free motion quilting.

Sewing Patterns Simplicity 9207 Christmas

One of the joys of having a pattern store is finding 'old' friends in more ways than one. 41 years ago I moved away from California as a teenager and left a boyfriend behind that I have never seen again. However I did run into him on line and both my husband and I enjoy corresponding with him via email. He has been selling all sorts of things on line over the years and his advice is what helped us get started selling on line. He came upon a large batch of sewing patterns that he thought he could resell until I talked him out of it and bought them from him. Going through the boxes of patterns from this old friend, I found patterns that I considered old friends as well. Patterns I have made over the years, or patterns I had planned to make and never quite got that far. We have all done that haven't we? This Christmas pattern, Simplicity 9207 was one of the patterns I received and it brought back many memories of Christmas long ago as I made the Christmas tree skirt, and it has been used every Christmas for over 30 years now. Do you have any favorite patterns? We would love to see them and hear your stories.



Charitable Donations

We have heard many nice comments about our donating 10% of this months sales to feed the hungry. Since we started this business, we have always donated a portion of our proceeds to charity, but have never really mentioned it other than when we collected for the Japan tsunami relief. While money for us is always tight, we are fully aware of how blessed we are. We would like to be a help to others that don't even have adequate shelter or food. How nice it would be if we as sewers could lend our support to others that theirs and their whole families lives depend on their sewing. Does anyone know of a sewing related charity that assists our sewing sisters (and brothers) in third world countries that we can take on as a permanent monthly donation and help to them? Thinking particularly of women that by starting their own sewing business are able to support their family. Would love to hear some great ideas or have links sent to us. Thank you and our best wishes for a happy holiday season!

Secrets of Embroidery Machine Designs

Secrets of Embroidery, has a sale going on now. With a purchase of $30 or more, you get a set of 37 seasonal designs for free. There are also some new FREE designs without a purchase, so if you haven't visited there in a while, you need to check out what is new, including instructions for a free project. Secrets of Embroidery, is you haven't been there before, carries designs from MANY businesses, so it is easy to find the designs you need and the designer you are looking for.

We are getting into that time of year where we are so busy that it is hard to keep up with everything, but visiting your favorite design sites you may find just that perfect thing that you need to finish off a project now or get ideas for next year's crafting.

I personally am still working on my kids wedding quilt and hope to have it finished by Christmas. I'm into quilting each block currently and then want to attach the quilted blocks together to make the whole quilt so I don't have to quilt a whole queen size quilt. As the late Doreen Speckman said once, 'machine quilting a whole quilt is like wrestling an alligator!' I'm not into wrestling them either and I'm enjoying the quilting process for this original quilt.

Embroidery Library

Embroidery Library, one of my favorite machine embroidery design sites, is having a terrific sale on Christmas designs. Currently 100 designs are only $1.00 each. AND for this weekend only, from 11-11-11 through 11-13-11 you can purchase 11 designs of your choice for $11.11. It is also time to pick up your free designs for the month, so is you haven't popped on over their lately, do so now!

Thanksgiving

It is November and we are having a beautiful fall day. My birthday was a few days ago and it gave me a good chance to reflect on the blessings that have come my way. We are not a wealthy family by any stretch of the imagination, but compared to many in the US and aboard, we are most blessed. We wanted to share with you that for the month of November 2011, 10% of the proceeds from our patterns sales will be donated to the local food bank in our town. This is our way of giving back to our community and to help those close by. Visit Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts to see what a fine collection of sewing patterns and other crafting items we have available for sale.

Vintage Vogue Patterns

Vogue Patterns, the magazine, has featured some of the vintage Vogue patterns in the last couple of issues. Again readers are saying, "Where can we find them as they are out of print?" Well we still have a small supply of some of the Vintage Vogue reprints at our store. The whole reason we started this store in the first place was to help other sewers find out of print and hard to find patterns. Currently we have around 7500 patterns listed with another 4-5,000 more waiting in the wings to scan, list and post to our store. Stop on in and visit us and bookmark us so that you can find us again. Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts.

Secrets of Embroidery Machine Designs

Secrets of Embroidery, a large machine embroidery design mall with many of our favorites sellers, has a sale going on until November 1, 2011.  It is in the form of a Treasure Hunt to find the design sets that have been marked down to $1.00, some from as high as $45.00!  Take a few minutes to see these great designs and maybe pick up a few freebies while you are at it!

The Purple Hat

The Purple Hat is a great machine embroidery design site. Not only do they feature a lot of In the Hoop designs, they are very generous with freebies to test their designs and digitizing process. Many of their designs are for the younger set although currently they are featuring some great In the Hoop purses. They are also having a freebie treasure hunt of alphabet designs that would be perfect for a child's quilt or garments. Visit every week to see what is new. Click here to see The Purple Hat.

Judaica Jewish Machine Embroidery Designs

Over the years, I have noticed that some faiths are not well represented with machine embroidery designs and the Jewish faith is one of them. You can always find Christmas designs all over, but very few Jewish designs. Sew Terrific has just released some great redwork Judaica designs. Check them out here!

Autumn Leaves Embroidery Design

This weekend only (through October 9, 2011) Embroidery Library is giving away a series of Autumn Branches and leaves that would look great on any fall item you want to decorate. The designs come in different sizes. As usual with Embroidery Library, the designs won't disappear after this weekend, but you will have to pay for them later so this is a good time to get them now while they are free.

Freeman Process Services

What in the world does Freeman Process Service have to do with sewing? Absolutely nothing, but what kind of mother would I be if I didn't help promote my son's business? Ron lives in the Columbus, Ohio area with his lovely wife and is happy to help you out in your process servicing needs, especially those lawyers and legal types in other states that aren't hooked in with a process server for the State of Ohio. Get to know more about Ron and his strangely funky views on life at his blog: I Trust Ron Freeman.

I have found that sewing a little bit at a time is great therapy for newly revised knees, but sitting in front of computers isn't the most comfortable thing, so I'm looking forward greatly to being able to do both activities without pain. Tomorrow is exactly 3 weeks since surgery, the bruising is fading and I can finally get my leg in the car without help--at least that is progress. Oh to be free to sew again!

Happy October!

If you haven't done so already, time to pick up your free October machine embroidery designs from Embroidery Library.  While there, you will find a cupcake/ribbon design to honor October Breast Cancer Awareness month. The great thin is, if you need a different ribbon color, it is easy to substitute it into the cupcake. Don't know for sure what color or ribbon you need for your particular awareness ribbon? Embroidery Library's has a project page with a HUGE list of different ribbon colors. Just click here to see all the different ones.

I love Embroidery Library, not only for their generosity, but also for great designs, very usable color change sheets that you can also download as a PDF format. They are everything great in what you want from a machine embroidery site. Absolutely no affiliation with them other than a very pleased customer!

Men's Fleece Jackets

Just listed: Kwik Sew 1553 pictured above. A great pattern for men that includes all sizes in the envelope. We only have one so grab it fast!

Never worked on Fleece or sweatshirt fabric before? You might want to check out one of Nancy Cornwell's books on sewing with fleece.

Piecing Away

Even though this past week or two has been rough due to lack of sleep, I have managed to get quite a bit of piecing done on the wedding quilt that I am making for Ron and Savannah. All the pieces so far are 2 1/2" square and due to the scrappy nature of the quilt and the design, other than chain piecing, I haven't had any quick and easy ways to do what I'm doing. However, I'm piecing the border now and then I'm going to cheat and use 2 1/2" strips of fabric for some of sashing pieces. At this point I have pieced together well over a 1000 2 1/2" squares. Boy do I hope that I got my seams the right size so that everything fits. Once I'm done piecing, I'm going to quilt sections and then sew them together. I've found that now that I'm getting near the end of the piecing I'm getting excited because I know I'm getting near the home stretch. Trying to get as much sewing done as possible this week since I'm having surgery on my right knee on Friday so it won't be much use to me for awhile after that. Looking forward to having some of those squares left over to use in Project Linus quilts.

Halloween Costumes

September is National Sewing Month! what is your sewing project.

For those of you who like dressing up yourself and children for Halloween, we currently have a great selection of Halloween costumes in all sizes and style at our store Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts. If you buy your patterns now you have more time to sew and a better chance of getting the costume you want.

I no longer dress up for Halloween but I always look forward to that day as it is my birthday!

Had a nice day today working on a wedding quilt. Now that I'm past most of the fabric cutting stage and into the sewing stage, it is fun seeing the quilt come together! Pictures will be posted when available.

Pajama Sewing Patterns

September is National Sewing Month. What is your project?

Many people still like making pajamas for Christmas and holiday presents. Currently we have a very large selection of sizes and styles for everyone in the family of pajamas, pajama pants, nightgowns, robes and other nightwear. Check out our selection here. Remember when making nightwear for your little ones to use non-flammable fabric as set forth in the US Government standards. Need help finding it? Just ask your fabric store person or check with your on line fabric store for fabric for children's sleepwear.

Want to add machine embroidery to your creations? Visit our Machine Embroidery Design page here on this blog.

Sew Your Own Hoodie!

Happy National Sewing Month!

It is always great when you can plan a project right from the beginning in the correct size, colors and embellishments. Here is a great idea for sewing for fall. Make your own hoodie. You can buy a pattern here at our store. Then pop on over to Embroidery Library and pick out the machine embroidery design that you would like to put on the front of your hoodie. They have just come out this week with a whole lot of new designs specifically for hoodies. By the way. I don't get a single nickel for promoting Embroidery Library, but as they are so generous with freebies, I try to do my part on paying it back or forward however you think of it. Many of the designs that I have used over the years for my own projects have come from them. Sign up to receive regular emails from them and you will get free birthday presents, notifications of their monthly freebies, and occasional 'just because' freebies. They are a great company with great designs that sew out well.

The Sewing Machine Accessory Bible by Wendy Gardiner & Lorna Knight

The Sewing Machine Accessory Bible by Wendy Gardiner & Lorna Knight  ISBN 9780312676582
I purchased this book the other day and am very pleased that I did. It is certainly a book to keep near your sewing machine, especially if you have a Janome sewing machine. Most of the illustrations feature Janome presser feet which is a rarity to see in sewing books. Other brands of machine feet are also shown so you don't have to be afraid that the book won't be of help to you.
This book is very well set up with Chapter 1 on sewing essentials including anatomy of a sewing machine and the different notions and gadgets now available to help you achieve sewing success.
Chapter 2 presents Basic feet with pictures of each foot being discussed, ideas for at least 6 sewing techniques that the foot can do and step by step instructions on the basic use of the foot. Each different foot section is 2-3 pages long in full color with pictures that are large enough to follow techniques. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 are set up the same way only they deal with Specialty fabric and technique feet, Pretty edges and Fancy Stitching. The last chapter of the book is a buying guide for machines.
Chapters 2-5 are the meat of the book and show many excellent ways to achieve different looks. If you don't have one type foot, you might find that you do have one that can mimic the same thing. You also might find that you will see feet that you want to put on your wish list or go buy immediately, as they will solve a particular sewing difficulty that you might have. I know I saw several feet that are on my wish list and seeing what they do and how they work helps me to know if they is something I really want. Some presser feet can be pricey so you want to be sure they are what you need to purchase.

I have many sewing books and this one is the best for discussion of sewing feet attachments. This book is a keeper. For logical set up, great pictures, and thoroughness, this book gets five stars from me.

August Free Embroidery Designs

Don't forget to pop on over to Secrets of Embroidery to pick up their latest free designs and to see the other great designs that have just been published or are on sale.

Also it is time to visit Embroidery Library to pick up your August freebies until August 31, 2011. After that time they will be available at their regular price. This month there is an anchor and ship's wheel and in their continuing series another flower pot, this one featuring sunflowers and watermelon -- perfect for summer!

Maternity Patterns

Back in the early 1980's when I was pregnant with my two boys, I made all my own maternity clothes. Little did I know then that I would be selling sewing patterns on line 30 years later. Who had ever heard of a personal computer or the Internet? Those were things of science fiction. Several weeks ago I bought some maternity patterns to resell at our store. What a trip down memory lane!

The above pattern, Simplicity Pattern 8606 was one of the patterns I tried to make. Actually I had it almost done. I had made and installed the Peter Pan collar and had trimmed it with lace and was just about done. I had to get up from my sewing for a minute or two. When I came back I found a huge hole in the tummy part from my toddler practicing his scissor cutting! I could have cried as I had no idea how to fix the mess. Strange thing is, I don't think I ever saw Ron with scissors in his hands since. Crafting things didn't interest him.

This pattern, Simplicity Pattern 8381, was my absolute favorite top. I combined the sleeves on the dress with the length of the top. The sleeves had a hem detailing that I had always wanted to try again, so I'm going to take a peak at the instructions before it goes to it's new home. As I got near the final days of my second pregnancy, I had grown out of most of my maternity clothes as babies over 10# can do that to you! So I whipped up a maternity dress like the one pictured. After the baby was born and I was up to going to church for the first time after having the baby, I realized that none of my clothes fit yet so without thinking I popped the dress over my head and was on my way. All was well until the baby started making hungry sounds and I realized my mistake. There was no way to nurse the baby with this dress on and taking your dress off at church is generally frowned on!

Life moved on and my babies are grown up now. One is getting married next Saturday with his younger brother as his best-man. I don't know if other moms get nostalgic when their children are getting married, but I sure have especially when I was faced with memories of the very clothes I wore and made while carrying them.

If you need to make some memories, we have a great selection of maternity patterns in our store plus over 7500 other sizes and styles of patterns.

My latest sewing project - Savannah's Apron

I'm about to have a new daughter and imagine my pleasure when she asked for an apron for her birthday. I wanted to make her more and matching potholders, but my arthritis and other sewing projects got in the way. But her she is modeling it for me so I can see how it fits. Pattern from an out of print McCall's pattern but we have plenty of apron patterns in our store. Looking so forward to her marrying my son!

I Scream for Ice Cream Embroidery Designs

I just love Embroidery Library! They are the most generous company with giving freebie designs that show how great their designs are. I have quite a collection of designs from them. This weekend, they are offering Free ice cream designs here. If you count all the different sizes of the designs, you will be able to pick up 6 new designs. Even though my embroidery machine can't do the extra large designs, when they are free I always pick them up as you never know when you might get to upgrade your machine to one that can take the big designs. These ice cream designs are perfect for hot summer days which we are having here.

I'm having such a nice day and even got to go to my first yard sales of the summer and picked up some sewing things. My dream yard sale is one that is all sewing stuff that no one wanted including a top of the line machine, stacks of sewing books and magazines, fabric, embroidery floss, etc. and they let me have it all for $50. I told you it was a dream. I found some donated needlecraft magazines at our local library this week for a quarter a piece. So much fun to look at and think up new projects for when the current ones are finished. I am making progress on the wedding quilt and finished the ring bearer pillow.

Sewing Ideas and Information

I happened to be at our library at the right time the other day and was able to pick up some sewing magazines for 25 cents a piece. One of the magazines was through the Eye of the Needle a project magazine published by Bernina. I had seen this magazine before and was happy to get it and then looked up Bernina's on line site www.berninausa.com.  I was happy to see that they are now publishing the magazine on line and I was able to download in PDF file the first six issues of the on line magazine and was also able to sign up to receive the magazine via my email.

On the site I also found 'stitch recipes'. Ways of combining decorative stitches to make a larger and more complex design. Since the sewing machine that I got last year, a Janome Horizon 7700, came with a Border foot that helps you combine designs, I'm always on the look out for ways to use the foot. Even if you don't have all the decorative stitches that Bernina used, you might possibly be able to find a substitute stitch on your sewing machine. I was able to download both stitch recipes and sewing projects all in PDF format and can read and study them at my convenience.

Don't be afraid to visit other sewing machine websites to see what information they might have that you can use! I really enjoyed my visit in Bernina land as I learned a few things and I also was able to temporarily forget some of the pain I'm in today.

Moonwishes Sewing Crafts Store Update

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen from Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts. I just wanted to update you what is happening at our store. This past month we had a major computer failure which meant a new computer purchase and since the driver had disappeared a new scanner purchase as well, even though the old scanner was working perfectly well. This has meant that we got way behind on listing new patterns. We are all back up and running as of last night and one of my major goals is to get a bunch of maternity patterns listed from a variety of all decades. For those of you that sew you may not realize that maternity patterns are rarely being published now and so are extremely hard to find. Well, you will find a good selection at our store both now and even more in a few days at this link : Maternity Patterns.

For those of you that have top of the line computer embroidery/sewing machines I wanted to bring something to your attention that I learned in the midst of our computer meltdown. Some of our machines can only have info uploaded to our embroidery machines via a flash card in combination with a card that goes into the machine like a memory card such as the Janome 300E. Well my last computer came with a slot that held the flash card so I had no trouble downloading from my computer all the thousands of designs that I had. This new computer didn't come with that slot, only USB ports. Let me tell you I was in a bit of a panic mode! My husband had asked about getting a port for the new computer that could do this and was told it wasn't available. Yesterday while getting the new scanner I looked through the electronics department I found a gadget that takes up to 33 different flash cards and lets you connect to your computer with the USB port but still gives you the ability to use your flash cards in your embroidery machine. It's brand name is Targus and cost $13 at Wal-mart. They had another one by a different manufacturer that takes up to 70+ cards and cost $17. These were hanging in the photography department. I'm not recommending either but wanted to let you know that these are available and if you think you may need one of these now or in the future it might be good to pick up. I would have hated to have lost virtually the use of my 300E just because I couldn't transfer designs as I certainly can't afford a new machine.

Weekend Freebies

For those with machine embroidery capability on your sewing or embroidery machines, you will want to visit Embroidery Library this weekend through June 12 and pick up FOUR freebies! Since they give them to you in two sizes, that is a total of eight designs and while there you can pick up their regular June freebies. Embroidery Library is a most generous machine embroidery company and I have had great success with all their designs whether they were free or purchased!

If you need more designs, visit our machine embroidery design page here on our blog for a listing of even more great companies.

Pintuck a Ruffle - Threads

Pintuck a Ruffle - Threads Saw this great article on the Threads website for a cool summer skirt with a pintucked hemband. Try it out for your next sewing project.

Embroidery Library

June is here and with it Embroidery Library's latest freebies and some great designs that will appeal to the men and boys in your life--animals and autos. Take a minute to pop on over and check out their newest designs!

Embroidery Library

Just a quick reminder to pick up your May Freebies at Embroidery Library. They have a lovely flower pot and for both Canadians and Americans some patriotic designs for Memorial Day. Embroidery Library's designs always sew out well and are a great place to pick up machine embroidery designs.

I'm still recovering from a left knee revision that I had on the 18th and am still limited in both my computer usage and sewing machine time. However, knowing how soon a wedding will be coming up, I have been working little by little on quilt blocks for the wedding quilt. I just hope I can get it done on time. I don't know where the time goes. At least after next Thursday I won't be spending 4-6 hours on a CPM machine daily which is a huge time hog, but my knee is doing great so I'm not going to complain!

Another Little Dress

I was very happy to be able to finish another Little Dress for Africa yesterday. Not only have I been enjoying making them and thinking of how happy some little girl will be to get her new dress, I have also been working hard in improving my sewing techniques. This 'Fish dress' features a hem band in contrasting fabric with decorative stitching on it to resemble water movement. I also made a band that I attached as a ruffle at the top front of the dress. This fish material is bright and perky and leftover from making my son Ron a quilt back over 20 years ago. I'm so glad to have projects that could use up these stray pieces.

While making this dress, I referred to The Dressmaker's Handbook of Couture Sewing Techniques by Lynda Maynard for making the French seam in the back of the dress and for making and attaching the hem band. I did learn that the band needed to be put on first before the French seam is made, otherwise the seam shows on the outside of the garment. I had some unsewing to do with this dress. I also realized after the fact that I had forgotten to use the border presser foot that came with my Janome Horizon which would have helped the stitches stay even.

I will probably be doing only some hand sewing if that for the next couple of weeks as I am going into the hospital for a knee revision on the 18th. I don't want to start any new projects until I'm recuperated. I have been working when I have a few minutes on Ron and Savannah's wedding quilt. Hard to believe the big day is barely four months away! I'd better hustle.

New Freebie at Oma's Place

Visit Oma's Place to see their new freebie alpha bet and to see the other machine embroidery designs that they have.

Check out our Machine Embroidery page here on our blog for lots more machine embroidery design companies.

Secrets of Embroidery Machine Embroidery Site

The Secrets of Embroidery website has some great new April specials including Easter designs. They also have some lovely new freebies. Make sure you drop in to take advantage of them.

For more machine embroidery websites, visit out Machine Embroidery page.

Hyperquilting Patsy Thompson Design

Thanks to my Janome 7700 digest friends, I just found a great quilting site called Patsy Thompson Designs. She has a great technique called hyperquilting that is gorgeous. I still haven't mastered regualr Free Motion Quilting yet, but this technique is certainly something to strive for. When you have a minute go take a look at her site.

Japan Earthquake Relief

Due to the devastation in Japan, we wanted to let you know that now, March 14^th through March 31, 2011, 10% of the sales at our store, Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts will be donated to Japan Earthquake Relief by way of CAMA Disaster Relief Fund the relief branch of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. With so many lives lost and property washed away, we wanted to be able to reach out a helping hand as best as we can. Thank you for your purchases or direct donation to the CAMA Diasaster Relief Fund.

Made another dress

Last night instead of making my brain go to mush watching TV, I whipped up another Little Dress for Africa . These dresses are so much fun to make and also make good use of remnants and yard/thrift store finds of trims, lace, bias binding, etc. When I see that stuff for sale at yard and thrift stores, I can't resist it when the price is so cheap, especially knowing how much it will be to buy at the fabric store. Anyhow, I'm having fun making these dresses and have a lot more planned. It is a nice break fromr the quilting I've been doing since I'm actually in the cutting out stage which is quite boring after awhile. The quilt I'm making requires something in the neighborhood of 3000 2 1/2" squares. So I've been cutting enough squares out for four blocks, make them and then cutting enough for four more blocks, etc. But I'm making what my DIL-to-be has asked for and she is so special, it is a joy to make something for her.

Quilting

If you love quilts and quilting, you will want to see this fantastic video that is both inspiring and shows the many different ways we can arrange quilt blocks. The video takes less than 7 minutes to watch so is just a nice break in your day. Called Quilt by Gayle Thomas.

Little Dresses for Africa

Wanted to show you my first Little Dresses for Africa dress. This was so much fun and easy. I'm looking forward to making many more and trying out different sewing techniques at the same time. Just making this dress, made me realize I don't have a really good grasp of attaching lace. I'm hoping to be able to be working on my next dress later this evening.

Little Dresses Project

I feel so blessed to have such an abundance of sewing goods, both machines, notions and fabric that I try to give back as much as possible. One of those ways has been turning out a Project Linus quilt each year. I have had it in my heart for months now though, that I would like to make dresses for little girls that really need them. Today on Facebook I found a project that touched me called Little Dresses for Africa. Simple dresses are made for girls out of new or gently used pillowcases, or using a simple pattern that can be found here compliments of  Nancy's Notions. They also collect shorts for boys if that is where your heart lays. I love finding different sewing projects to present here to readers as you never know which project might be the one that God lays on your heart to help with.

We live in a very large world but we are all connected together. By sharing our goods and talents with others, we make our world a better place for all and have the satisfaction of helping others in ways we never thought possible.

The Secrets of Embroidery

The Secrets of Embroidery is having a sale this March with over 500 design sets for machine embroidery reduced in price. This would be a great time to visit them. They also are featuring some great Freebies right now too.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

This is a book review that I read and reviewed in my reading blog, Moonwishes Reads about a book that I thought other sewers might appreciate if only to appreciate what many of us have in our sewing rooms.

As a seamstress and a reader, I was impressed by this book. Even though there might have been technical flaws with the timeline of the book, the story itself was astonishing. In our world today, most of us who sew have sewing machines, if not more than one. We also may have embroidery machines, all sorts of notions and gadgets, access to all sorts of fabric and the freedom to use them any way we like. Here is a story of women risking their lives to sew to provide needed financial help to their family. This book will make you appreciate your freedom to sew. This review is from my Amazon Vine book review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

As a seamstress I was fascinated by this book. When their world has gone mad and life as they know it had changed, the women of Afghanistan found themselves in a peculiar situation. They could not leave their homes without a male escort, they could not work out, they had a new dress code that was so old fashioned many of the women had to borrow clothes to leave their home as they didn’t have the proper dress to satisfy the Taliban. As many of them found that they were widows with children to support they were left in a quandary. How do they support their families, feed their children and keep a roof over their heads and still follow the rules? If they didn’t follow the rules they could be beaten, tortured and killed. For women who were used to going to school (now no longer allowed), holding down jobs, and being able to shop and visit at will, not only were they in financial straights but bored beyond belief. They were essentially under house arrest.

For one family of many daughters, Kamela Sediqi found a way to be productive, earn an income and involve not only her many sisters but other women and girls from her area. She became a seamstress. With one sewing lessons from her married sister that was a tailor, she set up shop and made her first garment. Escorted by her younger brother, she went to the market, avoiding the Taliban soldiers, and took orders for the dresses she and her sisters would make. As someone who has sewed for 40+ years, she did something I would never even think of attempting. But she got orders and took them home and carefully she and her sisters cut the cloth and hand sewed and embroidered the garments. Her business grew, all being secretly done in her home, to the point she was able to hire other women and girls to help her and thus also help with their financial difficulties.

Sewing by lamplight and eventually with sewing machines during the times of infrequent electric power, Kamela and sisters and friends, beat their boredom, supported their families and showed that even when the chips were down, they could succeed against all odds,

I very much enjoyed this book although there were some areas that were confusing, especially the timeline. I was reading the advanced reading copy so I hope someone caught the discrepancies before actual publication. Other than that, it was a very inspirational true story that I enjoyed very much.

Check out this book now:

Project Linus Quilt 2011

This year I made my Project Linus quilt using my 2" x 4" bits and pieces of bright primary color print scraps. I think any small child should be happy with all the bright colors and things to look at. It is backed with a yard sale find of what looks like bright jelly beans on a black background. I got about 4 yards of this fabric for I think it was $2 last summer and knew it would be great for backing Project Linus quilts. I try to make a quilt each year to donate. I have been so richly blessed with sewing supplies that I want to pass the blessings on and to who better but a child going through a serious illness or trauma. I trust the parents of the child will also be blessed that someone cared for their child and prepared a quilt for them long before the need arose.

This quilt was pieced on a Janome Memory Craft 9000 and was quilted with decorative stitches on the seam lines with a Janome Horizon 7700.


It is amazing how cheaply you can make a nice quilt for a project like this, just using scraps that you color coordinate. Scrap quilts, if you are careful, can look as well planned as a quilt that you have bought fabrics for. For 2012 I'm hoping to use some of my pastel scraps to make a more 'girly' quilt. With my son's wedding quilt I'll be using mostly primary colors and know I will need a rest from them when that quilt is finished.

Spray Basting a Quilt

I finished my Project Linus quilt two days ago. I don't have the photo downloaded yet, but one of the echniques I used was spray basting it and it turned out great. Here is a terrific video on both spray basting

and using your wall to spray baste on! I can hardly wait to show hubby this technique! In the meantime, I'm sharing it with you.

Terrific Quilting Sites

A question was asked on our Janome Horizon 7700 sewing digest as to who inspired us. The group came up with a lot of names of websites. I've listed them on my sewing and quilting page for every one's convenience including my own. If I find a neat site on the big desktop computer and save it to favorite places, then when I'm relaxing and want to find those great sites, I'm usually using the laptop that of course never got those favorites marked. Now all I have to do is go to my blog and click on interesting links and so can you. One of the things I try for with this blog is to be a resource for others so that they can enjoy their quilting and sewing hobbies.

I also got some great magazines in the mail the other day and just loved reading through the old copies of Dressmaking With Stitches which used to be called Australian Stitches It encourages me because of the great way they explain sewing techniques and the clothes they make are normal people clothes. You know, the kind of thing that you wear to the grocery store, a parent teacher conference, the library, living life. I only wish it was cheaper for a subscription!

Nicole's Designs

We have added another embroidery designer to our embroidery designer page. It is Nicole's Designs, which specialize in modular designs. They are perfect for decorating children's items. usually each design set has a freebie that goes along with it.

Wedding Quilt Part 1

When my son Ron proposed to Savannah we were all very happy and I started thinking wedding quilt. I started asking what type of quilt they might like and colors, etc. One day Savannah sent me a schematic of what she thought they would like.

I was very happy to have a goal of some type in mind since a queen size quilt is a large undertaking and I wanted them to like it. I got my crayons out and David made me some graph paper and I got to work converting her ideas into something that could be sewn and without too many odd angles to sew. It took several attempts but at last I had a reasonable rendition of what she had drawn, expanded into a queen size quilt. When she was her at Christmas she gave her stamp of approval to the final design.

The above picture represents only one half of the quilt. It will be made with 2 1/2" squares for the most part. It is to be a scrap quilt using a huge variety of fabrics. This of course, meant I got to go through all my stash pulling out the different fabrics that I thought might go. I also pulled pre-cut 2 1/2" strips and squares. I did have to buy some more yellow fabrics as I didn't feel I had a good enough selection of them and I didn't wanted to have too many repeats of the same fabrics.

My calculations tell me I will need to cut over 1700 2 1/2" squares for this quilt. Since that seems like a mammoth job, I stuck all the colors except for the red and purple fabrics in a box until I get the red and purple cut up. Then they can go downstairs to sew during my breaks from doing dishes, etc. and I can pull out the next colors to work on. I look forward to making this quilt and sharing it with you. Hopefully it will be done by the August 2011 wedding.

Sherlock Holmes Wallhanging

When Embroidery Library came out with some great reading related designs, I just knew I had to make something with the Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Design for my husband. David is a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and has helped suck me into being a fan also! I had thought originally to embroider out the design and then frame it in a conventional frame, purchased at the thrift store and spruced up by me. Well when the first sew out was in process, something got caught behind the machine and messed things up so I had to start over. Then I ran out of thread, but thankfully was able to substitute another color and it doesn't show too much! But when it was finished, I really liked it until I tried to frame it. It was just a tad too big which meant I had to think through what to do with it. First I quilted it and then tried some techniques that were new to me. I mitered the corners and used a facing to the front instead of binding it and did a raw edge applique for the frame shape. I had a great time trying out some of the decorative stitches on my Janome Horizon 7700; a very fun machine to work with! David was very pleased with his gift and now all we have to do is decide where to hang it.

Oma's Place Embroidery Designs with a Message

Oma's Place has an assortment of different designs, including those for parents with special needs children, Christian home designs and other. Many of her free designs have the .pes extension so be sure you can reformat the design before downloading or buying a design.

4-Hobby Machine Embroidery

Happy New Year to all! May this be a great year with lots of wonderful sewing projects completed. I had posted about this site before, but in case you hadn't seen it yet, I did want to remind you that 4-Hobby Machine Embroidery carries a selection of Judaica symbols in machine embroidery and several Hebrew alpha bets. I know these types of designs are fairly hard to find so for those who are looking, please check this site. They also have several other types of ethnic designs including Hamsa.