What's NEW at Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts?

Starting today, August 13, 2015 at Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts, any US buyer that buys 2 or more sewing patterns will be automatically upgraded to Priority Mail. For a long time we have offered buyers of 5 or more patterns paid for will receive Priority Mail shipping, even if you buy 20+ patterns there will be no increase in shipping costs than the rate as if for 5 patterns. Now we are happy to give a upgrade in shipping to those customers buying 2-4 patterns. We appreciate your business and want you to come back and shop some more and tell your friends about us! Always fast shipping and a huge selection of over 8000 uncut sewing patterns. While the timing between First Class Mail and Priority Mail may not be huge and in some cases, there may be no time difference, we know that the sooner you get your patterns, the faster you can start your project before you lose your enthusiasm for doing it, thus perhaps less UFO piles!

If you have any questions about this new policy please ask. We wish we could do it for our international customers but with the increased costs of shipping that go up by several dollars per OUNCE, we just can't afford to do so. Currently we are helping subsidize the shipping costs for many international shipments when a pattern is extra heavy.

Embroidery Library YouTube Videos

If you are a visual learner, Embroidery Library now has a YouTube library of videos that you can use to learn how to do different projects with your machine embroidery designs, or how to embroider out special designs like free standing lace. You can see the list here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfWcXk2p7YgIJTdURASrBmg

Crafting Project Planning

One of the things that has gotten the hardest for me as rheumatoid arthritis keeps sucking up my stamina, is how to stay involved in the needle crafts that I enjoy. I do read much more about sewing, quilting, embroider, etc. than I used to but that doesn't give me the hand joy of working on something. As I see more and more Pinterest pins with all sorts of new ideas, I want to do more and more. Then I realize that I can't finish large projects. So a couple of weeks ago I chased down the directions for quilting as you go hexagons when I found this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbK09aT9mJ8 While watching it, a light bulb went off in my head. What about making large hexagons with a different technique on each of them? I could try all the different techniques that I want to try, without committing myself to anything more than one ~4" hexagon. When I have enough made, I will be able to hand sew them together and I will have a sampler Hexagon quilt. This way a lot of the work on them will be taking place on my couch while watching TV of sitting propping up my legs which I can't do in my sewing room.



So for my first hexagon for this project, I did hand embroidery onto a doily which was another project idea I had seen on Pinterest from this blog: Ernest Hope. While these lovely pillows were for sale with no instructions for making them, I figured that they wouldn't be to hard to replicate. So my thrift store came to the rescue and supplied me with an old white bed sheet to use for a foundation backing ($1) for the hexagon and a small doily (10 cents!) that would fit into the hexagon size I had decided on. I already had plenty of embroidery floss, so used DMC Variegated floss 4215 that ranged from a mid-blue color to light purple and back. I used three strands of thread in the needle, but I think with such a heavyweight crochet cotton in the doily, I might have gone up a bit on that. I did find out some of the doily makers' 'oops' moments, but just went with the flow. I didn't even have an embroidery plan when I started out, but when I got to the end I decided it needed a little bit of something else, so I added French knots around the edges of the doily. For my first attempt at this with no instructions, I think it came out pretty well. What do you think?

 I'm calling this hexagon, Hexagon Sampler quilt #1. I'm working on #2 which is smaller hexagons that I'm sewing into three rounds and will applique it onto the backing. Since I discovered that hexagons are actually easy to make, I been making a lot of them with no final use for them in mind, so I was happy that I was able to find pre-made hexagons in the size and prints that I wanted. I'll be posting it when finished, although I don't give myself deadlines any more. The nice thing is I got the desire to make a larger project off embroidering on doilies out of my system and so can move onto other ideas that I have in my head thanks to Pinterest.

My take on all of this is if you want to do something, break it into small pieces and work on it little by little. Since I have started working on this project, I have gotten more ideas and am looking forward to trying them out.