Get Ready! September is National Sewing Month!

September is National Sewing Month! What will you be making? Will you finish a UFO or just keep on with your regular sewing that you are doing? To help promote National Sewing Month, we are putting ALL our inventory on sale at  10% off for the entire month of AUGUST 2016 in both our Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/shops/moonwishes) and eCRATER stores (http://www.MoonwishesSewingandCrafts.com). For multi-item purchases (all at one time) there is a discount on shipping costs so don’t be afraid to add a few things to your cart. J

 

We realized that in our eCRATER store our Christmas items were scattered throughout the store, so we have set them all up within a ‘Christmas Store’ in our eCRATER store to make things easier to find.  Now you can find our Christmas patterns including Santa suits, craft kits and fabric there.  Please visit our Christmas Store (http://moonwishesstore.ecrater.com/c/2058415/christmas-store). We still have a lot to list in the Christmas store, especially Christmas fabric panels and Christmas fat quarters, so keep checking back as to what you might find!

Even More Christmas in July with Embroidery Library!

Christmas Lights and Santa


I hope all of you have signed up for Embroidery Library's newsletter and Christmas club already. Christmas goodies have started already and you don't need to be a member to get them. They have four freebies in three different sizes, so a total of 12 designs for this weekend. Besides the Santa above, there is also a Rudolf, Penguin and Owl designs. They are free through July 31which means only a few days to get them for free! So don't wait. Personally I hate owl designs and have ever since they were a popular decorating element back in my childhood, right along with mushrooms all over someone's kitchens. Now though, owl designs are huge and if you like them, here is a chance to get one in three sizes.

Also there is a coupon code to take $5 off of a $10 order which you can use up to three times on merchandise either regularly prices or on sale and there are some great Christmas designs on sale right now. The coupon code is also good up through midnight July 31 so don't delay.

There is also a new Christmas Gift Guide Lookbook that you can use to get your creative juices bubbling and giving you a whole bunch of ideas. Embroidery Library now has quite a few Lookbooks with all sorts of great ideas. If you see a design that you like, you can click on the photo and be taken to all the relevant designs and if needed tutorials for making the project or making similar projects on Embroidery Library which saves you time in searching for them. Of course you can always substitute a different design depending on who you would making the gift for.

I do want to mention one thing that I have found with the Lookbooks. At times I can not open them up in Internet Explorer, so if yours doesn't work correctly (you can't turn the pages), try a different web browser.

Need to put an Embroidery machine on YOUR Christmas Wish List? You can get several kinds through Amazon at the links below.

More Christmas in July from Embroidery Library!

If you do machine embroidery, Now is the time to hurry over to Embroidery Library and sign up for their 2016 Christmas Club! You can either click on the tab on the far right side of your screen that is red and says Christmas Club or just click on the link. You will need to go into your profile and at the bottom of the page is a box to click saying you want to join (if you were a member of the club last year, you have to sign up again). Save your profile after clicking the box and you are done. Their first email newsletter should be coming out August the 5th, so don't delay.

If you haven't been part of the Christmas Club before, you will get lots of Christmas discount, your purchases for the next few months will earn you a gift card depending on how much you buy. You will get Freebie Christmas designs along with your usual monthly freebies, and you will get members only designs at a discount.

Christmas In July at Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts

McCall's Sewing Pattern 5550 Men's Misses Chest Size 34-44" Santa Costumes Bag Two Lengths Coat

 

After realizing how difficult it could be for my customers to find Christmas patterns, craft kits, fabric, etc. to prepare for the holiday season since they were scattered throughout our store, we have listed all Christmas items under the umbrella of Moonwishes Christmas Store . From there we have sorted the Christmas items into different categories, but by clicking on the Christmas Store link you will find everything in one list. If you want to find counted cross stitch Christmas designs, you will find a link to them under categories of Christmas Store -- craft kits, patterns, books, etc. We hope that this will making shopping for the season easier for you. We also have lots of inventory to add as we get items photographed and descriptions listed, so come back often As crafters, we know that we can't leave crafting until December to make things or we would never get done!

 

We have several different pattern companies Santa Claus costumes so you can take your pick of styles, sizes, etc.

 

We also sell a lot of pajama patterns right before the holidays so here is a list for you to look at, Pajamas. 

 

We hope this helps you for this holiday season!

Hand Embroidery - Part One: Threads and Flosses

I have way too many hobbies for someone that has had to slow down ALL my activities as I get tired so quickly these days. I like to quilt and after years of using for the most part my embroidery machine, a Janome 300e, to do embroidery, I have reverted back to trying to do more hand embroidery with the embroidery machine doing quick or else very long projects. Part of this has to do with having to limit my time with my feet down which of course limits my time in my sewing room.  I have a rolling cart with most of my embroidery supplies on the different shelves. It is a different type of cart that I picked up at a yard sale or the thrift store; I don't remember which, but it was worth every penny. Now while watching TV or a movie if my hands are up to it I can embroider or work on my hexagon project.

All this meaning that I have become very interested in hand embroidery resources which include books and magazines. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find an embroidery magazines that aren't devote to counted cross stitch? I had found one called Inspirations which is the cream of the crop and is an Australian magazine that is rather expensive, but I found out this month that they do have a much cheaper electronic version that you can download and have it forever (some magazines are only on your Kindle or tablet for 6 months and then they disappear. Not a good thing if you are in the middle of a project! The other magazine I have found is Stitch, a Great Britain publication not be be confused with Stitch a US publication from Interweave Press which is a good magazine in it's own right but not devoted to embroidery like the British magazine. While finding a link to the US Stitch magazine, I discovered that it will cease publication in the fall of this year 2016 but some back issues are still available. If any reader knows of another purely embroidery magazine, I would love to know it's name and where it is published.

I'm more or less done with counted cross stitch at this point. I started doing hand embroidery in junior high and made a pair of pillowsaces for my hope chest. Now I want to get back into regular hand embroidery with all sorts of nifty stitches that can encompass embroidery, crewel work, and needlepoint.  I don't have much experience doing crewel work with wool or needlepoint. With needlepoint, even though I have picked up many books on the subject at library used book sales, I haven't found any that really show how to use the many different stitches instead of the boring tent stitch. Crewel work with wool I did from a pillow kit many years ago and since that time I haven't had any wool to work with until now. I have found a wonderful website that anyone that does handwork needs to read and sign up for regular blog posts. The site is called Needle 'n Thread. The woman named Mary Corbet is a supremely talented woman and has a marvelous wealth of information on her site and links to many different sources of supplies.

In my years since doing a lot of counted cross stitch, many new types of threads and more colors of threads have been developed. These past few months I have found a gold mine of embroidery floss, needlework kits and crewel wool at the thrift stores and yard sales. On top of what I have found for cheap On the Needle 'n Thread website, I have found links to some folks selling marvelous floss of different  types: cotton, rayon, silkd, regular embroidery floss as well as perle floss. One of the sites is called Colour Complements located on Etsy. The seller hand dyes her threads and makes varigated  floss in the yummiest of colors! The yellow/orange pack in the photo above is one of her sampler packs that you can get that has an assortment the different threads she makes and they all coordinate for your project. I'm still looking for the perfect project to use these on.

Another site I found was Threads Be Gone where I got the above assortment of SILK embroidery floss, something I had never owned much less stitched with. They also have a lot of other popular thread brands on their site. Yet again, I'm looking for the right project for these threads. I bought the colors that I did as they appealed to me and most were 'all purpose' colors that can be used in many different applications such as leaves, branches, sky, etc.

 

 

I also found some wonderful DMC floss called Color Variations that are simply gorgeous. Are you starting to see what my favorite type of floss is? Yes, I love varigated floss! When I'm in a store by in the embroidery floss isle, I want it all to scoop up and just play with all the threads there. They look like jewels to me. Be assured that if you are starting embroidery for the first time, or coming back into hand embroidery after a long absence or someone that has been doing it all along, I can assure you that there is a plethora of threads and supplies available out there for the choosing! Until next time, Happy Stitching!

 

 



New Free Embroidery Designs from Oma's Place

Here is a chance to get a new free machine embroidery design of a summer sun as well as a complete font: capital letters, small letters and frequently used puncuation that is about 3/4" high.

You can upload these designs as well as others than were introduced earlier at Oma's Place. Oh yes, you can even buy designs there. Many of her designs cater to little ones and the need for littler designs, although in the case of today's sun, it was part of a Summer Time mug rug. A nice, easy looking summer project when there is lots to do other than sit by a fire and stitch!

Book Review: Little Felted Dogs by Saori Yamazaki

I received a copy of this book from Amazon to do a review of the book for the Amazon Vine program.  Little Felted Dogs:  Easy Projects for Making Adorable Pups by Saori Yamazaki, Publisher: Potter Craft, Translation (c) 2016 original (c) 2010, ISBN 978-0-553-44796-5, hardcover, 112 pages, Full color photo illustrations with line drawing illustrations.

I thought the photos of the dogs in this book to be absolutely charming! Even if you decide not to make any of the projects in this book, a child would love looking at the dog pictures since they are cartoon types dogs but 20+ different breeds of dogs. Here is the review that I posted on Amazon:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I first started hearing about needle felting 5 or so years ago, I didn't 'get it'. I saw some projects done by machine that were set up with 5 needles. These machine's needles would felt at the same time so it would be easy to felt a large amount of space at a time. Or you can use a much smaller and cheaper set up like the author of this book does. Finally I'm starting to 'get it' why people like doing this and I have seen some spectacular items made by needle felting, but this book shows the most charming items I have seen!

The author of the book uses the most minimal equipment to accomplish her task of making these dog designs that run from 3" to about 5" tall. She is very careful with the coloring and facial expressions of the dogs. They are very cute and adorable looking. If you love to craft they would make a perfect gift for a dog lover, especially since you could change the colors to suit the dog you are replicating. You can buy kits here on Amazon that include the proper needles and supplies of the wool to be used in some of these dog projects. This kit: Estone 50 color wool needle felting seems to have the best selection of wool colors for making animals with plenty of brightly colored wool for additional projects but there are plenty of other options to choose from.

Have fun with your new hobby!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was not able to attempt to try these dogs because of arthritic hands, but for those that want a hobby that doesn't take up much space, this may be the one for you. Some reviewers thought that it was really wasn't an easy book and others had no trouble, so you would have to decide for yourself if this is what you would like to do or try.