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.

Buying Fabric On Line

After searching our one and only local fabric store for several months for some Atlanta Braves Fleece for my son for a Christmas present, I went on line and tried to buy some several weeks ago only to get the dreaded out of stock box. Well on Christmas Eve, finally got a note saying it was back in stock. I was busy then, but within 4 hours when I tried to buy it, it was back to being out of stock. At that point I did what I should have in the first place and searched the web. I found two sites that had the fleece in stock and plenty of it. Both with lower prices than the other store. Fabric.com won the purchase 'contest' by having the lowest price plus I was able to find an on line 15% off coupon too, so that theirs was the rock bottom price. They also participate in Big Crumbs money back program too! Considering it was Christmas weekend when I ordered it, can you imagine my surprise when it was delivered on Wednesday! I'm always happy to talk about a company that delivers better than I expected and I was very impressed with their service. I'm sure my son will be thoroughly surprised when he gets this gift as he is not only a huge Braves fan but the biggest Christmas snoop in the world. We haven't had our 'Christmas' yet as we have waited for my other son and his fiance to get here. So on New Year's Day we will get to celebrate Christmas knowing it is much more than a time for presents but a time to celebrate family and being part of God's family.

Happy New Year to you all and trusting that it will be a good year for each of you and knowing what trials that may come help to make us stronger. I'm still trying to decide my personal sewing goals and goals for our store. I would love to know what others are working on this coming year. My one really big goal is a wedding quilt that needs done by August.

Sew Terrific Embroidery Designs

We have just added another machine embroidery site called Sew Terrific to our Machine Embroidery page. Even though Christmas is just past, they have posted a great set of Santa Claus designs and Free Christmas Tree design in all the popular home machine formats.

We have also added another sewing site to our Sewing and Quilting page. It is Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing with all sorts of interesting sewing info.

We are always happy to learn of new sites to add to these pages as it helps all of us with our sewing.

I was very excited to get Threads magazine's latest issue #153. I have a tip published in it!

Snow Lady Designs

There is still enough time to make another machine embroidered Christmas ornament isn't there? Snow Lady Designs has a fantastic, FREE free-standing lace ornament. Visit this site soon to see what else awaits you and your embroidery machine!

Innocence

If you sew, quilt, make art or just love beautiful things, you need to visit this blog: One Designer's Journey. She has the most incredible quilt called Innocence.

I just finished a little quilted wall piece for hubbies Christmas present. I can't even think about posting it yet after seeing the quilt pictures I just saw. but soon. I tried several new to me techniques in it and that is what I want to be doing, still learning and growing not stuck in a rut doing 4 patch quilting the rest of my life.

Janome Life

I have added a new link on my sewing and quilting page here. It is for Janome Life . It was brought to my attention for her article on using the Janome quilt binder for mitering corners, apparently something that doesn't come with the instructions. I love savings these links and having them handy for everyone because I know if I ever get the money to buy the quilt binder, I will have forgotten otherwise where to find the article.

I also got some great news today. One of my sewing tips that I sent into Threads magazine is to be published! That put a little spark in my step to get that news. Look for issue #153, which is the one it should be in.

Happy Sewing Everyone!

Free December Designs

Embroidery Library has just posted their FREE December winter designs. They can be downloaded for free until January 3, 2011. They also has lots of NEW Holiday designs for your last minute crafting or for planning next year's sewing. Be sure to stop in and visit them and all the other machine embroidery sites that are listed on my embroidery sites page here.

Need a present for a sewing friend (or yourself)? Sew-Retro is a delightful book that anyone who likes to read about sewing and especially vintage sewing would enjoy. I got my copy with birthday gift certificate cards and I highly recommend it.

Woke up to at least an inch of snow with up to eight inches predicted by the end of the week. That always puts me in a sewing mood and I hope it does you also. Happy crafting!

Sarah Ann Smith

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I'm grateful for a great husband who was willing to wait several days for the turkey since I was flaring up and couldn't manhandle the beast plus side dishes on my own. In the end, he still had to do the turkey for me but I was able to make the potatoes, stuffing and gravy. It was a simple meal and a simple time but we enjoyed it.

I wanted to add another site to our quilting and sewing resource page. It is Sarah Ann Smith's blog page. Sarah is a great quilter, writer and teacher. She also is a frequent presence on the Janome Horizon 7700 digest. She is a published author and her book Thread Work Unraveled is an excellent resource for doing machine quilting and threadwork. I own this book and highly recommend it either as a gift for a sewing friend or for yourself! Be sure to visit her blog and see what she is up to.

Sew Janome

We have just started another page here on this blog as I would dearly love to have this be a great resource for all who sew. We have a page for machine embroidery design sites and now we have added a sewing and quilting site page. If you have sites that you would like to see added, please lets us know!

Today's site is Sew Janome with some great information for Horizon 7700 owners and owners of other Janome machines.

Hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for my hubby, my kids and that I have activities that I enjoy while dealing with chronic illness. I'm especially thankful for my Janome Horizon 7700 and 300E as I intend to give them a workout today and tomorrow!

ABC Embroidery Designs

Just added ABC Embroidery Designs to our Embroidery Designer Page. right now you can get a free lovely Thanksgiving design. Even if too late to use this holiday, be sure to download it to have for next year.

I've been working on making Christmas presents, but can't post them since the folks getting them have access to my blog and Facebook account. Maybe after the holidays. So many ideas and so little time and I'm still looking for ideas. It is so much fun to have a girl in the family now to sew for!

Secrets of Embroidery Machine Embroidery Site

Secrets of Embroidery is one of my favorite websites for getting lovely embroidery designs. I noticed that they have a sale going on that you might want to know about. They are offering a 2010 Winter Bonus Set with over 30 designs as a free gift with orders of $30 or more from anywhere on the Secrets site. Sounds like a GREAT deal.

One tip for when you do your embroidery. Don't think that you have everything out of the way when you are setting up an embroidery project. I didn't this weekend. Something fell and jammed my design up and I lost an hour's worth of embroidering. :(  . I did however, put my Horizon through it's paces and hemmed up some heavy jeans of my husbands with the help of a few of my internet friends. I ended up with a bent needle but an old point turner I had gotten free in the mail one day also had a space to tuck in under my presser foot and allowed the foot to go over the bulky seam (except the one that bent the needle). I probably need more practice, but since I'm tall and hubby is 6'2" you wouldn't think I would ever need to hem up pants!

Happy sewing on your holiday projects and enjoy the process!

Cristmas Bag Toppers

What a unique idea that The Purple Hat has for this Christmas season. They are Christmas Bag toppers that you can put treats in a Zip-Lock(r) bag and the topper makes it a gift! Visit The Purple Hat for this and other unique designs.

New Janome Foot

I just got my new O2 foot in the mail for my Janome 7700 Horizon. I haven't tried it out yet, but in comparing it to the other O foot I did notice something that had been brought up in the last Janome 7700 digest. Markings on our machines. Well they aren't on the machine, but if you look at the left side of the 1/4" foot (either one) there are three raised lines. One is exactly to the left of the needle, the other two are both exactly 1/4" behind the needle and 1/4" ahead of the needle so you can use those to help you know where to pivot, start seams, etc. I bring this up because I have been using one of these feet for years and have never noticed the markings. If you need to see them better, a dab of fingernail polish should help visibility. Just being aware of them will help.

Creatively Yours

Just found another machine embroidery design site that you might be interested in called Creatively Yours. They have an eclectic selection of designs, they do have some free designs that you will have to hunt for. This site also does custom digitizing if you need that done.

Designs Sew Fine

Thanks to Joan for bringing my attention to another Machine Embroidery Site called Designs Sew Fine. They have filled designs for all seasons and reasons, lots of redwork and also sufficient free designs to test before you buy from them.

Creative Sewing Techniques by Machine edited by Nancy Fiedler

A review of a book I purchased: Creative Sewing Techniques by Machine edited by Nancy Fiedler. 80 pages ISBN 9781574326680

I'm afraid that after really looking forward to getting this book, I was more than a bit disappointed in it. I'm still trying to decide whether to return it or keep it which is a very unusual situation for me. Although I am a quilter and appreciate quilting designs, I was expecting to see a variety of sewing designs and spiffy projects. After all, this is a book that was edited by a Janome education specialist. Janome, I feel, has always been behind in publishing books of projects to take advantage of their wonderful sewing machines.

In this book, all but one project was a quilt or quilted item, and the remaining project a journal cover. NO garments of any kind were featured. Not many of the projects had anything super special in the way of techniques. Perhaps to a very beginning sewer this book might make more of an impact. I was hoping to see some very creative use of decorative stitching, etc. Instead even those pictures with decorative stitching were done in colors and fabrics that barely showed in the photos. I'm not saying that there weren't some nice projects, just that the projects that were in the book were the same often repeated projects in other books such as, piece a quilt, applique something to the quilt, use a few decorative stitches to sew on the border and maybe do some twin needle stitching.

Several of the projects depended heavily on machine embroidery. For example, one piece showed a bright yellow block which looks like decorative stitching sewn into a block around a quilted design (shown on the front cover of the book). Don't be fooled, the entire block including the decorative stitching look is all pre-digitized machine embroidery. This would have been a perfect time to show just how to make and measure to sew a decorative square with decorative stitches and to do stipple stitching etc.

This book could have been so much more, but with so many different people doing projects, it appears that no one was actually coordinating what they were making. Where is the heirloom sewing project using the many different sewing stitches and presser feet? Where is the simple project of showing how to use the different feet and stitches to whip up a child's T-shirt with some special details to make it unique. Uniqueness is what I was looking for in this book and didn't find it. Perhaps I feel like this because I have read so many books and magazines on sewing, but I think other experienced in sewing will agree that this book lacks that special quality that makes it wonderful.

I would pass on this book unless you have a chance to look through it and know you will be getting some good use out of the contents. I think the problem was the projects were written up by a variety of writers, not just one person with a goal in mind. The editor has two projects in the book, a quilt and the journal cover. All other projects were done by a variety of sewists.

The Fortuny Shirt - Threads

The Fortuny Shirt - Threads

Here is a great step by step guide to finishing the inside armhole of a man's shirt by Kenny King. Worth a few minutes to check it out.

My Current Project

I'm currently working on a quilting project that I have tentatively named "A Few of my Favorite Things". Hubby did a scan of it for me so the stitches would show better than a regular photo, only it took 8 scans to get it all in and then he combined them. So what looks to be wrinkles, folds, etc. is just the work to get it all showing at one time. I have cropped the picture for clarity.

 I have used several of my Janome Horizon 7700 stitches in this piece so far including couching the ribbon, appliqueing and making the woven basket and doing the foliage for the flowers that I then hand embroidered. I have many more parts that I'm working on separately and then will be attaching them. The flowers if you can't tell at Queen Ann's lace or I believe in the UK it is called cow parsley and the pink flowers are based on the lovely phlox that was growing in my garden this year. I'm hoping to also sew up some three dimensional flowers to add to the basket. I didn't want to get done with the project and not have any intermediate pictures of it in process, so here it is. I have been inspired by many art quilt and quilting authors and by my wonderful Janome Horizon sewing machine.

In this piece, I hope to not only show some of my favorite things but to use some of my favorite techniques and also to try out and learn some more favorite techniques.

The Project Modern Quilt

Here is a chance if you are a quilter to try to challenge yourself to make a modern quilt! Hoping I get this button to work correctly so that you can go to their website and find out more. There will be a terrific prize of a Janome Horizon 7700 which is an awesome sewing machine that anyone should be happy to own and work with. Join up at Project Modern Quilt.

Quilt Ideas

Just as I was going to bed last night, I was hit with an incredible idea for the art quilt I am making. Of course, I then laid in bed trying to figure out how I could accomplish it and then couldn't get to sleep. This latest project of mine is so much fun as I attempt to use as many techniques as possible without making a hodge podge of it. The theme is "A Few of My Favorite Things". So far it includes fabric weaving, applique, piecing, decorative machine stitching, hand embroidery, and 3 dimensional work. Lots to do for it yet, but it is so nice not to be working under a time pressure and instead of chopping ideas because of lack of time, I'm eager to work on as many different things as I can. Hoping tonight to finish up a needlepoint piece that will be incorporated into the piece. What fun! Every should have a great creative hobby like sewing!!!

I'm so glad for inspirational books that allow me to dream and then help me to figure out how to make the dreams reality. Quilting Arts is a good one especially as I just discovered the magazine this year. I'm going to try to get the back issues as apparently some of the stories are included in this book which fascinates me.

ONE Spirit Community needs quilting supplies

My friend Gen has made me aware of a group, One Spirit,  that is in great need of quilting and sewing supplies, and from the sounds of it, material goods of all kinds. Here is part of the note Gen sent me that helps explains it better:

>>>ONE Spirit is the organization I support. They are primarily supportive of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. This is the poorest of the country's reservations. The people work hard to make better lives for their children, but poverty and weather are against their progress. So, everything that is done to help has great meaning.


Recently they have asked for quilting supplies. They specifically make star quilts for all kinds of celebrations -- it doesn't hurt that the quilts are warm and the winters are cold. And it helps bring a bit of beauty to one of the dreariest, most depressed parts of our country.
 
The one thing ONE Spirit has shown me is that whatever little I can do, added to what the next person can do, and the next, and the next -- altogether it makes a difference in lives of such hopelessness I cannot imagine.
 
>>>
 
These people, our native American brothers and sisters, are in need of food, clothing, warm coats, and any quilting items you can share. By clicking on the link here, you can see more about the reservation and see whom to contact to make donations to One Spirit of whatever you can give. They also have a Paypal donation button to donate cash towards helping the people. They use the quilting supplies to make quilts to bless each other during ceremonial occasions. The main quilt type that they make are Star of Bethlehem style quilts. Ask yourself what you can do to help.

Using Machine Embroidered corner Designs

Embroidery Library has a nice article with pictures of some ways to use corner designs that you may have accumulated and aren't quite sure what to use them for. I love their designs as they always sew out exactly how they should plus they are very generous with freebies.

Nine Patch Machine Embroidered Butterfly

If you love butterflies and applique and machine embroidery, then you will want to check this butterfly out. It is made in 9 sections and when finished is 10' x 10". It combines applique, machine embroidery and crystals. You can buy it for $10 until July 23, 2010 at the Purple hat. I've been collecting butterfly designs for years in anticipation of making a butterfly quilt. This great design should help with that project.

Vintage Patterns Wikipedia

If you love to sew with vintage sewing patterns or just to collect vintage patterns and haven't discovered this site yet, you might want to zoom right over to Vintage Patterns Wilipedia where you can find lots of information on vintage sewing patterns including links to vendors who just might have your size in stock. The site itself does not sell patterns as the vendors are independent stores such as our store, Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts.

Countdown to Christmas

For those out there that do machine embroidery, today is the day to sign up for the Countdown to Christmas program at Embroidery Library. This program allows you to buy designs for the next several months and earn points towards receiving a gift certificate at Christmas. Along the way you will receive FREEBIE Christmas designs. Check out their site for full details. Sign up as soon as possible so you don't miss out on anything

Three Projects Finished!

Last week I managed to finished three projects. I got a top finished to match a skirt I made last month. I made a throw pillow as a bit of encouragement for a friend battling cancer. I also cut apart a king size quilt I had made 8 years ago into two smaller quilts and got rid of a part of it that had fallen apart. I now understand why women used to sew beard guards onto their quilts! Enough said.

I gave my new sewing machine, Janome Horizon 7700, a run for its money with these projects. The dual feed set up worked great, the free motion quilting worked great, as did the decorative stitches for applique and as always the straight stitching on a Janome machine was top notch. I'm looking forward to many more projects with this machine especially since I can use the stop start button to sew with so I can keep my feet propped up and avoid the painful swelling I usually get while sewing.