Responding to a Comment

“I have a singer 306 given to me by my grandmother. She took a great deal of care on this machine and I follow in her footsteps. My machine sews through delicate laces and into hard thick denims with a beautiful stitch! I still use it today as the machine is better than modern ones in many ways. It is in the original cabinet, additional feet, manual and even 30 extra fashion disks to go with it. There are so many variations with these disks that I could consider it also as an embroidery machine. Currently I am on a quest to find a book on using these additional fashion disks. Why can't they make sewing machines like this anymore? This is perfection!”

That is a good question to ask about a lot of things! My mom’s Singer broke down years ago although I still own it. The Singer I got last summer is still waiting to be repaired, so in the meantime I use my Janome 6500. I am hoping that once I get the old Singer repaired to use a vintage sewing pattern, vintage style fabric and vintage trims to make something on the machine just to see how it sews. With my old Singer I was very impressed with the manual as it taught me some things my manual for my new machine didn’t have.

I think that is the point of my comment. Just about every sewing machine that is for sale currently has decorative stitches and/or utility stitches. But the manuals never tell you what they are supposed to be used for! It is a case of trial and error and hopefully running into a good book or magazine article that sheds some light on the topic. I think that is why I have been so impressed with Jenny Haskins’ and her son Simon’s books. Even though they use lots of machine embroidered designs, they base most of their designs on stitch building—using all those decorative stitches together in unique ways—that makes their projects a work of art. I also like the book All About Machine Arts: Decorative Techniques from A to Z, which has a glossary of different decorative stitches with suggestions for usage.

Of course the best way to learn how to use those stitches, is stabilize a chunk of fabric and sit down and start sewing! I did that the other day and ended up with a decorative stitched pocket and front bands for a sweatshirt jacket. Since I used variegated threads of colors I usually wear, this jacket goes with most of my clothes.

Still I too, continue the quest to learn more about those amazing stitches! Anyone with suggestions, please post. If possible, I will get a copy of the book and post a review here.

Embroidered checkbook cover

I used to sew large projects and found great satisfaction in finishing a king sized quilt or having a marathon sewing session that resulted in an entire wardrobe at the end of the week. Well my strength has ebbed and yet my desire to create is just as strong. I have found great delight in reading about others accomplishments, looking at sewing patterns and dreaming of how I would make it (if only I had the figure for it!), or reading books about sewing and telling you about them. But nothing equals actually sitting down at the sewing machine and making something.

After years of always getting a new tacky plastic checkbook cover with every new batch of checks, I’ve discovered that this isn’t happening anymore now that all my checkbook covers have completely worn out. This gave me a perfect excuse to make my own checkbook cover. I discovered a couple of things along the way so that the next one will go a little smoother, but for now this one is good enough and gave me a lovely sense of accomplishment. I used some blue and white stripped fabric that I had around the house and the design is from Janome’s Victorian Rose designs only I changed the colors. This was my first attempt at machine embroidering a design on a patterned fabric. Might not be the right mix of colors, but my next try will be better. I hate wasting good fabric and thread when I’m just experimenting.

I also wanted to share and machine embroidery link that I’ve come upon, it is Sew Swell. Most of their designs are a mix of machine appliqué with machine embroidery. The mix of the two makes your embroidery time go a bit faster. They have designs that fit up to a 6” x 10” hoop. They also have a lot of free samples so you can judge for yourself whether or not their designs and instructions are right for you. When you visit the site, be sure to sign up for their newsletter so you don’t miss out on their special deals and newest freebies.

Email & Newsletters

I’m sure everyone out there with an email address gets their fair share of junk mail and spam, so it is always fun to get emails about things you are truly interested in. Today I got several. First I got a newsletter from Kenny Kreations about a new quilt design they have for purchase. It is called Time for Bed, Ted and it is adorable. It features an Irish Chain style quilt with Ted (a teddy bear) in different poses under his blanket. Ted can also be converted into a girl bear too. The Ted design is partly machine appliqué, and partly machine embroidery. A sew in the hoop bear also comes as part of the set. This would make an awesome gift for a baby or toddler. To see Ted and also to get links to the other creations at Kenny Kreations, click HERE.

The other newsletter I got was from Hatched In Africa. The designs these girls make are absolutely awesome. Many of them are heirloom quality and most of their design sets have a freebie to go with them. With their newsletter today came a link to a Mother’s Day gift of an entire free alpha-bet for immediate download. Also there were links to their two newest design sets—both with freebie designs. When I get to the Hatched in Africa site, I get mesmerized and could look at designs for hours as they are so beautiful. But of course that doesn’t leave me any time for sewing myself or any of the other things I need to do. If you would like to visit Hatched in Africa, click HERE.

Both of these machine embroidery sites have newsletters that you can sign up for and I encourage anyone who likes a particular site to sign up for newsletters from the site. You never know what kind of goodie you will get such as the free alpha-bet that I got today (sorry I’m not allowed to post it’s link) or notification of special sales, and of course notification of the newest designs.

Machine Lace Embroidery

Mother's Day is coming and even though we don't make a huge deal about it in our family, we do acknowledge our mothers and like to give them a little something. I knew I needed something flat that would fit in a card to mail as I won't be able to visit my mom this year. It is a sad state of affairs when the daughter feels more decrepit than the mother. Thankfully she understands and I'm sure she will appreciate something 'handmade' by me.

For once I didn't procrastinate! Last month I found some enchanting Machine Lace Embroidery Bookmark designs and sewed them out. I used variegated orange thread for one and pink for the other. Using heavy duty Solvy stabilizer, they were a breeze to stitch out.

I love the look of machine embroidered lace. It seems impossible that it would hold together, but it does. It is great when you need to coordinate the lace with a project, as you can pick out thread to use that matches or compliments the project.

Dollar Days

From May 10 – 16, 2006 Embroidery Library is having a Dollar Days sale on some great new designs. Quick to stitch with only three-color changes these designs will make quick work of decorating your summer wardrobe. You can buy each design separately or in design packs. There are design that would be great on children’s clothes and best of all a lot of designs for guys including playing cards, motorcycles, cars and musical instruments.

If you don’t do machine embroidery, our store Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts, has just uploaded lots of new counted cross-stitch kits, needlepoint kits and needlepoint canvases. We also made a huge purchase of almost 6000 patterns this week (about 4000 more than we were expecting) and so over the next few months look for great New, Uncut patterns in our store, including formal wear and LOTS of costumes and new craft patterns.

New in the Store

Just wanted to update everyone about some new items in our store. We were fortunate enough to get some brand new counted cross stitch kits, needlepoint kits, needlepoint canvas, and embroidery purse kits. We have them uploaded and in the store now. One of the items I'm really excited about are the embroidered purse kits. These kits include a completed purse, pearl cotton embroidery floss, needle, plus instruction for completing a design. These would make great gifts for teen girls to introduce them to the fine art of embroidery with an up-to-date fashion accessory when they are finished with the simple embroidery. You can see and purchase the purses here.

Tomorrow we will be picking up a new bunch of sewing patterns. We will have them uploaded as soon as possible. We are very excited about being able to add more sewing patterns to our inventory to offer our buyers the best selection possible. Don't forget, we can packaged between 6-8 patterns in a Priority Mail envelope for $5.50 shipping and handling!

Threads July 2006

What a fun surprise yesterday when my latest Threads magazine came in the mail. A letter that I had written to the editor was published! I really enjoy this magazine and have learned so much about sewing from reading it.

This latest issue focuses in on inspiring and teaching new sewers the basics, including a pull-out section in the middle of the magazine to use for reference. There is also an article on basic hand stitches showing the most important stitches you may need to do with a hand needle and thread for that extra special touch in finishing a garment. There is a quick to make article on making a gypsy tiered skirt, one of the latest fashion must haves. The instructions show how to make the skirt without a pattern, but if you want a pattern for this type of skirt try our store.

For the expert seamstress or those who want to be, there is a great article on finding and fixing patterns before cutting them out. I’ve always assumed when my garment pieces didn’t match, that my sewing was at fault. It is nice to know that sometimes it is the pattern itself that had the error. I did find when sewing a top last summer that the cutting diagram was wrong which meant I cut out two left sided sleeves—I was sure glad I had plenty of fabric for that project! Another article for the expert seamstress is on eliminating separate facings in a top with a couture lining technique. The technique looks like it is a bit time consuming but gives a lovely result.

For the machine embroider, there is a very interesting article on embroidering off the edge of a garment. In this case a collar was featured with part of the flower coming off of the collar edge. It certainly gives a high fashion look that is easy to achieve by following the simple steps.

For those who really have difficulty envisioning a particular pattern on themselves, there is a great article on drawing your own croquis, using pens and markers to figure out if a pattern is in the correct proportion and style for you. It is a great way to take those tall skinny models and bring them down to your size.

The Latest Fashion?

Although I’ve always kept and eye on the latest fashions and tried not to be to terribly ‘out of it’, I’m now at that point in life where comfort rules. I’m in my 50’s, have chronic sore joints due to arthritis and although I hate being hot, I can’t stand cool air on my joints. As I have time to sew I have been making more and more of my clothes to conform to my lifestyle. Most things I make are easy on and off, no buttons, no zippers, nothing that takes fine motor skills for sore fingers to accomplish to be dressed.

Some of my favorite things to wear are lightweight jackets made out of sweatshirts. I slash then up the front, attach decorative bands to the front and add pockets. With the many variety of sweatshirt colors that can be combined with fashion fabric and machine embroidery, the possibilities for designs are endless. I just finished a gray jacket this week. I used my Janome 6500 to sew lines of decorative stitches in variegated thread to white bands and then attached them to the front. As I don’t us buttons or buttonholes, the jacket was essentially done, but I always like a pocket or two. I took more of the white fabric and sewed line after line of decorative stitches. What a fun way to try out different stitches and see how they stitch out with different variegated thread. When I finally had a big enough piece, I cut it into a square, lined it and sewed it to the front of the jacket. This was a very easy project for me to do especially since I didn’t need to construct the sweatshirt. I just got to do the fun decorative stuff. I’ve lost track of how many of these jackets I have made, but I’m determined to make sure I have a lot of them stashed away for when the day comes that I can’t sew anymore—hopefully not for a long time!

Speed Sewing

Speed Sewing: 103 Sewing Machine Shortcuts by Janice S. Saunders. 1982 1st Edition Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, ISBN 0442224885, Illustrations by Alan Clever, photographs by Nicholas Yadlovsky, Design assistance Elna Sewing Machines. 144 pages, black and white photographs and diagrams, includes index.

In this age of computerized sewing and embroidery machines with mega hoops for embroidery, it seems that many books and magazine articles focus in on providing information on the use of these top of the line, expensive machines. But I am confident that out in the world there are many sewers who only have older model sewing machines with limited stitches and capabilities. These people need guidance on how to get the most from their machine. This book answers many questions that a seamstress may have on several different techniques.

While this book is limited in scope (it doesn’t take you step-by-step from pattern cutting to finished garment), it is always mindful of the different kinds of machines on the market back in the 1980’s and is still relevant for today. There are three types of sewing machines: the straight stitch, the zig zag, and the reverse action machine (the basic model in use know in the 2000’s—many with computer interfaces). The author explains the types of stitches available on each kind of machine and what they are used for. There are diagrams of the different stitches so you can compare them to your own sewing machine. With the current machines that can run up to several hundred decorative stitches, I’ve had difficulty figuring out which utility stitch is the most practical for my projects, this book is a very good reference for the use of the most common utility stitches

Each technique the author explains gives the details of which pressure foot to use, which stitch to use, and what stitch length and width to use for each type of sewing machine. The book is set up systematically to give you a speedier way of making your garments, featuring seam finishing, buttons and buttonholes, pockets, hemlines. There are also sections on recycling old clothes including furs to make something new or more in styles, how to use the different stitches and needles to make decorative finishes and machine embroidery. There is also a section on machine maintenance—but always refer to your own sewing machine manual if available for proper maintenance of your machine.

All in all this is a well thought out book with plenty of tips and techniques especially for the beginner and average sewer as I suppose a highly advances seamstress knows most of this information. I know I gleaned several useful hints that will help me with my own personal sewing that I hadn’t known before. This would be a good basic book for your sewing reference library.

Altering Men's Shirt Patterns

One of the things I have noticed as I have been reading lots of sewing books, is although there is lots of advice on altering women's patterns, there is nothing about altering for men. The latest Sewnews June 2006 has an article on Altering Men's shirt Patterns by Anna Zapp. If you sew for men or have a fitting problem for guys shirts, you may want to get a hold of this issue for reference.

Simon's Folly and Mar Jen for Error

After waiting over 3 months since I ordered them, Simon's Folly and Mar Jen for Error books are here. I have really enjoyed reading my copies today and have a synopsis for you now. I also have a review of another Jenny Haskins book The Millenium Quilt: Romance 2000.

Creative Expressions Special Edition Simon’s Folly Quilt with Jenny Haskins: a quilt by Simon G. Haskins. Included is a Design CD with 25 machine embroidery designs in formats for Bernina, Elna, Husqvarna Viking, Janome, Pfaff, and Singer. As a Janome owner, I can note that the Janome designs are in .JEF format, not .JEF+ and there are 3 designs in .SEW.

Simon is Jenny Haskin’s son and apparently decided that if he was going to work for the company, then he needed to make a quilt also. And he did! It is a beautiful quilt using both designs on the included CD and the Victorian Antique Cutwork Lace Design CD by Jenny Haskins. The colors used in the quilt are soft greens and pale pinks. Not only did he use machine embroidery designs to make his quilt squares, he used lots of stitch building using the decorative stitches on his sewing machine. This is one of the things I especially enjoy about Jenny Haskins publications is that not only do they have lots of beautiful full color photos of the work, but detailed instructions and for the stitch building, there are illustrations of each stitch used so you can use something similar. There is also a pull-out section in the magazine with templates of the included designs, and placement guidelines for the templates and quilt blocks.

As if that weren’t enough, six sewing machine companies (Bernina, Elna, Husqvarna Viking, Janome, Pfaff, and Singer) contributed a cushion (pillow) decorated with machine embroidery and a free embroidery design or two or three to make them up.

This is a lovely magazine that has much in the way of ideas, projects and instructions to make lovely heirloom quality projects. Currently we have two copies of this magazine available in our store. To purchase, click here.

Creative Expressions: Special Edition, The Mar Jen for Error Quilt by Jenny Haskins and Marti Mitchell. Includes bonus instructions for Beyond the Color Purple.

In this lovely magazine format, Australian quilter and machine embroiderer teams up with American quilter Marti Mitchell to make this wonderful quilt: Mar Jen for Error. This is a stripy quilt that features Dresden plate and fan blocks and long strips of machine embroidery roses. This quilt uses an abundance of beautiful rose printed fabric that is fussy cut to emphasize the design and the fabric. The machine embroidery made use of Art Nouveau Series: Spring Flowers CD by Jenny Haskins and the Dresden plates and fan patchwork pieces were cut using Perfect Patchwork Templates: The Dresden Plate Set by Marti Mitchell. Although simple in style, this quilt really shows how with extra care and time you can make an exquisite quilt.

Also included in this book is the Beyond the Color Purple quilt that was originally published in Creative Expressions #1. That magazine was completely sold out and is now out of print, so Jenny decided to republish the quilt and instructions again. This quilt makes extensive use of machine embroidered appliquéd flowers. The design softwear used in the quilt if Beyond Color Purple CD and Victorian Scrolls and Curlicues CD by Jenny Haskins.

There is a pull-out insert in the middle of the magazine to help with templates and setting your blocks as you make them. Currently we have two copies of this magazine available in our store. If you would like to purchase, please click here.

A Millennium Quilt: Romance 2000 by Jenny Haskins. Master the techniques of machine embroidery. Create this heirloom millennium quilt and other projects. This out of print magazine is packed with ideas for making the best of your embroidery sewing machine and the decorative stitches on your sewing machine. To welcome the year 2000 and the new millennium itself, Jenny Haskins challenged the most popular sewing machine companies to design three separate quilt blocks with each one to represent a different aspect of machine embroidery: texture, machine feet and stitches, and three-dimensional appliqué. Bernina, Brother, Elna, Husqvarna, Janome, Pfaff, and Singer answered the call magnificently. Not only did they produce their three blocks, each company designed an additional project which is also featured in this magazine.

Even if you don’t have the latest and the greatest in the way of computerized embroidery sewing machines, as long as you have a machine that makes decorative stitches, many of these projects will be within your capability. I am only familiar with the Janome sewing machine family and their projects were made with the Janome 9000.

I purchased this magazine new at a store where it had been hidden for years under other sewing magazines and it has obvious shop wear to the cover. However, the content is fabulous and worth your purchase for what you can learn about using your sewing machine and lighting your creative ideas.

This magazine is currently up for bid at eBay if you would like to purchase it. Just click here to get to the listing. Hurry, auction ends April 21, 2006

Vogue Sewing Book Review

One of the joys of blogging is being able to go off on tangents from your own original intentions of what to blog. I started my blog about machine embroidery, one of my passions, but have found that I can’t separate machine embroidery from my love of quilting and sewing, so this blog is turning into a sewing blog.

My husband and I run an on line business selling books and sewing patterns at our store Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts Sales. The more patterns we handle, the more questions we get asked on line about sewing and my own personal sewing projects has lead me into a search for some good all round sewing books to recommend to sewers and would be sewers. Recently I have purchased some sewing instruction books on line, picked up some at estate sales and then got to peruse some of the newest ones at Barnes and Noble. I found some to be utterly worthless. Some books although supposedly for beginners would have left a beginner sewer sucking their thumb and babbling in a corner. I did find several good books and due to finances (wouldn’t it be nice to have unlimited funds to buy books and sewing stuff!) and actual inventory at the store, only got to bring one home.

My choice was Vogue Sewing (2000). It included several things I had personally been looking for in such a book and it is very thorough in its approach. This book included over 1800 illustrations, updated with the latest tools and notions available to the home sewer, and it is interesting. Interesting is a good thing in a sewing book as many can become as dull as dishwater.


In my first glance through the book, I found a fashion glossary. As we (mainly my husband) have been describing fashions on pattern envelopes, all the pictures and descriptions in the glossary are a great resource for us. That sold me on the book right there as I was tired off trying to remember what a particular type of sleeve or collar was called when hubby wanted to know. Now he can just look at the picture.

There is a section on body shapes and picking flattering styles. Only female shapes are used in this section. Is there a sewing or book on fashion that covers children’s and men’s shapes? There is also a color wheel with explanations about choosing colors. There is also a section on fibers and their weaves and care.

One particularly interesting article is on the process of how a Vogue pattern comes into being. I was very impressed to learn that the pattern tissues are cut 1300 layers at a time! And that a machine folds them and puts them into the envelope. No wonder it is next to impossible to refold them!

One section that I have had to refer to several times already is the sizing section of the book. I have had several customers email asking for recommendations for sizes of Vogue patterns to purchase and I’m happy to let them know Vogue’s official sizes according to body measurements. The entire size charts for Misses’, Women’s and Today’s Fit are included in this chapter as well as a discussion on wearing ease and designer ease. I had been sewing for years before I ever realized there was such a thing as wearing ease.

The book at this point goes step-by-step through the pattern envelope explaining each item and then the pattern instruction sheet and finally the tissue pattern piece. Then you find out about fitting the pattern and making the pattern up. Many, many illustrations help you to understand each sewing technique. With sections on tailoring, special fabrics and even one on sewing the Very Easy Vogue patterns, this is a very well rounded book. If you can only afford to buy one all purpose sewing guide, this should be one to consider.

Just In

I love getting my newest sewing magazines and always lay them aside until I have time alone to peruse them. I like to first take a quick run through the magazine and then after seeing the newest projects, I take the time to read through the magazine reading the editors comments, the letters to the editor (taking time of course to mentally agree or disagree with comments about the content), and then read the feature articles. After that I go back through and read the instructions for many of the projects. Even if they don’t apply to any current project, you never know when a gem of information will come in handy to know.

The latest Designs in Machine Embroidery(May/June 2006) just landed in my mail box today. The big feature article was on decorating denim blue jeans. And not just decorating them, having a get together of teen aged girls to machine embroider, bleach, glue rhinestones and anything else they could think of to make each pair of jeans unique. Not only did the girls have a fun time, but they were learning that ‘sewing’ wasn’t just for old grannies. However we can encourage the younger generation to take up needlecraft arts the better. Needlecrafts whether machine or hand embroidery, sewing, knitting, crochet, needlepoint, etc. help to reduce stress and gives us a calm relaxing activity that produces something lovely and unique when finished.

I have been a fan of Creative Expressions with Jenny Haskins since I stumbled upon the first issue at my local Barnes & Noble. Since then, it has been a constant struggle to find the latest issues. If I wasn’t at the store at the right time, I missed out. I finally solved that problem with getting on a subscription list to be able to sell them through my store. Now I get my copy every quarter and a batch to sell. Currently I have only three copies of issue #10 (the latest issue) left in the store where you can purchase an issue if you like Click here to purchase.

Creative Expressions is an Australian magazine, filled with wonderful colors, photos, and machine embroidery and quilting projects. Most projects are frilly and ultra feminine in nature with an abundance of flower motifs. I love all the wonderful ideas in this magazine and most especially I like the parts of projects which show stitch building. Taking decorative machine stitches and sewing them closely together to create an even bigger pattern. Even if you don’t own an embroidery machine, as long as you own a sewing machine with 20-30 decorative stitches, you can build on the ideas in these magazines. Appliqué ‘fussy cut’ flowers onto your fabric, follow the stitch building guides (substituting your own stitches as needed) and you too can have delightful results.

I have found that as newer and bigger embroidery machines come out, that those who only have an older model or no embroidery capacity at all, get left out when it comes to projects and ideas. When I got my latest sewing machine it had a couple of decorative stitches that for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what I would ever use them for. Well those same stitches (or ones very much like them) were used in stitch building in two separate articles in this issue. Now I know what I can use them for!

That is what I love reading my magazines for—Knowledge! By writing this blog and through selling needlecraft books in My Store I too hope to help impart knowledge about my love of sewing in all its forms.

Where do the days Go?

It seems like there is just never enough time for all the things I want to do. Unfortunately for me, most of those things have to be scheduled around when I am feeling up to doing them, so even less time. Oh well, such is life. I finished some Project Linus quilts and turned them in--thankfully they collect them all year, as I had a flare-up and didn't get them finished on time. My latest project is my Easter dress. With all the Vogue patterns that we have up for sale, I found one in my size that looked easy to make, comfortable to wear and easy to get in and out of. I have it all cut out at this point and now have to find the time to sew.

I had been having a particularly bad week with no sleep and hubby went out one day on an errand and came home with a new quilting book for me and a bunch of spools of Robison-Anton thread in colors he didn't think I would buy for myself. He was right! He got me some really beautiful colors for machine embroidery, that I usually forget I need. I love pink, so I tend to always buy pink thread and then I never have the contrasting colors I need when embroidering a project.

I am waiting and waiting for some books to get here from Australia. They seem to have been waylaid. One is by Jenny Haskins son, Simon's Folly and the other is the Margen for Error book. I'm hoping they will get here soon so I can review them for you. The Simon's Folly book comes complete with a CD of embroidery designs. I ordered extra books, so they will be available for sale in our ebay store. I have also subscribed in bulk to Creative Expression magazine, so once they start coming, I will have extra issues of them also in the store.

Busy Busy Busy!!!

I think I mentioned in my last post, that we were expecting a large influx of sewing patterns that we would be uploading to our store. Not only did we get about 2500 Simplicity, McCall's and New Look patterns, we had an opportunity to purchase about 2000 Vogue patterns! Needless to say, our little house is filled with boxes and boxes of patterns. Thankfully hubby has organized them, scanned most of them, and typed in many of the descriptions. As my health allows, I am adding them into our eBay store. We have also changed the name of our store to Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts Store as that better reflects what we currently sale and also aspire to sell.

Saturday we had an opportunity to go to an estate sale that was selling out a champion knitter's stash. When I walked into the house, I felt that I had met a soul mate. Shelves and shelves of knitting and crochet books, skeins and skeins of yarns, and boxs and boxs of back issues of craft magazines. Almost the same thing you would find if you peeked into my craft room with two difference: my books tend to focus on quilts and machine embroidery and my stash of stuff is not nearly as neat as hers was! Many of those knitting and crochet books will be available for you to purchase in our at Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts Store just as soon as I get them uploaded.

My personal find of the day was the first 60 isssues of Threads magazine. In my spare moments I have been looking through them and find I'm learning something from every issue. I have found the very act of listing sewing patterns for resale has taught me so much about pattern design and looking through these magazines will continue my learning. Now that I'm over 50, I have to keep my brain active or it starts turning into sludge!

Sewing Patterns

It's been a while since I posted, but it has been a whacky and busy time the last few months. I spent most of December having arthritis flare-ups, one right after another and then hubby got sick for several weeks. It between all this we have been trying to build up inventory in our eBay store. We are pleased to announce the addition of around 600 new and uncut McCall's, Simplicity and Vogue sewing patterns with another 3000 on the way! Although not all of our patterns are flagged in the titles as being uncut new patterns, the majority of them are and we are constantly on the look out for more like them.

Many of the patterns we have just uploaded have been featured patterns in Sew News, Designs in Machine Embroidery, Creative Machine Embroidery, and Threads magazine. Due to the time involved with the listing, I couldn't list which magazine they appeared in. If you have been looking for a particular pattern, now is the time to go looking. Once you enter our eBay Store, there is a search box on the left hand side of the page. Enter the pattern number you are looking for there and if we have it, you will see the listings we have for it. Don't forget that we have a lot more patterns coming and we will be posting them as fast as we can, so put us in your favorites and check back often. We always combine shipping and handling if you want more than one pattern.

Before I got too sick, I did accomplish my Christmas goal of making a gift for my husband, two boys, and my new daughter-in-law to be. I haven't felt up to doing that in a long time and it was fun to see their faces Christmas morning as they opened their gifts.

My last project was making two rice bags that can be heated in the microwave for about 2 minutes and then I can hold them in my hands to help relieve the pain in them. They are a bit smaller than rice bags I have made before and are great for being able to get whichever hand joint is aching the most. I used some UFO quilt patches, put some batting and a backing piece behind and quilted them together, trying out different stitches from my sewing machine. Trimmed the pieces down to the right size and sewed them right sides together leaving an opening. I filled them with about a cup and a half of rice and then sewed the opening shut. I have found when making rice bags that having them padded with a bit of quilting makes them much more comfortable...And that's the whole point. If you weren't aware of it, rice bags are also good for cold packs. Just keep one in the freezer and pull it out when needed. They hold the cold for a long time and no drippy water or ice melt. Making a cold pack/rice bag in child friendly fabrics would ease those little ones injuries with a familiar 'BooBoo' bag.

I'm sure I have rambled on long enough for today. But I hope to be back more regularly again. I have some new books to review and a great new embroidery site to talk about. Stay tuned!

Finally Christmas Crafting!

After spending lots of time getting all sorts of craft and sewing patterns listed in my eBay store, I finally got time to do some sewing of my own. I have a long list of things I want to make over the next month. Today’s project was finishing a purse I started yesterday. The basic instructions came from Designer Style Handbags by Sherri Haab, but the flap was my own design.

I made the purse out of red and black Chinese look brocade. I lined it with white satin (leftover from the wedding gown I made my niece). When you open the flap of the purse, there is a little surprise, the recipient’s monogram in black with red flowers entwined. I used my Janome 300E to embroider the monogram that I had downloaded for free from the internet. I sewed the purse out on my Janome 6500.


After being away from doing much creative sewing for awhile, it was fun to be able to once again ‘play’ in my sewing room. I certainly hope the young lady who gets this purse as a present enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it.

The other project that I’m working on is an embroidered clock. We have lots of various sized clocks for decoration in our eBay Store, and I wanted to try out decorating one myself. This one has little bluebirds and flowers. I downloaded the design from Embroidery Library. They have lots of machine embroidery clock designs. One thing to be careful with is be sure you are downloading the correct size. I downloaded two designs. One was a split design that I had to decrease slightly to get it to fit into my B hoop for my 300E. The other design wasn’t split and turned out to be too large to sew out and as I don’t have any digitizing software, I can’t fix it to sew it out. While sewing out the bluebird design I did think up several ideas that I can design myself and sew out.

Scrapbook Clocks to decorate!

Our eBay store Moonwishes Store.com has just listed a very unique item that would be of great interest to those who love making scrapbooks, doing paperpiecing, rubber stamp projects, or those who love unique clocks. We have clock kits in three different sizes that you can decorate yourself for any room in the house, give as an incredible one of a kind gift, or make to commemorate a special occassion. These clocks come with several dials that you can decorate with your own scrapbook, rubber stamp supplies and you will end up with a terrrific one of a kind clock.




We also have a lot of Christmas craft project patterns, Santa Claus dolls to decorate, and patterns for new Holidagy clothes. For gift giving, we have a large assortment of new quilting books, photography books and new Usborne Children's books. Stop in and get your Holiday shopping done without wasting a drop of gasoline. We are always happy to combine shipping and handling on multiple orders!

Creative Tucks and Textures for Quilts and Embroidery

Creative Tucks and Textures for Quilts and Embroidery by Jennie Rayment. 2004 Quilters’ Resource. Soft cover, 128 pages, ISBN 1889682403. Full color photographic illustrations throughout the book.

The first time I picked up this book and looked through it, my jaw dropped and I wondered how anyone could do what I was seeing. Not only was the author using quilting designs, she was using decorative machine stitching, AND using tucks and folds and wiggles in the fabric to create 3-dimensional quilt designs. Many of the designs are shown in plain ecru muslin to show the design details and how light reflects on the design because of the way the fabric is manipulated. Further in the book are quilts designed in color that truly highlight this amazing technique. One of the most amazing things for me was how she became inspired by looking at a mushroom upside down and the tucked circles that were developed because of this sudden spurt of insight.

I love the authors “So what” attitude to sewing "oops". Her belief seems to be, so called mistakes are really just a chance to discover a new way of doing things. I have not yet had a chance to practice any of the techniques of the book, due to my work on sewing quilts for Hurricane Katrina victims, but hope to in the near future try some of this detail work.

Anyone who loves manipulating fabric, would be inspired by this book and would gain some good insight by the directions she gives. Those who are bored with ‘flat’ quilting will find some good challenges in this book. And anyone who is serious about art quilts, would find this a great reference book for their shelves.

Jenny Haskins New Quilt Roses for Mary

Finally had some time to review some more great quilting books. As always, Jenny Haskins' books are a feast for the eyes and fuel for the creative process.

Jenny Haskins New Quilt Roses for Mary by Jenny Haskins, 2004 Quilters’ Resource. Soft cover 103 pages. Beautiful color photographic illustrations. ISBN 199068242X.

This Jenny Haskins book takes you step by step through the process of making the Roses for Mary quilt, which should appeal to rose lovers everywhere. This quilt was designed in loving memory of her mother who died in 2004. The book includes velum templates for laying out the embroidery for the quilt, although the actual embroidery designs need to be purchased separately (Roses for Mary Design CD by Jenny Haskins Designs).

To get you started with the quilt is a detailed equipment and supply list, a discussion on how embroidery works and the layering process to achieve depth and coloring, and a list of important point to achieve sewing success. The first project is a pillow/cushion and table topper to make, which will give you practice with the embroidery designs and with the quilting process.

Then you get step by step instructions for this lovely quilt. The finished quilt measures 74 ½” square. It has a center spray of roses, surrounded by four bows and then corner sprays of roses to make a center medallion. Two small plain fabric borders are next. Large corner bows (12” square) in each corner and along the edge of the quilt a 41” long spray of roses with large roses in the middles, tapering to smaller rose buds at the end of the spray. Again, two plain fabric borders make up the final border of the quilt. The embroidery threads used in this quilt are Robison-Anton threads with both color number and color description given in case you need to substitute a different brand of thread or choose to make your quilt in a different color palette.

As a special treasure at the end of the book are pages and pages of actual sewn out projects using both the Roses for Mary CD, including a glorious wedding dress, and other Jenny Haskins designs that should spark a flame of creativity in any machine embroidery enthusiast.