Whenever I teach a class, I try to bring something new to the table. I may use ribbon, sequins, rick rack or rhinestones (I’m accused of being a “bling” girl), on whatever embroidery project I am doing. Well, I have some great companies I buy from and I would like tell you about some of them. Most of these companies also have great sales throughout the year, so be sure to sign up to get their emails. It’s well worth it. Their links are all in my Creative Links section.
Thread Art.com has EVERYTHING you could want to trim your project. That’s not all, they have many different types and weights of threads. Add, embroidery designs you can download, quilting fabric, vinyl, stabilizer, and much more. You just have to check each page to see what treasure you can find.
Another great company to buy blanks to embroider on, is Discount Embroidery Blanks.com They, and their sister store, Sewfisticated Stitcher.com have reasonably priced blanks like towels of all kinds. tea towels, golf towels, finger tip towels, etc. Don’t let their prices fool you. The quality is great.
Also check out All About Blanks.com They have some beautiful things you can embroider like the usual towels, but also elegant cotton table runners, napkins, handkerchiefs, etc (be sure to use 60 wt. embroidery thread when working with delicate handkerchiefs)
There are other companies out there, but these 3 companies I do a lot of business with.
How nice is it to make something personalized for someone special. We all like the sound of our own name. Well, how about their name or monogram on a gift that they will always cherish.
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Until next time …. happy sewing!
needles in our sewing box and organize them. I teach an Embroidery 101 workshop, which covers the use of stabilizer, threads and needles. It still surprises me when my students ask me the difference in needles. I’m going to try to simplify this mystery and give you a place to go back to when you need to choose a needle for a certain sewing, quilting or embroidery project.I have worked with most of these needle types and when you use the correct needle, your project will always look the best.
neck shirt to place the TOP of the design. If you have embroidery software, then print out your template, cut around the design and place on shirt where you want the design to be. If the top of design is 3″ down from top of crew neck then mark your center, top and side marking lines and position in your hoop.(For children’s shirts measure 2.5 inches down)
Have you ever seen a towel with the design so high up that you can only see half the design when hung on an oven handle? Or looked at a T shirt with the design sitting on someone’s belly button? Well, there is a formula for proper placement of designs on everything.
marking from the center point. That 3 inch also gives you room to add a pretty fabric band, or ruffle or ribbon trim along the bottom. If you have software then print out a template, cut around the designs and place on towel so you can measure up 3 inches to bottom of design. Then do placement markings with an erase away marker. 
One of my favorite things to do is embroidery. I love the way a quilt looks with embroidery on it. There are several ways to do this. One, you can make enough embroidered blocks to start piecing the blocks like any quilt with sashing in between. You put your narrow borders on and you add a wide border all around. This wide border can have embroidery on it as well, 
giving a beautiful finished look. That’s what I did with my personal bed quilt. I used the Judy Nowecki embroidery design disk, Floral Elegance. I loved this quilt when it was finished and I still do now. 
. I’m going to talk about a passion I have had since I was about 6 years old. It’s sewing!
Sewing Scoupe 