Needles – Sewing Scoupe

A Time For Reflection and Sewing

This has been a time of reflection for all of us, but one thing has been brought to mind. Something I have said for years. Sewers are some of the most generous people in the world. Every day I hear of a group of sewers who are making masks to donate to nursing homes, rehab centers, hospital visitors, relatives and anyone who needs them. My hats off to all of you who are doing what you can to help people be safe.

EmbLibrary In The Hoop Mask – free digital download

Many of the vendors are giving away free mask designs. http://www.emblibrary.com has an In The Hoop design that I have been making. http://www.shabbyfabrics.com has a tutorial on making a mask with a sewing machine. YouTube has several very good sites making masks. http://www.accuquilt.com has a nice easy to follow design to sew on any size sewing machine. Check them all out and make some for family or friends to help keep them safe. Be creative with fancy fabrics and even some trimming, like lace or ribbons. Young children are more apt to wear them if you make them fun. http://www.smartneedle.com designs has some fun animal face masks that kids would like. They have a free pig embroidery mask. Why not make some of these for any children you know in the hospital. Check out your favorite vendors and see what they have.

You may need to type in a search for “free mask pattern” to get the pattern. With EmbLibrary just go to their free designs page. If you are not already signed up to get emails from these companies, it is worth it to do so. They all send out emails with sales, free patterns, designs, etc.

This is also a good time to start sewing projects you may want to give for Christmas. I find sewing helps to keep me focused on life while I self isolate. At the end of the day, I’m amazed at where the time has gone.

Meantime I hope we all stay safe. Keep your family as close as you can. Life is good and beautiful. This won’t last forever and hopefully we will get back to normal, renewed and grateful for life, loved ones and the chance to share our art with someone special.

I will be doing more blogs in the future and I genuinely hope you enjoy them Please pass my link on to your sewing friends. I try to make them informative and help you to enjoy what you are creating. If you haven’t already, please sign up to follow my blog as Google likes us bloggers to have followers. You will get an email each time I publish a new blog. Also, please check out my past blogs. They cover things like, stabilizer, threads, needles, etc. Use it as a reference source. Also, if something new or different has come on the market, I will revise that particular blog, so you are always up to date.

Meantime, Happy Sewing!

Molly

UFO Catch Up

These are troubled times and we are all staying home to stay safe. We sewers have a nice advantage in that we can sew, embroider or quilt to keep us busy. Maybe this is the time we can get out those UFO’s and finish them up. Or, maybe you have had a project in mind that you wanted to do but just couldn’t get to it. Well, now is the time to be creative.

I don’t know about you, but I have at least 3 projects that I have started and hopefully I will get them finished or at least on the way. While other people are looking for things to keep them occupied, sewers never have enough time to do what they love to do.

Whatever you decide to do, be grateful that we can spend time doing what we love. I have a couple of UFO’s that are not sewing, namely blogs that I have started and need to finish. Maybe this is the time for me to get those done.

Whatever you do, please stay safe. Life is precious and this too shall pass.

I hope you enjoy my blogs and you pass my link on to your sewing friends. I try to make them informative and help you to enjoy what you are creating. If you haven’t already, please sign up to follow my blog as Google likes us bloggers to have followers. You will get an email each time I publish a new blog. Also, please check out my past blogs. They cover things like, stabilizer, threads, needles, etc. Use it as a reference source. Also, if something new or different has come on the market, I will revise that particular blog, so you are always up to date.

Meantime, Happy Sewing!

Molly

Free is Fun Again!

Whenever I teach an embroidery class my students ask where did you get that design and most times, if I give them a design, it’s because I got that design for free. Every body likes to get things free. In the quilting and embroidery world there are a lot of companies who every month, give you a free quilting pattern or free embroidery designs. My last “Free is Fun” blog talked about some of the free embroidery designs you can get. Well here are a few more.

Check out Hatched in Africa. This is a wonderful company in South Africa that has “All Sorts of Embroidery” as well as projects and supplies. You can download your designs and you will get a free design with each purchase. Secrets of Embroidery has 60 different designers. Each one has their own unique style and you can go crazy trying to decide what you want. You can download some of their free designs to try out the company. Be careful, you will get hooked and want to try more. I told you about Zundt Designs in my last Free is Fun blog. I said their designs are beautiful and stitch out well. Try their FSL – “free standing lace” bowls with Floriani metallic thread. Lovely! Their designs are a little pricey but whatever your buy, you will make often, which makes it worth the price.

Almost all the companies have free designs and some give you free designs every month like Embroidery Library. They also have a special Christmas Club. As you buy designs, you get points towards free designs. Like your very own Christmas present of embroidery designs.

Anita Goodesigns have exquisite designs. Up until now, you could only purchase their designs from a store like ours, Expert Sewing Center, but now you can purchase designs direct. Register with them and you will get word each week about a $5 or $10 “mini pack” that you can download immediately.

Embroidery Garden has a lot of “In The Hoop” projects that are always fun to do.

Embroidery Panda has sooo many designs that they sell for twenty five cents. Can’t beat that price!

If you can’t afford to immediately buy “everything you love” then these free designs are a great way to build your stock of patterns and designs, try out their company and find they suit your style. Naturally, I will always buy a design or two along with my free designs.

Many of these companies will have video tutorials to answer a lot of your questions. In the future, I will add some that I think you might like.

Not an embroiderer? Quilters have just as many free things on line. Nancy’s Notions isn’t just a store to buy supplies, it also has a section where your can download free projects and quilting blocks. Check it out.

Another of my favorite sites is QuiltersCache.com . They have traditional and new style quilt blocks in all sizes, complete with instructions, etc that you can download for free.

There are so many resources of free “stuff” if you just take the time to search them out. I will have more for you in the future. It’s a great incentive for you to check my blog often to see who else I can tell you about. 🙂 I will only talk about the companies that I personally love and I know are honorable and reputable to do business with. These are companies I have purchased from for many years. To get many of these “freebies” you need to register with the website, then you will get emails for when they have sales, or you can just sign in to see what they have new.

TIP: Make sure you use the proper needle for your embroidery project. Most projects you will use a 75-11 embroidery needle. If you are working on denim or thick fabric projects, you may want to try a 90-14 embroidery needle. If using Metallic thread, use a needle rated for metallic thread. The eye is a little larger to allow the thread to travel through the eye a little cooler. Please read my blog that tells you about the various needles and when to use them. The proper size needle really can make a difference in the quality of your project.

Check all the Creative Links on the right to go direct to the various websites I talk about.

Please click the follow button and sign up to follow my blog. You will get an email each time I publish something new. Check out my past blogs and I’d appreciate it if you would pass on my link to your sewing, quilting and embroidery friends.

Until next time …. happy sewing!

***PLEASE SCROLL DOWN OR CLICK ON LINKS AT RIGHT TO READ MY PAST BLOGS. THANK YOU.

Embroidery Designs Galore

It’s been a busy “Snowbird” season and I have been busy teaching. It’s slowing down now and I plan to get back to finishing several blogs I stared last summer and fall.

Because I teach machine embroidery, I get a lot of questions about where to get good embroidery designs. There are A LOT of great places to buy embroidery designs, but the links I have on the blog are people I have done business with. I know they are reputable and the quality of designs is excellent. Most, also give free designs each month. Like EmbLibrary.com. They give you 2 free designs in all formats and sizes every month. They also have an amazing website with lots of tutorials, idea books, and THOUSANDS of beautiful designs that stitch out well.

molly-zipper-bag-2

Something else neat, most companies have a place to look up past orders so that when the dreaded hard drive dies and you lose all the designs you downloaded, you can go back in and download all your orders again. It’s like having a back up to all your designs. Continue reading “Embroidery Designs Galore”

New! Needle in A Haystack (sewing basket)

Sorry I haven’t posted a new blog lately, but I’ve been sooo busy. I also went away for the holidays to Pennsylvania during the time that they had 1 degree temps and -10 wind chill. Brrrr!!!

Back to sunny Florida. I taught a class this week that my students asked “why so many different needles”? So, I decided to re run my needle blog as a refresher of, why so many different needles.

I have several new blogs in the works and will get them ready for you as soon as I can. Now, read on and thank you for your support and good comments.

No, we are not going to look for needles in a haystack, but we do need to dig out all those schmetz-machine-needles 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.

You want to choose needle size according to thickness of your thread and needle type according to your fabric application. Continue reading “New! Needle in A Haystack (sewing basket)”

A Needle In A Haystack (Sewing Box)

No, we are not going to look for needles in a haystack, but we do need to dig out all those 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 […]

Sorry I haven’t posted a new blog lately, but I’ve been sooo busy and I went away for the holidays to Pennsylvania during the time they had 1 degree temps and -10 wind chill. Brrrr!!!

Back to sunny Florida and I taught a class this week that my students asked about “why so many different needles”? So, I decided to re run my needle blog as a refresher of, why so many different needles.

I have several new blogs in the works and will get them ready for you as soon as I can. Now, read on and thank you for your support and good comments.

You want to choose needle size according to thickness of your thread and needle type according to your fabric application. Continue reading “A Needle In A Haystack (Sewing Box)”