Archives for January 2010

I’ve just uploaded 6 new designs to http://www.appliquecafe.com/!

As you can tell I have a light yellow theme here!

1) Baby Rattle – shown with a bow (ribbon from Hobby Lobby) and Monogram Wizard Plus Sydney “M”.

2) Cupcake shown with a Curlz or Party Time “2”.

3) To follow the Heart Truck, an Easter Truck!

4) A simple flower

5) A simple bunny shown with a bow. I’ve also seen something like this with a white pom pom tail! I love this light yellow chenille!

6) A simple TULIP shown with Monogram Wizard Plus Curly Q “S”.

I’ve had a couple of people ask about the sock monkey design on my blog and it is from http://www.appliqueforkids.com/. They have several sock monkey designs – Sock Monkeys.

I also came across this fabric – Sock Monkey Fabric. I can’t tell what type material it is or if it would be easy to work with? I usually use a brown microcheck gingham, but this would certainly be cute! One thing about the sock monkey to keep in mind – the tail sort of throws the design off center (or it makes it LOOK off center). When I sew this design, I center the design on my Sew What Pro grid so that the body of the monkey is centered (the center line cuts down the middle of his eyes & crotch!!). I did this sample a long time ago and as you can tell, the design is centered as is the name, but it appears that the name is off center. I think your EYE sees the body and not the tail, so it’s best to center the body and name and ignore the tail!

I have no machines so I’m going to use the weekend to organize my fabric a little (it is OUT OF CONTROL the amount of fabric I have). I also like to wash my tablecloth and just clean up my sewing area. Jeff is taking the boys to the Auburn basketball game tomorrow, so I’m not sure what Mallory & I will do? What I SHOULD do is break out my regular sewing machine and attempt to sew something for her!?!?!? It’s possible!! Stay tuned…

Warning: This post may be a lot to digest!! 🙂

My day started off at 10:30 when Jeff came home from work to “work from home” and keep the kids so I could ride over to West Point, GA without 3 kids in tow!! First stop, HANCOCKS! 50% off Sulky started today AND I had an extra 10% off coupon, so I loaded up! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run out of this stuff and have not been able to find it ANYWHERE, or I have found it and have had to pay full price or more with shipping. This should last me a while, and I saved $68!!!!!!! Cha-Ching!!

SewingMachine.Com is located in downtown West Point. It is sort of a branch of the very large Sewing Machine.Com store in Atlanta. I gave Lori and Steve my machines and a recap of issues, then looked around, saw the 6 needle stitch out a design, got some samples and took some photos. The store has lots of sewing machines to look at and try out…

They also sell some cute blanks (which I was unaware of). You can look at most of them at http://www.sewingmachine.com/ – shirts, quilted duffle bags, diaper bags, etc.

This cute quilted green duffle bag with brown straps was priced at $13.00!!!!!!! I am drawn to anything and everything green!!

They also sell the full line of Floriani thread as well as commercial size (huge spools) of thread. Of course needles, parts for your Brother machine, scissors, some Sulky stabilizers and then, THE SHELF, of commercial and Floriani stabilizers. This part was the most interesting!! These were HUGE stacks and rolls of stabilizers and you would not believe the prices!!

Here is an example… the left COMMERCIAL roll was priced at around $19.00 and the right Floriani roll (looks tiny in comparison, huh?) was ALSO priced at $19.00! Which is a better deal? Same stabilizer (medium cutaway)…

He also had squares of medium cutaway stabilizer in several sizes. I brought home some samples so I can’t wait to try them out! This “pack” of squares, 250 of them (that’s 250 t-shirts), was $14.99! GREAT for my 4×4 hoop which is what I use most of the time – no cutting! What a deal!!

Another shot of the stabilizer shelf…

Some of the bigger rolls were $40+, but can you imagine how long that thing will last??? Here is a picture of the machine “next up” from mine. It has the 6×10 hoop and was very nice! I think it’s an Innovis and runs just shy of $4,000.

And then there is the big daddy, the 6 needle, my DREAM machine once I graduate from the dining room table… Steve (the owner) demonstrated a little embroidery design that was around a 9,000 stitch count. It sewed it in around 9 minutes! I could almost feel the ground shake when that thing got going! AWESOME!! These are just shy of $7,000 and I’m sure that price includes lots of “stuff”. One day…

If you are in the Montgomery area, or Atlanta or anywhere in between, I recommend http://www.sewingmachine.com/! Brother lists them on their site as a certified service center. This is my 2nd experience with Steve and again, I’m so impressed!! The machines will go to Atlanta and will be back MONDAY! Visit their website!! Like I said, they sell blanks and everything! I’m definitely going back for the stabilizer!!

From there I went back to Opelika (TigerTown area) and stopped at Hobby Lobby. I got this fabric. As you will see I have an orange thing going on!! (Right – just restocking my blue chambray and brown)

From there, and thanks to my TomTom GPS, I headed over to the Opelika Sewing Center and got these 2 fabrics and this cute ribbon trim. Restocking my lime pindot and got some orange. Not sure what I’m doing with the trim? Kelly’s Kids shows it on t-shirts and I thought it might be cute on burp cloths!

After that I headed in to Auburn to stop by the Kid’s Korner. I got MORE fabric! The left 2 I’m not sure I’ll use til next Fall (I saw pumpkins using the orange in 09). The other 3 are in addition to my fabric I used on the AC rectangle purse and bird/vine designs. It’s Jenean Morrison California Dreamin’. It’s a little funky and different and goes with my orange theme for the day! I’ve seen it on Etsy if you’re looking for some. Oh, I also got more ribbon trim!

From there my handy GPS took me through the beautiful college campus of Auburn! I went to Troy University and my husband went to Auburn. It’s a beautiful fun-looking campus and just seeing the students walk around made me long for the days of college!!!!!! Here is a shot of Toomer’s Corner! From there I hit McDonalds (no photos) and the interstate and headed back home. It was a great 6 hour outing all by my lonesome!

On my way home I did hear something interesting (and devistating at the same time) on our local radio station Y102. The DJ said that they were “giving away” a gift certificate of sorts for an “uncontested divorce”. I almost wrecked my car!! Sure enough I looked at their website http://www.y102montgomery.com/, and it is true! You can “enter to win” on their site! They are “giving it away” on February 12! Happy Valentine’s Day!! I think it’s so disgusting that I did the whole “contact us” thing and sent an e-mail to the station manager! We’ll see if I hear back from him!? Probably not! We wonder what’s wrong with our society!!!!!!!!!!

We have 6 new designs to list on http://www.appliquecafe.com/! Since I’ve probably exceeded my blog capacity for one post I will post those pics separately when we get ready to upload them!

The good news is that I finished my 11 t-shirt order last night (I think I did 9 yesterday alone!!). They are in the mail today headed to Texas! This little boy is all ready for spring!

The bad news is that my machine kept doing this (see photo below) before it finally messed up today! 🙁 I’m not sure what causes the thread to do this? This actually isn’t the problem! I was in the middle of monogramming this morning and the upper tension just went loose!? The unfortunate part of the story is that my OTHER machine has been collecting dust on the floor b/c IT’S top tension is too loose! I have been trying to find the time to take it over to West Point, GA (http://www.sewingmachine.com/) and have been unsuccessful at that, so now I’m machine-less and heading to West Point tomorrow! It shouldn’t take more than 2-3 days to get them back, but what a pain!! I’m SURE it is something as simple as tightening a little screw somewhere! I did get my other machine out and have been playing around with it and it is sewing OK, but is still not right (top tension is too loose)! I don’t want to mess anyone’s “stuff” up so I’ll just vacation til I get them back! Moral of the story… I should have taken the other machine over ASAP! It’s always good to have a working backup!! Lesson learned!