Today I have been dreaming of summer. The weather has been glorious and I long for the days of NOT getting up at 6:30 to get the kids off to school. I dream of no homework, packing snack or lunches, waking up with no where to be, and taking the kids to the pool every other day if they want to go.  6 weeks!!! I’m taking bets of how long it will take me to complain about the 100+ degree temps and the fact that the kids are driving me nuts! 🙂

If you were on Facebook today then you hopefully liked my post of this A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E t-shirt from Sassy Kid Blanks. This is our Lollipop Trio design with bright, fun and adorable fabrics! Melissa does a great job with the blanks, but she also sends me photos from time to time of my designs that she has sewn! Love….

Y’all…. I have been pushing Sew What-Pro for YEARS!! It’s simple to use and it’s affordable (ONLY $65). What else do you need to know? While dreaming of summer today, I’ve also been working on my website and blog and newsletter trying to tweak things here and there to make shopping and browsing easier but also helpful and informative. Well…. I stumbled upon some videos from the S & S Computing website and my life may be changed regarding Sew What-Pro. Helllooooo TUTORIALS!! I watched a few of them, and the 2 that caught my eye were…..

Adding “fabric” to your applique design on screen. Granted there aren’t a ton of choices and it looks like digital fabric of course, but it’s a pretty cool feature if you are trying to pick out colors or visualize fabric.

Also… I knew about the View Album Icons feature, which shows your font folder and what’s inside on the right as shown below. BUT… what I did not know is that if you add the first letter and move it to the left of your work area, THEN click the ICON button on the toolbar, AND click Alphabet Mode in the font folder on the right… you can click on the rest of the letters you need and SWP will place them in a row for you! You still might have to arrange them and space them a little, but the old way I was doing it, it piled all of the letters on top of one another and then you’d have to separate and arrange them! GENIUS!!!! This is a huge time saver! After you’ve arranged them, then you can go in to EDIT, and JOIN THREADS to make it all 1 step and thread color.

Check out the VIDEOS and I will too, and let’s all figure out what else is FABULOUS about Sew What-Pro!! I am so glad that I have started selling it and have enjoyed answering questions and sharing this great and inexpensive program!! It’s perfect for beginners and old timers like me! Now I have even more reasons to recommend it to my applique friends! Update: I forgot to mention – watch the Pull Compensation video FOR SURE!! I had no idea… 

Are you on Instagram?  I love IG for many reasons. I used to love Facebook, but scrolling through all of the ads and blog posts people want me to read (not to mention the cray cray things people post), I love IG more. Granted I still like Facebook and spend wayyyy too much time on there, but IG is great for JUST photos! I like to post on there the random things I’m working on in my sewing room! It’s not all Applique Cafe designs. I still take customer orders, so I monogram a lot and do all sorts of things. Here are a few photos of what I did today….

This is a C-U-T-E picnic blanket from none other than Target. It folds and zips up so it’s easy to tote. This is for a friend for her friend’s wedding gift. Hopefully these people are not reading my blog. I used our Paw Prints design (4×4 on each side – right one I flip flopped for a mirror image in SWP). The font is Monogram Wizard Plus “Library” font and I narrowed up the letters so they would be tall and big. These folks are Auburn fans! #wareagle

I also monogrammed this HAT today and I used my fast frames. Several followers on IG asked for a blog post or tutorial on how to do this, so I will work on that asap! Font: MWP Cotillion (Fishtail)

I also had a friend bring me a couple of shirts to do, and for this one she wanted to match both of the shorts shown. I happened to have the orange fabric, so I used that and tied in the green with the accents of the FISH design. This is actually our Two Fish design, and I used the 6×10 file and deleted the top fish! That left a fish that fit nicely in my 5×7 hoop and I did enlarge it a little after I put it ON my machine. {Most machines will shrink or enlarge 10-20%} We may offer this as a single fish design and might come up with a girly version too. Did I mention that I edited the design in Sew What-Pro?

Lastly, my friend asked me to do the Cool Dog on this gray t-shirt. She specifically said use red and navy, so I pulled these fabrics together and it turned out cute. I love red on gray!

In case you missed it, I will be at Ruthie’s Notions down in Baker, FL on Friday/Saturday May 2-3. I rode down there yesterday and spent several hours with Ruthie and am excited and extremely nervous about this class! Ruthie is a Babylock dealer and sells tons of “notions” and all of the fabulous Babylock machines. My machine is a Brother PR650 and it was basically the same as the Babylock. I believe they are manufactured by the same folks. Anywho, if you are interested in learning about applique and embroidery and are in the area or willing to travel, check out the details HERE!

If you have suggestions of topics I could cover, please comment or email me! My target audience is a beginner, or someone who’s just learning about embroidery & applique. I plan to also discuss starting or growing your embroidery business (which I have never taught before). This is the longest class time-span I’ve ever taught, so I have a lot of work to do! I’ve already had someone email me with ideas so if you have any, please let me know ~ rosemarygulledge@appliquecafe.com or comment! THANKS!!