My husband and I like to go to antique malls and off the beaten path antique shops and I in particular enjoy looking (and buying) old, old magazines that contain sewing or embroidery patterns.  I have some that date back to the 1850’s and it’s a lot of fun looking at what the fashions were way back when and also to find embroidery patterns.  I also get a kick out of  old advertisements.  The problems they are addressing don’t seem to change much from generation to generation – too fat, too little hair, acne, too little money – but the solutions certainly have.

And then there are some advice columns and a “grains of  gold” column.

Here is a small sampling of “Grains of gold”:  Little things postponed can bring great miseries.  (still true today, isn’t it?)

Or how about:  A good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.

And finally:  However ill the world may have gone, the roses still bloom and the thrushes still sing in it.

Talk to you later.

Yesterday, my friend Inge stopped by and gave me one of the most beautiful gifts ever:  an oil painting she made of my Mother as a young girl.  Is she not an amazing artist?  God has blessed me when he gave me Inge as a friend, that’s for sure.  My mother has always been an inspiration to me in all my sewing and home making.  When she left this world to be with the Lord, I had lost my best friend and I still miss her.  Inge thought I needed to have her with me in my sewing room.  So, there she is on the wall, watching me digitize and sew.  She would have LOVED an embroidery machine.  She did so much embroidery by hand and all of her children (there are 5 of us) still have something handmade by her, reminding us of her love for us.

Thanks for letting me share my joy.

Monika

Yes, I have to admit, I am highly distractible and get easily side tracked.  Haven’t spent much time with my “little cowboys” but instead have been working on birthday gifts for Saarah.  I am showing you two of them below.

The towel is a super soft towel, high loft, from K Mart.  I cut off the bottom edge and scalloped it and then applied a thin binding to the bottom.  Had this special “ruffle” ricrac lying around for a while and decided that it would look good with it.  The lettering is my upcoming new applique as well as satin alphabets called “Anna”.  The lettering is especially digitized for toweling or other thick napped fabric.  Also, the applique edge on the lettering is not quite as dense as usual to allow for better writing over it with the satin lettering.    The little butterfly is applique and stitches up very well and quickly.  Look for it in the store soon.  (I don’t know why the towel lettering shows up as orange – it really is a pretty peachy kind of color.)

Then I made Saarah her own version of the 10 Commandments for kids.  She loves, loves, loves butterflies and flowers.  So that’s what this design has.  Specially digitized for Saarah.   It, too, should be in the store sometime soon…. unless I get side tracked again.  Sigh.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention.  I got a neat miniature quilt hanger from here:

http://www.lorieslittlequilts.com/Quilt_Hangers_Mini_Classic.htm

You can’t really see the hanger very well in my photo, but if you ever need high quality quilt hangers, for miniatures or large, this place is great.  I like the way this hanger clamps on and how the sides are covered.  You can also get their hangers with a shelf on top.

I need to finish a couple more things for Saarah’s birthday – a dress and a purse – before I can get back to the cowboys.  But I will do so as soon as I can because little Effie’s room walls look pretty bare…..

Talk to you later.

Monika

I have to say that these little buckaroos are keeping my brain active.  These are not “simple” applique, as far as the digitizing is concerned.  It’s like putting together a big puzzle trying to figure out what piece goes before what other piece.  But I do like the way this one stitched up, too.  I have just a few more changes to make – but he’s almost there.

Maybe I can start on number 3 this weekend?  We’ll see what the weekend holds.

Just wanted to share and hope you like him.

Monika

Wish I could say that cowboy number two was done, but that little fellow is still in the making.  He is going to be so cute, sitting on a rock, playing the banjo.

I kept busy today getting my next free design together.  Since I manually digitize all of my designs (no autodigitizing here) and then test stitch the design over and over again, it’s rather time consuming, but I think you will like the new design.  This one is for baby girls.  It’s an applique onesie to be placed on baby blankets, diaper totes, center of wallhangings, towels, etc.   As soon as Paul gets a chance, we’ll be putting it up.    I learned a few things from doing this design – one of them is that when you stitch on interlock, it’s a good idea to interface it first and have the grain of the interlock going crosswise to the knit interfacing’s.  Also having the ribbing of the interlock knit  go crosswise helps to make sure lettering doesn’t “fall” between the ribbing.  Yes, I did use Solvy on top as well.

Here is a photo of a tag that’s part of the for sale design. The free design will be the 4×4 version only,  without the instructions and eyelet for the tag.

We’ll be announcing in the yahoo group as soon as the free design has been uploaded.