Have you ever been to an Anita Goodesign Embroidery Party? If you haven’t you are missing out on tons of fun! What better place can you imagine than a room filled with beautiful top of the line embroidery machines surrounded with happy and excited sewing & embroidery enthusiasts? All gathered together in one place to learn and be inspired by one of embroidery’s best, Steve Wilson from Anita Goodesign!
In Everett, this past week the Anita Goodesign Embroidery Party was two days of total fun. There were seven projects to enjoy and everyone left with a CD of all the designs used so we can make as many as we like. Of course, all of the projects were great, but a couple of my favorite techniques that we learned were Three-Dimensional Flowers, a Christmas Stocking completely in the hoop, and Shaped Edge Tea Towels.
Steve brings so many wonderful samples for us to see, touch, and be inspired by, every where you look there is something beautiful. He also gave us a sneak peak of the designs that will be coming out in the next few months—they are really neat!
One of my most favorite things about this Party was getting to meet wonderful folks who love to sew just as much as I do. I came away so energized and inspired. Check out the fun we had in the video below:
A friend of mine and I participate in a ladies tea each year. There is a friendly competition to see who can have the most elaborate and the most beautiful table for 8. Each year we change the color and the flowers. This year we wanted to do a very colorful table and after I saw the 3D Flowers CD in the 3D Lace Embellishment Kit, we decided to create the centerpiece. Our table was beautiful. I love the design collection because the creative opportunities are endless. From Lace flowers to jewelry and handbags, the options are fantastic! My friend Nannette has an interest in making hats and has collected antique buttons and flower centers from the 30′s and 40′s. That’s what you see in the centers of the lacy flowers. We experimented with the new Heat N Shrink stabilizer from Floriani for the large blue flowers which caused them to crinkle up nicely. We used Hoop Ease and Organdy for the pink and white flowers. We added a little greenery from her yard and what you see in the photo was beautiful. I look forward to creating many more flowers because I ran out of time and only got to use two the many designs. My friend took this picture for me as she is quite fond of our flowers and tells me she intends to keep them.
Attendees at the Anita Goodesign Embroidery Party Last Year
Did you know February is National Embroidery Month? In honor of the national observance of the embroidery craft, we are excited to be hosting an upcoming Anita Goodesign Embroidery Party with Steve Wilson! Last year we had Steve teach an embroidery party, this event was so popular we have arranged to have Steve come again. An embroidery party is an educational seminar that is designed to increase your knowledge of machine embroidery by learning new techniques through an informative lecture and hands-on team sewing! These parties are really fun and fantastic opportunity to expand your knowledge of the embroidery craft. This all new seminar for 2011 is happening at the Everett Holiday Inn on April 28th & 29th, and at the Puyallup Fairgrounds on May 6th & 7th.
Here is what you can expect to learn this year…
Find out how the professionals make their embroidery look so good! Learn how to turn your creative ideas into beautiful embroidery and explore turning your passion for embroidery into a money making part-time business by joining embroidery expert Steve Wilson for two fun filled days of embroidery education. Everything is provided: Sewing machines, kits, handouts, designs, lunch and snacks. Learn new techniques in a stress-free team sewing environment. Read more about this event, plus if you sign up online by February 28th, at the event you will receive a CD with five Anita Goodesign Embroidery Design Collections.
The images featured above were taken at the embroidery party event last year…
Brother is celebrating National Embroidery Month by offering No-Interest Financing, Rebates, Discounts and a Free Gift February 11th-28th. These special offers are available with purchase of the Brother Quattro 6000D, Entrepreneur Pro PR-1000, the Innov-ís 2800D, the Innov-ís 1250D, and the Project Runway Limited Edition 5234PRW. For further details about these promotions read here or stop by any Quality Sewing location!
One of the newer innovations in home embroidery is cutwork needles. These specialty cutting needles along with specifically digitized designs make it possible to create beautiful cutwork or applique projects on your embroidery machine while your machine does all the fabric cutting. No scissors needed- what a treat!
There are needles that are made for Bernina embroidery machines as well as Pfaff, Viking & Inspira needles. The Pfaff, Viking or Inspira needles can be used in any brand and model of embroidery machine as long as your machines thread breakage sensor can be turned off.
Embroidery design packs have been created to be used with these needles. Pfaff, Viking and OESD offer these design packs. Each of these designs are compatible with all embroidery machines, regardless of brand. The size of the design and the size of your hoop is the only limitation. Pfaff offers a fantastic Embroidery Cutwork Needle Kit, which includes an Inspira Cutwork Needle 4 Pack, a cd with 5 multi-format designs and a multi-purpose needle inserter tool.
Here is what you need to know…
Pfaff, Viking & Inspira Needles are the same as each other and are completely interchangeable. Designs made specifically for these needles will either ask you for “Cutwork Needle#” (on Pfaff Creative Vision and Viking Diamond) or by color on all other machines. They are Color Coded as well as Numbered. Each needle has a cutting blade that is angled in a specific way (the angel is depicted, below, after the color).
Needle 1 is Red: /
Needle 2 is Yellow: -
Needle 3 is Green: \
Needle 4 is Blue: I
Bernina Needles are unique to themselves. Designs made specifically for these needles will tell you which needle position to use and are usually used in order 1, 2 , 3, 4. On machines other than Bernina, refer to the stitching instructions and put in the cutwork needles when requested. There is only one needle, it is attached to a wheel that you dial to switch the angle of the blade (Each blade position is numbered from 1 to 4, the angle is depicted below, after the needle number).
Position 1: I
Postition 2: /
Position 3: -
Position 4: \
Let me know if you have any questions!
We recently posted a blog about stitchable teddy bears…stuffed bears that are specially designed to be embroidered on. These teddies have been a hot selling item this holiday season. Gayle, a reader of our blog shared with us her success story with these bears and included pictures of the bears that she stitched for the children in her family.
“I recently purchased 9 of these teddy bears to do for all the kids in the family for Christmas. I wanted to use the 5×7 hoop and make larger pictures plus personalize adding each child’s name. So I did this by removing the stuffing in the head also. Then I hooped everything; stabilizer, bear and topping. They were difficult to get hooped but with patience it can be done and they turned out adorable. I’m anxious now to see the kids open them. Each had a theme – one child played football for the first time this year so his had a football player on it with his team colors, others were soccer players, the two girls are in high school so I put cheerleaders on theirs in their school colors. Great gift ideas!”- Gayle
These bears turned out great, thank you for sharing these pictures with us Gayle! I am sure the kids in her family will be delighted to receive these bears. I love that each teddy has been customized to fit each child’s particular interest. I would have loved to receive a bear with my name on it when I was a little girl!
Do you have any inspirational show and tells you would like to share with our readers? Email us your comments and pictures info@shopqualitysewing.com.
Just in time for the gift giving season, you can use your standard 4″x4″ embroidery hoop to stitch a lovable Teddy Bear! Teddy is designed to be used on any home embroidery machine. It features a removable stuffing pouch. Just unzip the zipper from the base of the bear and remove the stuffing pouch. You bear is now ready to embroider. See the 2-part video below for a full demonstration of how simple this project is! The best part is these cuddly bears are only $12.99 at all Quality Sewing locations and on shopqualitysewing. At that price you can make customized teddy bears for all the loved ones in your life!
Just in time for the gift giving season, you can use your standard 4″x4″ embroidery hoop to stitch a lovable 
