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 What does 100 of anything look like? Last month I told you that when our little Marissa brought
100 buttons to school to celebrate the first 100 days of school, her teacher absolutely loved her contribution. This sparked my idea
of taking a sweatshirt and sewing all 100 buttons on it. Sounded great in February... but I am just like most of you and I have waited
until the last minute. This weekend we were in hot pursuit of a sweatshirt, no easy thing to find a week before summer officially
begins. You can see how I made this great end-of-the-year gift for her teacher in the 100 days of school project area!Have you ever given any thought to what you have a hundred of? I would love to hear about whatever it is, from you. In my sewing travels I have heard that many of you have hundreds, if not thousands of designs to embroider, others have hundreds of sewing patterns. Most of my sewing friends are collectors of lots of things. For myself, I collect wooden rulers. I have to admit to you that there have been many times when we have wondered out loud, "Where is a ruler?" So for all of you flea market fans, have fun collecting!   Many of our Brother sewing machine dealers will be ready to help you to "Celebrate Summer". Brother has extended the $200 Rebate program for selected machines. Many graduates and brides would certainly enjoy receiving a Innovis 1000 or Innovis 2500D this summer and you can save $250 on the gift as well!
  Terri Johnson is the owner of Sew Special Studio in Woodbridge, Virginia. If you are in the Norfolk area this summer,
a side trip will be worth it!Want to spend a delightful day immersed in heirloom sewing? A trip to Sew Special Studio in Woodbridge, Virginia might just be one way to do it. Terri Johnson had a dream of one day running her own business and what better way to do but to open a sewing machine store. When Terri first opened her business I can proudly say she was an exclusive dealer for Brother Pacesetter Sewing Machines - and she still is today. In addition to loving to demonstrate and sell our product, Terri and her very capable staff offer a wide range of classes for their customers. Terri herself can often be found teaching classes on how to do heirloom sewing with your new machine. She was one of the first dealers to spend time teaching students how to learn how to use the smocking stitches that are built into many Brother sewing machines to create a great look for little girls dresses and so much more. Terri has also taught this technique at several Brother Sewing Machine dealer conventions as well. In addition, she has digitized her own smocking designs for stitching on the embroidery machine available on her website. Many schools in the Northern Virginia area are also benefiting from Terris love of the NX200 sewing machines. She has successfully won several school bids with the Fairfax County school system, and now lots of young people are learning to sew on this great model ULT Embroidery machines were also placed in 22 Middle Schools in that area.. Over the years, Terri has kept herself busy in the shop while her husband travels around the world as a US Navy Chaplain. He has recently retired & is on full time staff at their local church. They also have two grown daughters. With an wedding in October, I am sure that there are some sewing projects in the works, as well. www.sewspecialstudio.com
  Many home sewing enthusiasts
who used the PE-series of embroidery only machines asked Brother for years to make a machine with a larger embroidery area. The PE-700 has
arrived! This machine comes with a 5" x 7" hoop, as well as a 4" x 4" hoop and also uses the optional SA445 (5" X 12") embroidery
hoop for connecting multiple patters. It is also great for giving the impression of creating larger looking embroidery patterns! Here's
my secret for creating this wonderful tea-towel shown below. The PE-700 has a set of posts on the embroidery arm. Using the larger
hoop, place the hoop over the posts using the top openings on the bracket and embroider the first image. Lift the hoop off the posts
and move to the lower set of openings on the bracket, embroider the lower-most image. Remove the hoop once again and match the openings
on the center part of the bracket to the posts. Embroider the monogram. Looks like you have a machine with an even larger embroidery
area larger than 4" x 4"!
  SA376 Big Designs In a few short months Brother will introduce another new embroidery card. This card is exclusively for the Innovis NV4000D. Many of the designs use the embroidery area of the 12" x 7" hoop. In the office we have named it Fabulous Frames and... Flowers. Linda Hopkins is a wonderful sewing enthusiast and she has been working very hard to create a wonderful quilt for all of you to make. Here is a sneak preview of one of the squares.  SA322D Pooh's® Halloween Some folks celebrate Halloween all year but now is a good time to consider making up some great embroidered Halloween gifts, aprons, tablecloths, etc. Pooh's® Halloween has some really neat Pooh® character designs and great border designs as well. ©Disney. Based on the "Winnie the Pooh" works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard
 I think it comes as part of the territory, but most people I know who sew are penurious (cheap). They want to stretch the use of anything to its limit. When it comes to machine embroidery this is not a good idea, ask me how I know! In a recent project I encountered the following experiences, notice how a change made all the difference:
 Picot Pintucks, this month I had to have a project for a taping of Martha's Sewing Room on PBS and the idea of creating pintucks with the Picot foot seemed just right! Hint: Picot foot SA164 or the Narrow Hemmer foot SA126 or SA127 feet look very much alike and in a jumbled box of accessory feet it is easy to get them mixed up. If you turn the feet upside down you will notice that they have different soles. The one with the broader tunnel is the narrow hemmer foot and the narrow tunnel belongs to the picot foot. Think about it. Those tunnels have important jobs when it comes to helping you form your stitches. Check out the project and you will see how the use of the proper foot makes all the difference. The same is true of the N and J feet that come with your sewing machine. Finally, and this is very important... all four feet come in different sizes that relate to the stitch width (5 or 7mm) of your sewing machine. Be sure to buy the one that relates to your machine, if you dont... you will not get the results you were hoping for! To make using these feet easier, I also take a moment to sew a short thread tail at the beginning of the seam. This gives me something to pull as I begin to pull the curled fabric through the foot. Trust me, this makes a world of difference.
  PE-Design/Portrait Maker Have you taken the time to check out this neat feature found in PE-Design 6.0?
Check out this months tutorial to see how easy they are to try out.
  July's design is surely one that is going to burst on to anyones
favorite shirt or handbag. This elephant is in the outline style and will embroider quite quickly. A few years ago a good friend gave
me a lovely handbag with a row of elephants across it. It also had a monogram of the letter "M" on it. It is very much in style today
but mine is just a little bit more special with the embroidered elephants marching across it.
  Martha's Sewing Room is the name of
the Martha Pullen PBS television show and since I have once again traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to take part in the taping for several
episodes, it seemed like the perfect room to share with you. The picture shown is another example of how our rooms evolve, this was
the original set! Take a few moments to see what else you can find in this sewing room.
  Joyce Perhac has worn a few different hats
in the sewing world. Currently she serves as the Executive Director of the Home Sewing Association. Take a quick visit to our Careers
in Sewing section and see what path Joyce has followed to get to her current role.
  The historical series from Brother has ended but
heres a story that popped up this month. Here in the Education Department, Carol, Barbara and Sharon all collect sewing machines of
all sizes. I tried to get them to admit to how many they have but they wouldn't. Suffice it to say, one was offering to store the
other ones machines at her house when she ran out of room. Recently our National Service area received a request to fix the machine
shown in this photo. The photo sparked all kinds of conversation and if you recall reading about the history of Brother you will remember
the discussion of how the Brother sewing machine company began. The original "brothers" wanted to continue to call the machine "sister"
but it had already been copyrighted. This is a great find! |
