Be sure to tell all your friends about our fantastic Ghosts & Goblins Giveaway. All they need to do is be on our mailing list for their chance to win a brand new Baby Lock Emore embroidery machine.

We'll be picking one lucky winner by random drawing on Halloween, October 31, 2007. All you need to do to enter the drawing is be on our newsletter mailing list. It's that simple!

If you are already a subscriber there is nothing for you to do. You are already entered. Forward our newsletter to everyone you know so they can sign up and be entered in the drawing too. It's the only way to win.

And don't forget, if you're in the St. Petersburg, FL area be sure to visit our co-sponsor A & A Crossroads Sewing Center. There you will find the best prices around on all your favorite Baby Lock products.

Click here to learn more about this fantastic giveaway.

We began this project a couple years ago, but it sort of took a back seat to everything else we had going on. I thought now might be a good time to bring it back into the light as we still believe this project to be worthwhile.

Our goal was, and still is, to digitize art work drawn by young children. Not only are the children thrilled to see their own art turned into stitches and sewn on their shirts, but the designs created under this program are perfect for projects destined to be given to other youngsters. Imagine how cool a child's quilt would look with a series of these designs sewn on the front.

We currently don't have a tremendous amount of designs for you to see, but hopefully that will change. We would love to have many more parents and grand parents contact us with requests to have thier child's art work digitized.

The digitizing under this project is free. All we ask in return are the exclusive rights to sell the digitized designs on our web site.

If you have any interest at all in this project, click here for detailed information about how it works. With any luck your child's art work may adorn the pages of our web site soon.

Here's a question submitted to Ask Mary! recently requesting information on resizing designs.

Question:  I'm new to embroidery. Can you re-size (blow up or shrink) an embroidery pattern to make different sizes?

Answer:  The short answer is yes. You can resize embroidery designs larger or smaller. A generally accepted theory is that you can resize embroidery designs +/- 20% with little difficulty.

In reality things are not quite that simple. While it can be done, anytime you resize a design you run the risk of altering design properties, possibly changing the design to something quite different than the original digitizer intended.

Among other things, stitch density is an issue that must be addressed when attempting to resize designs. Without proper density adjustments, the newly resized design may be overly dense, or not dense enough, depending on whether you go larger or smaller.

Much will depend on the software you use to resize designs. One program that I would recommend for all your editing and resizing is Embird. It is one of the best and most powerful programs on the market. Embird will allow you to change colors, edit, resize, split designs and a whole lot more.

If you would like to try Embird, you can download a free 30 day trial from directly from the Embird web site

Should you like the program and want to really learn how to use it, take a look at our Embird video tutorials. They will teach you everything you need to know to get the most our of your software.

Our second release of gorgeous Jacobean Flowers. Set II includes 10 unique designs for the 5 x 7 hoop. This set is just as beautiful, decorative and elegant as our first release two weeks ago.

See the entire collection here.

Designed to get you in & out of the kitchen fast and back to your embroidery machine.

Recipe Name:  Special Berry Desert

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: None

Serves: 6

Ingredients:
2 Tins Boysenberries (or Raspberries)
1 packet Marshmallows
Caster Sugar
Whipping Cream

Directions: Place 4 or 5 berries with some juice in the bottom of a parfait glass (or a glass desert cup) followed by two or three marshmallows, repeat another layer 4 or 5 berries and juice and a two or three more marshmallows and finish with more berries. Make sure there is enough juice to cover the marshmallows.

Sprinkle with Caster Sugar for a sweeter taste if desired.

Leave for 3 to 4 hours (or overnight if possible) and place a spoonful of whipping cream on the top.

Tips: This is a spectacular desert with very little preparation. It is lovely and light after a big meal for a dinner party.

Submitted by: Terry S

Many of you sew and quilt as well as embroider. No doubt you love to make personalized gifts for family and friends. With the holiday season not far away, your gift projects will soon be on the increase.

Many of the gifts you make may even become family heirlooms as the years roll on. This could be particularly true with quilts. They will be treasured and passed down from generation to generation, so why not sew in a label that identifies you as the artist who made it?

If you make things for profit, sewing in an identifying label is a great way to advertise. A few years ago when we were looking for a method to label our work, we toyed with the idea of embroidering our own labels in house. We soon gave up on this idea when we considered how many we needed, the time involved and the special hooping requirements that may be necessary.

We did some research and found a place on the web that now makes labels for us at a very reasonable price. We can order a roll of 1000 labels for less than $150.00. If you don't want or need that many labels, smaller quantities are available.

If this is an idea you have considered, check out Charm Woven Labels. There are other companies that offer similar products, but we found Charm to offer a very good selection at reasonable prices. They offer both personalized and stock care labels.

So, take a bow. Put a label in everything you make.

Our thanks to Judith Rich for submitting this helpful embroidery tip:

As you embroider a design, after each thread change check the jump threads. Clipping them as much as you can makes it so much easier at the end. No sewing over the jumps leaving less mess. Keeping a towel in your lap to catch all the little threads keeps your floor and your lap neat.

Want to win FREE designs? Submit your tip or trick to us. If we publish your tip you will win your choice of any downloadable design or design set from our online catalog.

• Original Sewing & Quilt Expo - October 11-13 Chicago, IL
• Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival - October 18-20 Pamona, CA
• Original Sewing & Quilt Expo - October 25-27 Kansas City, MO
• CreativFestival - October 26-28 Toronto, Canada
• International Quilt Market/Fall - October 27-29 Houston, TX
• International Quilt Festival - November 1-4 Houston, TX
• Original Sewing & Quilt Expo - November 8-10 Minneapolis, MN
• Original Creative Festival - November 9-11 San Mateo, CA
• Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival - November 15-17 Puyallup, WA

How do you match the thread you have in your stash to the thread used in that new design you just purchased? There's lots of ways to do it, but the stare and compare method is among the most difficult and time consuming.

But not to worry, there is a better way. One program that we wouldn't be without is MyThreadBox from Fastrac Software. MyThreadBox makes short work of matching threads in a design to what you have in your stash. Briefly, here's how it works.

The first thing you do after installing the program is check off all the thread you have in your stash by brand and number. Now, let's say you purchase a design and the colors used by the digitizer are from the Madiera thread palette. You don't use Madiera thread, but you do use Robison-Anton. By doing a quick search of each thread in the design, you will quickly have the closest match from your stash. The program will also give you alternate matches from any other palettes you choose by simply checking them off in the options settings.

One reason I recommend MyThreadBox so highly, other than the fact that it works so well, is its color accuracy. In fact, we use MyThreadBox to correct inaccurate color data in other embroidery programs we use. But, don't take my word for it. Download the free trial version and see for yourself how this nifty little program can make your life easier. Once you have it you'll wonder how you did without it.

Learn more about MyThreadbox and download a free trial version here. When you're ready to purchase MyThreadBox, be sure to come back and see us.

Ten design set showing Topo doing what he does best - cooking! Available in your choice of 4x4 and 5x7 hoop sizes.

Meet Topo here.

Two (2) lucky winners in every isssue!

Today's lucky winners are:

If your email address is shown above, you have won a complete set of our extremely popular Retro Restaurant Advertising design set. Please contact us by email within 5 days to claim your prize. Be sure to let us know what format you need so we can get the designs on their way to you.

Others interested in this set can purchase it here.

It's not too early to start thinking about Thanksgiving. Perhaps our Thanksgiving turkey and steamy hot apple pie straight from the oven will help you get your projects underway. Please enjoy them with our compliments.

For the 4 x 4 hoop

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