Monogram & Applique Designs

Are you still coming by??

2011-03-20T14:11:00.000-05:00

Hopefully you've found my new blog, www.appliquecafeblog.com! I didn't move all of my photos over so you could very well still be visiting here. Please check out my NEW blog (I love it!), check us out on Facebook (www.facebook.com/appliquecafe) and we're also on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/AppliqueCafe).

AND... today is the first day of Spring so we're having a huge 50% off SPRING SALE at www.appliquecafe.com! We'll be listing more new designs this week!

If I'm on your BLOG LIST, please change the URL to www.appliquecafeblog.com! See you there!

Did you hear the news???

2011-02-11T17:58:00.001-06:00

NEW BLOG!!

2011-02-07T21:25:00.003-06:00

**THE NEW BLOG IS LIVE**

Please change me on your blogroll to www.appliquecafeblog.com so you don't miss anything!

I'm still working out a few kinks and am in the process of going through old posts and categorizing and tagging them, but I will no longer be posting here! All of my posts and comments have been moved!

Check it out and let me know your thoughts!

Quick Post...

2011-01-30T17:06:00.000-06:00

I've gotten TONS of response from the HNBL post and I'd like to follow up on some questions (quickly, before I head to church). I can go in to more detail later if need be!

Mainly, "what kind of stabilizer do you use?"

Answer: MEDIUM CUTAWAY

You can check out this post to see where I went over HOOPING:

http://rosemarygulledge.blogspot.com/2010/02/hooping-101.html

I use medium cutaway on all shirts and I hoop all shirts. Well, I did use a fast frame, sticky stabilizer and added medium cutaway on ONE SHIRT recently, but that's a different post. 99.9% of the time I HOOP. Shirts, that is. I buy my cutaway from www.sewingmachine.com - 2.2 or 2.0 oz precut squares and the 15" x 25 yard roll. They call these type stabilizers "commercial" and they are super cheap! I highly recommend checking them out!

The other main question was on the Comfort Cover. There are several brands of them and I included links in my post last week. I USE Comfort Cover from www.Sewingmachine .com. I have used Floriani Dreamweave before too, and Sulky makes a version of it too. It's basically a protective add-on to your shirt. It protects the thread and it protects sensitive skin from the back of the applique and thread. You've probably seen it on the back of Carter's clothing with appliques and I noticed it on a J. Khaki (Belk) dress Mallory has that has an applique on it. It does come off in the wash sometimes, or it does come loose I should say. But... I think it's a nice touch and it has come off of my Carter's stuff before, so I think it's just the nature of the product and your washing machine! Not that it comes off every time and is a waste of your time and money, but I have heard that it eventually comes off and that's fine. It's really personal preference as to whether or not you want to use it. I'm sure if you had a heat press you could fuse it on there better than my Shark iron!!

We showed our house this week (for the umpeenth time) and I took a picture.

This is our dining room when I'm in the thick of WORK:

This is our dining room when the house is shown! The machine stays, but the rest of the thread, iron, ironing board, fabric, stabilizers, trash can, computer, pens, scissors, shirts, football?, etc etc etc is PUT AWAY!! You can imagine how old this gets!

For this reason I'm not doing a whole lot of customer work right now. It's really a matter of timing and if I happen to have a little bit of work to do and I think it's possible to take more in (when you call). Right now I have 4 shirts to do for this week and I've had a couple of people ask about bringing stuff. My goal is to NOT let 50 shirts pile up. A, I have no place to put them (my closet is full), and B, that is added stress with the house for sale AND if for some reason it sells and I've got 50 shirts piled up to do. When we do sell the house I would imagine I'll be out of commission for a while!

If I continue to get Q's about the stabilizer and such I'll try to do a better post! I enjoy all the comments and have gotten tons of comments and questions on Facebook!

The SECRET to a Better Applique!

2011-01-25T21:36:00.002-06:00

I'm calling this a SECRET because I see and hear every day that there are people out there, embroidery people nonetheless, who don't know about this product.

It's called HEAT N' BOND LITE!! Add it to your get-it list!! It will change the way you do applique and rock your world! It will IMPROVE your applique and make all the difference in a good looking shirt, and maybe a so-so looking shirt. (I'm not an employee of Therm-O-Web nor do they pay me to promote this product. I get nothing from this product but great looking appliques!)

Did I mention I love this product? That's why I have a drawer full of it friends (see below)! I buy mine at Joann (without an 's'). When they have SEWING NOTIONS at 50% off, I go in and stock up. I also get 50% off coupons all the time in the mail and on my phone (Iphone App is available) so I always take advantage and stock up! You can also buy it at some Walmart stores (although I have never seen any in ours), and by the yard at Hancock Fabrics. They may sell it off the bolt at Joann but I've honestly never asked or looked for it. I've also talked to Steve at www.S ewingmachine.com about this product and I used it when I did my little class there in October. They will hopefully be selling it soon. Anyway....

It comes in this package and is simply a roll ~ one side is paper and one side is shiny and a little textured.

Make sure you get LITE and not ULTRAHOLD. I've been using HNBL for a long long long time and it has never gummed up my needle.

First... you've sewn your marking stitch for the applique you are working on. Mine is the zig zag tiara. HNBL works especially well with zig zag designs because without it, your fabric will most likely fray.

I cut my piece of fabric large enough to cover the design.

I iron my piece of fabric. Notice my iron is on about medium heat.

I cut my piece of HNBL so that it's about the same size as my fabric. As you can see mine hangs over a bit which is why my ironing board looks the way it does. Notice the HNBL is paper side up.

Iron the HNBL light with the shiny side down. Again, you are ironing on the paper side.

Peel the paper away, and your fabric will now have the HNBL on it. Throw the paper away! It now appears shiny and is like a coating on the fabric which the camera didn't quite capture.

I lay the fabric shiny side down on the marking stitch and now you're ready for the tackdown stitch. (I do not use any type of spray adhesive to stick the fabric to the shirt at this point. Some people do but I do not.)

Now it's time to trim around the tackdown stitch. You might be able to see in this picture that the fabric underside is shiny. That's the HNBL. It also helps in this trimming process ~ there aren't any loose threads, as the HNBL is like a coating on your fabric. (Notice my Gingher 4" curved embroidery scissors - love them!)

The applique is ready for the final stitch, and in this case it's zig zag! As you can see the cut is very clean!

Here is the applique after the zz stitch. You might notice the fabric is a little bubbled up. I'm not done yet...

Again, the applique is finished, but now it's time to FUSE the applique.

Iron over the applique. I keep my iron on medium heat. I iron over the applique and also let it sit on it for a second or two. If the applique fabric doesn't seem like it's fusing (still bubbly), I spray it with the iron water and then iron over it again. The applique fabric will "harden" a tad and you will be able to tell that the fabric is "set".

You might see a difference here ~ the applique is FLAT. The fabric is fused to the garment.

Lastly, I finish the back side of my applique with Comfort Cover, aka Floriani Dreamweave (there are a variety of different brands of this product, including Sulky).

Here is your finished product!

Does your applique look like this??

I recommend this product all the time to people and no, I am not getting paid to do so! I have found it works great so I recommend it whenever possible! If you're appliques are bubbly, you need this! If your appliques sometimes come loose after washing, you need this! EVERYONE NEEDS THIS!! Get some if you don't have some and see how much better your appliques turn out!

Valentine Designs and more FABRIC!

2011-01-25T11:10:00.000-06:00

This week I have still been working on setting up my *new* computer. It took me until yesterday evening to get it right! I THINK everything is now on it and it's functioning with my embroidery machine and software like it should. In case you didn't know, Windows 7 is so cool, but a little bit of a headache for the older programs and software! I've been doing a few shirts here & there and have like 5 to finish up today. After those are done it's CCE time. I haven't gotten the first thing out for consigning. I have until Monday to get it all together. Plenty of time!

Here's a cute Valentine shirt I did with the AC OWL. The customer wanted "owl be yours" or "hoo loves you" below the design. CUTE!

I also did this shirt yesterday on one of the Just Blanks shirts for one of my carpool peeps' little sister. I have done this design twice this week and it's from Embroidery-Boutique.

This is a great Valentine's Day design! Who doesn't love pink & purple!

Lastly, I got a goodie box ~~this~~ last week from TJs Fabric. What day is it today? I've blogged about TJ's before and it's a Pharmacy/gift/FABRIC store located in OPP, AL! It's right off Hwy 311, so I always say if you are heading to Destin, FL or any beach near there and you travel 331, FIND THIS PLACE! GPS was invented for this reason! This past summer we stopped on our way to the beach and I only had about 30 minutes to shop (as Jeff and the kids were left in the car). Every now & then I get a surprise package from them and it's like CHRISTMAS! I hope to make another trip down there with my camera. The good news is.... they are now selling a lot of their great fabric online! I believe their goal is to offer every fabric they sell online, but as you can imagine it's quite a task to get it all listed. CLICK HERE to view the online store! Thanks to Teresa for the surprise and I hope you got my e-mails!! :)

You can imagine my squeals when I opened the box and found this!!!!

These are from the Riley Blake Quite Contrary group and it is even more precious in person!! My grandmother always loved strawberries so this reminds me of her! LOVE LOVE LOVE the bottom 2 on the right side too!

More cute fabric. This grouping is Riley Blake LOVE BIRDS. So pretty!!

The dots below are Oval Elements by Art Gallery and the chunky looking ginghams are Michael Miller. The top right circle fabric is from Riley Blake. All cute and I can't wait to use them!

By the way, what a great website ~ http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/ ~ I'm always trying to figure out the name of Riley Blake fabrics so this is a great site to keep in mind. It's so *pretty* too! There is a RB Blog too! How awesome! Why have I not found this before??

Today is a yucky rainy nasty day where I live and a good day to do nothing! But, I must sew (or applique)!!

My Studio Tour...

2011-01-21T17:17:00.001-06:00

The Pleated Poppy is one of my favorite blogs! A friend of mine turned me on to it maybe this summer, and while it's not embroidery or applique, I LOVE IT! It does have to do with fabric and sewing and blogging. She did a post this week ~ Studio Tour ~ which inspired me to do my own studio tour! Try not to be to jealous and try to contain your snickering...

I think we all know I work in my dining room? This actually looks pretty good! It's usually a complete and total mess, moreso than below! Notice the football in the chair. 2 computers because I haven't taken the time to move my new one in to the old one's spot. This is why our house is for sale! While I LOVE being connected to our den and the kids *know* this is Mommy's work area and they really don't bother it, I long for the days of my own room (shared w/ Jeff and his computer) with at least *A* closet. Did I mention that since my house is for sale, all of my drawer bins (5 of them) are in my closet, so when I sew anything I have to make the trek to my closet. It's a lot of back and forth. AND... when our house shows, all but the machine and computer (when I don't move it too) have to be removed. The lighting is also pretty horrible and yellow!

Still loving my new computer! I also downloaded a trial version of Photoshop Elements on it. I just opened a picture in it and got scared. Looks pretty complicated? I currently use Photoscape and it's so easy and free.

Need to do a shirt and can't find just the right fabric? A plaid shirt from Walmart will do! I've cut and used shorts before but I thought the shirt was clever! Happy B-day Tate!

I also did this onesie for a customer. She explained that the little boy who will wear it was born with some health problems I think, and ever since he was born, Auburn has won all their games (they actually won all of them). SO... my customer wanted to give them this onesie and it turned out cute! It's the AC Paw and I did the wording in MWP and then merged it all together in SWP.

This is the *fanny* of the onesie!

Have a great weekend! 30% off at www.appliquecafe.com ends SUNDAY!

P.S. Not much wordpress news! Chris is working on it but I decided to change my web design so he is waiting on that to happen before he can proceed! I'm SO excited about it and thrilled that I can change it up when I feel the need! The new one is so cute and Boutique Mama has been fabulous! I've e-mailed her about 27 times with questions about this and she's been great! Chris has also been fabulous, as I have e-mailed him 54 times and he's been great! Hopefully something will happen next week!

My Sample Owl

2011-01-19T14:54:00.001-06:00

I've had 4 e-mails today about the JUST BLANKS shirts I mentioned in yesterday's post. I thought I said that I had a sample (the owl) available, but I guess it sounded more like "I have a box of Just Blank tees to sell". As I replied to the e-mails, I really haven't decided what to do with them yet. I bought them from a clothing line that was not going to use Just Blanks anymore. It was one of those 'friend of a friend hook-up deals' so I took advantage. At some point I will get the box out and take inventory and THEN decide if I have any to spare!? I honestly don't know what all is in the box, what sizes, or what style (I think she sent short and long sleeved tees). Anyway... I DO have this sample Owl shirt in a size 4/5. The tag says "shrinkage is expected" but the shirt appears to be a good 5 to me? Here is a closeup of the OWL, which is not available yet on www.appliquecafe.com! This is a brand new design that will be listed possibly tonight.

And here is a picture of the shirt. It's very soft thick cotton and has the ruffle on the sleeves and bottom. Again, size 4/5 and I' willing to part with this one for $18 plus any shipping.

Just e-mail me if interested ~ rosemarygulledge@gmail.com.

**As noted on the top of my blog, wheels are in motion to switch over to a WORDPRESS blog! The domain has been picked and will CHANGE to www.appliquecafeblog.com. I had a really hard time deciding whether or not to change the domain from my name, and even asked some friends what they thought. This was my one chance to make the change so I decided to go for it! In hindsight, on that April day in 2008 when I decided to start a blog in the first place, I probably should have come up with something more cute or clever than my name! It's worked for all these years (and who really cares?), but I figure why not take my name out of the equation while I have the chance! HOPEFULLY, all of my many posts, comments, pictures, etc. will all migrate over the new blog with little trouble. HOPEFULLY there will be little down time. I will keep everyone posted as best I can. If you aren't familiar with wordpress, then check out some of the blogs on my blog list ~ www.amrart.com, www.lifeingraceblog.com, www.flythroughourwindow.com and http://thepleatedpoppy.com/blog/. My goal is to *organize* my blog better and spend more time on posts, maybe pick up some sponsors and still have links to the other important stuff (instead of it all being on the same page).

More. Fabric.

2011-01-18T11:52:00.000-06:00

First of all this is one of my lovely assistants this morning. I like to take sample photos outside, preferably in good sunlight. Not so sunny today but better than inside. I had her hold the hoop up so that what little sunlight there is would shine on the applique! Don't you love her pigtails?

My other lovely assistant (note For Sale sign above G's head...sigh...see previous post). Owls are IN! We have 2 already and both are great designs. I'm loving this new one too which will be listed this week at www.appliquecafe.com! I also did this sample on a size 4/5 Just Blanks long sleeve ruffle tee (it has ruffles on the sleeves and bottom). If you're interested in the shirt let me know! I have a box of these shirts (some short sleeves too) so I'm going to try to do samples on them when I can. Not sure what is in G's mouth? Part of a cheese stick I think.

And now to my very (unplanned) trip up to Beth's on Friday. I met a friend for coffee and then had 2 hours to kill and ~~needed~~ wanted some Spring-y Easter-y fabric, so I drove up and just happened to have my camera on me because I was heading to a Grandparent's Luncheon at B's school at 12:30. Perfect! Beth's is sort of in Montgomery and sort of in Wetumpka. I'm really not sure and have not even noticed the address. I like to go there and also Caffco Floral Outlet all in one swoop. I get my clear bags from Caffco.

You may need to click to enlarge the photos to see the fabrics more closely. You don't need to click and enlarge to see that Beth's has EVERYTHING!! It is by far the best fabric store around these here parts! If you want ginghams, polka dots, Fabric Finders or basically any type of cute fabric, this is your one stop shop! Lots of dainty cute florals and as you can see (upper left) they also have all of the cute Fabric Finders team prints.

Polka dots and ginghams for days.... You can fill your fabric collection with every kind of floral or print fabric you like, but you cannot beat good ole ginghams and polka dots. I always tell people that appliques deal with such small spaces, so try to think that way when shopping. I have some BEAUTIFUL floral prints in my collection, but I always go back to polka dots, stripes and ginghams! Small florals work too!

These are NICE solids ~ (can't think of the name/type fabric right off the top of my head).

Ginghams in every shade, color, size, price range you can imagine...

Fabric Finders team prints ~ Auburn and Alabama

I picked out a few dainty little florals, and then they told me about "upstairs"!! I had no idea upstairs existed, but evidently this is where the good stuff is! They have so much fabric that they can't put it all downstairs ~ the lighter spring-y-er stuff was up here and I picked out several more... They also hold classes up there!

Click to enlarge if needed...

Did I mention they have fabric for days?

They also sell TONS of patterns, notions, buttons, blank bibs and burp cloths and other things, and if you look at the "cart" on the right side of the photo ~ in the bottom drawer they have tons of scraps which sell for 50cents each! It's fun to dig through and see what's in there! There are also a couple of classrooms to the right of this picture. They hold tons of classes. AND... Beth told me Friday they are also going to start selling EMBROIDERY THREAD and some stabilizers! One stop shop!

Here are the fabrics I came home with ~ I've had my eye on this ric rac stripe!

I've never been a huge lavender or purple fan (except for that plum phase I went through about 12 years ago where I decorated my bedroom in all plum). Now that I have a girl I'm appreciating it more and these lavenders are so dainty and cute! I also like lavender with green.

Here are the floral prints I got and I just did the new owl in the paisley and it turned out CUTE! Again, applique = small spaces so the small florals work.

I thought these were both Spring-y and Easter-y. I saw the pastel tricheck on Facebook the other day so I was so glad when I found it!

I long for the day (hopefully soon) when I have a SEWING ROOM and I can organize all of my fabrics. I'm putting it off until then.

AC News: everything is 30% off (excluding gift certificates and "design on a dime" designs) until Sunday. I am working to sample a couple more new designs also so they will be listed ASAP. Reasons for this sale: everyone was ~~buggin me~~ asking for one, Auburn won the National Championship and we have EXCEEDED 3,000 Applique Cafe fans on Facebook!

Blog News: I spoke to a "guy" yesterday about the Wordpress blog migration. I also got a quote from a guy who hosts one of the blogs on my list that I love. I'm hoping to work on this project and that the transition will be smooth with little "blog down time". I'll keep you posted...

Did I mention....

2011-01-17T17:58:00.000-06:00

... my house was for sale? While I am trying to be thankful that we are in a position where we can move, and thankful that we need more space, and content for this house that I love that we built 9 years ago... I about hit a wall today!!! The kids were out of school and it was showing at 2:00. Back it up to about 10:00 and that's when the cleaning begins. My house stays pretty clean, but EVERY toy has to be put in it's place, beds have to be made, ALL the "junk" including dirty laundry usually gets thrown in the back of my car (along with the toaster oven which CAN'T be left on the counter). All the blinds are left open and the lights on just perfectly with a spritz of Febreeze room spray in each room! Doing all this with 3 kids running around is a chore. And did I mention we did this Friday, Saturday and again today!! How about an offer people??? Just one! Please...

In less whiny news we got a new computer last week and it is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!! I actually watched a 2 hour TV show on it last night and it's clear as day! The keyboard and mouse are both wireless and it only has 1 cord, as all of the computer brains are IN the screen. Love. It. I am now working to get all of my *stuff* loaded on it. I managed to get Sew What Pro loaded with some help from Steve. I also got Monogram Wizard Plus loaded, but I have NOT gotten my extra alpha paks on there yet. I also haven't moved all of my embroidery and design files yet. Anywho, it'll be wonderful when we get it all set up.

Here is a pic of Sissy with her Simple Cross shirt on. I love this design!

And a closeup - I got this fabric in lavendar too on Friday. It's a sweet little fabric!

I'm working on editing my pictures from Friday's road trip to Beth's. I will work on that post for tomorrow... I took lots of pictures in her store of all the beautiful fabric as well as the new ones I ~~needed~~ got. Lots of dainty florals, lavenders and a good Easter plaid. Check back for that post.

All Family, All In...

2011-01-14T19:41:00.000-06:00

We made the trip this past week to the BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME in Glendale, AZ! First stop... Vegas (Sat - Mon morning). Not too much to report from there other than great food and an awesome hotel (Palazzo). Lots of people watching... We drove to Glendale Monday morning and spent the day walking around and "tailgating". What an awesome trip!

Here is a pic of me & Jeff just before the game:

This is during God Bless America and they had an EAGLE fly the stadium. The place went C-R-A-Z-Y!!! This was one of a few emotional moments of the game ~ this and when they reunited families with their loved ones from Iraq on the field!

This was the end of the game ~ Auburn won 22-19! Very close and very nerve wracking - I needed a Valium those last few minutes! As I type this Jeff is watching the game on Tivo...

Here we are again after the game! WAR EAGLE!!

We got home Wednesday evening as planned. Lots of people got stuck out in AZ due to the weather, or stuck in random airports all over the US trying to get back home!

Still recovering ~ planning a LAZY weekend!

In Embroidery news, I made an impromptu unplanned trip to Beth's Heirloom this morning and I actually had my camera on me, so I took some pics and will do another post this weekend. I got lots of beautiful fabric! I also went by Caffco Floral Outlet and got some clear bags I was out of.

In House news, last week's couple went back to VA and evidently have to lease their house there before buying one here, and evidently they like ours, and evidently they have to do something by February. We'll see! Our house showed today and shows again tomorrow. Lots of traffic now that Christmas is over! What does this mean? Basically all of my sewing stuff has been put away for over a week now. My machine stays in my dining room and my computer stays when I don't take it down too. I have a hand full of shirts to do that were given to me before we left and I will work on those this weekend or next week. I DON'T think I'm taking too many orders at this time. A) because with our house showing so much it's just a hassle to bring it all out and then have to put it all back up at a moments notice, B) our house could sell at any moment and I don't want 50 shirts piled up to do (nervous breakdown waiting to happen), or have to return to their owners with nothing on them and C) we also got a new computer yesterday and it's going to take a bit to get it set up with all of my software and programs and files! I'm VERY excited about it but am nervous too about the transition! It's a big screen Sony All-In-1 computer. The keyboard and mouse are both wireless and all of the CPU stuff is IN the screen. Less cords and no big computer box! AND.... D) I am still wanting to switch my BLOGGER blog over to a WORDPRESS blog.

In Applique Cafe news, we did do 1 design on our laptop while on the plane. We will hopefully get back to work this weekend on new Spring designs!

Stay tuned for my Beth's post!

New Year and BLOGS!

2011-01-07T16:35:00.000-06:00

It has been crazy since my last post. Holidays are over, back to school, back to work, back to reality, back to getting up before 9:30 AM.... I appliqued a few shirts this week for a friend heading to Disney next month and did a bib/burp baby gift. That's about it! Wednesday morning I got a call that someone wanted to see the house. It was a M-E-S-S ~ serious Holiday hungover house mess! I had 1 hour to completely clean it. They came. They saw. Yesterday (Thursday) morning I get another call from the same realtor ~ they wanted to come see it AGAIN! Again, I had about an hour to get the house in order. Did I mention that I had to put all of my sewing stuff up Wed., got it back out Wed. afternoon and then had to put it all back up yesterday. It is still all "up" which means hidden in my closet. As of last night these people liked our house, but we didn't hear anything today so we hope that means they are taking the weekend to mull it over!?

In Applique Cafe news, we put out several new designs over the Holidays ~ Valentines and Easter. Check them out ~ New designs are listed first...! We'll have some more new stuff in a week or so.

In BLOG news, I think I have definitely decided to switch over to a Wordpress blog. I've started following several blogs (which have all been added to my blog list) and they are all Wordpress and I love them! They are very neat and organized and appealing. Very professional. Not that I'm professional, but I think it's time to make the switch. I have the # of a guy who can hopefully help me do this. I have over 3 years of blog juice and posts and Google status and I don't want to lose any of it. Stay tuned!

In other blog news, I'm a huge fan of The Pleated Poppy! She is the one who does the WIWW and while I tried to keep up with this, it only lasted me a few days. Anyway, she wears these cute taupe colored Target boots that are cute ~ seen in a lot of her photos. I went to Target this week and they had my size, on clearance, for $12.56! I was excited! So excited that I commented on her blog about my find. I got a REPLY back from her! She actually read my comment and replied! I was so excited! I also like to read Fly Through Our Window. On both of these blogs this week there was a story of Edie, who is also a fellow blogger. Her blog is www.lifeingraceblog.com and you MUST read this post: http://www.lifeingraceblog.com/2010/12/the-god-who-promises.html It is incredibly and beautifully written, even though it's a tragedy. All great blogs! All wordpress!

We are getting ready for the BCS Championship Game! WAR EAGLE! I promise to post something more than words next week! Have a great weekend!

Thread and Hoops!

2011-01-02T21:13:00.000-06:00

I hope this doesn't look too gross? Yesterday was New Year's Day. In the SOUTH, we take the ham bone from the ham we've been eating every other meal for the past week, throw it in a pot and throw in a bag of BLACK EYED PEAS!! We don't/didn't do the "greens", but hopefully the BEP's will bring us good luck in 2011! If this picture didn't make you shut down my blog, then read on...

Today I "organized" my thread on the floor. I have both 1000M spools and 5000M spools. I'm working on a thread order so I had to sort all the colors and figure out what I needed. I use mostly Poly X thread from www.kenssewingcenter.com (and I have a gift certificate to use) and also Isacord from www.sewingmachine.com (most of my 5000M spools are Isacord). I like both brands and my machine seems to like them too. I have REAL thread charts for both brands with real thread samples, so it makes ordering very easy. I'm trying to build up my collection of 5000M spools, especially on the colors I use most.

Isn't thread fun??

Tonight I made a Walmart run for diapers (Mal still sleeps in them unfortunately) and a dust pan. I came out with diapers, a dust pan, an 8 pack of paper towels, a pack of hot dogs, a pack of Oreos, a turtleneck for Mallory, a sippy cup and this super duper soft fleece pullover for G. I didn't even have a buggy so the dust pan was literally hanging from my finger and I had stuff tucked under every part of me that would bend. You know exactly what I'm talking about!! Anyway... this fleece top was $5.00. This is why I love what I do! I can add a monogram to a $5.00 fleece top and I have a cute soft warm fleece for my G! The stitching is all light blue.

And now we come to my new best friend, the 9x9 HOOP!

http://www.allbrands.com/products/abp26773.html

This hoop is from Allbrands and if you have a 6 needle Brother machine, then this hoop is a must! It's not made by Brother, but rather by Durkee and is compatible with several Brother and Babylock machines (see listing). This is a photo of the hoop on my machine. As you can see, my arm is expanded as wide as it'll go just about ~ this hoop is probably as wide as the XL hoop that comes with the machine. It clips on just like any of the other hoops.

Here is a picture of the hoop hooped onto a size 4T turtleneck. It actually works great for smaller sizes too. I use medium cutaway and the 15" x 25 yard roll from sewingmachine.com is great for this hoop!

Here is the 5x7 hoop on top as a comparison. The 9x9 hoop is about the same width b/c the 5x7 hoop is also 9" wide. But, as you can see, it gives you more room vertically. Even though the 5x7 hoop is really 9" wide, your machine will only allow you to use 7" horizontally. With the 9x9 hoop, your machine recognizes it as the XL hoop so while you have to watch your boundaries like you do with Fast Frames, it gives you more than 7" to work with across the shirt.

Here is a picture of my needle position as far up as it'll go. The top of my design will be here and the needle will not hit the hoop.

Here is the finished shirt. I did not put a name on this shirt, but as you can see, there is plenty of room below the cross to put a name. Had I wanted a name on the shirt below the cross with a 5x7 hoop, I would have had to hoop vertically which would mean my shirt would be sideways on the machine! We all know this is a pain!

I was turned on to this hoop by some friends on Facebook, finally ordered it and use it all the time! As my friend HBS says, it'll make your 5x7 hoop jealous!

Happy New Year 2011!

2011-01-01T19:57:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! I have done NOTHING exciting. We have been lazy, lazy and more lazy this past week. We will all be in for a rude awakening (Monday for Jeff and Wednesday for me and kids) when it's time to go back to work and school. We've been sleeping til 8:30/9:00 every morning, taking naps and basically doing nothing (Jeff has been more productive than I have)! Therefore, I have little to report other than to share our AC Valentine Designs since that is our next major Holiday!

Heart:

Heart Patch (I redid this sample this past week with new fabrics!) I guess I did do a few productive things?

Heart Peace Sign:

Heart Truck:

Heart Trio:

Love:

Love 2:

Swirly Heart ~ satin:

Peace Heart (was recommended by a 9 year old applique fan):

Swirly Heart ~ raggy option:

XOXO:

Heart Train:

Valentine Dog:

We also have lots of Mardi Gras designs and are working on Easter now too. I hope everyone had a great 2010 and here's to a better 2011! I will hopefully have something else to post this week ~ I need to do a shirt and try out my travel iron, and I also wanted to do a post on Heat N Bond Lite! Something new added to AC today ~ Designs for a dime! Check them out!

Local Artists!

2010-12-27T15:17:00.004-06:00

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! What did we do before Hobby Lobby? Here is a picture of our modestly small (our house is for sale) Christmas tree with our wrapped gifts underneath. I got the paper, tulle and gift tags all from Hobby Lobby (at 50% off no doubt). Every year I say "I'm going to use up all the random paper, and NEXT year I'll do matching wrapping paper". I didn't use up all the random paper but I did wrap my presents to all match! It's almost like fabric!! I love the red polka dot and swirly paper!

Here are a couple of Christmas gifts I got this year! The first is an Ex Voto necklace made by a friend of a couple of friends here in Montgomery. She travels all over to find pieces to make her jewelry and I was SURPRISED when I opened a piece from Jeff (thanks to KV for the suggestion and to my SIL for her help too)! Here is her blog ~ http://exvotojewels.blogspot.com/ and she is also on Facebook. The other side of the charm has initials engraved on it which aren't mine, but that's what makes it so interesting!

I also got this beautiful painting by Donnie Sasser. He is also a local artist and I couldn't find any blog or website but there is info out there if you google him. His paintings are very popular here in Montgomery! I have another one that hangs by my door.

Lastly, the boys did an art camp last week with Abrakadoodle. In the summer they do art camps with the lady who runs the program here in town. They each painted these cute Christmas trees (with a little help I'm sure) and also some candy cane ornaments that were precious! I LOVE the artwork they do! In our next house there will be a wall of it somewhere! I have tons of paintings from the past 3 or 4 summers of art camps!

Lastly, I gave Jeff a painting of our house. A) because this will always be "our first house". Meaning this is the house all 3 of our kids came home to and were partially raised in. B) because hopefully in the near future this house will sell and we'll have the painting as a sweet memory! I meant to take a photo of it but haven't yet, but you can see it at AMR Art. It's the middle house with the wrought iron benches on the front porch. Amanda is also local and I have another painting she did in Mallory's room I may have posted a couple of years ago, and I also have another plaque which hangs in my kitchen I got at a Holiday Open House. I also have one of her Cathedral Angel paintings which is also in Mallory's room. I love her work and would love to have more of it (next house!!). (p.s.AMR Art is on my blog list below and she is also on Facebook ~ Amanda Roberson Art)

I took a picture of the painting (below) but Amanda's picture is better than mine! Check out her blog!

I'm busy re-sampling some of our Applique Cafe designs and we also listed 4 new ones this morning. Sometimes a design looks one way and with a change of fabric looks totally different. Since I'm "off" this week, I'm taking some time to re-do some of our older ones that I think might be cuter with different fabric. We have several Valentine designs listed as well as Mardi Gras, which are both coming up soon. We'll be working on new Easter designs as well! The NEW designs are featured on the home page!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

2010-12-23T11:28:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple of shirts I did yesterday. The AC OWL which is one of my favorite designs. The font is Grins & Giggles which is also another favorite of mine (from Applique Frenzy).

I also did the Celtic Cross (Embroidery Boutique) with the vintage stitching. This picture doesn't show how cute this fabric is! I take my pictures in my dining room sometimes and this is one of them ~ no matter how I edit it doesn't do it justice! Again, the Grins & Giggles font from AF.

I cut off orders a couple of weeks ago and these were the last of what I had agreed to do before Christmas! I am now technically done, although I have 2 Applique Cafe samples to do today. I have not wrapped the first present, and yet I find myself cleaning out drawers, throwing stuff away, doing laundry. Can you say procrastination???

Projects for after Christmas: organizing my fabric (it is a MESS) and organizing and getting rid of some blanks! I have a couple of quilted bags (lime green and brown w/ blue trim) that have been in my drawer for who knows how long, as well as some short sleeve tees I bought last year. I have a baggie of crochet appliques from www.quiltware.com ~ not sure if I will use them? Tons of shirts in general that I've "collected" and never used! I buy stuff thinking I'll use it and never do!

It's seriously time to eat lunch and then WRAP WRAP WRAP!! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas if I don't post again until after Saturday! Turn off the embroidery machine and enjoy time with your family!!

Merry week of Christmas!!

2010-12-21T15:49:00.000-06:00

Here is my very small stack of "to-do" for this week. I'm down to 5 shirts! These were some I had agreed to do a week or two ago and am just now getting around to them. Hopefully I can finish these tomorrow and enjoy some time off to wrap presents (I haven't wrapped a single one yet) and do some other stuff around the house and with the kids! Jeff is off for a while over Christmas too so I'm sure we'll find something to do ~ probably do some new AC designs!?

We all went to Target last night and I bought this cute little travel iron. I had a craft iron on my list but could never find one, so I saw this one in/on the luggage aisle and decided it would do - probably gets a little hotter too? My plan is to use it on my applique fabric AFTER the tackdown stitch and AFTER I've trimmed, but BEFORE the satin stitches. With my Heat N Bond Lite, I think it'll fuse the fabric better to my garment before the final satin stitch. Note: add a new ironing board to my list ~ this one looks horrible! Lots of HNBL residue built up on it.

This weekend we went to a (HILARIOUS) Christmas Vacation party. Jeff & I are not the dress up type (I think we've dressed up once since we've been together over the past 12 or so years). He went as Cousin Eddie (black dickie and all) and I went as Audrey. There were lots of Eddie's at the party, a couple of Clarks, an Ellen, several Catherines and even Aunt Bethany and Uncle Louis. Lots of fun!!

Here is a pic of Audrey from the movie. My hair wasn't as kinky but I had the pink headband!

Here is Cousin Eddie. I think his pants are green and of course, the black dickie.

Jeff actually wore one of MY shirts!

Here is a family photo from the movie. I think everyone was just about covered!

If you're friends with me on Facebook then you can look on there to see the rest!

I had a visit from my friend the other day, AGAIN! I don't know if he's coming in with the mail or what? He seems to like it amongst my sewing stuff!!

It's almost CHRISTMAS! While we've been done with shopping for a week, not a present has been wrapped yet! I guess we'll get it done! Applique Cafe ~ all "Christmas & Holiday Stuff" designs are 50% off, everything else is 25% off and you get $5 off your purchase of $20 or more through the end of this month! We've already put up 4 new Valentine designs for the upcoming year and also several Mardi Gras designs! We'll work on more over the next week or two including EASTER!

Have a great week!

Countdown to CHRISTMAS!!

2010-12-14T16:03:00.000-06:00

This Sock Monkey design is featured on the right hand of my blog. Like the Elizabeth's Embroideries Lamb #3 from my post a week or two ago, I get a lot of e-mails from people looking for it. It is from Applique For Kids and this is her photo as well. It also comes as just the Sock Monkey face which is cute! I believe MODA sells the sock monkey fabric too (seen on ETSY). I usually use brown gingham or the Fabric Finder's brown houndstooth fabric (small houndstooth) ~ need to order some of this fabric because it is pretty cute. Anyway, I thought I'd post where it came from since I get asked at least once a week! This is one of those designs too that may look off center with the tail - I did it on a tee yesterday and got it centered w/ the name! I did a post on centering off center designs a month or so ago as well and will try to post that link ~ HERE it is!!

Here's a new AC design sampled by http://sewinitially.blogspot.com/ today. I love this design! This and the Topiary are my favorites for Spring! We're also working on several Valentine designs and Mardi Gras (a couple are not listed yet but preview pics are on Facebook).

Here is my train of work for this week. This was taken a couple of days ago so luckily I am down to 4 big towels and 7 hand towels (ALL MONOGRAMMING) and 1 bag of shirts. The towels are for Christmas so they will be done in the next day or two. This is IT for me! Jeff was so proud of me last night ~ someone called with some items to monogram and I referred them to a place in town that might do them. My usual answer is "oh sure (twist my arm, I hate to say NO to anyone) I can do them" and I have vowed that this is it for this week so I can enjoy a couple of weeks of Christmas (no school) and the New Year!

JOANN!!!!!!! This weekend they had 50% off NOTIONS, so all of this was 1/2 off including the Gingher 4" curved scissors (mine were getting dull). BUT..... I also had a 20% off your total purchase coupon that started SUNDAY as this sale ended on SUNDAY! So I got all this at 50% off, then they took another 20% off. Needless to say that is why I bought so much. My drawers are overflowing with Heat N Bond Lite but I use it so much that I couldn't pass up this deal. Hopefully no one else in Montgomery wanted any b/c I cleared out the HNBL shelf!

Here are a couple of shirts I did this past week - the AC Owl...

The AC Tinsel Tree...

Lastly, the AC Zig Zag Christmas Tree done in the Michael Miller Play Dot fabric.

We are done with our shopping, I think! Jeff & I ran our last errands this morning and hopefully that's it! Our kids are getting way more than they need! What's new, huh? I have bags of toys crammed on my closet shelves (half hidden) and more up in the attic. I can't even remember what all I've bought! The little ones have their parties tomorrow, B on Friday and G has his program at school Friday. Then they are OUT OF SCHOOL for over 2 weeks! Pros and cons to that - hopefully they won't get bored and I can SLEEP IN! Back to monogramming...

Celebrating FRIDAY!

2010-12-10T15:46:00.000-06:00

I am so glad it's Friday! I haven't posted in a while. I pull up my blog several times a day and usually check my blog list for updates. I haven't had anything exciting to post (and still don't) but thought I would do a quick Friday post and include a few RANDOM pictures! I've collected/found a few more thread ornaments. The wreath in the middle (also seen at The Pleated Poppy's blog ~ today's post) I bought last year so I found it when we got our Christmas out. We ended up putting up a skinny Christmas tree this year and we put it in the corner of our dining room, so I have not done my "Sewing Tree" b/c I thought it might be overkill for my dining room/sewing room (since our house is for sale). I got a few more ornaments (Santa x 2 and another snowman) this week from Joann. For now they are partying in a bowl in my china cabinet (which is full of fabric)!

Someone sampled the AC Topiary for me in Christmas colors ~ I love this design!

And... earlier this week I got a box of shirts I ordered from Hollywood Baby, and this little guy either came in on the box, or came in IN the box all the way from Birmingham!! It took me 20 minutes to chase him all over my dining room/sewing room and I finally caught him in a big cup and set him free outside! He reminds me of the Geico Gecko?

I did my last 4 shirts like Monday, and somehow I now have like 25 more things to do? Most of it is monogramming which is less time consuming than applique. Hope to get it all done by mid-week next week and that will be IT! No more! Finished til 2011! My answer will be N-O!!

Sale note: At my Joann, Heat N Bond Lite is 50% off this weekend and I have a 20% off coupon for Sunday only (total purchase). I have tons but may try to stock up!? That's quite a deal!!

Applique Cafe ~ Christmas designs are on sale, PLUS get $5 off your purchase of $20 or more. Have a great weekend!

Where did December come from?

2010-12-02T21:24:00.000-06:00

First and foremost - isn't this the cutest tree you've ever seen? I borrowed this picture from http://preppypapergirl.blogspot.com/ which I have added to my blog list. I ordered some little gift tags from her earlier this year and had not thought twice about them (just when I use them) and someone sent me a link to her blog this week so I immediately added her to my list b/c everything is so cute! Take a look! She sells on ETSY of course, where everything is so stinkin' cute! My goal is to do a SEWING TREE!! Love the ribbon and ornaments and THE TREE!! I believe she sells these ornaments too, so pop on over to her blog and see. Cute Cute Cute!

I saw the above blog TODAY ~ YESTERDAY I bought THIS ORNAMENT from Joann...

Coincidence?? I already had a SEWING TREE on my mind?? I hung this cute thread guy on my kitchen cabinet and this, my friends, is the extent of Christmas decor in the Gulledge household other than an Auburn Christmas tree in G's room. My "FALL" market basket is still on my front door. No. Christmas. Anywhere. But, I have a thread guy ornament for my sewing tree! You may be wondering what a sewing tree has to do with the Preppy Paper Girl cute ribbon and ornament tree? Not much other than my sewing tree will have ribbon on it, and my thread guy.

I did this Swirly Tree today to match the below striped pants. The shadows are bad. I can't seem to take a picture these days. My broken LENS is finally back from being fixed and I pick it up tomorrow.

I also did this Rudolph with Lights this week. I like him!

And a new AC design is this cute TOPIARY which was listed today. I also have a pic in Christmas fabrics I need to edit and post. I did this on a tee for Mallory and I could totally see this design in her future bathroom ~ on a towel or something? You could also put an initial in the box!

I've been sewing like a crazy woman all week and am down to MY LAST 4, YES FOUR, QUATRO shirts!! I have agreed to do a few shirts next week for 2 people and that may be IT until 2011! We showed our house yesterday, which meant everything had to be taken down. The taking down and putting it all back out thing is getting really really really old. That, and the fact that Christmas is around the corner and I haven't decorated anything and have only bought about 3 presents, are reasons enough to call it quits for a few weeks. Email me with any questions!

All Christmas and Holiday designs are now 25% off at www.appliquecafe.com! Also, take $5 off your $20 or more purchase ~ sale prices/deals good through December 31, 2010! WAR EAGLE ~ we are going to the SEC Championship game this weekend! I hope the "All I do is win win win" song is still applicable Saturday night!

Rain Rain Rain

2010-11-30T16:40:00.000-06:00

I've been working like an ELF yesterday and today trying to finish all of the shirts I have. I'm down to my last 12, yes TWELVE!!!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!! I WILL finish these by the end of this week! Here is one of my favorite designs for Christmas, especially for older kids (with an older looking font). I did a red turtleneck last year for Browder which G will probably wear this year!

If you've followed my blog for a while, then this picture looks familiar! This is where I sometimes pile all of my "DONE" shirts ready for pickup! Most of these were done yesterday and today!

Here is the weather photo for today ~ RAIN!!! It has rained all. day. long. I resisted a good afternoon nap and have slaved behind this machine most of the day.

How cute is this????

This is a daughter of a customer and Mallory has one of these precious headbands. I want to take a picture of her with it on and will try to do so and post this week. These are by ZoeLynn & Co. and can be found HERE (Facebook) and HERE (Etsy). They are really cute and she has some great fabrics for Christmas too! Check her out and become a fan on Facebook!

So much for my WIWW (The Pleated Poppy)!! I failed miserably! I will try to take a pic every now & then and post, but as far as every day... I'm just not that stylish! HA! I still LOVE the blog and will keep up with what everyone else is wearing! I added her and another great blog to my blog list ~ both unrelated to applique but fun to read!

We have at least 7 new designs coming to Applique Cafe. There was also some confusion as to the Elizabeth's Embroideries Lamb design from my previous post. The website owner misunderstood my post and thought I was claiming it as my own! Most of you know a lot of the designs featured on my blog are from all different sites. I changed it so that you can see it's clearly from her site, and I may start adding captions underneath all of my right-hand-side pictures so you know where the design came from! She & I e-mailed this morning and it was a simple misunderstanding. I will add that info in my spare time....

As far as taking on more work! Maybe next week? We're heading to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Saturday so I'd like to finish my 12 and enjoy my weekend and then might take on a few orders before Christmas!

December Eve Eve

2010-11-29T21:19:00.001-06:00

I hope everyone had a fabulous and

relaxing Thanksgiving full of good food and family!?

I have been asked 2 or 3 times lately where this design came from. I have designs on my blog from lots of different places ~ they are not all from Applique Cafe! This cute lamb/sheep is from Elizabeth's Embroideries. This website is tricky to maneuver but if you scroll down on the page, you'll see a pink one with a bow. That's the one!

Today I did the Double Circle design and while the coloring on my photo is off due to the rainy weather today (I took the pic outside), I loved these fabrics together! I was matching a pair of pink pants and also a green cord skirt. It's the daintiest pink flower fabric and I love using it! I also used it on our new angel in a blue/periwinkle version of the same fabric.

We spent 5 days at the beach for Thanksgiving and it was fabulously relaxing! This was our 5th year I think of the beach tradition and we will hopefully continue for years to come. The weather is usually GREAT along with great shopping (and eating) and lots of doing NOTHING! I even met a blogger/applique/facebook friend at Publix down there. We were in the produce section and gave each other that "are you ?" look and quickly realized we knew each other, cyber-speaking knew each other! Not quite as crazy as running in to another blogger friend down at Disney this past year, but fun nonetheless. It's a small world after all...

Lots of these on the beach....

And lots of smiles....

This is NOT my Christmas card photo but I thought it was cute enough to post. I took about 40 pictures and ordered my Christmas cards today after spending most of the day on 7 different websites playing around with my "it" picture and all the gazillion cards out there. Snapfish had 30% off today so I went with them (and free shipping). Yeah! So glad that is over with (the ordering part).

My family was also extremely happy with the Iron Bowl results and are pumped up about ATLANTA this weekend (SEC Championship)! I went to Troy, but my husband, sister, father, brother in law, sister in law, half brother, a few cousins and 2 uncles graduated from Auburn so that qualifies me as a true Auburn fan! I'm sure I'm leaving some extended family and/or friends out of that list too. WAR EAGLE!!

We are working on some new AC designs for this week. 40% off sale ends tomorrow (or first thing Wednesday morning). Have a great week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-23T11:08:00.002-06:00

First up... Thanksgiving "Gobble Gobble" Sale at www.appliquecafe.com!

40% off all designs through the end of the month

(aka November 30th)

Don't forget Applique Cafe gift certificates!

Put them on your Christmas list or hint to hubby that you'd love one/some in your stocking!

They come in increments of $10!

I didn't do too good with WIWW (www.thepleatedpoppy.com, see blog). I made it 2 days, Saturday we showed our house twice and camera was inaccessible, Sunday ~ church, and yesterday I was in shorts and a T-shirt all day with no makeup! It really is a challenge to a) get dressed every day and b) take a photo of yourself.

Above - me getting ready to go look at a house (plan B) and also attend Southern Homes & Garden's Ladies Night Out last Thursday!! black layer tee: Target, gray top: Walmart!!, cross necklace: Forever 21, jeans: Gap, shoes: Bare Traps.

Above: Friday errands and misc. all day and Auburn Basketball game Fri night.

cream turtleneck sweater: Gap, pea green infinity scarf: TJMaxx (love green),

skinny jeans: Mossimo Target, brown boots: Shoe Station

Well, it's almost THANKSGIVING!

And IRON BOWL

And BLACK FRIDAY

I hope everyone has a relaxing week full of good food and family! We'll be working on new designs hopefully this week! I was pleased with all of my samplers this week and hope to put them to use next week!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

p.s.I did not get everything done prior to Thanksgiving! I still have 22 items to do and will get those done ASAP starting on Monday. My sewing room has been taken down for the rest of the week!

Happy Weekend!

2010-11-20T22:53:00.000-06:00

Here are some pics from my week! First of all, I've had a Starbucks addiction for a few years now, ever since my friend brought me a Mocha Frappacino one morning while we let our kids play. This was several years ago and I've probably spent thousands of dollars (OK maybe not that much) at Starbucks. Mostly at our Cornerstone locale, but it was so bad for a while there that we would have to find them on trips just so I could get one. I used to think they slid some crack in them. For a year or so now (ever since they changed the Frap recipe), I also developed a liking for just a Mocha (hot drink) and I get them several times a week ~ usually when it's my carpool morning. I also enjoy a McDonalds Mocha Frappe, but that's another story. The other day I took the lid off and this is what is left. YUCK! All the mocha at the bottom and some other unknown "things" appear to be stuck to the wall of the cup! Totally random, but I had to take a picture to help myself break this habit! We'll see if it works... this is really disgusting looking...

I got a surprise box in the mail this week from TJ's Fabric in Opp, AL! They so graciously send me these packages every now & then and it's like Christmas (maybe better?)! If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Opp (south AL), Dothan, Montgomery, or on your way to Destin and you drive down 331, turn off in OPP and visit this pharmacy/fabric store in one. I stopped on our way to the beach in July and am trying to get back down there sometime soon! My parents aren't far from there so hopefully I can go visit in the next month or so! FABULOUS selection of every kind of fabric you could imagine at GREAT prices! All under one roof ~ Michael Miller, Amy Butler, ginghams, polka dots, Riley Blake and everything and everyone else! Here are some of what T. sent me! Who doesn't love an OWL??? LOVE all of these!!

My pics are out of order ~ here are a few Rabbit Skins hoodies I sent to Texas yesterday. You can't tell but the top fabric is that lime, blue & brown tri-check. I know some people dislike Rabbit Skins, but I have to say (I do like their tees and) these are GREAT hoodies! Very thick and soft and I thought they were great! They also have little pockets on the sides.

Here is a shot of my "bundles". They are on the sidewalk because I try to take my pictures outside my front door. The lighting is so much better than in my dining room (which makes my pics YELLOW).

Love how they are all neat & tied with ribbon too! Like Christmas I tell you!

Another grouping of the green and OWL prints! Super Duper cute and I can't wait to use them! As I stated in my last post, GREEN is my absolute favorite color in the whole wide world.

More...

I'm having a blast with WIWW (see Wed. post). Jeff e-mailed me after Wednesdays post and I think he thought I had fallen off the deep end. Taking a picture of myself in the mirror is SO not my thing, but it has been fun to play along with The Pleated Poppy! It also makes you think twice about those jogging shorts and a t-shirt. I took pics Thurs & Fri, but not today. We got 2 calls last night saying they were showing our house this morning to 2 different people, so I couldn't tell you where my camera was. We got home at 10pm from an Auburn basketball game and cleaned til after 11, then cleaned ourselves out the door this morning at 9:30.

So we've showed our house 5 times in 3 weeks. Not bad? It is A LOT OF WORK this selling a house business. Getting it all dusted and cleaned and everything in it's place, blinds open, lamps on just perfect, ALL OF MY SEWING STUFF PUT AWAY!!!

I decided Thursday night to find some girls to help me with sampling my Applique Cafe designs. I conducted "interviews" via e-mail and picked 7. I got a bunch of great photos by lots of people wanting to sample. It was hard to pick but I picked 7 and farmed out our newest designs for them to sample for me yesterday and today. One less thing for me to have to do! We will hopefully get them all listed on www.appliquecafe.com tomorrow! Good night!! Look for WIWW pics this week (may have to post on Tuesday)!

WIWW

2010-11-17T15:51:00.000-06:00

First of all, I LOVE ORANGE!!! Green is my absolute favorite color (I gravitate towards anything and everything green). Next to green is orange! Not so much for decorating and I personally don't wear it a lot, but I love to use orange in appliques. There is a precious kids clothing line that is actually out of Montgomery and every now & then I hit their overstock sales held at My Kids Attic. They also have Facebook sales but I like to get stuff ON SALE! Anyway... these are ruffle pants I got at their last sale, coupled with an Old Navy shirt, orange bow and these orange & white polka dot PJ's (which I ADORE). My sweet friend so graciously sold me all of her daughter's look-like-brand-new hand-me-down PJ's this summer so Mallory has them in orange/white dots, brown/pink dots, pink/hot pink dots and red/white dots. I LOVE THEM ALL!

Here are 2 shirts I did yesterday - I really like the Fabric Finders houndstooth fabric (this is brown). Something a little different than the usual gingham? I love brown and red together too. I cut off part of the princess carriage (because I'm still using my 55-250mm lens). I called last week and my other camera lens is still at the hospital! :( I have to get way far away of anything to take a picture!

And now... this is totally random, but a friend of mine introduced me to a site called The Pleated Poppy. If you look at her BLOG, she does this thing called "What I Wore Wednesday" (aka WIWW). I LOVE reading her blog and find myself sucked in to all the other cute blogs linked to hers, but today I realized that A) it was Wednesday and B) why not take a photo of myself in the mirror and post it and PLAY ALONG!! Not a great looking face I have there while trying to take a photo with my ZOOM lens, but anyway...

white shirt - marshalls

lavender top - anthropologie (clearance rack)

jeans - gap

tan suede flats - old navy

cross necklace - Forever 21

Today I have worked all day (applique shirts), so basically I got dressed to come back home to work! Side note: I actually wore this for about an hour yesterday (for lunch w/ Jeff and kids), so I confess that I put it back on today! Check out The Pleated Poppy! She also makes cute stuff seen in her store. I don't know if I'll take a photo of myself every day, but it is kind of fun to participate!

We showed our house again this week. Not much going on! We are going to see another house tomorrow (our first time looking at anything). We have a house in mind we want to buy, but are looking for some sort of "Plan B" for my peace of mind. Everything is, of course, based on the selling of the current house. Exciting and scary!

I'm working non stop (not really) trying to get as much work done as I can before Thanksgiving. Will finish up what I lack right after Thanksgiving. I will be taking 5 or so days off to enjoy Thanksgiving and will evaluate my orders the 1st of December. I've gotten a few packages of shirts in the mail this week and am still working on some non-Christmas items. T minus 35 minutes til I'm "off work" for the day, so back to work!

Fabric Addict!!!!

2010-11-10T16:07:00.000-06:00

I've gotten e-mails all week long wanting to know where this sock monkey came from! It's from Applique For Kids! Moda makes a sock monkey fabric too ~ I've seen it on Etsy. This is just plain ole brown gingham.

Here is my little Zig Zag Tiara model! Love the Monag Frill Pants!

Of course I couldn't take Sissy's picture without taking G's picture...

Today I took a trip up to Beth's Heirloom for some regular orange gingham to get some pants made to match a top I bought for M. $87 later.... I decided to stock up on my Fabric Finders big 1/8" ginghams so I got 1/2 yard of each of these. These are my FAVORITES to applique with! They are nice and thick and WONDERFUL!! I had most of these colors except the pinks, but figured I might as well stock up - they are like $6.50/yard.

I also picked up 1/4 yard of these. I swear I already have these, but if so I got them again!

AND... Fabric Finders houndstooth fabrics. I already had lime green, so I got the brown, red, orange and the pink is actually cord. Then the brown micro houndstooth too (I'd love the micro in baby blue!).

I love this dot and did the newest Christmas tree in it. It may be Fabric Finders also?

I needed not 1 of these fabrics! Well, I did need the orange gingham which is not pictured, but the rest were just to add to my collection. I am a FABRIC ADDICT, as well as a FABRIC HOARDER (meaning I can't part with any of it)! Here's proof...

ALL SLAM FULL OF FABRIC!

Dress Makeover

2010-11-09T15:45:00.000-06:00

I mentioned in a post a while back or on Facebook that Consignment Sales are a great place to find deals on stuff that can be appliqued or re-monogrammed. Here is a lime green cord A-line dress I bought this past Fall ~ I think it was like $4 or maybe $8 at the most BECAUSE it had a monogram on it. I'm sorry I didn't take a "before" picture, but I was able to easily pick the monogram out and chose to put this Scalloped Patch from EB over it with an M in this font.

The dress is folded here but you can see it has pink buttons and pink ric rac on the bottom! A great deal for $4-8 (I cannot remember!!!). Some monograms are NOT meant to pick out - the tight curly ones are hard work! If you look at the bobbin thread and can barely see any (on the underside), then skip it or plan to put a patch OVER it. I could have NOT picked this monogram out, but it was an easy one and I thought the patch would lay flat and look nicer with it out. I have 2 more tops/dresses to pick the monograms out when I get time. Sometimes you can monogram over it (spray w/ water and iron to see what the hole-condition is).

Here is our Auburn Christmas Tree again, and I bought 2 Football Santa ornaments for it yesterday. Anyway, I got this from Kinnucan's which is located in Montgomery and Auburn, AL that I know of (I think there are several more locations - check the website). With AU doing so well this year, I'm sure you might find these at any sports store at some point. Just beware - I saw one of these at a consignment type store a couple of weeks ago and they were trying to sell it for $85!! Kinnucan's has the 3 ft for like $35 and if you are an account holder they always have coupons. They also have a 6 ft one for $109 I believe if you're REALLY an Auburn fan!

We have someone coming to see the house tonight, so we're cleaning up and will have to make ourselves scarce for a while. I am heading to a Hollywood Baby trunk show ~ evidently they have some Gabiano blank tees that are cute for cheap!

I updated my note above about orders ~ I pretty much have enough to keep me busy this week and next and am going to get all of my C'mas orders done by the first of December. Therefore, I'm not taking in anything else until at least December 1st, and will then take a limited amount of orders to last me a couple of weeks in December. I'd like to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas with the family, and with us showing the house we never know when all of the sewing room has to be taken down! I AM able to leave my machine and computer out, but the rest has to be put up! Wish us luck on the showing tonight...

Customer Shirts and G's Pumpkin

2010-11-07T21:15:00.000-06:00

Here are several shirts I did last week for one of G's buddies at school and his little brother. Mom wanted BOY stuff (planes, trains, automobiles) and all of the shirts are Garanimals from Walmart. They are also all dark colored tees which is a great idea for little boys! First, I did the AC Tractor minus the patch and the AC airplane (one of our first designs) on Embroidery-Boutique's rounded square patch.

Next, the AC Zig Zag Dump Truck (which is one of my favorite boy designs) and the AC Bulldozer. Gray was a tricky color but I like the red and black on it.

Next... love the Riley Blake fabric with all the transportation, so I put this on layered AC Rectangle Patches. This is the 4x4 layered on the 5x7. Also, AC Helicopter which is another one of my favorites for boys.

Lastly, the AC Zig Zag Train and EB's Chunky Applique Alphabet ~ his initials in some cute road construction fabric that "Mimi" sent me in exchange for some patchwork fabric I sent her! Again, gray was a tricky color but the Road Closed signs had gray in them so I thought it was perfect! I also have this road construction fabric with a brown background.

After having to postpone last Wed., G's preschool (4 yr old classes) went to the Pumpkin Patch on Friday. After Halloween, but it's still Fall and we were the only people there so it was great! Luckily I only have my zoom lens on my camera right now, so I was able to catch a couple of shots of him from far away picking out his pumpkin! He was determined to pick it up!

He got it off the ground, but didn't make it too far...

Love this picture! I also LOVE this t-shirt! It's a khaki Garanimals tee from Walmart and it is SO SOFT!! I went back to Walmart last week and got him a khaki turtleneck b/c I like this color so much. You can't see the pumpkin, but it is from Nobbie Neez kids and it's the first pumpkin applique I ever bought! I did it in orange cord for this shirt and it has a simple brown thread stem and green thread leaves. It's a great applique!

Yesterday the fam went to Auburn for Homecoming. It was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G, but we had a great time! When I say fam, I mean all 5 of us, Jeff's parents, his sister and her 4 kids. We made it til halftime and then came home! I went to Troy and Jeff went to Auburn. He is a HUGE Auburn fan. I have family that graduated from there too so I've grown up being an Auburn fan, BUT..... my boys are crazy Auburn fans! They are obsessed (like watch the game on TIVO 5 times the week after). It's fun and annoying at the same time!

Sat night we bought the boys a 3 foot blue and orange Christmas tree for their room along with orange & blue lights - it's plugged in and ready to be decorated for Christmas! Mallory has a cute pink tree that I can't wait to get out again this year, so why not a War Eagle Christmas tree (or right now, a War Eagle night light)?

Last but not least, we FINALLY showed our house today! It's been a week and 2 days of keeping it clean and "ready" every single day, so when the Realtor called this morning I got a little excited about our first customer!! The people who looked loved it, but they have to sell their lake house first. They do have someone interested it seems, so we'll see if anything happens and hopefully someone else will want to come see our CLEAN house sometime soon!! I'm pretty sure that the day I leave it a mess, someone will call to come see it.

We have 2 new AC designs for this week already, with 2-3 more to come! We've sold lots of gift certificates too and hopefully everyone will pass the word along and put them on their Christmas list! Hint Hint!!

InTown Quilters

2010-11-03T13:26:00.000-05:00

First of all, as I sit here in my sewing room/dining room and look out my window, this is what I see!

Exciting and scary! We built this house the year after we got married and moved in with our dog, Bear! We've birthed THREE children in to this house (not IN this house, but at the hospital and then brought them home to this house). It holds a lot of memories and we love this house. We just need a LITTLE more room! Little Mallory (who is completely potty trained without a single accident since she "got it") needs her own bathroom and Momma needs a sewing room! So we are praying that it sells, but with good timing! We're in no hurry, but also don't want to sit on it for another year. Perfect timing Lord!!

Here are my pics from InTown Quilters (Decatur, GA). If you are in the Atlanta area or passing through, get out your GPS like I did and find this store! TONS OF FABRIC!

Here are some of their Holiday fabrics ~ lots of Riley Blake which I love!

More Winter and Holiday!

More Riley Blake ~ Wheels

Tons of other great fabrics and everything is organized so neatly!

Here are a couple of Michael Miller Ta Dots!

They don't sell all of the Fabric Finders ginghams, but they do sell tons of name brands you'd love ~ Michael Miller, Moda, Riley Blake, etc. I also took pictures of what I bought and will post them next time!

The ATL!!

2010-10-28T10:13:00.000-05:00

My birthday was in September and Jeff & I were supposed to go on a mini trip to Reynold's Plantation in Georgia. Busy-ness thwarted our plans (I opted out due to our heavy schedule) so we rescheduled and went to ATLANTA this week to shop and spend the night! It was a great little 36 hour trip! Monday I shopped ~ we had no plans other than finding a Forever 21 store which we found at Perimeter Mall. I had visited this store once before on another Georgia trip and wanted to go back. I am FAR from 21, but they have a HUGE store (like 4 stores) in Perimeter Mall and Jeff so kindly sat outside on a bench while I shopped! I got several cute sweaters and racked up on costume jewelry!! Sometimes you just need a fun necklace to throw on with that plain black top. Most of the below were BELOW $8!! The cross necklaces were like $4.80. Most everything in the store is very reasonable and unique!

We also hit Anthropologie, Restoration Hardware, a Container Store and I hit Marshalls too and found some great bargains! If we saw a store we liked, we'd just stop and go look. Haven't done that in FOREVER!! I can't even remember the last time we strolled through a Mall! Oh, and we ate Cheesecake Factory for lunch! Monday night we walked a block from our hotel and ate at BONES, which was Y-U-M-M-O!! Monday was tons of fun and a successful shopping trip for ME (always fun to find fall clothes when it's 88 degrees outside in late October).

Tuesday, we visited SEWINGMACHINE.COM (the Atlanta store of course). We got a great tour of the place from Steve and there was so much to see that we had to leave for lunch and then go back! Here are some of the pics I took. My wide angle lens is in the shop, so I had to use my other lens for these pics and it wasn't easy to get the good shots!

These are GIGANTIC rolls of Stabilizer! Now that I think about it I didn't even look at the price on these. I'm guessing people who mass produce or mass applique/embroider things buy these - factories maybe?

When we got there Steve immediately took us outside to a SewingMachine.com truck that was backed up to the loading dock. In the back were these SIXTEEN PR650's that a customer had purchased and he was getting ready to have delivered! WOW!!

There was embroidery thread for days!

Here is the ISACORD wall!

This was a very LONG room FULL of industrial type demo sewing machines, sergers, etc. Amazing sight!

These are a couple of the mega rolls of STABILIZER! I would have taken one home but I don't think I have room in my dining room for these...

They also sell lots of cute acrylic blanks for the CAD cutting machines - they sell embroidery paper and all of your vinyl and ink sheets for vinyl cutting, ink sheets for t-shirts, etc. Vinyl cutting as in the car window monograms, decals, etc. that you see everywhere right now. As you can see below, sippy cups, mugs, snack containers, etc for the embroidery paper inserts.

And here is a magnificent 4 head embroidery machine! I could really crank out some stuff with this!

While we were there Steve's sister was printing shirts, people were in and out buying supplies, machines were being serviced, etc. It is a busy place! They sell anything and everything related to sewing and embroidery (among other things). Jeff & I were amazed! I also learned how to use the cap hoop so I'm anxious to do a couple of visors I've had since this Summer to do. Great trip and I'm so glad I finally got to see the infamous ATLANTA store! I asked Steve how they handle internet orders since everything comes out of that store. He said the UPS man comes at a certain time every day so when it gets close to that time, they pass out orders and everyone helps get them together to ship.

We also visited InTown Quilters in Decatur, GA (my 2nd trip to this fabulous fabric/quilting store). I will post those pics later since this post is already long!

I sampled a zig zag tiara yesterday and have 2 more AC designs to sample today. As you can see, I've changed my blog to match our website and there is now a BLOG link ON the website (www.appliquecafe.com). I also went through and deleted a bunch of right column pictures yesterday and am going to try to update them more. I know you all get tired of seeing the same ole pictures!

Back to work! p.s., our house was videoed while we were gone, so we're just waiting for it and the photos to be edited and handed over to the listing agent. Hopefully we'll have a sign in the yard soon!

Cinderella...

2010-10-23T20:56:00.000-05:00

This week we had someone (actually 2 people) inquire about Applique Cafe gift certificates. We figured out how to make it work and I got my friend at AMR ART to design one for me to print for our customers. It turned out way cuter than I expected! I already sold and mailed one today! My printer is not that great so I may have to outsource some printing next week. Anyway, great idea for CHRISTMAS (stocking stuffers)!

Here are a few shirts I did this week. AC Three Fish - I was matching the striped material (pants).

AC Tree Trio ~ I like the pinks & greens

AC Owl and Present - LOVE this owl!

We are VERY close to listing our house. Instead of paying a bunch of people to clean and get it ready for us, we have been cleaning fools this week. I have scrubbed grout (with excellent results), baseboards, door frames and everything else that's cleanable! Today I cleaned all of the windows (inside) and rearranged furniture in our den. Yesterday I did touch up painting ALL DAY and Jeff cleaned carpet. We lack cleaning the windows from the outside, cleaning our bathroom grout, and a few other things. It has not been glamorous but I keep reminding myself how much moolah we are saving. Anyway, it is supposed to be videoed Monday or Tuesday and might possibly have a sign in the yard by the end of the month, maybe sooner! Very SCARY, but also very exciting!

I'm holding at 46 items. I do 6, then 5 more slide in. Out of the 46, 11 are Thanksgiving and Christmas, so technically 35 are for me to do last week! I'm doing OK on some orders and am way behind on a few too (meaning I've had them for a while). Luckily the weather has been warm so hopefully no one is ready to fire me yet! Once we actually list our house I think I can get a lot more done (I hope?). This week I've been cleaning like crazy and trying to sew too on top of kids and everything else. I had a mini breakdown Thursday night and am trying to not freak out with TO-DO overload!

War Eagle!!

My Infomercial!!

2010-10-19T11:06:00.000-05:00

Most of you know we are getting our house ready to SELL! We spent most of the weekend organizing, putting stuff in the attic, cleaning, organizing some more, etc. I mentioned to Jeff that our kitchen tile MIGHT need cleaning. He didn't seem to agree ($$$$) until I got to work last night after someone told me about this AWESOME spray that I happened to have in my cleaning supplies. So while I cooked bacon (we had breakfast for dinner), I also CLEANED some tile. This is our kitchen tile BEFORE! This is years worth of DIRT in the grout! We did have it cleaned once professionally, but other than that it's the good ole mop every 2 weeks and sometime in between. Can you say FILTH!!!!!!!

Que the HALLELUJAH music because this stuff is miraculous!

It comes from THE DOLLAR TREE folks!

I'm on my way in a minute to get some more!

Yes, instead of paying someone to clean our tile, I'm playing Cinderella and saving us some $$$$!

AFTER....

I did 1/3 of our kitchen last night and will work on it some more probably today. Luckily the boys bathroom is small, so I'll hit it too as well as our bathroom. All I can say is WOW!!!!

Here is a mod flower I do from time to time and it's from SWAK! This is a cord skirt that came from Target! Every now & then people bring me pants or skirts to match and they just scream for this flower!

I also did these kitchen towels from Embroider This. They are donations I did for a Missions art show that's tonight and all proceeds go to Mission to the World missionaries in Latvia (the Smiths). The towels come with the fabric band on the end!

Off to the Dollar Tree....

Yippee for FRIDAY!!

2010-10-15T16:17:00.002-05:00

Here are some big/little sis shirts I did for a friend ~ the "lil sister" will be here Monday! I love this font from Embroidery-Boutique because it goes with my KIM font from my monogram wiz plus program (extra Alpha Pak 012). Of course -little- would not fit on this tiny little onesie, so we went with "lil"!!

This is the Clementine frame from Planet Applique. I took this picture sort of at an angle, so it looks a little off but really it's not! Lots of cute frames or patches at PA!

My pictures are all whacky and I can't seem to get them like I want them... my boys are HUGE-MONGOUS Auburn fans! Garrison would wear his Auburn jersey every single day if I would let him! As I type this the boy is in football pants (Auburn) and an AC football helmet War Eagle t-shirt! Browder will watch the Auburn games on Tivo 5 times the week following the game. He knows every play and of course knows who wins! It's CRAZY!! Anyway, they just colored these great photos and asked me to take a pic! B is up top and G is below. He is a great little artist for a 4 yr old! The letters below are his version of spelling "AUBURN". Browder also jotted down some notes to Jeff on his. WAR EAGLE!!

Have a great weekend (and Jeff says "War Eagle" even though I already put that)!!

P.S. I was introduced to a blog this week that I've had a blast reading ~ www.thepleatedpoppy.com! Check it out!

P.S. #2 I'm so excited!! I purchased a blog template today to match my website (www.appliquecafe.com) and I am also adding a link to my website that will link back to my blog! It'll be right up there with HOME CATALOG GALLERY. Why have I not done this before? I honestly don't know! It just came to me that I'd love to be more organized and that it might be helpful to my AC customers!

P.S. #3 House repair #2 (the major one) is now complete. Getting the carpet stretched was #1 and is done too. Now it's time to clear out some stuff, get the house "detailed", do some touch up painting, replace the toilet seats (hip hip hooray), clean the carpet and get this puppy listed!

no more P.S.s.....

Centering those off-center appliques

2010-10-14T14:17:00.000-05:00

I was just doing this Embroidery-Boutique happy pumpkin for someone and thought I'd post about those off-center designs we sometimes do. I don't know about you, but I can center them in Sew What Pro and save them that way, but my machine usually wants to center them again (which sometimes LOOKS off center on the shirt). As you can see on this one the cute curly vine throws it a tad off to the right. The way I make it center for my shirt is to add a name or word underneath (that I plan to SKIP and NOT SEW), center the applique like I want it, save it and sew it on the tee. The name/word is the last step so I just stop there and the applique ends up centered on the shirt. This usually applies to those designs with eyes or facial features that you MAY want centered on the shirt.

As you can see here I put the word 'pumpkin' underneath and centered the pumpkin face on my vertical center line. You do lose a little space b/c of the name, but you could also make the name really wide but not too tall and it will give you a little more room on your hoop. For this shirt I used a 5x7 hoop horizontal, so I was able to enlarge it some on my machine and it turned out fine! This is the 4x4 size happy pumpkin.

Here is another example of a design from Applique Cafe ~ the hat on the snowman throws the design way off to the left. On my sample I did just add a monogram to the right of the snowman's face (Click here to see the sample), so it is off center but looks fine! But, if you wanted to do just the snowman and wanted it centered as far as eyes, nose, buttons, etc. then you could do the word/name trick and just leave it off at the end.

Like this....

This is a good example from Nobbie Neez Kids ~ sock monkey! The tail throws it off center to the left.

And here I was able to center the monkey based on his eyes and legs. Just leave the word off (pumpkin) which is the last step in the process.

You may have a better trick OR your machine may base your design on what you've saved before sending it to the machine (if you center it in SWP it may keep it that way). I always had problems with the sock monkey being off center so this is just an easy way to remedy that!

Someone commented on my last post about the fabric. I don't believe the Singer store in Enterprise has a website with online ordering? Most of the samples I bought too did not have the brand and/or name on the pieces I got. E-mail me at rosemarygulledge@knology.net with any questions and I might be able to figure it out!

SewingMachine.com and Camping (and fabric)

2010-10-12T09:45:00.000-05:00

We had a GREAT weekend camping as well as my day trip Saturday to West Point, GA to SewingMachine.com! Here are a few pictures from Saturday. I tell you they had the WP store in tip top shape ~ it looked GREAT! Here are several brands of threads they offer ~ Floriani, Fufu and Isacord. They also sell the Isacord REAL thread chart for $10 ~ it has real thread samples which makes ordering easy! I only had the printed color chart so I was excited to come home with the real chart!

Thanks to everyone who came to the "event" on Saturday! It was fun getting to put faces with names and hopefully everyone learned something, if not from me than from the other people who came and/or the SewingMachine.com staff that was present! I don't have pictures, but we also learned about the CAD cutter which is similar to a Cricut (if you're familiar with that) and cuts vinyl, fabric and ink sheets for other craft projects ~ we've all seen vinyl lettering on acrylic gifts, monograms on cars, etc. I came home with one and can't wait to try it out! I didn't realize SewingMachine.com sold the blank acrylic gifts, embroidery paper and CAD cutting supplies!

Here I am giving my spill ~ I have no idea what all I said and just hope it made a little bit of sense! I was pretty nervous and am used to sharing behind a computer keyboard, not in front of a group!

I'm a huge fan of Heat N Bond Lite, so here I am showing it to the group!

We also got to see the new PR1000 10-needle by Brother. A girl can dream?? 4 more needles!!

Beautiful....

Here is a picture of our TENT! Camping was SO MUCH FUN! I am a dirt-o-phobe at home, but there is something about camping that I love! Tromping through the woods to go to the bathroom is not so bad! The kids all had a BLAST! Camping is certainly something they will remember as a great childhood memory! It was quite interesting getting ready on Saturday go to over to West Point. As I stood in the bathroom in my dress blow drying my hair, a young girl stood there (waiting on her sister to finish showering) staring at me. I can only imagine that she thought I was CRAZY. Who wears a dress and makeup, and dries their hair when CAMPING??

Here is a picture of Jeff monitoring Applique Cafe from our campsite! Yes, in the woods we had a laptop and internet service (via an internet card).

When we got home Sunday Browder & I drove to Enterprise to pick up the little kids. I dropped by the Enterprise Sewing Center on our way out of town ~ "Singer" and got some new fabric (because I need MORE!!). Not a great idea to take 3 kids in to a fabric store, but they did pretty good!

LOVE LOVE LOVE these 2. I don't usually buy big prints of anything but couldn't resist. The right one is corduroy too. If I could sew, I would have bought enough of these to actually sew something!

Left AUBURN stripes, middle is a cute striped DENIM.

Browns

I love anything green (left I thought might be cute with some sort of zig zag design).

The middle & right fabrics are both corduroys!

I need more fabric like I need another job, but I couldn't resist! I love corduroys too and thought these were all cute fabrics! Now off to get some work done....

Yard Sales and Camping!

2010-10-05T10:11:00.000-05:00

Operation Yard Sale was a success! I didn't make a ton of money, but I did clean out LOTS of stuff from my house (and haven't missed any of it yet!)! This is what my garage looked like Friday night ~ and please note this is 5 households worth of stuff (not all mine!).

I got up at 5:15 AM Saturday morning and when I looked out the utility room window at about 5:30 (it was DARK), I saw car lights across the street ALREADY! So.... I opened the garage and I think the first items were purchased at about 5:45. If you've done a yard sale or two, you know there are professionals out there and that is what they do! I was surprised I didn't get the Thursday "can I look now?" knock on the door! Anyway, 3 of my friends came over and did the yard sale with me so we had a good time and all got to clean out while make a little extra cash!

Now it's time to switch gears and I'm doing a little bit of work this week before our 2nd annual camping trip this weekend (and the EVENT at SewingMachine.com on Saturday). We're only taking Browder again this year, but we've upgraded our tent quite significantly! This is a pic of our tiny little tent we used in 2009. The 3 of us could barely fit inside to sleep ~ our luggage was all in the car!

Cue the 'Movin' on Up' Jefferson's music and here is our 2010 Mac Daddy tent! Jeff put it up in the back yard last night so he'd know how to put it up Thursday. It doesn't look that big, but the thing is HUGE!

This is all 3 kids tumbling and doing cartwheels inside this thing! It's BIG!

From the campsite on Saturday I will get ready in the public campsite bathroom and head on over to West Point for the lunch. I spoke with Lori yesterday and we went over all the basics. This is my first rodeo and theirs too at this type thing, so hopefully it will all go smoothly and as planned! I'm very excited to meet everyone and nervous too at the thought of going from camping to speaking! I hope to get some pictures and will recap the event next week!

I have a couple of samples to sew today and we're going to try out a couple of different things! I can't say what, but will post pics soon!

Operation 'get our house ready to sell' is now at the point of getting through this weekend and then we can focus on what needs to be done. The carpet guys came yesterday and stretched a few areas of carpet for us and we have at least a few minor repairs to do. Clean the carpet, get the house cleaned and organized, put stuff away (de-clutter) and get it ready to list! Luckily we are in no hurry but still need to get it all done! I'm still LIMITING ORDERS tremendously for this time of year. I've gotten a few calls and have had to turn people away! I hate to do it and know this is a busy time of year for this type business, but we gotta do what we gotta do (SELL THIS HOUSE!). When I have that sewing room I've always dreamed of it will all be worth it! Back to work....

Happy Birthday to ME!

2010-09-29T14:51:00.000-05:00

It IS my birthday today! I won't say how young I am but I do share a birthday with a good friend and a friend's daughter. I was also at Browder's Back to School Bash last night and another guy we know shares the same birthday. I AM working a little bit sewing some pumpkins on some tees. Here are some other cute shirts I did this week and wanted to share. This is the AC helicopter on a square patch. I love anything on a patch! This was a navy Garanimals t-shirt.

AC balloons and I thought it was cute with a name... This shirt was to match some cute red & white polka dot pantaloons. I like red and turquoise!

AND... This is Applique Momma's Anna Kate font. Applique names are A LOT of work, but they are so cute! I love the zig zag trim too!

Tonight Jeff & I are going out to eat sans kids! Tomorrow night I'm helping with the overstock sale and my mom & nephews are coming to visit this weekend to help me with the kids during the yard sale. Throw in a few soccer games as well. Busy rest of the week and weekend!

I sold 3 of the sample tees ~ the santa 24M navy tee is left and the 3T giraffe tee. I also have a couple of girl shirts in Mallory's closet - basically the Christmas stockings sample and the first dragonfly we did not too long ago. They are both on Rabbit Skins tees and I'm not sure what size - 4T I THINK? I may post a picture of them or I may just let Mallory wear them!

Even though I'm not taking orders right now, they seem to keep finding their way in to my house! I did move my shelf and crates and t-shirts to-do in to my closet. When we list the house more of this stuff will have to go somewhere, if not my closet. If anyone is in a hurry, then I suggest trying one of the other embroidery blogs on my blog list. There are some very talented people WANTING more work! As for the stuff I have, I'm doing (and will do) the best I can! E-mail me with any questions!

Think Spring!

2010-09-27T21:01:00.001-05:00

Here are several new AC designs I hope to test tomorrow and list Wednesday!

A few of these are special requests for Spring 2011 and 2 match fabrics.

I'm getting good reviews on Facebook about the ballerina!

Change-o-plans and we are not going out of town this week as I stated before. The bad news is that my sweet husband had planned a birthday getaway for me and had it all worked out with carpooling, school etc. The worse news is that I panicked at all we have going on this week (he didn't realize a couple of events when planning), then a friend of the family's mom passed away on Saturday and I/we made the decision to postpone our little trip until things slowed down a bit and I could enjoy it more. I guess the good news is that I'm not so freaked out about all we have going on and can get more work done! I do not do well when our calendar is full, much less then thinking about going out of town and leaving the calendar to my sister in law who has 4 kids of her own!! Hopefully we'll go on our trip, or some trip, sometime in October! November at the latest!

Also good news, the weather is changing and it finally feels like FALL! Bad news, all these long sleeve tees I wasn't stressing about b/c it was 100 degrees outside are now beginning to be needed by my customers! I normally don't work at night but just did 2 shirts before hitting the sack! Will do the samples and at least finish 1 order tomorrow (3 shirts left for EW)!

Operation Yard Sale is Saturday! There are 5 of us girls doing it so hopefully it'll be fun and profitable!

Sample Tees Available

2010-09-26T20:34:00.002-05:00

I have some sample tees available ~ $12 each and sold AS IS! Rabbit Skins run small, so 3T may be equivalent to a 2T.

Turkey ~ Rabbit Skins 3T SOLD!!

Manger ~ Rabbit Skins sz 3T SOLD!!

Rudolph ~ Rabbit Skins sz 5/6 SOLD!!!

STILL AVAILABLE....

Santa Claus ~ Garanimals sz 24M

Giraffe ~ Rabbit Skins sz 3T

Please e-mail me if interested ~ rosemarygulledge@knology.net! Thanks! I may have a couple of girl designs and will post those tomorrow!

Friday and FALL!

2010-09-24T17:05:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of shirts I did yesterday and today. This is the (old) Pegasus-Embroidery dump truck - you may find it on Etsy. I left off the middle of the wheels because I was mimicking another simple dump truck design. Love these fabrics together! The plaid is flannel! The red/brown dots evidently came from Joann - I must go get some!!

This is the Embroidery-Boutique rounded square patch in zig zag trim. I rotated it and layered the 3" on top of the 4". Love these fabrics too! I'm a big fan of orange and brown (and red and brown).

I'm down to FIFTY-TWO shirts. Operation yard sale starts tonight, so this weekend will be spent cleaning out and trying to get more shirts done! Next week I am out of town a few days and getting ready for the yard sale Saturday. Not sure how much I'll get done next week til AFTER the yard sale. It's this weekend, Monday or bust as far as embroidery. Hopefully in a month or so I can finish everything, our house will be on the market and I can resume work a little bit each week! Have a great weekend! Also check out this website ~ www.virginiajacks.forevermissed.com ~ this is the precious girl who passed away last weekend leaving the Auburn game. Her family goes to my church and she was a junior at Browder's school. Still so sad, but what is coming out of this tragedy is pretty incredible! The memorial service is also on the website.

It's officially FALL, but still close to 100 where I live! :( No rain that I can recall either. The ditch behind our house is dry and my sinuses are a nightmare! I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to stay on allergy medicine and nose spray for an entire month!?

Reminders!

2010-09-21T10:44:00.000-05:00

Don't forget the SewingMachine.com event being held on Saturday, October 9th. If you're in the vicinity of West Point, GA I'd love to meet you! (http://www.sewingmachine.com/dp/B003Z3I3WQ) I've already gotten a couple of suggestions as to what people may want to see/hear/know. Steve is also going to demo the latest and greatest multi-needle machine! I posted the full invitation on my August 30, 2010 post!

New Christmas Deer coming soon to Applique Cafe:

New Puppy Stocking coming soon to AC:

New Add-A-Bow design coming soon:

The add a bow is sized to be added to designs in the 4x4, 5x7 and 6x10 hoop. For example you could add it to the simple spider or the simple bunny!

***Also, I am working to finish the 60 some-odd items I have right now and am taking a hopefully short SABBATICAL while we prepare to put our house on the market. Our first step is our neighborhood yard sale which happens next Saturday, October 2nd. Next week I hope to clean out some JUNK and move it straight to the garage to stage for the sale. We have a couple of minor repairs to do around the house and after the yard sale and repairs, then it will be CLEAN time, get the house actually listed and hopefully show it a lot and sell it! I'm not sure how all that is going to play out with my dining room/sewing room situation, so it's best I finish up my big load now and then hopefully when all the above is done, I can do a little bit of work each week until the house sells. I know this is HORRIBLE timing, but it's what we've decided to do so embroidery has to be put on the backburner for a bit! There are other willing and able folks on my blog list who would love to have some work to do! Check out KKs Kreations and Get Personalized!

Shirts I've done today!

2010-09-20T16:52:00.000-05:00

OK ~ the order: pumpkin on a black tee and tie in purple (which is the girls' fave color!). This is EB rounded square patch, then EB happy pumpkin (minus the face), add a Party Time or Curlz E in the requested purple! I think this all came together and is precious on the black tee!

Matching pants and a skirt here: left is AC butterfly in coordinating color fabrics and right is a monkey from Pegasus-Embroidery. I don't know what became of Pegasus but this is a popular design for me!

Again, matching pants and I had a tie to coordinate with the left pants. I had to take it apart to use the fabric, but it turned out cute! Left: AC rectangle purse and right: sort of a mod type flower from SWAK.

I do A LOT of Applique Cafe designs so I try to take pics when I use other designs! I have probably a thousand designs from all websites! There is really no telling what is on my computer...

As I was getting ready for church yesterday morning I got a text that an 11th grader that goes to my church and Browder's school was killed in a car accident Saturday night leaving the Auburn football game. I didn't really know the girl but am on a Board at my church with her mom and also listened to her mom speak at our womens' luncheon only a week before. The news was devastating nonetheless! The church body met together during the Sunday school hour and it was so terribly sad. This beautiful young girl loved the Lord and had so many friends who will miss her terribly. Church services yesterday morning and last night were both geared towards this tragedy and both were so sad! Live for the Lord each day! We are not promised tomorrow, or next week, or next year!

On a happier note, I checked Facebook this morning to see 2,000 Applique Cafe fans! To celebrate I immediately marked all designs 50% off for 48 hours. That was at 8:00 this morning so you have until 8:00 (central time) Wednesday morning to stock up on any designs you have on your wish list! We've now exceeded 2,000 fans which is really exciting!! I have 3 new designs to list hopefully sometime tomorrow!

Work and News!

2010-09-16T22:32:00.000-05:00

I have been busy this week! I've pretty much sewn most of the day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 1/2 day today! Only 1/2 day today b/c I woke up at 4:00 with sinuses and never went back to sleep, therefore I crashed after afternoon carpool!! Trying to crank out the tees and make a dent in my big ole' list! Here is the puppy patch done with red - I love brown and red together! Look for this puppy again soon!

This is a new AC design that we're working on listing tonight (Santa Claus)! I used white chenille on the hat and of course white minky on the beard. Someone asked me if I use Heat N Bond Lite on minky and yes I do. I then iron the shirt inside out so my iron isn't directly on my minky. p.s. this is a navy tee - I bought a red one to sample him on but decided I liked navy better! I have a ton of sample shirts ~ I plan to take pictures and show them on Facebook or something to see if anyone is interested in any of them. My kids don't need THAT many tees!

I love this design! It will also be listed tonight! Jesus is the reason for the season!!

Here are some tees I mailed today (to Texas) to my very funny and patient friend Jenny! Love them all!

Hank's little bro is going to be decked out in bibs! LOVE all of these ~ they are all Rabbit Skins trimmed in light blue, NAVY (the turkey), green and BLACK (Frankenstein).

Another design being listed tonight and this one matches some fabric out there!

And now for NEWS!! Jeff & I have decided to prepare our house to SELL! We're very nervous and excited and also have A LOT to do! I'm not exactly sure what this means for my "busy season" which is Fall. Right now I have approximately 60-65 shirts in my possession that I'm going to do. I'm thinking that may be all I accept until we get the house ready, then once it's on the market (which may be late October), I will assess the situation with showing the house and then figure out how much I can do or not do! Our neighborhood yard sale is October 2nd, so we have a short amount of time to CLEAN OUT and GET rid of some stuff. We also have a couple of minor maintenance items to get done. After that and the yard sale, we will then really prepare the house (cleaning carpet, touch up painting, etc.).

SOOOO..... I really hate to inconvenience anyone by not taking orders right now, but if this is what we're going to do then I just can't keep up this pace of sewing 7 hours a day on top of 3 kids, 2 schools, 2 in soccer, and selling a house. I will go CRAZY! I will know more in a couple of weeks once we get the yard sale behind us so stay tuned!

We WILL still carry on with Applique Cafe and blogging throughout all this! I just have to limit my customer orders for a bit. Thanks! E-mail me with any questions ~ rosemarygulledge@knology.net!

Work Work Work, and Work!

2010-09-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

Here is my pile of "DONE" stuff from late last week and today. I've managed to do 8 shirts today and hope to squeeze in 1 more before "quitin' time" at 4:30! We have soccer tonight ~ I'm hoping this week is less crazy than last week!? We have soccer Wed & Fri afternoon too (practice) and another game on Saturday (at 8 a.m. YIKES).

Here are a couple of AC designs that I'll be sampling this week. Santa and Manger ~ I like them both. I'm out of white minky so I have to make a run for some before I can do Santa!

I was able to mark some folks off my list today, but have not added the new stuff from last week. I HOPE I can be productive this week! We'll see...

TGIF!!!!

2010-09-10T14:49:00.000-05:00

I was just reading one of my favorite blogs (www.amrart.com) and she started her post today by saying she has had one of those weeks. I completely and sympathetically concur! It was one of those weeks at the Gulledge household too! My babies started preschool Wednesday (YEAH!!), and on the other hand all of the "scheduling" came down on me (hard) and I had a little anxiety going on this week! PLUS it was a short week with Monday being a holiday and us getting back from the beach late Monday night. Anyway between Browder's carpool (basically every other day) and getting the little ones to school at 9, then afternoons (Browder carpool again one week on, one week off - which I'm VERY excited about) and picking up the little ones at 1:00. Doesn't seem too bad eh? Throw in an appointment Wednesday at 11, then Jeff & I met to look at a friend's house, soccer practice for B & G Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and today. I also hosted bunko at my house last night so I spent all day buying the groceries, cooking, cleaning up my den, kitchen & bathrooms, about 5 loads of laundry, etc. I took B to school at 7:30 and then took the little ones to Target to get a birthday present and then to Publix to get my groceries. I was "that mom" who had her kids at the store in their pajamas and as I was leaving Target holding Mallory b/c she didn't even have shoes on, I could feel her diaper leaking all over the side of my shirt! NICE! I took her to Publix anyway! Today has been much better! I managed to get 3 shirts done this morning, met a friend for coffee, ate lunch w/ Jeff, picked up the little ones and am back to work on more shirts. I am SO BEHIND and am hoping next week will be a little less hectic!

Here are a few AC designs we added this week. All designs are 30% off until Monday! I'm loving the peace guitar which was a special request ~ great for a little bit older boy. I'm also loving the fabric - it's Riley Blake WHEELS My Mind's Eye and comes in this color, orange background and brown background. I'm venturing out from standard ginghams and polka dots (a little bit).

Ghost patch ~ ghosts and snowman are tough b/c they are typically white. What if you want to put them on a white shirt? Here is your solution!

And this is a SIMPLE Christmas tree. I added the bow and Impervious "S". My machine said this design was like 6 minutes (at 1000 stitches per minute). I figure it's a good 10 minute design when you factor in trimming and prep work! Great for mass producing kitchen towels or craft show tees?? I also sampled it in a pretty green minky dot with a bow and it was cute. Fabric choices are ENDLESS!

Have a great weekend! Here's to hoping next week is nice and calm!

End of SUMMER!

2010-09-07T08:54:00.000-05:00

No more white pants (or shoes for that matter). Labor Day is OVER! We got back late last night from a wonderful family weekend at the beach (Caribe). Back to work today and back to school for the little kiddos this week (TOMORROW)! Back to schedules, back to reality, and did I say back to work? A couple of weeks ago I was on a roll getting shirts done. THEN I took a day off to prepare for CCE, THEN I went on a fun girls weekend with my bunko group (11 girls), and THEN we left Thursday for the beach and got back late last night. Needless to say I got behind again. On our way home last night Jeff & I wrote down a "schedule" for me, meaning what times I will and will not work. Basically between carpools and school drop offs and pick ups and 2 kids at home with me on Tuesdays & Thursdays, etc. I will work some mornings, some afternoons (1:30-4:30 only) and I get about 30 minutes to an hour at night after the kids go to bed JUST to check e-mail. From 4:30 - about 8:30 I will not work (nor will I be planted at my computer checking e-mail, facebook, blogging, etc.) I'm not sure yet what my numbers will be (how much I can get done in a day), but will hopefully figure that out this week so I can predict how long it will take me to get YOUR stuff done when you bring it!

So here is where I stand and the dates these things were brought to me (luckily it is mostly long sleeve stuff b/c I am WAY BEHIND):

7/29 - 10

8/2 - 14

8/9 - 4 left

8/19 - 7

8/31 - 2

8/21 - 1

9/1 - 1

9/2 - 23

Grand total = 62

I would say that's at least a few weeks worth of work!?

Don't forget to check out my last blog post. If you are in the vicinity of West Point, GA, I'd love to meet you at SewingMachine.com on October 9th! I've been asked what the agenda will be for the 4 hours we're together. Other than lunch I'm not 100% sure yet. I will get with Lori and Steve and figure out what I'm going to do, say, demonstrate, etc. This is my first ever "thing" so I'm not sure yet what is going on! I'm very excited though and hope to see some of you there! Time to get some work done....

My first EVENT!!

2010-08-30T08:41:00.000-05:00

Please join me and my friend, Rosemary Gulledge, for lunch.

I know you've followed her online. In fact, I know she's introduced many of you to my West Point store through her blog. Now, let me introduce you to Rosemary, live and in person.

Rosemary's going to share what she's been doing in applique design. And I'm going to demo some new Brother productsincluding the brand new PR1000 ... coming out just in time for your letters to Santa!

Don't wait to reserve your place at the table ... seating's limited. See the registration details below.

Looking forward to welcoming you to West Point and introducing you to Rosemary and some exciting new products to kick off your homemade holiday season.

Sincerely,

Steve Tramell

ROSEMARY GULLEDGE

Face to Face. Live and In Person. That's no blog!

Leave your laptop at home. No need for internet access (although access will be available) because you'll have the information resource at your table.

Rosemary Gulledge has established a remarkable following of embroidery enthusiasts who not only enjoy her customized applique designs but appreciate her unbiased product insights and recommendations.

Her blog at http://rosemarygulledge.blogspot.com/ boasts more than 1,500 fans and journals her experiences both as a budding professional in the world of applique design as well as a young wife and mother.

Saturday, October 9th

West Point, GA

11-4 EASTERN

$35/person, lunch included

Seating is limited ~ lori@sewingmachine.com

http://www.sewingmachine.com/dp/B003Z3I3WQ

Applique Names

2010-08-26T10:51:00.000-05:00

OK... I'm going to try to demonstrate how I did the "wilson" applique in the 5x7 hoop. I, of course, use Sew What Pro (Sands Computing). Here is my first screen and I've already opened the "w", then merged in the "i, l, s, o, n". As you can see they are all in a pile! You may also notice the thread chart on the right ~ it has marking, tackdown, satin for each letter and for this font (EB Chunky), all of the marking is the same color thread (blue), tackdown is same color (green) and satin is same color (red) - this is KEY in making this an easy design (if you're using 1 fabric) b/c I can join the marking stitches to all stitch at one time, tackdown, satin same ~ 3 steps instead of 18. BTW this is the 1.75" size in this font. Planet Applique has a 1.5" font and www.jolsonsdesigns.com MAY have a small font too. Next...

I clicked and dragged each letter around my screen so that I could arrange them. On the right you'll notice the whole alphabet is shown. If you click View up top, then select "album icons", it will show the alphabet file on the right and you can just click each letter and it'll move it to the screen (instead of merge, merge merge). The only thing is that sometimes I can't get it to go back to the thread chart screen!? Sometimes I MERGE, and sometimes I use the view album icons method. Both take about the same amount of time I think.

As you can see here, I've arranged each letter and lined them up on the horizontal center line.

THEN, I press the CENTER (red cross looking button) to center the entire name on the hoop. As you can see, this is my 5x7 hoop and the name is TOO BIG!

Next I decided to JOIN THREADS so that the design would stitch ALL of the marking w-i-l-s-o-n, I put my fabric down, then it will stitch ALL of the tackdown w-i-l-s-o-n, I trim it all at once and then satin for all (I was using 1 fabric for the name). I join threads under EDIT, join threads. This only works for alphabets where the marking, tackdown and satin are all the same colors. So for this name I would click EDIT, Join Threads, then "Join threads of same color starting at thread # "1". This will join all of the marking stitches because EB made them all the same color (blue). Then I will do the same thing with thread # "2", and this will join all of the tackdown stitches in to one step (green). Then thread #3 and this will join all of the satin stitches (red). THIS DOES NOT WORK FOR ALL ALPHABETS - if the marking, tackdown & satin stitches are not all the same this will not work! When you are done joining threads, the name will become ALL 1 DESIGN instead of each letter being a file. You see below the box is around the whole name whereas before, there was a box around each letter so each could be moved and arranged!

If you can see my cursor arrow on the horizontal center line on the right end, if you click on that point, you can then DRAG the design to the left or right.

I'm going to drag the right side of the design to the left so that it will fit in the hoop.

As you can see on the right, I dragged the design to fit in the hoop on the right side. It's still too big on the left side, so I'm going to DRAG on the left side too to push the "w" in to the hoop.

Now you can see "wilson" fits in the hoop and is centered.

You will also notice on the right, my thread chart shows 3 steps for this name! That's because I joined the marking stitches together, tackdown & satin. Again, only do this if you plan to use 1 fabric for your name. BTW I had to save the design, close out SWP and reopen it. Sometimes I can't get back to the thread chart after I use the View Album Icons method.

So this is showing me my marking stitch. It will sew the whole name, then I can place my fabric down and it will tack down the whole name. I will trim all at once, and then it'll do satin all at once!

Finished shirt below!

OF COURSE, if you want to use different fabrics, then DON'T JOIN THE THREADS! In that case you would need to save the design after it's arranged and centered. It would be 18 steps because you didn't join threads, but it would save the design as 1 design (not boxes around each letter). You'd need to close and open the new file and then you can drag the boxes to make it fit!

You can also just adjust the design in SWP with the RESIZE feature, but for things like this and sometimes I use the DRAG method on patches that I need to stretch out just a little, it works fine! I don't know that I would drag a design TOO MUCH - not sure if the density would be correct. For little adjustments it works great for me!

Hopefully this makes sense?? Both of the names above were done in my 5x7 hoop.

Work Work Work!

2010-08-24T15:42:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures of a few things I've done this week.

First the AC tennis racket (found HERE) done to match the cute pants in the picture!

Next, my friend wanted to do a shirt similar to the Kelly's Kids airplane tee so I came up with the below. The photo quality isn't that great on my airplane patch - it's really cute and the lime is brighter in person! The airplane came from SWAK. I use this airplane A LOT! I think I've done it 3 times in the past week. It does come with some stuff coming out the back which I delete.

Lastly, I did these name tees. Wilson is from EB ~ HERE. I did merge it all together and shrunk it down to 7" for my 5x7 hoop. Addison is from Applique Momma ~ HERE. Again, I had to shrink it to make it fit my 5x7 hoop. My mega hoop is TOO big for these tees.

My work tally is now at 35!! I have been rocking and rolling this week (with a little help from my friend ~ CAFFEINE). I leave Friday for a girls weekend so I may work another day or two this week, several days next week and will take the very long Labor Day weekend off! If I get all 35 done before then I will be very pleased. But, if I don't, it's no big deal! I'm amazed that I'm down to only 35 items, especially for this time of year. Several of the things I lack are corduroy and or Christmas items, so no biggie if those have to wait a couple of weeks. Back to work...

Comments: the shirts I did for the names are a Rabbit Skins 4 (wilson) and the Addison tee is like a small 5/6??). The ringer tee is the Kellys Kids design, so it's their tee. I was just showing how to do something similar. I will try to do a post on Sew What Pro and how I adjust the names to fit my 5x7 hoop!

Raggy Designs

2010-08-23T17:24:00.000-05:00

I posted this on Facebook today - the new SCARECROW design has raggy hair. I trim around the "redwork" stitch (stitch used for these type designs) leaving about 1/8" - you can leave as little or as much as you'd like! I also used a layer of white flannel underneath the yellow gingham. You can use white, a color flannel, 2 layers of fabric or nothing at all!

As you can see here I cut in between each hair chunk and scraped the edges with my small embroidery scissors.

I use a lint brush to pick up all of the loose thread and here is the finished product!

I had this crochet applique from Quiltware.com in my drawer and thought it was cute on the scarecrow!

I have been slaving away since early this morning. I've appliqued 10 shirts with 1 more to go before I call it a day! My back is killing me and my house is a WRECK, but I'm down to 43 items!!!!!!!!!! That really seems do-able (before Labor Day), although I'm going out of town this weekend and next and also need to spend 1/2 day on the consignment sale coming up. So, whether or not I complete all 43 items by Labor Day remains to be seen! 5 new designs will be listed later tonight ~ www.appliquecafe.com!

The Number!

2010-08-22T16:55:00.001-05:00

I worked most of the day yesterday and quite a bit this afternoon (after not working Friday) and my current count is 57 things "to-do"! I seemed to have hovered around 65 for a while there ~ I'd knock 2 things out and 2 more would come in. Today the # is 57 and my GOAL is to get everything done if at all possible in the next 2 weeks! We'll see if it happens.

A few new AC designs coming in the next couple of days. We also did a dolphin and hope to do 1 or 2 more seasonal designs before we add these. I'm loving working with CORDS! Back to work for a bit to try to knock out a couple more shirts....

MONDAY UPDATE: I'm already down to 49!! 2 of my oldest orders will be shipped today to Atlanta and North Carolina. I have a hand full of short sleeve tees to do for people and plan to work on those NEXT! Realistically I don't know that I can get all 49 done before Labor Day but will do my best! Thanks!

My new favorites!

2010-08-18T17:46:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of new Applique Cafe designs we will be adding today or tomorrow. I really like the OWL! The brown fabric is Riley Blake WHEELS by My Mind's Eye - love the colors! Good feedback on Facebook for this one!

There's a close tie with the OWL and these PAPER DOLLS (as my favorites)! Browder was cutting paper snowflakes yesterday (which might be next) so I thought of paper dolls!

I also thought this would be a cute big or little sister design, so I showed it with "big sister" too!

This week I'm averaging around 4-6 shirts/items a day, and that's with my youngest 2 being out of school and home with me (fighting and getting in to everything ~ Mallory is playing in the sink as I type!). I THINK I have 64 total items to do as of today, so I hope to be working with 2-3 weeks "out" on new orders. Some of the stuff I have is short sleeves so I'm going to try to get to it first. Luckily a lot of it is long sleeves and where I live it's still 94 degrees, so I will get to that stuff asap too! Had I not sewn my finger I would be a little further ahead. My oldest order is from 7/13 and she requested she get them by mid-September (which will be here soon!). The rest is 7/29 and after so I'm not TOO far behind! I'm so thankful for everyone's patience! I hate to have delays and excuses and crazy things happening all the time to delay me, but such is life with 3 kids (oh, and a husband ~ just kidding Jeff). I also have to take a day off soon to get my fall consignment stuff ready and have 2 trips planned in the next few weeks! One more shirt to do today and I'm off to cook dinner!

Layering Fabrics in an Applique

2010-08-17T15:20:00.000-05:00

I have gotten to where lately when I'm layering fabrics in an applique, I cut out the bottom fabric after the tackdown stitch for the 2nd fabric so that the 1st fabric does not show through the 2nd fabric. Did I lose you already?? Here is an example and I will have to do this again because of the hole in the megaphone - I did have to add some blue gingham back to the hole before I finished the design. Here is the (coming soon) MEGAPHONE SQUARE PATCH. As you can see the patch part is DONE (steps 1, 2 and 3) and now it's time for the megaphone. Step 4 of the design is the MARKING stitch of the megaphone (shown in orange ~ you can barely see the stitching).

At an angle I poke a hole in the middle (at an angle is key so that you don't cut through the shirt). You can see here I trimmed away the blue gingham fabric inside of the marking stitch in preparation for the polka dot fabric. Had I not done this, you may have been able to see the gingham through the polka dots!

Next I lay my polka dot fabric down and it did step 5, which is the TACKDOWN STITCH for the megaphone. I trim around the tackdown stitch as usual, even inside the hole of the megaphone. This is where my "example" sort of messes me up, because I had to go back and add some blue gingham fabric in that hole before I finished the design. I'll try to show a better example next time!

Here is the finished patch. Again, had I not cut the blue gingham away you may have seem some gingham through the dot fabric. Not a huge deal, but it's an easy fix to layering fabrics!

And here I added a # to the design just for idea purposes.

Don't ask me where I got #27? I was trying to think High School football rather than College! These 2 designs will be available very soon at www.appliquecafe.com!

Friday the 13th (cue scary music)

2010-08-16T08:44:00.000-05:00

Last week Browder started 1st grade (on Wed.) and Jeff also met my mom Wed. morning so she could get/keep Mal & G for the rest of the week so that I could accomplish things, sew, organize, etc. All was great until Fri. morning (Friday the 13th I might add). I took B to school and grabbed a Starbucks on my way home. I turned some music on and was sewing away! Starbucks + good music = get stuff done. 2 shirts down and on my 3rd, I had a little accident! It was a new design I had just bought that morning so I wasn't familiar with it. Anyway, you have to place fabric down and if you know which needle (out of 6) that is stitching, it is no problem. On this particular design it was sewing on needle 3 and it had a jump stitch in it so needle 4 came down... ON MY FINGER! It happened pretty fast and the next thing I saw was a broken needle left in the machine. This was at about 10:30 Fri morning. It hurt, but I think I was in shock! I immediately got on my Applique Cafe Facebook page and asked "HELP! blah blah blah needle in my finger, what do I do?". I also called Jeff and told him that I had just sewn my finger. I ran some water over it, maybe almost fainted? Jeff was on his way home and had talked to our Dr.'s nurse by the time he got home. We immediately loaded up and went to see my Dr. who's office is luckily about a mile from our house. This was around 11. They took me right back (surprisingly), he looked at it, they did an X-Ray immediately and after a couple of consultations with another Dr. in the group, he told me he basically would not touch this with a 10-foot pole! You know it's bad when you have 2 doctors in the room and they say "let us go talk again". They gave me a tetanus shot (which is still hurting 3 days later) and said they would call with further instruction when they heard back from the Orthopedic they had called. We left there at about 12:10 and Jeff took me home so I could go do carpool and he was supposed to play in a golf tournament at Wynlakes at 1:00. I couldn't miss carpool over a little needle, right?

Here is a picture - it does not look bad! The needle basically went in my fingernail and broke off. It didn't come through the other side, so it was just lodged in my finger underneath the nail bed!

After I picked up carpool my Dr. called and told me to go to the Jackson ER and the ortho Dr. was there and he would check it out. So I finished carpool, got me & B some lunch and dropped him off at a friend's house so he would not have to have the ER experience. Got to the ER and had to "check in" and sit with the lady who said she had a blood clot in her leg and the lady who thought she was having a miscarriage and was threatening to sue the hospital if she lost her baby. BTW I was taken back a good hour BEFORE blood clot lady!? I had told Jeff to go on and play golf and I would call him when I knew something and he could meet me if need be. Triage called me back, then back in the waiting room I went. Long story short, they called me back again, the baffled Physicians Assistant said she couldn't do anything and that I would have to wait on Dr. Hartzog (the ortho). By this time it was like 4:00. He later came in and informed me that he had looked at the X-ray and that they would be performing surgery on my finger to remove the needle. IV Sedation was mentioned and next thing I know another nurse is in there taking blood, armed with a hospital gown and the Anesthesiologist is asking me lots of questions because I had eaten a McDonalds Happy Meal at 1:00! When he started talking about being put to sleep and what happens if you throw up, I got a little freaked out! I called Jeff and told him "it was time"!! By the time he got down there I was in a hospital gown and shortly thereafter they put me on a gurney heading to pre-op! We passed 2 policemen with a guy in handcuffs (Friday night in the ER?). We sat in Pre-op for a WHILE, hence the pictures and Facebook posts. I finally got an IV in my arm and Dr. Hartzog initialed my finger so as to not cut on the wrong one!

I won't go in to the other interesting fellows in pre-op! Basically at about 7:00 they wheeled me in to the operating room and the last thing I remember is them moving me over to the operating room bed. I woke up in post-op at about 9:00 and was groggy and waking up until about 10. They brought Jeff back and got me dressed and he picked me up in the wheelchair in front of the hospital. I did throw up on the way home but slept good Fri night and was fine Saturday morning! Here is a picture Jeff took of me waiting...

Here is the finger Saturday morning. I think they used a whole roll of gauze. I took this off and am now down to just a bandaid on a stitch or 2 in my middle finger.

Needless to say, I had a very traumatic weekend!! One minute I'm sewing away and the next minute I sew my finger. Several hours later I am put to sleep with a tube down my throat in an operating room. I did finish the shirt I was working on when this happened, but other than that I have not turned my machine on. Mal & G came back yesterday so it's back to reality with 3 kids and I can hopefully get back to work this week!

I read SO MANY comments on Facebook and it is amazing that this happens all the time to people who sew! Most people said they were able to "work the needle out". I hope this never happens again! I know I'm going to be cautious for a WHILE! Back to work (and REALITY - Mallory is awake!)

New Machine!!

2010-08-11T11:09:00.000-05:00

Saturday I went back over to West Point (www.sewingmachine.com) and traded in the PR600 I got earlier this year and also my PE750D that I haven't used since I got the 6 needle. They graciously allowed me to trade them in even though I just got the used 600 not too long ago... for a BRAND NEW PR650! In hindsight I probably should have started out with this to begin with, but anyway it is FABULOUS! It's shiny and beautiful (I've said that 20 times now). The machine is pretty much the same as the 600 ~ the computer part is a little different and all touch screen. It sews like a dream! I had so many people on Facebook ask about the 650 ~ if you are ever so slightly interested call Steve and he can give you a price! I have to say it is worth every dime!

The touch screen - it even comes with a diamond font I'm anxious to try out.

This is a dream machine! I know most of us start out on a little one, but this is what it's all about! It is really worth it if embroidery is your passion like it is mine!

On to other things, we ARE going to offer the Football HelmetS design for those of you who don't have the capability to put 2 together! This is great for a divided house, or for that big game! I did this on a 4T Rabbit Skins long sleeve tee as a sample and plan to sell it! We are not a divided house! :)

Browder started 1st grade today so this week has been a little crazy trying to get everything ready! He was so excited this morning! I also sent the little ones to granmommies for the rest of the week so I could get some things done around the house, get A LOT of work done, and give them some time on the farm since they are out of school until after Labor Day! SOOOO... I have a Starbucks in hand right now and am sewing away until I have to pick up B at 12:30! I will be sewing all afternoon to try to put a dent in my 65++ items! We also have a few new AC designs coming out this week. It has been slow since the sale ended, which is a good thing. Back to work! Here is a peek at 2 of the new designs. I LOVE the snowman and can't wait to sample it today! The twins baby carriage is one we did before the sale and I will sample it today also!

Getting Organized!

2010-08-06T20:45:00.001-05:00

First of all, my oldest child who will enter 1st grade next week lost his very first tooth last night! We realized it was VERY loose yesterday while at the pool, and for the next 8 hours B worried and asked questions and wiggled and followed me around and we watched You Tube videos on pulling teeth and tried tying a string around it and he worried some more and ....

finally at 8:00 last night I threw the kids in the car (Mallory literally had a diaper on and that was it) and we drove over to our good friend's house who happens to be our dentist! A few tugs and a good yank with the pliers it came out! The cutest part was Browder writing the tooth fairy a very nice note requesting $10 for his first tooth!

So glad that is over - thank you again Dr. Matt!! Hopefully the next one will be less traumatic!

A customer sent me this idea for football games and opposing teams:

I put it together with Sew What Pro (2 AC 4x4 football helmets shrunk down 10% each and a little rotating and flipping). This is the 5x7 hoop. We might offer this design!?

We did this twin baby carriage last week too, but simply ran out of time sampling and listing so we will offer it with our next batch which will be sometime next week!

I have loaded up my PR600 in my car and also my PE750D (which has been collecting dust since I got the 600). Mallory & I are heading over to West Point in the morning to trade in for a NEW MACHINE! I'm very excited! www.sewingmachine.com - my favorite sewing store!!! I posted a few pics last week on Facebook of a few of my fave things I've gotten from SewingMachine.com (thread, stabilizers, my machine, etc.) - on their fan page! Some of you might be asking why I am trading in (already) for a new machine? I have had several issues with the used one lately and they are graciously allowing me to trade in for a new one and pay the difference! I guess I should have done new in the first place as much as I use it!

I just got semi-organized and my current tally has quickly grown to 65 items! Most are long sleeves and/or fall, so I don't feel too panicked just yet! With all that being said, I have decided that I physically and mentally and emotionally cannot take every monogramming order that comes across my e-mail, telephone or face to face at Target! SOOOOO...... as I get e-mails from people about dropping off and ordering, etc., I am really going to have to take in to consideration if it is a friend, a past customer, an excellent customer or someone I just don't know! Depending on how busy I am, I am going to HAVE to turn people away! It's nothing personal ~ thanks for understanding! There are plenty of people on my blog list who are ready and willing to take your orders!! Specifically KK's Kreations and Get Personalized who have told me they are wanting more business!

It's 8:44 and I am going to bed! Browder & I spent the day at Surfside Water Park today - need I say more! POOPED!

New Designs!

2010-08-02T16:27:00.000-05:00

Here are 6 new designs that will be added to Applique Cafe tonight! I LOVE the tractor patch and did it on a tee for Garrison! It took me forever to pick out which fabrics I wanted to use, but I like how it turned out! I love working with corduroy!

First we had the Dog, then the Santa Dog, and now the Christmas Dog!

Megaphone with Pom Poms - I used a layer of flannel underneath each layer of pom pom fabric. Of course the AU is not included (for all of you Bama or other fans!) I like just the megaphone by itself too ~ I forgot to take a picture of it before the pom poms!

Tree Trio ~ we were going to do an ornament trio as well but a couple of other applique websites did them, so we'll hold off on that til later! Again, it took me forever to decide on fabric ~ I think I have TOO MUCH to chose from!

Football Patch Divided ~ this was suggested last year, but we never got around to it!

And lastly, a Baby Carriage ~ we did this for someone who is working on a baby quilt to match an old antique baby quilt. The one we did for her had very dainty redwork wheels and a handle. We also have this design with TWINS in the buggy, but I may not get to it until later!

I posted some photos today on the SewingMachine.Com Facebook Page of a few things I've gotten from them. Their fan base is growing! If you sew, you need to become a fan! I'm a frequent visitor of their West Point store, and look forward to visiting the Atlanta store next month!

Christmas came EARLY!!

2010-07-31T19:00:00.000-05:00

Last week I found a package on my front door step. I got a little excited when I saw that it was from TJ's Fabric in Opp, AL!! It was full of quarter yards of FABRIC!!!!!! Lots and lots of precious Christmas fabric! Several fall fabrics too, but mostly super cute Christmas fabric. Thanks to Teresa for sending it to me! I'm excited to dive in and use some of it for my Christmas appliques!! TJ's is also on Facebook. If you are coming or going to the beach via 331, get your GPS out and find TJ's! They are expanding soon too and will be offering more fabric!!!!

Isn't it beautiful??

Red and Green!

Merry Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho!!

Happy Holidays!!

Today I rode to West Point, GA to meet Steve to work on my machine. I spent 2 1/2 hours and am glad to report that my machine is back in business! Sewingmachine.com is also on Facebook! (Who is not on Facebook??) I got a few spools of the 5000M Isacord thread also.

I have 5 new Applique Cafe designs to test! The sale is going great! Have a great rest of the weekend!!

Fall Designs

2010-07-28T16:19:00.000-05:00

I listed 3 new designs today at Applique Cafe! Candy Apple, Pumpkin BOO and School House (ECS not included of course - insert your school name or initials). These are all great FALL designs! We've also sent a much requested stethoscope and a cute Christmas tree to be converted yesterday so they will be available soon!

I regret to report that I'm still having some machine issues and am going to West Point again Saturday to spend some time with Steve! I've tried everything in the book and he is stumped as well. We think it's a tension issue having to do with the thread patch, and hopefully we can get it resolved and he can show me what to do in the future if it happens again! With that being said, I'm pretty much out of commission (AGAIN) until next week! I have a couple of things to monogram and may try those, but am pretty much staying away from applique until we get it figured out! I do have a hand full of items to do for people and luckily most of them are for Fall. I've also had to say no to a few people who have e-mailed me saying I am not taking on any NEW customers right now. I've been super stressed the past few days with my machine, trying to do samples, trying to get back in to the groove from vacation, and trying to do a little work with 3 demanding children! My house has been a WRECK, G has swimmer's ear and overall it's just been a stressful few days! Thanks for understanding and HOPEFULLY everything will be back to normal next week!

Sew What Pro

2010-07-27T12:13:00.001-05:00

First and foremost... I just appliqued my first CHRISTMAS tee today! This customer is thinking ahead, which is a great thing!! It's also nice to think about SNOWMEN when it's 100 degrees outside! BTW, this shirt brand is Girlfriends by Anitag!? Very cute and looks like Monag! I'm not sure where she got it but will ask - she also sent a pink one. OK... looks like it is Anita G??

It's no secret I LOVE Sew What Pro (and that they SHOULD be paying me a commission)! I thought I'd take a shot of "what it looks like" on my computer screen for those of you who have never seen or heard of it! www.sandscomputing.com is where you get it ~ download the 30 day trial and if you decide to purchase, it's $65! I use it EVERY SINGLE TIME I do ANYTHING! Even when I do Applique Cafe samples, I pull the design up first in SWP. Maybe it's habit? I just like to see it nice and big on my computer screen! Anyway... You OPEN the first design, and as you can see I MERGE-d in a name (which I did with Monogram Wizard Plus first and saved it on my computer). You can also buy the embroidery fonts off the internet and merge the letters together with SWP. On the right you see the thread chart and # of steps in this particular design. I ignore the thread colors and use what I want, but it's nice to see 12 steps (or however many your design is).

Here is a shot of what you see when you click on the thread chart on the right. It shows you what THAT step is! You can also edit designs this way - just click on the scarf and delete it, for example!

Hope that helps a little! In my years of doing this, SWP is the cheapest program I've heard of that will do what it does! There are fancy designer programs out there and I'm sure they are fabulous, but this is what I use and recommend (especially for the price)!

*Regarding the comment, yes you can adjust the size of the design and add the name or whatever - it is all done on your computer before you finalize and send to your machine! I don't like to adjust the size too much, but you can! It will not only increase or decrease proportionately, you can also click on the 4 corners and 4 middle dots and drag the box to increase and decrease (see the snowman's scarf) or make the object wider or skinnier. Hope that makes sense! I've heard from one or two other people that the MWP extended features weren't that great, but I don't know anything about it!

Decorator Nursery Fabric

2010-07-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine has this decorator nursery fabric for sale! E-mail me if you are interested and I will pass along her contact info - rosemarygulledge@knology.net

P. Kaufmann bunny print ~ 3 5/8 yards

Lime Green Dot by Ametex ~ 2 1/2 yards

Stripe ~ 4 5/8 yards

Lime and bunny shown together

Stock up!

2010-07-26T11:25:00.001-05:00

I got an e-mail this morning that all SEWING NOTIONS are 50% off at Joann (in store only) this week. Our Joann just opened in the past year and they are great about sending you 25 coupons every week, but this was the first I've seen of a 50% off notions sale! Needless to say I loaded up the kids and headed to Joann! There weren't signs up on the Sulky/Heat N Bond aisle, so I did a price check to be sure these were all 1/2 off. Even lint brushes were on sale! Of course I got home and realized I have 6 rolls of the Sulky Cutaway Plus (medium cutaway). I used to use it all the time, but since I started getting the commercial stuff from www.sewingmachine.com, I mostly just use Sulky for my samples when I am not using a t-shirt. It is a nice white background for my applique sample pics. I'm also not using the Spray Adhesive nearly as much as I used to now that I use Heat N Bond Lite, but I do use a spray to stick my cutaway to the underside on my shirt. I also got some embroidery needles since I'm supposed to change them every so many hours of sewing time! Steve @ SM.com says that Schmetz is the best! Anyway, I am stocked up FOR A WHILE!! I think I now have 4 rolls of HNBL too!

Last night I posed the question on Facebook what to do with the jumbo spools of embroidery thread...

I looked at Joann today and saw a plastic cone organizer that is made for these jumbo cones (I THINK!!). I didn't have a coupon - it wasn't on sale - so I may go back and get it. I couldn't find a picture of it online to post either (they had the mini cone organizer but not the big one). Thread is taking over my sewing room! I saw lots of great suggestions but since I'm in my dining room, I can't exactly install a big peg board on the wall!

Applique Cafe anniversary sale day 1 has been GREAT! We have not had a good sale in a while so I think people are stocking up! I have 2 more samples to do today and we'll get those 3 listed ASAP. We have LOTS more new designs to add this week and next!

*I use the spray adhesive only to make my medium cutaway stabilizer stick to my shirt so that I can hoop it! I do not use it in addition to the HNBL on my fabric (I used too, but on thicker nicer fabrics if you iron it well and put HNBL on it, it will lay flat and stay in place for the tackdown stitch).

Happy Anniversary!!

2010-07-25T17:09:00.000-05:00

First off, here is a pic of my front planter today ~ SHE'S ALIVE!! We've lost a few leaves, but I think if I can keep her watered every single day, she may survive!!??

I got a surprise in the mail yesterday upon our return from the beach. Actually I had received an e-mail about it last week, but my memory is short. I was excited when I opened the box to find lots of huge spools of EMBROIDERY THREAD!! What a fun package! The lovely gals who sent me the thread (which they got from a closing store) have blogs on my blog list ~ K. K.'s Kreations and Get Personalized! Check out their blogs! Thanks ladies!!

I also received this fun surprise last week ~ a $25.00 gift certificate to Ken's Sewing Center! A sweet Facebook friend of mine sent it to me as a gift thanking me for sharing what embroidery knowledge I have with her! THANK YOU J.A.!!!! I'm making my shopping list right now!

Lastly, it's our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY at Applique Cafe! As I stated on Facebook ~ 1 year, 171 designs (and many many more to come), 1425 Facebook Fans... how blessed are we?? I remember Jeff & I saying "if we can sell a few designs and make a little extra money, it'll be great!" We had no idea how fun it would be! It's been a great year and I hope we have many more to come! We're already working on new designs to list this week! Thanks to everyone who has bought 1 design, or 20 designs ~ we appreciate each and every one of you!

I will post pics of the new AC designs soon! I will also work on my schedule for the upcoming week - it's back to reality tomorrow...

Fabric and Flowers!!

2010-07-24T17:41:00.000-05:00

We got home from the beach today (picture me frowning) ~ we spend a week in Seagrove, FL each Summer with my family. We usually go in June but this year we went in July (= HOT). This is our 5th year I think? Browder had just turned 2 when we started the tradition!! For 4 years we stayed in the same house but this year upgraded to beach front. Good move!! We had a fabulous time, but it's good to be home and back to a routine! We did the Pirate Cruise in PCB (it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo...... HOT) and went to Destin one day as well. Other than that it was a lot of beach, pool, R & R and yummy tomato/chix salad/pimento cheese/honey-baked-ham sandwiches for lunch. What makes food at the beach SO GOOD??

Here are a few pictures of some things I did before I left! These are the super cute onesies from www.jiffyshirts.com (Apples & Oranges). They are sometimes out of stock so you have to try out all shipping options, and check back in a day or two if they are out of stock!

A couple of bibs ~ both Applique Cafe designs! Football Goal and Golf Ball both have the "raggy" looking grass. I use a layer of flannel underneath my fabric, trim as much or as little as you want and scrape the excess with your scissors. A lint brush comes in handy too!

A few burp cloths ~ the first is Mono Wiz Plus DECO "R" and tipsy "Robert". I get a lot of e-mails about Tipsy - it is a great font and I highly recommend you get the Alpha Pak if you have MWP (I think it's #12?). AC golf green of course, and AC doggy patch.

En route to Seagrove, we made a pit stop in OPP, ALABAMA (not far off 331 if you travel to the coast that way)!! There is a GREAT little pharmacy/fabric store called T & C Pharmacy/TJ's Fabric. I could have spent daaaaayyyyyysssss (or maybe hours) in this store, BUT, the fam was waiting patiently in the car and I only had 30 minutes to shop before they closed for the day. MICHAEL MILLER fabric ta boot!! It was all $8.99 a yard too (that I saw/bought)! Most of what I got below was Michael Miller, with a little Riley Blake mixed in! I will be back!! They were so nice too (and knew who I was after we started chatting ~ from my blog!!)

AND..... we stopped at McDonald's going to and fro to get me a Mocha Frappe (I'm off Starbucks btw), and I took pictures of these lovely flowers to and fro. To, on Jeff's cell phone (for Facebook, of course). Fro, I got out of the car to take this lovely! Yes people, these are fake graveyard flowers!! I'm hoping this isn't an actual graveyard!!??

While I knock the Mickey D's flowers, they may have something? My sweet neighbor watered my front planters while we were away (I think), but I'm not sure if the upper-90's weather got the best of my poor flowers...

I gave them each a gallon of water when we got home, but it's not looking good friends... poor things...

On the way home today I made a short list of new designs for Applique Cafe, and Jeff has asked that I nail down 8 or so for him to work on ASAP. I also have some work to do this week, and have had lots of e-mails from people wanting to get on the ole schedule! I have thoroughly enjoyed my 2 months off of work, but it's time to get back to reality! HOWEVER, Jeff has already said that HE is in charge of my work and schedule (in hopes that we can cut back on the going-back-to-work-and-being-slammed stress). He rather enjoyed my time with no worries and being able to hang out with the family. SO.... we will work on my schedule tonight given what I have already and go from there! I will update where I stand asap!

We are headed to Tips and Nancy's for din din and dessert ~ our usuals ~ they have probably missed us this week!!

Fabric Addiction

2010-07-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

So I already have 3 x 3 DRAWER CARTS full of fabric (plus a shopping bag full that someone gave me I have yet to sort). If you'll notice, the right cart is mostly polka dots in the bottom 2 drawers and tri-checks and plaids in the top. Mostly ginghams in the middle cart - top is my newest stuff -

Fabric Finders ginghams, etc.

Left is seasonal (top drawer), boy fabric and mostly girly flowery stuff!

IT IS OUT OF CONTROL!!!!

And yet today I went up to Beth's Heirloom in Wetumpka and bought MORE!!

These are Fabric Finders - WAR EAGLE!! The right is just a good pima cotton orange (I think it's called pima cotton? sounds good huh?).

Some Bammer stuff - again, Fabric Finders tri-check and houndstooth.

The left fat check/gingham was $5.00 a yard! Hot pink polka dot and I got some denim. I'm not sure where I've seen it, but I've seen some applique designs done with denim and I thought it was cute - Kelly's Kids maybe?? Anyway I thought for Fall it might be cute on some sort of applique with orange or something!

Lime houndstooth, lime stripe and a kelly green polka dot - I love me some green!

I thought some of these might work for CHRISTMAS!

I got these also only to come home and find out I already had the ocean and lime!

Oh well! I also bought yellow microcheck gingham and had plenty at home! I lose all brain function when I'm surrounded by cute fabric!

I will never ever use all of this fabric, but I LOVE buying it! I also had a July 15% off coupon and bought 1/4 yards of all of these, so it wasn't too bad! I saw lots and lots of other cute prints, but as I have told many people ~ I MOSTLY use polka dots, ginghams, checks, stripes, etc.

I also went to the Walmart in Wetumpka and got 2 Garanimals BOYS tees - red and orange for Garrison. They didn't have much of a selection! Back to work - I have a few things to do today and tomorrow!

New AC Designs!

2010-07-14T21:57:00.000-05:00

I just listed these 3 new Applique Cafe designs! As you can see I tried out my new Etsy purchase (fabric)! We had a few people request a peacock last year and I never found the right picture.

Balloons - it has been on my list for the past year!

We did the ice skates for Baby and Me Designs and this picture is hers ~ very cute!!

This is a great girly winter design! I love it with the bow!

**Someone from my previous post asked where I got my orange Ta Dot ~ Fabric Worm. The red and ocean came from Etsy because Fabric Worm did not have those colors in stock! Love them all!!

All of the kids have school or other activities in the morning so I may drive up to Beth's Heirloom in Wetumpka! I have a 15% off coupon for July ~ what better excuse than to go fabric shopping!? I will report any findings....

Sewingmachine.com

2010-07-13T14:01:00.001-05:00

It's so fun to open the mail and find new fabric you ordered!! I was low on my Michael Miller red Ta Dot and found this combo deal on Etsy ~ 1/2 yard of each! I got it at Sew Deerly Loved on Etsy. Middle is Ocean Ta Dot and the left is Quarter Dot (Ocean and Red?). Love them all.

Here is my collection of 5000M thread from www.sewingmachine.com! It's $6.99/spool, so when I find a color I like I get the big spool ~ it'll last forever! All by Isacord by the way! I still use the smaller spools but am trying to build up my collection of the big ones too. If you see a color you like, e-mail me and I can give you the # (rosemarygulledge@knology.net).

Here is where I PRAISE www.sewingmachine.com! I e-mailed Steve last week or so because I was having some uneven column stitches on my machine. He sent me a new bobbin case, but it wasn't the problem. We were going to the lake on Friday so we decided we'd take a detour and drop my machine off at their West Point, GA store. A truck was coming which would take it to their Atlanta store. I got a message on SATURDAY (like 24 hours later or less) that my machine was not only fixed, but it was back at the West Point store for me to pick up Monday on my way home from the lake! That, my friends, is SERVICE!! I have also been e-mailing with him about Fast Frames and we talked about HoopTech a little. He sent the Fast Frames for me to try! I hope to try something this week - I hear they are the best thing since sliced bread!? I can't say enough about this store/website! I LOVE their commercial stabilizer - it is SO CHEAP! I like the 15" x 25 yard medium white cutaway 2.2 oz - $12.99. I also like the 8x8 precut squares - $16.95 - 2.5 oz and I think it's 250 pieces!! He also sent some sticky for me to use with the FF's so I'm anxious to try it all out!

I have 3 more designs to test for Applique Cafe and will post pictures soon!

New Designs

2010-07-07T10:13:00.002-05:00

Here are 4 new Applique Designs just listed at www.appliquecafe.com!

Bus - I'm having some machine issues but hope to get it fixed ASAP with a new bobbin case. Will re-do some samples when it's back to normal!

Pumpkin - Shown with LOVE font, which is one of my favorites! I got it at www.embroideryfontshop.com! Loving the Michael Miller Ta Dot fabric too (in orange). I ordered more yesterday in Ocean, red and the ocean with red dots from www.etsy.com! Speaking of Etsy, I could spend a day on that site!!

Witch Pot - Halloween will be here before we know it!

Witch Boots - LOVE this with the bows! This is the cute striped Halloween fabric I got last week at Hancocks. I flip flopped the stripes too so that both legs weren't the same!

We are headed to the POOL!!

New Designs

2010-07-05T18:23:00.000-05:00

Here is 1 new design coming to Applique Cafe this week. I have at least 4 more to sample (Halloween x 2, 1 back to school and 1 "other"). I used the cute striped fabric I got at Hancocks for the stockings!

Someone sent me her blog to post (and I've added it to my blog list below). She has some "team" Fabric Finders fabrics for sale if anyone is interested! Check her out: http://shirtssewcute.blogspot.com/. Contact her if interested!

So I took June off and it has been great! I had planned to come back to work in July, but didn't think ahead to July 4th weekend, plus a day trip to the lake today, plus a long weekend trip to the lake coming up, PLUS a week at the beach this month! Therefore, I'm doing A FEW things in July, but am honestly only home a total of about 8 days this whole month with all of the traveling, packing and unpacking! Hopefully I can get back on track in AUGUST!

I posted this on my Facebook page - Walmart long sleeve t-shirts are in SOME stores! I did not find the boys shirts in the Walmart I went to (we have 4), but they did have these girl tees. My question was: WHY??? Why did Garanimals feel the need to embellish a perfectly good PLAIN t-shirt with a glittery trim on the neck?? My Facebook fans were pretty fired up about it - I think I had 40+ comments under my picture! Target, we're all counting on you! Old Navy too!! I'm pretty sure the Walmart boy (toddler) tees are the same as last year (from what I've heard) in a variety of colors. Target boy toddler tees typically have pockets (which I was told are easy to remove with a seam ripper?). Old Navy's tees last year were my favorite (boys)!! Hopefully they will have the same this year! There are also online options, but it's nice to have a local option when you need that last minute tee! I will keep my eyes and ears open!

New Fabric and 2 New Designs!

2010-07-01T11:55:00.002-05:00

I ventured over to Hancocks today and picked up a few new fabrics! I generally use ginghams and polka dots the most, but last year I saw a cute Halloween stripe used on some witch boots or something, so I got 1/4 yard of these:

A few Christmas fabrics. I like the middle one the best!

I got this one at Hobby Lobby and I LOVE IT!! I only bought 1/4 yard because the background is cream, not white, but I love the colors! If I could sew I would definitely make something for Mallory out of this!

Here are 2 new AC designs. You can also leave the collar off the cat and use a real bow. I think she is cute!!

And a PRINCESS CARRIAGE! I like this one too! This would be cute for a Disney trip too!

This week I have a sick 2 yr old! She threw up in Dillards Tuesday night in the purse section and was sick all Tues night. She battled fever most of the day yesterday. No fever or anything today but she is still puny! As a matter of fact as I type this she has her head laid on my chair taking a rest! Yep we've got the 2:30 Ped appointment for today. Last night I met some friends for dinner and we went to see Eclipse! It was great!! We bought our tickets 2 days early, got there a good 45 minutes early and still had to sit in line for a good 30 minutes to get in the theater! It was crazy but fun! Tonight I'm supposed to take the boys to see Toy Story 3! I may be more excited than they are!!

50% off Christmas and 4th of July designs through SUNDAY!! Happy 4th!

P.S. I HEARD WALMART HAS LONG SLEEVE TEES NOW IN THE TODDLER SECTION! I HAVEN'T BEEN YET, BUT HEARD DEFINITELY BOYS IN 12M-5T IN VARIOUS COLORS!!