Centering those off-center appliques

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)

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!

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....