New Applique Cafe Designs

I've just uploaded 6 new designs to http://www.appliquecafe.com/!

As you can tell I have a light yellow theme here!

1) Baby Rattle - shown with a bow (ribbon from Hobby Lobby) and Monogram Wizard Plus Sydney "M".

2) Cupcake shown with a Curlz or Party Time "2".

3) To follow the Heart Truck, an Easter Truck!

4) A simple flower

5) A simple bunny shown with a bow. I've also seen something like this with a white pom pom tail! I love this light yellow chenille!

6) A simple TULIP shown with Monogram Wizard Plus Curly Q "S".

I've had a couple of people ask about the sock monkey design on my blog and it is from http://www.appliqueforkids.com/. They have several sock monkey designs - Sock Monkeys.

I also came across this fabric - Sock Monkey Fabric. I can't tell what type material it is or if it would be easy to work with? I usually use a brown microcheck gingham, but this would certainly be cute! One thing about the sock monkey to keep in mind - the tail sort of throws the design off center (or it makes it LOOK off center). When I sew this design, I center the design on my Sew What Pro grid so that the body of the monkey is centered (the center line cuts down the middle of his eyes & crotch!!). I did this sample a long time ago and as you can tell, the design is centered as is the name, but it appears that the name is off center. I think your EYE sees the body and not the tail, so it's best to center the body and name and ignore the tail!

I have no machines so I'm going to use the weekend to organize my fabric a little (it is OUT OF CONTROL the amount of fabric I have). I also like to wash my tablecloth and just clean up my sewing area. Jeff is taking the boys to the Auburn basketball game tomorrow, so I'm not sure what Mallory & I will do? What I SHOULD do is break out my regular sewing machine and attempt to sew something for her!?!?!? It's possible!! Stay tuned...

Embroidery Road Trip!!!

Warning: This post may be a lot to digest!! :)

My day started off at 10:30 when Jeff came home from work to "work from home" and keep the kids so I could ride over to West Point, GA without 3 kids in tow!! First stop, HANCOCKS! 50% off Sulky started today AND I had an extra 10% off coupon, so I loaded up! I can't tell you how many times I've run out of this stuff and have not been able to find it ANYWHERE, or I have found it and have had to pay full price or more with shipping. This should last me a while, and I saved $68!!!!!!! Cha-Ching!!

Second stop, STARBUCKS (no picture, sorry!). I then enjoyed an hour and 20 minute ride to West Point, Georgia. No kids! Just me and my thoughts and the radio!! It was fabulous!! Here is Sewing Machine.Com...

SewingMachine.Com is located in downtown West Point. It is sort of a branch of the very large Sewing Machine.Com store in Atlanta. I gave Lori and Steve my machines and a recap of issues, then looked around, saw the 6 needle stitch out a design, got some samples and took some photos. The store has lots of sewing machines to look at and try out...

They also sell some cute blanks (which I was unaware of). You can look at most of them at http://www.sewingmachine.com/ - shirts, quilted duffle bags, diaper bags, etc.

This cute quilted green duffle bag with brown straps was priced at $13.00!!!!!!! I am drawn to anything and everything green!!

They also sell the full line of Floriani thread as well as commercial size (huge spools) of thread. Of course needles, parts for your Brother machine, scissors, some Sulky stabilizers and then, THE SHELF, of commercial and Floriani stabilizers. This part was the most interesting!! These were HUGE stacks and rolls of stabilizers and you would not believe the prices!!

Here is an example... the left COMMERCIAL roll was priced at around $19.00 and the right Floriani roll (looks tiny in comparison, huh?) was ALSO priced at $19.00! Which is a better deal? Same stabilizer (medium cutaway)...

He also had squares of medium cutaway stabilizer in several sizes. I brought home some samples so I can't wait to try them out! This "pack" of squares, 250 of them (that's 250 t-shirts), was $14.99! GREAT for my 4x4 hoop which is what I use most of the time - no cutting! What a deal!!

Another shot of the stabilizer shelf...

Some of the bigger rolls were $40+, but can you imagine how long that thing will last??? Here is a picture of the machine "next up" from mine. It has the 6x10 hoop and was very nice! I think it's an Innovis and runs just shy of $4,000.

And then there is the big daddy, the 6 needle, my DREAM machine once I graduate from the dining room table... Steve (the owner) demonstrated a little embroidery design that was around a 9,000 stitch count. It sewed it in around 9 minutes! I could almost feel the ground shake when that thing got going! AWESOME!! These are just shy of $7,000 and I'm sure that price includes lots of "stuff". One day...

If you are in the Montgomery area, or Atlanta or anywhere in between, I recommend http://www.sewingmachine.com/! Brother lists them on their site as a certified service center. This is my 2nd experience with Steve and again, I'm so impressed!! The machines will go to Atlanta and will be back MONDAY! Visit their website!! Like I said, they sell blanks and everything! I'm definitely going back for the stabilizer!!

From there I went back to Opelika (TigerTown area) and stopped at Hobby Lobby. I got this fabric. As you will see I have an orange thing going on!! (Right - just restocking my blue chambray and brown)

From there, and thanks to my TomTom GPS, I headed over to the Opelika Sewing Center and got these 2 fabrics and this cute ribbon trim. Restocking my lime pindot and got some orange. Not sure what I'm doing with the trim? Kelly's Kids shows it on t-shirts and I thought it might be cute on burp cloths!

After that I headed in to Auburn to stop by the Kid's Korner. I got MORE fabric! The left 2 I'm not sure I'll use til next Fall (I saw pumpkins using the orange in 09). The other 3 are in addition to my fabric I used on the AC rectangle purse and bird/vine designs. It's Jenean Morrison California Dreamin'. It's a little funky and different and goes with my orange theme for the day! I've seen it on Etsy if you're looking for some. Oh, I also got more ribbon trim!

From there my handy GPS took me through the beautiful college campus of Auburn! I went to Troy University and my husband went to Auburn. It's a beautiful fun-looking campus and just seeing the students walk around made me long for the days of college!!!!!! Here is a shot of Toomer's Corner! From there I hit McDonalds (no photos) and the interstate and headed back home. It was a great 6 hour outing all by my lonesome!

On my way home I did hear something interesting (and devistating at the same time) on our local radio station Y102. The DJ said that they were "giving away" a gift certificate of sorts for an "uncontested divorce". I almost wrecked my car!! Sure enough I looked at their website http://www.y102montgomery.com/, and it is true! You can "enter to win" on their site! They are "giving it away" on February 12! Happy Valentine's Day!! I think it's so disgusting that I did the whole "contact us" thing and sent an e-mail to the station manager! We'll see if I hear back from him!? Probably not! We wonder what's wrong with our society!!!!!!!!!!

We have 6 new designs to list on http://www.appliquecafe.com/! Since I've probably exceeded my blog capacity for one post I will post those pics separately when we get ready to upload them!

Bad News!!

The good news is that I finished my 11 t-shirt order last night (I think I did 9 yesterday alone!!). They are in the mail today headed to Texas! This little boy is all ready for spring!

The bad news is that my machine kept doing this (see photo below) before it finally messed up today! :( I'm not sure what causes the thread to do this? This actually isn't the problem! I was in the middle of monogramming this morning and the upper tension just went loose!? The unfortunate part of the story is that my OTHER machine has been collecting dust on the floor b/c IT'S top tension is too loose! I have been trying to find the time to take it over to West Point, GA (http://www.sewingmachine.com/) and have been unsuccessful at that, so now I'm machine-less and heading to West Point tomorrow! It shouldn't take more than 2-3 days to get them back, but what a pain!! I'm SURE it is something as simple as tightening a little screw somewhere! I did get my other machine out and have been playing around with it and it is sewing OK, but is still not right (top tension is too loose)! I don't want to mess anyone's "stuff" up so I'll just vacation til I get them back! Moral of the story... I should have taken the other machine over ASAP! It's always good to have a working backup!! Lesson learned!

Burp Cloths and Computers!!!

Here is the AC Diamond Patch with initials inside! I've added this pic to my Gallery at http://www.appliquecafe.com/! This is a short sleeve blue Garanimals tee from Walmart!

And here are the 6 burp cloths I finished up yesterday! I got some practice in sewing all that ribbon on the end! Hobby Lobby has that great fat ribbon with white stitching on the ends - the lime on the airplane burp cloth. You can usually find it 50% off and I bought a bunch of colors yesterday. And I had some green ric rac in my drawer, so I added it to brown ribbon for the patch burp cloths!

Right now I'm finishing up an order for 11 t-shirts, so I'll post a similar picture when I get done! If you can see the check fabric on the dump truck, that is the fabric I got at PBJ Friday. And someone asked where PBJ was - it's in Montgomery on Carter Hill Road a couple of doors down from Sonic near the Mulberry Street light! I've also had a lot of people ask where to get the cute Beehave shirts. Other than PBJ, I don't know!? I'm not sure they are available anywhere online!? I think they were $18 at PBJ? http://www.dharmatrading.com/ has some pretty cute white tees as well. Not as cute as the Beehave, but they do have some with ruffles!

Yesterday was a fabulous day for Applique Cafe!! Actually Sunday AND Monday we had serious e-mail problems. With every order and Paypal e-mail we received, we also got a "Return to Sender" e-mail!! I spent most of the day re-sending out designs from my Knology e-mail!! Our Web Host had to clear it all up for us and today I didn't get any return e-mails, so thankfully it is all resolved! I was not a happy camper yesterday!! I actually felt like punching my computer a few times!!!!!!

I have 6 new designs to sample for Applique Cafe - 2 are for Easter. I'm trying to get these t-shirts done, and I also have another large job with about 15 shirts to do. I will try to squeeze them in this week so we can get them listed, and we will most likely extend the sale another week! Stay tuned...

*Sock Monkey design ~ http://www.appliqueforkids.com/
**Burp cloths ~ http://www.embroiderthis.com/ (search 4x6 ~ They sell 4x6 ply cotton diapers and 2x3 ply. I buy the 4x6 and they are nice, thick and lay flat!)

Saturday!!

I've gotten countless e-mails about scissors! I think these are my next purchase - Gingher Scissors. I rode by JoAnn (I want to call it JoannS) Friday and it still says it is opening on February 5 (not the 6th). I guess they were just "trying out" the sign/letters the other day, and will put them back up closer to opening? Maybe people think it's open if the letters are up, so they wait? I have no idea and who really cares!! As long as they open! Anyway I've been doing burp cloths so I think these would come in handy so I won't "snag" the weave!!

Here is a name I did with an E-bay skinny font (E-bay font #028). I get a lot of e-mails asking where this font came from. I will say that the satin stitching around it is rather thin, but it's great for short names if you only have a 5x7 hoop like me! I merge the letters together with Sew What Pro, then I join the thread colors so that it stitches out in 3 steps instead of 12 (marking "hank", tackdown "hank, then satin "hank"). SOMEONE TOLD ME THAT THIS FONT CAN ALSO BE FOUND AT www.kabodesigns.com (the E-bay sellers website). I bought it off e-bay probably 2 1/2 years ago, so that's why I referenced e-bay!! The website might be easier!

And here is the AC owl I did last night on the cutest little shirt - the brand is Beehave and it came from PBJ here in Montgomery! I actually went by PBJ Friday and bought 1 boy check fabric and saw the shirts, then a customer brought it to me to put the owl on! It is almost cuter than the Monag frill tee. Jola (Hi!!) showed me her cutting room with all of her scrap fabrics. She said that when she gets a chance, they are going to cut and bundle the bigger scraps and sell them in coordinating groups for us applique people! ALL of her fabrics are precious, so I can't wait to see what she comes up with! Applique people are addicted to fabric by nature, so even bundles of scraps sounds exciting to me! Which reminds me, Beths in Wetumpka is also selling small bundles or squares as well - I forgot that I got an e-mail about that a couple of weeks ago and I just haven't had time to make it up there! OK so my cropping cut off the cute ruffles on the sleeves and waist, but you get the idea! The shirt was a very thick soft cotton too with 2 snaps on the shoulder.

I've been working on burp cloths the past 2 days! I have 1 more to go, so I'll post a pic of all of them when I'm done! I JUST ordered burp cloths and am almost out already!! I've done A LOT of baby gifts lately! I guess it's baby shower time? Today we did absolutely NOTHING! I sat on the couch with the kids most of the morning and we even watched Girls Just Want to Have Fun!!! SJP was so cute!!! Great 80's flick!! Which reminds me, I THINK my TIVO is recording Twilight tonight on Showtime!!! Anyway, after we sat on the couch all morning, we also all took naps this afternoon and at like 7:30 finally loaded up the fam to go eat at Zaxby's just to get out of the house!! Luckily no one saw us b/c  Browder had on a Halloween t-shirt and G had on brown boots, navy sweatpants and a yellow Wiggles t-shirt!! We were STYLIN'!!

Scissors and New Designs

I've gotten several comments and e-mails about embroidery scissors! Evidently I am behind on the times!!!! I got a couple of recommendations for "small single curved Gingher brand scissors". I'm not sure if that's the exact title? I googled them and saw a couple of different pair of curved scissors in the Gingher brand. They cost about $25 but I've been told it's well worth it and they are guaranteed for life! Sounds good to me! I guess Friday I need to go scissor shopping?

I added our 6 new designs to http://www.appliquecafe.com/ tonight! They are the top 6 on the right hand side of the blog. Our ART converter was super fast today!! I'm dying to do the Rocking Horse in a girly fabric with a bow on the neck!! And there are so many possibilities as far as fabric for the Teddy Bear (minus the heart)!

Browder has his first sleepover guest tonight! We took everyone to eat mexican and took the boys to the Dollar Tree (they each got $2)! Everyone is snug in the bed (except me - I'm actually sitting in a dark house?? Thanks Jeff)!! This morning I had to just about DRAG Browder out of bed at 6:40 to get ready for school. So 2 of the many reasons I am thankful for Eastwood School... I only have to drag him out of bed 3 mornings a week (for Kindergarten at least), AND, sleepovers in the middle of the week!! Now if it's raining in the morning and they sleep late it'll be PERFECT!!

Thanks to everyone for all the comments! I really enjoy getting feedback and knowing someone is actually reading my posts!! :)

Come on JoAnn!!!

I took these pics one day last week from my car on my phone! I am a lot excited about JoAnn coming to town! Of course today I went by and there were no letters? Not sure what's up with that, but I believe they are supposed to open Feb. 6? Today I spent my no-kid time looking for stabilizer since I can't seem to find my Sulky Cutaway Plus in stock at Hancocks!! That's what I get for bragging about how well I like it!!!!!! I went to Hancocks, Hobby Lobby and then ended up at the Sew & Vac store where I spent $23 on stabilizer (versus my $11 maximum on a roll of Sulky and usually less when I have a coupon or it is on sale). I got a Floriani Cutaway Medium Fusible, which I'm sure is great and it will eliminate the need for spray adhesive when preparing the shirt to hoop since you iron it on, then cut it away after you're done. But, it hurt my checkbook to pay full price for it! I'm seriously down with sales and 40/50% off coupons, so paying full price was hard! But, I even called the Sewing Machine store in West Point and they were out of it too! I have to take my PE750 in for service so I figured if they had it, I'd cruise on over. No such luck! I may have to have a talk with the JoAnn stabilizer-buyer to make sure they keep it in stock! I love the sweet ladies who work at Hancocks, but when I ask about stuff being out of stock, 90% of the time they aren't too helpful!

I've had one or two (or the same person) request a big carrot to go w/ the bunny. This carrot is from http://www.embroidery-boutique.com/ and of course I thought of this b/c I sampled it! I'm not sure what other way there is to do a carrot, so whoever wants a carrot, will this one work?? Sometimes people leave comments on my blog and it takes some serious investigative work to reply to that person, so I thought I'd just post it here! Someone also asked me about the pink Monag shirt and it is still available! I just had no way of responding other than posting on here!

And another sneak peek at another new AC design! They will hopefully be listed by the end of the week!

My embroidery friend Brandy said that she loves these double curved embroidery scissors found at http://www.havelssewing.com/! I haven't looked for them locally, but may try to find or order them and give them a try!! Looks pretty cool to me!

In other news, we have been approved to list our applique designs on http://www.swakembroidery.com/! We've been on a waiting list and had to send 2 designs to be sampled. Evidently we passed! It's going to be a bit of a process to get everything together to send to them to list, and we may even start with our best sellers to see how it goes! We still want everyone to shop at http://www.appliquecafe.com/, but SWAK might be a good avenue for those embroidery people who have never heard of AC! Can't hurt to have our designs on such a great site!! I know when I'm looking for a design for myself or for someone else, I usually start there b/c they have a little bit of EVERYTHING!

Embroidery Stuff...

I had someone e-mail me today with simple questions such as "what kind of scissors do you use?" and "what kind of stabilizer do you use?" and also, this person asked if I had considered a tutorial on stabilizer and/or hooping. I actually did a word doc a while ago which shows how I prepare and hoop a shirt. I'll see if I can copy and paste it to a blog post. Not sure if I can? So here are the scissors I use! A big pair for cutting fabric, stabilizer and all that stuff! The small pair on the right is the pair of scissors that came with my Brother sewing machine. I had 2 pair, but one walked off (or got thrown away!) I bought the small pair on the left, but the ends are almost too sharp and they tend to catch the shirt or fabric I'm appliqueing on (when I am trimming the fabric). This can cause you to cut the shirt, which then requires a little fabric glue and a prayer! The satin stitch usually covers it up and the glue keeps it from causing any real damage, but overall I prefer the right small pair - the ends aren't too sharp! Exciting stuff, eh?

I believe in using a fusible product! Wonder Under is a popular one, but I prefer Heat N Bond Lite! It comes on the bolt so I buy it by the yard ($2.19/yd at Hancocks). I usually get 5 or so yards at a time and it lasts me a while! It comes with instructions and I iron it on the applique fabric. It makes trimming nice and clean (cuts back on loose threads) and when you're done, the idea is that you iron over your finished applique and it fuses the applique to your shirt! It's not a perfect science, but it works pretty well and I think it makes the applique look much nicer - cuts down on bubbles!

So I just cut a piece and iron it on my fabric...

And you probably can't tell from this next picture, but after you peel the paper away, it leaves a shiny layer of the Heat N Bond. The reason I prefer it to Wonder Under is because the paper peels off very easily - just pick at a corner and peel away! And, when you peel the paper off the layer of HNB is easily visible. With Wonder Under I found it hard sometimes to peel the paper away, and it leaves a cobweb type product on your fabric. A lot of people love and swear by Wonder Under... I just prefer Heat N Bond (Lite - it comes in a heavy weight too). I also spray a light layer of Sulky Spray Adhesive on this piece of fabric before I put it in place for my tackdown stitch. That just helps the fabric stay smooth on the shirt for the tackdown stitch.

Here is the Birthday Frog (coming soon) after my tackdown stitch and after I've trimmed the fabric away. As you can see I cut pretty close to the tackdown stitch!

And after the satin stitch, facial features and birthday hat, here is the finished product! I sampled 6 new designs since last night and Jeff is due home from his ski trip in less than an hour!! There is a change or two to be made and we'll send the new stuff off for ART conversion, then list them later in the week!

I'll work on some more pics of stabilizer and such when I get a chance! I'm actually out of my Sulky Cutaway Plus medium cutaway (ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). I bought something similar on the bolt but it is NOT THE SAME!! I am COUNTING DOWN to JoAnn's opening in just a few weeks! I pray that they keep their Sulky IN STOCK! I've been doing these samples with the bolt cutaway and I can SO tell a difference, even with 2 layers!!

Here is a new Easter Egg which will be listed later in the week! We're also working on a simple bunny (or bunnies) applique and possibly the Heart Truck, only with an Easter Egg. Stay tuned...

This and That!!

I got an order this weekend for 11 t-shirts, so today I hit 3 of the 4 Walmarts in Montgomery! I managed to find 6 out of the 11 I need, and also came across these $2 (!!!!!) Faded Glory t-shirts at the ATL Hwy Walmart for you Montgomery people. You can't beat $2, and that was the price on the tag (not on sale or anything). They also had plain navy & plain red for $2 (gray too). I bought one of each color of these for Garrison. Not sure what I'm going to do with them but for $2 I couldn't pass them up! Maybe a simple monogram, or maybe I can figure out an applique that might work!? I'll post a pic when I figure it out!

Here are the bibs I got in Friday - I have 6 of each color. This is a horrible picture, but you get the idea! I did the AC Owl on a pink one and posted it recently. These are great bibs! A simple red name on the blue would be cute too!

This is TOTALLY random, but I got these house shoes from Target for Christmas (WOO HOO exciting) and Friday I bought a brown backup pair b/c I love them so much!! Is that a sign of getting old? Having backup house shoes?? And they are on sale so the brown pair was less than $9!! I have worn these to take B to school and if I could get away with it, I would wear them just about anywhere!

Friday I also (literally) dusted off my sewing machine to do a burp cloth. This machine cost me about $99 on e-bay maybe 7 years ago? The bobbin part is taped on with packing tape b/c a piece broke off and it won't stay shut! It does what I need it to do!

Here is the bib/burp cloth set I did and I sewed the pink ribbon on, hence me dusting off my machine. This is the AC Bird. The font on the bib is Empire from Embroidery Arts - this is a GREAT font! I have their Empire and Circle font and they stitch out almost better than some of my MWP fonts!

I have 6 new designs I was supposed to sew this weekend while Jeff was hitting the slopes in Deer Valley, UT! He'll be back tomorrow and I'm just sitting down to do the FIRST one! Mallory came home Fri from school with a fever. We took a trip to the PED office Sat  morning and left with antibiotics and no real diagnosis (fever virus?). Sat & Sun she had fever pretty much constantly and we spent a lot of time on the couch snuggling!! I called the phone nurse this morning before my own Dr. appt. They called me back and I took her BACK in at 2:15. We left with a different antibiotic and a diagnosis this time of STREP! :( Poor thing!! She went to bed at 5:00 today! The boys are in the tub and my goal is to get them in bed by 7!

While I was at the PED office today I saw a little boy with a dinosaur t-shirt on - it happened to be our AC dinosaur!! THEN, I saw the cutest little girl with a birthday hat t-shirt on - it was our AC birthday girl hat!! How cool to see our designs on t-shirts!! I would have taken pics but figured the moms might think that was creepy! I've also run in to 2 moms at Target Friday and Burger King today who are blog readers! Always fun to be "recognized"!! I think most of the time people recognize my kids, then realize I must be Rosemary!! Thanks for saying "Hey"!! I'm off to do a little work until The Bachelor gets far enough along I can watch it faster on TIVO!

Inventory

I just took inventory of my drawer and thought I'd list what I have!

I have this Monag long sleeve frill tee in PINK, size 4T. I have ONE!

I also have:

-White eyelet diaper covers in sizes: 2 (ICM), 3, 4, 5 & 6 (other brand) - one of each size!
-Brown short sleeve Hanes tee size 4/5
-Rabbit Skins tees, short sleeve, size 5/6 - 1 orange, 2 white
-Rabbit Skins tees, long sleeve, size 5/6 - 4 white
-Rabbit Skins mint green longall romper, size 18 mo - I'll also give this away if you pay for the applique (I've had it forever!)
-Burp cloth with the AC light blue chenille sheep on it - just add a name!
-Infant terry bib with light blue trim - FREE - you pay for a monogram!
-Rabbit Skins terry bib with turqoise trim - FREE - you pay for a monogram/applique!

Of course I also have white quilted bibs & diapers for burp cloths, and have 12 more white terry bibs with blue & pink seersucker trim (6 of each) - all blanks for baby gifts!

+2 white layette gowns

E-mail me for more info! rosemarygulledge@knology.net!!

Bama hat...

My blogger friend who requested this Fedora e-mailed me this cute picture of what she did w/ the design! I believe she got the "A" from http://www.stitchontime.com/ and shrunk it down. I think it's cute with the red!

I went to Walmart today and the shelves are full of short sleeve plain tees! There are a lot of boy colors including a cute lime-y green (also red, blue, white, navy, etc). The girl tees (toddler sizes) have the little gathered place up top and also came in several colors (I didn't see lime?). I guess if you need a long sleeve tee you may be out of luck? I haven't been to Old Navy and didn't check out the youth section at Walmart. I haven't looked at Target either. After all, it is still FREEZING in Alabama, so no rush on those I guess!! Supposed to be 60 Friday afternoon - YEAH!

New Designs and a January Sale!

We've just added 5 new designs to Applique Cafe! We're also offering $5.00 off your purchase of $20.00 or more through the end of the month as we add lots of new designs! The discount will appear in your shopping cart.

It really pained us to do this one, but it was a special request (HA HA)! Just kidding! Jeff is an Auburn grad but we did this one for the Bama fans anyway!! Luckily Hobby Lobby had this great houndstooth fabric! This one is done in 3 "sections" so that you can rotate the fabrics as needed (or not at all, just skip it). It's one final satin stitch in the end! You could also add the Alabama "A" (not sure where you get that?).

Here is a very simple train and I show it with initials and without. The sportscar and airplane have been great appliques, so this train is along those lines of simple and cute!

Lastly, the Tiara Frog! Shown on the right I left off the "dots" on top of the tiara. I think it looks like a crown? If you agree then you can use it for a boy too, with different colors of course. We're also working on a Birthday Frog!

I already have several new designs to test which will probably be listed sometime late next week. We've gotten tons of great requests so we're trying to work on those, as well as TRYING to crank out some EASTER!!

I've had several people e-mail me lately about Sew What Pro. I've been asked to compare it to other various merge software including the Monogram Wizard Plus upgrade that's relatively new. Honestly, I bought SWP a long time ago so basically, it's all I know! It was $65, I've used it so long that it's like second nature and I use it for EVERYTHING I do! All I know about the MWP upgrade is that is's over $100 I think and supposedly it will allow you to merge as well as add some new features to your existing MWP like moving stuff w/ the mouse, etc. I looked at http://www.needleheads.com/ last night and I couldn't find a bit of info on it?? I have NO knowledge of the other great softwares out there either (Palette, etc.). If you are just starting out and just acquiring all your software and stuff (and spending lots of cash), then I would recommend SWP b/c it's cheap and you can try it out for 30 days! That's my take on it, and again, one day they will pay me commission!! SWP: Here is a comment I got just now and wanted to share for those of you contemplating what to buy! "I have the mwp upgrade, and it's not that great! SWP is so much better...I downloaded the trial version, and used it a couple of times...I have PEDesign so I really didn't need it, but it will basically do everything PEDesign will do for a fraction of the price...I wouldn't recommend MWP extended features!"

There was something else I wanted to say, but it's left my brain... if I think of it I'll do another post... OH YEAH!!! I added a link to a new clothing line called Red Beans (link is on the left). These gals are in Baton Rouge I believe and Jeff & I worked with them on some of their applique designs! Their stuff is SUPER CUTE with some really neat and different fabrics! Not that I don't love Kelly's Kids, Ragsland and the 75 other clothes shows that are out there (they are all cute), but I like the idea of a new clothing line and getting some different stuff that not 5 other kids at your preschool are wearing too! Check it out: Red Beans! Tell Mollie I sent you!!