IHAN Machine Embroider Blog Hop - Anita Goodesign - and Giveaway

Welcome to the IHAN Machine Embroidery Blog Hop, sponsored by Anita Goodesign - DAY 5!

Today is SewCalGal's day to share insights with you on Anita Goodesign and host a sponsored giveaway.  But, before I do, I want to recognize and thank Kelly (IHAN) for hosting this Blog Hop and Anita Goodesigns for being a sponsor. I've certainly had fun visiting all the blogs in the hop this week as they've shared insights on spectacular designs, along with great tips, tutorials and giveaways too!  If you haven't yet visited all the participating blogs, here is the line up with direct links to their posts for this hop:

Mon., March 18th

Kelly - I Have A Notion
SewCalGal

Tues, March 19th

Cindy - Sew Cindy
Trish - AllThingsCrafty.com

Wed., March 20th

Marjorie's Quilting Bee
Margaret - The Average Quilter

Thurs., March 21st

Rebecca Grace - Cheeky Cognoscenti

Fri., March 22nd

Gene Black - Alabama Artist
SewCalGal (where you are today)

TIPS/Tutorials:
Earlier this week I shared tips, as well as a quick tutorial for multi-hooping.  I want to encourage everyone with an embroidery machine to try multi-hooping as it can be quite fun and there are so many more ways to use embroidery designs too!

How about taking a "part" of a purchased design?  This is very easy if you have software like EQ Stitch, or other digitizing software packages.  But you can still combine portions of many purchased machine embroidery designs even if you don't own digitizing software.  Consider printout out a design layout and cutting out the portion that you want to use, such as the Classic Cosmopolitan design in the Rachel's Recipe's Collections.

It is easy to tape together a print out of designs to use as a template.  Place this printout on top of a transfer medium for fabric, such as Saral Paper.  Rub along the outline of your design template with a hard, but not sharp tool, with the layer of Saral Paper and your stencil placed on topic of the fabric that you want to machine embroider on.  This technique can easily mark your fabric for where you want to place multiple hoop designs.  And, while your original design may include more stitching than you want to incorporate you can use the features on your machine in "edit stitch" mode, where you can advance and select what part of the design file you want to stitch out. Combined with techniques for multi-hooping (e.g. up/down, left/right, rotate) you can also easily get any design to replicate on your project.

This technique is also a great technique when you want to repeat a design on a large table topper, wallhanging, etc.  It is really easy to do. Give it a try on a small project like a table topper or wallhanging and you'll soon be amazed how easy and fun it is to multihoop (and also replicate a design).

Once your fabric is marked and hooped, before you begin to stitch, use your machine to align the placement of your design to align with the markings on your fabric. This can be accomplished on most machines by pressing the broken thread button and using the up/down, left/right, and/or rotate button whereby you periodically manually drop your needle down to check your alignment to where you want it to place the design on your fabric.  This may sound complex, but it really is easy. Give it a try. And, I'll try to get a more detailed tutorial released soon, or see if one of the very talented  Quilters with Modern Quilting Tools  can provide such a tutorial soon.

Anita Goodesigns:
Machine Embroidery takes on all forms, from monograms, easy and fun projects, machine embroidered clothing and quilts, elegant home decor projects and more.  Anita Goodesigns is a premiere machine embroidery design house that offers designs for those interested in machine embroidery for all skill levels.

As I enjoy stitching out fun projects that make for great hostess gifts, as well as creating items that are perfect inside of a gift basket for a fundraiser, I was drawn to "Rachel's Recipes" Design Collection.  Rachel is an in-house artist at Anita Goodesign and she also enjoys cooking.   You may want to check out her blog at www.ThePescetarianAndThePig.com

The Rachel's Recipe collection includes ten designs that have yummy recipes and a cute motif, perfect for embellishing dish towels.  You may want to try this set on any dish towel, an inexpensive tea towel, or on linen fabric that you can purchase at JoAnns or your local fabric store. The 18 page instructions that come with this collection provide insights on making dish towels using "Linen", and SewCalGal loved this approach!  The instructions were also well written and easy to follow, making it very helpful for someone that was new to machine embroidery.  

There are ten different designs included in this collection, each with a yummy recipe and cute motif.  They include:

- Blackberry Mint Spritzers
- Peanut Butter Pie
- Cinnamon chocolate Chip Cookies
- Honey Ginger Glazed Salmon
- Black Bean Corn Salsa
- Sun-dried tomatoe & Basil Pasta
- Fresh Guacamole
- Chocolate Chip and Toffee Brownies
- White Chocolate and Peppermint Fudge
- Classic Cosmopolitan

The designs require a hoop size of 6 x 10 or 8 x 12.  File formats support machines that use: ART, PES, EXP, VP3, HUS, JEF, DST, and XXX.  File formats are also included to allow those with larger hoops to stitch out a design in one hooping, as well as those with smaller hoops to stitch out in multiple hoopings.  Just be sure your hoop size meets the minimum hoop size for this design collection.

Here are a few examples of how this collection stitches out:







Did I Mention A Giveaway?
Anita Goodesign generously offered a prize for SewCalGal followers to choose one Special Edition Software Collection from Anita Goodesign. (A $99.95)  There are 15 to choose from....here are just a few choices:

If you want to win a Special Edition Software Collection from Anita Goodesign simply leave a comment on this blog post and let me know which Special Edition Design Collection you would like to win.  SewCalGal will randomly select a winner and update this post on Sunday Evening, March 24th.   You can also visit all of the stops in this blog hop as many still have giveaways open where you can enter to win a design collection from Anita Goodesigns, thereby increasing your chances of winning.

UPDATE:


Lucky number #3, Fiesta is the lucky winner of a Special Edition Software Collection from Anita Goodesign.


Anita Goodesign can be found at:
http://www.anitagoodesignonline.com/
https://www.facebook.com/anitagoodesignfan
http://pinterest.com/anitagoodesign/