Machine Embroidery Samplers Update

My blog with the most visits has been the one I posted on Embroidery Samplers. So I thought I would share with you this sampler that was made for me by someone very special to me and is my sewing buddy that lives in Tennesse. Oh how we wish we lived closer together to go to all the quilt stores and shows together. But we keep in touch with lots of e-mails and phone calls to share ideas and get suggestions from each other. And what fun it is to get surprise packages in the mailbox!!!

She made this using the “Happy Home Sampler” design from Embroidery Library that she purchase on-line. You can check out this design and other sampler designs at www.emblibrary.com. It is from the “Heart and Home-Saltbox Houses” department.  She sent it to me just as the sampler design on the fabric so that I could either make it into a pillow or frame it. I decided to frame it because when we visited her last fall, I saw the one that she had made for herself which she had framed and I just love it. So I took an old frame I already had and sanded it, painted it black, sanded it alittle more, and then stain it with antique aging gel. Our local craft supply store carries mats that you can purchase right off the shelf and their red matched the saltbox house perfectly. I also purchased an unfinished wood star that I painted to match the frame and placed it right above the picture. I really like how it turned out.

Also want to share a web-site I just discovered recently that specializes in country machine embroidery designs. It’s HeartStrings Embroidery and I have it listed here as a favorite under my Web-sites in the right side column. If you love machine embroidery and country decorating you will enjoy looking through their designs. They are very cute and the prices are very reasonable. I think I’m going to purchase the make-do designs.

Here is my three favorite places to find machine embroidery designs: Tattered Threads, HeartsStrings Embroidery, and Mad Woman Embroidery (You can get to their sites from here on my blog under the Web-sites.) Their designs are great to put on dish towels, pillows, pillowcases, curtains, placemats, table-runners, napkins, etc. and of course there are the samplers. Hope you check them out and make a country sampler or two!!