Martha's Newsletter

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Make the subject of the letter "sewing tip." Also we can use some more recipes with the subject of the letter being "recipes." We also love ideas about things you have sewn and ways you have creatively used machine embroidery. Please put these ideas under the subject "sewing ideas."

Our pastor, Dr. Jimmy Jackson, announced in church Sunday that May 6 is National Day of Prayer. There are so many national and international prayer needs as well as personal prayer needs present in this country at this time. There always have been and I believe there always will be. I just wanted you to know about May 6.

SEWING TIP FROM SUSAN PROFETA, ONE OF OUR STUDENTS AT THE DAYTON EXTRAVANGANZA A FEW WEEKS AGO

First, I want to thank you and your staff for hosting such a wonderful event in Dayton. I was one of the many that made the trip, and hope to be one of many to visit again and again! Anyway, I wanted to share a sewing tip for machine basting. As we all know, when gathering fabric from two or more rows of basting, one needs to pull the bobbin thread, as it is the "lazy" thread, just hanging around the bottom of the fabric. To make finding the bobbin thread super easy, I just change my bobbin to any color other than what I am using. It's easy to find, and easy to pull out. Just one caution - you may not want to use a very dark color on a very light fabric just in case the thread would leave any kind of mark!

Where else can I better spend $23.99? I receive hours of material to ponder and ideas that spark/challenge my creativity, not to mention the patterns included in each issue. And the Internet Embroidery Club is such a gift! Thanks so much for this magazine and your faith in God that you so easily share. One of my favorite songs is "God is good. All the time. He put a song of praise in this heart of mine." May He continue to bless you, your family, your staff and all of your intentions.

I am sharing the story of my "embroidered finger" with your readers, so hopefully they will not make the same mistake I did! I was embroidering a monkey on a little John John for Timothy. I was in a hurry to have it ready for him to wear to the zoo the next day. I decided to speed things up a little by clipping my threads while the machine was embroidering a different part of the design. As I was clipping, the machine jumped to embroider another part of the design and my finger jumped with it -- right under the needle. The needle went through my pinky finger and came out on the other side and broke. The thread was still in my finger and I literally had to cut the thread from the machine to be able to move my finger from the machine.

I was very fortunate that the needle went all the way through and then broke off. I only had to call my husband home from work to have him pull the thread the rest of the way through (it made me sick to look at it). It could have been much worse than it was. If the needle would have hit the bone or broken off inside my finger, I would have needed some type of surgery to remove it. I did have to get a tetanus shot, but that was all. I know all of us are in a hurry at times, but please don't ever try to clip your threads while your machine is still embroidering. It's not worth the time saved to risk hurting yourself like this.

I teach a children's sewing club that meets each month. I have saved the needle and thread and plan to bring it to our meeting and show them the scar and needle. They will probably think it's "gross," but hopefully it will teach them this lesson while they are still young. Thank you for allowing me to share!

I am especially thrilled about our brand new Yesteryear-Circa 1907-1924 machine embroidery CD which should be shipping by next week. Please click here to see close ups of each of the designs. I had several things in mind when I was choosing pictures from two sets of old magazines: The Delineator and The Modern Priscilla. The exact date of each picture is given inside the CD and they run from 1907-1924. You might sign each of the embroideries :"Delineator, 1923" or "Modern Priscilla 1907" if you wish to add the extra bit of history.

WHY DID I WANT TO PRODUCE THIS ANTIQUE PICTURE CD? There are several reasons. I wanted to have antique embroideries to send sewing messages via embroidery on a small piece of silk dupioni or solid quilting fabric or whatever fabric to frame for a mother, a sister, or a friend. These pictures I thought would hang in a bedroom, a family room a hall or a sewing room. These sayings would also be beautiful stitched on a little pillow top using one of our ready to embroider white linen imported pillows.

WHERE DID I GET THIS IDEA? Several years ago at one of our teacher licensings, the group made and presented to me a small embroidered picture on silk dupioni with one of our pretty bow, flower and dove embroideries in the middle with the words, "God is Love" in a beautiful script with 1 John 4:16 underneath the scripture. The embroidery then was in the middle of the picture. Underneath the embroidery were the words "and Sew is Martha." This little framed picture has never left my computer desk at home. I have even had to repair the frame because I dropped it. This machine embroidered 5" by 7" picture reminds me of my mission in sewing and in life and I deeply appreciate the groups thinking that I and my sewing represent God's love.

I. There are 3 beautiful antique angels on this CD. You might want to embroider an angel for a child or a baby with the verse below.

Angels are assigned to watch over children (Matthew 18:10) Here is an angel for Sophie, Houston, Garrin, Ward, or Benjamin

II. Another way to use the 3 beautiful antique angels would be to embroider a gift for a loving, giving friend or relative or mother or sister or nurse or caretaker for the elderly or otherwise informed and embroider the following:

"Angels protect the helpless" (Matthew 18:10) And sew does Elizabeth (or other name)

III. This verse, embroidered with an angel would be especially nice for a picture frame stitched on masculine fabric for a male pastor. For female pastors or female church workers it would be beautiful in the ecru silk dupioni or other silk dupioni choices or quilt fabrics.

"Angels serve believers" (Hebrews 1:14) And sew (or so) do you (or a name) (You might want to use the "sew" if the pastor sews or "so" if the pastor does not sew.)

IV. For your sewing friends, the sewing symbols are perfect for little frames and the following statements. There are two cats with spools of thread, an embroidery hoop with scissors, measuring tape, etc, two fabulous corner pieces made with a measuring tape and one with scissors and a spool of thread and the other with a pin cushion and a thimble; an antique treadle sewing machine, a woman stitching hand embroidery and a woman dressmaker with an antique sewing machine and a dress form. In addition to the scripture you might embroider (with one of the sewing symbols) these words,

Aunt Elizabeth reminds me of the Proverbs 31 woman. (Then embroider one of the pictures of the sewing woman in the middle. Then below the picture embroider) May God Bless and Keep You Always, Martha

"God's love is wide, long, high and deep" (Ephesians 3:18) And sew is yours (or Susan's, or Ruth's or whatever name)

"She makes linen garments" (Proverbs 31:24 And sew does Jinny (Kathy, Louise, Mary or Anna)

V. The antique children are completely precious. There are so many cute ones and various groups of boys and girls as well as individuals. You could embroider a set of these and frame them for a baby's nursery or for a child's room or for a parent's bedroom if their house is traditional. You might want to add the magazine or just the date of the picture at the bottom in machine embroidery.

There are several embroideries with different antique groups of children. You can chose which ever group matches the group of grandchildren, children or other children you love and make a group picture with the scripture. Here you can put either one child's name and one embroidery or put several and put embroideries with several children. There is a single picture of a sailor boy, a single picture of girl on a scooter, two little girls and one boy jumping rope, two girls and one boy or three girls eating lunch, two boys and two girls feeding a squirrel, one boy and one girl raking leaves, one girl and one boy going to school, one boy fishing, one girl and one dog.

VI. The baby New Year embroidery would certainly be fabulous to embroider anytime of the year for a baby born in the year putting the baby's name, date of birth and 2004 in big letters on the bottom. Maybe put "Our 2004 Baby" at the top before embroidering the name, weight, etc. What a beautiful birth sampler! This would also be beautiful on an imported pillow or on a quilted pillow using traditional quilting fabrics.

VII. All of these antique children and sewing women would be perfect to use in the inside of a quilted pillow.

VIII. For cat lovers, you might just embroider the cats and the thread and put the name of the owner's cat on the picture. Just think of a person who loves his or her cat so very much and I think you can make the perfect present for them on either a small picture or a center of a pillow. Maybe embroider:

"Evelyn loves Kitty (name of a particular cat) sew much!" or "Judy is all tied up with Kitty (name of a particular cat)"

IX. RED HAT SOCIETY WOMEN UNITE! This antique woman with a large hat I just had to have embroidered in red. Enough said. There are thousands and thousands of red hat ladies in this country and any one of them would love a picture of this lady with her name embroidered underneath it or must make a tee shirt embroidered with this lady or a denim shirt with this lady embroidered on the right hand side and your friend's name underneath the red had lady. Or embroider this lady all over the red shirt. Or down one side of the front or on the back yoke or anywhere.

X. The man and woman would be perfect for the bride and groom or for an anniversary picture with the names and dates.

XII. The Easter Bunny would be so cute on an Easter purse for your little one or on a little sweater or sweatshirt.

This last week's teacher licensing was beyond incredible! Oh, what a going away ceremony they gave at the bar be que at our house. The class had composed a song to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers with the words: "We are Martha's Stitches, Pedals to the floor, always using fabric, Send them out for more! Ready with our scissors, Marking pens and pins, Sewing to the finish, First one done will win. Kathy Okey-Dokey-ing, Dody teaching strong, Angela is pressing, yard and yards, so long, Penny at the ready, To rip out all our seams, Patty looking pretty, Meeting all our needs." They sang this song as the teachers all came in to gather around the group.

Several people in the group had made up an award to give to each class member. The awards were in little cups filled with M&M's and decorated with a red, white and blue ribbon. You may remember my telling you last week about Penny McLaughlin's son, Clint Martin, who has just been deployed to Afghanistan as a front line medic and transpiration specialist. Every person was called up for an award and a big hug from someone. Each teacher was given an adorable pair of "Cinderella shoes" with every student's name signed to the shoes.

Each teacher was given a special award. I received a big hammer, highly decorated with a feather boa and ribbons, called the "Stanley Award." (You might already know that Stanley makes hammers.) They said I got that award for helping them build their businesses. Wow! And that's not all. After all of the awards, they said they had something else for our staff. They pulled out the most gorgeous circular round quilt with patriotic fabric on the back and a circle of everyone's handprints with their names and home cities written underneath each handprint. I just had to show you this quilt which will hang in our office right beside my St. Jude pictures. I just cried when I saw this quilt. All week long they had been secretly working in the cutting room making this quilt. The group named themselves "The Piecemakers." I will treasure this week forever and forever.

We played. We prayed. We sewed all day. May our circle be unbroken.

Before we all left, Janet Grimsley, who sings as beautifully as Sandi Patti, sang a gorgeous song sharing about hanging on to God for decision making, getting us through many situations and other beautiful words. Needless to say we were teary eyed. After she finished this beautiful song I asked her to lead the whole group in God Bless America which we all stood and sang. There were several cancer survivors in this group. Donna Marcum has been in the hospital for several surgeries this year and coming to licensing was something she was looking forward to all during her difficult year. Joanne and her husband John are moving to an incredible retirement cottage back home in New Jersey after having lived 20 years in Celebration, Florida.

This group shared very intimately about joys, troubles and dreams. Peggy Ann, a Bernina dealer from New Hampshire shared so many ideas about how teachers can really help a dealership and about how she works with her teachers. The list goes on and on. Venese from Austin, Texas closed the speeches for the night saying that she came to Alabama to learn about growing her sewing teaching business and she was leaving with new best friends and a spiritual renewal in addition to two books of beautifully developed curriculum sheets.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I loved having this group of licensed teachers to come and sew and plan and sew and share. I love teacher licensing so much. There are simply not words to tell you what happens during one of our weeks of teacher licensing not only in sewing but also in building a business or growing an already existing business.

May 8 is the 5th birthday of our granddaughter, Cecil Elizabeth. She is Joanna's first child and only daughter. Beautiful, tiny little Cecil looks exactly like her beautiful mother and acts very much like me. She is a mover and a shaker personified. She loves her little brothers and tells them what they can and can't do. She is named for me. Some of you might not know that my middle name is Elizabeth. You have watched her grow up in Sew Beautiful and our other publications and she will continue to model for many years to come. Cecil loves horses and has her own horse, Ruby, at her Mississippi grandparents' house. She had a My Little Pony birthday party at Rocket City Gymnastics. Happy birthday, little Cecil with the big blue Pullen eyes. May God grant you many more birthdays and thanks for the joy you have brought to our lives.

Please come to our message board to visit. Such fabulous people and such fabulous educational ideas and sharing. Kathy from Central, Ohio wrote,

THIS IS THE WEEK to register for our Martha's Machine Embroidery, Quilting and Sewing Market in Arlington, Texas, June 3-5, 2004 to get your discounted tickets. The total cost for each day of this fabulous event is only $17 per day, LESS if you order your tickets early (by May 10, 2004) and get discounts! Please call Diane Bradshaw at 800-547-4176 ext. 109 or 114 to register or get a class schedule mailed to you. Please go ahead and register. As all of you know you can also purchase tickets at the door but they will be at the $17 dollar a day rate. It is still a great bargain. If you are a ticket holder you will be eligible to purchase a ticket to attend our Special Quilting Event featuring Caryl Bryer Fallert on Friday, June 4 at 6:30 pm. Her lecture is entitled "New Work: Inspiration and the Creative Process."

By the way, we have filled all the places for the "Sit and Sew" with Kathy McMakin and me on Wednesday, June 2, 2004. If you are interested in adding your name to the waiting list, please contact Diane.

For those of you who do not subscribe to Sew Beautiful, you might want to do so today after you read about the FREE subscribers machine/hand embroidery club which comes 6 times a year to subscribers over the internet. Click here to find out about this subscribers club and to subscribe to Sew Beautiful at the sale price of only $23.99 per year.

It is TIME to register for our July School of Art Fashion, July 19-25, 2004! The four day school is July 22-25 with the pre-day classes beginning the 19th of July. We have teachers from all over the world teaching not only machine work but also hand work. We have quilting classes, kid's sewing classes and tons of new classes. People who love to learn about sewing always want new classes. Some people have come to our February or July School of Art Fashion over 20 times! We have new classes every year and it is so much fun. One of the reasons that people can afford to come over and over is that our school is such a great bargain. We give fabulous kits, lunches, a banquet meal, two other night meals, plus supply the world's best teachers for only $650 for adults for all FOUR days!

Click here to see the whole school schedule for our Martha Pullen School of Art Fashion, July 19-25, 2004. We would love for YOU to come! There is at least one opening in all of the classes except the Jenny Haskins class. It is full but we always take waiting lists. Please call very quickly if you want to come in July. I think there are only 2 places left in the kid's classes also. We are going to have the school of a lifetime here in Huntsville in July.

We are also accepting registrations for Martha's Quilt Trail in September. Please call Diane Bradshaw to register or to get brochures mailed for your quilt guilds and/or for you. These brochures are ready. Once again, if you use your charge card to pay for this event it will not be charged until August. As you know, registrations are limited at all of our events. The total tuition for the Quilt Trail (which includes one day in Tupelo as well as three days in Huntsville with the world's most famous teachers) is only $150 for four days of lecture/demo classes.

We have three more Martha's Sewing Extravaganzas left this year. We are accepting registrations even though the brochures are not finished yet. Please call 800-547-4176 ext. 105 to register with Sis or to request that a brochure be mailed to you as soon as they are ready. These are our fabulous four day "sit and sew" events with fabulous kits. These extravaganzas are very similar to the school in Huntsville with all of the sit and sew classes, the evening activities and the fabulous teachers. One is in Tucson: Martha's Southwest Sewing Extravaganza, September 29 - October 2, 2004. Then there is Martha's Quilt Extravaganza, in Pasadena, November 10-13, 2004, followed by Martha's Orange Beach (Alabama) Sewing and Shopping Extravaganza, December 1-5, 2004, where we will sew all day and then go to the fabulous and famous Foley, AL, outlet malls at night for Christmas shopping!

Guess what? We are even having a little bit of hand work in both the Martha's Quilt Extravaganza in Pasadena and at Martha's Orange Beach Sewing and Shopping Extravaganza. What do you think about that? The Tucson, Pasadena and Orange Beach Extravaganzas are all underwritten by Husqvarna/Viking. The brochures are not ready for any of these events but if you want to sign up to be assured of a place, please call 800-547-4176, ext. 105 and speak with Sis Hutchinson, our director of the Martha Pullen Schools. You can also request a brochure to be mailed to you by e-mailing sis@marthapullen.com.

The Internet Embroidery Club is a GREAT bargain! It costs $59 per year and your signup bonus is an antique quilt alphabet, circa 1920, digitized both in full color and also in redwork. 52 embroideries! You will also get (the minute you join) access to all of the designs and other goodies back through January, 2004! Every month you get discounts on Martha Pullen products as well as on the designated club CD's. You also get antique pictures, poems and articles from my old magazines concerning sewing and fashion from the turn of the last century. Many people print out the photos on fabric and use them in quilts or pillows. Some use them as pictures. Many people keep a book of all of the articles and antique pictures for the year.

If you belong to the IEC you will get all of these new CDs for only $54 rather than their regular price of $90. Even for the IEC members this incredible sale lasts only for the rest of the calendar year. In 2005, the regular price of the new 2004 CDs from Martha Pullen Company will go back up to $90. I see comparable designer name CDs from other companies selling for $100 to $150. We believe our designer CDs are a real value especially if you belong to the IEC. IEC members also get monthly sales on other items. Can you afford not to belong? To learn more about the Internet Embroidery Club please click here.

Speaking of the IEC, with May's designs you have already received 18 designs for the year and this is just May 1! In May there is the most adorable baby design with a baby holding a bottle with ribbons and little baby things intertwined in the ribbons. Then, we have the little pacifier (really tiny), the little duck, the little bonnet and the little rattle embroidered separately for you in both full color and redwork. These are tiny enough to be embroidered in between the buttonholes on day gowns or on other tiny baby clothes. And stay tuned for your Mother's Day special design!

I will be at the Viking Convention this week and it will be so exciting to see all of my friends and all of the new products. I will have lots of news to share with you next week from Chicago. It is a great privilege to come to your home each week and I'll see you next week with news from the windy city and Viking/Husqvarna. Please know that I love each of you with the love of the Lord. I know many of you are going through very difficult times this very day, and please know that I pray for my newsletter family many times throughout the week. Hang on to God during difficult times as well as good times. He has never failed me yet.

LT-P6WB 13" x 18" pillowcase Price - 6.00 SALE @ 25% OFF = 4.20 13" x 18" linen hemstitched open end baby pillowcase.


LT-9716 Linen Hand Towel 14" by 22" with drawn thread hemstitching with padded stitch dots at one end. Price - 8.00 SALE @ 25% OFF = 6.00 It makes a great machine-embroidered shower gift for a new bride!

L-2/640 - Insertion Price - 5.25 SALE @ 25% OFF = $3.94

L-2/634 - Edging Price - 6.50 SALE @ 25% OFF = 4.88

Silk Ribbon Treasures is a treasure chest of designs that every smocker and embroiderer needs. It has full sized girls dresses sized for 2-14, Silk ribbon alphabet, 22 smocking plates plus 18 other designs to be used on linens and other home dec projects. (156 page soft-cover book, 32 full-color pages)

SALES (at least 50% off) ON BOOKS WITH 18" DOLL CLOTHES PATTERNS For those of you planning to enter the All Dolled Up for St. Jude Contest, here are more books with 18" doll clothes patterns. You can have each book for at least 50% off.

SALE PRICE STILL IN EFFECT FOR SEW BEAUTIFUL MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION! THIS SALE PRICE INCLUDES YOUR FREE MEMBERSHIP TO THE SEW BEAUTIFUL INTERNET EMBRODIERY CLUB WHICH COMES TO YOU SIX TIMES A YEAR! The price for the subsciption as well as the FREE subscriber club is only $23.99.THIS SEW BEAUTIFUL INTERNET CLUB IS DIFFERENT FROM OUR INTERNET EMBROIDERY CLUB!!! WE HAVE TWO INTERNET EMBROIDERY CLUBS!.

Click on this link (Sew Beautiful INTERNET CLUB) to read complete details about the brand new Sew Beautiful subscribers Club! SAVE 35% off the newsstand price by subscribing and get MUCH, MUCH MORE IF YOU SUBSCRIBE! Don't forget about ordering the Sew Beautiful 2002-2003 Video for $9.99 if you subscribe. Don't forget, we need your e-mail address for the club. You can call 800-547-4176 ext. 115.

INTERNET EMBROIDERY CLUB! MORE THAN $300 WORTH OF MACHINE EMBROIDERY DESIGNS, PLUS TREMENDOUS DISCOUNTS ON DESIGNATED EMBROIDERY CDS! ALL FOR ONLY $59!!! Click here for IEC details!

MARTHA'S MACHINE EMBROIDERY, QUILTING AND SEWING MARKET IN ARLINGTON TEXAS - JUNE 3-5, 2004. Martha's Machine Embroidery, Quilting and Sewing Market is June 3-5 in Arlington, Texas. Our pre-day sit and sew, June 2, 2004 is full. Please call 800-547-4176 ext. 109 or 114 to sign up for the market. Or e-mail diane@marthapullen.com

MARTHA'S QUILT TRAIL - Please put Martha's Quilt Academy (third big year) on your calendar for September 10-12 in Huntsville. This year we will have a Quilt Trail with a one day event in Tupelo, Mississippi on Wednesday, September 8, before our quilt academy in Huntsville. We will have a Quilt of Dreams Academy (September 8) in conjunction with Hancock Fabrics. Our celebrities for that special day in Tupelo will be Alex Anderson, Ricky Tims and Jinny Beyer. Our preday classes in Huntsville begin on Thursday, followed by the 3 day academy (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) with Debbie Mumm, Lynette Jensen, Alice Berg, Sylvia Johnson, Mary Ellen Von Holt, Velda Newman, Brenda Papadakis, Barbara Randle and Laura Wasilowski. CLICK HERE FOR INFO

MARTHA PULLEN EXTRAVAGANZAS! TUCSON, PASADENA AND GULF SHORES/ORANGE BEACH, ALABAMA CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS!!!

MARTHA PULLEN LICENSED TEACHER WEEKS The next machine groups (which have openings) and dates are as follows: Pfaff, May 23-29, 2004; SERGER Licensing, Sept. 17-23, 2004 (full); Viking, Oct. 13-19, 2004 (almost full) ; SERGER Licensing, Oct. 28-Nov. 3, 2004; Teaching Beginners, Jan. 9-14, 2005; Bernina, Jan. 17-23, 2005; Viking, Feb. 15-21, 2005; Viking, Oct. 4-10, 2005; Babylock - Oct. 18-24, 2005; Janome, Jan. 10-16, 2006. Call 800-547-4176 ext. 107 or 108 to get more information. Or visit our licensing info page: Licensing Link

TO CONTACT US BY PHONE: 800-547-4176 ext. 2 or 256-533-9586 TO e-mail ONE OF OUR DEPARTMENTS, choose from this list:

SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK (AND PRAYER BY DR. JAMES. H. DAUDRILL, JR. -used with permission- http://www.PrayersAtWork.com) – II Corinthians 9:8

As I read Dr. Daughdrill's prayer I thought that I need to pray this prayer. Sometimes the faster I go the more hurried I get and the dizzier I get trying to get things done. Some never get done and I wonder if I slowed down a bit if twice as much would not get done. I pray that God will give me more balance in my life. I certainly never want to be idle but I need to concentrate more on important things and less on trivial things. Sometimes I just tackle the "ankle biters" first rather than tackling, in some type of systemized order, the critical things. I need to work on what needs to be done and leave some of the things that I am currently doing, to others or left undone.

RECIPE FOR THE WEEK BY JANET GRIMSLEY, ONE OF OUR NEWLY LICENSED BEGINNING SEWING TEACHERS, FROM KANSAS

1 large can pink lemonade (frozen)
2 cans water
1-2 quarts raspberry sherbet
2 liters sprite or 7-up

Pour all together and let the sherbet melt somewhat. Enjoy.