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SEWING TIP OF THE WEEK I. Hand Sewing Tip: Paige L. Mize When you want to reverse a smocking plate (example have a cow face east instead of west) copy the smocking plate on overhead film then simply flip over the overhead. Amazing- you have a reversed design! This is great to do on a front opening garment so that both pictures can face inward. II. Machine Sewing Tip: Becky Hournbuckle (I work for and teach classes at Nostalgic Needle Works in Mobile, AL) One of my favorite stabilizers is Stitch & Ditch. I teach beginner sewing classes and this trick has helped my students to have better control while learning different techniques. Use a small piece at the beginning of a tiny seam, especially when starting a French seam. The feed dogs don't know they are not feeding fabric and everything goes smoothly through, even 1/8" seams. No fabric getting sucked down through the thread plate!!! By tearing the paper from side to side away from the seam there is no stress placed even on delicate fabrics. We also use this to stabilize buttonholes and on the back side of hand guided machine embroidery projects. Inexpensive but effective. I LOVE IT!! PERSONAL LETTER FROM MARTHA Dear Friends, What a joy it is to celebrate being an American this week! At our church we have a living flag celebration; we enjoyed it so much last night. After you read about the miracles God had for Suzanne last Friday night in Africa (in the scriptures part of this letter), you will know why tears ran down my cheeks when the choir sang patriotic songs and I realized not only the freedoms but also the quality medical care we have in this country. When the choir sang "God Bless America" I realized perhaps more than ever that He has. In thinking about this land of opportunity called America, I wonder how many of you wish you could have your own sewing business? I can remember like it was yesterday when I told Joe, "I still want to teach sewing and have a sewing business. I would rather try and fail than not try at all." With God's and my family's help, I was able to see my dream become a reality. One of my main purposes, at this time in my career, is to serve as a mentor to other women (and men) who dream of earning their living in the sewing industry. From our recent e-mail survey we discovered that many of you want to come to become Martha Pullen Licensed teachers. It has been a joy to see many of our licensed teachers return home to increase their already established businesses or to start a new business as a Martha Pullen teacher. Some have done more with their licensing than others, but that is life. If you become a Martha Pullen Licensed teacher you can teach Martha Pullen classes anywhere in the world. You are a Martha Pullen licensed teacher as long as you live. You will be teaching Martha Pullen licensed classes if you teach the 9 projects we have developed and the nine square heirloom quilt. Several of our licensed teachers are teaming up and traveling to other towns doing Martha Pullen Seminars. We have a Pfaff licensing October 2-9, 2001 and we have a few openings. It is no secret that Pfaff has a brand new machine being introduced at the Pfaff convention the last week in August! Our Pfaff licensed classes can be used for the newest machine as well as other machines. By the way, you do not have to have a top of the line Pfaff to come to be a licensed teacher but you do need to own and love a Pfaff machine. Many of our licensed teachers have been able to open teaching doors and make very good money using our licensed classes as their curriculum. Why does becoming a Martha Pullen/Pfaff Licensed teacher open doors for you? If you are a Pfaff dealer or employee of Pfaff dealership reading this letter, you might want to consider sending one of your best teachers to this training if you want to generate even more excitement for your dealership with the new machines this upcoming season. In the new business book, "Brand Warfare," David F.D'Alessandro, CEO of John Hancock, writes, "Everything else becomes subservient to the brand. Because no matter how well you do these other things, consumers will never notice if there isn't an appealing brand out in front whistling for their attention. Business theorists are now talking about the emergence of the "experience" or "entertainment" economy, in which the most successful companies no longer sell goods or services, but instead sell an experience. And the experience of purchasing anything is richer if you buy a good brand, since a whole host of pleasant associations, by definition, accompanies that brand. Because consumers have so many choices today, there is no reason for them to buy anything that doesn't give them enjoyment. Strong brands are simply more enjoyable to buy, so you'd better have one if you hope to compete." Our licensed program in October is for Pfaff one of the largest and strongest sewing machine companies (brand names) in the world. I believe that the Martha Pullen brand represents quality sewing education and has for 20 years. We (Martha Pullen Seminars and Schools) have had thousands of students in our classes for 20 years. Martha Pullen books and lesson plans are renowned for their quality, excellent instructions, and clearly illustrated "how-to's." For the new group of Martha Pullen/Pfaff Licensed Teachers, you will take home two of the world's most trusted and respected brand names to have as yours to keep forever - Martha Pullen Brand and Pfaff Brand. Becoming a licensed Martha Pullen teacher means to prospective students that Martha has trained you and you are using Martha Pullen designed curriculum and methods. It also shows that you have chosen to pursue continuing education to become the best sewing teacher that you can possibly become. Why not talk to your local Pfaff dealer and see if he/she would not like for you to teach Martha Pullen classes in his/her store? You can also teach anywhere you want to teach, not necessarily in a Pfaff dealership. For those of you who are Pfaff dealers, having a Martha Pullen/Pfaff licensed teacher brings students in the door. Each licensed teacher is trained not only in heirloom sewing and serging, but also in facilitative and encouraging teaching methods and in relationship and selling methods. Many people who would be excellent teachers have never had teacher training methods which make her or him exceptionally successful in the sewing classroom. Have you ever analyzed why some sewing classes are fun and some are awful? We have been doing that for over 20 years and we believe we have lots of ideas in answering that question. We can train you to be equipped for success in your sewing teaching. We have a few openings in the Pfaff licensing program for October. If you want your own business and you love Pfaff, this is the time to make the investment and let us prepare you for your own business. We have a few openings in the Bernina licensing for January 11-17, 2002, and a few for the Viking licensing for February 15-21 ,2002. Please call Kathy McMakin at 800-547-4176 ext 108 to get more information. Many of our licensed teachers are still in full time jobs in other areas of employment. They get their business licenses and begin their dream of earning their living teaching sewing. Our goal is to start them on the road to success with the tools they need or to help them expand their businesses in sewing education. It just seems to be easier to open doors with two brand names and a credential to go along with your already wonderful skills and your dreams. If you love Pfaff, this is the time to come on to Alabama and become a Martha Pullen/Pfaff Licensed teacher and begin building or growing the sewing business of your dreams. Let me close this teacher licensing section with another quote from Mr. D'alessandro. "What hasn't changed between the generations of people is their attachment to certain brands. If anything, over time, consumers seem to be growing more attached to brands, not less. Good brands do three highly significant things for stressed-out consumers: 1. They save time. 2. They project the right message. 3. They provide an identity." Won't you join our October Pfaff class or our Bernina or Viking classes next year? We would love for you to come. I am thrilled to tell you that our very first quilt book will be ready for shipping no later than August 15!!! The title of the book is Martha's Quilts. It has 17 complete quilts in the book as well as 2 pillows. There are 3 complete 9 square heirloom quilts from our television series, "Martha's Sewing Room." There are many other darling quilts and many different techniques. Most of the quilts have wonderful machine embroidery built in! The book has about 120 pages with pattern sheets folded in the back of the book for templates. The price is only $19.95 plus $5 shipping. You can place your order right now with toni@marthapullen.com and we will ship yours in August. We are thrilled about the price of only $19.95 for 17 quilts and 2 pillows. By popular request, we have pulled two quilts from books which are no longer in print from Martha Pullen Company for this book. The shadow applique quilt has blocks with memories from a little girl's life. I chose events from Joanna's life. Each block commemerates events such as birth, first tooth, first word, first recital, first step, first birthday, and so on through marriage. It could be for a little boy also but you might have to add a couple of blocks and leave out a couple which are there such as first recital. By popular request we have also included the appliqued Mother Goose quilt from one of our out of print books. This new quilt book has everything "quilty" from traditional pieced wall hangings to 9 block heirloom quilts with every imaginable technique in the blocks. Just wait until you see the heart heirloom 9 block quilt and "Blue Danube," which is also a 9 square heirloom quilt. We have wanted to write a quilt book for a long time and we believe this one is sure to please. I believe you who belong to the IEC ( internet machine embroidery club) are going to be "beyond thrilled" with this month's (July) machine embroidery design. The original design is an antique cutwork design from one of my old magazines. We have it digitized for you in the original cutwork manner. In addition to the traditional "outline" cutwork stitching manner, we also have it digitized in a traditional filled-in machine embroidery manner while still being cutwork. In other words, I believe you will feel like you have received two designs rather than just one! If you want to join the IEC, you can get all of the designs for the whole year, the Victorian Flower Alphabet, and the designs for the rest of the year as they are posted around the first of each month. The total cost for the year is $59, and you can join by going to the secure web site form at http://www.marthapullen.com or by calling 800-547-4176 ext. 104 and asking David to sign you up. We have received many e-mails telling us that this new Sew Beautiful magazine is the best one we have ever produced. It is jam-packed with beautiful projects from heirloom sewing by machine and hand, to women's fashion sewing and fitting with computer generated fitting software to women's heirloom sewing and embellishing to a hand embroidered picture with stumpwork hand embroidery. We belive that Sew Beautiful has over $600 worth of patterns and designs in the magazine. We believe that it is the most value-packed magazine produced in the world today. We belive that is a living history book to be saved for the next hundred years about the sewing world as it exists today. We have the patterns to go along with the ideas and we want you to subscribe! The subscription for this over-$600-worth-of-patterns is only $27.95. To subscribe, call Cindy at 800-547-4176 ext. 116 or LaTonya at ext. 115. We have a 100% money back satisfaction guarantee so I think you have nothing to lose if you want to try Sew Beautiful. If you are not pleased with this magazine, we will refund your money on any unmailed issues immediately. Don't forget that Sew Beautiful subscribers get several items at special sale prices 6 times per year. If you subscribe to Sew Beautiful, this issue features sale prices on several special purchase Victorian eyelets as well as sale prices on the 18" doll clothes. Please go ahead and subscribe to Sew Beautiful!! Or give it for a gift to someone who loves to sew. You can read below a preview of what is in the current issue. The baby dolls have been ordered as well as their "play with" dresses and pantaloons which will come with each Gotz baby doll. Of course a book of "beautiful" doll clothes patterns will come with each baby doll. They will begin shipping around October 15 and we will let you know when we are ready to begin taking orders and numbers for these dolls. We have quite a wonderful group already signed up to go to London at Christmastime with us! Please go to the web site to see the itinerary of the trip of a lifetime, and please think about going with us. London is my favorite city in the whole world, and I love to take friends to "my places in London." The school is in a couple of weeks!! We can't wait. Nearly everything is already ready. The only thing we lack now is you, the students, who are coming for the sewing vacation of a lifetime. Drive safely or fly safely and get ready to sew and sew and sew and have so much fun. We will love being at the civic center with plenty of room. For those of you who have asked, the retail store will be at the civic center also! Come on to Alabama!! We are waiting for you. Thanks for letting me come see you every week in your home. I appreciate each of you more than you will ever know. In His Grip and Knowing Without a Doubt that God is GOOD! Martha FOLLOW THESE LINKS FOR INFORMATION ON EXCITING MARTHA PULLEN EVENTS! The Internet Embroidery Club - FREE designs and SPECIAL SALES! http://www.marthapullen.com/EmbroideryClub/index.html New Inspirations CD - Only available for Embroidery Club members 'til the fall http://www.marthapullen.com/EmbroideryClub/embclubCD2/clubCD2.html Teacher Licensing - Slots are filling fast! Check it out. http://www.marthapullen.com/Licensing%20Pages/teachlic.html Bonnet Kits - Heirloom projects simplified - Great Directions! http://www.marthapullen.com/Web-bonnets/bonnetguide.html Elegant Sewing for Baby - A runaway bestseller thanks to you! http://store.marthapullen.com/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=1293&category_id =2 Sew Beautiful Talent Search - Print out the forms to enter! http://www.marthapullen.com/SBContest/Official.html Anna Garrin's Baptismal Gown - Check out the sketches! http://www.marthapullen.com/books/aggown.html Sew Beautiful Subscriptions - subscribers get discounts on catalog items in every issue! http://www.marthapullen.com/sewbeau/pmag.html The London Trip - London at Christmas time - Join us for the time of your life! http://www.marthapullen.com/london2001 The West Coast Sewing Extravanganza - You can see the classes and teachers here! http://www.marthapullen.com/schools/calschooletter.html Martha's School of Art Fashion - July is here! See the classes and teachers on our website- http://www.marthapullen.com/schools/School.html PREVIEW OF BRAND NEW SEW BEAUTIFUL WHICH IS MAILING SOON!! The new Sew Beautiful is gorgeous. Anna Garrin is on the cover in her gorgeous smocked silk duipioni and embroidered dress by Cheryl Davidson. Gail Doane did a lovely article on matching smocked dresses and duplicate stitched sweaters. Dana Littleton smocked the most adorable smocking plate I have seen in a long time. It shows four little children jumping rope. Angela Pullen designed and Daralyn Elkins stitched a gorgeous pumpkin patch smocking plate. Lisa Meyer Briscoe smocked a great geometric design on a tartan plaid back-to- school dress. There is a fabulous photo shoot by the Queen City Chapter of SAGA from Cincinatti. Janet Marshall designed a precious boy sweater for duplicate stitch called Slippery salamanders with 5 lizards - sure to please any boy. There is a cute halloween applique. You are going to love the Sunday school diaper bag pattern on the centerfold designed by Donna Marcum. Joanna has one of these Sunday school diaper bags for both of her babies. Wonderful hand and machine embroidered collars are designed by Sandra Glenn. Sue Johnson designed the turn of the century little girl dress (sized 12m-4) which you can embroider by hand or machine. The complete pattern is on the centerfold. In our Sew Fun for Kids section there are pieced applique t-shirts designed by Jo Leichte. The hand embroidery for kids is a bookmark with backstitch hearts. Sue Says has a complete dictionary of techniques for double needle pintucks. Connie Crawford has an article on making a custom dress form with paper mache - to fit just you! There is a very informative article on Wild Ginger Software's Click and Sew perfect fitting patterns. It tells how Click and Sew patterns work. (You know we have a children's line of Click and Sew coming as soon as possible.) There are some gorgeous women's dresses stitched and embellished by Connie Palmer. Carol Laftin Ahles has a wonderful article on machine hemstitching. Lynn Weatherhead designed a gorgeous Victorian blouse with not only the instructions for recreating this beauty but also the pattern sized 4-20 on the centerfold. Janet Luce designed a gorgeous stumpwork hydrangea basket picture. Complete instructions for stumpwork by hand are included. To complete the handwork portion of the magazine, Janice Stewart created a tablecloth with drawn thread and lace squares. Carola Russell of Canada created the most elegant machine embroidered/serger flatlocked, patchwork vest in shades of ecru with pink, green and lace touches. One size vest pattern is included on the centerfold; but you can use your own vest pattern and use her fabulous techniques. PLEASE SEND ME YOUR SEWING TIPS AND RECIPES! My personal e-mail at the office is marthap@marthapullen.com - Please send me sewing tips and recipes. I love getting them and best of all sharing them with lots of other people on this list. You are the greatest e-mail friends anyone could ever hope to have and I do appreciate each of you so very much. Try not to use info@martha pullen.com - you will get a quicker reponse by using the list below. Save these email addresses! orders@marthapullen.com (for order questions) FOURTH OF JULY WEEK SALE! ONE WEEK ONLY! JULY 2-8, 2001 To celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, I am offering, for one week only, as a fireworks sale, an extra dress of your choice (a value of up to $18, depending on the dress you choose - please note that dress style #22 is out of stock) with the purchase of a Dress Me Joanna, Dress Me Martha, or Dress Me Mary doll for only $79 plus $7 shipping. Of course all three dolls come with a "play with" dress, a book of doll clothes, shoes and panty hose. This sale will be for ONE WEEK ONLY!! When we get down to less than 100 of each doll, the price will go up from the regular price of $79. This is the week to begin your Christmas shopping very very early. SCRIPTURES FOR THE WEEK Suzanne’s Emergency Surgery Friday Night in Cotonou, West Africa Psalm 22:19 Psalm 23:1 Suzanne had an emergency appendectomy in Cotonou, West Africa, Friday night about 6pm. John, Suzanne and the children had traveled to Cotonou to spend the night before they boarded the plane to Paris and on to Singapore. Suzanne had not been feeling well on the trip down to the capitol city but she went on to bed. About 3am she awakened in horrid pain. They called Judy Miller, our IMB administrator, and she immediately came to the guest house. Judi stayed with the children for the rest of the night. They called their African pediatrician, who is an excellent French trained physician, to ask her what to do. Their African pediatrician told them which hospital to go to and she also called the best African surgeon to come to the hospital. They began to run tests in the middle of the night. The pain subsided a little by morning and they prayed that Suzanne would be strong enough to board their already scheduled flight to Paris on Friday night at 9:30pm. She would have been in Paris by early morning, Saturday morning. About 2pm the most horrid pain of all came to Suzanne. She knew she would not be able to wait until 9:30pm and fly all night to get to Paris. God’s miracles abound once again - we serve a mighty God who is able to meet all of our needs. Miraculously, there were two American physicians in Benin who had finished a short term medical mission and were also scheduled to fly out on that 9:30pm flight with John and Suzanne and the children. Dr. Bill Bailey, a surgeon from Bozier City, LA, was one of the two physicians. He went to the hospital, immediately canceled his flight to go home, and they began to seek permission for Dr. Bailey to operate. He would not be allowed to do the surgery alone but could assist in the operating room according to the hospital authorities. Our IMB mission board is the world’s best. After realizing that they could not get Suzanne to Paris, the board had a four passenger private plane ready to leave Togo to fly to Benin to get Suzanne and take her to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, which has the best hospitals in West Africa. Suzanne told them she was in too much pain to fly anywhere. When they found out that Dr. Bailey could assist, she assured John that she would be all right. The IMB personnel in Richmond got in touch with me and I was able to call John on Judi’s cell phone at the hospital. John was so upset and said, “Call everybody you know and get them to pray. God has an American surgeon here in Benin and he is going to be allowed to assist the African surgeon. He will not leave Suzanne during the surgery.” He told me about God’s miracle of having Dr. Bailey in the country and about how he had canceled his trip home and would be staying until Monday to see that Suzanne was OK. What a blessing that my business is a place of prayer. We all gathered in a circle in the warehouse and David McMakin prayed the most beautiful prayer that I have ever heard trusting God for taking complete care of Suzanne. Nearly my whole staff was there with me in prayer. Suzanne came through the ordeal (and it was truly an ordeal), and the appendix was not ruptured as they originally had thought. There were even mosquitoes in the operating room! They kept giving her a quinine drip after the surgery because they said she also had malaria. We praise God for his miracles, once again, for our children in Africa. Please pray that God will continue to heal Suzanne and that she will not get infections or have any complications. I talked with Suzanne Saturday morning They hope that the board will allow them to go on to Singapore Friday night and go into their training a week late. Her e-mail today says that they are not going to be able to go to Singapore since she is simply not feeling well enough to make the 36 hour trip. I know without a doubt that God planned and organized that Dr. Bill Bailey would be in Africa on Friday, June 28. God allowed John and Suzanne to be in Cotonou and not an 8 hours bumpy drive away when she had the attack in the middle of the night. Can you imagine driving 8 hours over those awful pot hole roads while having an appendicitis attack? God sent all of our IMB missionaries to care for the children and to stay at the hospital with them throughout this whole ordeal. God had a private plane ready to fly her to Abidjan if she had been able to get there. God even let the phone work from America so we could talk with them every time we rang the number of the cell phone. Once again, the Lottie Moon offering furnished all of the services that had to be paid for to see that they got the best medical care possible. Dr. Bill Bailey paid his own way to be there in Africa and I am sure had to pay for his ticket to be changed. I thank you so much for your prayers for Suzanne and for your prayers for Christopher after he was bitten by the rabid dog. Your e-mails telling me you were praying for Christopher meant so much to me. I read them all. I sent some of them on to John and Suzanne via e-mail so they could know how many people were praying for Christopher. Please don’t stop praying for complete healing for Suzanne. God is so very good. His miracles are ever present. By the way, Christopher's dog bite is well now and he is completely OK. Romans 8: 28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. RECIPE OF THE WEEK GRILLED ONIONS - (great for camping or in the back yard) 6 med. onions Go to: Martha's Home Page Go to: June 25 Newsletter Go to: June 18 Newsletter Go to: June 11 Newsletter Go to: June 4 Newsletter |