SEWING TIP FOR THE WEEK

Next time you need to trim away a seam allowance let your serger do the work for you. This works particularly well on interfacing which needs to be trimmed before it is applied to a facing. Remove the needles from the serger. Measure the amount needed to be trimmed from the edge of the knife blade to determine which guide mark to use. Run the fabric through the machine and trim off the extra seam allowance.

Julie Bowersett, Virginia

PERSONAL LETTER FROM MARTHA

Dear Friends,

We have had an incredible week with the graduation of a beautiful group of Martha Pullen/Husqvarna/Viking Licensed Teachers. I had a wonderful birthday celebration last week with the ladies. When I arrived in the classroom, they sang "Happy Birthday" to me and presented me with the most beautiful birthday card, in which each student had written a short greeting. After I got home that night I read all of the greetings. Words are so important in a person's life. Each of these messages lifted my spirits and made me so thankful that I am in the sewing business. Joe sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers with the words, "I love you more each year." Those words meant everything to me on my birthday because that is exactly the way I feel about Joe. My children called me or came to see me on my special day, each telling me that they loved me. I saw several of my grandchildren on my birthday. My staff all hugged me and told me happy birthday. I cannot think of a more wonderful birthday than having family, sewing students, business colleagues, and friends greet me with kind words. I am reminded in the scriptures that what comes out of our mouths indeed reflects what is in our hearts. I need to always remind myself to be very careful what comes out of my mouth.

I thought my actual birthday was the total birthday celebration. Saturday night the whole group of newly-licensed teachers came to our home for dinner and a visit to my tiny, tiny REAL attic to see my antique clothing collection. Little did I know that this new group of Martha Pullen Husqvarna/Viking licensed teachers had another birthday surprise planned for me. They, very secretly, all left the table after dinner and I was told by Margo to stay where I was. They staged a little setting in the living room and I was given a scepter and crowned Queen Martha with a "golden" crown they had made. Before I was officially crowned, they passed out birthday party hats, noisemakers and those birthday roll-out "blow" toys. Each of our new Martha Pullen teachers came by to wish me a happy birthday and present me with a gorgeous long stemmed red rose to place in a vase. We made about a thousand pictures and they then pronounced that Joe was the king and he came in for more pictures.

The week was filled with a lovely group of women becoming very close friends and planning and dreaming about their Martha Pullen businesses. Mama came over for lunch on Friday, we had an elegant banquet at the Heritage Club, we had professional photography with the teachers, the Viking educators and me for them to use in publicizing their classes, and we sewed until we dropped from early morning until late evening. This group is setting up an Internet club where we will keep in close touch and everybody gets the e-mail letter when one writes to the group. Isn't the Internet fun?

It is so exciting to have a brand new group of Martha Pullen licensed teachers to begin their businesses in teaching heirloom sewing. If any of you are interested in becoming Martha Pullen licensed teachers we have several dates every year and we have programs for several different sewing machine companies.

Kathy McMakin and I will be traveling to the Pfaff convention in Las Vegas this week. I arrive home on Friday and John and Suzanne and the children are to arrive the next night. We are looking forward to learning about the new Pfaff machine and to seeing friends from all over the world at the convention. We are also looking forward to the Pfaff teacher licensing here in Huntsville October 2-9! We have a few places left in this Pfaff licensing and we would love to have you come! If you would like to know more about any of our teacher licensings you can call Kathy McMakin at 800-547-4176 ext. 108 or e-mail her at mcmakin@marthapullen.com

I have several funny things to tell you that happened this week. Joanna took Cecil for the "get to know your teacher" morning for her pre-school at Faith Presbyterian Church. Joanna was going to bring her over to the school to meet the ladies so she put on her beautiful Wendy Schoen dress which she wore on the cover of Sew Beautiful about a year ago. It is made of handkerchief linen with shadowwork embroidery and lots of pretty lace. As Joanna was leaving, the teacher reminded her that children get dirty at school and please send her to school in play clothes. When she was dressing Cecil that morning, she insisted on wearing her brand new light-up white tennis shoes, which come up to,the ankles like basketball shoes. I thought you would like to know that she wore that gorgeous Wendy Schoen dress with light-up tennis shoes!

On the afternoon that we were having professional photography done with each of the teachers, I was working pretty hard trying to make my hair look nice and to put on lots of make up. When I finished "fixing" my hair, I took a little bottle of spray and sprayed it on my hair. Joanna and I had bought little bottles of a spray which is supposed to make your hair shine. I noticed that my hair did not shine after I sprayed the bottle and I put on my glasses to read what was on the bottle. Instead of picking up the bottle of "hair shine" I had sprayed lens cleaner for eyeglasses on my hair. Nothing drastic happened but oh! how I miss my vision without glasses! I would like to thank the American Sewing Guild members who came to Huntsville for our big day following the convention for all of the beautiful cards you sent. Joe and I have read every one of them and you were so sweet to take the time to write to us. The beautiful words you wrote to Joe and me uplifted both of us. Joe has worked so hard in this business over the last 20 years; he is so happy to be retired from dentistry and working full time in the business now. I might add that his full time position is unpaid and he is president of our company. The pleasure was certainly ours to have the ASG group in Huntsville; we loved every minute of the day. If you do not know about the American Sewing Guild would you please go to their web site and find out about the chapter nearest you. It is one of the greatest organizations in the sewing world and I love the ASG.

I have been thinking about back-to-school sewing a lot. I have also been thinking about so many of your guilds that are involved in volunteer sewing for those less fortunate. You do not have to belong to a guild to do volunteer sewing as so many of our friends have reminded me. In our new baby doll dressing book, which will come with each Gotz Baby Doll purchased, there are two sizes of baby doll clothing. Both of these sizes (the 16" and the 21") can be used for preemie clothing. Probably the 16" size will be best for preemie sewing. Every hospital in the country needs beautiful baby clothing for babies who die and for babies with nothing to wear home from the hospital. If you are willing to make some of these gowns, just call the nurses in the nursery at your local hospital and they will be glad to receive your gowns and to find just the right family to whom to present your gift of love.

Our most exciting business news is that the new Quilt Book, "Martha's Quilts," is here and ready to ship. If you haven't already ordered, please call Toni, 800-547-4176 ext. 117, and we will get your order processed. It is a fabulous book with many different types of quilts, many of which have machine embroidery. The price is only $19.95 plus shipping. There are three nine-square heirloom quilts as well as 14 other quilts. The women who were here this week went crazy over the new book! I hope you love it as much as they do! It really does have some gorgeous quilts, including quilts from three series of Martha's Sewing Room, our TV series for PBS. If you know anyone who would like to receive this free e-mail newsletter, please tell them to go to www.marthapullen.com and sign up. If you think your guild would like to know about this newsletter, please make this announcement at the next meeting or have the free newsletter information put in the newsletter. Thanks a lot.

Thank you so much for allowing me to visit with you in your home each week. I look forward to writing this letter more than you will ever know. May God Bless You,

Martha

PLEASE SEND SEWING TIPS AND RECIPES

We always like to use our reader's sewing tips and recipes. Please share your favorite by sending me a note entitled "sewing tip" or "recipe" to marthap@marthapullen.com Let me thank you in advance for doing this.

I WILL PRESENT A STARTING YOUR BUSINESS SEMINAR in Huntsville

"How to Start a Business Seminar" - at Whitesburg Baptist Church's Women's Conference, September 20-22, 2001 in Huntsville, AL. I will be doing an hour-long seminar on both Friday and Saturday on starting your own business. If you are interested in more information about this wonderful Christian women's conference, please call 256-881-0952 (that is the church number) and they will be happy to send you a brochure. The name of the conference is 2001: A Faith Odyssey. The cost for the conference is $75 if you attend the concert with Chandra Pierce (a Christian comedienne) on Thursday night. If you only want to attend the classes on Friday and Saturday, the cost is $60.

INTERNET EMBROIDERY CLUB NEWS

For those of you in the IEC, there were two special surprises put up last week: a second digitizing of the cutwork design with just outlining, and your very first antique picture to download and print out. I purchased this picture in England and the date reads 1914. It is the cutest little girl holding an umbrella with lots of antique toys surrounding her. I especially love her blue and white striped knee socks and her tremendous bows in her hair. The final "sew outs" of our Christmas CD (available only to the Internet Embroidery Club members for four months) have just arrived. They are gorgeous!!! Our new Christmas CD will be ready for IEC members to purchase around September 1, 2001. Members will be informed by a special letter. This is the time to join our IEC if you have not already. Please go to http://www.marthapullen.com and sign up. If you join the IEC, this Christmas CD, which is fabulous, will be available to you for only $49 rather than the regular price of $90 beginning in January 2002 for non-IEC members. You get so many goodies just for joining, and then the whole year's worth of designs to download. You will also get special rates on our new embroidery CD's and other Martha Pullen catalog specials. You also get antique illustrations, articles about sewing and fashion, and antique articles about sewing over the last 100 years. I think you will love the IEC. Please join today for only $59 for the whole year of membership. You can also call David at 800-547-4176 ext. 104 and he will sign you up. A membership in the IEC would be a great Christmas present for those of you who have friends or family who love to sew and embroider.

TO CONTACT US

To contact one of our departments, choose from this list:

orders@marthapullen.com (for order questions)
subscriptions@marthapullen.com (for Sew Beautiful subscriptions)
embroidery@marthapullen.com (Internet Embroidery Club questions)
editorial@marthapullen.com (for Sew Beautiful content)
schools@marthapullen.com (for School of Art Fashion)
licensing@marthapullen.com (for teacher licensing questions)
markets@marthapullen.com (for our sewing markets)
tours@marthapullen.com (for our trips)
sewingroom@marthapullen.com (for sewing questions)
marthap@marthapullen.com (for personal letters to Martha Pullen)

NEW CHRISTMAS SEW BEAUTIFUL MAGAZINE IS BEYOND GORGEOUS!

Please go ahead and subscribe to Sew Beautiful so you will be in on the second mailing of this most beautiful Christmas issue ever!! Your new Sew Beautiful magazines should begin arriving very soon. I love this Christmas issue and it is filled with gorgeous projects, wonderful Christmas photo shoots and lots of techniques. The cover dress is modeled by my granddaughter, Morgan Ross and features Sue Pennington's (we have the book with the pattern) dress with cathedral lace windows on the front of the lapel. There are Theressa Borelli paper dolls of Morgan Ross on artist's paper in the center of the magazine. One of the paper doll outfits is the cover dress. The dress is made of dark green silk dupioni for Christmas. There is a fabulous photo shoot from Joy's Creative Sewing in Decatur, Alabama featuring 27 beautiful smocked and French sewn outfits for boys and girls for the Christmas season. So many wonderful ideas!! There are three complete patterns in the magazine. A woman's nightgown sized 6-28, a pair of slippers, and a woman's cape. There are five gorgeous christening dresses with either embroidery or technique ideas. One is by Gail Doane; other artists contributed the others including one which was made from a wedding dress. Marcia Pollard has another very tailored suit featuring machine embroidery. There are two Christmas stockings, an advent calendar, an adorable Christmas appliqué for a skirt and a no sew holiday ornament. Wendy Schoen has a gorgeous sculpted lamb dimensional appliqué with little hand embroidered flowers around the neck and the grass underneath. Jeannie Downs Baumeister has a gorgeous embroidery design for a baby dress. There is a fun kid's Christmas embroidery project. Would you believe four gorgeous hand-smocking designs? Two by Annette Shelton and Sue Johnson are embroidered on velvet Christmas dresses. For your final Christmas sewing, there is a beautiful 18" doll dress by Janice Stewart which would be the perfect Christmas present underneath your tree with a Dress Me Martha, Mary or Joanna doll from Gotz-signed and numbered by me, of course.

SEW BEAUTIFUL CD AND NEW VIDEO OFFERS!!

We are so excited about the new Sew Beautiful subscription offer! At the time you either renew or subscribe, we are offering a CD which includes 10 machine embroidery designs of my antique collection, 5 Lindee Goodall machine embroidery designs, 21 of my antique garments photographed with details and 6 of my antique pictures ready to print out for framing or photo transfer onto fabric for an extra $4.99. If you already have some time left on your current subscription, you will need to renew at the time you order your CD. This will just extend your subscription for another year. The new video is also available for $9.99 (includes shipping) if you want to order it at the same time you renew your subscription or get a new subscription. You choose to purchase either or both of these offers after subscribing to Sew Beautiful for $27.99 for the year's subscription. Both of the special subscription offers will be shipped in September, 2001. Please call 800-547-4176 ext. 116 or 115 to order your subscription plus the special offers. Cactus Punch has digitized all 15 of the machine embroidery designs, and three companies have underwritten this special CD making it affordable for us to offer to Sew Beautiful subscribers. Thanks to Cactus Punch, Sulky of America, and Martha Pullen Company for underwriting this CD. You can also e-mail cindy@marthapullen.com to subscribe. Be sure to include all of your details in the e-mail. E-mail us for information concerning international costs on these specials. Prices given in this paragraph are for US subscribers only. International subscribers need to e-mail cindy@marthapullen.com to get her to send international subscription and mailing prices. Remember, you must renew or get a new subscription AT THE TIME YOU ORDER YOUR SPECIAL OFFERS; CURRENT SUBSCRIBERS WILL HAVE TO RENEW TO GET THESE SPECIAL OFFERS. The price to be able to order these special offers is $27.99 plus $4.99 for the CD plus $9.99 for the video. No other special subscription price offers can be used if you order either the CD or the Video or both. You can order just the subscription alone; the subscription plus the CD; or the subscription plus the CD plus the Video.

DRESS ME BABY DOLLS!! SHIPPING LATE OCTOBER!! ORDER NOW FOR LOWEST NUMBERS POSSIBLE!!

The Dress Me Gotz baby dolls are ready TO ORDER! Delivery will begin mid to late October, 2001, but many people like to get their orders in so they will get the lowest possible number. I personally sign each doll and each doll is numbered. We have four baby dolls - Sarah, Alex, Sydney and Rebekah. Please go to the web site http://www.marthapullen.com to get more information on the dolls and to order. Or call 800-547-4176 ext. 117 or 119. Your credit card will not be charged until the week the dolls are being shipped. Each doll will come with a "play with" day gown and pantaloons plus a wonderful book of baby doll patterns so you can make gorgeous clothing for your doll. The dolls are 21" and 16" tall. They are gorgeous and so much fun to play with! The dress me baby dolls pattern book has so many adorable patterns. There are many day gowns - smocked and French sewn. There are boy outfits as well as girl outfits. I figure that the Alex and Sydney dolls can be either a boy or a girl depending on which you want it to be. There is a gorgeous doll day gown which has a Madeira applique border on the bottom and the most spectacular doll christening gown with curved puffing on the skirt. Actually many of the doll clothes from this book could be adapted to baby clothes if you want to. The smaller size doll clothes can also be used to make preemie clothing for babies. I think you will really like the doll clothes pattern book coming with the baby dolls.

DRESS ME MARTHA, MARY AND JOANNA DOLLS!!

Don't forget that the Dress Me Martha, Mary and Joanna dolls are almost gone. Please order yours if you have not already. I don't want you to be disappointed when they are gone. They will not be re-ordered. The cost of these dolls is $79 plus $8 shipping. You can see all of the dolls by going to http://www.marthapullen.com. Mary, Martha and Joanna also come with a "play with" doll dress and a book of beautiful doll patterns ready for you to sew her some really beautiful clothing.

SEW BEAUTIFUL TALENT SEARCH

I am so excited about our Sew Beautiful Talent Search and I hope you are planning to enter. There will be inexperienced seamstresses entering along with the very experienced. Anyone can enter and we encourage all of you to give it a try. There are so many categories from which to choose: 18" doll clothing to children's and baby's clothing. By the way, you have plenty of time to sew before mailing in your entries. The entries must arrive in Huntsville between September 15 and October 1, 2001. Many of you who enter the contest will have your garments featured in Sew Beautiful, and we can't wait to see your creativity. Please go to http://www.marthapullen.com and print out all of the entry forms and rules for the contest.

SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK

Isiah 55: 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

We indeed felt the Lord's presence during this school this week and we had many opportunities to share His goodness with many people. I thank God for answered prayer even when it is not answered in the manner I requested. God is sovereign and He alone knows what is best for my life.

John 15:12 and 13 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

We are commanded to love each other as Jesus loved us. I marvel when I think that Jesus died for us because he loved us so very much. I think each of the women who came here this week to become Martha Pullen licensed teachers learned that the most important thing one can do in teaching sewing is to love the students, to listen to the students, to encourage the students and to help the students. Throughout my teaching career, both school and sewing, I have found students who responded to much love and caring. I believe this is the best way to teach anything, and my ultimate dream for all of our Martha Pullen Licensed Teachers is that they would know how to treat the students with love while sharing the joys of gorgeous projects, interesting and creative techniques, and their own friendship. We all have 27 new friends after this week to treasure the rest of our lives. To me sewing represents love. Love of creating something beautiful, and love of making something for someone we love are two of the most important cornerstones of sewing education. These teachers have a love of teaching or they would not have been at this school learning how to become licensed teachers.

I certainly pray for a safe journey for all the women as they travel to their homes and for a safe journey from Africa for John, Suzanne and the children. John begins his world mission conferences the first week he arrives home. By the way, his name is John Crocker. I wasn't sure that all of you knew his last name. Possibly he will be speaking at some of your churches since he has a full schedule of speaking during the 11 months they are home. Suzanne and the children will be home schooling in Atlanta. They will join John whenever possible for the speaking engagements. Her parents, John and Nancy Laramore, are also missionaries in Africa and will be home for furlough at the same time John and Suzanne are home. They will also live in Atlanta. Can you guess how excited I am about their coming home for furlough?

RECIPE FOR THE WEEK

Dear Martha: I just thought about sending you a recipe for a favorite sandwich in our house.

1 tube of a refrigerated style French Loaf bread
sliced corned beef ( I use close to a pound)
sliced Swiss cheese
Sauerkraut

Take the COLD French Loaf and open it out on a greased (sprayed) cookie sheet. Spread mustard (I use a sweet honey mustard) and Thousand Island dressing. Layer the corned beef, Swiss cheese and kraut down the middle. Fold the sides over and spread the top with butter or margarine and sprinkle with garlic salt. Bake in a 350 degree oven until it is a nice golden color. Slice on an angle and serve. The men will certainly come back for seconds. God Bless you Norma Whiting

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