It's just a number on a calendar, but the new year usually brings with it a desire to regroup and reorganize. Tired of looking for designs you know you have but can't locate? It just isn't any fun anymore. With the sheer number of embroidery designs amassed, the task of organizing them... [More]

Sometime last year I wrote about using a small tabletopper as an easy, casual cover for sewing machi [More]

The first day of winter has officially arrived on the calendar even though it doesn’t look like it o [More]

Have you ever wondered whether it matters if you first trim the top or the bottom of your machine embroidery work? It’s best to trim the top first, so that when you trim the back, you can gently pull on the bobbin tails to secure the trimmed thread end inside the fabric for a neater appearanc... [More]

With that title line, I am thinking that there are hundreds and hundreds of things they won't tell y [More]

Finished!  And with a little time to spare. We decided to just button down the sides instead of sewing them.  It will make removing it from the table and folding it up for storage a little easier.  Kate got to see it during the final fitting since she is doesn't talk much and is t... [More]

Perhaps one of the greatest attributes of machine embroidery is its versatility. Embroidery can easily stand alone or, when combined with pieced blocks, become a personalized second-dimension embellishment.   The Blocks I fussy-cut four 6.25-inch blocks from a striped fabric (I used Jackie... [More]

OK.  It is the Thursday before Christmas!  A few weeks ago my daughter showed me a picture of a playhouse made from felt.  It fit over a card table.  Very cute and felt is easy to work with. So I planned one for the girls for Christmas.  When I showed my drawings with the me... [More]

  Snowman Sweatshirt Jacket     Being a cold natured person, I love making jackets out of sweatshirts.  They are warm and comfortable. This is one that would be perfect for the child in your life. (Adults would love it also.)   To make the jacket, you will need: Sw... [More]

If there is anything that all embroiderers have in common, it must be pride of workmanship.  No [More]

A couple of weeks ago, when we were out and about, my oldest granddaughter saw some college girls sp [More]

After asking several digitizers the all important question - "tell your readers that it takes a [More]

Handmade cards show extra appreciation. This one says, "Thanks for Being an Angel," and include [More]

Working with Metallic Thread At this time of year, we seem to have more need to use metallic thread than any other time. If you find that you struggle with this thread type, try some of these solutions. When shopping for metallic thread, buy the largest spool you can afford. The larger the spool di... [More]

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You either have a kid who hates bath time or loves it.  Why not try to make your kid’s time in the bath a little more fun?  How about sewing them a personalized animal towel/bathrobe that is all their own?  Have a look at the Critter Kids Bathrobe Design Pack to make a special t... [More]

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Stumped as to what to get your favorite quilter, embroiderer, or craftsperson? Hate the idea of Black Friday chaos? Shop from the convenience and comfort of home, 24 hours a day, any day of the week, on AnntheGran.com. Here are some suggestions. (If fri... [More]

I think its time to start some of the projects I want to do for the holidays.  I usually wait too long to actually accomplish them as things get very busy as December draws near. Dakota Collectibles has a new “Merry Christmas Ornaments” collection that combines free standing lace a... [More]

          Do you ever embroider small lettering that seems to disappear completely in to the fabric? Sometimes it seems that there is more thread on the underside of the material than on the top! There are some simple things you can do to make sure that your small lett... [More]

So here's the thing---I didn't get any sewing done in the last couple of weeks.  I was getting ready for and attending the Houston Quilt Festival for the last two weeks, and this week I was playing catch up the whole time.  So when faced with a little deadline for this blog, I... [More]

While I live in La Mesa California (adjoins San Diego) now, I lived in Phoenix for many years. I am [More]

     Individual characters (letters, numbers and punctuation marks) from my alph [More]

The new Merry and Bright collection from Amazing Designs incorporates blinking lights with embroidery for an adorable holiday accent unlike anything I've ever seen.   Ten eyelets are embroidered within 14 different designs. Eyelets are then cut out for placement of 10 LED Fabric... [More]

Nothing like needing something at the last minute to make your heart race a little, right?  A f [More]

Christmas is just around the corner and gift cards are the perfect one-size-fits-all. Who couldn't u [More]

I am sure that a lot of you have been touched in some way by *** cancer.  Whether it being Yourself, or your Sister, or your Mother, or your Friend.    While we wait and hope for a cure, there can be many ways to keep our hands busy & our hearts tender.  The Cancer Scrapb... [More]

I kept thinking about my last project that failed.  I am always excited about presenting projec [More]

Applique is usually reserved for embellishing clothing or quilted items. Unfortunately, that doesn't allow for much face time. Holiday applique is especially vulnerable to a short shelf life. But by it's very nature, applique is perfect for holiday decorating where it can be v... [More]

There are many kinds of bobbins available to us for embroidery, but and there is no single answer to the best bobbin type for every embroiderer or every machine. There are metal, plastic  disposable, plastic reusable,  cardboard and sideless. Bobbins also come in colors. Colo... [More]

Our baby girl just loves shoes, anyone's shoes will do.  She brings them to be put on and clomps around, falling about every other step.  She carries them around hugging them like they were baby dolls, pushes them in her stroller and throws them in the trash (then wants them ... [More]

I’m not going to dwell on the fabulous lunch that we Central Florida machine embroiderers enjoyed a week and a half ago. Well, I MAY dwell on it, because it WAS fabulous. First of all, there were 24 of us, including four husbands, two of whom are into machine embroidery. You can find lots of p... [More]

Welcome to the AnnTheGran Community! Many people know AnnTheGran.com for free embroidery designs, and that's great, but now the site offers so much more. If you've just been using my site to get free designs, you've been missing out! If you have a question about anything related to you... [More]

Can you believe that July is almost over?  We have the strangest weather here this year.   One day it’s about 100 degrees and the next it barely gets into the 70s.  The month has breezed by filled with gardening (my tomato plants are all dying and I don’t know why), g... [More]

HH Fellow MEers!!, HOW are you doing???!!! I’ve missed hearing from you !!! Warning….(If you want quick and easy and lots to do with embroidery…skip this blog and wait to read my next one that I will be posting very soon.) (Sorry on my part because Chatty Cathy wasn’t ... [More]

Thanks for responding to my request for what you wanted to talk about!  Endless Hooping was the [More]

       Individual characters (letters, numbers and punctuation marks) from [More]

I've been invited to Blog about quilting for ATG. I’ve used LaRueSews as a nickname because I do all kinds of sewing. But maybe sometime it will change or morph into something more "quilty."* My name is LaRue Jones. (LaRue is spelled with a big "R"). I was born in ... [More]

Time flies, doesn't it? First I had a house full of kids. Then I had a car full of kids. Then my nephew in Tallahassee had a boat full of kids. Then I had a car full of kids again. Then I had no kids. Then I got on an airplane and spent 4 days in Kentucky with my youngest grandson, 3 1/2, who sa... [More]

Expanding Bookshelf Hard to believe, but it's only been four months since my inaugural post here on the Magic Bookshelf. I've covered blogs, wikis, digital scrapbooks, tags, product ratings, and lots of other topics, and some great ideas have come back from you. The idea of this blog was to... [More]

Now, what is all this about green paper?  This was my initial thought when I first heard the term KIWI paper.  Oh, its paper and you can supposedly embroider on it.  We've all done that before but it is so hard to find really fun designs that don’t ruin the pa... [More]

Here it is July already. Where in the world has the year gone? One place it went was lickedy split right by me and until today I hadn't seen any of my grandchildren since Christmas, two of them since before Christmas. But today was delicious. DD's 3 oldest are in Florida for the month with t... [More]

Needles           General Information:  The low [More]

With so many gorgeous designs available in machine embroidery, why choose Cross Stitch?  Don’t Cross Stitch designs take forever to stitch? What about all those thread changes and jump stitches that need to be clipped? These are all legitimate questions for machine embroiderers. My name is Don... [More]

Digital Hugs  People are really starting to have some fun in our community. Many of you are taking advantage of some of the great features that make it possible to really share yourselves and the results of your creativity. A number of you have commented on the blogs and fo... [More]

Size matters if you have a design that’s 5 inches wide and your largest hoop is 4 inches wide. Size matters if you want to make a border along the edge of a tablecloth. Size matters if you want to combine two or three designs, each the size of your largest hoop, into one big design. Firs... [More]

Hello, all ME blog readers.  I got to know many of you at this year’s Community Circle in Orlando. If you were there and don't remember me, there's a picture of me on our About Us page. I also post from time to time in the forums under my username db1921 and I created the cof... [More]

A while ago I nudged y'all a little about forming local "Community Circles" so you could get together once in a while to have lunch, chat, make projects and generally help each other out. Believe me, it was NOT my doing, but the "How many live in Central Florida?" thread has ... [More]

This one's for you, DaddyWhen I was small we didn't have a lot of money. Sometimes I don't think we had any. As time went on my parents incomes improved. But they didn't really change their lifestyle very much. Oh, the year I left for college they did carpet my bedroom (which had bec... [More]

HH ME’ers!!!, (Hello Hello, Machine Embroiderers)Just back from a glorious trip to the beach. Yeah!!!! While there, I came to the conclusion that before I take another embroidery class in order to blog about it,I needed to …… Whoa! …… Stop!......... & GET ORGANIZED!!! I needed to:1.  &... [More]

Having trouble thinking of what to write about this week. I know, those of you who have attended any [More]

Hooping 101   Initially, I thought I might be able to discuss hooping in a single blo [More]

Hear Ye’ Hear Ye’ …STOP the PRESS ….  The ULTIMATE Beginner’s Project is………….. LACE!! HH ( Hello Hello )  all you fellow ME’ers!!! I have been shopping up a storm!... and MEing too…. Speaking of shopping, Ann’s store has some good specials right now!!!!! Have you gone to her ‘shop' ... [More]

It feels as if I was just packing for this trip and here I am home again! Bill and I had a fabulous time in Toronto. First and foremost it was a delight to have a 3rd annual "Spring Fling" with our dear friends Loes and Theo van der Heijden from the Netherlands. Second, it was wonderful to... [More]

Recent Brainwave   Believe it or not, it only occurred to me very recently that, with all the wonderful things available on our new site, we had never actually asked our loyal users where they want us to go next. I’ve told you on my blog here what we’ve planned, but I haven’t asked you w... [More]

Worth Waiting For?  Well, so much for posting every week to this blog! I hope you'll allow me to claim vicarious blogging as an excuse -- lots of my time lately has gone into getting our two new guest bloggers (and a few more who you don't know about yet) up and running. Cathy'... [More]

Hi, folks,  Had another great question in last week's post from gpleasant, who asked how to hoop towels, under and over. I can tell you how I hoop towels. Bath towels are as liable to be viewed from the back as from the front, so I want both to look good. That means two things. First,... [More]

When a group of embroiderers gather, one subject is certain to come up . . . . . stabilizers  & [More]

  Digitizing Mystery  I began digitizing alphabets eight or nine years ago. I like doing it and I take a lot of pride in my work. You can imagine how distressed I was when I began receiving a few messages telling me that the capital and lower case letter "A' was appearing as a b... [More]

HH (Hello Hello!) Fellow Embroiderers,  How are ALL of you??? What things are you doing these days???!!!!! How many NEW embroiders are out there like me. (I stitched my 1st design last week. Yeah!!!). It would also be interesting to find out who has embroidere... [More]

Introduction:  Tips and tricks and an occasional trap 5/10/08   Because I so enjoy ta [More]