Greetings, friends!
Once again, I have been truly humbled by the sheer numbers of you who took time to consider and respond to my last post. I received hundreds of e-mails from well-wishers as far away as South Africa, Korea and Australia, all with essentially the same message: we wish we could join you! Some wonderful stories too, a couple of which even brought a tear to my eye. I had absolutely no idea how many of you out there actually listen to what I say! Scary thought...
Brotherly Love
The news has started to leak out about my big announcement, so I might as well let you in on the secret if you haven't heard it yet. I will be announcing at Community Circle and on my site next week my very strong endorsement of the Brother PE700, which really is just a wonderful machine for embroiderers, at a price point that the budget-conscious among us can afford. Those of you who know me know that I've been a Brother user since day one (counting how many people to whom I've taught Brother 
machines and software makes me feel old!). Anyway, we'll have some folks from Brother there demonstrating and answering questions about the machine, and Eileen and I will both be using the PE700 in all of our classes. We will have several machines available for purchase, and, as a little personal touch, Eileen and I will be signing any machine that is purchased at the event. I also hope to be doing a little demo of my own of the PE700 that we can get on video and post on the site so you can see just how deep my love goes for all things Brother!
Beamish Blog
I'm pleased to say that my beamish boy has not been too busy toiling away helping me prepare for Orlando to write another informative post, this time about posting photo to what he calls our Digital Scrapbook, the area of my new site where our users can show off photos of all the beautiful things they have created. Please take a moment to stop by his Magic Bookshelf blog and keep yourself in the know.
New Project - Ruffled Crib Quilt
I also got a great new project submission from Leanne Jenkins, a relatively new embroiderer Down Under who was recently blessed with a new grandchild and wanted to share her "first attempt at something other than tea towels and oven mitts" with our community. I'm sure you'll agree when you take a look at Leanne's Ruffled Crib Quilt that she deserves to be commended for her efforts! Remember that you too can share your favorite projects with our community; all the details are here.
Hasta La Vista
So, for those of you who I'll be seeing in Orlando, see you next week, and for those of you who kindly shared your thoughts with me about why you couldn't be there, I'll be thinking of you, and hoping that we'll catch you next time around!
Keep filling your creative space!
Ann