Anita Goodesign

I attended the two-day Anita Goodesign (I need a good design) event put on by Sew Contempo in Houston yesterday and today.  It took all my will power not to buy any of the designs or an upgrade for my Brother Quattro machine.  I realized that I had received a lot of free Anita Goodesign embroidery designs when I bought my Quattro and I had never sewn them out.    I think that if I sewed out every design I already have, I would never reach the end of them and I get more free designs everyday on the internet.  I had fun with the women at my table, and we sewed out five designs:  a bookmark made in the hoop, a zippered pouch made in the hoop, a standalone flower, a cut-work flower and a little in-the-hoop Christmas stocking.  It was informative to learn about how the In The Hoop designs work.  I have never used my Jumbo hoop and most of the designs were sewn on organza or fabric mesh stabilizer hooped in the large hoop for placement.  My favorite was the zippered pouch in the hoop but I would use a low loft batt instead of the high-loft batt they gave us.  The designs that I was tempted to buy were the very large designs they sew out in sections they call tiles and sew together like a patchwork quilt.  Someone told me that it does take forever to sew out these large designs.  Many of the projects were appliques with embroidery on top.  The designs looked beautiful sewed out on silk dupioni fabric and maybe I will try sewing on silk.  I think they will make beautiful pillows.