September 09: Letter from Lindee
Well, September’s almost over and I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted to this site. September means back to school for kids and it’s also a time when many of us start firing up our sewing machines again. It’s been a crazy month: traveling, digitizing, teaching, writing… Find out what’s been going on and what’s coming up for October.
Baby Lock Tech
At the end of August, we took off on a road trip half way across the country to St. Louis, where I taught a class at Baby Lock Tech. I’ve taught at many sewing machine conventions over the years but this was my first at Baby Lock. A little smaller than some of the other companies but just as creative and definitely more friendly. And more fattening. Those people know how to serve up snacks and breaks! They sure don’t skimp on the chocolate!
After the convention we visited with some other friends and business partners in the St. Louis area to plan some future events. The soonest of these is a series of seminars called Embroidery Made Easy along the west coast. More on that in a future post.
Bee Sew-Inn—The World’s Largest Baby Lock Dealer
On the way back to Arizona, we stopped by Bee Sew-Inn in Oklahoma City. We arrived just in time to see the first demo of the new Sashiko machine by Baby Lock. This is truly a unique machine, there is no other like it in the world. What does it do? It makes a stitch that looks like a perfect hand-quilted stitch! How cool is that??
By the way, Bee Sew-Inn stores are amazing places to refuel your creativity. Even if you don’t own a Baby Lock machine, stop in. They’re known for bringing in interesting and unique teachers. Plus, their variety of samples is sure to inspire a spark of creativity in anyone.
Planning a New Program
Next, we stopped by the beautiful home of Brian Bailie, perched on the side of a mountain in New Mexico. As storms rolled through the area, we sat on one of his covered decks and worked on plans for a new embroidery program. I’m really excited to be working so close to the programmers during the development phases. I can’t tell you much more about now. Very secret. But you will LOVE it!
Home Again
Finally after 10 days on the road, we arrived back home and I’ve been scrambling ever since! Doing what? Well, I digitized a collection for Dalco. (Not my artwork, but very cute!) Created two new collections for my own company, produced a pattern, and taught some webinars. Also working on some new training materials.
Two New Collections for Generations Users
I learned (more like still learning) another digitizing program, Generations, which I have played with in the past but finally got serious about it. What took me so long? Well, first it’s a Windows program. I just really have to have my arm twisted to do Windows. Secondly, it requires me to totally rethink how I digitize. Not sure whether that is good or bad but it’s always easier to stick with what you already know.
The only real way to learn a new program—any program— is to have something real to do with it. And of course, it was my friend Gary who once again dragged me into something new.
If you have Generations, you may have played with the Building Blocks. These are (usually) smaller design elements that you can combine and modify to create your own unique project. And isn’t that why we got into embroidery in the first place? We wanted to be creative and have fun doing it at the same time. We didn’t want to spend a lot of time and effort to create something new and interesting.
Well, Building Blocks do just that and I just created two groups. The first one is a group of 20 flowers, some on the realistic side and some more “generic” or fantasy. Each flower is less than 2″ and most are 2 or 3 colors. The second group is 20 leaves and tendrils. All but one of these are only single color designs. All designs in both groups were manually punched so you will see shading and details even in designs this small. With a few Building Blocks and the Super Align tool, you can create amazing designs in seconds!
New Southwest Quilt Wall hanging Pattern
I posted a picture of the sample I made for my southwest applique collection I did for Dalco on my Facebook page and have been getting requests for the pattern ever since. I finally finished the binding at Baby Lock Tech—sitting on the floor adding the last bit of hand stitching during set up day. Earlier today I finished the pattern along with some in-the-hoop-piecing designs and uploaded it to the shop. You can read more about the southwest wall hanging pattern here.
More Free Webinars!
Last week I hosted the free bonus webinar at embroidery.com for those who purchased my ebook, The Anatomy of A Design: How to Think Like a Digitizer. I answered a variety of questions, including, “Could you please demo in software a home user might use.” Understanding compensation seems to be the number one problem attendees wanted to know more about. All the webinars have been recorded so you can watch them as long as you have a fast enough connection.
The free webinars have been very popular. Who wouldn’t want to attend a free class with an international instructor? So guess what? We’re going to do more!
In October, I’ve added some Christmas project classes featuring machine embroidered applique. I’m sure we’ll also be rescheduling the Anatomy of a Design: The Missing Piece again. To be notified of classes, you need to be registered at embroidery.com.
What’s New with the Web Site
I’m still trying to figure out the members area. It’s hard when you’re a one-person company trying to fill in multiple full-time positions! With the members area, which will be free, the plan is to post monthly free designs along with other content. This project seems to keep falling too far down the list of “must do” tasks, but once again it as floated to the top and this time I’ll see if I can protect it’s priority until I get it finished!
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