Personalise it! Machine embroidery for home projects.

Hello Dubai Crafters,

It's Reesha here today and I would like to share with you my most recent sewing project. I love to personalise things around the house and office. Whether it be monograms or labels, I love putting our names on everything.

My 4 year old girl, just began her ballet classes. And she is very protective of her little ballet shoes, tutu and head dress. I wanted to make her a little drawstring backpack for her to carry all her little things to take to class with her.

Of course, all you mums of little girls out there will know that you rarely go wrong with PINK, so I went for this lovely Disney Princess fabric that I have been dying to find a use for. The fabrics come in mini bolts of  2 yards each, and feature a variety of popular prints both for girls and boys.

I combined the fabric with a some pink chevron from Riley Blake designs so that I could do a bit of personalisation on it.

I chose a fun glittery pink mettalic threads from out Madeira Mettalic Machine embroidery thread selection and embroidered "Chloe's Ballet Bag", across the top.

If you have an embroidery machine or are thinking of getting one, why not book our new private class for Machine Embroidery at Craftland. During the hour, we will teach you how to use the features of your machine, the importance of using the correct stabalisers, and how to get the most from your machine.

Machine embroidery can be addictive and can blossom into a fulfilling hobby or business. Drop in to see our range of emroidery machines and software and get personal!

Introducing Brother's new V-Series!

We are proud to be launching Brother's new line of embroidery and combination machines, the V-Series. Stop in to Craft Land for a demonstration and test drive; you'll be impressed with the exciting new features Brother has added to these gorgeous machines.

V7 at work

V3 with free stabilizers & threads

 We have the V7, a combination sewing and embroidery machine, and the V3 for embroidery only. The V3 is Brother's response to customers' requests for a full-size embroidery-only machine with a large user-friendly screen and generous embroidery hoop sizes. This machine is fantastic if you already have a sewing machine that you love, and want to add embroidery to your work. The bonus? While your embroidery machine is stitching out beautiful designs, you can be sewing on your other machine.

sewing with lasers!

The V7 has some very interesting innovations unique in home sewing machines. The new dual-feed foot is like an enhanced walking foot, feeding your fabric smoothly to help cope with thicker fabrics, layered quilts and fine fabrics too. The new laser pointer helps you to acheive perfectly straight lines, and is adjustable so you can set seam allowances, stitch in the ditch, and even adjust decorative stitches so that they will end where you tell them to. Everything is controlled from the user-friendly touch screen, giving you a really great sewing experience. It's even super quiet while it sews - no need to turn up your music or TV!

new Dual Feed foot

intuitive touch screen

As an introductory offer, we are giving away thread and stablizers with each V-Series machine. With V3, you get a Madeira Rayon travel pack of threads and 3 different stabilizers - valued at over 1,400AED. For V7, we are giving you the Madeira Rayon travel pack AND the Quilter's Dream Cotton pack, plus the three stabilizers, valued at over 2,800AED. Offer is good until March 31st while supplies last.

DUBAI QUILTS -- win a trip to Tokyo!!

We are gearing up for our quilt show later this month, and there is still time to submit your masterpiece(s)! The show, put on by Craft Land and the Dubai Quilters' Guild, will run May 20th and 21st, here in the lovely atrium at Town Center. This is not a judged show, and we will exhibit at least one piece from everyone who applies. Don't be shy, even if it's your first quilt! To enter, simply email a photo and the quilt dimensions to jennifer@mycraftland.com by May 4th.

BIG PRIZES....

Brother QC1000

Even though it's not a judged event, we will be doing viewer's choice voting. The winner of the viewer's choice will get, wait for it....a Brother Quilt Club 1000 sewing machine valued at 6,910 Dhs and a Madeira thread chest! Second prize is a Brother NV50 sewing machine and Madeira thread chest, and third & fourth prizes are a Madeira thread chest.

Brother NV 50

...AND EVEN BIGGER PRIZES
Now for the really big news: for every 50 Dhs spent on Brother products and every 200 Dhs spent on anything else in Craft Land, your name will be entered into the grand prize draw for a trip for two to Tokyo to the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival. The trip is sponsored by Brother, so it's a great time to get that Brother sewing machine or embroidery machine you've been thinking about -- you'll have a fantastic chance of winning the big trip!

view of the Tokyo show from an NZ blogger/quilter

More offers on Brother sewing machines

Free X-large Madeira Rayon thread chest valued at 2,400dhs with the NV4000!

Craft Land has more great offers on Brother sewing machines for the rest of January. We have put together some great add-ons for some of our more popular home sewing and sewing/embroidery combination machines. Check out the awesome free stuff you'll get:

FREE SOFTWARE with the NV1!
PELite with PE Design 7 upgrade - 4,000dhs+ value

2-drawer thread chest with starter colors of Madeira rayon embroidery thread
and more, 600dhs value with the NV1250

Comprehensive starter kit with the NV400, one of our most popular sewing machines

Great basic starter kit with the NV50, the favorite starter machine

Free sewing tools and a free Intro to Overlocking class with the 3034D overlocker

Don't forget, as of the beginning of 2011, all our sewing machines come with FREE LESSONS! See in the shop for full details.

And, for the rest of the month, we've got the new Brother PR1000 and PR650 embroidery machines humming away, stitching up lovely projects in our January launch. These professional machines include free PE Design NEXT embroidery software for this month only.

Block of the Month update

Wow! Our Block of the Month project with the Dubai Quilters Guild is officially at the halfway mark!

Today we released the 4th pattern, the first photo transfer pattern. It's a cute Camel Crossing photo with a simple pieced background. Now only two blocks remain, plus the corner blocks and the borders; look for these monthly after the New Year.

block 4 - Camel Crossing

It's not too late to start making your own Arabia-themed quilt! All the patterns are available in the shop, or by emailing danielle@mycraftland.com. All the fabrics are also available in the shop, and you are welcome to use our photos for the transfers or to use some of your own.

Simple 3-Patch Picnic Quilt

Every month, we also do another quilt for a block raffle with the Dubai Quilters Guild. This month, it's a super-fast Stack'n'Whack quilt using cheery red and blue floral prints. Stop in for your free pattern anytime, and check out all the fabric options. Our quilt is a lap size, but the pattern will also make a crib, twin or queen size quilt. Tackle it on your own or come in to one of our weekly clinics for help, or just for company. Schedule at: www.mycraftland.com

Don't forget, we stock everything a quilter needs! We have cotton fabrics, threads from Madeira and Gutermann, and lots of choices of quilt batting.