Recent baby items

I stumbled across some pictures I never posted! In January Rebecca asked me to make a few items. She bought the ribbon and picked the font herself -- I love doing projects like that! :) First a hooded towel using the Two Colored Dots font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

and a burp cloth using the Empire font from Embroidery Arts:

Michelle requested this burp cloth for a recent baby shower. She found the Heaven Sent design on Applique Market, but since I already have the Itty Bitty font from 8 Claws and a Paw and a mini baby feet design from Lynnie Pinnie, I just made my own. :)

Another cute applique owl!

Do you have any friends that you've never met? Thanks to the internet and social media, I have several! What a weird and fun world we live in....
I can't really remember how I first came to know Mary. Blog, facebook page, groups and forums... there have been several ways we have interacted. Mary does phenomenal applique work (check out her etsy page Banana Bear Boutique) and we have very similar tastes in designs. She has been digitizing designs and very recently launched her own site, Applique Whimsy!
In the fall she asked me to test stitch an owl design (since she knows I have a thing for owls) and I was happy to oblige! Isn't this so cute?!

It's the 6x10 size of the Vintage Owl Applique and I stitched it on an apron. Unfortunately I failed to take an overall picture of the apron! I used turquoise in the design for my daughter's school colors, and I'm glad I did because it made a perfect Christmas gift for her teacher this year! :)

So go check out my friend Mary! Here's where you can find her:
http://www.appliquewhimsy.com/
https://www.facebook.com/appliquewhimsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bananabearboutique
https://www.facebook.com/bananabear

Monag!

Ok peeps, true confession time. I'm coming up on five years of doing custom embroidery, and until last month I had never used a Monag item. Embarrassing, right?? I have a tax ID number and could apply for a wholesale account, but I don't have the upfront money or storage space to buy in bulk, so I just don't. Until my friend Nicole put in a request for an empire waist knit dress and I started doing research. I found someone destashing dresses on Applique Forum for a decent price and decided to buy a few. Then I found a matching long sleeved shirt at Studio MCA and got to work!
Nicole wanted applique name items for her kids. I used the Cade Applique Alphabet from Embroidery Boutique. I had to do some resizing to get the names to fit in my hoop, but that's why zig zag fonts are perfect for these projects!

The kids looked so cute together a couple weeks ago at church!

I also got a pink dress for my daughter. I really wanted to do an applique name for her, but she just wanted an A. I should be grateful instead of disappointed -- one letter is easier than nine! :) We picked Lynnie Pinnie's Applique Swirl font.

So after working on these three items, I'm "sold". Monag is a fantastic brand for embroidery work. Someday when I go big time :) I will use them exclusively. Until then, I've got four red long sleeved empire dresses in my stash (size 2, 4, 6, 8) and will order from resellers like Studio MCA. Top notch customer service!!

Easter appliques!

Lynnie Pinnie released some adorable new Easter Applique designs over the weekend, and has more in the works! Here are few that I tested for her. First, these lovely Patchwork Cross Easter Eggs:

I didn't have specific projects in mind for these, so I stitched them on a nice woven fabric, sewed them onto blank cards and frayed the edges. The design comes in two styles, satin stitch

and deco stitch (which is my favorite).

I thought this Little Bunny with Easter Egg design was so cute, I decided to put it on a onesie and add the text. The timing was perfect since I had a baby shower to attend a couple days later. :)

These little chick faces are intended to be stitched on yellow items, so since I had a yellow 9-12 month onesie and a yellow bib in my stash, I tested them, too! (Neither of these items have a home yet...)
Little Chick Face Applique:

and Girly Little Chick Face Applique:

Welcoming Baby Grayson

Another baby shower at church means more fun stitching!!! Again, thanks to great friends who shop with me I got to create several fun things to coordinate with baby Grayson's bedding set.
First, Cherri and Elaine gave a name banner (using the Frayed Block Letters from Hang To Dry):

I picked the fabrics to coordinate with the Hayley Nursery Bedding that Maggie registered for at Pottery Barn Kids:

I love the color palette! I spent a lot of time zooming in on these fabrics and then going through my stash to find as close as a match as possible. I knew I had a sage green with dots, a sage gingham, yellow with dots, and blue floral. I used the brown pin dot to tie the letters together since it's used throughout the bedding as the piping. The only fabric I bought for the project was this pink (because it was so pretty!)

Michelle requested an owl burp cloth inspired by the owl on the pillow sham:

After looking at all the owls on my pinterest board we settled on this owl from Applique Market and used the blue/purple fabrics from the banner. I used Miss Kitty from 8 Claws and a Paw to add her name.

For my gift I wanted to use a little bird that coordinated as much as possible. I love this birdie from GG Designs, and I'm so glad I finally had an excuse to get it! :)

I wanted to match the green/pink bird pictured above, but I was limited by my ribbon stash, so I went with the lighter pink fabric from the banner instead of hot pink. I used Tilly from 8 Claws and a Paw to add "Graysie" which will be her nickname.

For the bib I decided to reverse the fabrics, just to be different. :)

And finally, grandmother-to-be Martha bought these sweet, TINY bloomers for me to monogram. I used Embird Alphabet #38:

Testing Holiday designs

I guess since I'm done blogging about Christmas, it's time to move on to upcoming holidays, right? :)

This is a beautiful cross design I tested for 8 Claws and a Paw over the weekend. I stitched the Easter Cross design on a nice woven fabric, and then stitched it down to a blank card (if you want more details on how I did it, read this post). Very pretty design, right?

As I hung this towel up in my kitchen I realized I hadn't shared pictures of this cute Valentine's day design I tested for Lynnie Pinnie. The towel has been used and washed a few times before I remembered to take this (lousy) picture a few minutes ago:

 And a close up of the Olive You design. Perfect for a kitchen towel, right? :)

Nameflake Ornaments 2011 (plus tutorial!)

I acknowledge that it is January 31, so you probably aren't thinking about Christmas ornaments anymore. But it is still winter, and surely it's snowing somewhere in the US, right? So this post is not completely out of season... In December I made a handful of nameflake ornaments using a new style!

Back in May I got some Accuquilt GO! rag dies for my birthday and had been anxious to use them, particularly the circle rag die. I wanted to experiment with it to see if I could speed up the process of making the completed ornament. All my past nameflake ornaments have been like this one with satin stitches around the outside edge.

(This ornament was for Riley, the newest edition to the Connelly family, and she needed an ornament like everyone else!)
I like the look, but frankly it's time consuming to mass produce these -- carefully trimming out the circles on top and bottom, then waiting for the satin stitches to run, then carefully removing the stabilizer... I wanted a quicker method. And thankfully the rag die worked out to be the perfect solution!

I laid a piece of my sparkly white fabric on top of a layer of white flannel and cut out the rag circle. (I did this twice for each ornament.) Then I went to my embroidery machine. I ran a placement stitch the size of circle (4.75" wide), and then tacked down a ribbon hanger.

 Then I laid down the fabric/flannel on top, and ran the inside tackdown circle you see stitched here on the stabilizer (3.75" wide, which is just inside all of the slits). Next I stitched the nameflake. Then I removed the hoop from the machine, laid the other fabric/flannel circle on the back of the hoop, and finally stitched another pass at the inside circle to tack it all together. Just remove stabilizer and then I'm done!! SO MUCH FASTER! And I really like the raggy look. Here a close-ups of the ornaments I made for four special couples at church that are true servant leaders:

 In past years when I've shared pictures of my nameflake ornaments (you can see my gallery on Facebook) I got questions asking how to make them. I promised a tutorial on an Embird yahoo group, and finally delivered it this fall. The free tutorial is in pdf form, and outlines the process with lots of images for creating a nameflake in Embird. It doesn't not require Studio or Font Engine, although I do highly recommend using Alphabet #38 for the project. If you would like to have a copy of the tutorial, all you need to do is join the Embird101 yahoo group. Once accepted, you can find the pdf in Files -> Mini Lessons. If you use Embird, this group is a phenomenal resource. The list mom Peggy of Pegboard Crafts is an expert who graciously answers questions from installation to digitizing details. You will not be disappointed, and the group can offer more Embird support/troubleshooting than I am able to give. :) Enjoy!

Miscellaneous December Monogramming

Random project share time... miscellaneous monogramming from December!
Blankets for Melissa to give to her sons and daughter-in-law. These were super soft and I was tempted to "accidentally" put my name on one!

I used Embird alphabet #7:

The Williams family grew by two this year when their adoption was finalized, so the younger boys needed stockings! This is a terrible picture, they looked so much prettier in person!

Again, I used Embird alphabet #7:

Susan asked me to monogram fleece which she then constructed into these cool pillows:

I used Embird alphabet #38 for these:

Urenda ordered this backpack for a little friend:

The Ballet Embroidery Font is from 8 Claws and a Paw:

And finally, a tie tee shirt. This is actually a men's shirt! I took GG Designs Neck Tie design (the 7" file), enlarged it to fill my 6x10 hoop, reduced the pull compensation so the satin stitches weren't huge, and stitched away! My original intention was to deliver this shirt as a gag gift in front of a whole group of people, but circumstances prevented that. The recipient love it anyway, and that's all that matters. :)