Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Christmas Shirts, Part 2

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These shirts are for four of my little buddies at church. Each mommy sent me their requests and I was happy to oblige! First up, a onesie for Brooks:
I used Lynnie Pinnie's Reindeer with Ornaments Applique, and added the text with Embird Alphabet #8.
Tracy supplied this adorable turtleneck for Audrey's shirt:
This is Lynnie Pinnie's Simple Tree. I used the 5x7 design, but had a hard time figuring out how to recolor the 6 dots to have a mix of white and red without it looking funny. So finally I decided to leave them all red and just merge the smaller dots from the 4x4 design and color them white. We picked Another Dot Alphabet from 8CP to add her name. The perfect little bow is from Hobby Lobby. :)
Kate's winter shirt will last beyond December:
This is Planet Applique's Let it Snow 2 Alphabet.
And for Peyton I used Applique Cafe's Rudolph 2, adding her name with Swirley from 8CP.
Anxious to see these shirts in action!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Completing a family set of stockings

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Last year, I'm pretty sure on December 26, Michele chatted me on Facebook to ask if I could make her daughter a stocking. Every other member of her family had a handmade stocking except for Katie, the youngest. I said, "Sure, I'll take a look, thanks for giving me a whole year's notice!" :)
Of course, when did I complete the stocking?? Not until the Saturday before Thanksgiving... ah well, I doubt Michele would have hung it up before then anyway.
Here's the final product:
And here's what I was trying to match:
 The beauty of these handmade stockings is they were made over the course of several years. Harry and Michelle's were made at the same time -- they have the same green felt, same lining fabric and same size Aida cloth. Peyton and Colin's however have a slightly darker green velvet, a different sized Aida cloth, and one had a different trim around the edge. They all had different ribbon hangers and were slightly different shapes. When I saw that, I was relieved -- it alieviated the pressure to make something *exactly* the same.
I can do cross-stitch, but I am WAY out of practice and have extremely limited supplies, so I enlisted the help of my friend Michelle. I'm pretty sure the weekend after I asked her to help she had already picked a design and stitched it. That was back in February. :) She was really on the ball, and did a fabulous job! Thanks, Michelle!!
I found the same color velvet as the boys' stockings, lined it with something from my stash and added an eyelet ribbon similar to Michele's.
I was pretty pleased with the results, especially since I have never made a fully lined stocking before! I traced one of the stockings for my pattern and just made up the construction process. Here are the kids' stockings -- I think Katie's coordinates quite well!

Friday, November 25, 2011

One last turkey shirt...

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Even though I was super good and got Annaliese's turkey shirt made before November 1, I did end up stitching a turkey for her on Thanksgiving day...
Wednesday evening Annaliese was invited to bring her American Girl doll to Thanksgiving dinner. She asked me if Anna had a turkey shirt. Drat, I thought I had gotten away with not making one. :) I did end up with a bit of free time during nap time, so here's what I whipped up!
I took the 4x4 size of the applique turkey from the Harvest Patchwork set at Designs by JuJu and reduced it. I also deleted the satin stitches to save time. I had scraps from Annaliese's shirt which already had HNBL on it, so it went pretty quickly. The true creativity came in finding a blank. I knew I had a brown onesie in my stash, but discovered it was a short-sleeve 9-12 month size, which is HUGE for a doll. I decided to use it anyway. Chopped it off, did the applique, then took in the side seams/sleeves. I just laid an AG shirt on top of the onesie, drew in seam lines and stitched. Definitely NOT an exact science!
It fit Anna quite well, and bonus, it turned into a long sleeved shirt! Annaliese was quite pleased!
Now I'm hoping Annaliese's turkey shirt still fits her next Thanksgiving so they can match for another year!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Christmas Shirts, Part 1

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I still have a lot of holiday shirts in my line-up, but here are some of the ones I've completed so far. I started with the ones that had to be shipped the farthest, and this week I'm moving to all my little church buddies. :)
Amy ordered these for Jenn's boys:
Sean loves trains, so Amy selected Applique Cafe's Christmas Train. I used Whoa Nelly from 8 Claws and a Paw to add his name.
For Nathan we used Planet Applique's Gift Wagon. I love all of PA's little holiday wagon designs. I think I own them all, and this is the first time I've used one!
These are the shirts for Amy's girls:
She picked Applique Cafe's Rudolph 2, and Riley from 8 Claws and a Paw for their names. (The bows are from a little 3-pack at Hobby Lobby, so perfect!)

This sweet onesie is for tiny little Loralai:
I used Embroidery Boutique's Round Vintage ornament, and Sweet Tarts from 8 Claws and a Paw. LOVE this font! Only my second time using it, so it has to get into the rotation more often.
And finally, a shirt for Dashiell.
 Lynnie Pinnie released another version of the Jesus is the Reason for the Season tree design.
Since I used the more girly version for Annaliese, I thought this would make a great coordinating set of shirts. Eh, this isn't the best picture but you get the gist. I'll take a picture of the kids together in front of our Christmas tree this weekend!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

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Sorry blog followers, I have been too busy to blog! I have TONS of baby items to share, and have done several Christmas shirts already with several more to go... I hope sometime soon I can sit down and get caught up. Today is just a real quick post to share my daughter's new Christmas shirt:
This Christmas tree design is one of the newest ones from Lynnie Pinnie. I put the 6x10 deco stitch design on Annaliese's shirt:
And the 4x4 deco stitch design on a chopped off newborn onesie for her American Girl doll:
Both stitched great and made such a cute pair! As do my girl and her doll. ;)
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My to do list is very long, so I have moved my "closing date" to this Sunday November 20. I will no longer accept new orders for 2011 after that point. If you want something from me before mid-January, speak now or forever hold your peace... or at least until after January 5. :)

Thursday, November 10, 2011

A few more turkeys...

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I know I said I was done with applique turkeys. And I am. But I did make a few more turkeys... that involved fabric... but they weren't appliqued on shirts. So I think I'm still in line with my declaration of being done with turkeys for 2011. :)
I recently saw an idea for making little lapel pins using felt, batting and hand stitching. I realized I could do something very similar using the Felt Stitchies from GG Designs virtually no hand stitching. :)
The original turkey design is from GG Designs. I made several barrettes last year using the design "as is". For the pins though, I used Embird to merge the body with the feathers so it was all one piece (much like her cupcake felt stitchies that I used for Annaliese's birthday). I tacked down batting and trimmed it out, then orange fabric, then brown fabric (and trimmed it), stitched the details, then floated a piece of felt on the bottom and stitched the final redwork outline around the feathers. To make it a pin, I simply whip stitched a safety pin on the back:
This set of turkey pins was given to our church's preschool staff on behalf of the preschool board. We are so thankful for all they do!
One more thanksgiving related project, coordinating shirts for a brother and sister:
The text was requested by my friend. I used Embird Alphabet #14. We selected the colors for the orange shirt to coordinate with a pair of leggings (which I forgot to photograph). And for obvious reasons we omitted the pink from the other shirt.
Anxious to see pictures of the turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving day. :)

Monday, November 7, 2011

Baby Boy Gift Set

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This baby gift set was given at a baby shower this weekend:
I just love this striped fabric!! I ordered it specifically to use on tie onesies. Every time I stitch the Neck Tie Applique from GG Designs I fall in love with it all over again!
The applique "J" is from Embroidery Boutique's Fun Applique Alphabet, and I added "Jeremy" with Whoa Nelly From 8 Claws and a Paw. The little lovey blanket has minkee on one side and the striped fabric on the other side.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Turkeys, Turkeys, Turkeys!

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It's November, Gobble Gobble! My stitching has been exclusively applique turkeys over the last few days. WHEW! Turkey designs with multiple feathers are a LOT of work, but turn out so cute! I'm going to showcase them all here. First up, my daughter's shirt:
The applique turkey is from the Harvest Patchwork set at Designs by JuJu. I LOVE this turkey. The artwork is so cute and DBJJ designs always stitch so nicely. Annaliese and I had fun picking out fabrics together (which honestly is no easy task -- she has much looser guidelines for what colors go together than I do). We are both thrilled with the results. Per her request I added "Happy" on top and "Day" on bottom so it reads Happy Turkey Day. I used the Sweet Tarts font from 8 Claws and a Paw, which is just lovely!
When I showed Annaliese her shirt, my son (almost 3 years old) started jumping up and down and said, "I want one, I want one! I want a turkey shirt!" Fortunately for him I already had something ready to go:
This cute little boy turkey is a new design from Lynnie Pinnie. Since he's wearing a ball cap and sneakers I decided to make him real sporty by using my basketball and football texture fabrics (not vinyl, just regular cotton).
Dashiell loved it. He wanted to wear it immediately, and a few minutes later said to my husband, "See my new chicken shirt? It's cool, isn't it? Cock-da-do-da-do!"  Hmmmmmm... seems I need to educate him more in the differences between farm animals. :)

Michelle asked for a "My First Turkey Day" onesie for her granddaughter. After looking through my turkey design Pinterest board, she selected this one:
The turkey applique is from Pink Frog Creations. It was my first purchase from this new-to-me digitizer, and it stitched great! (She has a cute owl I'll probably have to add to my stash.) I added the text with Embird Alphabet #18.
A few weeks back Laura had "liked" an etsy link that showed up in my Facebook feed... I told her I knew a gal who could make something like that. :) I used the same turkey as in the listing, but picked the fabrics from Riley's onesie since it turned out so cute.
This turkey is from Embroidery Boutique. I added "Brooks" with Whoa Nelly from 8 Claws and a Paw.
Speaking of 8CP, they have been releasing new designs like CRAZY recently! I decided to stitch this little guy on a bib because I thought it was such a sweet face.
 There are three different text options, "My 1st Thanksgiving", "Eat More Chicken" and this one, "Gobble Til You Wobble." Now, normally I'm not one to promote gluttony, but let's face it, a baby is going to wobble whether they gobble or not! And considering how much effort we put into getting our son to consume food, I'd be THRILLED if he gobbled til he wobbled just once. :)
I took the following picture as I was stitching. 8CP's applique designs feature a blanket stitch for the tackdown step. It's really pretty! In fact, if I had used matching threads, I would have been tempted to skip the satin stitches all together and leave it as is -- gives a hand-stitched look. I will have to play with this on future projects...
 I'm unusually on the ball this year for teacher gifts... I actually have Thanksgiving towels ready to give them at the beginning of November so they can use them all month long! This is only because I had the opportunity to test a new Lynnie Pinnie design, and I borrowed an idea from myself two years ago. :)
Dashiell gave his teacher the towel using the 4x4" Hand Turkey applique design from LP. The font is "Andy" and Kathy digitized it for me a couple years ago.
Annaliese gave her teacher the towel using the 5x7" design.
Whew! And with that, I think I'm done with turkeys for 2011!
Christmas orders have been pouring in since I announced that my last day for orders is November 30. Just a heads up -- I'll probably have to move that date up. So if you want something from me before mid-January, shoot me an email ASAP. :)

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