800 is the number of the day!

According to Blogger this is my 800th blog post! CRAZY! So I thought I'd take a moment to share some info and ask my readers some questions, so please make it to the end. ;)

I've made this announcement in some different venues, but haven't really declared it publicly yet: I am going to be working at our church's preschool as Dashiell attends. While it would be more fun to drop him off and come home to sew, staying and working is really the most practical decision for our family. I made the same decision five years ago when Annaliese started preschool, too. I enjoy working with the staff and being near my preschooler.

So for the 2012-13 school year I will not accept orders from the public. If a request comes from someone I don't know, my answer will automatically be NO. And I'm going to be limited/choosy about what I do say yes to from my dear friends and past customers. Please feel free to ask, but also don't be offended or surprised if I say no. :)

In conjunction with this I'm also scaling back my online presence. I LOVE the online embroidery community. Even though I'm not active there any longer, I am so grateful for Sew Forum and all the wonderful women that helped me out when I first got started. I was introduced to my favorite digitizers, downloaded lots of free designs to start my stash, received tips and inspiration from so many people... Honestly there are very few original ideas here on my blog. In recent years I've been an active participant in several groups/pages/forums which I have loved. BUT I have to take a break. As I reflect back on my spring/summer I had too much on my plate and wasn't as good of a mommy as I should have been... my mind was always somewhere else. I'm facing the fact that at the moment I have a self-control issue.

A majority of it is because I genuinely enjoy helping others. I can't repay the God-given talents I inherited from my mom, nor the generosity of my mother-in-law, nor all the help/inspiration I received from strangers at the beginning, so I choose to pay it forward. I love sharing tips and promoting the digitizers who make my projects possible.

But if I'm honest with myself... part of it is my pride, too. I like being the one who can identify the unknown font first, or point you to the perfect applique design for your project. I have caught myself telling my kids to wait a second while I look something up to answer a posted question. Or I'll check in via my phone while I'm supposed to be playing superheroes, etc. It finally dawned on me one day, no -- her embroidery project is NOT more important to me than this perceived immediate need of my child. My kids are my priority, not a bunch of women I've never met. Well, DUH! That sounds so obvious when I type it out. But I found it quite easy to slip into volunteer roles (which I really enjoy) that overtake my free time and more.

So I have left all forums and groups except one. I mean, I need at least ONE outlet and connection to the applique world. But I'm setting some boundaries for myself -- I won't be popping in as frequently as before.

I will still be working closely with a few digitizers -- those relationships are SO important to me, and they are my longest-standing commitments. I won't back away from those roles unless I have to pack up my machines for good!

Have no fear, I'm not giving up my blog! I acknowledge that it's been pretty neglected in 2012 and probably will continue to be so for a while... there will be fewer projects to show off! But it has been with me from the beginning. I do still consider it my online scrapbook and I want to continue documenting every project.

Whew, are you still with me? I guess I had a lot to get off my chest. :) Now for my questions!!

800 is the number of the day not only because it's my 800th blog post, but because very recently I also surpassed 800 fans on my Facebook page. That is crazy to me, as well!

• I want to know who you are! Who is reading my blog? Are you a friend or family member that simply enjoys looking at my projects? Are you a customer that I don't know personally? Are you a gift recipient of an item Stitched by Janay? Are you a fellow embroiderer? Are you a digitizer? If you wouldn't mind, please leave a comment! I get lots of blog hits a day, but not a lot of interaction, so I'm curious who is actually reading.
• How did you find me? Why did you come back? And what do you want to see more of? Just pretty pictures and less words? ;) More tutorials and how-to's? If so, what specifically? I'm making no promises of course, but I'll keep your suggestions in mind.

Thanks for being with me! Here's to another 800 posts!

My baby girl will be SEVEN!

According to blogger this is my 600th post! I find that absolutely unbelievable. I never dreamed when I started this blog to share my sewing projects with my moms living 900 miles away that it would turn into, well, all of this. :) Thanks for being along for the ride. And thank you for the feedback, whether publicly on the blog/Facebook or privately via email -- I really appreciate it!

I think it is very appropriate to dedicate this 600th post to my daughter and show off the shirt I made for her birthday that will be here in a little over a week. (I got it done two weeks early, go me!!)
Annaliese is going to be seven. SEVEN. I cannot believe it. I mean, go look at how little she was when I started this embroidery stuff!
Thankfully this year we were in complete agreement on the design we wanted to use, so no time was wasted picking one out. I absolutely adore the number candle cupcake appliques from GG Designs. When I showed the newly released #7 cupcake (thanks Gail!!) Annaliese swooned and sealed the deal. We bought a cute pair of capris and sat down with my fabric stash to find matching fabrics.

We love the results!! The sprinkle fabric was a must in Annaliese's opinion, so I'm glad we were able to make it work. :)

Sorry, no modeled picture yet... we are waiting until her actual birthday. But if you become a fan of Stitched by Janay on Facebook, you can see a picture of the birthday girl next Sunday!
Well, I may make a few coordinating items, so it's possible there will be another blog post after her birthday. But go become a fan anyway! :)

No bake cookies

These no bake cookies have no calories, too! :)

Today I stitched more designs from the play food sets I told you about here. The snack set is not yet available on SWAK, I'll try to update with a link once they are listed.
Chocolate Chip cookies:

All the sugar cookie designs came with embroidered sprinkles, but I left those off and used my new sprinkle fabrics.



I kind of regret using this fabric on the heart and flower cookies -- since the patches are so small and satin stitches are so LONG, very few sprinkles actually show up. Oh well! This fabric will be good for the poptart designs, as well as all the adorable cupcake designs I have to go on birthday shirts. :)

Side note: According to blogger this is my 500th blog post. CRAZY! Thanks for reading!

My New Toy!

Believe it or not, this is the 400th post on my "Stitched by Janay" blog. CRAZY. At times I find myself very frustrated that I can't accomplish as much as I want, but when I look back (especially through the Picasa web albums associated with my blog) I am pretty amazed at what all I've stitched in the last two and a half years while being a SAHM of little kids. It's been so fun to embroider personalized items, document exactly what I did and share pictures online, initially with just my mom and MIL, but now with all of you who follow my blog.

In the last month I have FINALLY joined Facebook, and I've created a fan page for Stitched by Janay -- please come join the fun by becoming a fan. I plan to upload pictures to different albums to make it easier to browse, and as I figure it all out I hope to create an album where you can add pictures of your own Stitched by Janay items in use. Have no fear -- if you aren't on Facebook and don't want to join, I will continue to update this blog as usual (it will just feed directly into Facebook).

Before I sign off on this 400th post, I wanted to share pictures of my new toy!

My MIL Kathy gave me an Accuquilt GO! Fabric Cutter along with the rag dies. I am SO EXCITED. I have already started cutting a rag quilt for Dashiell which I have been putting off for a while. I'm anxious to get it done and enjoy how much time the die cutting process is going to save me -- no more snipping a quilt for hours!
This afternoon I cut out all the small blocks for the quilt:



The flannel for the small blocks are receiving blankets that match Dashiell's crib bedding. The big squares will be from this cute monkey flannel I bought a while back. Here is the quilt design that I'm using, and a preview of what it will look like:


Hopefully the final product will be posted here sooner than later! :)