Home is where your mom is

For Mother's Day this year I made cards for our moms:

I just love this "HOME is where your MOM is" design from I2S. And I love the sentiment! Even though we have lived in FL for nearly nine years, Central IL will always be home. My in-laws are still living in the same house they were in when my husband and I started dating, and that quickly became a second home to me. And although my parents moved out of state after retirement, their new house feels like home to me none-the-less... because MOM is there!

To attach the designs to notecards, I did the following:

-- I hooped tearaway and used spray adhesive to secure my woven fabric to the stabilizer.

-- I created a rectangle the size of the notecard and used that as my tackdown stitch (I actually put two in my 6x10 hoop)

-- Then I stitched out the design in the center of that rectangle.

--I removed the hoop from the machine and taped the notecard to the backside of the hoop inside the stitched rectangle.
--Then I stitched a triple bean stitch rectangle that was inside the outer rectangle by 1/4".

--I removed the stabilizer, trimmed the fabric to be the size of the notecard, and then frayed the edges.

I've used a similar technique before on other cards.

Simple Designs for Ornaments and More!

There are benefits and drawbacks to being a member of an active applique group, and one of those is getting sucked into a craze! Even though it cost me a couple late nights, I'd say overall this time it was a benefit!

New from Lynnie Pinnie, simple little applique designs that are intended to be quick stitching and put inside a small embroidery hoop!

Isn't this precious? This had a 6 minute stitch time, simple shapes to trim, and just triple bean stitching. I used the 4" size of the Tree with Star for Little Hoops design and put it in a 4" embroidery hoop. So cute!  I still haven't finished off the back, and I need to add a ribbon loop and bow to the top. After I make several more I'll post again. :)

Since I only bought two of these little hoops (for now, I'll be hunting more down) I decided to try a different medium. I have seen Hallmark cards with fabric stitched on them, and of course I'm always drawn to them but never buy one because I think, "I could do that!"
And now I have!

I hooped stabilizer and used spray adhesive to attach my card stock. I stitched the design as normal. Then I cut away the stabilizer (even though I used tearaway, I was afraid I'd rip the card while trying to actually tear it away). And then I glued a piece of paper on the inside. If I had been smart I would have printed a nice holiday message on that paper BEFORE gluing it down...

This is the 4" version of the Trees and Snow Applique for Little Hoops design.

So there you go, a new applique craze started courtesy of a Pinterest find and a fab digitizer that got excited. Happy to be along for the ride. :)

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:

 

UPDATE:
A year later... I have two little nieces that received the bib and onesie. I added a raggy flower to the bib to girly it up. Aren't they sweet?

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? :)

Last Round of Thanksgiving cards

Last week I needed to make a few more Thanksgiving cards to be sure I had enough to go around. I was so pleased with the Thanksgiving Pilgrim Hat Basket design from 8 Claws and a Paw that I used it a couple more times, each one with a different variegated thread:

I also used a couple of 8CP's Indian girl designs:

This is the Thanksgiving Indian Girl with Turkey:

And this is the Thanksgiving Indian Girl with Pumpkin:

More Christmas Cards

These are some cards I made when testing some Elegant Ornament Applique designs from 8 Claws and a Paw:

These are very nice designs with a pretty motif stitched inside the ornament. The one that shows this the best is the blue ornament:

Unfortunately, the red and green ornaments were the first two I stitched... I thought the gold thread would be beautiful, and it is in person.  But there is very little contrast between the colors and it's hard to photograph the detail, especially on the red ornament.  Trust me, it's beautiful! :)

 

Here's an angled picture that kind of shows the detail...

 

Christmas Card

I had some applique designs to test with no real projects in mind, so I stitched them on material and tacked them down to note cards, as I did for the redwork designs I tested recently. These are such pretty Christmas cards!! :)  For now I'll share one that was just released, and the other three later this week.

This card features Lynnie Pinnie's new Patchwork Zig-Zag Stocking Applique design. It took me FOREVER to pick my fabrics for this. I looked though all of my scraps, all of my greens and reds and blues, trying to pick a perfect combination.  The design itself is less than 2000 stitches, so technically should only take a few minutes to stitch. I made such a mess! :) But it was worth it, I love how it turned out!  I used the 4x4 size for this card, but may recreate it using the 5x7 size.

Thanksgiving Card, take two

Wow, this one turned out SO MUCH BETTER than the previous two Thanksgiving cards!

 I found the fabric I intended to use, and I changed my technique for stitching it to the card. I wish I could go back in time and start over on those first two...oh well! I used the Thanksgiving Pilgrim Hat Basket design from 8 Claws and a Paw.

I also stitched a couple of 8CP's new bluework designs and made cards out of those:

I took pictures along the way to explain my construction process. The blank cards I'm using are 5.5"x4", so I created a basting stitch that was 5"x3.5".  I centered my design inside that rectangle (making sure it was no bigger than 4.5"x3").  I hooped tearaway stabilizer, attached the fabric (a nice weight woven material) with spray adhesive and stitched it out.  I actually did two at one time in my bigger hoop.

Before removing stabilizer or basting stitches, I glued the design to the card, only putting glue in the center, not the edges. Then I took back to my machine and stitched the fabric directly to the card sewing a quarter-inch inside the basting line.

To finish it off I trimmed the material cutting along the basting stitch.  I removed the quarter-inch worth of tearaway stabilizer sticking out and frayed the edges by tugging on the loose threads.

Now I need to go shopping for more blank cards! :)

Thanksgiving Cards

Last night I FINALLY got to use my embroidery machine again!! Ahhhhh.... all is right in the world.

One thing I've been anxious to do over the last two weeks is stitch some of 8 Claws and a Paw's new redwork designs. I stitched a couple using variegated threads on a loosely woven fabric, then stitched them down on blank note cards and frayed the edges:

 

My execution on these wasn't quite as fabulous as the first time I made a card in this manner.  I need to go digging for the fabric I used on that one.  But the designs stitched well! This is the cornucopia design:

And the Thanksgiving dinner design:

I hope to do more before Thanksgiving gets here!

Happy Birthday, Kathy!

Today is Kathy's birthday, so instead of purchasing a card for our family to sign, I made one!

The "Happy Birthday" redwork design is from Designs Sew Fine. I stitched it with variegated thread on fabric. Then I attached that fabric to card stock (by stitching around the rectangle) and frayed the edges. It's a nice unique card that no one else in the world will send her! :)

Get Well Card

Carlin's grandmother had hip surgery last week and is now recovering. I made this card for her today. I used a confetti card stock, stitched a red work design (from The Embroidery Market) and added the text with Embird Alphabet #22. Next time I'll measure my envelope BEFORE creating the design... I just barely fit it all on there! In the future I think I'll leave off the text. While I like this alphabet on fabric, it really doesn't work well on paper (such tiny stitches puncture too many holes).

Happy Birthday, Kathy!

Last week was Kathy's birthday, and I just remembered that I haven't posted pictures of the card I made her!


The paper I used wasn't exactly cardstock -- it had a fuzzy texture to it on one side, but it wasn't fabric. I embroidered this cute birthday turtle (from Stitch It Cheap) and added the text with Embird Alphabet #22. For the inside I just taped down another piece of standard cardstock. It went together pretty quickly. I look forward to experimenting more with embroidered cards.