School Spirited Birthday gift -- UPDATED

For Madison's birthday gift we decided to make her a shirt to show school spirit, much like the one Grandma Kathy made Annaliese. Madison's school mascot is a fox, and their school colors are green and silver.

The applique fox is from Embroidery Library and I used fleece, so it's extra fuzzy and soft! I added the text with Embird Alphabet #8.

Friday we got together for a play date, the girls were so excited to be together!

Chloe's gift

I spent so much time thinking about the dress Jenn asked me to make for Chloe's party that I nearly forgot to make a birthday present! Thankfully I had everything I needed for a hooded towel, and got to work a mere 24 hours before her party.
I guess I haven't made a hooded towel since before Christmas... crazy! Thankfully I remembered how :) and this one turned out very cute!

I used the Elle alphabet from 8 Paws and a Claw.

Recent stitching...

I thought with summer starting and not having to drive Annaliese back and forth to preschool every day I would have more time to sew. So far, not the case... maybe now that daily swim lessons are over I can continue to tackle my to do list. We'll see.

Anyway, I recently stitched a pair of crayon rolls and pencil rolls for Terri's girls:


And about a month ago I made key chains for Sabrina to give to her classroom volunteers, as I did last year. School colors are dark green and silver; I used Embird Alphabet #33 on all of them. (Also did one for Michelle while I was at it!)

Happy Birthday, Gideon!

Gideon is turning three and LOVES the movie Cars. Because she's such a groovy mommy, Daisha threw him a Cars-themed birthday party, but the star of this event is Gideon, not McQueen! She created his own race car and logo, and asked me to make him a shirt for the occasion.
Daisha gave me drawing of what she had in mind, and I was able to find an alphabet I already had that matched pretty well. I put it in an oval, added the number "3" and stitched away!

The font is Script 1 from 8 Paws and a Claw. I digitized the applique oval, and added the three with Embird Alphabet #2.

Here's a pic of Gideon on his big day:

Happy Birthday, Ms. Susie!

Today Annaliese's class celebrated Ms. Susie's birthday. They each signed a cute card (amazing how those signatures have improved over the year!!) and we presented her with a group gift. I made a personalized casserole carrier, and another mom made a cake in the covered pan we purchased as part of the gift. She LOVED it, it was so fun to watch her open it.

The stick figure design is part of a set from Artistic Thread Works called Daily-Chore-Sticks Embroidery Design Set. The checkered border is from Embroidery Garden. I added the text with Embird Alphabet #8.

This is the first casserole carrier that I've added handles and the spoon closure to:

I took 2 yards of webbing and stitched the ends together to form a big loop. I stitched it down on the bottom placemat like this:

Then I laid the embroidered placemat on top, lining up the buttonholes on both placemats, and stitched around the other three sides. Here's a shot showing how my pan fits inside:

And here are shots of the back side and inside:


I really like how it turned out. Some day soon I'll have to deconstruct mine and add the handles and buttonholes for the spoon!

Another First Birthday outfit

Rachel enjoyed having a special first birthday shirt for Tre to wear at his party, so she asked me to make something special for her little friend Kate whose first birthday party is today.

Kate's party is a farm theme. I sent Rachel a link to some cute farm designs I have, but we couldn't figure out how to incorporate the fact that it was her first birthday into those designs. So I told her what I was doing for Ada. She liked that idea and we decided to look for some farm-themed fabric for the applique.

Most of the farm prints I found had a motif that was too large to fit in the "1". I bought the cow print thinking it was pretty cute. Rachel agreed, but wasn't sure what color shirt to use, since we wanted to use red for her name.

This is where J.J. (her husband) steps in on the scene. He thought it would really be cute to put the cow print 1 and red-lettered Kate on the front of a pair of overalls. I thought denim was a perfect solution for the background of our design!

It is very hard to find little girl denim items that do not already have embroidery on it. I stopped by our local used clothing boutique and was thrilled to find this Old Navy jumper with no embroidery!

The plan: take off the pocket, embroider the design, and ta-da! Adorable outfit super quick.

Uhhhhhh... not so much. Look what I found when I took the pocket off:

I guess all the fading took place after the jumper was constructed. Now it was going to be WAY obvious that a pocket had been there. So I emailed Rachel with my bad news that this jumper wasn't going to work and we needed a new plan. (We are now down to under a week left before the big party).

Creative J.J. saves the day again. He suggested stitching the design on some suede and appliqueing that onto the jumper, covering the whole top panel. I thought that was yet again another great idea. Rachel bought the suede and I got to work. Here's the final product, and I think it turned out really cute!

As in Ada's design, the "1" is from GG Designs' Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers and "Kate" is stitched with Tinker Toy from 8 Claws and a Paw.


Rachel got a red shirt for Kate to wear underneath the jumper. If I get a picture of Kate in her jumper, I'll add it later.

Throughout this process, Carlin said I may have to change my blog name. Maybe "Stitched by Janay, Inspired by J.J." ?? He's one of the creative mind behind Jackson's crayon tool belt. These two keep me on my toes, that's for sure. Next time I'm faced with a stitching dilemma or need inspiration, I'm calling J.J.!

Happy Birthday, Ada!

Today is Ada's first birthday! Sara asked me to stitch a onesie for her to wear at her party. She already has a hot pink tutu (SO CUTE!), so she wanted a matching top, with an applique "1" and her name stitched across it.

I bought the Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs. Sara picked the fabric and thread from my stash. After looking at several font options, we settled on Tinker Toy from 8 Claws and a Paw. I thought it was a perfect match with the fabric.

And here is sweet Ada on her big day! Isn't she precious?? Gotta love those big blue eyes...

Valentine Bags for Preschool Party

This year I signed up to bring goody bags for Annaliese's class party, mainly because I had bought this cute Valentine bag design from Sewing for Sarah!

The front has a mini-chalkboard (vinyl chalkboard fabric) and slots for chalk and crayons. We filled the back pocket with a pad of paper, stickers, and a piece of felt to erase the chalkboard. For the boys, I substituted an applique rectangle for the heart, I figured they would like that better. I personalized them all, as well.


These stitch together pretty quickly. I pre-cut all the fabric, as well as the heart/rectangle of chalkboard fabric. Then when I was ready to stitch, everything was ready to go. Each bag takes less than 15 min to stitch, and most of the time I was able to clip bobbin thread, remove stabilizer, trim around edges and invert one bag while stitching the next. Made for a nice assembly line production. I'm glad there are only six in her class though. Doubt I'll do this for kindergarten next year! :)

Happy Birthday, Naomi!

Wow... it's hard to believe that it's been over a year since Daisha's baby shower, and almost a year since I met baby Naomi! Well, she's not a baby anymore!
Naomi's first birthday party was today. I asked Daisha if she had any gift requests. Gideon has a pillow that he loves, and Daisha had bought fabric to make a similar one for Naomi, but hadn't gotten around to it. I took the fabric and made it for her!

The monogram is from the TTF Kunstler Script; Kathy digitized it for me. Daisha wanted to be able to remove the cover for laundering, so I used a zipper, as in Gideon's pillow. I haven't worked much with zippers and didn't exactly know what I was doing, so this was quite an experiment. Not the most polished finish, but it gets the job done. ;)

The Trammel Family has grown by two feet!

As a Christmas gift for both of our moms, I made a brag book for each of them to fill with pictures of Dashiell (and Annaliese).

The design is from Charming Station, part of their free redwork snowman collection. This design is #39, released in February. When I downloaded it, I was hopeful that I would get to use it. We were ready to start trying for a baby, and if successful, (which we were) we would be due near wintertime. At the time I wasn't sure how I'd use the design, so I'm just glad I remembered I had it! The phrase came with the design, but I redid it with Embird Alphabet #8.

To make the album cover I used one piece of fabric for the front and two smaller pieces for the inside. I stitched them together to create basically a dust jacket for the photo album. I was pleased with the results and glad I didn't have to use glue. :) The added benefit is that the cover can be slipped off and I can add Dashiell's name to the spine, now that his name is known.

I got the albums done and in the mail before giving birth. We included a couple ultrasound pictures, as well as photos of the three of us awaiting Dashiell's arrival. Then, thanks to Walgreens.com, I was able to upload pictures that they could pick up an hour later at their Walgreens 900 miles away. That gave them up-to-date pictures within hours of receiving the albums in the mail. We'll continue to upload pictures over the next few weeks until their album is filled. What fun!

Name Snowflake Ornaments

Last Christmas I stitched a few personalized snowflake ornaments. This year I received a big order for some (pictures will be posted later) and that reminded me of them myself! I think all together I've stitched twenty of these. My machine is definitely ready for a break, but they sure are pretty!!

For all of the snowflakes I used Embird Alphabet #38 for the last name. After reflecting and rotating it several times, I created a unique name flake. The design is then place inside an applique circle. I stitch it on tearaway stabilizer. This enables me to give the ornament a fabric-covered back and a satin stitched edge.

Here's a small set I did for Carlin to give as gifts. Sadly I don't have time to make one for everyone in the company. These are for his immediate supervisor, his assistant, and his office mate.





I also made a pair for Joy and Anna, our Realtors, but forgot to take a picture before giving them away.

Early in the process of deciding how I wanted to construct them, I tried one other method. Instead of using fabric for the base (which necessitates a satin stitch edge to prevent fraying) I used felt as the base. Since it doesn't fray, it could just be trimmed. I still liked the look of a white flake on the sparkly blue fabric, so I appliqued it onto the white felt, using a decorative stitch. To test this, I chose my maiden name and sent it to my mom for her birthday.

In the end, I guess Carlin and I prefer the look of the other style, so that's what I stuck with. But this is a pretty alternative, and I may return to the concept again next year.

Merry Christmas Preschool!

Last week I got all the stitching done for the preschool gifts I wanted to give from either myself or Annaliese, and now it's safe to post pictures!
First of all, we do an ornament gift exchange at the staff Christmas party. I drew Karen's name, and decided to make this Candy Cane Sleigh ornament from Embroidery Garden. Instead of stitching "Believe" as the design comes, I substituted it with her last name (Embird Alphabet #38). The sleigh is designed to actually hold something (probably a folded check or cash). I slipped in a piece of candy. :)
Front:

Back:


As gifts for Annaliese's teacher and the preschool director, I stitched these towels:

The applique ornament design is from Embroidery Boutique. I added their last names with Embird Alphabet #33, shifting the letters up and down to mimic the wave in the ornament. Annaliese picked who got each towel color as well as the fabrics (with a bit of guidance) and I thought they turned out nice!


Finally, as a little favor for all of Annaliese's classmates and the whole staff, I made these personalized stockings.

They are designed to be gift card holders (from A Design by Lyn), but I just slipped some chocolate inside. I added the names with Embird Alphabet #8. As usual, I have a hard time photographing red items, so believe me they look cuter in person. Here's a close-up of Annaliese's. She insisted on having a new one even though she has one from Grandma and at least one from last year when I made them.

Happy Birthday, Carlin!

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday. I've had this idea for quite a while, and I'm pretty pleased I pulled it off.
Originally our house was built with an attached garage. The previous owner enclosed the garage creating two extra rooms, one that we use for an office (the other is the laundry room). Since the office used to be the garage, the electrical panel box is in there. In the process of enclosing it, the wall became several inches deeper, but the panel box is still along the exterior part. Consequently there was a rather large hole cut out in the drywall, with a cabinet door mounted over it. Decent solution, no major complaints. That is until Carlin started hanging pictures, posters and artwork. Then it looked really out of place.

He mentioned a while back that it would be nice to make that door into a cork board or something more functional. I nodded in agreement and filed that away in my head. Today, I finally created a solution.

Instead of buying a cork board, I bought foam board (cut down to 19" square) and covered it with batting and fabric. It should still hold pushpins securely, and it allowed me to add an embroidery embellishment. Which is what I'm even more proud of...
I digitized Carlin Trammel's Stormspeed Entertainment Logo!!

I had played around with digitizing a filled embroidery design back in February, and then recently did a few applique designs for a friend. For Carlin's logo, I combined both parts. Certainly not perfect, but I'm really pleased with my first shot. Here's a close-up; actual size of design is about 6"x5.5".

Happy Birthday, Madison!

Madison's 5th birthday party was today. When I asked her mom for gift ideas, she suggested a pillowcase dress similar to Abby and Anna's dresses. Currently Madison's favorite colors are turquoise, purple, green and pink, so I went on a hunt to find fabric in one or more of those colors. I found a pretty sparkly striped material with those four colors and felt like I'd hit the jackpot!

For the monogram I used the Dot Alphabet from Julia's Needle Designs). This alphabet is not originally designed as an applique letter, but I was afraid the dots would get lost among the stripes. So I reworked the design to add some tack-down stitches and used purple material to help the dots stand out.

Here is Madison in her dress on her birthday!