Baby gift for Wilder

I recently made this gift set for friends of ours that had a second little boy:

I made matching shirts for Wilder and his big brother using I2S Box Font, and added their names with Girls Have Secrets. You know what my secret is? This font is great for boys! Ha!

I couldn't decide if I should outline the letter in red and do name in blue, or vice versa. Decided to do one of each!

For the burp cloth I used this little monster design (from The Applique Club) and added his name with Behind These Hazel Eyes:

and the bib... well like Shepherd's bib when he was a baby, it is a bit of an inside joke from one dad to another. Both my husband and Wilder's dad enjoy James Bond movies (they record a podcast together in fact). This came up as a joke and had to be made into a reality.

This project was one where BX files saved the day! Can you imagine merging all this letter by letter, especially when you weren't sure what font to use in the first place?! I typed the phrase in Embrilliance, scrolled through several different fonts to decide which one I wanted to use (Covered by Your Grace), then once I picked it, I save the design as a PES file. Then I opened in Embird to get it sized exactly as I wanted (kept height the same but squashed the width to fit on the bib) and adjusted the pull compensation to thicken up the letters to stitch better on the terry bib. So fast and came out perfect!

You can see the little cutie wearing the bib on Tumblr

Baby Gift for Twin Girls

My original primary role as an I2S assistant is customer service, but I do some test stitching on occasion, primarily 4x4 designs that I like to put on baby items. When the I2S released these two (oh... last fall), I knew I had an upcoming baby gift for expectant twins, so I used the same thread colors to make this set:

Aren't they cute? The first is I Love You to the Moon and Back

And the second is I Love You a Bushel and a Peck (the larger sizes have more text)

Once the babies were born, I made this bib set, using the I2S Whoo's Who design, adding their names with Behind These Hazel Eyes.

Getting my merge on!

You know your embroidered work has made an impression when a new dad sends his mother a text saying, 

            Can u have the lady make one that says:            I love Tom Boy days with DADDY!

Ha! So Melissa and I got to work. She bought the bodysuit and I merged together the design!

The inspiration was a little outfit they already had, but Daddy wanted his own version for his girl. How sweet is that?!

I used I2S's Pigtails for the pink lettering, 8CP's College Block Small for tomboy and 8CP's Cherry for Daddy. I thought it came together quite nicely!

Earlier in the fall Michelle said something along the lines of "I'm such a sucker for my grandkids, I need a shirt that says that!" I knew just the design we could modify to make that a reality!

I started with I2S's Sucker for Love design, but changed up the text using Behind These Hazel Eyes. I was pleased with the results, I love aqua/red/pink together!

My First Christmas

A friend of mine just had a little girl, after already having three boys.  Don't you know she will be the princess of the family?! So when Lynnie Pinnie needed her holiday princess cuties tested, I knew my Disney-loving friend needed one. Isn't this cute?!

I used the 4x4 size of the Belle-like cutie and added the text with 8CP's Walt font.

I told LP that this should be a sign of how much faith I have in her fabulous designs... I "tested" this on a 0-3 month onesie on my single needle using a glitter sheet and metallic thread! If that's not a recipe for disaster, I don't know what is! ;) but of course it turned out perfecto!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

This last week it FINALLY felt like fall here in FL. Time to share some cute shirts I've appliqued recently. Pumpkins and Turkeys to come in later posts... for now, how about these adorable scarecrows?!

Numerous I2S customers requested this design be modified for the 4x4 hoop and I jumped at the chance to test them because they were so cute, and I had great small-scale fabrics I wanted to put to use. :) Aren't these adorable?
Scarecrow Boy Happy Fall Y'all design -- I loved using this tiny argyle with the diamond patch on his hat:

and Scarecrow Girl Happy Fall Y'all design -- I've been so anxious to use this brown floral, I thought it was precious and perfect for fall designs!

I knew of two little babies whose grandmothers would probably snatch them right up... and I was right. :) I also made a matching shirt for big sister of one of the babies:

This design is definitely not for the faint at heart, but like many of my favorites, SO worth the effort!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

For I know the plans I have for you

This is a 2-for-1 blog post! First the information about some special gifts:

A friend of mine recently had a baby. He is her fourth child and was a surprise :) I wanted to encourage my friend that even though little Luke wasn't planned by mom and dad, God certainly has plans for him! Isn't that great news we can rest in as parents?!

Another friend is expecting her third baby. They already have a boy and a girl, so they are keeping the gender of this one a surprise until delivery. But either way, they will name the baby Miller. Isn't that a neat concept?! So I made a similar set, using gender neutral colors.

Both sets use Itch 2 Stitch's Jeremiah 29:11 Add a Name design, and I added their names with I2S's Rockford.

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Now a little bit more behind the scenes story that might interest my embroidery friends.
We had an I2S customer struggling with her efforts to put this design on a burp cloth. Since at that moment I had not used the design yet, I decided to test it myself on a burp cloth. I'll be completely honest with you, when I opened the 4x4 design in my software I thought, hmmmm.... I would never choose to use this on a burp cloth. The text was simply too delicate for a thick item IMHO. But I did it anyway. I had no problems at all:

But when you compare the picture of the exact same design on a onesie, you can see what a difference there is between embroidering text on a thick burp cloth and knit onesie. I love the way this turned out with the blues and greens!

In relaying my thoughts to Cristy I told her this is a case where I as a customer would either opt to not use it on a burp cloth, or significantly fiddle with pull compensation in my software. Does that mean there is anything wrong with the original design? NO! I think sometimes we expect EVERY design to be perfect for EVERY situation. And that simply isn't always going to be the case. That's why I LOVE having software to manipulate designs to suit my particular situation.

BUT Cristy decided to go back and update this design, making the text bolder. :) So if you have previously purchased the Jeremiah 29:11 design, you can go back and download a new version! I tested it for her on Miller's set. This is the burp cloth:

and this is the onesie. Still a significant difference between the two items due to thickness, but maybe the design is a bit more versatile now.

Can I say how much I love this 2-for-1 deal?! I got to help trouble shoot with a customer getting her back on track for her own project, and I got to give a really special gift to two of my friends! Best of both worlds!! This huge baby boom going on in my world (FOURTEEN babies since March) has given me so many opportunities to play.

Sibling Shirt Sets

Here are a couple of recent sibling shirt sets I have done. First for my niece and new nephew:

The Big Sister and Little Mister designs are both from Embroitique. I added their names with 8CP's High 5

 And this set was for a friend back home:

They may look familiar, but actually it's my first time using this exact set... MCA's VINTAGE sibling set. I love the look and the quick stitchout of vintage applique letters, I'm so excited she released this version! I added their name with MCA's Angelina.

Balloons for the birthday girl

One of my nieces celebrated her first birthday over the weekend. Her mommy gave me free reign on the onesie, so I used it as an opportunity to try something new! (I don't know if I'm capable of settling on a favorite and sticking with it...)
The birthday balloons design set is from East Coast Applique. Such a neat set, includes #1-9!

Welcoming Baby Brent

900th blog post! And it's an appropriate post for a milestone number, showcasing one of my favorite things to stitch, gifts for a baby shower! Today we celebrated the expectant arrival of Brent:

When I learned that Lindsey was expecting, I knew right away I would use this design in some way, it's very appropriate! The "For This Child I Have Prayed" design is from Lynnie Pinnie.

 

Brent is being born into a family of Florida State fans, so I used garnet and gold to monogram this bib, using 8CP's Split Banner Appliqué.

And since they are sports fans, I carried that theme into this burp cloth. I used Applique Momma's Sports Patch (sans patch) and added his name with 8CP's College Block Small. 

Cherri and Elaine requested a name banner. I decided to go with five different colors of gingham to coordinate with his crib bedding (Carter's Forest Friends). I used the Frayed Block Letters from Hang To Dry to create the banner.

Michelle requested a burp cloth. Since they are focusing on black bears with the decor, I picked LP's baby bear cub. I added Brent's name with 8CP's Sunday.

Sister Shirts

Michelle ordered this set of sibling shirts for her granddaughters, so sweet!

These designs are from The Itch 2 Stitch.
I am the BIG sister (Michelle liked the fabric/thread combo in the sample pic so that's what I used)

and I am the lil sister (we swapped colors)

Sibling Shirts

When Kaz arrives he will make Kendal a big sister.  I used this as an opportunity to try out a new set of sibling designs from Original Stitches!

I debated for quite some time what fabric I should use. I finally settled on good ole gingham, and love the results!
Big Sister design in pinks and gray:

And Little Brother design in blues and gray:

Welcoming Baby Young

Friends of ours back home are expecting a baby boy and their shower was this weekend. Mutual friends of ours requested a couple things, and I sent a couple things from us, too!
First, this onesie. I'm confident the verse is true for many, many babies, but it is especially true for this one!

The "For this Child I have Prayed" design is from Lynnie Pinnie.

Jason and Anna's boys love the ribbon blankets I made them (Torin, Nolan), so they requested a sports themed ribbon blanket for baby Young, incorporating the Youngs' favorite teams.

The basketball corner is orange and blue for the University of Illinois (Go Illini!!) The design is from GG Designs

The football corner is crimson and black for the University of South Carolina. The design is from Lynnie Pinnie

The baseball corner is blue and white for the LA Dodgers. The design is the ball from Embroidery Boutique's Baseball Glove

And the soccer corner is red white and blue for the good ole US of A :)
(design is from LP, but not on site)

I decided to do a sports themed burp cloth. Since they aren't sharing the baby's name until he is born, I personalized it with their last name.  Helmet Design is from Lynnie Pinnie, and font is College Block Small from 8CP

Finally, a special request from one nerd dad to another.  Any guesses what this is?!?

(eh, I'll just tell you. It's the emblem on Boba Fett's arm. I digitized it myself for personal use only.)