Seriously BIG Applique Name Pillow

I have only made a couple of appliqué name pillows (Kylie and Kenzie). I've wanted to do one for Annaliese but joked that hers would be the size of a body pillow since her name is so long, ha!
Then I realized she had a sad, OLD body pillow on her bed that could use a facelift. Or replacement!! So for Christmas I surprised her with a new body pillow!

I bought this super soft pillow cover at Walmart. They didn't have a lot of color options, but this worked perfectly with the current quilt on her bed. While I would have loved to use nine different fabrics, the reality is a) I would never be able to decide on nine different fabrics, and b) my mom made this quilt as a high school graduation gift for me (ahem, 20, yes TWENTY!! years ago) so nothing in my fabric stash was really going to work anyway. I did however have this one perfect fabric that had all four colors from the quilt incorporated in it, so it won!

Next I had to pick a font. I wanted something with some curls and whimsy. I wanted lowercase letters. I wanted the A to be at least 6" tall. And I wanted zig zag stitch because frankly I WAS OUT OF TIME. I started this after 8pm on December 23. Not so smart for a Christmas gift. :) But Embroidery Boutique's Swirly Applique Alphabet fit the bill! So I got to work.

First I merged it all together in Embird. Thirty-three inches wide! I intentionally placed the letters at varying heights so I didn't have to worry about precise placement on this multihooping project.

Then I saved the design in four 6x10 hoopings: An - na - lie - se. I printed templates, taped them together and laid it on the pillow. Here's an in progress picture after two hoopings:

If I were to do this project again, I would take out the side seam on the pillow and then sew it back up. But I really wanted to get to work and wasn't sure I had the time to mess with that. So I did all four hoopings by turning the pillowcase inside out and stitching through the zipper opening on one end. (I should have gotten a picture of that!) A magnified version of doing a onesie, but with LOTS of extra bulk. :)

I did use three different thread colors for the zig zag stitch. And one thing I did to save myself some headache... I waited and trimmed the letters after the zig zag was done. I had such a hard time getting the hoop on in the first place that I didn't want to mess with taking it off and on. So I had to trim carefully to not snip the zig zag stitch. Thankfully the plush factor of the minky-like pillowcase is very forgiving.

 

And I'll admit it was NOT fun removing the tearaway on the inside. I wish my 6x10 hoop gripped polymesh better, it just doesn't stay taut for some reason.
But it was all worth it because her reaction was priceless. It was one of her favorite gifts!

I don't think anyone could pay me enough to do this again. But as an embroidery friend pointed out, surely I'd do it again for Annaliese. :) If she wants a new one someday with new bedding, I'm sure she could talk me into it. But not anytime soon!!

Another Name Pillow

Since Kylie's name pillow turned out so well, I decided to make her little sister Kenzie one for her birthday, as well! However, I got it done late the night before her party and I'm just now discovering that I didn't get a very good picture of it... The colors are a bit off in this pic:

I picked a different font than Kylie's, wanting one that would fit in my 6x10 hoop without a lot of shrinking or skewing, and settled on Applique Momma's Anna Kate font.

I picked all the fabrics by looking at an iPhone picture of Kenzie's bedspread, and you would not believe how perfectly it coordinates -- I was SHOCKED!

Name Pillow

It's kind of getting hard to come up with gift ideas for one of my daughter's best friends... I've already made so many different things for Kylie! Since she had a slumber party for her birthday this year I decided to do my first applique name pillow:

I've seen lots of examples over the years, but most recently have been inspired by some posted by Lyn on 8CP's Facebook wall (here and here for example). I love flipping through fan albums on FB! Lyn graciously answered some questions for me about size of pillow and letters, and confirmed that if I merged all the letters in my 6x10 hoop I would end up with a good sized pillow. (If you want a detailed tutorial, she recommends the one from Kimberbell Kids.)
Kylie already has her name on her bedroom wall with wooden letters in the Tinker Toy font, so I selected the Dotty Applique Alphabet from Embroidery Boutique, using the zigzag finish for the quick stitch. All five letters fit in my 10" hoop perfectly! By the time I added a 2" pieced border around the center panel, I ended up with a 12x16" rectangle so I could use a pillow form instead of stuffing my own. Yay!

I selected the colors to coordinate with her bedding. I was excited to rediscover the aqua floral fabric in my stash which I also used for the back of the pillow. I constructed the back to have two overlapping panels so it would be easy to remove for washing if need be. (It also meant I didn't have to whip stitch an opening closed!) Here it is on her bed:

I enjoyed doing this. I've been interested in trying it, but not anxious to tackle one for Annaliese -- her pillow will probably be two feet long! Ha! Alas, now that Kylie has one, I'm sure she's going to ask me sooner or later...

Thank Heaven for little girls

Friends of mine are planning to adopt a baby girl, so exciting! They were given a glider from a family member that had... well, let's just say the tapestry cushions didn't really match anything. :) My friend asked if I could recover them. I have never done anything like that, so I said as long as she had really low expectations I could give it a shot. :) She bought this lovely fabric and I got to work:

(Obviously these are her cushions sitting in my glider for the purposes of photography. I didn't want to deliver them at 11pm last night and demand to take pictures. :)
Frankly, I'm pretty pleased! I traced the cushions to create a pattern, added about 1.5" all the way around to allow for the thickness and stitched them up. The seersucker nature of the material really helps hide imperfections. :)
I monogrammed the back cushion with their last initial, using the Love Lace font from 8 Claws and a Paw. It's LOVELY! I can't believe that I'm just now using this font for the first time! Although I suppose it's to be expected with over 575 font options...

As I worked on this project, I also received this adorable embroidery design to test for Lynnie Pinnie. I picked fabric/thread colors to match the cushion material and used scraps to make a matching decorative pillow:

I used the largest size of the "Thank Heaven for little girls" design. There is also a boy version and a gender-neutral version. They are all so cute!
Now, please pray for my friends -- for a safe delivery, a healthy baby girl, and that the adoption process goes smoothly!

Bridal accessory set

A couple years ago I made a ring bearer pillow and embellished a couple flower girl baskets. Since sharing those on my blog I have received several inquiries via email about making custom bridal accessories. Today I share a new set... but only to say "look what I made" and not "look what I make". There is a subtle difference...more on that in a second. :)

Kerri contacted me with all her info and requests, then mailed me swatches of her wedding colors (LOVELY!). I went ribbon shopping and here's the final set:

First, the ring bearer pillow. I made this from scratch, the final size is about a 9" square. I used Embird Alphabet #38 for the monogram/text.

The flower girl basket was purchased from Jo-Ann. I removed the white bows that it came with and substituted them with monogrammed bows in Kerri's colors. Check out their awesome wedding date!! (Oops, just noticed some jump stitches I still need to trim. Glad I haven't packaged it up yet!)

And I made these garters! This was a first for me, and I completely winged it. :) Basically I stitched two layers of satin ribbon together, forming a casing for elastic. Threaded the elastic through, joined the ends and added a bow. The "toss" garter has 7/8" ribbon as it's base, and the "keep" garter uses 1.5" ribbon (I also stitched a tiny 3-letter monogram on the front and date on the back!)

It all turned out lovely, in reality it wasn't that complicated, and I'm very pleased with the results. But here's the deal -- I'm not that great at tying bows, and sewing with satin fabric/ribbon requires extra care, so constructing all of this took longer than I'd like. This isn't a market I want to get into, I prefer baby and children's items. So please don't be offended if you ask for a bridal accessory set and I say no. :)

Kerri, I pray that your wedding day is absolutely beautiful. May God grant you two a long and happy life together!

Hanging Hearts Decor

A few weeks back the SWAK Embroidery newsletter spotlighted some cute Hearts of Faith pillow designs. When I saw the picture of the pillows hanging on a shelf with hooks, I thought of my new shelf and how bare it was going to look when I took down our stockings. Fast forward to this week when I had the opportunity to test stitch some lovely heart frame designs from 8 Claws and a Paw... I knew exactly what I wanted to create!

Each of the hearts pillows features a different frame design.
Valentine Heart Frame 2:

Valentine Heart Frame 4:

Valentine Heart Frame 5:

(I got carried away on one of them and forgot to take a picture of Valentine Heart Frame 3 before adding text and finishing the pillow, oops!)


Before starting these designs, I opened them in Embird Studio and created a heart-shaped running stitch around the frame, as well as tackdown stitches for the ribbon. After I embroidered the frame, I added the text (using Embird alphabet #38), tacked down the ribbon, then tacked down the backing material face down on top of the whole thing. Took it out of the hoop, trimmed around the edges, inverted, stuffed, and hand stitched up the hole (which is actually a challenge when the shape is curved... new strategy needed next time). Here are close-ups of each heart.

I'm pleased with how they turned out considering they were completed in a little over 24 hours after initially seeing the designs! I look forward to making more hanging decorations throughout the year!!

Lion Pillows

Tonight VBS kicked off at our church, and I'm teaching the 3s and 4s class. As our craft to go along with the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den, we made these lion head pillows:

The idea/directions I was given involved felt and lots of glue or sewing, so I decided to tackle it from another direction. I kinda did my own thing and thought I'd share it here. No thread involved, so not technically "Stitched by Janay" but it is a fabric craft. :)

First I cut large circles out of two different colors of fleece (orange-yellow and tan). I used a template and rotary cutter which made it go so much faster. I used the largest option on this "Easy Circle Cut" so they were 10.5" circles.

Next I paired up one of each color fleece and fringed them. I made 24 cuts about 2.5" deep.

I put a little mark on my scissors so I was sure my cuts were long enough. The knots are difficult to tie if the fringe is too short.

I pre-tied most of the fringe, leaving four of them untied. I just did a single knot, simply for time reasons (ummmmm... I was doing this the night before...). The benefit is that the opposite color fringe appears around each side of the circle. But for longevity sake, it might be best to double knot them.

At this point, the kids got to make the face. Using Tacky Glue we added googly eyes and a felt nose. The mouth and whiskers were added with a Sharpie.

Then we stuffed them with polyfil and finished tying them off. They were a hit!

Tooth Fairy Pillow!

Two weeks ago today in the middle of church Annaliese discovered that one of her bottom teeth was loose! I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT -- MY BABY HAD A LOOSE TOOTH!
Once I got over that shock, I realized I needed to quickly get to work on her tooth fairy pillow. Thankfully I had already been brainstorming ideas, it was just a matter of finalizing the design and getting to work.

The little fairy is from the Angels Watching Over Me Applique set from Designs by JuJu. I digitized the pocket and Kathy did the text for me (I love the font Delightful!!). I decided to add the ribbon as a hanger so we can either put it on her doorknob or on her bed post. That will make it more convenient for the tooth fairy to make the exchange. :)

I got the pillow done within a week, but decided to wait until she actually lost the tooth to give it to her. Well, that happened today at lunch!

Annaliese's pillow is hanging by her bed, tooth safely tucked inside, awaiting the fairy!

Ring Bearer Pillow and Flower Girl Baskets

Melanie asked me to make a ring bearer pillow and monogram flower girl baskets for the wedding of a family friend. The colors are salmon and brown, and this is what we came up with. I used Embird Alphabet #38 for all the text. I made the pillow out of taffeta, adding satin ribbon.


The flower girl baskets were purchased at Michaels. I did the embroidery on satin ribbon and attached it to the baskets.

I hope the bride was pleased!

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. ;)

Monogrammed Ringbearer Pillow

This past weekend Dan and Sue's son got married. Sue had agreed to make the ring bearer pillow and she asked me to do some embroidery for her. She told me what font Danny and Jenni had used for the monogram on the wedding invitations, and Kathy was able to digitize the monogram and wedding date with the same beautiful font. Sue brought me the fabric, helped me select the thread colors, and I did the embroidery:

Then Sue took it home and completed the pillow!

Here are a couple action shots. I believe this is the groom, ring bearer, and father of the groom:

And here's Devin with the pillow:


I enjoy projects like this. Many of my friends have excellent sewing skills, but don't have an embroidery machine. It's nice to be able to help them make personalized items. I've done monograms for Sarah who makes bags, soon I'll be stitching text on fabric for Michele who is making throw pillows, and just today someone asked me about embroidering Bible verses for a quilt she wants to make.

Thank you gift for Jordan

Several weeks ago Annaliese got her "big bed". We received this gift from a very generous family. Jordan, now in high school, got to pick out new bedroom furniture, and they gave us her old twin bed. As a token of our appreciation, I made this pillow for Jordan:

The color scheme for her new bedding is aqua/brown, so I found this fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and added an applique monogram patch.

The "J" is from the Dot Alphabet that I got on Sew Forum, and "jordan" was digitized by Kathy using the font Acadian. The rounded square applique came from My Embroidery Haven (it was a freebie on her yahoo group).