Christmas Placemats

Even though I adore our monogrammed placemats, my son (4 years old) complains often because his doesn't look like a D. Ha! So when I saw these new scribble designs from Embroidery Boutique, I decided to grab some red placemats and make a new set for our family to use during December.

I picked four different designs (all that use greenery) but selected the same fabric to keep them matching. The scribble designs are so fast and a cool look! I used HNBL for a crisper finish, but it's not required, a raggy finish would be neat, too. (And my friend Katie used the designs without fabric for some very elegant napkins, check it out here)
Annaliese and I might fight over this one... I think my favorite is the Scribble Whimsy Tree

Here's the Scribble Wreath

And Scribble Simple Tree

And finally Scribble Holly. Don't judge, this was my first one. Didn't use HNBL. Didn't trim quite as neatly as I should have, and DUH red berries are NOT going to show up on a red placemat. After testing this one Rachel did do a new version with applique berries that is really cute. I've bought a new placemat to try again with that design. :) I think using a redish fabric will provide enough contrast so they show up better. We'll see if I actually get to it before we decorate for Christmas...

Here they are all laid out on our little table, I like them!

So go check out EB's new scribble designs. On sale now! The product pictures show them beautifully stitched on shirts, but as you can see, they are very versatile designs!

Monogrammed Placemats!

Our family was overdue for some new placemats, the ones from last summer had seen better days. I love the colors on these striped ones and grabbed a set.
THEN spend hours (literally hours) trying to find a font to use. I wanted a C that wasn't swirly for my husband (but not incredibly boring either), a D that would be recognizable as a D for my four year old son, and a pretty J. It is near IMPOSSIBLE to find those three requirements in the same font. Thankfully my daughter's A is generally pretty no matter what font you pick.
Remember those bags I monogrammed for Annaliese's little friends a couple months ago? Well I had merged together her monogram but didn't actually make a bag for her. I merged together the rest of the family names and decided this would work beautifully! I love how these turned out!

This is the Corinthia Script from Katelyn's Kreative Stitches. It is classy and a perfect choice... not too fancy, not too boring, not too whimsical. Stitched beautifully!

Jumping on the $Tree bandwagon

If you do custom embroidery and you are not a part of an online group or forum, you just might be missing out on some awesome ideas! This post is filled with things I've made for my family inspired by other stitchers... FROM DOLLAR TREE! That's right folks, grab a $1 item, add some embroidery, and suddenly you have a boutique item!

First up, place mats. Dollar Tree has these in red, white and blue right now. You can find similar place mats at other locations. They will cost more, and probably have a higher quality, but for us this will do. After looking through all of my 8CP fonts with my daughter trying to find a single font that had:

• a D that was clearly identifiable as D (since Dashiell is VERY into his initial at the moment) 
• a C that was not too feminine
• an A that was pretty and pleased Annaliese
• and a J wasn't boring yet didn't look like an I or a T 

(whew, that's not as easy as you would think!) we settled on Miss Kitty from 8 Claws and a Paw. Honestly it wasn't my first choice (Southern Belle was), but I knew Annaliese would bring it up every time we sat down for dinner, so I went with her first choice. ;) And hey, it was only a $4 experiment!

Next, sunglasses cases! I can't give a source for the font I used for Annaliese, it appeared in my inbox from a friend. :) I love it though, it's like Curlz without the annoying tiny curls! I made Annaliese's a couple weeks ago. Dashiell is starting to notice when I make things for her and not him. This week he told me that he wanted a sunglasses case with his name on it. He insists that his favorite color is dark brown (???) and was quite distraught when I told him that Dollar Tree didn't sell brown sunglasses cases. Oh dear, we talked about this in great length. He finally settled on a blue one with dark brown thread. :) I used Dream from 8CP for his name.

How about a sunhat?? You can find these hats a lots of locations for a variety of prices, but for an experiment for an 8 year old, a $1 hat is PERFECT. I used Pizazz from 8CP to do Annaliese's monogram, and picked purple thread to match her new swimsuit.

Finally, a new beach bag. Dollar Tree is selling these awesome canvas totes! They are a great size and I'm anxious to put it to use.

This design is from Luna Embroidery. LOVE the striped fabric that my mom bought for me when she was here last week!

So what are you waiting for?? Get yourself to a Dollar Tree!!

Happy Birthday, Amy!

For Christmas I stitched a couple holiday place mats for Amy, so for her birthday I decided to do a few more to carry her through the rest of the year:

For her birthday I used Embroidery Library's cupcake design from their Simple Treasures line. LOVE these designs!! I added the text with Embird Alphabet #14.

For summer I stitched Lynnie Pinnie's applique firecracker to celebrate Independence Day.

For fall I picked an applique pumpkin from Designs by JuJu. I replace the smiley face with her monogram using Apex Embroidery Font.

For Christmas I used Pegboard Crafts' applique stocking. I left off the toe and heel patches since my fabric was already patchwork-like. I used Embird Alphabet #7 to add her name.

So I think I hit all the holidays except for Easter... I'll have to figure that out before next spring. :)

Reproductions!

I recently reproduced three things I have given as gifts or made for myself.

First, a set of place mats, just like the place mats I made my mom for Christmas:

Next, a Proud Mom shirt like mine for another kindergarten mom at Springwood:

And finally, an Auburn ribbon blanket like the one I made for Sawyer:


If you want more close-up pictures or design details, follow the links above.

Rooster Place Mats

My mom's kitchen is decorated with roosters. I saw these phrases a long time ago and have wanted to do something with them ever since -- this year's Christmas gift was finally the time.
Here's a place mat for my dad to use:

And one for my mom:

Hee, hee...
The rooster and hen are from Rease's Realistic Designs set "Raucous RedWork Roosters". (Join her yahoo group to snag them for free!) I added the text with Embird Alphabet #33.

Merry Christmas, Amy!

My sister-in-law Amy recently got a new dining room table. For part of her gift this year I stitched a few placemats.
Amy loves bluebirds, so per Kathy's suggestion I used a couple redwork designs from Embroidery Library.



Kathy and I are also going to attempt to create a set of holiday placemats for Amy to use throughout the year. For Valentine's Day I used Five Star Font's Deco Heart Applique Frame and inserted her initial with the Bingham font from 8 Claws and a Paw.


For St. Patrick's Day I used Embroidery Boutique's Shamrock Applique, and inserted her monogram using the Chez font from 8 Paws and a Claw.



That's all we've done so far. Hopefully one of us will do a cute Easter one in time...