Football Themed Baby Gift Set

Renee requested a baby boy gift set and sent me a link to the bedding set the mommy-to-be had registered for (Pottery Barn Junior Varsity). Here's what I came up with:

Pretty cute right? I used the quilt from the set as my inspiration for fabric/ribbon choices. Daddy is a football coach, so I focused on that.

 

The Football Applique is from Lynnie Pinnie. I LOVE it. And this Sports Life Brown Texture fabric by Robert Kaufman is PERFECT. I used my favorite boy font Whoa Nelly from 8 Claws and a Paw to add his name. And I used my favorite ribbon for boys. All around awesome burp cloth, right?? :)

The ribbon blanket has a light blue cotton stripe fabric on the front and football fleece on the back. I was very excited to find all of the supplies for this already in my stash.

Peacock Ribbon Blanket

I think this is my new favorite ribbon blanket! Natalie asked me to make one for her daughter. She wanted purple and a peacock, and this is what I came up with:

I knew immediately I wanted to use Lynnie Pinnie's applique peacock design.

 I picked a sparkly marble purple fabric for the front side. I used the vertical stripe ribbon as my color palette and selected fabrics, ribbon and thread to match. Then I used white minkee on the back. It should be a very special lovey!

Nerdy Ribbon Blanket, take 2!

When big brother Torin was born, I made a special one-of-a-kind superhero ribbon blanket for him. Now two years later little brother Nolan has arrived and needs his own special one-of-a-kind superhero ribbon blanket!
You've seen these designs already -- after digitizing them I first stitched them on some burp cloths that I sent to Jason and Anna before Nolan's birth.  I ran out of time to get the blanket made before he was born, and now over a month later it's done!

I used flannel for the front - I almost leaped with joy when I finally found gray flannel locally! :) I used white minkee on the back:

Here are close-ups of the applique designs. These are actually a bit bigger than the designs I did on the burp cloths, which made them easier to trim out.

I would love to see the boys together with their blankets, but alas, they live hundreds and hundreds of miles away, so I'll have to wait for a picture. :)

Baby Shower Gift

One of my husband's coworkers and his wife are expecting a baby within the next few weeks. They have chosen to keep the gender of their child a surprise until delivery, so we couldn't go with the typical personalized gift items. That's ok, I had a couple neat ideas.
First, I headed to Home Depot, pulled up their blog on my phone and got the paint swatches they used to paint the baby's nursery.  Beautiful gender neutral colors. Searched my fabric and ribbon stash, nothing matched. Headed to JoAnns, nothing matched. Unbelievable. I finally settled on a polka dot flannel. The lime is a bit bolder than the paint, but good enough.  Actually some of the dots on the flannel match the blue hydrangea color pretty well, but couldn't find any ribbon that would work. So this gift is inspired by the color palette, but not an exact match. :)  They have also decorated the baby's room with pandas galore, so here is Little Baby Thomas' custom ribbon blanket:

The applique panda is from Embroidery Library. I used the same minkee as what is on the back.

The other item I stitched for Little Baby Thomas is a bib. They have a dog named Joker, so I recreated a bib I did about three years ago.

I quickly selected the gender neutral lime green bib from my stash, but spent quite a bit of time picking the thread color. I do have a blue hydrangea-like color, but I was afraid there wouldn't be enough contrast for it to be really legible. Then later the most obvious choice hit me.  Joker.  Of course it had to be a green and purple bib. So there you go, a little tiny tribute to Marc's nerdhood.

Ribbon Blankets

Renee's husband works for the Miami Dolphins, and she requested these ribbon blankets for the wives of coaches who recently had babies.  Neat, huh?
I used Dolphins fleece for one side:

And an orange pin dot for the other.  I used Embird Alphabet #8 for Tyson:

I used the Swirley font from 8 Claws and a Paw for Landry.  I also swapped out the football ribbon for the floral ribbon, just to make it a touch more girly. :)

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.

Baby Gift for Auburn Fans

Auburn Alumni friends of ours are expecting a baby boy, so I made a couple orange and blue items for them!

This little ribbon blankie has a cute applique tiger from Embroidery Library. I added "Lil' Auburn Tiger" with Embird Alphabet #8.

The back is super-soft orange minkee!

For his bib I used the applique S from Embroidery Boutique's Fun Applique Alphabet, and the Whoa Nelly font from 8 Claws and a Paw for "Sawyer".

Ribbon Blankets

Renee requested ribbon blankets for three little babies that were born recently.
Braddock's family are Miami Dolphins fans, so his has Dolphins fleece on one side and orange pin dot on the other with orange, turquoise and football ribbons. I used Embird alphabet #8 for his name.



For Christian she requested footballs (used fleece) and baby blue (regular cotton material). I used Embird alphabet #8 for his name also.



And for Julia's blanket she requested girly pink. :) I used this bright pink minkee for one side and a cute calico for the other. I love the pink and green combo for girls! I used the Frenchie alphabet from 8 Claws and a Paw.

My gift for Baby Torin

As I reminded you a couple days ago, mid-March my friends Jason and Anna enlisted my help to announce their big news. We used the Gaelic phrase "Ag teacht gan mhoill" which means "coming soon" (stitched with Embird alphabet #37) and a shamrock (from Stitchery Mall). I stitched this design on eight onesies that they shipped out to all their family reveal their secret.

As I was doing that project, I knew immediately one item I was going to make as a baby gift once their child was born. I asked our mutual friend Daryl to help me translate the phrase "I have arrived" into Gaelic/Irish. He pointed to me to a forum, http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/. I got my translation within a matter of minutes, and then it was just a matter of waiting for the actual birthdate. Thankfully little Torin decided to arrive just in the nick of time, so that the onesie could still say October!


Not my typical onesie design, but certainly unique and meaningful to the parents.

The other part of their gift is a creation I'm quite proud of. Jason requested something comic book nerdy that wouldn't be found anywhere else. Avoiding the three big-named superheros, he suggested three other lesser-known characters (I threw in a fourth to complete my idea). I got to work creating my own designs.
For Christmas I got Studio, the digitizing portion of the Embird software program. I've used it some, but haven't spent a lot of time playing with it yet. Following a tutorial I figured out how to make applique designs, and created these four different blocks all by myself!!

The front is four applique blocks using flannel and satin, the back is white minkee. I used an assortment of satin and grosgrain ribbons around the edges.

And here are close-ups of the blocks.




This is another unique, one-of-a-kind gift! I love doing this stuff!

Lots of stitching for Chloe...

A few weeks ago friends of mine adopted a precious baby girl. I was so excited that I gave them part of their gift right away. Their shower is today, and I've done lots of stitching for Chloe over the past week!

First, Valerie requested a ribbon blanket.

To match the Lady Bug bedding set they registered for, I used the lady bug applique design from Pegboard Crafts. I added the text with Embird Alphabet #8.

The front is a white flannel with pink and green dots. The back is a white minkee. The ribbons are an assortment of satin and grosgrain ribbons in my stash.


Michelle also requested a gift set:

For the bib, I used the same lady bug design:

For the onesie I used a frame from AK Designs Boutique, and I added the C with Embird Alphabet #17. Michelle bought the little pants and I embroidered a heart from the frame onto the pant leg to make a matching set.



For the burp cloth Michelle wanted something for daddy to use, so I stitched "Daddy's Little Girl" with Alphabet #38, and added paisley designs (from another frame from AK Designs Boutique) to go with the ribbon.


Now, I didn't want to go to the shower empty handed myself, so I stitched a couple more things...

See, in anticipation of orders I had come up with lots of monogram options for people to choose from, and I fell in love Chloe's monogram in the Empire font from Embroidery Arts. It just HAD to be stitched! I picked her mommy's favorite color for the bib.

I've also be anxious to try this fabric/ribbon combination. The monogram is Vintage Applique Alphabet from Embroidery Boutique. I added her name with Tinker Toy alphabet from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Whew! This girl is not even 4 weeks old, and she already has more personalized stuff than me! :)