Recent Monogramming

We have had more than our fair share of stormy weather the last few weeks! I haven't accomplished much other than some straightforward monogramming. And I apologize in advance for the lackluster photos...

In general I really like the Natural Circle monogram, but the left D bugs me. I've used it before for Dashiell, but now that he is older he probably would not accept the backwards D. The O actually looks more like a D, so I cobbled together my own mockup of a modified D and asked Itch 2 Stitch if she could create an alternative. I love the results!!

Tracy bought this cute dress and asked me to monogram it. She picked 8CP's Tinker Toy. It looks super cute on her!

Stripes make me nervous, so to insure I didn't get it crooked I stitched a line on stabilizer, then attached the dress with spray adhesive and pins, lining up a stripe on the dress.

Worked as well as possible!

Katie made these adorable A-line dresses and asked me to monogram them.

On the blue striped seersucker I used 8CP's Monogram 3

And on the gray dot I used Katelyn's Kreative Stitches' Elegant Monogram

When Brooks was a baby his grandmother asked me to monogram a blanket purchased at the hospital, and now that little Caden is here I have monogrammed his, too, using 8CP's Jane Doe

At Caden's baby shower, one of the hostess's mom had monogrammed several little items for a bunting on the mantle, such a cute decoration! His grandma bought 2 matching polos for big brother Brooks and asked me to monogram them to match. I used Jolson's Hobo Mini font.

And finally a burp cloth using Appliqué Momma's Sports Patch Design and 8CP's College Block Small. Had to get a touch of applique in this post! :)

Welcoming baby Chloe

I made several things for a baby shower today. These items represent requests from others as well as my own gift. First up, a few burp cloths.

The nursery bedding they registered for is pink and black with butterflies, so for this one I used Applique Momma's butterfly design. The daddy has nicknamed the baby Lady V, so I added that with 8CP's Dancer.

For this burp cloth I used the Itch 2 Stitch's Megaphone House Divided design, adding the text myself with Embird alphabet #8. 

Katelyn's Kreative Stitches recently released an Elegant Script that I took for a test drive on this pretty set. (Thanks Kimberly!!)

I often forget about this particular monogram font because I don't like my own initials in it. But Chloe's monogram is so pretty!

And finally a pink and black name banner (using the Frayed Block Letters from Hang To Dry).

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.

Welcoming Baby Caden

Caden's grandmother has been keeping me busy! Baby shower was today, so now I can show my work:

First, a set of sibling shirts:

The big brother and little brother patches are both from Applique Momma. I added their name with Jolson's Architect. I think I have finally figured out a fabric/thread/font combo that I LOVE with this design. Yay!

Matching monogrammed shirts using 8CP's Baseball Stitch Applique alphabet (oh, and the bib, too!)

And a couple burp cloths. I was told to do whatever I wanted, so I used it as an opportunity to finally use some cute designs that have been sitting in my stash! The Puppy Patch is from Applique Cafe -- isn't this precious?! I added his name with 8CP's Bobby.

And MCA's Jungle Jungle Applique Alphabet. Looking forward to using this again in larger sizes!

Whew! Add to that an additional burp cloth from Michelle, and I did a lot of sewing for little Caden recently. THEN I had to come up with my own gift. EKK! What's left?? Well, I'll save that for a separate blog post. :)
Michelle requested 8CP's Split Banner Applique Font

Decorated Candy Jar

This fall one of the big trends in the embroidery/applique world is making charms for jars and pillows. And burlap is pretty popular, too! So I combined a couple idea to make a gift for our preschool director:

The design is Applique Momma's Christmas ornament. But instead of tacking down a ribbon loop at the top of the ornament as in the directions, I tacked down a length of ribbon across the center so I could tie it around a jar. I ran the placement stitch, laid down the ribbon and ran the first tackdown stitch, then laid down the burlap and continued on...

Turned out cute! The E is from 8CP's Happy Birthday font, which was appropriate since this was a birthday gift. :) My intention was to put a specific "round number" of pieces of candy in the jar, but Ms. Elaine isn't old enough to fill the jar with Hershey Kisses! So instead she got nearly two bags worth. Just a tip, go get yourself some Mint Truffle Kisses. Yummy! 

Holiday Shirts for Brooks

Like last year, I have made a couple of holiday shirts for Brooks!
Up first, a turkey shirt for Thanksgiving:

This is Appliqué Momma's Turkey 12. Love this tiny argyle print. I used Cubed from 8CP to add his name.

And for Christmas:

Isn't this cute for a boy?! This is Lynnie Pinnie's All-Star Christmas tree. I used 8CP's College Block Small font to add his name. I love that font, it's one of my favorites to use with sporty designs!

Ok, in a design with this much detail, thread changes and jump stitches are inevitable. What I love most about Lynnie Pinnie designs is how efficient and user friendly they are. I took a couple pictures in the midst of stitching to show you what I mean. The left shows that all the footballs were finished and all the baseballs and soccer balls were started on the same step. The right shows that the soccer balls and basketballs were finished on the same step.

 In both cases they were sequenced perfectly so that the jump stitches are never stitched over, and the needle never crosses paths with previous jump. I was able to let the color completely stitch without stopping every 30 seconds to trim a jump, because there was no fear that my embroidery foot would catch on a jump stitch. For me and my beloved old single needle, this is a HUGE DEAL. Thank you Lyndsie for remembering your single needle days! :)

School Spirit Time Three, the 2012 Edition!

Last year I did a set of six shirts for two sweet kids, and just this week I shipped a similar set of six for the 2012 school year! Shirts to celebrate their grade, to cheer on the local HS football team, and support their favorite NCAA team:

 (Before I go into the design detail, can I brag on my awesome friend Carla? She bought the shirts herself and sent them to me PREWASHED. She picked out her own fabrics, and sent me detailed instructions for each shirt. You have no idea how giddy I get to open a package like this!!)

First I recreated Ella and Grant's gator shirts from last year, except new color palettes and text. I used Lynnie Pinnie's Alligator Head for Grant, and used Whoa Nelly from 8 Claws and a Paw to the text.

I used LP's Girl Alligator Head for Ella. Love this fabric Carla found and doesn't she have the perfect name for this?? Ellagator. Love it.

Ella's second grade shirt is a new design. They requested the text with a horse applique. I used Applique Momma's silhouette design, and added the text with Clay from 8CP. Except that font doesn't come with numbers, and "Second" was just too long to spell out. Thankfully I remembered that I had the Cowboy Rope version of the same font from Sew Weird Designs, and it had numbers! I like that the 2 is bigger than the rest of the text. It all came together nicely!

For Grant's first grade shirt, we modified the design we used last year for Ella. The design is Lynnie Pinnie's School Books applique with two modification -- instead of stitching "MATH" and "READING" on the spines as it comes, I changed it to "FIRST GRADE". And they requested a baseball instead of an apple, so I snagged that from Embroidery Boutique's Baseball Glove design.

And finally I stitched new versions of the Union County Tigers shirts. The only modification I made this year was increasing the pull compensation on the zig zags to make the even wider. (you can read the design details here.)

Recent Baby Items

Tiffany asked me to make a couple items for a shower gift. In this case the parents are keeping the gender a surprise, so we went with a yellow/orange color scheme. The nursery is decorated with a "you are my sunshine" theme, and this is what we came up with:

It pays to be a tester for Lynnie Pinnie! After searching the internet for a cute design and coming up dry, I asked Lyndsie if she would have time to whip something up for me. She did, it's perfect, and now you embroiderers can get the "You Are My Sunshine" design yourself!

Tiffany wanted to reuse the idea she requested WAY back when I just got started. Jackson is the name of the family dog and is sure to be enjoying table scraps soon from this baby! :) The text is Embird Alphabet #18, and the paw prints came from Sew Forum (no longer available).

Kathie bought this adorable little robe to give as a shower gift, and asked me to applique a lion on the back.

 I used Applique Momma's Lion design but only used the head. Would you believe that I used one type of fleece for this lion? It's a marble fleece (used it a couple years ago for a VBS lion craft) and I was able to isolate a bright yellow spot and a bright orange spot. Cool, huh?