First Day of School 2013

Another school year is here, and my kids are ready!

Oh wait! I promise that's the result of bright sunshine and gnats on the grassy lot outside of school. Let's try again against the building...

Both of my kids were very excited to start school back up today! That is a blessing I do not take for granted. They were also both thrilled with their first day of school shirts that they helped design. Neither are exactly what *I* would have picked in terms of fabrics and threads, but it's exactly what they wanted, and I aim to please my two favorite customers. :)

Annaliese selected East Coast Applique's "Sweet Grade" design. I added "4th" by using the 4 from 8CP's Frills and the th from 8CP's Waiting.

She has two skirts in her closet that we love (great length for her long legs plus they built in shorts) but they are ODD colors and we can't find matching shirts for them. Applique to the rescue! :) Although honestly I didn't have much fabric in my stash to match them either. She decided to pick colors so that it would match BOTH skirts. Whew, that was a challenge but we figured it out!

 Dashiell loved ECA's School is a Blast design. I wish I could have recorded our negotiation session picking fabrics and threads. Green had to go (it's sneaky afterall). It was ok for the pencil to be yellow, but the star could NOT be yellow. So he made that red and insisted that "is" be yellow in it's place. He also wanted a solid red P and not one of my "beautiful" fabrics (I had picked a cool chevron or a cool stripe for him to choose from). So... it's not exactly the most balanced and legible design, but it's what he wanted :)

 And his reaction to the completed shirt made it worthwhile: "Wow Mommy that's great! I could wear that forever!"

Our kids delivered their school supplies in personalized shopping totes:

 Annaliese's classroom is decorated with a baseball theme, so I used ECA's divided baseball (vintage stitch) and 8CP's College Block Small.

Dashiell's teacher likes cherries :) So I went on a hunt for a large single cherry design to use as a patch. I ended up modifying 8CP's Applique Cherries design. I separated out one of the cherries and enlarged it A LOT (like 80%?!) which of course made the satin stitches huge. That's ok, my plan was to delete them anyway and just make it a raggy patch. When I deleted the satin stitches, I noticed the tackdown was a lovely blanket stitch, which worked perfectly! :)  I added her name with 8CP's Janessa.

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!

Opening Day 2013

Well, it's that time of year again... Baseball season has begun, and these kids needed new shirts to celebrate!

I've made opening day shirts for them several times (2008, 2009, 2010, 2012), and this year their mommies selected East Coast Applique's Baseball alphabet. I added their names with Embird Alphabet #4.

This year we finally managed to get their baseball designs on raglan tees!

We've tried in the past, but I struggled finding a brand that had all the right sizes. The older three are now big enough to wear the XS Soffe brand that I got at Sports Authority. But I was afraid it was going to be a dress on Simon, so we ordered a toddler size six from American Apparel. But when it was in my hands, I was afraid it would be too small! Since he's currently in Bangkok... I couldn't exactly try it on him first. :) So for good measure I made two, knowing eventually he would grow into the other!
Check out this enormous size difference between a toddler size 6 and a youth 6/7. ACK!

Some company needs to product raglan shirts from infant onesie through toddler, youth and adult sizes. All the same brand so families can match! And if it could happen before next April, it would make my life easier. ;)

Baby boy gift set

Martha and Maggie also requested items for a relative who just had a baby boy! It's been a while since I've done a larger gift set, this was fun to do!

For the burp cloths they requested a couple with a wild animal theme and one with honey bees. The lion is from DBJJ's Noah and Friends set. I added Mark's name with 8CP's Faron.

 

The monkey is also from that DBJJ set. I added his name with 8CP's Dora's Boots.

The Behive alphabet is from East Coast Applique. I did some design editing and just used one big piece of fabric instead of doing the raggy stripes as it's designed (you can see my other project with the font here, it's cute both ways!) I couldn't find that same set of scraps in my stash, and frankly I was pressed for time. :) I love how this fabric worked for the beehive though! Added his name with Jolson's Hand Lettered Floss Stitch font.

They had also purchased a sweet little outfit (which I failed to get a picture of in it's entirety) that I monogrammed with Embroidery Arts' Circle 3:

And this blanket, with my favorite, 8CP's Whoa Nelly. I hope I never fall out of love with this font!

Holiday Attire

I scaled back my applique work a lot this last fall and didn't make very many Christmas shirts at all. Since the shirts I made my kids last year still fit (woo-hoo!) I used my new nieces as guinea pigs when testing these cute designs for a couple digitizers.
I didn't have any long sleeved onesies in Gabriella's size in my stash, and couldn't find a white one in stores, so I grabbed this thermal one, not exactly sure what I was going to put on it. Imagine my delight when this design appeared in my inbox!! I immediately knew the onesie was a perfect canvas!

The Gingerbread Girl design is from Lynnie Pinnie and I used Mandi from 8CP to add her name. Perfection!

When I had the opportunity to test this sweet reindeer, I thought it would look so cute on a onesie!

The Resting Reindeer is from East Coast Applique and I used Kristen from 8CP to add her name.
Now for the bow... the pink premade bow in my stash didn't match the bright pink I used for her nose and name. But I had a scrap (and I mean scrap!) of ribbon that was the perfect color. I searched for a scrap of green ribbon to tie the knot and didn't have anything quite right. So thread came to the rescue! I used the button stitch on my machine (several times) to tack down the bow. I thought it turned out cute!

Since Gabriella got a bonus item earlier in the fall, It was Ailynn's turn to get a little something extra. :) I have had this sweet double ruffle tiny tee in my stash for a long time and finally had the perfect design and recipient for it!

I used LP's Crafty Heart Applique Frame and added her initial with 8CP's Haily font.  I love having over 600 fonts to choose from! I was able to find an A that had a swirl to match the frame and was shaped just right to fit in the asymmetrical heart!

My little fabric stash builder

After preschool Friday I stopped by Bernina Connection in search of a particular fabric. While we were there Dashiell found some green fabric with little monkeys on it and said he wanted to buy it so I could make a shirt.
I said, "Oh, like the Lightning McQueen shirt you never wear?" (just that morning he had refused to wear the shirt when I suggested it.)

I told him I didn't have a project in mind for it so I wasn't going to buy any.

He said (get this) that we needed to buy it now before someone else buys it. 

WOW!! I have not specifically trained him on stash building/fabric hoarding but he has got this DOWN. He almost had me with that. :)

I still said no, and he continued to whine and complain about it. Kind of threw a mini-fit that sealed the deal on my "no".

As we were checking out he told Lynn (store owner whom we go to church with) all about it, and described what he wanted. He was calm and rational and articulate and charming... rather convincing and totally enchanted all three women working there. I looked at Lynn and said, "I suppose I should embrace this for as long as he's interested, right?" Afterall, he won't always be a three year old who wants to wear mommy-appliqued shirts. So I went back and grabbed the bolt. Well Lynn cut a quarter yard and handed it to him and didn't even charge me. Said she was partly to blame for the situation by continuing to question him about it. :)  The stipulation was that he had to show her what mommy made.

 

While he napped that afternoon (woo-hoo!) I brainstormed what kind of design I could use to show off as many monkeys as possible. You see that was part of his negotiating technique. When I reminded him he already had a monkey shirt, he said, "That only has one monkey on it. I don't have a shirt with LOTS of monkeys." 

I looked through my applique alphabets to see if I had a big chunky D that would maximize fabrics, and then I remembered this cool font!

This is technically the D from East Coast Applique's Baseball Alpha, but instead of using white fabric I used the monkey fabric, and I skipped the step with the red stitching across the ball. (You can see my friend Wendi's sample of the alphabet here)  I added his name with Embird Alphabet #4.

I really like how it turned out. What a neat way to show off cool fabric. And it was a quick design -- one fabric to trim, one thread in the machine!

 

Dashiell was really pleased. As soon as he saw it he gasped, grabbed it and ran to show daddy saying "I love it!" and then came and gave me a big hug. Here he is at St Marks yesterday:

 And acting like a monkey!

 

First Day of School 2012

Another school year is off to a great start. But I'm blogging so late in the day! In years past I've hustled home after drop off and posted pictures right away, but this year is different (more on that in my next blog post).
Here are the kids this morning before dropping Annaliese off:

For Annaliese's shirt I used Lynnie Pinnie's Third Grade Rocks design.

For Dashiell's shirt I used East Coast Applique's Pre-K tag design. I customized it with our school name using the Tiny Alphabet from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Annaliese has used the same backpack for 3 years so I suppose it's time for a new one! I found myself monogramming this at 8:45pm last night... talk about waiting until the last minute!

I used 8CP's Pizazz to create the monogram. I love the way her initials look in this font! There was no easy way to put the monogram on the front the way the pockets are and how the lunch box attaches, so I put it on the top.

And there was no way I could monogram the lunch box, so I made a little keychain out of ribbon to attach to the handle.

Like last year, I monogrammed a Publix shopping bag for their teachers, and we used them to deliver all their school supplies. This is the Taylor Monogram font Lynnie Pinnie.

Adorable owl holding a frame

You will never believe this... I stitched another owl design!! Hee, hee...
My friend Cassie needed someone to test stitch this cute owl design so you know I jumped on the opportunity. I had an aqua shirt waiting for another owl design (daughter's school mascot and color). She wore it today for Back-to-School Orientation, and got quite a bit of attention from the staff. :)

The owl design can be purchased from East Coast Applique (via the shop tab on her Facebook page). The frame comes blank. Since Annaliese already had a BTS shirt with "Third Grade" on it, she selected the phrase "Reading is a Hoot" (she thought the frame was a book). I used the Green Bean font from 8 Claws and a Paw to add the text.

Burp Cloths for Emily

These are burp cloths I actually stitched quite a while back in anticipation of a baby shower. So excited that little Emily is here and I can show off her goodies. :)
Michelle requested something princess for a burp cloth, so I chose Lynnie Pinnie's Fancy Castle Applique. I used the Cinderella font from 8 Claws and a Paw to add her name, it was a perfect choice!

 For the burp cloth I gave Emily, I used the Beehive Alphabet from East Coast Applique and added her name with the Hand Lettered Floss Stitch font from Jolson's Designs. I think it's only the second time I've used this font, but it was a perfect fit to coordinate with the flutter path trailing behind the bee.

Ready to cheer on the Noles!

This weekend I made a cute little bandana dress for an even cuter little girl! When Brittany saw Annaliese's Seminoles skirt, she wanted something similar for Kendal. I used every bit of that fabric, but I knew I still had some FSU bandanas in my stash and could make her a dress like I did for Annaliese a few years ago. It turned out so cute!!

On the bodice, I used the Vintage Split Football Design from East Coast Applique. I added her name with College Block Small from 8 Claws and a Paw.

While I'm sharing this design, let me also show you the Split Tennis Ball design.  I tested this for ECA using yellow fleece and it turned out so cute!

I put it on a hand-me-down onesie that has a sweet yellow trim. This upcycle item is ready for a new home. Any tennis fans with a baby girl in the family? :)