Let's Play Ball!

I don't have an athletic bone in my body, but Dashiell sure does! That sports gene from my dad jumped right over me and into him. This year he has started Tee Ball! I don't have a whole lot of interest in sports, so I'm making up for it in cute clothing :) Yesterday was his first game, and Annaliese and I were sporting new shirts for the occasion.

 

As you can see, his team colors are maroon and gray, so I went with a heather gray shirts, used white sports vinyl for the applique, and maroon and dark gray threads.

My shirt uses a relatively new Tee Ball Mom design from Katelyn's Kreative Stitches. I added Dashiell's number with her Corinthia Script (it includes numbers and punctuation!) I really like how it turned out!

For Annaliese's shirt I used the Baseball Bats Heart design from the March 2014 set of The Applique Club. I added the text with I2S Hambone. I think it looks great with the wood grain fabric and vinyl!

Here she is, watching intently :)

Monogrammed Blanket Wedding Gift

Brett contacted me about monogramming a blanket. He had used the blanket in his engagement proposal to Courtney (you can read the sweet story here), and now wanted to surprise her on their wedding day by having special dates embroidered in each corner. I could NOT say no to that!! Like my husband and me, they are high school sweethearts and have a long history together (as you can tell by the dates below). It was a honor to do this for them.
One corner has their last initial, first names and wedding date:

And the other three corners are significant dates in their history:

I picked Corinthia Script from Katelyn's Kreative Stitches. Elegant yet legible, it included numbers and the ampersand in the sizes I needed for the project. It stitched beautifully!

Congratulations Brett and Courtney! May the Lord grant you a long and happy marriage as you serve him together!

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).

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!

Monogrammed Totes

My daughter had a little gathering with four of her dear friends today to celebrate her birthday, and as a party favor I monogrammed these totes (they will be perfect for trips to the pool in a couple of months!)

I used the Corinthia Script from Katelyn's Kreative Stitches. I had purchased it when it was briefly available back in 2010, but now it's back with additional sizes! When I redownloaded the files I felt like my investment had doubled in value! I used the 3" size for the initial and 1.5" size for the names. I used hot pink on the lime totes, and aqua on the red totes.

 

I'm looking forward to using this font more!

New Baby and Big Brother Gift Set

Tracy requested these items for a friend who recently had a second little boy.  First, a set of sibling shirts:

I used the sibling designs from Katelyn's Kreative Stitches -- I love them!!!

 

Tracy also requested this burp cloth. The monogram is from the Dot Alphabet at Julia's Needle Designs, and I stitched "Landon" with Swirley font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

New Sibling Shirts

I recently discovered some neat sibling designs at Katelyn's Kreative Stitches that I've been anxious to try out. I love the simplicity of them, yet the ability to customize with fabric/thread choices and names. The other thing that really excited me was having a "middle" sibling option -- most design sets just come with big and little.
Katelyn's Kreative Stitches is currently having a sale, so I snatched up the designs as soon as possible. I wanted to try them right away, and I don't have a baby shower to attend in my immediate future, so I decided to make new shirts for my kids!



And here they are modeled by my little cuties!


FYI -- I have all six variations of this design (big brother/sister, middle brother/sister, little brother/sister) each in two different sizes. :)

Another side comment -- Three years ago I hated pink/brown and blue/brown combinations. But it was all the rage and so many friends asked me to stitch items in these colorways. I guess I've seen it enough that it has grown on me. Who would have thought I would actually CHOOSE to use these colors for my kids?? Just in time for it to go out of style, I'm sure...