Welcome, baby Adolai!

The birth of baby Adolai makes Tre a big brother. Tre loves dinosaurs, so when Karen posted a BigBrothersaurus shirt on her blog, I just knew I had to do something similar for Tre. AND since I didn't get it done before Adolai arrived (I'm going to blame that on her early arrival and not my poor planning), I decided to make a sibling set!

The applique dinosaur (#3) design is from Lynnie Pinnie. I used the 5x7 size for Tre.

 I added the text with Embird alphabet #14. Within Studio I was able to use the outline of the dinosaur as my baseline and curve the text around the dinosaur. Awesome, right? It can be tedious and time consuming to get it *just right*, but worth the effort in the end. (I learned this technique from Peggy, awesome list mom of the Embird 101 yahoo group; you can find the directions in message #4678.)
You know what took just as long as getting the text curved just right?? Finding the perfect-sized little bow to put on the 4x4 dinosaur to make it a bit more girly! :) I borrowed it from LP's 4x4 cheerleader.

Ok, so not the most feminine little sister shirt ever, but I think Bigbrothersaurus will like it, and that's what matters. Well, I hope he doesn't mind that I used a potential nickname ("Adolai" just didn't fit as neatly as "Tre"). He uses his sister's first AND middle name, and is offended when his parents simply call her Adolai. Isn't that sweet?!

To compensate, here's a girly burp cloth. :) I used Lynnie Pinnie's Applique Swirl font for the "A" and added Adolai with Swirley from 8 Claws and a Paw. Love this zebra print ribbon!

First Birthday a la Mode

Amy contacted me about making her daughter's first birthday shirt. She already had a vision, so once I tracked down the right ice cream cone design, it was straightforward to put together!

The "1" is from GG Designs' Chubby Wubby Numbers. The triple scoop ice cream cone is from DigiStitches. I added "Lauren" with the Tinker Toy Font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Even though Amy is in Colorado and I'm in Florida, we were able to work as a team to get this shirt to match the party decor perfectly... She mailed me a napkin from the tableware she already purchased and I picked fabrics/threads to match! Cool, huh?

As for me and my house...

I had the opportunity to test stitch this cute little Cottage House applique design from Lynnie Pinnie, so I decided to create a little in-hoop wall hanging for myself.

I attempted to match the colors in my kitchen, but as you can see, I must have grabbed the wrong green thread?? So actually it's hanging in our bedroom instead. :) I used Embird alphabet #8 to add the text of Joshua 24:15. I think the little cottage is cute. This is the 4x4 size:

 The bigger sizes have even more applique pieces. I think it would be so cute in fun whimsical fabrics, maybe on a larger wall hanging for a quilt shop? Wouldn't that be adorable??

Cutie Pie

Lynnie Pinnie has a new design that I think is so adorable I had to stitch it twice!
I put the largest size of the Cutie Pie applique design on a sleep shirt for my daughter:

What a cute way to showcase this scrap of cherry fabric!

I put the smallest size on this little bib. Thought I'd give blue a whirl. A cute blueberry pie... but is it too cutesy for a boy? What do you think?

Mmmmmmmm... now I'm hungry for pie!

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!

Patriotic Designs

This week I had the pleasure to stitch a couple of Lynnie Pinnie's new patriotic designs. First, this adorable little applique Bald Eagle.

I put it on a shirt for Dashiell. He LOVES it. He hasn't stopped screeching or flapping his arms since he put it on. I don't think he'll stand still long enough for me to take a picture, so check out a little video of him that I posted on Facebook.

Next I made myself another stay-put towel (You can read more about my first one here).

I used the Mixed Stripes Heart Flag Applique.

What's in a brand?

It doesn't take a marketing expert to know how important a brand is for companies that sell products or provide services. However, just because I know it's important doesn't mean I have what it takes to create one! I'll leave that to the pros.

But I'd like to take a moment to weigh in on branding from an embroiderer's perspective. The marketing team at Onyx Creative Consulting Studio did an awesome job creating their own brand. First, even though the company title is long, their brand is only FOUR letters. They selected a nice bold font. It's not boring, but is free of serifs and curls, it uses very clean lines. Their icon is a simple dot. It has personality since it's not a perfect circle, but it's simple. The design is a grand total of TWO colors. No outlines, shadows, gradients, crazy color palette...
Ahhhhh... it's a recipe for an excellent embroidery design!!

I spent all of my sewing last weekend adding the brand to shirts and jacket for the girls at Onyx. Each item also has the dot on the back below the collar line (like on these shirts).

So if anyone reading this is in the process of creating a new brand for your own company -- before finalizing your design, ask yourself, "Will I ever want this embroidered on something??" If the answer is yes, my advice (for what it's worth) is go simple. :)

Raggy Star Tanks

Annaliese has been begging for some tank tops for these hot Florida days, so when I saw these at Target for $3 I couldn't walk pass them without picking up a couple. They sat waiting for some fun embellishment to come along, and inspiration struck yesterday!

I really figured I would end up just slapping an applique monogram on these since the colorful stripe would be a busy background for an intricate design, but over the weekend Applique Market posted this free raggy star design. Since the tanks have tiny white stars scattered about, I thought it was perfect. Annaliese and I sat down with my fabric stash and picked three fabrics for each shirt. I put a layer of white flannel under each fabric and stitched away. MAN these are lightning fast in the embroidery machine. Trimming and fraying takes the most time.

The purple/aqua/green is my favorite, but the pink/red/orange is Annaliese's favorite. Looks great with a white skirt and her already amazing tan. :)

Pirate shirt

Ty was invited to a pirate themed birthday party, so Andrea asked me to make a cute shirt for the birthday boy:

The Pirate Boy Applique design is from Planet Applique. I used Whoa Nelly from 8 Claws and a Paw to add his name.