Look what I got from DigiStitches!

While at Applique Getaway, I had the honor of meeting Jennilee of DigiStitches, and she gave me a special gift!

(oh, and my apologies to Jennilee, I'm confident these were originally packaged with pretty tissue paper and her business card... I restaged this pic a month later :) )
In the bag I found a Monag toddler ruffle tee and baby one-piece.

But look carefully, there is something extra special about these! One of the side seams had intentionally been left unsewn! Jennilee chose me, Me, ME! to test these for her!! Once out of the testing phase these will go into production! EEK!

Check out how much flat work space this provides!

SO EXCITING!
There have been times that I have ripped out side seams in order to ease the process of putting a large design on a small item, but this saves that step!
I first put the toddler ruffle tee to the test. I hooped it the same way I always do (my preferred method is fuse polymesh to inside of shirt, hoop a second piece of stabilizer and use spray adhesive/pins to attach the shirt; you do what works for you). However this was much faster because the open space made it easy to see that my marking lines matched up with the hoop axes. Check out all that open free space at the machine!

From this point I stitched the design as normal (using her I Love Pre-K design) but it was so much easier! At NO POINT did I have to manipulate the shirt to reveal a new part of my hoop, or watch out for the back hem of the shirt which might flop into my stitching area. Now, I couldn't walk away because I had lots of fabric to trim and several thread changes on my single needle :) BUT I was never paranoid and I could multitask!

When it was done, all I had left to do was sew up that open seam. I pinned it together matching all the seams:

I measured the existing serged seam on the other side of the shirt, it was a quarter-inch.

A serger would be helpful, but not required! I took the shirt to my machine and first sewed an exact quarter-inch seam (love that foot with a quarter-inch guide):

Then went back over the edges with an overlocking stitch (a simple zig zag would probably work, too). Final product looks pretty professional!

And here we go, a sweet little tee for a sweet little friend off to her first year of preschool!

What a colorful design, and gotta love those glitter sheets from Hobby Lobby!

I am instantly in love with this concept.
Yes, sewing up the seam is an added step. But the flexibility and reduced stitching stress is SO WORTH IT. I would have dreaded doing this applique (with 7 different elements to trim) the normal way I hoop a traditional tee. This was so much easier.

I cannot wait to give the one-piece a try. I'm going to use DS's Tool Belt. For that design to look best it really needs to stretch across the whole width of the one-piece, but that's hard to hoop! An open side seam is going to simplify the process so much!

Dreaming of 3-6 month sized one-pieces, so when I do my special delivery designs I don't have to do this anymore. Doesn't that raise your blood pressure a bit just looking at it?! I've done nearly 100 of them this way...

 

In summary...

DigiStitches has partnered with Monag and is putting open side seam shirts into production... more info soon!!! 
Remember, you saw it HERE first!

:)

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.

Why I love Embird, reason #919

I am not a digitizer. I've dabbled just enough to know I am going to leave that task in the hand of pros. So when a friend asks me to coordinate with a theme or fabric, I start hunting for good designs.
My friend initially asked what owl designs I had for a boy. I shared several of my favorite options. Then she showed me what fabric she was using. I knew I could piece together a really close match! What do you think?!

 I appliquéd the design on a large square of minky and shipped it off. My friend then pieced together the quilt top for her nephew:

The bulk of this design is from one owl, but I added wings from a second and feet from a third. I used so many Embird features... Splitting, rotating, removing stitches. I resized elements, adjusted pull compensation to make the width of all satin stitches the same. Then when I was done the whole thing was slightly too big. So, {gasp!} I did the unthinkable, I resized it all again! So pleased with how well Embird handled it, it turned out great.
(Also a quick shout out to technology. My friend is in Missouri. I was able to send screen shots of the embroidery design for approval, and then I snapped pics of different fabric combos messaging back and forth until we settled on a final decision. Sure, it would have been a bit easier in person, but technology makes it pretty easy to work together though separated by miles and miles!)

Then I worked through it all over again to create a smaller version for a burp cloth. Font is 8CP's Whoa Nelly.

I also put GG Designs' neck tie on a bib! Love this new chevron I bought at Appliqué Getaway!

Four-letter Monograms

When I found out my nephew was going to have two middle names I started playing with 4-letter monograms. I posted a preview of some ideas in an appliqué group, and received some additional suggestions, too. So I decided to try them all!

For simplicity I used the same font for all of these and picked 8CP's Riddles.  I was looking for a classic looking font for a boy, something more on the tall side, and satin in 1, 2, and 3".  This one fit the bill!
First just 4 initials in a row as they appear in his name

Then a stacked monogram, where the first three initials are about 1" tall and the last initial is 3" tall.

Someone suggested putting the three little initials inside the C. That wouldn't work with every monogram though :)

Another suggestion was put the three little initials horizontally across the larger last initial

I tried an extension of the traditional three letter monogram with first initial on left, the two middle initials on the right, and a larger last initial in the middle. This one simply has the middle initials stacked

And this has them kind of nestled together

It was fun to come up with these options and stitch out samples on functional burp cloths for my nephew. (These were colored cloth diapers I bought over four years ago when my son was an infant but I didn't use them all for him, and they have been sitting here waiting for this project since then.)
I still can't settle on a favorite, what do you think??
But here's the funny thing... They plan to call Ezekiel "Zeke" and there isn't a Z on these anywhere! Ha!

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Today we attended a first birthday party, and my gift was a bib for Emily to wear while eating her cake!

Pink ladybug theme, so I merged this together. GG Designs' Chubby Wubby 1, MCA's Ladybug, Jolson's Hand Lettered Floss Stitch font, and one of the flutter trails from That's Sew Grammy's Just Bug Trails set (which is a nice bean stitch, I ended up stitching 2 or 3 times to match the heaving stitching of the floss stitch font).

 

Quick Custom Bib

This post will be short and sweet!
My friend Tiffany asked me to make a bib for her to give to friends expecting their first baby. Well, first human baby, they already have three dogs that are members of the family, and this bib honors them. :)

It's hard to believe it's been nearly six years since I made the first bib like this that Tiffany requested. The text is Embird Alphabet #18, and the paw prints came from Sew Forum (no longer available). The color scheme is in honor of their favorite sports team. I love making custom things that you can't find on the shelves!

Recent Test Stitching

Are you ready for football season?

This Touchdown design is new from Lynnie Pinnie. I put it on a stay-put towel for friends of mine who are Auburn fans :)

(My Stay Put towel is loosely inspired by the Topsy Towel tutorial posted on Embroidery Library. In this case I did not applique a square of fabric, nor did I square up the towel. There is a free V-shaped buttonhole design posted on Sew Forum that goes with this tutorial. If you are not a member of SF, it is free to join.)

School starts in less than two weeks and I still haven't done back to school shirts for my kids, but by golly we are ready for St Patrick's Day! ;)

This is Embroidery Boutique's Split Shamrock, and I used her Oopsy Daisy font to add Annaliese's name.

Happy Birthday, Ailynn!

Today my other little niece turned one, so again I used it as an excuse to try a set of designs that have been sitting in my stash for a while. I love how it turned out!

The candle numbers are from Hooked on Appliqué. This was the first time I have used designs from HOA, and it was digitized exactly like I prefer: single running stitch placement, single running stitch tackdown, double zigzag underlay before satin stitches with great width. Nice coverage, great corners, good sequencing, all around very pleased! I added her name with 8CP's Reba:

Applique Getaway 2013

When I started this blog over six years ago, it simply was my online scrapbook so I could record my projects for my own benefit and to share with our moms. So I've decided to tackle my Applique Getaway experience in that same vein... this is just going to be my personal diary entry about my fabulous experience. :) And it's two weeks late because it's taken me that long to compose my thoughts about its awesomeness and recover from my long road trip! I'm confident I have forgotten great details, and I didn't take nearly as many photos as I expected. Text is chronological, pictures are not, just woven in to go with my story. :)

Friday morning I pulled into the DFW area. My aunt and uncle live in Plano, so my mom drove down to stay there and watch my kids while I headed to Frisco for the Applique Getaway... Over 48 hours kids-free! After getting them settled and giving hugs, I was on my way!

My first stop was the Love Field Airport to pick up my virtual BFF Kaycee. We "met" and have interacted in various applique groups and forums over the years. We seemed so much alike and have become genuine friends, it was fantastic to actually meet in person! We headed to the Westin Stonebriar to check in, grab lunch and catch our breath before the activities began. We happened to see Mrs. Lynnie Pinnie herself and gave her a big hug. At that moment, I had accomplished my main goal, meeting Kaycee and Lyndsie! Everything after that was just gravy. :)

We decided to check out the grounds and ran into Whitney of That's Sew Grammy and Sara Ann of Pick and Stitch at the pool. I ended up having several opportunities to visit with these two throughout the weekend, such sweet and down to earth ladies!

Janna (fellow LP tester) came by our room late in the afternoon, it was such a delight to meet her and chit chat a bit. She gave us a ride to a dinner, a gathering of several volunteers at a Tex-Mex place. It was neat to walk in and hear, "I would recognize you in a group of 100 people, Janay!" (It was the first of many experiences being recognized. I was not prepared for that aspect of the weekend at all!) Met several fun people: Lori, Kendra, Tracy, Laura, Amanda (plus adorable son and husband), Shannon and Bradley, and had lots of laughs. (I didn't get any decent pictures though!)

When we finally got our bills we dashed back to the convention center to help set up. Even though we were "working" it was SO FUN to meet people -- fellow stitchers who inspire and educate and commiserate with each other on a daily basis online. I am hesitant to list the volunteers there, I know I am leaving out a TON! Joanett, Amy, Faye, Ivannia, Kelli, Rhonda, Teri, Chanda... (again, I didn't take any pictures as we were filling goody bags, helium balloons, etc)
I got to meet some of my all-time favorite digitizers, I was beyond giddy! I met Cristy of The Itch 2 Stitch:

and Rachel of Embroidery Boutique.

I loaned Rachel a couple garden flags to add to her part of the sponsor digitizers' display.

Also met Lynnell, one of EB's testers. We have followed each others' blogs for a long time! I didn't get a picture with her, sniff sniff...
Towards the end of the night I met Nicole! Another gal whose blog I have followed for years. She is such a fabulous seamstress, I've often wished she lived next door. She taught a sewing basics class at AG.

That night I also had the opportunity to give Lyndsie a custom made baby gift in person! That was so exciting. I'd been dying to show it to her. (More on that here.)

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to help get AG off to a good start.  Those manning the registration table were ready to go early:

so they starting checking attendees in as they arrived, which was great --when the doors to the vendor room opened at 10am they could just walk in! There was never much of a line at the registration tables, which was such a blessing.
Here we are, ready to roll! Chystyna, Cristy, Me, Lyndsie, Kaycee and Janna!

When the classes started, I first volunteered in the class taught by Jennilee of DigiStitches. It was SO NEAT to meet her.

She and her buddy Teresa taught together and they were a fun pair! I learned a few things (mostly that I have significant multi-needle and hooping technique envy) and got to throw candy and goody bags to active class participants. She also debuted a new product that might be coming out under her own brand, and gave me, ME! a couple to bring home and try out. More on that soon. :)

I played gopher (running to find batteries, bags of ice...) grabbed some lunch, then and headed to my next volunteer stop, Lyndsie's class for single needle owners. Even though she has been doing embroidery for years and has a multineedle machine, she remembers her 4x4 single-needle days and still has a heart for those just starting out. She gave good tips for how to hoop challenging items and instilled confidence in those with machine limitations. Afterward I was able to do some troubleshooting with gals that have similar machines to me, that was neat!

A little more gophering to help track down a missing software dongle :) and then I sat in on Lyndsie's digitizing demonstration. It was amazing to watch her create a design from start to finish, and confirmed that I'm just going to leave digitizing to the pros!!

Throughout the day I did browse briefly in the vendor room. I avoided the machine dealers (no sense in drooling over things I can't have), quickly perused the blank suppliers (sadly Annaliese is now too big for the A-lines, ruffle pants and knit dresses I saw) and lingered in the fabric booths. I didn't go TOO overboard buying fat quarters from All Stitched Up by Angela and The Fabric Cobbler.

The Meet-n-Greet that evening probably turned out to be my favorite part of the whole weekend. Yummy food and fun company! Towards the end of night I was sitting between Jennilee and Cristy, and around the table and at the next were more of my favorite digitizers and embroiderers! It was hard to not be totally star struck!
I got to talk to Whitney about a special digitizing project she is working on for me. It was cool to be able to bring a couple of my test stitchouts with me and discuss progress in person. She is doing a valiant job on such a detailed request... can't wait to show off the final product when it's all done!

One of the gals around the table that I haven't mentioned yet is Sheila of Savvy Stitches. It was so neat to meet her! We "met" a few years back, both testers for LP and bloggers. We've participated in the same fb group, and been fans of each other pages. She's moved on to digitizing and I really enjoy the designs of hers that I've used. I was excited to meet her, but the crazy thing is she seemed just as excited to meet me! So fun!

When the hotel employees kicked us out of the restaurant, we headed to the pool. I really enjoyed the time spent with Kaycee, Amy and Ivannia just chit chatting. Also met three other girls who were there for the Getaway, too. Here's a pic of me and Amy... she reminds me SO MUCH of a friend from my college days!

I didn't sleep the greatest that night, up late chatting with my roomie (we really are a lot alike!) and up early, too excited to sleep. Even though Sunday was our non-volunteer day, we popped down early to make sure we weren't needed, and milled around with the other volunteers that were there. These gals are a hoot:

I attended Whitney and Sara Ann's class that walked through the applique process start to finish. Even though I've been doing applique for years and have perfected my own technique, it is always insightful to hear how others do it and pick up little new tips. They did a great job teaching together. Alas, I didn't win the new laptop they gave away. ;)
The second class I attended was Applique Innovations, sharing three cool products that you can use in applique projects, taught by Sue Sews herself and her daughter. They were a fun pair as well! After the class I spend some time browsing their booth. I didn't end up buying anything there but came home armed with a coupon to do some online shopping (they had actually sold out of some cool products demoed in their class). I got to chat a bit with Katie (one of Sue's daughters and EB tester) she's a sweetie!

There was a lot of hustle and bustle at the very end of the day, the vendors had to pack up and get out pretty quickly. I chatted with Cristy a bit more as I helped take down Just Sew Pretty's display (Toby was still teaching. I never did actually meet her...) I helped Monogram Market pack up their booth and missed the final door prize drawings. No worries, Kaycee had my ticket number and it was never called. :) There were some amazing prizes that would have been fun to win, but really, interacting with all my online friends was prize enough! Macy's mom made an amazing cake to celebrate Laura's birthday, so I had a huge slice (aka my lunch) before giving final hugs and heading back to my aunt's house.


The coolest, most unexpected part was being stopped over and over again by people who recognized me from my blog, FB page, groups or forums, and wanted to thank me for my posts and for answering questions. I do occasionally get a random email or comment on my blog, but I was overwhelmed by all the in-person feedback I got at Applique Getaway. Prior to AG Lyndsie told me that she had gotten several emails asking if I was teaching a class, and several more asked me in person at AG. ME! THAT blew me away. Sounds like I might have a teaching slot next year though... what do you think I should do?! EEK! Next year. I already can't wait. :)

Oh, hold on, there's one more little thing. Another digitizer that I've become close to wasn't able to attend Applique Getaway due to their recent adoption, the timing just didn't work out for them this year. But my journey home from AG took me near their home, so I stopped by to meet Joe and Julie of 8 Claws and a Paw! We had a delightful time talking in person, and it was neat to meet all of their new kids.

Whew! So there you have it! My Applique Getaway experience. I loved every minute of it.