Less than three months until Christmas...

... and I have my letter to Santa written and ready to go!

Hee, hee, hee... what do you think of my note? Do you think I'm on Santa's nice list this year?!

This Santa Letter Envelope design is from Embroidery Boutique. Isn't the applique stamp cute?!
You can also purchase the alphabet (Simple & Cute -- which stitches really well in small sizes) to customize the envelope.

Here's a quick picture of the back. Tacking down the flap is built into this ITH design. I took lots of pictures during the construction process -- they were used in the instructional pdf.

I had fun making this for EB, and enjoyed the excuse to bake cookies. ;)
I'll let you know what I wake up to on Christmas morning!!!

Sweet Monkey for Joshua

Here's a sweet little gift set I made for my friend who just had a baby boy:

The sweet monkey face design is one I got to test for my friend Amy who has just launched a new business! We've gotten to know each other through an applique group, and she also has been a tester for LP (which makes me confident she knows what makes a design excellent). But she graduated out of that to start digitizing herself! Both the 4x4 and 5x7 sizes of this face stitched beautifully. I expect great things from Amy in the future. For now you can find her on Etsy (her shop is Stitch Away Applique) an next week her site Stitch Away Applique should be active.
I added Joshua's name with I2S's Silly Monkey font.

Making my boy happy!

Some projects take significant planning, require tons of decisions and meticulous work to create an awesome shirt.
Other times you get a quick idea and throw it together super duper fast.
This was the latter!

My son recently got his hands on my husband's old Batman Beyond action figure and they have been watching episodes on Netflix. Yesterday Dashiell was quite upset with me because his screen print Batman tee was still dirty (where oh where is the laundry fairy?!) and he NEEDED it to dress up as Batman Beyond. I reminded him that his shirt was gray, not black, and had a yellow/black logo, not red, so he would have to use his imagination anyway. That didn't go over well. ;)
Then I thought... hmmmmm... Do I have a black shirt? I sent him off to watch something with his big sister and I cranked this out really fast. LOOK AT THAT SMILE!!!

I have no desire to be a full time digitizer, but it is nice to have digitizing software for times like this. I traced the logo in my software and converted it to a triple bean stitch. I hooped a black tee I got on clearance for $1.25, laid down a piece of red knit and stitched the outline. Trimmed it out and took it back to my son.

His reaction was so cute. Gasped, said thank you, then immediately said, "I have to show this to Daddy!" He changed right away, slept in it, wore it to preschool, and I've promised that if he will wear pjs tonight I will wash it so it's clean in the morning. I hope the newness wears off before Sunday morning! :)

For I know the plans I have for you

This is a 2-for-1 blog post! First the information about some special gifts:

A friend of mine recently had a baby. He is her fourth child and was a surprise :) I wanted to encourage my friend that even though little Luke wasn't planned by mom and dad, God certainly has plans for him! Isn't that great news we can rest in as parents?!

Another friend is expecting her third baby. They already have a boy and a girl, so they are keeping the gender of this one a surprise until delivery. But either way, they will name the baby Miller. Isn't that a neat concept?! So I made a similar set, using gender neutral colors.

Both sets use Itch 2 Stitch's Jeremiah 29:11 Add a Name design, and I added their names with I2S's Rockford.

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Now a little bit more behind the scenes story that might interest my embroidery friends.
We had an I2S customer struggling with her efforts to put this design on a burp cloth. Since at that moment I had not used the design yet, I decided to test it myself on a burp cloth. I'll be completely honest with you, when I opened the 4x4 design in my software I thought, hmmmm.... I would never choose to use this on a burp cloth. The text was simply too delicate for a thick item IMHO. But I did it anyway. I had no problems at all:

But when you compare the picture of the exact same design on a onesie, you can see what a difference there is between embroidering text on a thick burp cloth and knit onesie. I love the way this turned out with the blues and greens!

In relaying my thoughts to Cristy I told her this is a case where I as a customer would either opt to not use it on a burp cloth, or significantly fiddle with pull compensation in my software. Does that mean there is anything wrong with the original design? NO! I think sometimes we expect EVERY design to be perfect for EVERY situation. And that simply isn't always going to be the case. That's why I LOVE having software to manipulate designs to suit my particular situation.

BUT Cristy decided to go back and update this design, making the text bolder. :) So if you have previously purchased the Jeremiah 29:11 design, you can go back and download a new version! I tested it for her on Miller's set. This is the burp cloth:

and this is the onesie. Still a significant difference between the two items due to thickness, but maybe the design is a bit more versatile now.

Can I say how much I love this 2-for-1 deal?! I got to help trouble shoot with a customer getting her back on track for her own project, and I got to give a really special gift to two of my friends! Best of both worlds!! This huge baby boom going on in my world (FOURTEEN babies since March) has given me so many opportunities to play.

Changes for Janay

I know I have been really quiet for the last few months! I promise I haven't completely given up on applique nor my blog. Lots of factors have contributed to my seemingly inactivity... some of my projects are gifts that haven't been received, or designs I've tested that haven't been released by the digitizer. But the bulk of my excuse is that I've been busy doing some behind the scenes things, and my role in the embroidery community is changing! Exciting times!

I've already shared at length how awesome my experience at Applique Getaway was. I included a little throw away line, "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..." but have kept that particular conversation a secret for quite a while. Wanna know what we talked about?!

Cristy asked about hiring me to help answer emails for The Itch 2 Stitch. !!! I was blown away by the idea and frankly speechless (can you even imagine such a thing?) Once I got home and recovered from my trip, we talked over all the details and I realized this is EXACTLY the type of job I would love to do from home! I agreed to begin when my kids started school. We are about four weeks in, it is going well, and we officially announced the news this week.

So what does this mean for you?
Well, if you are a personal friend or family member that I have sewn for in the past, not much is changing. I'm still available for limited custom orders as time allows. I will not accept orders from the public, I just simply do not have the time, but can refer you on to someone else. Even though my little guy is in preschool five mornings a week, that's not quite as much "free time" as you would think. :) So really this is no change from last school year.

If you are a fellow embroiderer who follows along on my adventures, I hope to continue sharing all of my projects with you as I always have! Even though I am technically a part of The Itch 2 Stitch team, this is still *my* blog. You will see a lot more I2S design and fonts being showcased here in the future, but it's not because I'm required to use them, just that they are adorable and available to me :) or I may do a quick project in an effort to troubleshoot with a customer.
For example... Someone was experiencing an issue on a onesie with this Child of God design. Based on the pictures submitted to us I was pretty sure it was a machine issue (tension), but I personally had not used this design yet. I ran a quick test of it myself to be sure all was in working order. It was! :)

 

I plan to continue to test for Lynnie Pinnie, Embroidery Boutique and 8 Claws and a Paw...
OH and I just got the "I Want it All" CDs from Designs by JuJu... so for sure you will still see projects from our old-time favorites.
I recently tested a design for a brand new digitizer who hasn't even launched a website yet (it's so cute I can't wait to show you!) so I hope to still have time to point you to newbies as well!

Whew, that was long winded. But I felt like I should share my exciting news with you, and give a "full-disclosure" sort of statement. This blogging thing and being active in groups/forums is actually paying off! ;)  Yippy!! Thanks for being a friend of Stitched by Janay. Without my fellow embroiderers I wouldn't have this opportunity!

Sibling Shirt Sets

Here are a couple of recent sibling shirt sets I have done. First for my niece and new nephew:

The Big Sister and Little Mister designs are both from Embroitique. I added their names with 8CP's High 5

 And this set was for a friend back home:

They may look familiar, but actually it's my first time using this exact set... MCA's VINTAGE sibling set. I love the look and the quick stitchout of vintage applique letters, I'm so excited she released this version! I added their name with MCA's Angelina.

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!