School Spirit times Three!

A year ago today I shared some school spirit shirts I made for Carla's kids. Now that Ella is heading to first grade and Grant is starting kindergarten, it's time for new shirts! In addition to shirts that celebrate their grade, they will also have shirts to show school spirit at the local high school football games AND while watching UF football!

Ella's first grade shirt is a recreation of Annaliese's shirt last year, however Carla changed the color scheme to the school colors of purple and gold.

 The design is Lynnie Pinnie's School Books applique with one modification -- instead of stitching "MATH" and "READING" on the spines as it comes, I changed it to "FIRST GRADE"

Grant's kindergarten shirt is like Presley's shirt, except a more masculine color scheme. :)

The "Kindergarten ROCKS" design is from Embroidery Boutique

Carla's family are huge UF Gators fans, so she really liked the gator designs I tested for Lynnie Pinnie a couple months ago and asked me to put them on shirts for the kids.

I used Lynnie Pinnie's Alligator Head for Grant, and used Whoa Nelly from 8 Claws and a Paw to add his name.

 I used LP's Girl Alligator Head. She's ready for game day sporting a blue bow and orange lipstick. :)

 The last two shirts were the most work. Carla wanted TIGERS in applique form. I have done only a couple of applique name shirts (hey, they were for her kids!) and the fonts I have collected for this purpose so far just weren't the right style of letter. We wanted something more varsity looking, and thanks to an amazing sale, I picked up Embroidery Boutique's Double Fun Alphabet since it included a zigzag stitch.  The reality is, though, six letters in a span of about 7.5" are too small to do the double applique. So I just used the outside part of the letters, and had to do some significant resizing. I stitched Ella's first:

It's really pretty with this sparkly/glittery fabric that Carla bought:

I knew the zig zag stitching was going to be narrow, but it was REALLY narrow. So I did a bit of research to see if there was any way to make the stitches wider within Embird. Turns out there is... I adjusted the pull compensation and boom! Wider zig zag. Grant's shirt stitched out nicely:

His has solid purple fabric instead of sparkly. :)

Here's a close-up comparison:

 So I learned something pretty neat on this project!
I have one more shirt to do... a Union County Tigers shirt for Carla. But I'm waiting a few more days... I will be getting a hand-me-down embroidery machine this week that has a 6x10 stitch field. WOO-HOO!

Her hero wears combat boots

Ok, if this isn't my all time favorite burp cloth ever, it has got to rank up in the top five. I LOVE the way this turned out!
Brittany received the "Some heroes wear capes, My hero wears a badge" burp cloth from Michelle at her baby shower. Now Brittany's friend (whose husband is in the army) just had a baby girl, so she requested something similar to give as a gift.

Isn't it adorable?!?!
The applique dog tags design is from Planet Applique. I used Embird Alphabet #2 to personalize the dog tags, and #8 for the rest of the text. Brittany asked if I had some camo trim to put at the bottom, which I did. I decided to add the jumbo ric rac beneath it to make it girly. So cute! I also love the pink thread and shimmery pink fairy frost material for the dog tags.

WOW! She's Two!

Jeni asked me to make a birthday shirt for her daughter who recently turned two. She sent me a couple pictures of the partyware she was using, and this is what we came up with:

The "2" is from GG's Chubby Wubby Numbers. I found a ttf that matched the font on the partyware, and Kathy digitized the text for me. I plucked the confetti from an Applique Corner design (which I happened to purchase for a penny the weekend I created the design - perfect timing). I like that the fabric pulls in the stars from the partyware, as well.

Kindergarten Rocks! (Take 2)

Within about an hour of posting pictures of Presley's Kindergarten Rocks shirt, Kelli send me a message saying she just might need to order one for her daughter starting kindergarten in the fall. :)
If you recall my story for making Presley's, that all happened fast -- saw image, they liked it, emailed EB to see if I could test it, got design and stitched next day. What I hadn't thought through when I offered it to Nicole was the stitch count, which was HIGH. On my single needle it took me over an hour to do that design. So I proposed to Kelli a different version which would stitch quicker for me and be cheaper for her. :) I really like how it turned out!

The original "Kindergarten ROCKS" design is from Embroidery Boutique. I used the stars and the word Kindergarten, but swapped out the applique word. Instead I used the zig zag version of EB's Cade Applique Alphabet (with EB's blessing). Little Miss Rachel will be starting school this fall at the American School of Warsaw (her daddy is stationed in Poland). Their school colors are red and blue, so we went with a patriotic color scheme. I love how it turned out and think it will be adorable paired with a denim skirt!

Ok, I have two more Kindergarten Rocks shirts to do for little friends, and then that's all I can do for this school year! I can't believe how many requests I've gotten from folks who have stumbled upon my blog or Facebook page. It has been so hard to turn down business, but I am closed to new orders until Sept 1. I'm taking August off for travel, personal projects, design testing, and to avoid unnecessary stress as the school year begins. Thanks for understanding! If you've got projects for fall, or dare I say it, Christmas?? Feel free to contact me in September!

Kitchen Towels for the Bride and Groom

A friend has two weddings to attend this fall and wanted my help in creating a gift. She had seen some bath hand towels which became the inspiration for my take on these Mr and Mrs kitchen towels:

 I picked applique designs because, well, you know, I LOVE applique. That and I already had these designs! I've used GG's Bow Tie/Tuxedo design before on a black onesie. I did do a bit of editing on the design so I could use a different color for the crease stitches inside the bow.

The Necklace applique is from Lynnie Pinnie. I've owned this one for a while, but this is the first time I've used it. (I think it would look adorable along the neckline of a white onesie with a tutu for a baby girl, right?!?) Initially I regretted my choice because there are a lot of tiny little circles to trim out! But then when it was done, I decided it was totally worth the effort! It turned out especially pretty with the shimmery fairy frost fabric as the pearls.

 

UPDATED TO ADD:
Two years later, Sabrina asked for another set, this time for her sister!

Monogramming for Dorm Life

Jordan will be heading off to college in a few weeks, so she has all new towels and sheets that need to be monogrammed! I had never monogrammed sheets and I really haven't done very many towels, so I relied heavily on this Embroidery Placement Guide. It was very helpful and I'm pleased with all the results. Towel set 1:

And towel set 2:

Maroon sheets with gold monogram -- school colors!!

These are bath mats. So excited that Jordan picked this neon green thread -- I've owned it for over four years and just now unwrapped it!

One of the most exciting things about this project is that I found a J I actually like!!! J is such a weird letter. (So is T for that matter, my initials are really annoying). In most beautiful script fonts, you can't tell the difference between the I and J (and often the T looks like a J, sigh...). And in fonts where J is recognizable, it looks incredibly boring. So imagine the delight I experienced finding a beautiful J... right under my nose!! This J is from Embird Alphabet #38, which I use a lot. Isn't it lovely? I used a fill stitch in four different sizes for the various items.

Butterfly Burp Cloth

Michelle needed a shower gift for a baby girl whose nursery is decorated in butterflies and dragonflies, so she picked a design from the Fun Spring Butterflies Applique set from Designs by JuJu. The colors coordinate with the crib bedding. I added Maddie Ann with Tinker Toy from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Princess Birthday Shirt

Presley attended a princess themed birthday party recently and needed to take a special gift:

I used the Chubby Wubby applique numbers from GG Designs for the 3, picking a fabric with scattered princessy things. I added the crown with Applique Cafe's Add a Crown design and stitched her name with the Swirley font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

I also monogrammed an insert for a little travel mug using the same fabric and font (sorry for the lousy picture):

Hooded Towel

Here's a cute towel I made for a sweet little girl. Her nickname is Maddie Moo.

I used the cow face from Planet Applique, and Chachie from 8 Claws and a Paw for the text.