Special Delivery

Lisa asked me to make a Special Delivery onesie for her grandson. If my calculations are correct, this is my 60th time stitching the Special Delivery design!! 

This one is even more unique than the rest. I think it's the first time I've included a nickname in the design. Also, Lisa asked me to add extra text below the design, which I did using Embird alphabet #2. The original design is from Sew Terific Designs; I customized the design with baby's birthplace, birth date, time, weight and full name.

Custom Grandparent gifts

Early in the fall Kelli contacted me about making gifts for their parents. She had a vision, and it was fun trying to make that a reality. The designs on these bags took a while to create, but I learned something new about my Embird Studio software and it was worth it!
This bag is for Grandma Debby:

I used Five Star Font's Deco Heart Applique as my starting point. The design is actually a double heart.  I used the outside heart as my baseline for the text, and only appliqued the inside heart. I used Embird alphabet #38 to add the names and birth dates of her four grandchildren.

Grandmother Pansy (aka Oma) got this bag:

For Grandfather Lyle (aka Opa) Kelli wanted a shirt similar to the two I made around Father's Day. Thankfully she did the hard part ahead of time... she looked at all the Stick Figure Faces from Embroidery Library and picked which ones best represented Opa's grandkids. I used Embird Alphabet #8 to add "Opa's Pit Crew" and the names of the kids.

Shirt and Tote set

Andrea asked me to monogram a shirt and tote bag for her nephew:

The "L" is from Embroidery Boutique's Fun Applique Alphabet, and "Landon" is stitched with 8 Claws and a Paw's Jester Alphabet.

Hooded Towels for my monkeys

I'm embarrassed to admit how long I've been planning on making these hooded towels for my kids. Annaliese desperately needs a new one (the two she has are over 3 years old and looking pretty grungy) and Dashiell doesn't even have one! I FINALLY got started at 9:30pm Christmas Eve Eve. Each design took 53 minutes to stitch, so no wonder I've been putting off so long. :)

I used Bang from 8 Claws and a Paw for their names. The monkey designs are from Embroidery Library, which I picked to coordinate with the accessories in their bathroom. I used "Little Miss Monkey Has a Snack" for Annaliese's towel:

I used "Monkeying Around the Corner" for Dashiell's towel:

I gave Annaliese and Dashiell their towels as a Christmas Eve gift, so here they are modeling the towels in their pjs:

(Dashiell rarely has a pacifier outside of his crib, but he was upset we weren't letting him eat Santa's cookies, and a pacifier was the only way to get him to calm down and listen to "Night Before Christmas"...)

The Stockings Were Hung...

We do not have a fireplace, mantle, or any other large piece of furniture to hang our stockings from, so this fall I was on a hunt to find a shelf with hooks that I could use year round but would be perfect for stockings. I found one at a craft show in early December, and after much debate about it's permanent location, it was hung. It wasn't until Christmas Day that I actually got around to making a piece of framed art to set on the shelf! :)

I used Embird Alphabet #38 for the text and took the stockings from an Embroidery Library design.

(As a side note, the stockings were made by my MIL. She knitted them first, then added the embroidery designs from Designs Sew Fine. The amazing thing is that she made mine and Carlin's first, then a few years later made Annaliese's in 2004, then made Dashiell's in 2010. Cool, huh? I love them!)

Monogrammed Shirts

For Christmas little Claudia will be getting a couple monogrammed shirts. First, a floral one with her monogram:

The C is from Embroidery Boutique's Vintage Applique Alphabet.

 Claudia is also receiving a Build-a-Bear, so for this shirt I made a coordinating shirt for her bear:

I used a frame from AK Designs Boutique, and I added the C with Embird Alphabet #17.

To make the bear's shirt, I chopped off the bottom of a 0-3month onesie and embroidered a heart from the frame.

It's TWO-PERMAN!!!

It's a baby!

No, it's a toddler!

No, it's TWO-PERMAN!!!

Instead of getting all weepy and going on and on about how I cannot believe my son is two years old, let me move directly to his awesome birthday shirt. Dashiell is really into superheros, especially Superman. He has some Superman jammies that he would wear 24/7 if I let him. I needed to get him a Superman shirt, but hadn't seen one locally. Then I realized I could make him one for his birthday! But instead of using the "S" emblem I asked my fabulous husband, Carlin Trammel, to design a symbol with a "2" in it to celebrate his new age. Carlin drew this and emailed it to me. (He drew this on his iPhone. ON HIS iPHONE. Technology is crazy.)

I imported the image into Embird and digitized the design. I have only dabbled in applique designs, but I'm really pleased with how this came out! Before putting it on a shirt, I tested my design on a bib. This will be great for cake pictures.

It turned out well and I proceeded to make Dashiell's shirt:

He LOVES this shirt. I let him wear it Wednesday when we went to the library for story time (since they would sing Happy Birthday to him). He literally cried and screamed when I put his coat on because he didn't want to cover up the symbol. That night he refused to take it off to put on his pajamas and asked to sleep in it. He wore it all the next day as well... I may have to buy 6 more blue shirts so we have one for every day! :)
To finish off the gift, I made Dashiell a Two-perman cape. No pattern, I just winged it!

Here are a few pictures from today. Putting cape on for the first time:

Flying towards the camera

 and showing us the back

What a doll!
Words cannot express how exciting it is to be able to make something that he adores and truly is one of a kind. I've been pretty giddy about it and anxious to write this blog post. :)

Christmas Shirts

I'm finally getting around to sharing some Christmas shirts I made for little friends of ours at church...
Andrea gave me red shirts for her boys and this is what I did:

I used Lynnie Pinnie's Zig Zag Christmas Tree Truck Applique and added their names with the Whoa Nelly font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Nicole brought me scraps of material left over from ruffle pants that Presley's grandmother had made her, and asked me to make a coordinating Christmas shirt:

I used Planet Applique's Santa Hat alphabet for the monogram. I hope she wears this Sunday because I haven't seen the whole outfit yet!

Kylie and Kenzie were very involved in the design selection process for their shirts. :) Here is Kylie's:

She picked Planet Applique's Cookies and Milk design. Since it was going on a white shirt, we decided to give Santa a glass of chocolate milk, and to make it a bit more festive, we changed the chocolate chips to red and green.

And here is Kenzie's:

I used Lynnie Pinnie's applique reindeer and we added the bow to make it a bit more feminine.

Teacher Gifts 2010

This year I made Nameflake ornaments for all of Annaliese's teachers (classroom teacher, principals, librarian and special area teachers). Right at the end of the season I found this pretty sparkly silver and red ribbon, so I chose red thread for this set. I create these myself using Embird alphabet #38.

I love how unique each one is!

I have been volunteering at our church's preschool on Tuesdays, and while I help the teachers, Dashiell is in Ms. Martha's class.  He loves it and adores her! She just had to have a special Christmas gift:

While I would have loved to make one for all the rest of the teachers, I just didn't have the time! So I gave a snowman ornament to the other four wonderful women who are there on Tuesdays. The design is from Lynnie Pinnie

 While I'm sharing teachers gifts... Valerie requested a couple name flake ornaments for her girls to give their classroom teachers. These use the silver ribbon and thread that I used last year (as well as 11 other new ornaments I can't post until after Christmas. Whew, I've made a ton of these over the last 6 weeks!)

These turned out really pretty. We weren't sure if an 11-letter name would work, but it did!