Customized Onesie

Melissa asked me to make a onesie for an upcoming baby shower. I love being able to help create custom, one-of-a-kind items!

The applique bee is from Designs by JuJu, it's part of the Spring Fever Applique Set (or you can buy it as a single here). I added the text Melissa requested with Embird Alphabet #8.

Monogrammed Shopping Bags

Almost a year ago I personalized a reusable Publix shopping bag for myself. I love using it, and think it's so cute! So I made a couple for Amy:

Love these blue bags with dots! I bought several last fall and I'm finally doing something with them -- YAY!  I used the Taylor font from Lynnie Pinnie.

Monogrammed Flip Flops

My little birthday buddy Kenzie turned 6 last week and had an adorable Smurfette party. She already had a Smurfette t-shirt, so I decided to make her some blue and yellow monogrammed flip flops!

The idea came from Embroidery Garden. You can download a free pdf with directions on her site. If you join Reen's AD list yahoo group, you can also download the embroidery files for the fringe covered buttons!

Gator Appliques

This week I had the pleasure of testing a few of Lynnie Pinnie's newest designs. I also stitched a couple of her older designs which I'll show off later. Before I show the pictures, let me just say that LP applique designs are awesome. I have NEVER been disappointed with her digitizing, and my projects always turn out even cuter than I expect. If you do custom embroidery, you just have to add her designs to your stash. AND this Memorial Day weekend is the BEST opportunity!! She just sent out a newsletter with an awesome sale!! All singles are $0.99 and sets are $2.99. Crazy awesome, right?? BUT WAIT it gets better! If you put $50 worth of designs in your cart, there is a coupon code for 75% off. YES! You can get 50 (well, you probably need 51 in your cart) single embroidery designs for $12.50!! That's a quarter each! And if you get some of her sets, it's even less per design! How can you not?? So, go check it out right now, come back and read the rest later. :)

Now that I have that out of my system, here are a couple new alligator designs I have in my stash. I decided to test these on baby items for FL Gator fans. And here's the great thing: if you are a Gator, you'd be proud to carry these and let your child wear them. If you are a Seminole (or any other non-Gator) you will be delighted to know these will be drooled and spit on. :)

I used Lynnie Pinnie's new Alligator Head on a bib for Thomas. I used Whoa Nelly from 8 Claws and a Paw to add his name.

For Riley's burp cloth I used LP's new Girl Alligator Head. She's ready for game day sporting a blue bow and orange lipstick. :) I used the Two Colored Dots font from 8 Claws and a Paw for her name. I have had this floral ribbon in my stash FOREVER and this is the first opportunity I've had to use it, I thought it was perfect for a Gator girl!

Ok, now I'm off to fill up my shopping cart on lynniepinnie.com. :)

Baby Gift for the Adams family

The Adams are expecting another little boy, and this was my gift given at a shower a couple weeks ago.

 

The Applique Rocket is one of Lynnie Pinnie's new designs. So cute!! I used Whoa Nelly from 8 Claws and a Paw to add his name.

The "I'm the Little Brother" design on the bib is from 8CP. (You can see more pictures here.)

I embroidered a tote bag for soon-to-be big brother Jackson and filled it with some goodies (a crayon roll and activity books) so he could take some entertainment with him to the hospital when he goes to visit his new brother.

 The "I'm the Big Brother" design is from 8 Claws and a Paw. Thanks Julie for helping with the name! :)

♫ How old are you? ♫

The answer is, I AM NOT TELLING!!

Today is my birthday. I don't know why it is hitting me so hard this year. Maybe it's being smack dab in the middle of my thirties. Maybe it's because I am finding more gray hairs than I care to admit. Maybe it's because I'm dangerously close to the 20th anniversary of my first date with my husband. (WHAT?!? That can't be right!) Whatever the reason, I'm just not nearly as excited to celebrate my birthday as my daughter is.
With one exception. This embroidery design!! Hahahahahahaha!!!

 I have shared with you my love for the Number Candle Cupcake Designs from GG Designs. (I used the #7 design on Annaliese's birthday shirt last month.)  What I haven't shared is that I asked Gail to digitize a question mark candle cupcake for me. I thought it would be so fun to make a shirt for myself. Gail graciously digitized it and sent it to me!! YOU ARE AWESOME, GAIL -- THANK YOU SO MUCH! As of this moment it isn't listed on her site, so this is absolutely and truly one of a kind!!!
I picked the fabric and thread colors to match this skirt:

I LOVE it. I may be the only dorky adult out there willing to wear it, but that's ok! And bonus, I can wear it year after year! :)

Sibling Shirts

Courtney asked me to make a set of sibling shirts for a friend who recently had a baby girl. She requested pink/blue with green, and selected the sibling designs from Applique Momma.

I used the zig zag 4" size of the Little Sister design for Aubrey's shirt, adding her name with the Tinker Toy font from 8 Claws and a Paw. And I promise the greens look better together in person than in these photos! :)

 I used the zig zag 5" size of the Middle Brother design for Rheid's shirt:

and I used the zig zag 5" size of the Big Sister design for Marissa's shirt:

Monogrammed Towels

We had a bridal shower at church over the weekend. Michelle and I make a great team -- she bought the towels off the registry and picked the font (KK Monogram from 8 Claws and a Paw), and I embroidered the monogram! I love being able to give personalized gifts, and it's even better when I don't have to make decisions or go shopping! Thanks Michelle!! :)

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

Today is my parents' 40th wedding anniversary! It is such a wonderful blessing to have had a godly example of what marriage should be my entire life. It is something that I do NOT take for granted. I wanted to make something special for them to commemorate this day. After much brainstorming, I created framed embroidered scriptures to go in the master bedroom of their new house!

I picked Proverbs 20:7 for Dad and parts of Proverbs 31:28 and 30 for Mom. I thought they complimented each other perfectly! I used Embird Alphabet #22 for the text. The Elegant Scroll Border is from Embroidery Library. (Click on each image to get a bigger, clearer view.)

 

I stitched each scripture onto muslin, and used a decorative stitch to applique it onto the paisley material. Then I mounted it over batting on cardboard and put it in a wooden frame.

Don't they look perfect in the room?!?

 It was a team effort to get these to match without me asking directly. My siblings did some sleuthing for me since I failed to take any pictures of their beautiful home when I was there in March -- it was a little crazy. :) Thankfully it all came together beautifully!

The Fantastic FitzSimmons Four!

Back in September Jason and Anna asked me to help them announce the news that Torin was going to be a big brother. We created a couple custom shirts. Unfortunately, the shirts I ordered for Torin turned out to be a bit snug. I redid the Batman one right away, but waited on redoing the Fantastic Four shirt until after baby Nolan arrived, that way the boys could have matching shirts!

You can read more about how Kathy helped me digitize these designs here.

 

 

Baby Boy Gift Set

Michelle requested this gift set for a new baby boy at church:

She liked the Owen set, so I used the same designs and similar colors. The monogram on the burp cloth is from the Dot Alphabet at Julia's Needle Designs, and I stitched "Jackson" with Swirley font from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week at my daughter's school. She decided we should give her teacher an apron!

While I was at it, I also appliqued a tote bag to donate to the door prizes the assistant principal was giving out throughout the week. 

The Owl Branch applique is from Embroidery Boutique. I chose the owl and turquoise materials for their school mascot and colors.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at a different elementary school in town. Valerie asked me to make key fobs for the teachers of her girls. We put their surname on the front (I used Embird Alphabet #14).

Since their mascot is a bobcat, we put paw prints on the back. The paw print design is one of the embellishments included in Embroidery Boutique's Vintage Chloe Alphabet.

 

This week was also teacher appreciation week at our church's preschool. I have been volunteering on Tuesdays and Dashiell has been in Ms Martha's class. He adores Ms Martha (who doesn't??) so I decided to make her a stay-put towel. I asked her husband what color her kitchen was, and was pleased to find this yellow floral fabric in my stash because I wanted to use this design!

 The Faith Hope Love Flower embroidery design is from Embroidery Library. I used the leaf/stem from the Rejoice Flower because I like it better. :)

Baby Gift for Brooks

Last Sunday we had a baby shower at church, and these are the items that Valerie and I took. First a cute onesie and burp cloth set:

I was so pleased with the Easter outfits that I made for my kids that I used the same designs for this set. I just love this Neck Tie Applique from GG Designs. (The monogram was a freebie on Sew Forum several years ago, but is no longer available.)

The applique Circle Monogram Alpha is from Planet Applique.

We also took this set:

I've had this onesie in my stash for quite a while. I was actually going to use it for Dashiell, but I didn't get it monogrammed before he outgrew it! The little swirl motif

reminded me of Five Star Font's Snips and Snails applique set and 8 Claws and a Paw's Spiral alphabet, so that's what I used!

Happy Mother's Day!

For Christmas 2009 and the 2010 holidays following I made seasonal towels for our moms. I think I hit most of them, except for Mother's Day. So I made up for it this year!

Instead of just a plain towel, I made Stay-Put towels for them. (You can read more about my first one here). The fabric I used is a Riley Blake print that I won from Whimsical Fabrics.  Isn't it lovely?? It was part of a fat quarter set, and I think I need more of this print.

The Mom Flower embroidery design is from Embroidery Library. Except I can't leave well enough alone... I actually used the leaf/stem from the Rejoice Flower because I thought it fit the character of the fabric better. I was grateful to have thread colors that matched the fabric so well!