Stay Put Towel news!

My son's preschool teacher's birthday is this week, so I made her a Stay Put towel as a gift:

Since her kitchen is decorated in burgundy and beige, I selected this fabric from my stash, and added their last initial with 8CP's Sherry.

The Stay Put towel is inspired by the Topsy Towel tutorial posted on Embroidery Library. A week ago I was made aware of free buttonhole designs posted on Sew Forum that go with this tutorial. They have been there for years, I had no idea!! So even though I created my own "V" shaped hole a while back, for this towel I downloaded the freebie on SF and gave it a try. I can officially give it my seal of approval. :)

A little Ark for Noah

Friends of ours at church have a new grandson named Noah, so I decided to go with the OBVIOUS for this burp cloth :)

The ark applique is from DBJJ's Noah and Friends Set and I used 8CP's Cherry font to add his name. I have had this cute ribbon in my stash for a long time and was determined to use it! I ended up putting a small piece in the applique so it looks like animals are on the ark:

Split Font Applique!

In December I shared my first project with Savvy Stitches' Split monogram, and now I can finally share pictures of my first project with SSA's Split Monogram Applique!
Since the burp cloth was for a girl but we were avoiding traditional pinks, I wanted to be sure to pick a feminine font for the name. I love the capital L in 8CP's Candi font!

I really like how it turned out. I can't wait to experiment more with fabrics and fonts...

A truly CUSTOM baby gift

I love getting emails from Tiffany! (And I'm pretty sure I've started a blog post with that exclamation before.) She always has a vision for unique and meaningful gifts -- the kind of inside jokes that only the recipient will really get. It's so much fun to make her visions a reality!

One item is an "I share with..." bib; Constance is the family dog. (It's hard to believe it's been over five years since I made the first bib like this that she requested!) The text is Embird Alphabet #18, and the paw prints came from Sew Forum (no longer available).

The other bib has the words: "All Hail The Sibling Master!" (She said, "It's a funny term they've started using after someone described the baby's relationship to the dog--the aforementioned Constance--in that way.") I used 8CP Fonts: Pottery for the top line and Arizona for the bottom line.

Finally, the burp cloth is a play on Rene Magritte's painting "Le Trahison des Images." Tiffany said in reference to the dad, "One of his courses is literary theory. Magritte's pipe is a starting point for a lot of discussions and...well...I'm sure you math people have a lot of jokes that are only funny to other math people, right?"
The text says, "Ceci n'est pas une bouteille." Which translates, "This is not a bottle." Because it's not a bottle. It's a burp cloth with an image of a bottle. :)
The bottle is a Grand Slam design, and I added the text with 8CP's Brass (retired).

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

My son's little buddy Jonathan had his birthday party today; the decor was Lego City Police. A real policeman came and let the kids crawl through his car! I made this coordinating shirt for him to wear:

The police car applique is from Planet Applique. I substituted the word "POLICE" for the number 4 -- his age. I used 8CP's Serif font to add his name.

Monogrammed baby girl items

(I'm terrible with blog post titles. I'm sure I've used this one twenty times...)
A friend of mine has a brand new granddaughter and asked me to make a few items.

Ann purchased a few items at a store and wanted to carry the sweet frog theme into the burp cloth and a pair of bloomers. I used the items to inspire the color scheme:

Out of all my frog appliques, she picked this cute one! The frog applique is from 8 Claws and a Paw, as well as the font Alex.
(For some reason when I created the design I thought her name was Ella. I'm so glad I send image proofs of designs before stitching! Ann set me straight. And side note, Emma is a much wider name than Ella, especially in this font! Ha!)

For the other pair of bloomers she wanted an elegant circular three-letter monogram; Fancy Circle monogram from the Itch 2 Stitch was perfect!

Repairing and Accessorizing my Vera Bradley Purse

I love my Vera Bradley purse. When the print I wanted was discontinued I watched the online price carefully until it got low enough that I could justify buying it, and I bought two coordinating napkins so I could make my own accessories.
I made one key fob three months later, and then five months after that I made a second key fob that was longer in length.
And then nothing... no more in-the-hoop accessories even though I had lofty goals.

I've used the purse for 2 years now and it's starting to show it's age, especially the handles with exposed batting. Before retiring the bag, I decided to attempt repairing it myself with the napkins I still had laying around! I am blown away by how just a little bit of effort made a huge difference in the appearance!

I don't really have good pics of how I did it. I just cut 3.5" strips, wrapped them around the handles, folding in the outside edge, pinned in place, and stitched three quilting lines like what was already on the handle. It's not perfect, but it sure looks better than it did!

Then with the remaining fabric I finally took time to make some coordinating zipper totes:

The first two cases are from Embroidery Garden's Zipper Cases set. This is the debit/business card holder. I used the Smaller Fancy Circle monogram from the Itch 2 Stitch.

I also followed the directions for adding a divider in the middle. I'm not the best photographer though. :)

I also made the iPhone case. I wish I could claim that this was on purpose, but check out my happy accident! I could not have matched those fabrics along the zipper more perfectly if I tried!!

FYI, even though this zipper case was designed for the shorter iPhone 4, an iPhone 5 does fit comfortably inside, as long as it isn't in a case. Right now I have my iPhone in a silicone case, and while I can get it in the zipper tote, I can't quickly remove it, which might be problematic while answering a call. But that may be more the nature of the stickyish silicone and not the size. In reality it doesn't matter, I wasn't planning on using it as an iPhone case, just wanted to make this size. :)

And finally I made a see-through case. This 4x4 design is currently a freebie on EG's Facebook page, so if you do machine embroidery, go grab it fast!

So in this case, procrastination paid off. I still had fabric left to fix my handles, and I was less nervous about cutting apart my napkins and trying out these zipper cases since it was for an old bag anyway. Now that I've practiced, I can move forward confidently making accessories for my new VB backpack, which I got on sale after Christmas. Hopefully that blog post won't be another 2 years off. :)

Let me add that I use Vera Bradley napkins for personal use only. I haven't done any research, but I'm guessing their fabrics would fall under the same category as licensed fabric which is not intended for commercial use.