My first wristlet!

Having a 6x10 hoop has now thrown open the door to in-hoop designs. I know several exist for the 5x7 hoop, but I have done my best to ignore them thus far. But Embroidery Garden released a cute new Owl Wristlet last week that I just had to try. :)

This was made completely in my embroidery machine (with the exception of one small opening I had to whip stitch shut by hand). It has a zipper, and is completely lined with no exposed seams.

 Reen is a genius to figure out how to create the embroidery file to do this, and her directions were flawless!  I'm pleased with my first attempt at these little bags, and see more in my future. Especially since I know Annaliese will want one as soon as she sees it after school. :)

Crayon Rolls for Laci

These crayon rolls are for a customer. After my first batch I finalized exactly how to construct the personalized velcro closure. I asked Kathy to create a miniature applique design for me so that I could include the tack down of the velcro in my embroidery design for the name on the ribbon. (I doubt that makes since to those of you who don't have an embroidery machine, but the end result is a more efficient and precise way of doing it!) I was pleased with the results, and I hope Laci and her mom are, too!

Kristen's Shower gift

Yesterday was Kristen's baby shower, so now I can post the rest of her gift. :) Thankfully I was determined to finish her gift before leaving for my trip to IL, because when I returned home, my machine decided to stop working! So for those of you who look forward to my nearly daily posting of new embroidery projects... please pray for a rapid (and inexpensive) repair!
Sad news over, here's the cute baby items:

First up is one of the Snowbabies from The Embroidery Market. I chose brown and blue because those are the colors of Hudson's nursery.

I made a personalized pacifier clip:

And two burp cloths. The one with "H" and dots has been previously posted. This one has garnet and gold fabric and an applique football from Embroidery Garden (off of a freebie football sucker holder available on her yahoo group).

The text for all of these items was added with Embird Alphabet #33.
Not pictured is a flannel Rag-Tag blankie, similar to the one Rachel got!

Graduation time!

One of the benefits of going home to visit this weekend is that I'll get to see my baby brother graduate from school (he's been attending UTI in Chicago). I didn't get to go to his high school graduation, so this will be a special treat.
I made this gift card holder for him today. The in-hoop design was a freebie from Embroidery Garden, the cap/tassle came off of another freebie from Sew Forum, and the text was added with Embird Alphabet #33. I decided to try variegated thread for the satin stitch edge. It turned out pretty neat!

Pencil Roll

Today I made this pencil roll for Annaliese to hold her colored pencils. It works just like the crayon one, but different dimensions.

Crayon Rolls

Last week I made this crayon roll for Annaliese. It was great at church on Sunday -- usually her crayons are in a plastic bag which is loud. This is quiet and keeps them from rolling around on the pew or floor!


Originally I followed the directions, which called for two pieces of ribbon that would wrap around and tie it shut. But Annaliese cannot tie a bow. I saw another person's crayon wrap that closed with a single ribbon and velcro, and decided to imitate that. In the process of determining the length of ribbon, velcro placement, embroidery placement, etc, I needed to make a few to get it right. So I made a couple for Kylie and Kenzie, using left over fabric from the tote bags I made them. Now that the girls have received theirs, I can post the pictures:

My first in-hoop project

This little Snowbaby is a design from The Embroidery Market. It's a fun easy project. I bought all the supplies (fleece and stuffing) and stitched it out today. As an added experiment, I added an "A" to the heart to personalize it for Annaliese. She loved it and took it to bed with her. It's tiny in her hands now, but for a baby it would be perfect. Should be completely washer/dryer safe. It's nice to have one to experiment with before giving away.
The things I learned...
1. Use felt for face (as called for in the directions) instead of fleece. The extra thickness was difficult to trim, and caused some stitching errors around the head.
2. Don't use Jokerman font for a single letter monogram. The letter A standing alone looks as though the embroidery machine did a poor job stitching--you can't tell that it's from a funky font.