Back to School bags

I took this picture Sunday night before going to sleep, all of our bags packed and ready for the first day of school!

Annaliese's backpack from last year (errr, two years ago!)  is still holding up, so I didn't have any monogramming to do for her.
Dashiell picked out this Spider-man backpack and lunchbox set. I knew I'd make a keychain type tag for his lunchbox.

We debated (at great length) WHERE the monogram should go on his backpack. Front and center didn't work because it would cover up the spider symbol.  He nixed every suggestion I made, and I physically couldn't do his suggestions. Boy, he was getting frustrated. Finally he said, "can you put it here?" and pointed to the little plastic sleeve for contact info. I said, "sure!"

NO JOKE this took less than five minutes. I hooped tearaway, sprayed adhesive, laid down a piece of black vinyl, stitched the monogram, trimmed the rectangle to proper size and slid it in. EASIEST bag monogramming job ever!

I was going to use ribbon for the tag on his lunchbox but realized the vinyl would be super cool. I just monogrammed a strip, folded it in half around a D-ring, and stitched it up on my sewing machine! We used 8CP Spidey font for his monogram

As I have done in the past, I bought a couple Publix shopping bags and monogrammed them to deliver school supplies in. I picked I2S Box Font Applique for the big monograms which made it easy to cover the printed logo. To make things simpler, I skipped the satin stitches and just made the applique raggy (yes, I admit I was doing this at 9pm on Sunday night). I love this print with the tiny owls!

I used Cinnamon Cake to add Mrs. Harvey's name:

And I used Jelly Bean to add Ms. Sperling's name:

I thought they turned out cute!

If you don't own the Box Font alphabet set or number set,  they are on sale until Friday morning! You can read all the details on the I2S Facebook page, but in short -- it's because they are my favorite and we are celebrating my 1 year anniversary with I2S :) ENJOY!

Misc Monogramming

Here are a random assortment of items I monogrammed simply with embroidery throughout the fall!
Barb contacted me wanting keyfobs for herself and her husband. I used LP's Taylor font for their names, and DS's keyfob design.

Marci asked me to monogram a couple robes for her:

I used I2S's Fancy Circle monogram

I monogrammed this towel for my friend Amy using EB's Striped Lexi Monogram Alphabet

I made a stay-put towel for Cherri using EB's Chandler Chevron Alphabet

 

I monogrammed Annaliese's apron (and her doll's apron too!) using 8CP's Satin Split Curlz font

Sabrina asked me to make a keychain for her niece to attach to a lunchbox. I used I2S's Behind These Hazel Eyes

This keychain was ordered for a new college student, we incorporated all three school colors by using 8CP's Two Color Script:

Tarika asked me to monogram a few baby items. Aren't these bibs elegant?

I used I2S's Covered By Your Grace for Joshua

and I2S's Nick for Damon III

and I2S's One Thing for Kendall

We Love Our Teachers!

I know teacher appreciation week was earlier this month, but I wanted to give one more token of our appreciation to the teachers who have worked with our kids this year. Conveniently a couple of designs I had the opportunity to test for Embroidery Boutique worked perfectly!
First an apron for Annaliese's teacher:

This is EB's Split Pencils design. I added the name of our school with EB's Chloe. I had fun picking fabrics for this!

Last week was our preschool's end of the year program (I wish you could have seen Dashiell sing with all his heart!) We appreciate all the hard work Ms. Vicki put into the program getting the kids ready to perform. This towel is for her:

I used EB's Treble Clef design

And for Ms Cindy... several weeks ago she misplaced her school keys (with the key fob I had made her a couple years ago). I decided to replace it, but with something new, Embroidery Garden's new Shabby Key Ring (a freebie on her yahoo group). I added the C with 8CP's Linda.

 

True story, less than 30 minutes after she opened this, she found her missing keys. Our director told me I should have made the replacement sooner. :)

First Day of School 2012

Another school year is off to a great start. But I'm blogging so late in the day! In years past I've hustled home after drop off and posted pictures right away, but this year is different (more on that in my next blog post).
Here are the kids this morning before dropping Annaliese off:

For Annaliese's shirt I used Lynnie Pinnie's Third Grade Rocks design.

For Dashiell's shirt I used East Coast Applique's Pre-K tag design. I customized it with our school name using the Tiny Alphabet from 8 Claws and a Paw.

Annaliese has used the same backpack for 3 years so I suppose it's time for a new one! I found myself monogramming this at 8:45pm last night... talk about waiting until the last minute!

I used 8CP's Pizazz to create the monogram. I love the way her initials look in this font! There was no easy way to put the monogram on the front the way the pockets are and how the lunch box attaches, so I put it on the top.

And there was no way I could monogram the lunch box, so I made a little keychain out of ribbon to attach to the handle.

Like last year, I monogrammed a Publix shopping bag for their teachers, and we used them to deliver all their school supplies. This is the Taylor Monogram font Lynnie Pinnie.

April Monogramming

April has been a busy month for my family, so I haven't done as much sewing as usual. On my to do list still are  these cute lion and giraffe designs from MCA Applique. But those will unfortunately have to wait until next week -- in laws are arriving today and I'm busy cooking and cleaning! So just try to visualize what they will look like on lime green shirts for my kids, fall in love, and trot on over to MCA's new site and shop for your own embroidery machine while her designs are 75% off! :)

I still have a couple big orders to share, I just haven't made time to sit down and blog about them. But I'll quickly share a few random monogramming projects from the month. First, some new hand towels for my kids. The ones I made them nearly two years ago are grungy. Ick, they needed something new before grandma and grandpa get here. :)

Sometimes I get really irritated with myself for giving my kids such LONG names. It took me quite a while to pick the perfect font -- a nice bold fill stitch for towels, 2" tall, yet not so wide that it wouldn't fit on a towel. AND I wanted something gender neutral in a font that my three year old can read. One Pice from 8 Claws and a Paw was perfect!

Brittany got a good deal on these two items (one from Zulily, one from a consignment sale) and she asked me to monogram them.

I used the Empire font from Embroidery Arts:

And finally a few key chains for Ginny to give as gifts. I used Embird Alphabet #7 for these.

Ok, back to the kitchen!

Key Chains and Key fobs

These are the remaining key chains and key fobs that I made over the last couple months. Sabrina wanted ribbon key chains to give to her parents. These use 1.5" grossgrain ribbon and D-rings. I used Embird Alphabets 16 and 7 for them.

Her sister Melanie got a DigiStitches key fob:

Earlier in the year Mrs. Janasiewicz received a key fob for teacher appreciation week and liked it so much she ordered one just like it for her daughter who also teaches. I used the school colors, Embird alphabet #14 for the name, and paw prints on the back.  (Sorry this pic is so over exposed, I don't know what happened!)

And finally I made this for my husband ("the plate spinner") to give to his boss ("the check signer"). It has the Onyx brand on one side, and her fun title on the other. :)