These shirts are for the Byrds!

hee, hee...

I got a surprise email from Terri saying they were going to be in town for the weekend, so I quickly made these matching t-shirts for her girls.

I failed to get good close-up shots, but since Terri is a professional photographer, I knew she could hook me up with a great picture of the girls modeling the shirts once they got home:

The monograms are from Five Star Anita's Lacy Girl Font, and the names came from Embroidery Name Library.

Saturday's projects

Saturday's projects not only included the top for myself, but stuff for little boys. First up was Dexter's first birthday gift. I did a little outfit for him that matches Gideon's. The "d" design was a freebie on Sew Forum.


Next I did two coordinating onesies for Valerie's twin nephews. Her sister picked the designs (from Embroidery Library) and requested red and navy. I think they turned out cute!


And here are Peyton and Connor in their shirts -- aren't they cuties?!?

Something for ME!!!

I finally did something for myself!
I have had a skirt for at least 2 years that I love, but could never find a top that worked well... even though there are lots of colors in the floral design, they aren't the easiest to match. So after I found a plain off-white top on clearance, I added this design (freebie from Ann the Gran):

I may not be able to find a fabric that matches, but I sure can match threads! I was pleased with the results. Not the most flattering picture, but you get the idea...

Rachel's Baby Shower gift

This baby shower gift was for Rachel. Her baby is due at the end of August, and we had a shower for her this afternoon...

Included were two different styles of burp cloths. One, "Teacher's Pet" was posted previously. I made the "Cute as a Button" out of three layers of flannel with fabric added to the ends/back. The design came from Charming Station.

Next was a rag style flannel blankie with loops of ribbon -- a great sensory item.

I also made a Snow Baby (design from The Embroidery Garden), adding the "S" to personalize it.

Finally I did a pacifier clip, personalizing the ribbon with their last name.


Once the darling baby is born and named, Rachel will get a few more personalized items!

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.

What went wrong here?

Well, this evening I had a less than perfect outcome on the first thing my husband has asked me to embroider...
Kathy had previously digitized and embroidered Carlin's Stormspeed Entertainment logo (the Torbolt) on a pair of shorts. Those shorts need to retire, so we purchased a new pair. Tonight I added the logo to the new ones:

At a distance it looks fine, but up close is another story. Click to see a larger image:

So what happened to make the satin stitching around it be all extra loopy? Wrong stabilizer on the bottom?? Do I need a different needle for this type of material?? I guess I should have asked for help BEFORE stitching it than after. I just didn't think it would do this...

Happy 4th of July!

I watched Gideon today, and was able to snap this cute picture of Gideon and Annaliese in their 4th of July outfits! How cute...

Current Quilting Project

Right now I am in the midst of making a keepsake quilt for Ella. Her mommy Carla wanted to use fabric from her nursery theme:

We came up with this design to allow for large squares of the focus fabric and have a scrappy look to it. I have all the blocks pieced, and for the most part all the rows completed. I need to do some embroidery work on the lower right block. Then I'll stitch the rows together, add borders and it will be ready to quilt!

First Burp Cloth!

Last week a friend loaned me a burp cloth she had purchased at a boutique. It was great -- minkee on one side and terry cloth on the other. I traced the outline of it to make a pattern... I like the shape of it.
So today I made my first Burp Cloth. I used flannel -- embroidery on the top layer, but it's three layers all together. Certainly could look more polished, but I'm satisfied with my first try.
As far as the design...I got the idea from a post on Sew Forum (the expectant mom is a teacher). The apple came from Embroidery Market and I added the text with a font on my machine.