Helping Jason and Anna announce their BIG NEWS, again!!

In March 2008 my dear friends Jason and Anna asked me to do a secret project to help them announce the news that they were expecting their first child. Now they have asked me to help them announce the news that Torin is going to be a big brother!! :)
Jason is a big comic book fan, so he had two cute ideas. First we made this shirt for Torin:

The applique design is the same one we used for the superhero shirts we did for their nephews in 2007. I used Embird Alphabet #18 to add "Sidekick Coming March 2011".

The second shirt required a bit of digitizing. Kathy digitized the "4" using the Hall of Heroes Font and I placed it in an applique circle.


The back of the shirt is what really announces the news. Instead of "Fantastic Four" we stitched "FitzSimmons Four". Kathy digitized this for me using Fantasti-Font.


This was such a fun project to work on!!! Thanks for letting me be part of the excitement!!

Reversible Pillowcase Dress

Little Kate's first birthday is this week! Her mommy Rebecca asked if I could make a reversible pillowcase dress for her. I've never done one before and don't have a pattern, but after a little google searching I found a free tutorial to follow. After making a sample and some measurement adjustments, my first one turned out pretty well!


Rebecca did the fabric shopping. She also picked the same embroidery designs that I used on Audrey's 1st birthday dress earlier this year, so that made my job a lot easier!
For the pink side we used a design to celebrate her new age. The "1" is from Chubby Wubby Applique Numbers from GG Designs, and the font is Jester from 8 Claws and a Paw.

The green side features her three-letter monogram. I used the Empire font from Embroidery Arts.

I can't wait to see pictures of her in the dress! Have a Happy Birthday, Kate!

Christmas Towels!

This week I tested some of the new Christmas Jolly Legs designs from 8 Claws and a Paw. I thought these designs would make a cute set of towels for a family of four:

What do you think? I didn't personalize them because I haven't decided if I'm keeping them or selling them. Any takers? :) There are two more designs in the set if your family is bigger than mine...

Here are close-up images:
Santa:

Mrs. Claus:

Girl Elf:

Boy Elf:

Mommy's Lil' Rattler

I had the opportunity to test stitch this cute snake applique design from Lynnie Pinnie. As soon as I saw it I immediately knew what I was going to make. A friend of mine (who is expecting) is a huge FAMU fan. So I grabbed an orange bib, some cute green fabric, and got to stitching!

Even though it looks tricky, It really wasn't difficult to trim around the snake, and this is the 4x4 size. It stitched perfectly, as usual for LP designs! I added the text with Embird alphabet #8.

Monogrammed Shopping Bag

This summer Publix had these shopping bags for sale. I love blue, and thought the pink/green/white circle pattern was cute! Plus the store logo is tiny and at the bottom. I just had to have one. Last week I finally monogrammed it for myself:

I used the Taylor font from Lynnie Pinnie. I've had this design set for a while, anxious to try it out but never taking the time to do so. I have seen some adorable sibling shirts using this font! It stitched beautifully. My name gets a little lost with the print of the bag so if I were to do it again, I'd probably just leave that off.


Funny story... for the first time ever yesterday I opened my purse as I was checking out at the grocery store and discovered I didn't have my wallet. Thankfully home was close by. The girl was able to suspend my order and I told her I'd be back in 10 minutes. She said, "That's right, you've got to come back for your bags!" :)

First Grade!!

I cannot believe the summer is over and a new school year has begun! Even though she doesn't need any new clothing right now, I just had to make something special for Annaliese's first day of FIRST GRADE!! :)

For whatever reason I could not get motivated to work on this until last week. I took the risk of asking for Annaliese's ideas... since we retired her apple shirt, she decided she wanted an apple on it. She has become quite the proficient reader (she read over 35 chapter books this summer!!) so I wanted to incorporate books as well. Lynnie Pinnie's School Books applique was perfect! I made one modification -- instead of stitching "MATH" and "READING" on the spines as it comes, I changed it to "FIRST GRADE". Kathy digitized it for me using... are you ready for this... the First Grader font. :)

I decided to embellish a pair of denim capris she already had. I snagged the apple off of the 4x4 design and stitched it above the hem of the left leg.

Here's my big girl, all ready for the first day of school!

Baby Shower Gift

Today Nicole (and big-sister-to-be Presley) got showered with love and baby gifts by family and sisters in Christ; here's my gift!
Back in March we had a shower for Amanda -- when Emeline opened her big sister shirt, Presley said to her grandmother, "Tell Janay that she needs to make me one!" :) So I've known for several months that I would make another sibling set. And I'm pretty sure best buddies Emeline and Presley are excited to have matching shirts!

The BIG SIS/LIL BRO designs are from Five Star Fonts.
For Presley's shirt, I used two different colors of the sequins material for the applique. Dawson's is a filled stitch design. I added their names below the sis/bro designs using the Montana font from 8 Claws and a Paw.


Brian is an accountant, so I made this burp cloth for him to use with Dawson. The dollar bill-like frame is from a freebie on Ann the Gran. I deleted the middle of the design and added the text with Embird alphabet #8.

I'll be honest, I don't know what happened with my thread selection on that one... I'm sure I held the thread up to that ribbon, but when it was done, it did NOT match like it was supposed to. I was so disgusted that I decided to make another burp cloth. :) I've been anxious to test out this new masculine 3-letter monogram font anyway... Circle Monogram Set 3 from Embroidery Arts -- I love it!

Make that 28 shirts :)

Ok, ok, I know yesterday I said it was ridiculous that Annaliese has 27 custom embroidered short sleeved shirts. But at least six of those are seasonal and not exactly in the mix right now. AND this is a shirt/skirt set that I've been intending to work on for a long time, in fact I've had the fabrics picked out since spring break (the ONLY two in my stash that match the skirt) just waiting for the right design.

We settled on the hot air balloon applique design from Planet Applique.

I'll be honest, I'm not thrilled with the shirt. It's not the design -- I think the hot air balloon is precious and it stitched out just fine. The problem is my fabric choice. And my current mood. But Annaliese loves it, so that's what matters. I LOVE HER! :)

I used the smaller size of two lavender shirts I have for Annaliese, so she will outgrow this one quickly and I can redeem myself on the second shirt.

I do still plan to stitch a back to school shirt for her. I do not know what it will be yet, but hopefully by Monday morning it will be done!

What's a girl to wear??

Ok, I admit, this borders on ridiculous.
When I put away Annaliese's clothes today, I had a hard time getting her shirt drawer to close. So we decided to go through the shirts once again and try to prune it out. The problem is she LOVES every shirt that either grandma or I have made for her (that's a blessing, really) and doesn't want to part with them. I spread them all out and took this picture:

THIRTY-SEVEN shirts. Let me specify, 37 short-sleeved shirts. This does not include long sleeved shirts or dresses that we've done. And according to Annaliese, they all still fit. I guess that's the benefit to using size 6/6x when she turned four years old. She's grown up a lot, but thinned out, so really these shirts do fit. I was able to convince her to retire 10 of the smallest ones. But still, 27 shirts... no wonder I'm having a hard time getting motivated to make a special back to school shirt for her. Any ideas? I only have a few days left!