Lots of Custom Orders!

I was quite busy this weekend with some special orders for friends an family.

Presenting my first ever taggy blanket!

I made it for my 6-month-old nephew and he loved it! It got lots of chewing over the weekend. I embroidered his name on it, but quickly realized I should have used the bright green thread instead because you can't really see his name at all. Oh well. Here's a close-up.

I just love the 80's cassette tape fabric! I also worked on an order for a baby's 1st birthday shirt. Another first:

Off to work on more custom orders!

Foxy!

I am so excited about the new Foxy design released at Urban Threads today. Check it out!

How cute would this be on a onesie?!

New Burp Cloth

New item in the shop!

I plan to make more soon in lots of different fabrics. Stay tuned...

Only one more day to enter the giveaway! Go now!

Simple Cross Burp Cloths

I just got this simple cross applique pattern and thought I'd try it out first on some burp cloths for the upcoming Childbirth Fair I will be vending at. I hope they're popular! They are really fun to make.

I also got some applique letters so I am working on monogrammed burp cloths to go in my store as well. They're really cute!

A Work In Progress

I must say, when I first heard about the Twilight series, I was skeptical. However, last October I was at a work conference and Borders had a table set up for book sales. I picked up Twilight and considered it (I had forgotten to bring something to read in my down time). I asked the employee who was working the table if she had read it and she gave me a rave review. Still, I was skeptical, but decided to give it a shot. Four days later, I had completed the book (carrying it in my purse everywhere I went and reading any free second I had). When I finished the first, we were in Gatlinburg (this was a very busy travel week for me, I can tell you) and I made my husband take me immediately to the closest BAMM to find the second book in the series. Thank goodness for the Garmin! I had the second book finished by the time we returned home, and as you can imagine, had to buy the third and fourth consecutively upon finishing each. If you are a female and haven't read this series, you are seriously missing out! I was immediately hooked. If you've read the series, you know what I mean when I say it was ALL I could think about the entire time I was reading it, and honestly, for a good month following. I was so sad when I finished the books that I nearly went back and re-read the first and fourth again (my 2 favorites). Now, with all the hype over New Moon coming out in November, I've decided to go back and re-read atleast the first book, which has inspired this embroidery:

I really love the font and hope my embroidery skills can do it justice. I'll probably put it in my shop when it's complete.

Weekend Crafts

This weekend I made a new burp cloth for my Etsy store. I really meant to get a whole lot more done, but it didn't happen. Never does. Anyway, here it is. Here's hoping I can do more tonight. I need some craft therapy.

Weekend Crafts & Graceland Part 2

During the 3-hour drive to Graceland this weekend, I decided I would work on an embroidery project that I had started a few weeks ago and never got around to finishing. I just love this little robot from a previous post and wanted to add him to a burp cloth. I decided to hand embroider him so I could do multiple colors.

I was really pleased with how he turned out and it really only took me about an hour or so total. I started on another burp cloth as well that I am hand embroidering. I'll post pics when it's finished! I think it will be really cute. If only I can find the time to sit down and work on it.

So, on to Graceland. After the tours, we decided to check out some of the gift shops, and lo and behold, but what did I find? The Elvis Craft Section!

There was an entire rounder dedicated to Elvis-Loving Crafters. How exciting for me! Too bad it was all way over-priced. Oh well. I had fun looking anyway.

First, there were 3 sides dedicated to Elvis fabric, which was super cool.

You can't make it out in this picture, but the sign says, "Just imagine what you can create." Oh, I'm imagining. On the other side was the really exciting part: Elvis Cross Stitch

This one was my favorite.

How cool is that?! Again, way over-priced, so I didn't get one. Maybe I can find it online. (Who knew Elvis was a crafter? I sure didn't.)

To make my weekend complete, I had lots of machine embroidery to get done on Sunday. For those of you who don't know, I have a side business that takes up much of my time when I'm not at my "real job." I do lots of machine embroidery for friends and family and anyone who gets my name and number from those friends and family. It's actually becoming quite a booming enterprise! Yay!

I have a friend who is getting married at the end of May, and she had me embroider some gifts for her wedding party. Of course, I failed to take pictures of any of it except these tumblers, which were made for her flower girls.

The tumblers were ordered from Sewphisticated Stitcher, which is a site where you can get lots of embroidery blanks. They have great prices, too.

I spent about 5 hours on Sunday afternoon embroidering, so it was a really long day. My friend was really pleased with her finished products though, so that brought a smile to my face :)

In addition, I have 8 pillow cases to embroider for one of my dad's employees, and 5 burp cloths to make and embroider for a friend. I actually got the burp cloths finished last night, though, so I have made some real progress. (I will post pics of them later this week.) Needless to say, my embroidery business is off to a good start!

Featured!

Yay! One of my onesies was featured on UrbanThreads.com! Too cool for school.

Fun Embroidery

I recently (and by recently I actually mean about 6 months ago) got my first embroidery machine. I wanted it so that I could add personalization to my projects and gifts, but never used any of the built-in designs. In my opinion, most of them are just too much like something someone's un-hip grandmother might use for handtowels--just not my style. I kept wishing that there were some trendy sites online where I could download contemporary designs for crafty chicks like myself, but I Googled and Googled with no luck. (Apparently I don't know the official "keywords" for finding "hip embroidery downloads".) Then, one serendipitous day, I came across Urban Threads. Finally! This is what I have been searching for! Hip, contemporary designs for the crafty gal in us all. No more embroidery samplers from the 19th century (not that there's anything wrong with them, they're just not for me.)

The first design I fell in love with was this one.

This little robot might be one of the cutest things I've ever seen! I decided to put him on this baby onesie. Isn't he precious?




I actually gave it away in the Etsy Spring Baby Shower and the recipient loved it so much she decided she wanted a couple more onesies. She chose two great designs which are just as cute and they are one their way to her right now. I hope she loves them!





I'm pretty crazy about the little squirrel now, too. I might even put him on a tote bag or something for myself. He'd also make a great gift!

Besides the fact that the site has such fantastic embroidery designs, it's also extremely inexpensive. I think that all of the designs are under $5 a piece. How great is that? Also, if you don't have an embroidery machine and you're into hand embroidery, you can download most of their designs in that format as well. So really, there is no limit to your craftiness! I really loved this little hedgehog and decided to hand embroider him onto a coffee cozy. It only took me about 30 minutes, which was super quick craft satisfaction. Don't you love quick crafts? I sure do!

I will be working on a hand embroidery tutorial for you soon. It's super easy and tons of fun. All you need is some Aunt Martha's Hot Iron Transfer Paper and transfer pencils (I think I got mine on Amazon), and your pattern, of course.

Happy embroidering!