A family of placemats

These placemats are actually the same color, but I am just not a photographer.




I wanted to show the entire placemat in the first photograph, the next one just shows the embroidery on the 3 others.




I used heavy cutaway stabilizer when I embroidered these, but I think I could have used tearaway. Regardless, I hooped the stabilizer and then dampened it and stuck the placemat to the stabilizer; I tried hooping the quilted placemat, but old age seems to have claimed my right thumb! I also used solvy on top because the quilting gave a really textured effect to the top of the mat.





I am glad that I was not embroidering on clothing. The density of the stitches on the snowman was far too heavy, it almost feels like a badge. I am so happy it is not on a little girl t-shirt, in fact...the snowman could really put my little Mae Mae in a tailspin!

Happy Christmas to my Brent's sweet family!

Its a Christmas Miracle!

You know I love this Bernina, but today I am loving the software even more.
I have been trying to find some little Christmas designs to stitch next to names on placemats, but could only find 2 that I liked in the software.
I found 2 images that were part of a larger design, and I,YES I , deleted the part of the design that I did not want to use.



I brought in the name, then the tag with the tree on it, and I wanted to delete the tag. I called Stuart at ASC and she walked me through it, and then even with my notes, I promptly forgot what she said.




But after several attempts I was able to ungroup the design, highlight and move the tree, highlight the tag, and delete it!

Imagine the possiblities! (I think that may be part of their advertisement, but I am absolutely thrilled!)

While Visions of Little Girls Danced in my Head!

They are just the light of my life. Period. It is so much fun to plan little dresses for these girls, and then actually have the time to make them. Time is the gift in my life now; when my children were small there was little time to sew and smock. Here are their little candy cane skirts on the runway! Notice that Issa is wearing a turtleneck (from Walmart). Somewhere in this house is a really soft size 6 t-shirt from Little Legacies in Birmingham, but for the life of me, I do not know where.





Little Sarah almost missed this Kodak moment, but I will make sure that she will be wearing matching Christmas attire for 2011!

The next Annie Liebovitz?

I am so glad to see a smile on her face while she is wearing her little jumper! This cute photo was in my email this morning!

He's Coming to town!

I found some great new shops in Birmingham; it is too bad that we don't have specialty shops like these here in Atlanta. The Smocking Bird has wonderful fabrics, trims and patterns for children's sewing; the staff is helpful and they really know their sewing. The pleated gros grain ribbon trim at the bottom of the skirt came from The Smocking Bird. In the back of the store is another shop, Little Legacies, and it is full of blanks and examples of projects to stitch. Their custom embroidery is beautiful. I found the red t-shirt with the lettuce ruffle on the sleeves and around the bottom edge there. The candy cane corduroy came from a big sale table in Hancock's last summer; I couldn't decide what to do with it and the skirts were Rachel's idea. Sally, or Nanna Sa, came to help make the skirts and it was a fun afternoon for all the girls! We embroidered the t-shirt with the Santa applique from Sew Many Designs and cannot wait to see our 3 big girls in their new Christmas attire!

Jonathan burps

I like the way these little burp cloths came out. A simple and functional gift for a sweet new baby boy!

Another jumper

This is the Birmingham version of the Bridget jumper from Bonnie Blue designs. I cut a little off of the sides, added a back center seam, and shortened it. I hope these minor changes will give it a better fit than the one I did for Mae.

Not always Sunshine and Lollipops

Good Grief. I am so glad I did not put much time in on this little jumper, because as it slipped over her pigtails she proclaimed, "I don't WIKE it!" She pulled at the bows; she tried to slip her arms out of it. I patted and straightened, I hugged and smiled, but she would not be convinced. "Take this off!"
The fun part will be to see who is going to prevail. Although Mae doesn't like it, her mommy does, and I am not certain who is the most determined. It could just hang in the closet until next fall, and then maybe both mother and daughter will be happy.
The jumper is a Bonnie Blue Design, and I was told by a young mother at my last sewing class that they were cut really large. If this brown and pink polka dot is any indication, she is correct. I will cut down the blue and brown polka dot that I am making for Katelyn. I hope the reception for the jumper in Birmingham is a little warmer than it was here in Atlanta

Twin needle sewing

I didn't have my camera so I tried to upload a photo of twin needles in a sewing machine. I guess that was a little obscure for my limited computer skills. Anyway, I got this cool photo of twin bananas instead! Who would ever guess?
I was trying to help my friend Peggy shorten some t shirts for her husband, but I have never really sewn on knits without having everything bunch up and pucker. Kathleen suggested twin needles, and wow, it was quick and easy. They were not ball point needles, but they sewed such a nice double row of stitches; I was really amazed. We just cut the shirts off, pressed them up, zipped around them once; we were done and done. Bill no longer has to play tennis in long t shirts!

Polka Dot baby gift

It was nice to take a break from all my little dresses! I wanted to make this baby gift and I like this fabric which I had in my stash. It is a flannel and I used it as a decorative edge on the bottom of a burp cloth. For the changing pad backing I used pink chennille, which I cut to about the size of a hand towel, monogrammed the polka dot, and then sewed right sides together with ribbon enclosed on one end as a tie. I found the verigated ric rac in my box of trims, and I thought it was pretty with the polka dot. I tried sewing it with invisible nylon thread, but that was nearly impossible; it kept breaking and was difficult to use. When I sewed the ric rac to the burp pad I just used white thread and it was absolutely fine. Little girl Waller doesn't have a first name yet, so I just used her last name initial to personalize her gift.

by bibi

Here is mae mae's jumper made from the Bridget pattern by Bonnie Blue Designs. It is the all time easiest fastest little jumper ever made. No buttons or button holes, it ties at the shoulder. I ordered the little labels on line from Name Dropper. I wanted the smallest label I could find, and they were a little pricier than the larger ones, but since I sew for little people I didn't want a big ole tag in the back of a tiny dress. The font is from my Bernina software, Rounded Block. I am going to add trim around the bottom of the jumper, but want to make sure of the length before I do that, so I will try it on Mae before I let her model the finished product. I have the blue and brown polka dot for Katelyn,cut out, embroidered and ready to sew and take to Birmingham this weekend. If Issa weren't in a uniform every day, I would have used the green polka dot that is sitting here on my shelf, but a little girl can change clothes only so many times after school and on weekends!

When in Doubt, print your design before you stitch!

Mandy came in last night with this old romper of Issa's. It had a really pretty white monogram on the front, and she said, "I think I will just let Mae wear this." My reply was only if she was going somewhere where no one knew her name! So I started thinking about the appliques that were on one of my disks, and found one that I thought would cover the IJA on the bib of the romper. As I sent the snowman to my machine from my computer, LeAnn's voice was in my mind saying, "you know, you really should print this out to make sure it completely covers the monogram..." I printed it out, not wanting to take the time and slightly aggravated, and who knew? It was too small and it did not completely cover the monogram. WooHOO! I had not stitched it yet! Saved by LeAnn and she didn't even know it! So that is the reason for the slightly large snowman. The applique literature called it a topper, I guess it was designed to go on the top of a pocket, but since it was the only one with the right shape, it got placed on the romper.

I missed a great opportunity for a before and after photo here, but I was really anxious to get started! And thanks to LeAnn, who saved this seamstress from having to clean up a huge mess.

Brent in a Bonnet?

You can see the shadow of a dimple here on sweet Sarah; it is usually much more evident. Honestly, this is the smilingest baby we have ever seen! I tried to get the side of the bonnet, but she is NOT going to look the other way if there is someone close by who will talk to her or play.



I renewed my love of heirloom sewing with this little project; I took a class with Carol at the Atlanta Sewing Center and it was a wonderful way to learn about my new machine and make a sweet bonnet at the same time. I have always thought that one advantage of sewing with such beautiful laces, trims and fabrics is the fact that mistakes are much less evident. Contrary to popular belief, it is a very forgiving method of sewing.
It seems that Issa was the only bonnet baby in my gaggle of girls; the others always wanted to rip them off and stuff them in their mouths. And if this afternoon at my house is any indication, Sarah is going to agree with Katelyn and Mae!

with Katelyn!

Katelyn and I spent the morning getting her new blue towels ready for her freshly painted bathroom. Her sweet Sniffy joined us at the sewing machine and she did a great job of pushing the button and then counting the eight stitches before we clipped the tail. We experimented with some really easy appliques using Sarah's drapery fabrics, and Rachel will have to tell us how they look after several washings, but I just clipped some flowers, loosely zigzaged the pink one and simply straight stitched around the smaller one before we embroidered them. The monogram is in a soft green using the Curlz font.
This last towel shows something new for me, too. I have had the varigated thread in pastels for a couple of years, and decided to try it on an initial. The colors were a little strong for the blue, but the overall effect was kind of cute, so I might try it again. The thread must not be as strong as my usual Isacord because it broke several times while I was stitching.
Of course I think my girls are surely exceptional, but it amazes me that Katelyn, who is 3, and Issa, who is 5, have the patience to sit on the stool or my lap for hours and watch the needle go up and down! They help pull stabelizer and solvy, pick up straight pins (I am so afraid one will find a tiny foot), and toss stray pieces of scraps in the trash can. I surely wouldn't have thought we would spend the morning sewing together at these ages!

Our final task was to do some minor surgery on her pale pink Bear, who had developed an unfortunate rip between his legs. She talked to him before the dreaded repair, told him that it would only hurt a little bit, like a shot, and then he would feel lots better. She reported that he did in fact cry (I didn't see the tears) but that he liked his new hot pink and black stitches!