Saturday, December 25, 2010

FSL Ornaments

I don't do a lot of free standing lace designs. I really don't need multi-colored lace bowls and doilies around my house, but too each his own. I do like the ornaments though. When I can, I like to include a handmade ornament on a gift. The designs are from Stitch Delight. I'm quite happy with them. I made the peacock ornament for Joshua. I was afraid to try the design with metallic thread. Metallic thread is known to shred and cause major frustration. I decided to slow the machines speed down by three notches. I stopped the design when it was time to switch to the metallic thread and inserted a metallic needle. Perfect results. I think slowing the speed really help the thread from not shredding. I'll have to make some more of these. The metallic thread is so expensive so it's nice to have something to use it on. There are some loose threads on the ornaments. I probably should have trimmed everything up before I took the picture.

Christmas Projects 2010

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. I didn't sew too much for presents. Everyone got something homemade though. Everyone got pillowcases this year. I made Taylor and Conor's first. My husband told me I was not to put Conor's name on his. "Don't even put a C on it" he tells me. He thinks having your name or initials on your clothing makes you less of a man. When I purchased my new machine, I was given the instructions that I was to never put my husband's name on anything.

When it came time to make Whitney and Joshua's gifts, I didn't know what to do. It's not like Conor's gift. He's in a dorm, Jeff didn't want him to be made fun of. Well, that isn't the case for Joshua. In the end, I succumbed to Jeff's thought's on manhood. I did feel that having his/hers pillowcases wouldn't be that bad. The font used is called Pharmacy. It's a great font. I bought that from Jolsen's. For the most part, all the letters are the same size, no matter if it's a large case or small case letter.
Finally for Lauren's gift, my friend Yvonne and I stopped off at Mill House Quilts in Waunakee, Wi on the way to Madison to pick up Taylor and Conor for Thanksgiving break. We both ended up breaking the bank at this shop. I found this lingerie fabric and knew that I couldn't leave the store without at least one yard of it. The alphabet is from "From the Needle of Anne". It's called the Girlfriend Alpha. Anne's designs are quite lovely.





The black polar fleece scarf was actually a St Nick gift for Lauren. I forgot to put it in the box though. So she'll have to wait until next December to wear it. I sometimes hem and haw about the design size. I'm fearful of going to big. Remember the little pink onsie and tutu from this past summer? I put a princess design on it and I was afraid to go big. I used the design for the 4x4 hoop and once finished, I was sorry that I didn't use the 5x7 hoop. Well, same story here. I should have used the design for the next size hoop. I thought Lauren wouldn't wear it if it had a big Santa hat on it. What am I thinking? She may not wear it with the small Santa hat! Anyway, the design is from Five Star Fonts.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Pillowcases for Kayla















If you love buying fabric like I do, you tend to overbuy especially when you find fabrics on clearance. I have a lot of Christmas fabric. When you can buy it at 75% off after Christmas, I don't even hesitate. If it's a cute print, it's mine. The problem is what do you do with all the novelty fabric?

I decided to make Kayla a pillowcase for each month of the year. That should cover most of the major holidays and I have fabric in my stash for those holidays. The first two months were November and Christmas. Her favorite is the turkey pillowcase. That surprised me. Is it because her name is on it?

I was trying to clean out pictures and realized that I hadn't posted these yet. The font used for Kayla's name is Tinker Toy. The "I Believe" design was a freebie from a Sew Forum member.

Sewing for the Nieces

Well, Santa's sweatshop, I mean workshop is winding down. I've been busy sewing and embroidering. I just don't have a lot to post right now.

You might remember the little Barbie skirt and tops that I made for Kayla. Well this new top has a similar design. The other Barbie was the same design except done in a silhouette form. The designs came from the Paris Pretties group from Planet Applique.

I have loved this little Grinch-like design for a while. I finally purchased it a couple of months ago and stitched it out. It's a good thing that this top is going to be large for Kayla because she won't be getting it before Christmas. The design is from Digistitches. The "K" is a font called "Grinched" from 8 Claws and a Paw. I don't know if the blue fabric was the best choice for the ornament. But I wanted it to sparkle. Of course, after I stitched this out, I remembered that I had pink sparkly fabric in my stash. Way to go Ellen. Pink would have been a better choice.

Finally, something for my niece Ashton. She's a freshman at Kansas University, home of the Jayhawks. I don't think I have the right shades of blue and red. I kept looking at KU apparel to get the colors right. Now that it stitched out, I think it's too dark of a blue. Hopefully not to many people will be seeing this while she's showering. I purchased a few fonts this past week from Jolson's. I have been wanting "Santa's Sleigh" for some time now. Ashton's project gave me the excuse to buy some things I've been wanting. The large font is called Garton, also from Jolson's.

A Dessert Smackdown


A couple of weeks ago at work, I had a couple of the maintenance fellows trying to figure why it was so cold at my desk. I also had IT at my desk helping with a phone issue. I can't remember the progression of the conversation but we were talking about baking. One of the guys made a comment on how wonderful a baker my friend Donna was. I then challenged Donna to a baking contest. We got together over break and decided when we were going to bring our treats in.

After talking with Donna, I knew I had to change my strategy. I was going to bring in cinnamon rolls and a cake. After mulling over things, I decided to make a chocolate espresso yule log and a white chocolate macadamia nut pie. Now mind you, this was a friendly smackdown. We decided no judging. We would just let our co-workers in IT and Maintenance eat the goods.

Here is my yule log. I think I should have left off the powdered sugar. I went to the florist and purchased lemon leaves and painted the underside of the leaves with the chocolate. The yellow cyathia's are made of marzipan.