Embroidering Baby Outfits

Still stitchin for my favorite little mister. Pick up the baby bodysuits in a four pack, so I tend to do up a few at a time. I did a run with Urban Threads designs, you’ll see I’m obviously a fan. This design is their Passport to Ireland.

And this is the bunny from their Friends Border with a bit of grass from an Embroidery Library design.

In December, I’d shipped off the UT Lonely Robot and was rewarded with this happy shot.

Had also sent off UT’s Free Monster

and Hedgie from the Friends border.

If you’ve made it this far, I’ll now reward you with the best shot of me I’ve taken in years – very happy great aunt Maggie with cuddly little Charlie 🙂 .

He’s stylish in his UT Devilish Heart onsie.

I’d given details and pictures of how I embroider on baby bodysuits in this post. I have one more onsie from the last four pack to stitch, so it’s back to the machine I go!

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More Stocking Cheerfulness

Continuing to stitch a few more Christmas items. I was really pleased with the fleece plus cuff combo on the Charlie stocking (and it was so well received by his mom!) that I’m determined to do a bunch in this style. As with the Charlie stocking, an iron on polymesh backs the cotton cuff, cut away stabilizer – with even more temporary spray adhesive – anchors the center stocking designs and Sulky rayon threads are used throughout.

Tatjana at Stickbaer does wonderful appliqué and in the hoop designs. I’d purchased one of her in the hoop (ITH) Christmas stocking designs and, although it can go to 14 inches long, decided not to use the ITH part of the design. My stockings tend to be about 18 inches long and I like that look.  A tad more space between the bird and the holly matches the slightly longer stocking. Her appliqués stitch perfectly with a nice satin edge that covers all your trimming. Heat n Bond Lite was bonded to the appliqué pieces – and temporary spray adhesive applied to their backs – before they were used in the embroidery.

Urban Threads‘ Snowstorm Santa just makes me smile. I love happy Santas and this one is so perfect, I want to put him everywhere! The word Believe is edited out of their Believe Santa design – it fits beautifully with both. Did use a floater of water soluble stabilizer on top of the fleece to prevent the threads from sinking too far into the fleece – and it worked. I’d thought I might have to stitch this design twice to get it to show up on the fluffy fleece, but the one time was all that was needed – yea!

Back to the machine to stitch even more cheer. Saving the names for last, then I’ll sort who gets which.

In Progress Christmas Stocking

Just sharing a few quick pics of an in progress Christmas stocking.

Cthulhu by Urban Threads, fleece stocking with cotton band for the cuff, cut away stabilizer. My registration of the outline is a tad off – did use the heavy stabilizer and spray adhesive, plus a basting stitch around the design. UT is great, I had re-sized it a tad bigger and that must’ve thrown it off somehow (blame it on the editing software 🙂 ). I’ll probably leave it “as is”.

Rockford font by Meringue Designs. Will trim that bit of thread between the i and its dot.

The fleece is heavy enough that I may not line these. Using the Serger for the inside seams should give them a nice clean finish. Got a handful more to get to, so back to the sewing machine I go!

Machine Embroidery Madness

When it comes to crafting, I am a schizophrenic with ADD. I appear to labor under the delusion that I am not lil old me – no I’m SUPERWOMAN who can craft endless projects in a single effortless bound. And the later – well “oh, I can make this”, “I can make that”, “so & so would love XYZ”, then “this could match it”. Flickr, Pinterest, Facebook, Yahoo Groups – the project ideas and suggestions just keep rolling in. And onto the pile of best intentions crammed into plastic bins these projects go. Yes, I’ve been making some progress lately – you know why? It’s summer, people go on vacation in summer, much of what I do for work is focused to when all of the hoards can be available. The “year end close” time leading up to Christmas – my Achilles heel season for purchasing and planning projects that never get done – is often overtime and cramming. So, I’m finally getting smart (it takes awhile, k?) and making things for people I want to create for now.

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This set – “Cocktail Coasters”™ snack mats, mug rugs – is for sis and her hubby (there are two of the beer ones, she loves fairies so can smile at hers with morning coffee while he gets the gryphon in that set). Designs are from Urban Threads and Embroidery Library; the machine embroidered ITH “in the hoop” quilted mat is from Five Star Fonts.

Not yet off the Zipper Pouch Bandwagon

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These sets are Thank you’s for my sister’s friends who helped bake and cook for a family event in Massachusetts. Blue and Yellow are the colors of the Boston Marathon and Suzie ran this last one – I mentioned her story here: Marathon Post. They are legitimately Boston Proud and like to sport these colors. ”Mrs. Foley” hasn’t been married that long and uses her married name all the time.

To make an easy pocket for the larger cases, I cut two of the “back lining pieces”, folded one in half over some iron on interfacing right sides together and stitched the middle of the strip to the back lining. Then continued to make the bags per the “ITH – in the hoop” pattern instructions. The runner and butterfly designs are both from Embroidery Library, daisies and fonts used are part of my embroidery software.

Mountain Heirloom Quilt Faire

The Independence Hall Quilters held their 35th Annual Mountain Heirloom Quilt Faire at Ironstone Vineyards  (above is the scholarship raffle quilt).  With many booths outdoors, our exquisite fall weather made this the perfect weekend outing.

Before I get into sharing, I’ll remind you of Robin William’s imitation of William F. Buckley Jr. while he was the genie in Aladdin – there are a few restrictions and quid pro quo’s:

Etiquette at any craft or quilt show is always to ask each vendor if it’s ok to take pictures – you’ll see some folks get visibly nervous if you’re waving a camera around their creations.

Do get inspiration from others’ work. But remember, most of these folks are small family owned shops investing their heart and soul in their designs, please don’t violate the copyright for their patterns or kits by making an exact copy.

I tend to not take shots of traditional quilts, but limit myself to those with some feature I personally want to recall.

My friend and I started with the vendor booths as she wanted to introduce me to Elizabeth Schlarb of 27 Blossoms (latebloomerquilts.com). 

In addition to making and selling beautiful items (close ups let you see how cleanly these are made), Elizabeth also has her own fabric line. 

Everything at this show was crafted superbly. I’ve actually seen wobbly lines (meant to be straight) and loopy back tension on things for sale when I’m browsing the web. I always think whoever gets those items would be so disappointed and might never buy online again. Having many craft artist friends, this is more than disappointing. 

Maise Blue, a local yarn, book and gift store was out supporting this event with their fantastic selection.

You can also order from them online.

Bearly Quilting of Sonora was out in force. I didn’t capture kit/pattern names but you can always email them (or any vendor noted) with a link to a pic if you want to track something down.

Inuit art isn’t as common in the stitching world and this one looks to be part of a beautiful collection.

One of the most famous structures in Sonora, Ca is the Red church historic landmark built in 1859. This kit from Anita Goodesign (Country Church Tile Scene), crafted with a red church instead of the white, is an almost perfect rendition of the local landmark.

The ‘Christmas Pine Pillow’ kit fromThe Quilt House comes with those delightful little buttons – love the little cookie cutters.

Bet most of the folks reading this don’t know that in all the stitching blogs folks are now calling themselves “sewists”. I can see where creative folks are not “seamstresses”, but if I were coming up with a name I’d stick with craft artisan, which has been in use for awhile. Anyhoo, raggedy flowers are the current rage with all the sewists. I have a few machine embroidery quick stitch ones I hope to knock out in time for Christmas presents – as pins or barrettes they’re great for stocking stuffers. I do like how The Quilt House had these on quilts in a few different color schemes.

My very favorite shop, the Country Cloth Shop, was well represented, as always.  Ginger and Peggy quilt, sew kits and have a fantastic eye for pattern and color. They’re always happy to help folks match fabrics and have a great selection of classes. I’m so lucky to have this store nearby.

The Independence Hall Quilters is a phenomenal group (they meet during the day and I work, (rats).  The proceeds from the annual Quilt Faire go to The Resource Connection, including the Women’s Crisis Center and Child Protective Services, area youth with catastrophic illness or accidents, Shriners Hospital, area schools, parks, libraries and other community organizations, plus scholarships to Bret Harte High School. 

 

Guild members craft and donate so many items for the faire’s boutique and the “Scholarship Quilt” raffle. 

They also bake and sell beautifully presented items. I didn’t get a “long shot” to show you how many quilts and handcrafted items they had for sale. I can only say that they are one generous group.

Every year more than 160 Comfort quilts are created and donated to Calaveras County’s Child Protective Services, Shiners’ Hospitals for children undergoing treatment, surgery or therapy;  Ebbetts Pass Fire District for “Post Trauma Kits” and any local child involved in an accident or with a serious illness.

Local professional long arm quilters donate their time to finish each quilt. Anyone needing a quilt finished should contact these women -their work is simply beautiful. The five generous and talented ladies are listed here (along with more pictures).

Fun Easy and Fast Holiday Jewelry

The handcrafted holiday jewelry I’ve created hits 2 ends of the spectrum – there’s the jeans, tennies, fun, inexpensive and easy jewelry and then there’s the little black dress, pumps, office Christmas party, night out jewelry with the latter being designed with wear year round applicability. This post will cover some fun, fast, easy to make and inexpensive jewelry.

First up is the quickie earring collection.  The snowmen and wreaths were buttons. I used my dremel to cut off the shanks, then glued them (the brown glue you see is wood glue, not sure what I used on the others) to ‘flat pad posts’ that you can pick up from JoAnn, Michael or my favorite mail order supplier Rings n Things. Be careful to generally place your post towards the top of the earring – the big snowmen are ok by a hair lower and they wouldn’t hang quite right.

The trees and candy canes in the top photo were from Michaels, they periodically have small glass ornaments with the small tree decorations or on aisle end caps. Those just needed a jump ring to attach to the ear wires and they’re done.  Sometimes I switch how you see the pairs in that top photo and wear one red and one green. In the photo directly above, those candy canes became earrings for my niece. Be careful when purchasing them – in the packet above the loop was broken off one of the wreaths. I knew that when I got it – the packets were easily worth the price for the remaining pieces.

These plastic Christmas tree lights had been carried in the two sizes you see in packets I believe were brand “Dress It Up” buttons.  Glass seed beads are between the lights, and I’d laid out the two strands as I worked to count the right number of beads so that the small light in the inner strand would sit in between 2 lights on the bigger light strand. For light beads I use a bead thread or cord – the “tigertails” and wire often crimp with small beads. They are great if you’re working with heavy stone beads (think turquoise chunks) as the drilled inner hole of stone beads often have sharp edges that cut through thread or cording. For light beads, they’ll lay naturally and smoothly with the threads and finer fiber cords. I’d placed a red glass spacer at either end of the lights.  The earrings are one head pin with seed beads and a light at the bottom plus a light that fits directly onto the loop of the ear wire. The nice thing about these is that they are so light – perfect if you plan on shopping and running about all day.

 

Finally, another quick necklace from the glass ornaments (the long candies were the third piece in the packets shown above with the candy canes and wreaths). This is one that if I have time I’ll take apart and do differently. Again, the glass beads were truly a find at Michaels. With it sitting at the neck, I originally thought the fact that side beads hang lower than the center bead would look ok – but I don’t care for it. Also, if I lived in a climate that was tropical in the winter and was wearing sleeveless light dresses the weight of single strand seed beads might be right, but it’s not. Considering using organza ribbon instead of seed beads or simply using these for earrings or a shawl pin but just haven’t decided.

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Labels for the Holiday Mix in a Jar Recipes

Well, like many of you I am swamped with the hours spent at work, holiday gift creating and shopping plus trying to get the home decorated, cards mailed and the blog kept up (whew, tired just thinking about it).  I’ve been promising more on wrap for food gifts and am taking a moment to toss up a PDF file you can download of holiday labels for the recipes in a jar I’ve posted. I’ve added a blank label page as well. They fit easily on any regular mason jar. Ever pragmatic, I prefer the label right on the jar as I’ve received jar gifts (bean soups from the kiddies in kindergarten) where the jar and the tag became separated.  I want the instructions stuck on as the vast majority of my gift recipients truly prefer pragmatism as well.

 A square or circle of cloth or paper over the lid could be the finishing touch instead of a bow. If you want to use the blank labels as lid toppers, just print at 125% – any bigger and you won’t see the label on the jar. For labels on the jars just print at 100%. Stuck on the ribbon for the photo – but in the basket I’m planning full of things, I’d trim the ties up a bit maybe use a deep purple for contrast. I won’t truly decide finishing touches until I have all the items together with the “vessel”.

The pumpkin muffins will be packaged the mix, the small can of pumpkin (I used a purchased cello bag for in the photos above and below) plus a cello bag with the molasses in a 4 ounce jam jar and a packet of cream cheese.  I’ll also include some sourdough in a jam jar with a mix for multigrain or gingerbread waffles and maple syrup (chosen recipe to come), plus the oatmeal tea loaves with the oatmeal mix jars of those as well. So many folks I know work oodles and oodles of hours per week and take off over the holidays. One of the joys of that time is being able to enjoy leisurely breakfasts. So the brunch baskets are always a treat. If I were giving the muffins with extras alone or a two mix jars – a simple hand sewn stocking (or purchased) would be a perfect holder.

I simply used the paper I normally run through my HP printer (Costco or Office Depot stock). Cardstock might be too hard to wrap easily; this label mirrors the Classico sauce label in that it wraps the jar ever so slightly. Brush the back with Modge Podge or something similar and place it on your jar. Really press the edges but be careful not to rub with your fingertip over the indented lettering if your choice of jar has that. I simply used the flat part of an extended finger to smooth and press over that area. I deliberately chose to use regular print, not photo quality and no spraying clear gloss or Modge Podge over the top as I like the handmade non-glossy look and feel of the jars.

The photos are mine on the labels with photos, clip art courtesy of Microsoft Office Clipart download for the labels with clip art. I’ve put links to the recipe on the labels, as with the muffins you’ll find the dry ingredients aren’t included should the recipient want to replicate them. There simply wasn’t enough room. I only ask that if you post your gift with my labels to your blog, you note labels courtesy of http://coedraiocht.wordpress.com  and link to the download on my site – do not copy and upload the PDF files to your site. Of course, don’t sell the labels or add the labels to a collection to sell.  I don’t sell items; I’m simply sharing what I’ve created for my own gifts.  All 3 pages of labels are in the one PDF file.

Jar Mix Label  

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