Category Archives: embroidery blanks

Valentine Variety

Valentine L

 

My daughter-in-law, Shelly, is such a wonderful mother.  This week she hosted a little Valentine party for the neighborhood children.  They exchanged homemade cards, decorated heart cookies, dipped strawberries in chocolate, chased balloons and had a big time.  It was pouring down rain, so the other mothers were happy to have a fun indoor activity for the children.  These Florida kids are usually outside playing, so one rainy day gives them cabin fever.

 

elephants

 

There has been a lot of Valentine activity in my sewing room this past week.Laurel and I worked together to embroider a red tee shirt knit dress, a blank from my stash,  for her to wear to the party.  This is just one of the delightful designs from the Zundt Design Valentine collection.  We also stitched a few others on dishtowels because Laurel couldn’t choose just one.

 

Valentine Fabric

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2-Way Guest Towels

Few things are prettier than linen guest towels, embroidered and hemstitched, hanging demurely from the bathroom towel rack.

Most guests, however, are loathe to use them, reluctant to wrinkle the beauties and leave them hanging in the disarray that results when linen is handled.

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Lady’s Grape Sweater

Just like everyone else, I love a bargain.  I found this great sweater, without embroidery, marked down from $48 to $9.   I knew the addition of an embroidery design would take it from plain to pretty.

The lacy knit sleeves make it cool enough for Florida weather and yet, with a green or purple shirt under it, it is warm enough for our few cool days. Continue reading

Wedding Cruise Hats

For the 50+ out of town guests for our daughter’s wedding, we planned a Saturday afternoon cruise down the St.Johns River.

In our area, the wedding pre-ceremony activity is most often a guest golf tournament, usually for the men, with balls or some other minor golf equipment for favors.

Our out-of-town  guests ranged from the groom’s 85 year old grandmother to young mothers with 6 month old babies.  We wanted something they all could enjoy before the 6 p.m. wedding ceremony.

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Peace on Earth

Yet another gift has been completed for in-laws of my in-laws.   This relatively quick and easy project can serve its original purpose as a linen guest towel or as a Christmas banner.

The linen guest towels come in a variety of styles. Some have hemstitching at both ends while others have only a 1/2″ turned hem at the plain end. This one, with hemstitching forming the casing at the top and three rows of hemstitching, met my need for a decorative casing as well as hemstitching suitable for a few rows of ribbon.

The embroidery design, Peace on Earth with Dove Tree, is from one of my favorite design sites, Embroidery Library www.emblibrary.com Continue reading

JOY

Tick tock, tick tock……Christmas is coming. As I work to finish up some small gifts for extended family, including several in-laws of in-laws, I am so glad that I have an embroidery machine.

In my opinion, these fingertip towels and the other presents I am making are nice enough to show that some effort was extended on their behalf, yet small enough to prevent the recipients from feeling obliged. And if they don’t care for my gifts, they can still be used to dry hands or to dust.Actually,  they are all such nice people that I do hope they are pleased. Continue reading

Alastair’s Temporary Christmas Stocking

 

Alastair temp stocking

 

 

Talk about quick and easy!  This is truly a modern project for any kind of Nana. Purchased by my daughter for her son, Alastair, I was asked to personalize it for him, which I did.  But, as it turns out, this stocking is doomed to be a single use item, scheduled for replacement, Christmas 2010.

His name is embroidered in the candy cane true type font, about which I wrote in the Christmas Aprons post a few days ago.  At the intersections of the decorative stitching, novelty Christmas buttons are sewn. The Santa, snowman, gingerbread man, cardinal, Christmas tree and other dimensional buttons delighted Alastair.

Rebecca, too,  was delighted until she caught up with this blog and saw her nephew Robert’s stocking in the Flying Santa post. She had never seen it.   When that stocking was made and hung, Robert was a newborn and his Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Harvey were in Africa, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.

“You mean you can MAKE Christmas stockings?  I had no idea! Will you please make one for Alastair?  Uh, next year will be fine.” Continue reading

PGM Gingerbread Aprons

 

Gingerbread houses are truly old fashioned projects for old fashioned Nanas.  It can be one of the most lasting Christmas memories for your children  or grandchildren.

Since my children were old enough to lick the mixer beaters, we’ve made Christmas gingerbread houses.  And all the PlayGroup Mamas made gingerbread houses with their children (see earlier post, PGM-PlayGroup Mamas ifor explanation of PlayGroup Mamas).

 

PGM Arlene made four every year, one for each child.   Striving to make the best house or the best fire station or the best school or whatever,  they were fiercely competitive.  Each child  had a big idea and a big time.

A few Christmases ago, when a few of the PlayGroup Moms started backsliding in this time honored tradition, Arlene gifted each of us with an unadorned but constructed gingerbread house. We gathered together to decorate our cookie houses, each bringing a variety of decorative candies, a box of 10X confectioners sugar and extra electric mixers. Like Arlene’s children, we each had a big idea and a very big time. Continue reading

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

The best babysitters, of course,   are the baby’s grandparents.  You feel completely comfortable entrusting your baby to them for long periods, which is why most grandparents flee to Florida.”  Dave Barry

Is there anything sweeter than a freshly bathed baby? Is there anything slipperier than a freshly bathed baby? (The word “slipperier” looks all wrong, but trust me, this is correct. I’ve checked.)

Sweet and slippery as they are, after I nearly dropped infant Laurel lifting her from the tub, I decided that a hooded bath towel was a layette requirement, not just a nice accessory. You can “hang” the hood on baby’s head and get a good grip on The Wet One. Since this Aha! experience, it has become one of my favorite shower gifts. Continue reading

Sweetie Pie

Alastair, 8 months old

My daughter, Alastair’s mother, has returned to work two days a week. Called back from extended maternity leave, she agreed to do this only because her husband’s wonderful Aunt Jeannette volunteered to keep the little guy on those two days.

This embroidered one piece suit, which is one of my favorite styles for baby boys, reflects Alastair and Aunt Jeannette’s mutual affection for one another.

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