Argyle Sibling Appliques

Expecting a new arrival?

These simple yet versatile appliques are great to announce any addition to your family!

Each of these is sold separately since the combination would be different for each family.

 All of the fonts used are from KG Fonts (see button on side of the blog). 

LIL & BIG are Janda Closer to Free

BROTHER is KG Falling Slowly

Sister is Janda Shine Your Light on Us

KG Fonts are free for personal use and you'll need to pay a licensing fee for commercial use.

Baby Monthly Milestones

When I was a new mama, I took pictures of my children. We had already had out digital camera for a few years so I have a hard drive (and web storage) full of pictures of them. But, back then, back before etsy and pinterest, it never occurred to me to put them into monthly attire. 

My sister-in-law had a baby a bit ago (two years is just a bit right?). That was during my husband's long out-of-the-country business trip so I couldn't go above and beyond designing any fun monthly milestone appliques. They were the simple number applique from 1-12. She had a beautiful quilt made out of them along with my nephew's first year birthday shirt. Gorgeous keepsake!

My sister also recently had a little one. Recent if you count it as being last June! This time I did have some time to create some fun designs. I gave her six different options. I finally have them all completed and listed!

I had some really good testers who were quick and gave some great feedback and great pictures. 

The delay? Me. And moving. And me. And the holidays. But mostly me. 

Let's take a look!

ACTION BUBBLES
First I wanted to do something that could be made into a patch but had the POW and WHAM of a boy. What better than to make an action bubble?

Action Bubble Set

Tested by Kate's Custom Cuties

Tested by Hair Ribbon Boutique

ROUTE PATCH MONTHS

Now, my sister was having a boy so I wanted to do another easy patch-type of design.

The Route Patch Month Set

Tested by Joan

Tested by PF Lazos

Patricia lives out of the US and did these all as patches! Here are some of here comments: 

"I did them all as patches just using cut away well what I think you ladies call cut away since here they just call every single stabilizer pellon but this one you can`t tear away so I guess it`s cut away and then just cut around the stitches and went over them with my woodburner melting the excess stabilize ron the sides..now I am thinking of adding some heat and bond ultra to the back so my friend who I will be giving these as gifts can iron them on onesies or shirts."

DAISY MONTHS

My sister may be having a boy, but I wanted to toss in something girly too. This file also comes with a few mini daisy add-ons if you want to spice it up a little!

Daisy Month Set

Tested by Kynleigh's Designs

Tested by Meri

SQUARE MONTHS

I wanted to do a few neutral designs and that is what the remaining designs are. This one is a quick and easy design with two layers of fabric. You can leave in the decorative stitching (LOVE for the boys) or let the fabric speak for itself!

Square Month Set

Tested by Allison

Tested by Head to Feet Boutique, Inc

SQUARE PATCH MONTHS

Not too much to explain about this one. It requires an extra step for the layer of the fabric for the box but you can make them into patches.

Square Patch Month Set

Tested by Jodie

 Love the idea of putting them on bibs!

 Tested by Amanda

 Amanda's tips on making patches:
"How did I make patches? Hooped Cut -away stabilizer. Heat n Bond Lite on all my fabrics. Sticky spray adhesive, too. Once stitching was complete I cut around square as close to the outside stitch as possible withouth cutting the stitches. In order for mom to use on baby I will iron Heat n Bond Perm (red) to the back so she can adhere to onesie/shirt of her choice."




 CHEVRON MONTHS
Let's remember that I made these almost a year ago. Chevron was in, but I had no idea it would be so huge. I usually try to stay away from trends but what can I say? If you like chevron but your child wants to choose their own fabric, then this neutral design is for you!

Chevron Month Set

Tested by Sue Ellen Wagner

Tested by Joan

And that's all!

I'm sorry it took so long to get them all listed for you.

Now it's off to finish the number sets ;)

February 2013 facebook fan FREE design now listed!

Head on over to our facebook page to receive this FREE design!

 I love argyle and hearts (this is the third variation of this combo)!! I think it would look great in browns and blues for boys :) 

CLICK HERE

Argyle Heart Pattern

Unfortunately, this design is free to facebook fans only. Available for purchase at our website HERE.

The old and the new!

 Gone is another year. Just like that all of my kids are a year older and I started getting grays. 

I had better just throw in the towel now huh?

 We celebrated the last birthday of the year with our little princess. She was touch and go in utero. I remember praying and praying for this little one. Well, God certainly knows what he is doing. She is the most active and "into everything" little child I have, and that's saying a lot since my first walked at nine months!

But, each time I leave one room after just cleaning up a mess only to arrive in another room to clean up another of her messes, I remember how I was on my knees praying for her safe arrival. It's humbling each and every time.

My little princess loves pink, princesses, and ponies. I made her a special shirt with all three :)

Happy Birthday to my little peanut!

 Since I can't say  "no" to my last born, I also made her a pink pony castle cake. 

It was the first time I've used fondant so be nice ;)

Recipe for fondant was from here: http://www.thebakingbeauties.com/2010/10/homemade-fondant-that-tastes-like-buttercream.html

And that's it!

Happy New Year!

  Here's to another year of staying up the night before drawing, digitizing, and stitching my kids' birthday shirts. Hats off to those of you who make a whole outfit. 

Use coupon code NEWYEAR2013 to receive 50% off of your entire order (12/31/12 - 1/1/13) at www.originalstitches.com!

P.S. I'm sorry only one has been fully tested and made available to you. I promise to get the other listed this year......sometime.

Snowflake Ornament Instructions

 If you haven't already. Head on over to our website to download the free snowflake ornament design.


Here is a little in the hoop design for you to play with. The 4x4 file stitches one snowflake ornament. If you'd like to do more than one at a time, the 5x7 file stitches two snowflake ornaments.

INTSRUCTIONS:

 Hoop your water soluble stabilizer, tear away stabilizer, or matching color stabilizer.

 The first stitch pack is your placement line. I forgot I was taking pictures for instructions and used white. Trust me, the placement line is there.

If you want to use ribbon, position your ribbon over the line using clear tape or adhesive spray.

Don't stitch yet!

Place your felt (I wanted to go frayed so I used flannel) over the ribbon and placement line.

Run your tackdown stitch.

And run your decorative stitching. There are stops to change colors. I just really wanted all gray right now. 

When your decorative stitching is finished. Turn your hoop OVER. Place your covering fabric on the BACK side of the hoop using adhesive spray to hold in place.

Like so.

Stitch your final tackdown.

Remove from your hoop and cut out your ornament. 

If you used ribbon, remember to carefully trim!

And you are finished. 

Reusable Gift Tags

Some time ago I had this great idea to make in the hoop reusable luggage tags. 

I think they turned out well. 

However, I cannot get my directions clear enough and need to take more pictures. 

Yes, I do NOT release files that aren't clear enough to be stitched.

The above also had a felt version that IS simple.

Simple enough to change from a luggage tag to a reusable gift tag. 

Yeah!

And they are coming out in cute new shapes for all occasions.

From seasonal to plain.

These instructions contain photo instructions on how to make the gift tags with chalk fabric, a photo (or hand drawn picture) or with vinyl.

But the possibilities don't stop there. Think outside of the box!!

Take our new Reusable Heart Gift Tag.

Attach this to your gift on Feb 14th. 

 But maybe you need something for a classroom?

When stitching out the final tackdown, add an extra piece of felt to the back. You can use this pocket to add a piece of candy or if you are being healthy, a piece of chalk!

Flip the way direction of the felt and you have sucker covers.

Simple and quick!

Now, while I have chalk in my house (4 kids, we have chalk!), I love the crispness of chalk markers. I checked our local Micheal's and they didn't have any but they directed me to Staples. They had neon markers that would have worked, but I really wanted chalk! I asked at the counter if they carried them and they said they could order one! Free shipping to the store and it was there within two days. I'm not sure what stores near you carry them, but it never hurts to ask!

Crash go the Ornaments

About a month ago, I had this brilliant idea to start and end all Christmas designs before November.

Wouldn't that have been nice?

I was merrily making my way through testing the designs when *crash* my usb stops working.

UH OH! I didn't have any of my new designs backed up yet.

Nope, not ONE!

I had just finished stitching my snowman out, I pulled the usb out of my machine, I plugged it into my laptop and nothing. 

Of course, it was over the weekend so I researched several usb retrieval sites and left messages with all of them. The first one that responded to me, well, I dragged all four of my kids out of the house and had it in the mail in 30 minutes. 

That's almost two years worth of work! (Ok, ok, I had backed it up in April before we moved, so it was really only the last six months that would have been lost.)

Almost four weeks later, I'm glad to say that all ornaments are finally up and listed on our website. All of the data was retrieved off the usb and I paid a ridiculous amount of $$$ to get it back (seriously, if I had just prepaid for an online back-up service for the next 15 years, it might have been the same amount). Guess who has an online back-up service now?

Well, at least they are all up before Thanksgiving. That's something ... right?