Speaking of birthdays, did someone you know give birth on the 4th of July this year? Send us a link to the Patriotic Baby's Facebook debut to enter our drawing. We'll send one lucky little guy/girl a burpie custom monogrammed with our Fireworks Speciality Monogram Design! Happy Birthday America!

Birthday Tablecloths

We have started a fun tradition for the children in our family. I have taken a simple white tablecloth and embroidered it with the theme of the child's birthday party each year and designated which year it is. This one is for my grandson Sean, who just turned six. The first year's theme was transportation and we chose a train (B01) from the boy's embroidery design section on the website. The next year was safari, represented by the stacked giraffes. Age three was dinosaurs as that was a huge year for dinosaurs in his life. For age four, we have an ocean theme - a starfish. Age five was all about pirates. And age six was dangerous animals and I swallowed hard to overcome my "issues" and embroidered him a nasty looking snake. Such a fun keepsake from each year's birthday party!

Gift Bundling Idea - Teacher Appreciation

Taking a single embroidered gift (from Initial Impressions of course) and bundling it with smaller, related items is a thoughtful way to put together a special gift. This, seen on Pinterest, would make a great thank you gift for a teacher. Take a beach towel or chaise lounge cover, add some sunscreen and a current magazine, tie with a pretty bow and you have a great teacher appreciation gift.

I am excited to be adding this pretty cross stitch style monogram letter set to the options on the website. These are perfect for tea towels and flour sack kitchen towels

Lovies: "I'll be Back!"

I just got the inside scoop from the supplier of lovies -- the REAL lovies -- that all the styles will be available again in July. They have been out of stock for months while the supplier got set up with a new manufacturer. I have some of the styles still in stock for embroidery, but I am really happy to hear that all the styles will be here in time for the holiday season.

Birthday Tradition

Here is a photo of the birthday tablecloth addition for Kristen's 3rd Birthday. I add a new motif for each year. This is the first year of the princess. She has a birthday crown and a coordinating addition to the tablecloth. _____________________________________

Why Didn't I Think of That?

One of the most popular items in recent months is the flower girl handkerchief with the sweet poem about a girl being young and growing up to need something old. These have been made as gifts from the bride to her young flower girl. flower girl hankie Yesterday I had a customer who ordered one of these for a newborn girl, using her birthdate at the bottom of the hankie instead of the date of an upcoming wedding. I will be making one of these for brand new Hanna Bowles - for her to use on her wedding day. What a lovely newborn gift. It will be tucked away for many years and cherished all the more when the time comes to use it.

buy on the website here


 

My daughter Charlotte sent this to me and I was taken with how it says it all. It all started when my grandmother, Gretchen (I called her Gammy), took me for the summer when I was ten. Gammy was creative and talented and a good teacher. I wish she could know how much I appreciate that she planted the love of sewing in me!

Happy St. Patrick's Day. This champagne or wine wrap was made for the wedding of an Irish couple last year, but I bet they bring it out for a celebration today. I am hoping that using it yearly will become a tradition for them.

buy on the website here

Initial Impressions Wedding Gown Label in Southern Weddings blog

Kelsy shared some of the details of her lovely wedding with the staff at Southern Weddings and a wedding gown label from Initial Impressions made the grade. It is shown here in position in the dress. And all the details for your enjoyment. Southern Weddings Blog

buy on the website here

Birthday Traditions

I do try to embroider for family every now in then. One of the ideas I came up with is a birthday tablecloth to be used each year that documents the theme of the birthday each year. I have a little catching up to do to get up to the current year for everyone, but the basic idea is that the child's name goes in the center of the tablecloth and then each motif, along with its year goes scattered around the tablecloth from year to year. For Kristen, last year, it was the year of the Hungry Caterpillar and I also embroidered the bodice of a linen dress with her name and the base of the dress with the same Hungry Caterpillar design for her to wear at the birthday party. The tablecloth had the same Hungry Caterpillar motif along with the designation of "2". This year's theme is "princess" and the details are in process as I write.

Today's Projects

Today's sewing projects included this sporty basketball themed towel. These sports themed towels make practical gifts for sports lovers and team sports awards. I love the rendition of the basketball netting in this design - how it looks as if it is flowing from the ball passing through.

Snow Day

Snow Day! - Although that is hardly an excuse for my inability to commute down the hallway!

Today's work consisted mostly of long overdue paperwork - an evil necessity. But I can say it is a lot less burdensome with the help of the Neat Desk scanning system. That is the system that is often advertised on TV right before tax time. I give that little desk top workhorse an A+ for making an obnoxious job so much easier. If you need to keep track of paper and you hate to do it, Neat Desk will make you happy. That is my public service announcement for the week.

The Neat Desk

Norwegian Rosemaling

True confessions.... When you are an embroiderer, embroidery designs are the thing to have. We collect them like some people collect shoes or purses. When I find an embroidery design I want to sew I actually get excited. As I said, true confessions! Today, I found these. These are my two favorites from a new series of a style called "Rosemaling". Rosemaling is Norwegian for "decorative painting," It is a folk art that comes from the rural valleys of Norway. Rosemaling is filled with flower ornamentation, scrollwork, flourishes, and flowing patterns. Popular from the latter half of the 18th century until the 1860's, it's enjoying a huge revival in popularity! I think these two are particularly pretty and would be gorgeous on tea towels or a spring shopping tote.

Kidney Foundation Benefit Silent Auction

On March 14, the National Kidney Foundation will hold its silent auction gala in Denver. National Kidney Foundation Silent Auction Denver Information I am not connected to the Kidney Foundation other than one of our daughters volunteers. She asked me for a silent auction donation. I thought hard about what would be a good candidate. Since it is an elegant affair catering to a chef theme, I thought elegant cocktail towels would be a fun way to ease into the night's festivities. These colorful towels feature a stylized motif for 12 well known cocktails and the actual recipe for the cocktail too. I had these embroidery designs from a company who will go unnamed because I can't really endorse them. The designs had some technical issues and I ended up having to do some major revisions. One of the things about embroidery is that it is difficult to get very small lettering to sew well. The needle has to penetrate the fabric so many times in such close proximity. At any rate, the lettering of all the recipes on the cocktail towels was not crisp and clear and the back of the towel embroidery was not up to my standards. So I redid all the lettering myself. It ended up being quite a job between the redo of the lettering and the hour per towel it took to actually sew them out. But I think the result was quite stunning. I used dowels inserted into flower foam oasis to make the presentation basket 3 dimensional standing up in a pretty basket. A little sparkly crinkle and a pretty bow finished the look.

I have been so busy with website additions and learning this new thing called pinterest that I have not added any content here for quite a while. Shame Shame since this is such a good venue to discuss in length the intricate details. Yes, a photo is worth a thousand words, but a few words are useful too. It is a little late for a new year's resolution, but I offer it anyway. As for pinterest, I hope you follow me there and when you see something you like on one of my pinterest boards or any pinterest board, enjoy it and pin it to your own collection of things you like. Initial Impressions on Pinterest