Archives for September 2012

I don’t run…

Posted by on September 20, 2012

Happy Wednesday (almost Thursday but the time I get this posted…)! Most of you know that I do a little (itty bitty teeny weeny) bit of customer work. A few years ago I was up to my eyeballs in customer work. I lived off of Starbucks (well, that hasn’t changed) and would sometimes stay up to all hours of the night doing embroidery (on the dining room table). Jeff used to have to grab my shoulders and shake me, hide bags of work from me, etc. in order to avert a potential nervous breakdown. When we sold our house and moved I had a great excuse to slow down, and have tried to keep a slow pace ever since. I just don’t have time to do a whole lot. BUT… every now & then I get an order and LOVE the outcome, so it keeps me inspired to continue to do a little customer work. I also think it’s good for me to stay in touch with our Applique Cafe customers, since most of them are also doing customer work! I can relate!!

Typically my customers bring “stuff” to me to do (dresses, shirts, etc.). This customer made a trip to Belk b/c this was all J. Khaki brand and all super cute! She wanted Owl 4 or 5 on this dress, and while the colors scared me (how was I going to find anything to match these colors??) it ALL came together! First I found the lime & turquoise dot fabric which looks like it was made to match this dress. The wings fabric also matched great and I tied in the orange with the feet, beak and flower. I was pleased with how this turned out! Dress – click HERE! This is our Owl 5.

Don’t all rush out to Belk at once!

 Belk also has some super cute ruffle bottom blank shirts. Here I did the Flower Peace Sign. My customer also left pants for me to match. I’ve always loved orange, hot pink and turquoise together!

 Basically I picked the colors out that would work (from the pants) and then went with polka dots since they “go” with most anything, including these stripes and florals. Patterns go with stripes, but if you try to mix different patterns together it sometimes can be too busy. Polka dots are safe with patterns and stripes! Groovy little outfit! Isn’t the shirt cute? It does come to a slight “V” in the front (bottom).

 I also did this shirt for Christmas on the same white ruffle J. Khaki tee. This is our JOY design. Kind of makes me ready for Christmas DESIGNS!! I said DESIGNS, not Christmas-Christmas.

Lastly I did our Pumpkin 6 to match a Kelly’s Kids lime tulle skirt. This is Monogram Wizard Plus “Master Circle” font. If you have MWP and do not have this font, get it.

 Now to the “I don’t run” part. Saturday was the 2nd annual Virginia’s Run 5K and 1 mile fun run event. This event is put on by our school, and is a race to honor the memory of Virginia Jacks. She was a 17 year old student (and also a member of our church) who was killed in a car accident leaving an Auburn game 2 years ago. I did not know Virginia at the time, but have learned so much about her in the past 2 years and also spent some time this summer doing a bible study with her parents. She was such a unique and special young lady who loved the Lord! I think it’s wonderful to honor her in this way and I think it’s so important for my children to participate in this race.

Most of you know that Applique Cafe has an applique design from some of Virginia’s original artwork ~ Virginia’s Cross. All proceeds from the sale of this design go to Virginia’s Run, as Applique Cafe has been a sponsor both years of the race. Here’s the Gulledge fam before the 1 mile fun run. Jeff ran the 5K and then we all did the fun run together, or should I say they ran and Mallory & I ran/walked. I hate to exercise! I’m approaching 40 and really really really NEED to exercise more, but basically I’m not a huge fan. Someone told me Saturday that I “looked” like I was a runner. I guess it was the new tennis shoes and outfit I had on? I fooled them! I. don’t. run. Jeff, on the other hand, usually runs at least 3 miles a day.

This year we sponsored the race day registration as well as pre-race nourishment.

 This was a shot at the post-race awards ceremony. Hundreds of people were there! What a fabulous way to remember Virginia! One of the many reasons why I love our school!!

 Mal got her face painted and she’s sporting a t-shirt her mama made her the night before. It’s Virginia’s Cross on our Circle Patch (5×7 patch and 4×4 cross). This was a Target Circo t-shirt that had the cute little pocket on the front. I’ve always been told HOW EASY it is to remove a pocket, so I thought I’d give it a try. Short sleeve tees are hard to come by this time of year. I did manage 1 hole in the shirt and tried to cover it with the patch, but no such luck. I glued it with fabric glue and it’s hardly noticeable with the stabilizer and comfort cover on the back! It’s at about 2:00 on the shirt right on the edge of the patch.

 It was a great day and I got a little exercise. For realz, I am turning 40 next weekend and something is going to have to give! Everyone is now WAY younger than me and I’ve got to make a move. Maybe with the cooler weather I can at least get out and walk?

I hope everyone has a great week/weekend! I listed 5 new designs at AC yesterday and we have more new ones coming out soon ~ lots on our Christmas list!

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Crab Legs

Posted by on September 11, 2012

Happy Tuesday! I’m feeling much less stressed since my last post. I was able to leave town Friday morning and head south for a party-of-8 weekend beach trip with my bunko gals. I have been playing bunko with a group of girls for the past 14 or so years. A lot of girls have come and gone, but there’s a core group of us who have gotten married together and had kids, all while meeting once a month to roll some dice! We went to Destin this year and had a great time and the weather was outstanding! Saturday night I decided to order “Shrimp & Crab Legs” because it sounded good and I didn’t want fried shrimp and french fries. Oh my! When they brought out the bib I realized I might be in trouble. I did wear the bib (since I burned a hole in my dress earlier that night with an iron and wore it anyway) and my poor friends sitting next to me needed bibs too! I did have to pick crab meat out of Amy’s hair at one point. Anyway it was really yummy even though I had no idea what I was doing. A trip to the bathroom afterwards was in order (to wash hands)… BTW we ate at Poppy’s in Baytowne Wharf. This photo doesn’t show the plate of crab legs 5″ high when they brought it out to me.

 

 We came back Sunday afternoon and that’s when I kicked in to high gear and cleaned/organized/did laundry so that I could start the week Monday without a mess. To me, having a clean house and being organized means less stress. I’m trying to work on a “schedule” so I can work 2-3 days a week, still get my errands done and not have my head spin every afternoon after school. It’s a work in progress! I’ve been doing this since 2007 and still haven’t figured it out… I’m making lists and just trying to get everything done! I won’t mention that the sink is full of dishes and the counter is full of the days errands….

Here are some AC designs I did last week on onesies that were sent to me by a customer. This is our Owl 2 design which I love! I love all owls! The dot is a Riley Blake fabric (Multi Good Dots – great colors) and the gingham is Fabric Finders (1/8″ I think). The cord is just a good celery “baby whale” cord (I think??).

This is where Sew What Pro comes in handy! This is the patch from the Football Patch design and the megaphone from the Megaphone Square Patch design. These are both Robert Kaufman dot fabrics I’ve had forever (and use a ton). Font – Monogram Wizard Plus “Kim Single”.

 Here’s the Zig Zag Turkey design. I’m not sure what this fabric is? I want to say Riley Blake but I might be wrong! Zig Zag designs are super easy and a little faster than satin. I recommend you use Heat N Bond Lite when doing ZZ designs so your fabric doesn’t fray.

 I get told a lot “I’m new to embroidery/I just got my machine/What do I do?/Where do I start?” While I would love to take time to walk each and every newbie through the process on 28 different machines, it’s just not possible. The best thing I can tell someone who is new to this is a) there is a thread chart in each zip file that shows you each step in the design. It’s that simple. b) put a super simple 1 fabric design on your machine (there are several in our Design on a Dime category), hoop a scrap piece of fabric or some cutaway stabilizer and just try it out. You’ll be amazed at how fast it will *click* in your brain and all make sense! If you mess up, I’d be willing to bet you will learn from it. Get another scrap or piece of stabilizer and try it again! c) read my blog, specifically Helpful Posts. When I started out, I had my machine and it’s manual. There were no blogs and I didn’t have anyone to email or call for help. I bought a font applique alphabet, put a letter on my machine and figured it out! I promise it will click in your head. Just remember that for each fabric there are 3 steps:

marking (shows you where the fabric should go)

tackdown (tacks that fabric down, then you trim)

satin (finishing stitch around the fabric – could be satin, zig zag, etc)

So 3 steps for each fabric in the design. Then factor in eyes, mouth, feet, etc. that might be just thread! Some designs sew marking, tackdown, satin all in that order for each fabric. Some sew marking and tackdown for all fabrics, then satin for all at the end. Both ways can be right so just look at the thread chart and figure it out! OR, try Sew What Pro. I pull up each and every design in SWP so that I can *SEE* it. I can click on each step to see what’s next! Check out Helpful Posts for some posts on SWP and what the screen looks like.

Have a great week!

Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Design, Fabric, Misc | Tagged: Tagged With: , ,

Life…

Posted by on September 7, 2012

This is what my life has been like since school started (see the mess below). I think in my last post (or in my head…) I said that “when school starts I’ll have so much more time!” Wrong. My day begins at 6:30 when I throw on some shorts, get the boys up and ready, pack snacks, brush teeth and hair, throw some breakfast their way and we are out the door by 7:05 (NOT 7:10). Drop them off then head back home (with Mallory). Feed her, dress her, make her lunch, shower and get myself ready. She goes to school at 9:00 and then from 9-12:15 I look like the below. Running from place to place piling stuff in my car, eating Chick Fil A from here to there. Living off Frapaccinos. I pick the boys up at 12:30, then Mal at 1:00 and we head home to feed the boys lunch, do homework, etc. Then it’s time to check email, Facebook (ALL Applique Cafe of course) and TRY to get some work done with 53 interruptions and an hour of checking homework and listening to B whine about having to do homework. Next thing I know it’s dinner time, soccer practice or something. THEN it’s bath time, bedtime and by 10:00 I’m exhausted and go to bed knowing I get to do it all over again the next day! When does this end? Please don’t say ‘never’…. did I mention laundry?

I did manage to get a baby-on-the-way order done last week, or the week before. I can’t remember. All the weeks are running together. I strung ribbon in between columns on my front porch so I could display them all cute for my post! This is the Applique Cafe Tree Truck, Puppy Stocking and Turkey 2 design, all found at Applique Cafe of course. Font = MWP Tipsy.

Below… App Cafe Golf Ball and Golf Green design on each side. The Airplane ~~~ another site I don’t remember?? It’ll come to me in my sleep tonight! It’s a design I’ve had f-o-r-e-v-e-r!! Font: MWP Tipsy and Library.

And… App Cafe Puppy Patch, Football Goal and then the Circle Applique Alphabet from Applique Market. Michael Archer font: MWP Library.

I’ve done a similar baby gift for this customer and she “strings” all of the items up at the baby shower. Super cute and how fun for the mom!! (Note: the bibs are from a local children’s boutique and the burps are from Embroiderthis.com – 4×6 ply. The onesies and romper are from jiffyshirts.com ~ Apples and Oranges brand.)

I did 9 onesies this week and will post a picture of a few of those next post, which will hopefully be next week! Have a great weekend!

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