Work-a-thon 2011!

Since we signed the contract on our house yesterday I instituted an immediate work-a-thon to get my customer work out of the way (so that I could then move on to the next stress)!! I think I did 8 shirts today and 6 – 8 yesterday. I’m down to 12 or 13 I think and hope to get them all done in the next day or two. We will then focus on WHERE IN THE HAY ARE WE MOVING? So, next week we will either have a house we will hopefully move in to when we close on April 22 (out of here by April 25), or we may do the apartment scene (for as few months as possible) until we can find something. We really don’t want to do that, but don’t want to just buy something out of panic! We have a house in mind we want to buy, but the owners are house shopping this weekend one last time and we will find out Sunday if they are going to sell to us. My house was cleaned today so I got kinda sad and wondered if we were doing the right thing! I know we are, but still get a little seller’s remorse!! My kids are running around like crazy right now (at 8:42 pm) so I KNOW we’re doing the right thing. Sometimes my house gets very very very small!!

Here is a shirt I did today, and THE HOOP GOT ME!! It happens once in a blue moon where the hoop is just too tight, and when it snapped in place I was questioning whether or not I made a hole. I went ahead with the shirt and sure enough, when I unhooped… HOLE! Luckily my customer just happened to be going to Target today and she was able to bring me another one to do while she waited. It happens! 🙁 On the new one I also put the name underneath and it showed up better, so it all worked out! These are the Cherokee girl toddler tees from Target and they are really cute! BTW I tried to fabric glue the hole to give to my customer so her daughter could at least wear it in the back yard, but somehow got HNBL on the back of the shirt, so it ended up in the trash!

Just a closeup of the AC Butterfly I did to match a bubblegum pink skort. My customer brought me all kinds of cute cotton plain (probably inexpensive) skorts to match. I need to go get some for Mallory because the “outfits” all turned out so cute with the applique tees! I believe they came from Walmart, Target and Kohls.

Here is the AC Tiara Frog which is going with a hot pink skort.

Here are all the tees (with matching skorts) I did for Madeline! AC Flower in the middle!

And here are all the tees I did for Lucy! AC Tiara, Simple Bunny and Mermaid! My customer mentioned hot pink hair for the mermaid and I wasn’t so sure about it, but I love how it turned out with the dot fabric! Who says mermaids are blond or brunette!

Lastly I did these tanks to match the Kohl’s skorts. The left one is light pink and I used the zig zag double circle; petal patch on the right. I get asked a lot what the petal patch font is and it is from Embroidery Arts ~ Empire. It’s a little more expensive than some websites, but it is one of my go-to fonts. It stitches perfectly every time! The sun was shining a little too bright!

Check out Whimsical Fabrics on Facebook ~ they have an Etsy store and have some really cute Riley Blake fabrics. You can convo them for smaller amounts (less than 1 yard)! I love the Riley Blake Quite Contrary fabrics, and there is also a CUTE Sugar & Spice green & pink striped fabric that I’ve never seen. They are trying to reach 1,000 fans so if you “like” them, tell them AC sent you! It’s a tight race between me and Applique Alley as to who can send the most fans! 🙂

I’m working on my Linens & Boxwoods post. I got the pictures we took Monday and they are fabulous! Here is a sneak peak of one…

You may be wondering why we had a photo shoot of us drinking coffee? I will explain when I post! L&B is also doing a post on me and Applique Cafe, so I will link that one in too! It’ll all make more sense! 😉 Until then you can wonder!! The fabulous pictures were taken by Grace. She is a miracle worker! She is honestly fabulous and so artistic!!

Tomorrow is a new day! Amie & I are meeting for coffee in the morning and we are also looking at 2 houses (me & Jeff, that is) after school. Have a great weekend and be on the lookout for my next post!

Comments

  1. I hate that the hole from the hoop occurred, but I am SO glad to hear that I am not the only person that happens too occasionally!

  2. Thank you so much for showing your mistake! Just last night I had to throw away a baby blanket I was putting an applique on because I moved the cloth in the hoop. IN THE GARBAGE! I felt so defeated but now realize it is just a part of the learning process. I have decided that if you are going to applique you must just have a bunch of blank t-shirts on stand-by…and not fret over the mistakes but just move on. The t-shirts are adorable. You give me great ideas.
    Your picture is so cute….just looks like you are enjoying life. Great shot.
    Look forward to hearing from you again!

    • We all make mistakes!!! On another dress I did yesterday the excess fabric got caught in the redwork stitching (it was raggy). Luckily I was able to get it out! I’ve sewn wrong colors before, sewn tees together. It’s totally a learning process! 🙂

    • Don’t throw those blankets and towels away that have mistakes!!! Take them to the humane society, they would love to have them for the dogs and cats. Or, to the petshops that bathe pets. I don’t throw away, I try to find a place that would like to have them. And, consider this, everytime you make a mistake, it goes into a file in your head, and it is rare the same mistake happens again, and, if you are giving the project away, it does double duty!!

  3. JamieB-Sew Much Drama says

    Love all your designs and I love the new combo sets with the shorts you just did! LOVE!!!

  4. Congrats on the house! Your shirts look amazing! Love them with the skorts!

  5. Can you tell me what brand the shorts are with the ruffle bottom? I LOVE them?

  6. Can you tell me where you bought the polka dot fabric you used for the flower shirt? It is so cute!

  7. Kathy Smith says

    What fabric did you use on the butterfly — that is absolutely adorable! I live in central Florida, and we do not have any good fabric stores close by so I have to order online.