Happy New Year!

For special savings on my Fancy Jumbles Complete Set click here
and order by Friday, January 9, 2009.

     When I first created my Fancy Jumbles alphabets, I had my
water bottle caddy project in mind.  Read on to learn how I created
the alphabet and to see where to find the instructions for the water
bottle caddy.

     At my college reunion in 2002, I told my former art professor --
let's call him Mr. W. -- about the amazing new embroidery digitizing
software I was learning to use.  He enjoys traveling so I thought a
water bottle caddy would be the perfect setting for a sample of
digitizing.  I have been making water bottle caddies since 1998 and
knew they were well received as gifts.

     This design needed to be special!  I had the idea of overlapping
letters with different fill patterns, and created his name as a single
embroidery design.  Here is a picture of this early effort.  Mr. W.
was very pleased with his gift.



     After digitizing just a few more names in this manner, I realized I
was reinventing the wheel -- and the "a" and the "b" and the "c" and
so forth.  It would be more efficient, in the long run, to create
designs of each letter in a number of fill patterns, and then to
combine the letters via a customizing program.  At first I digitized
just the letters I needed for specific names.  Friends who also
embroider encouraged me to create a complete set of these Fancy
Jumbles for sale.  It took a while to digitize all the characters in all
the fill patterns, but in July 2007 I was ready for my alphabets to
debut at Ann the Gran.

     Here are some water bottle caddies I embroidered with the
"official" Fancy Jumbles alphabets.  The letters are smaller to allow
longer names to fit in common hoop sizes.  You may notice that I
now prefer to arrange the letters in a fairly straight line.  See the
"How to Jumble" guide included in the information download for
more suggestions.

     My instructions for making the water bottle caddy were
published in the July/August 2003 issue of Designs in Machine
Embroidery.  I recently learned that reprints of the article can be
purchased here.  I drafted a new pattern for the quart size
Nalgene(R) bottle, since that size has become very popular.  Both
patterns are available here, but I do recommend following the
instructions for best results.  See pattern for fabric requirements
for the large caddy.  (One note:  the width of the casing for
the drawstring should be 3/4" rather than 3/8".)

     With temperatures near zero degrees in much of the country, it's
hard to think about summer accessories like water bottle caddies. 
Warmer weather will be here before we know it so now is the time
to start our summer sewing projects.  Readers in southern states and
south of the equator may be ready for them now!