AnnTheBlogger : alphabets

. . . and a good time was had by all!

AnnTheGran — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:46:00 GMT

I’m not going to dwell on the fabulous lunch that we Central Florida machine embroiderers enjoyed a week and a half ago. Well, I MAY dwell on it, because it WAS fabulous. First of all, there were 24 of us, including four husbands, two of whom are into machine embroidery. You can find lots of pictures here. There were SO many projects. We’re such a talented bunch! We decided we need to do this again soon and we really do need a sleep-over in order to get better acquainted and have more time to share projects and expertise. One of the items on our agenda, choosing a charity project, we never did get to, so we’re discussing it in the forum and will choose sometime definite soon. If any of you have any suggestions, we’d be glad to hear them. Although all of us embroider, only some of us sew, so that will be a consideration.

How’s this for a conversation (pre-luncheon)?

CFME #1: I went to Florida State/
CFME #2: So did I. I was in the School of Education and I graduated in 1965.
CFME #1: I was in the School of Education, too, and I graduated in 1965!
CFME #2: Well, I lived in Florida Hall.
CFME #1: So did I! I lived on the 6^th floor.
CFME #2: I lived on the 6^th floor, too!
CFME #1: Wow! I can’t wait until our luncheon. I’ll bet we recognize each other!

Well, we didn’t recognize each other, but it was still a pretty spectacular coincidence and we did have lots of fun reminiscing about curfews and dress codes and lots of other things that the current residents of Florida Hall have never even heard of! Were those the “good old days?” You betcha!

I hope you’re all now inspired, both for projects and to get your local machine embroidering buddies together!

Now I lay me
I received several comments about the sampler my mother embroidered while she was waiting for the birth of my brother. Some asked that the verse be digitized, but I think this is something you all can do for yourselves. The original sampler is about 20" x 30", not something we could do on our machines, but the text is certainly easy enough. The text on the sampler is in cross stitch, but ny text that you have in Alphabet XPress, your machines or your digitizing software will do the trick for you. I'm not particularly fond of the "If I should die before I wake" part. I think it's a little scary for little ones. So I Googled the first line and came up with this. Lots of interesting information about the little prayer, as well as some not so scary alternatives for the text. I'm partial to this one:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
Guard me while I sleep tonight,
And wake me safe at dawn's first light.

Goody New-shoes

I know we've all heard the term "goody two-shoes" and some of us have even used it. The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes is a children's story by an anonymous author, published in 1765. The story is the origin of the popular phrase "goody two-shoes," often used to describe an excessively or annoyingly virtuous person. In more recent years, the phrase has developed a more negative connotation, implying that the virtuousness of a "goody two-shoes" is insincere. In any case, this is a different story about two new shoes. We never know what little thing we do will have a great impact. While I was in Kentucky we, DD, DSIL, DGS and I, drove into Indiana to an outlet mall. I managed to collect airline miles in several stores. It was a tough job but, hey, Bill and I like to travel and someone has to collect the miles. By the end of the day Reed was getting cranky, and justifiably so, hungry and tired as he was. Our last stop was at the Stride-Rite outlet store. Jen and Steve were looking at new sneaks for Reed and Reed was whining that he didn't WANT new shoes. Eventually, however, he did spot a pair that he liked. His parents were going to get a different, less expensive pair. In proud grandma fashion I took the shoes that Reed preferred, saying, "Oh, let me get him the pair he wants," and marched them to the register. When we got home, Reed took the shoes out of the box and found that he could put them on all by himself. He took them off and put them on and walked around preening. Jen said that she wouldn't be surprised if he took them to bed with him. I told her that I once knew a little girl who slept with her first pair of patent leather Mary Janes. Reed asked everyone he saw, “Do you want to see me put on my shoes all by myself?” and they all did. I don’t know if he slept with them, but those shoes were definitely the hit of my visit. As you can see, they’re wonderfully splendid shoes. For a wonderfully splendid boy.

Got letters?
I love digitizing alphabet letters, but I know that individual alphabet letters can be difficult to work with. Here are a few tips that I include with my Alphabets in our online store:

When you have a set of alphabet letters that you use frequently to spell out words or phrases, take the time to set up a “design” that includes ALL the letters, numbers and punctuation from that set by importing them one at a time. (Fig 1a) It takes fewer than 5 minutes. If the letters in a set are large, you may have to set up separate files for the capitals and lower case letters. Don’t worry about having the letters overlap each other, as long as you can see them, or overlapping the edges of the hoop. Save this file, even though you may receive an error message telling you that you will not be able to stitch the design. After all, you have no intention of stitching the design! Some digitizing and editing programs lock all the objects together when you save a design. This tip won’t work with those programs.
The next time you want to use some of those letters start a new file, and reduce the view to 50%. Then import the file you had previously saved and immediately move it over to the side. From there it’s a simple matter to drag the letters you want to use, duplicating as necessary, into the hoop and then delete the ones you won’t be using this time. Another minute or two to align the letters and you’re nearly finished. The last step is to correct the stitching order so that the letters stitch from left to right.
If the letters have small jumps between them that may be difficult to clip, assign different colors to the odd and even numbered letters, forcing the machine to stop and cut the thread after each letter. (This trick works with keyboard lettering, too.)
Letters, even in the same set, are of varying sizes. If you change the size of the letters, increase or decrease by a percentage rather than to a size. This will insure that your letters maintain the same aspect ratio.
Different letters stitch out in different ways. For example a letter “l” will increase at both ends while being stitched while a letter “o” will draw up. When you’re aligning letters, align to the middle rather than to the bottom or top.
If you’re setting up a phrase of more than one line of text, have the second line stitch from right to left, the third line from left to right and so on. This will avoid that long jump thread between rows. A long jump thread can catch the foot of your machine and throw the design out of registration or become buried in the next row of stitches and be difficult or impossible to trim neatly

Help me out here . . . please
Believe it or not, sometimes I'm speechless. I love writing my blog, but sometimes I just don't know what to say. You can help me out by telling me what kinds of things you want me to write about. Once you get me started, I'm sure I can fill pages and pages!

Well, I'm off to greet August. How did it get here so fast? TTYL,

Ann

Fathers and Dads and Daddies and Grandpas and Poppies, oh my!

AnnTheGran — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:06:00 GMT

This one's for you, Daddy
When I was small we didn't have a lot of money. Sometimes I don't think we had any. As time went on my parents incomes improved. But they didn't really change their lifestyle very much. Oh, the year I left for college they did carpet my bedroom (which had become my sister's room) and installed central air conditioning. But basically they lived the same simple kind of life they always had. They were saving for their retirement. In 1980 my father fulfilled his dream by moving to a golf club community in Wildwood, Florida. The children and I followed soon after, which is how I ended up in Orlando. Eighteen months later I held my father's hand as he breathed his last breath. All that saving and planning and he barely had a chance to enjoy it.

I think of my father almost every day, but especially on March 5, which was his birthday, and on Fathers' Day. It's probably a Southern thing for grown women to still call their fathers "Daddy" and I did that terrible day and I will always think of my father as Daddy. I was thinking of him as I worked on the Fathers' Day project here. He never did get to meet his great grandchildren. He would have gotten such a kick out of them!

A year after my father died I met Bill, and a year after that Bill and I were married. What a prince of a man to marry a woman with two teenagers! Bill became the father my children needed and is the only grandfather their children have ever known. I think about him on Fathers' Day, too, and this project is for him.

Grandpa's All Stars
This isn't a difficult project, but you do need some embroidery software, some graphics software, printable fabric and a printer. I used Alphabet XPress, PE-design, Photoshop, Bubble Jet Set, satin fabric, a Canon printer and KK 2000 temporary embroidery adhesive. You can use any kind of printable fabric, available at many craft and fabric stores. I just happened to have prepared fabric with Bubble Jet Set a long time ago and really needed to begin using it.

Create your lettering
I used Alphabet XPress with the alphabets Athlete and String Bean (string Bean is included with Alphabet XPress). First I created "ALL STARS" and saved the file. Then I created "Grandpa's," imported the ALL STARS file, lined them up the way I wanted them and saved that file.

Assemble the design
You need some stars and I know just where to find them! Go to the Celestial Page on the Free Designs section. Download the 4th design in the 6th row. When you unzip the file you'll find a bunch of stars. Choose the one that's a satin stitch outline.

Open the saved lettering in your embroidery digitizing or editing software. Import or merge the star and duplicate as many times as you need for the All Stars in your family. You may have to reduce the size to fit them all in. If so, be sure to use the method that corrects the stitch count. Arrange the stars in a way that is pleasing to your eye.

When all the stars are arranged, draw a running stitch just inside the border of each star. If you're smarter than I was you'll do this for the first star you import or merge and then duplicate and arrange both parts. I was about half way through before I realized that I could, or should , have done it this way to save some time. Use a color that you can see. Those will be the placement lines for the appliqués. Of course you don't want to stitch the alignment lines on top of the satin stitch and you don't want to stitch them in block, or whatever contrasting color you used so that you could see what you were doing when you drew them. So the next step is to rearrange the design parts, putting the placement lines before the satin stitches and changing the color to match.

I've used garnet and gold, the colors of my alma mater, Florida State University (Go, Noles!). Of course you'll use whatever colors you like, even orange and blue if you really must.

Create your stars
After you've saved the design, save it again with a different name (so you don't shoot yourself in the foot and overwrite the design you've just created). Now delete every part of the design except the running stitch placement lines. Change the color of the lines to black. Print this design. It will be your template to create the stars and your pattern to cut them out.

I'm afraid you're going to have to be on your own as far as creating the pictures. Your graphics software and your ability to use it will vary. This is the way I did it in Photoshop and the same way you would do it in PaintShop Pro, Photoshop Elements or Corel PhotoPaint. I scanned the printout 1:1 so that the stars would be the correct size. Then I used the magic wand tool to select the inside of the first star.You'll know it's selected when you see the "running ants" around the perimeter.I dropped a photo on it and resized the photo until I could see most of the face. Then I pasted the photo down and erased the part that wasn't inside the star. I did this by reversing the mask (selected area) and deleting. I repeated this for each star. I had to be careful that when I resized the photos no parts of them were overlapping other photos. When I was finished, I printed the page on the fabric I had prepared.

Time to stitch!
Now comes the really easy part. First iron the fabric onto some light weight fusible stabilizer of interfacing. This is just to give it some body so it will be easy to cut and so that the edges won't fray. Now cut out your stars, spray the backs with temporary embroidery adhesive and put them aside. Hoop the t-shirt or whatever you're going to put the design on. Some dads don't or won't wear t-shirts so you might want to make a pillow or wall hanging instead. Turn on your machine and load the design. When you come to the place where you've just stitched the placement lines, stop and put your fabric stars in place. The temporary embroidery adhesive will hold them down. If you have to remove the hoop, be sure to take it off and put it back on very carefully so you don't knock the design out of alignment. Now finish stitching. That's about it. I'll bet you can come up with several variations on this theme, Mom's School Bus with the children's faces in the windows, Grandma's garden with the faces in flower centers, etc. If you do, I'd love to see pictures.

Now, turn off your computers and sew something! Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads and granddads in your families! TTYL

Ann

Great Embroidery Mysteries - The Case of the Messy Alphabet

AnnTheGran — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:08:00 GMT

Digitizing Mystery

I began digitizing alphabets eight or nine years ago. I like doing it and I take a lot of pride in my work. You can imagine how distressed I was when I began receiving a few messages telling me that the capital and lower case letter "A' was appearing as a big mess in their various software programs. Because it wasn't happening to me in Catalog Xpress, I was at a loss for both an explanation and a solution. I did suggest several solutions and always at least one of them would work. And still I didn't know what caused the trouble or what the solution could be.

Case Closed

Finally I did get an explanation from someone who sounded very confident in her answer. I don't really understand it, but apparently when some software programs see the letter "A" they look for the rest of the alphabet, and if those files use the same naming convention then the program does us a big favor and piles all the letters on top of each other in the letter "A" design. Of course, this is NOT a favor that we want. Even though I don't quite understand it, this explanation led me to the simple solution: Change the name of the letter "A" files. You can see the process below:

If this happens to you, find the file in Windows Explorer, right click on it, select "rename" and type in the new name. This will work 100% of the time! (BTW, if you want the cross stitch Sherlock above, you'll find him in the Cross Stitch Category in the Free Designs section.)

Gadget Gabbery
I admit it, I'm a gal who lurves her gadgets. I'm also a gal who doesn't like to carry a large, or any for that matter, purse. I'd been lusting after a new cell phone for a long time. I was eligible for an upgrade and knew just which one I wanted. Finally the last straw came when I wanted to put an appointment in my PDA and it was dead as a doornail. I'd had the PDA for a long time and it didn't have a replaceable battery. I guess it had had its last recharge. So, I bit the bullet and got the phone I wanted. Now I can keep my cell phone, my PDA and my brag book in my back pocket. I could have put my music on there, too, but I didn't want to run down the battery listening to music when my iPod is so tiny and will play for hours and hours before needing a re-charge. It will also fit in my other back pocket.

Make A Soldier's Day
Which brings me to the next topic. We've got a box full of old cell phones. Often when I receive a package from amazon.com there's a plastic envelope in it as a way to send unused cell phones to soldiers so they can call home and talk to their families. Postage is free and it's a good feeling when you drop the envelope in the mail. If you don't shop at amazon.com, or haven't received one of these envelopes, click on the picture on the right to find and print a postage paid mailing label.

Reality Bytes
Last night something really special happened on America's Next Top Model (no comments from the peanut gallery, please). A normal (read size 10) young woman took the title and will appear in a 6 page spread in July's Seventeen magazine. Kudos to both the program and the magazine for showing our daughters and grand daughters that they don't have to be twigs to be beautiful. You can bet I'm getting a subscription for my 15 year old practically perfect grand daughter and will send a copy of the spread to my two practically perfect soon to be 12 year old grand daughters. I don't think they're ready for a subscription yet, do you? Oh, I hope not . . .

Wrapping up
Welcome to the blogosphere, Cathy and Pat. I see you're both already getting lots of response on your blogs. It's nice to have some company in here!

Can't think of anything else, so TTFN,

Ann

Embroidered Hot Cup Wraps

atgadmin — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:59:00 GMT

I know you are all waiting patiently (or if you’re like me maybe not so patiently) for more on the great time with at the AnnTheGran Community Circle 2008 in Orlando. We’re ironing out the final details so please just hold on a few more days. Some of you have been asking about the hotel; I can't give that information out until we get everything finalized, or the hotel will have a deluge of calls they don't know how to handle. Also, I've had a fair few gents tear a strip off me for addressing all my correspondence to the "gals". A recent survey showed that 97% of our site's users are women (does that mean I can tell my husband I'm right 97% of the time?), but for all you fellas out there who make up the other 3%, I stand corrected! Old habits die as hard as old broads.

In the meantime, while you wait in anticipation, we had so many requests for Diane’s hot cup wraps from last week's promotion that we decided we should share her secrets with you all. Fun gifts that are easy to make and can be given for no reason at all are always popular. Aside from being cute, this wrap is reusable so it is helpful to the environment. Whether you make just two or a whole bunch, you’re sure to get a giggle from each and every recipient.

Diane's Description
I was trying to think of a fun little gift for the girls in my morning study class when one morning a couple of them walked in grumbling that the local coffee store was out of jackets and their cups were too hot to handle. In the same class they got their cups mixed up and didn’t know which was which. That gave me the idea for these personalized wraps.

Step-by-step Description
1. You’ll need:
a. A 6”X12” rectangle of fashion fabric for the front.
b. A 6”X12” rectangle of fashion fabric for the lining.
c. A 6”X12” rectangle of leftover batting (Hobbs warm and natural type works best)
d. An alphabet, font software or embroidery design of your choice. One collection that is absolutely fabulous for this project is the Mornings collection, from Amazing Designs.
e. Matching embroidery thread.
f. Tear away stabilizer
g. One paper coffee jacket
2. Carefully cut the coffee jacket down one seam. Fold in half. Fold all three rectangles in half so they are 6”X6” and place you pattern on top so the folded edge of the jacket is lined up with the folded edge of the fabrics.
3. Trace adding ¼” on the 3 sides (not on the folded edge). Cut one wrap piece each from front fabric, lining fabric and batting.
4. Using whatever method you like center your design or text on the front wrap piece. Hoop fabric with the stabilizer and embroidery the design. Remove the stabilizer.
5. Baste the batting to the wrong side of the lining. With scissors trim the batting close to the stitching line.
6. Pin front and lining right sides together. Using ¼” seam stitch along both long sides and one short side. With pinking sheers or a rotary cutter and pinking blade, pink close to the seam.
7. Turn the wrap right side out and press.
8. Fold the raw ends of the open side in ¼” and edge-stitch along the fold.
9. Fold in half with right sides together. Align the ends and stitch a ¼” seam. Press this seam open. Top-stitch ¼” in along top and bottom catching the opened seam at the top and bottom. (You can edge-stitch or tack the open back seam down if you like – I did not.)
Note: Add some trim to the bottom if you like for even more giggles from your friends.

What makes this project special?
It’s fun to gift small gifts that are easy to make and provide laughs as this one did when I took a special one for each member of the group.

Skill Level
Beginner

Products
My embroidery machine
AnnTheGran Alphabet Xpress
AnnTheGran tear-away stabilizer
embroidery threads
fabric

Time Investment
About 4 hours once all the supplies were gathered. (But I made more than one.)

Why I love this project so much
It was different and useful and gave the girls something to giggle about. My 3- year old granddaughter had to have one too - with her name on it – and she doesn’t even like hot drinks.

Send Us Your Creations
Do you have any creations that go with a great story? If so, we'd love to hear about them, and see them! If we choose to post your project, you'll get a free $25 gift certificate to use in the AnnTheGran.com online store. Click here for details on how to submit your creation.

What Would You Do?
This is a great way to make a quick, personalized gift. Share some of your favorite sayings and quotes or a project idea that gave you the giggles, by clicking on the Comments link to share your story.

Framed Letters for a Personalized Nursery

atgadmin — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:29:00 GMT

For Diane Brown, embroidery started as a hobby to get away from all the stress of her job as a bank compliance officer. It didn’t take long, however, for her obsession to blossom into a new career. For a number of years she has been working behind the scenes in the development of software and embroidery designs that are fun and easy-to use. Creating embroidery software learning tools and fun projects that inspire creativity is her specialty. “Embroidery should always, always be fun” is Diane’s motto.

Using embroidery to make whole rooms come to life has become a real passion for Diane. Themed nurseries are her favorite, although she loves creating comfortable accessories for every room in the house. These simple framed letters were inspired by some very expensive accents but were a fraction of the cost. They were fun to make and they match the nursery to a T.

Diane's Description
I gasped when my daughter showed me some stamped, framed jumbo letters in a very popular magazine and said she would love to have them for the new baby’s nursery. But the price was astronomical. So, we used AnnTheGran’s Jumbo Alphabet, scraps from the nursery quilt, hand cut mats from cardstock and some simple white frames from the local discount store.

Step-by-step
1. Cut 4 8”X10” rectangles from fabrics of your choice. Spray starch your fabric if desired as this will help give you a professional finish.
2. Hoop fabric with a heavy weight stabilizer (tearaway or cut away should work fine). To be sure it is centered fold the fabric in half and finger crease both vertically and horizontially.
3. Choose threads that contrast with the fabric. Just a tip: I always use the same color thread in my bobbin as in the top when I do any type of lettering. Embroider the letters that you need. Cut the stabilizer even with the edges of the fabric.
4. Cut a piece of cardboard the size you want your mat opening to be. Use this as a template for cutting your mats. You can use precut mats if you like.
5. Place the mat face down on your work surface. Center the letter in the opening and glue the fabric front to the mat back. I left the stabilizer on and glued the edges of it down to the fabric as well.
6. Place the matted letters in the frame.
7. Note: If you have software you can resize these letters to 6” tall and then for all but the widest letters they fit perfectly in a 5X7 mat or frame.

What makes this project special?
I love being a grandmother and being able to make things that are loved by my daughters. It is fun to see a whole room take shape and know that there is no one else with one just like it.

Skill Level
Beginner

Products
My embroidery machine
AnnTheGran Jumbo Alphabet
Stabilize It! heavy cut-away stabilizer
embroidery thread
fabric

Time Investment
Two to three hours once all the supplies were gathered.

Why You Love This Project
It was for Anna – my precious new baby granddaughter.

Send Us Your Creations
Do you have any creations that go with a great story? If so, I'd love to hear about them, and see them! If I choose to post your project, you'll get a free $25 gift certificate to use in the AnnTheGran.com online store. Click here for details on how to submit your creation.

What Would You Do?
Diane's passion is room decor, particularly themed nurseries. Do you have a particular passion or specialty at which you excel? Click on the Comments link to tell us your area of expertise.

Simple Baby Quilt for Cold Northern Winters

atgadmin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:33:00 GMT

Creating keepsakes for loved ones is such a joy for those who love to sew. With her simple blankets, Sue Kerlin shows us how she continues her love of giving to family even when life is too full for intricate details.

Sue's Description:
I picked this pattern of baby quilt because I am not a detail quilter. I was sent a picture of a quilt with "outside seams" and thought it looked easy enough. The effect it gives the quilt is inviting, warm, cozy and so soft, just perfect for a "northern winter" baby. I have sewn for years, but working full time and sewing, I have lost interest in real "detailed" items. In my book, this is a "simple" quilt.

Step-by-step:
I used blue and white checkered flannel for the squares that I embroidered, and a blue cloud flannel for the strips between. The small squares are a solid light blue. The larger squares are 10 inches and the stripes between are 5 inch by 10 inch pieces. The small squares are 5X5. You can determine the size of blocks by what size you want your blanket. I embroidered the larger blocks, using mostly patterns I got from AnnTheGran web site. To assemble, I used a 5/8th inch seam toward the front of each piece. After it was completely put together, I attached it to a fleece back that I also embroidered with name, date of birth, weight, and length. I also sent my love and signed the blanket with embroidery. Each of the little blocks are also tied to the fleece with doubled yarn knots with one inch pieces left. This holds it really solid for washing. On the front reversed seams, I clipped them about every inch. Each time it is washed, it becomes fuzzier and softer.

What makes this project special:
This was first made for my 3rd granddaughter, then for my first grandson. The granddaughter's theme was ducks, so I used them in the pieces between the embroidered blocks and ducks for some of the designs on the blocks. My grandson's theme was wild animals, so I changed the block size and did his a bit different and it was a little easier to do. It is so nice to have ultrasounds and know ahead of time what designs can be used. Notice the little boy with the side-ways hat is on both. That design fits the way their daddy looked when he was growing up, I am so glad we found it. I made different blankets for the first 2 granddaughters, but I liked the look of this so much that I made a full sized one out of denim and patterns that my 15 year old granddaughter could relate to for Christmas last year. The blocks of it were denim with flannel cat fabric between since she was called "kitten" by her uncle when she was little.

Skill level:
This is VERY simple. Centering the design in the middle is so easy, I folded it in quarters and chalked a dot for the middle. I then lined my embroidery hoop so the dot was in the center of it. Assembly is also easy. If you can sew a straight line, you can make the quilt, and I find it very relaxing to do.

Products:
I have a Brother PE-150, a small embroidery machine. I never thought I would use it as much as I have, but find it fun and a nice way to personalize things. I work full time, but hide out and play often in my special room.

Time Invested:
I have no idea. Each block took at least an hour, but while they are stitching, I also did other things with my regular machine, so time flew by. It was fun watching the different designs progress.

Why I love this project:
It was fun, not stressful at all and is a great keepsake for my grandbabies. They will always know I stitched it with love. The free patterns available at AnnTheGran.com are wonderful. If I would have had to pay for all of the designs I used, I simply could not have afforded to do it.

Send Us Your Creations
Do you have any creations that go with a great story? If so, we'd love to hear about them, and see them! If we choose to post your project, you'll get a free $25 gift certificate to use in the AnnTheGran.com online store. Click here for details on how to submit your creation.

What Would You Do?
Sue has found fun ways to keep on sewing even when life consists of a full time job and growing family. Click on the Comments link to tell us about your favorite stress free project or past-time.

Race Car Themed Quilt for "Big Boy Bed"

atgadmin — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:58:00 GMT

Every child's first birthday is exciting and every mother wants to create great memories of the event. This race car themed quilt was created by Gina Martinez to complete her son's graduation to a "Big Boy Bed" and give him a special birthday memory to cherish for years to come.

General Description
Hi, my name is Gena Martinez and I'm a Work at Home mom who makes diapers and slings and has just discovered the joy of quilting! For my son's first birthday, his daddy and I got him a race car bed. I made him a fun, personalized quilt to cover it! I love the way the quilt makes the car bed look complete - almost like the hood of his new race car!

Step-by-step Description
I quilted together squares of Disney's "Cars" printed fabric and some yellow race car fabric. I chose a nice piece of faux Suede for the back/top. I cut a circle out of checkered flag material. I printed a #1 out to trace and I cut the #1 out of the yellow race car material.

I appliqued the #1 (It was his first birthday) onto the checkered flag circle and then the circle on to the Faux Suede. In the bottom left corner I embroidered his name and the year.

I added batting and attached the 2 pieces and tacked around the circle to complete my quilt and the perfect compliment to his new toddler bed!

What Makes This Project Special?
This project was very special to me because it was a neat way to commemorate my baby boy's first year. Hopefully he will always have this #1 quilt as a reminder of his first big day and his first big boy bed!

Skill Level
This is only my second quilt, so I'd say a beginner would be able to tackle this project.

Products
Fabric, thread, sewing machine, embroidery machine, batting

Time Investment
8-ish hours

Why I Love This Project
I love the way it looks and he loves the way the material feels! All of our party guests wanted to know where I had his blanket made!

Send Us Your Creations
Do you have any creations that go with a great story? If so, we'd love to hear about them, and see them! If we choose to post your project, you'll get a free $25 gift certificate to use in the AnnTheGran.com online store. Click here for details on how to submit your creation.

What Would You Do?
Gina personalized her quilt with a name and date. We would love to hear your favorite way to record the when, where and who of quilts and other heirloom gifts that you create. Click on the Comments link to share your stories.