Organizing PDF Sewing Patterns

I have just recently dove into the world of online purchasing and using PDF patterns.  This all started when I kept seeing these amazingly cute photos of homemade underwear popping up all over my Facebook feeds and on Pinterest.  I was definitely intrigued by this pattern but kept telling myself "I really can't sew my own underwear can I?".  Well as I am sure you have guessed the answer was yes.
While I was super excited to enter into the world of sewing knits with these patterns I ran into an organizing problem.  I found perfect baskets at Target that work for my store bought patterns and they fit perfectly in with the rest of my sewing room decor but it didn't like the look of folded up printed out patterns sticking out of the baskets.  I figured somewhere someone would have created a sewing pattern cut file to use with my Silhouette Cameo.  After a little bit of searching without any results I decided to create my own cut file to use.

A "Playful" Little Girls Quilt

As I have mentioned a couple times before my go to gift when friends and family have a new member of their family is a baby quilt.  I just love the cute fabrics and patterns of these types of quilts.  As soon as I found out my best friend was expecting her second I went on the hunt for fabric and patterns for the next quilt I was going to make.  I knew the theme of this had to have something to do with owls.  When I finished Nine Patch Star Owl quilt my best friend kept threatening me that she was going to keep it for herself.  This is how I knew I needed to include some owls.

Digitizing and Embroidering a Logo

As I mentioned in my Intro to Embroidery post I just started digitizing my own designs for embroidering.  I was learning a lot from Digitizing Embroidery Design Craftsy class but wanted to try doing my own project.  My main push of signing up for this class was for a gift I wanted to give to my dad for Father's Day.  My dad runs a pole vaulting club called G Force Pole Vaulting.  He is one of a few coaches and I thought it was a perfect project to try and digitize the logo.  I thought I could put the logo on one of the C9 Men's Golf Polos.  These shirts are super comfortable and breathable and would be a great coach shirt.

Getting Better Embroidery Placement

I would still consider myself to be a novice embroiderer and once of the things I would love to improve on is getting the placement of my embroidery better.  The first couple of things I have embroidered have turned out pretty well but wasn't exactly where I wanted the embroidery to be or it wasn't quite straight on what I was placing it on.

After searching for tutorials and techniques to make this better I kept seeing embroidery hoops that came with plastic grids.  I thought that would be my answer.  If I had a grid for the hoop I would have better lines to use for placement and getting my designs straight.  Because I bought my machine used I just assumed that the person I bought my machine from had lost the hoop grids.  After extensive research I came to find that my hoops didn't come with grids.  I was bummed.  There had to be a way to get something like this that would fit my hoops.

After some brainstorming and lots of YouTube videos I figured it wouldn't be that difficult to make one.  I could use my Silhouette Cameo to create the grid and then cut out the template.  Should be easy right?  Not so much.

Entering the World of Embroidery Design Digitizing

Last year I got the crazy notion in my head that I needed an embroidery machine.  I didn't have any specific project in mind or anything like that I just figured I needed to expand my sewing machine collection to include an embroidery machine.  I started looking and soon realized that embroidery machines were expensive new.  So I turned to trusty Craigslist.  Every couple of days or so I would go out and see what was out there and while there were good deals there just wasn't that mother of all deals out there.

All About Diaper Cakes!!!

One of the wonderful things about being super crafty is I get to express that creativity when momentous occasion occur in the lives of those around me.  Of course when new babies arrive I seem to pull out all the stops on gifts.  For baby showers my favorite gift has become a diaper cake.  I found this out a couple years ago when I was co-hosting a baby shower for my best friend's first child.  After extensive searches on homemade shower gifts what kept coming up were these gorgeous diapers cakes.  I took it as a sign this is what I was supposed to create.

Honey Bee Card Tutorial

For a Christmas gift we received a jar of homemade honey.  I wanted to ensure I shared our appreciation so I started searching for card inspiration on Pinterest.  I found this absolutely perfect card at Cindy Lee Bee Designs.  I had just recently downloaded a similar hexagon style design from the Silhouette Design store that would work perfect in the background.  I wanted to do a little something extra with it then just cut it out of paper.  I had recently started dabbling in trying to make my own embossing folders and thought this was a perfect candidate.