E is for Emma

About two months ago, I had the privilege of attending a party to celebrate sweet little Emma's first birthday.  It was a low-key, family and friends affair, but it was absolutely perfect.

Now my husband and I are best friends with Emma's parents, so of course, she was getting a handmade gift for her birthday.  I spotted a softie alphabet project in Love Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, and I immediately knew I had to make it for her. 

 

These were designed by Manda McGrory and they're quite simple to make.  You print your desired templates, use fusible fleece and scraps, and stuff them with polyester toy filling. 

So I cut out my templates and got started.  I got through the A, B, and C, before I realized I made them waaay too small.  Redo. 


Here's a sample of what they look like (and how I felt when I was finished):



Then I had to play with them:



I only made one of each letter, so I was surprised to discover that you can spell Lady Schep without repeating any letters!

 

What really makes this project stand out is the linen drawstring bag to store the letters in:

 

Next time, I'll applique the letters farther down on the bag, like Manda did on her bag. 

You can't really tell, but the bag says Emma!

 

It's still pretty cute, though!

This was my first time using the blanket stitch on my Singer Quantum Stylist 9960:

 

 

 

I used a high contrast thread to pull it all together, so I was stitching super slowly to it just right.  Not bad for my go-round with the machine blanket stitch!  I have to admit, though, that I stitched so slowly it would have been just as fast for me to blanket stitch the letters on by hand. 

 

I learned lots of things during this project, namely that you have to know when you will save more time by ditching what you've finished to that point and starting over, rather than trudging through a project that will only cause pain and suffering in the end.   Fortunately, I did that early on in this project, so I cut down on the agony part.  I'll have to make one of these for #babyschep, but I'll have to make them much larger for ease of turning. 

 

So what do you think?  I think it turned out super cute!  It was fun watching her pull the letters out of the bag, especially the letter T, which she immediately shoved in her mouth!  So cute! 

 

Until next time, God Bless!