It’s blog hop time again and thanks to our hostess Carol for arranging this one!
At some point this summer Carol and Joan opened up the blog hop signups for the whole year and I signed up right away for all of them!!
This one sneaked up on me though, I thought I had time and a plan but I had neither, usually when one hop finishes I’m ready for the next one or already have a plan or a project started, but this time NOTHING! I thought about Accuquilt, I DO have the gingham dog die, but I wasn’t inspired at all, then I thought of machine embroidery of a dog and THAT got me down a path of SOMETHING!! I looked at my favorite sites and found lots of dog machine embroidery designs… THEN I came across specific breeds and THEN I searched for German Shepherd! (our dog Chewy!) and found it on embroidery library!
PERFECT! I bought it and NOW what…..??? What do I make with it? a pillow? a quilt? small dog mat or something like that??
Why not just embroider on a shirt???? BINGO!!
I first told Sonja about it and she found a black shirt, then Anja found a blue shirt and I figured I’d join in and found a peachy/orange shirt so I set to work.
First I prepped MY shirt and realized the file was so big it needed the biggest hoop which was tight for even my shirt! how would I get the girls’ shirts in that? so I reduced the file and found that I could change to a smaller hoop- I still kept the big one for mine, first I had ironed on stabilizer onto the back of the inside of the front of the shirt, then I also had a stabilizer paper for the hoop itself but it was sort of loose so a bit tricky…..
I then marked the shirt with mid points by using this plastic that comes with each hoop and I marked the shirt first then with the hoop and the plastic I matched up the dots, it’s a bit tricky but I also figured the design is not a square so it’s not SO crucial that it’s straight, but I got it pretty spot on 🙂
Then I picked a thread color- I love my BIG drawer now that the embroidery machine got moved into another room and it’s now on top of an old kitchen cabinet.
I started the design
over 24.000 stitches and it took 40 min!! (The going rate for machine embroidery is usually $1 per 1000 stitches so that’s $24! just sayin’)
I didn’t stand and watch it the whole time, but came back and watched every 5-10 min
In one afternoon I had all our 3 shirts done! Sonja picked pink and Anja picked light Purple threads.
The next day we all wore our shirts and went outside with Chewy and had hubby take pictures of us
(it’s hard when he’s crouching down, Chewy thought he wanted to play with her so she kept walking away)
3 fun shirts!
If you haven’t already, here’s the list of blog hop participants, HOP around and see the other projects and comment 🙂
SEPTEMBER 18
SEPTEMBER 19
SEPTEMBER 20
SEPTEMBER 21
Lovely Family Photos! You’ve inspired me to go about to find a Jack Russell embroidery! or even create one!
Chewy is gorgeous and your embroidered shirts are a wonderful salute!
Great family photos with your sweet shirts and Chewy! Those girls are getting so big, time sure flies!
What a fun idea for a dog project and such a sweet tribute to Chewy! He’s a gorgeous dog and you all look great in your shirts. I need to look for some dog embroidery patterns to match my dogs. Thanks for sharing, Bea!
Great work on the shirts!
I love the embroidered t-shirts! What a great idea, I should give this a try with my embroidery machine.
Your embroidery looks great, and the t-shirts do as well. Wonderful family photos.
You did a fantastic job with the embroidery!!! And now you have Chewy where ever you go! 🙂
What a fun idea! Your girls are growing too fast! 😉
Great embroidery picture of Chewy! I love the colors you chose. Great picture of you, the girls, and Chewy.
Nice shirts! Chewy looks very happy to pose with you.
Cute t-shirts!
Beautiful shirts and great pictures of you all. Thanks so much for sharing
What a terrific family tribute to that beautiful dog. The embroidery is wonderful and love the color choices each of you has picked.
How neat! Love the shirts and the family photos!
Those are AWESOME! I love machine embroidery and want to try it someday. Thanks for sharing!
Oh I love German Shepherds! I grew up with them and hope that one day I can have one again… love that you’ve made those matching tshirts, they are perfect! xx
my friend is a breeder (or was) she’s looking for another female to breed (long haired)