Today I am brainstorming more styles of quilt labels while my machines are purring along on today’s embroidery orders.

I want to offer labels for quilts that customers make or buy that memorialize the circumstances of their arrival - whether they are a gift from or to a special person, a celebration of a special occasion or whatever the reason.  Sometimes it is difficult to remember these details accurately years after the fact and a label makes sure all is preserved for posterity.

In my mind’s eye, these labels will be very custom and can even incorporate fabric from the quilt itself.  I love the idea of working closely with you to make the quilt label almost as special as the quilt.  So stay tuned as these details are worked out.  As always, I welcome any input you want to suggest.

This is for a Washington based Obama campaign worker who had a busy night when it became apparent that his son would be born the night of the Presidential election.  This embroidery will be a framed picture for the baby’s nursery.

I don’t know if it is a common thread among middle children, but my daughter, Kate, is not terribly competitive. She would rather everyone win. So when her April, 2006 wedding was being planned, the notion of the bouquet toss struck a raw nerve with her. Then she came upon a better idea - at least for her. She had me make a second bouquet from flowers that were similar to her florist made bouquet. But this bouquet was different. It was composed of multiple mini-bouquets, each wrapped with a satin ribbon with an attribute of a good marriage embroidered down the length of the ribbon. We had embroidered ribbons with the words “patience”, “understanding”, “communication”, “laughter”, “forgiveness” and more. Kate stood at the top of the stairs and held the mini-bouquets together as if they were all one bouquet, but as she tossed them, they scattered and all the young ladies assembled to get the bouquet did get a bouquet. It was a lovely gesture.

My husband is one of ten children from a farm family in North Dakota so I know a little bit about North Dakota. Many there are very serious about their farm equipment. They also have a serious hockey team. So this choice for a pair of bath towels makes very good sense for a North Dakota family.

This item was suggested by a very special geek in my life and it gave me a good chuckle.  It occurs to me that the digitally savvy women among us here might get a similar chuckle.

A “Hello World” program is a very simple program used for teaching a computer programming language

For your favorite newbie, this “Hello World” bib will make the geeks around him smile

This bib is parsed at runtime, just for you, so syntax changes are ok - just let us know

I had a customer who ordered some custom personalized hand towels with a music theme. The towels were to be black which presented some questions for me since the music staff and notes are customarily black. I contacted her to discuss the problem that the black thread on the notes would not show up on the black towel. She said that in her imagination we would mix things up a bit and make the staff and musical notes white instead. I am much too set in my ways. I never would have thought of how creative that could look.
Thank you customers, you are terrific for nudging me out of my set ways!

I love nautical - I always have.  It reminds me of lazy summers spent at the beach in Massachusetts as a child.  At the time I complained that it was dull.  Now I would love to endulge in that time and place with the salty air, the gentle breeze and not a care in the world.  Children have it all!

We created this sweet pillow in the early years of Initial Impressions.  It was commissioned as a pillow to commemorate a little girl’s ballet recital.  It is an example of the kind of project that I love to do.  It calls for close consultation with the customer and a little extra creativity.  It also takes a little more time. The oohs and aahs make it all worthwhile.

Taking custom to a higher level, we sometimes embroider the mascot image you provide so that the resulting product is not only personalized with the child’s name, but also is enhanced by a school or sport mascot - thus making it different from standard stock designs and ultra personalized.

The process to do this is relatively simple. It just involves the digitizing of the image. This is the creation of stitch commands from the artwork. There is a one time cost for the labor to do this and afterwards, the digitized image can be embroidered as many times as desired. This digitizing cost depends on the complexity of the design and I can provide you with a quote before proceeding any further with the project.

Shown here is one custom sports blanket featuring the actual sports mascot of young Ethan.

Sports lovers will love this towel to keep the sweaty hands under control during the game.  We can do designs for other sports - of course!  We also have the towels with the gromlet and hook that can be attached to a golf cart or bowling bag.  There are lots of inexpensive ways to keep sports lovers happy.