Insanity is...

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then label me insane!

I’m working on gift bags for Mr.A’s 9^th birthday and decided to make poke ball t-shirts for the kids.

Appliqué poke balls.

Uh, yeah—insane.

Every time I  appliqué on t-shirts I mess up the first one because I don’t use enough stabilizer. EVERY FLIPPIN TIME!!! You would think I’d learn by now.

The good news is: I did prewash the appliqué fabric first…good news because the red turned my white pink:

3 shades of pink--and the red still ran after the 3rd wash!

Needless to say, the red and white quilting cotton didn't get used!  I switched to a red and a white knit, prewashed, no running color...but it's knit and...

Bad news, I messed up a t-shirt because I didn’t stabilize…ah well.  It got me thinking that there has to be an easier way.

Stitching the poke balls with my embroidery machine didn’t look bad, but I thought they were too small.

Instead I premade these:

I’ll use a double sided iron on and iron them to the t-shirts and then appliqué the outside…process to be blogged about after the party on Saturday…overall, the t-shirts turned out great!  After the first two where I put the poke ball upside down (DRAT!!!).  My older kids were really sweet about that: "just add a couple lines to the shirt and make it look like it's being thrown!"  Two party guests will be getting that explanation!

I’m working on goody bags right now—last count 19 kids.  Which means I’ll be making 20 goody bags, because every year I miss someone—even after counting and recounting.

Yeah—insane.