My April Finish

It's official, I need to start using the calendar in my sewing room.  I went thru the piles and discovered I have over 12 UFO projects, and some of them definitely need to be finished.  Like the two that were supposed to be my sister's Christmas present...

 

I do have a finish to share however!  I had hoped to enter it in the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge but missed the deadline.  Thus, need to use that calendar!

 

Remember the quilt my grandma asked me to finish for my cousin Kendra?  Well I made it happen, and in two weeks!  Kendra turned 13 at the end of March, and my mom asked me if I might be able to finish by Easter Sunday as my aunt would be able to take it to her.

I wooshed through those 25 patch blocks.

 

 

When I had enough to make the quilt a size I knew I could fit in my machine, there were plenty of leftover 2.5 inch squares so I started using them as leaders and enders and have decided I will assemble a 4-patch for Kendra's sister Haley.  Eventually.  :)

 

I enjoy progress pictures, it's fun to step back and see how much I've done and how good it looks.  I was concerned initially when putting the 2.5 inch squares together that the larger blocks wouldn't be the same size, but it worked out fine.  I had the concern because some of the little squares are actually rectangles...

 

Belle helped by keeping my ironing board in one place for me.

 

Top assembled!

 

I also made a pillowcase to match, which doubles as a protective carrying case.

 

Thomas decided to help with the quilting by holding the quilt still for me (he's about 13 pounds by now, what a fatty!)

 

John was nice enough to let me take over the living room for a week so I could quilt with space.  I would really like to get a table that my machine sets into, that will really help with future quilts.

 

Belle is inspecting my quilting motif.

 

I went with an all over flower and leaf pattern, all free motion quilting, and no set repeat.  I pretty much stayed in the rows but if the pattern overlapped into the next one I went with it, which I feel lent itself to an overall feeling.

 

On the last row I decided I needed to add in an extra something special.

 

This is only half the quilt, I really didn't want to drag it in the dirt. :)

I don't know that I can express how very glad I was to finish this quilt, and I look forward to hearing how Kendra likes it.  I love the texture it gained after I washed it, and with two layers of batting it is very cozy.

 

John got this marvelous photo of me, great job honey!

 

 

Lessons learned:

-Spray basting works best on smaller pieces.  I ended up with a number of places on the back that folded over itself as I was quilting which drives me nuts, but the wrinkles helped a lot in hiding them after I washed it

-Basting would be a lot easier and more successful if I had one huge table and another couple hundred basting pins

 

 

And for future reference, this quilt finished at 70" by 90" and probably had ~80 hours put into it.

 

Have a wonderful day, thank you for stopping by!

~Brandy

A quick share

Phew!  Christmas is upon our family, busy busy busy we are.  My mom owns a packing and shipping store, and I have been helping out.  Yesterday I made yarn pompoms (while I was at the store) and finished my Christmas apron. :)  Of course I don't have photos of those... but I have others to share!

 

I completed the tree skirt for my aunt:

 

 You may recognize this pattern, it was inspired by Deonn Stott's pattern which can be found here.  The difference is that instead of doing half square triangles I made full diamonds and squares and used y-seams.  Just my personal preference, Deonn's way is much easier I'm sure!  Plus, with my directional fabric I didn't want to think about how to piece the cuts together.  Anyhow, it turned out beautiful, and was a great learning experience.

 



 

I used a special stitch!  Looks snowflake-like to me.

 

Here you can see the quilting better, my sister says it reminds her of a poinsettia.

 

I came across Lori Holt's sew-a-long she hosted on her Instagram page and she had a free block I couldn't resist (and looking just now there are instructions for a snowman!!):

 

Isn't this amazing?  I'm making up quite a few, will be adding borders and using them for hotpads.  I'm fairly sure the buttons will be ok, they're pretty small.  I may actually set this block on point, then when you hang it you're seeing the block normally.  Hmmm...

 

Then I received wonderful news that I won a drawing from the Kona Cotton 30 Year Anniversary Blog Tour!  Valorie contacted me just this last Saturday, and yesterday I received a package from Robert Kaufman, eee!  Here's the link to the post about Valorie's quilt, I love how she came up with her pattern.  And here's pictures of the charm pack and tote I received:

 

I've already carried this all over the place today.

 

Charm pack and thank you card which states to be sure to #OMG303 and #KONACOTTON

as well as their hopes that I enjoy my prize.  I do, most definitely!

 

Look at these colors!!  I'm sew happy :)

 

And to top it off, John bought me flowers the other day, what a great guy.

 

Just beautiful.

 

I hope you are all in good cheer and enjoy the rest of December, I am unsure if I'll have another chance to post as the next two weeks will be the busiest of the year for my mom's store and then it's Christmas, but I'll try to get some more done and shared.  I do have some things to work on for John and my sister, now I just need to work on my organization skills to make those things happen.  Preferably not the night before Christmas!!

 

Happy sewing to you all, and to all a pleasant night!

 

~Brandy

Baby Shower Cakes

I am so thankful for my ability to take a fondant design and make it happen in frosting.  I just dislike fondant.  It tastes funny, has a weird texture, and I want people to enjoy eating what I make, not just enjoy how it looks.  So thus far, I refuse to use fondant on my cakes.  However, it hasn't stopped me making some stinkin' cute designs!  A friend from high school saw pictures on my Facebook page (one of the few reasons I'm still on Facebook, people can see what I'm capable of quicker) and called me about making a couple baby shower cakes for the same weekend.  She's a darn good friend, hosting two separate showers in one weekend, and travelling over 5 hours across the state to do so!  The first shower didn't really need cake, but she wanted to have a cupcake bouquet to give the mom-to-be, so I made this:

I was told the theme was "rustic country" and I felt the cup fit that really well.

The other baby shower was jungle themed.  We sent pictures back and forth and finally decided to use this one as a pattern:

This sure is a cute cake, but as I said, no fondant.

 

This was a new trick for me, I don't often have cakes that have multi colored backgrounds.  I left the background a little rougher than I normally would because I knew there would be foliage to help cover, plus it's the jungle!

 

Outlining the giraffe.

 

 

Working the monkey, they sure look funny without eyes :)

 

I just had to throw a vine in to see how it would look with the leaves.

 

And I allowed the monkey to have a banana, because I'm nice like that.

 

A baby elephant joins the party.

 

Monkey finished!

 

Elephant finished!

 

Giraffe finished!

 

And foliage finished!

 

I made sure to have a picture of the cake without writing so people can see it and imagine their own message in the blank space.

 

Also, it was an amazing change when I added those darker green leaves, the cake looks so much better for them!  The original designer knew what she was doing for sure, and I appreciate being able to learn from her.  Every time I would catch a glimpse of this cake out of the corner of my eye I would squeal a little because it turned out so well!

 

And all done!  The blue is Wilton Sparkle Gel I had leftover from being used in a pond on a construction themed cake.  The only thing I dislike about the gel is that it doesn't harden, which makes putting plastic wrap over the cake nearly impossible.  Fortunately I have a cake container that I bought from the grocery store that this was able to fit in, which protects the cake from dust.

 

The most amazing thing about this cake is that it is a white cake, and I don't like the taste of white cake (I'm a chocoholic) but this one was delicious!  I used Duncan Hines cake mixes, and had farm fresh eggs on hand so I used them, and I think the eggs made the difference.  And my friend told me the girls at the shower couldn't believe she didn't pick the cake up at a bakery!  Their so kind.  I'm glad they enjoyed it as much as I did!

 

So, in case you're wondering, I used 2 Duncan Hines White cake mixes, made two batches of frosting, used at least 8 different tips, and this took ~5 hours to decorate.  This is a single layer cake, and serves 15-20 people.  I have decided I need to re-evaluate how much I charge, as I definitely didn't take into account the time consuming nature of having 8 different colors (the pink roses were made at the same time) and getting them all mixed together added an hour to what I forecasted.  I learn something new every time I make a cake!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandy

Christmas in July is happening for me!

I am so excited because I have just made myself a promise that I will allow myself to work on Christmas projects the next two weeks!  I adore Christmas fabric, and have some set aside for a bed runner that is inspired by this:

 

 

I love how the faces have so much personality!

 

I have been working on a couple other projects as well, actually have a finish too!  I had seen the video from Missouri Star Quilt Co about making a dresden plate block with their tumbler, and as I have the mini tumbler I decided I needed to know how big a block would be when you make it.  9.5 inches is the answer!

 

Turns out the tumbler dresden only needs 16 pieces, so I left a couple out.

Inside look at the dresden making process :)

Yup, ~9.5 inches

My personal favorite piece

Here is the finished product!  I for some unknown reason, ending up closing the binding on the front.  That was not the plan... But it still looks good!

I used this as an opportunity to practice FMQ on my Bernina 750 QE, and I feel pretty good about it!  And I did the overlapping fabric as the backing, so technically this is a pillow sham and will be going to my cousin in Portland as soon as they get moved back into their house (her room caught on fire, fortunately everyone is fine including Butch, her cat).
 

Picked up some Timeless Treasures fabric from Craft Warehouse (until that day I was unaware CW even carried fabric, and not only that but MODA fabric!)

Actually didn't follow a pattern, read somewhere that this table runner uses equilateral triangles for the end pieces and figured it out for myself!  It wasn't difficult for me, but math/angle type things are not difficult for me, so there you go.  I plan on a post that is focused on this runner, and I definitely want to pick up some Christmas themed striped fabric now!  I will say, one of these times I'm going to remember to actually measure my pieces and think it thru a little in regards to my backing, I ended up ~2 inches short of having the right length of backing fabric.  Not a huge deal, I pieced 2 pieces of it together, but you know, sometimes it's nice to have a solid backing.

And this beaut is actually a 3 week late wedding present!  Hopefully my friend isn't reading my blog, but if so, surprise!  hahaha, I'm so excited to get this done, I just cut out the fabric for the border (a deep blue with the red as cornerstones) and will finish getting those on this week for sure, then take it to my mom's place to baste it all together.  John helped me choose a sandy colored flannel backing.  I am going to quilt it on my Bernina and am thinking a large feather-type pattern will look nice.

 

Other things on my holiday list include:

 

*Hunter's star for dad

*Scrappy four patch for sister

*Strawberry quilt for John and me

*finishing my lap blanket for work (needs batting and sewn up, should be easy enough...)

*make myself new sweatpants

 

Oh!  And I made a super fun cupcake bouquet the other day, and got paid for it!  Always a fun perk :)

 

Have a wonderful day!

~Brandy