Quilts

I don't have a really good photo of this one - tip. If someone volunteers to hold the quilt up when they aren't all the way dressed, make sure you can't see them in the mirror. The quilt is a Patience corners block, in the chinese puzzle variation. The blue fabric has tiny frogs on it, and the green has bubbles. They are from a collection by Oakhurt Textiles. I bought a whole bunch of this in several colorways, so you'll see a few more soon. It's a toddler size(52x52) as I knew my friend ting ting would get some small blankets from others. Baby Ethan was born in March, so it won't be too long before he can play on it with his baby toys. Given to Ting Ting and Tzu-Wai Lau for Ethan Lau at the baby shower, February 2009.

This quilt was made out of stash on commission for a coworker. She couldn't afford that much, so in return for selling it to her at a good price, I got to pick the color, pattern, and fabrics. All she asked for was lots of pink as we knew it was a girl. Pattern is an Antique Tile, and all the fabrics are tone on tones or white on tones, so there are a lot of tiny details .40x 52. Given to the purchaser, Jessie G. April 2009. Held up in photo by coworker kelly, who is also a quilter.

Easter Cookies

I made some fondant -iced easter cookies to give to friends for the season. I'll have to ask the family of the person who gave me the recipe if they mind my sharing that, just pics until then! You can use any sugar cookie recipe, but the trick is the marshmallow fondant. I used two bags of the Kraft easter marshmallows, separated into the five colors they come in- each had a color and a flavor! I made five batches of marshmallow fondant from a recipe I found on the internet. Put some buttercream icing on the cookie, use the same shape to cut out the base as you used for the cookie, put that piece of fondant on, then use piping gel do attach cut bits of fondant to decorate - I used the circles and small flowers from the Wilton set.

Life has been too crazy to be crafty lately. I'm forcing myself back on track, and bought some fabric today, as if I need more. But I had absolutely nothing in the colors I needed, so off to Patches Etc. I went!

The quilt pattern I am working on is based on a book series by Jennifer Chiverini, the Elm Creek Quilts series. There are fourteen books, starting with the Quilter's Apprentice and most recently The Lost Quilter, which came out a few weeks ago. There are three books of patterns that go with the books. The one I am working on is a christmas cactus, from the book The Christmas quilt. I also want to try the feathered stars!I've read all 14 novels in just over 6 weeks, and am on my second book of patterns. I love this series, it makes me creative again.

HOORAY! Common Sense won, at least momentarily!

CPSIA got a stay of enforcement!

I'm going to try and get some stuff made to sell in between projects. At least if I can get some of it made and sold between now and next Feb, I won't be stuck with the stuff! Hooray!

The store has tecnincally been there for quite some time, but I never made anything to go in it due to the CPSIA stuff... thinking I would at least have raw materials rather than stuff I'd not be able to sell or even legally give away.

Stuff I plan on selling:
*cloth wipes
*the occasional cloth pad
*hairbows
*soft baby toys
*the occasional quilted item or tote bag
*other random stuff that catuches my eye

Most Recent Projects...2008

Some of my recent projects: I've been having a dry spell creatively, so these are from about September 2008, the last time I actually finished something! I injured both hands a few weeks before Christmas, so I didn't get to finish any of my Christmas things other than the homemade candy. So those will get finished a little at a time for birthdays/next Christmas. The only thing I got done from November-January was a cake order that I'd already committed to. So i'm going to jumpstart myself by posting pics, and then there will be progress pics. I hope to sandwich two quilts this weekend, so look for progress pics soon!

Some of the projects in the works that will pop up here eventually:

*baby quilts for several friends, ie Jen, Jayme, and Ting-Ting(Avis)

*charity quilt/sewing projects

*gifts for friends

* cakes for 2009 Birthdays and Events

* various candymaking/baking projects

* anthing else that comes up that I don't know about yet!

(pic: Baby quilt for Matthew Wilson, October 2009)

Some of the best crafting comes all at once. Everyone bailed on me for Sarah's shower, so in addition to getting to do the cake, I did the whole shower, the food including my first homemade truffles and a handmade edible arrangement, and the favors... which meant my own gift got the last binding stitch done seven minutes to showtime after an all nighter on the cake.

Cake: Stacked almond/marble cake with chocolate

hazelnut filling, covered with homemade buttercream
and marshmallow fondant.

One of the chocolate bears from the Wilton pattern book - each one(of the 35, augghhh) had an individual epression. Actually there were almost 60, someone ruined the first batch (not me).

Our Church birthday and John and Freda's Anniversary was the same day, so she had me make two cakes. You can see where I had to repair the one on the right as it got damaged in transit. 12x12, vanilla almod with buttercream. First time i'd done roses since Wilton 1!

New Blog!

I decided I needed a crafty blog, separate from my journal. This way I can post pics and tutorials without letting people I don't know into my personal stuff, and I don't have to worry about accidentally friending my relatives. This blog will be mainly crafty pictures, tutorials and links to cool projects/crafts.