Little Bear is TWO!

Last week Little Bear turned two. Crazy! How does it go by so fast? My goodness. We celebrated his special day with a family party. And there was, of course, some crafty goodness involved.

Cupcakes!

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting to be specific (recipe from How Sweet it Is) decorated with dark chocolate M&Ms (because LB is a budding chocoholic). They tasted amazing! I especially LOVED the frosting. The cupcake itself was a little on the dry side, but had great flavor. Little Bear definitely enjoyed them!

Like mama, he did seem partial to the frosting.

The festivities also included opening lots of presents, including a few made by mama.

First up was a quilted playmat.

I found this canvas panel when I was on shop hop a few weeks ago. As both Big Bear and Little Bear are fanatics of things that go (particularly cars and trains), I had to pick it up. The panel is a Clothworks design by Richard Neuman called "Choo Choo You."

I spent about four hours quilting it-- lots of stippling and outline stitching. This is the back, so you can maybe get a better idea of the amount of quilting on there. It was a simple project, but not quick. I am really happy with how it turned out, as were the Bears.

They spend part of every day playing on it-- building lego houses, racing cars and trains, and creating elaborate adventure stories. It is so much fun to watch them play!

I also made a flannel pillowcase and a pair of comfy pajama bottoms.

The pajama pants are Kwik Sew 3126 (which I have made before for Big Bear). I shortened them by 1-3/4" and also cut them to allow me to do a contrasting band at the bottom of the legs (I didn't have enough of either fabric to do a full pair, so I adapted it to allow me to use what I had left of each).

Little Bear loves his new comfy pants and they fit perfectly (yay!). Unfortunately, he is not a fan of the pillowcase. Every night when we put him in the crib, the first thing he does is pull the edge of the flannel back to expose the pillow inside. Then he sleeps on the bare pillow. Doh! So, a non-flannel pillowcase for him has been added to the queue. But not to worry, Big Bear is perfectly happy with the flannel one-- so it is definitely getting used!

The day after his birthday, we went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

I love this picture of us. Happy birthday, Little Bear!

Hizzity-hizz-HOT!

Because of the unusually high temperatures here over the last week, the upstairs of my house has been unbearably hot (and the sewing/blogging room even hotter!). Thus, an unexpected blog break. I actually took advantage of the heat (since I couldn't do any sewing) to send my little machine to the Bernina spa. Hopefully, it will be ready to come home tomorrow and I can get back to my plethora of projects.

Anyway, I do have a project to share. I finished a pair of pajama pants for The Boy:


The pattern is Kwik Sew 3126. I cut a 3T, and shortened the length by 1.5". Easiest pattern EVER! Only 2 pieces, and they went together super-quick (only 45 minutes from start to finish, and next time I know it will be even quicker!). And the fit was great. They even fit over his bulky nighttime cloth diaper with no problem.


Since I was having a hard time telling the front from the back, I went ahead and added a little label. I need to start doing that for everything I sew, I think!


And, of course, the happy customer. He LOVES his new pajama pants and asks for them every night. They are nice and lightweight for summer (though not light enough for 3-digit temps... those were diaper-only nights!). Another pair of these is going on my to-sew list, stat!

On the cutting table

I actually had a pretty productive weekend, managing to complete two quilt tops. (I'll share more about those later!) As a result, I felt free enough to start a couple of small projects. So far, I've only managed to get them cut out, but I think the sewing will go quickly.


The first is going to be an apron for my little boy. We've recently started baking and cooking together. It is much fun. But it is messy! I saw this pattern made up while I shop hopped a couple of weeks ago, and thought it would be perfect. And my boy LOVES ducks. He actually takes every opportunity to steal it out of my sewing room. So I think he'll like it.


Also cut is Kwik Sew 3126-- just a simple pair of pajama pants. It has been pretty warm here recently, so we haven't been able to use his regular pajamas, and we don't really have anything lighter-weight. So the boy has been sleeping in a t-shirt and diaper. But every night, he still asks for his pajamas. My husband thought that maybe a pair of light-weight pajama pants would make the boy happy and help keep him cool. Brilliant! We picked out the fabrics on the shop hop, and then I found the pattern this weekend.

I'm excited to have a couple of quick-to-make projects all ready to go. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to sit down and put them together soon!