Playtime: the bowling pins

The final block of my American Jane Playtime quilt is the bowling pins:

Though I usually prefer needleturn, for this block I actually took the time to do freezer paper/starch prep on every single piece. As it is a set of pins, I wanted them to be as close to identical as possible. Doing the prep also gave me a little more confidence with the spacing of everything as it allowed me to lay it all out before I started stitching. The pattern has the pins plain, but once I finished all of the applique, the block felt like it just wasn't finished. So I went back and embroidered a face onto each pin. It just felt like the right thing to do. And I think they turned out pretty cute. Certainly, they have more personality than plain pins would have!

Once I finished the block, I could not help myself from just putting the whole dang thing together:

Woo! After having worked on this project for three years now, I do have an inkling of a quilting plan in mind, but it needs a bit more work before I'll feel comfortable taking the plunge. Regardless, it is going to be a little while before it gets quilted as there are a couple of other tops that have higher priority. So I've got some time to figure it out.

Again, I say, Woo! :)

Woo-hoo, cake!

Yesterday, we had the family over for Big Bear's "official" birthday party. This year we let him chose what kind of party he wanted to have, and we were a little surprised that he decided he just wanted to invite his grandparents and his aunt and have an at-home gathering. His only hard and fast stipulation was that there had to be a birthday cake. And it had to be blue. And it had to have Toby the Tram Engine on it (who is one of Thomas the Tank Engine's friends).

On Friday afternoon, I baked the cake (a traditional white cake using a recipe from the cookbook, Baking Illustrated) and applied the white icing base. That evening, my husband and I got to work on the decorating. I mixed the icing colors, Keith drew Toby and piped him onto the top of the cake, and then I finished it off with some border work and lettering.

This was the inspiration picture (photo from here):

And this is the completed cake:

Keith did an amazing job! Big Bear was completely thrilled. And not only was Toby on top, but the inside was, as requested, blue:

It was quite pretty, really. I used food coloring paste ("sky blue") in the batter to get the color.

And then there was one last gift from Mama:

Ever since I made the name pillows a few weeks ago, Big Bear has been clamoring to get one of his own. In blue. How could I refuse? I smudged the name in the picture above so as to maintain Big Bear's secret identity, but I can tell you that the letters were all blue. And much to my joy, he LOVES it! Yay!

Big Bear turns 5!!!

How the time has flown! Oh, my gosh. On Wednesday, we celebrated Big Bear's fifth birthday. Since it was in the middle of the week, it was a pretty low-key celebration, involving just Mama, Papa, Big Bear and Little Bear, and some cupcakes.

As per his request, I made blueberry cupcakes. I found the recipe at Cate's World Kitchen. And they were good-- they definitely qualify as one of the most successful cupcakes I've ever made. Shape, texture, taste-- the whole package-- YUM! And the recipe yields 6 cupcakes, which was perfect.

And, most importantly, Big Bear loved them! (Especially the one with the big "5" in the center!)

Of course, there was some present-opening as well, including a new pair of Thomas the Tank pajamas, made by Mama.

They are from Kwik Sew 3604. Both the top and the bottom are a size XS. I took 2" off the length of the pants and they are a great fit, but I probably should have made a bigger top. It fits right now, but probably won't for much longer. The pants were super simple and easy to put together. The top wasn't too bad, though the collar illustrations were a little confusing and threw me off. It took doing it wrong once to know for sure how to do it the right way, and then I had to scrap my first attempt. But the second time was the charm.

Did you notice the hat? His new favorite show is "Phineas and Ferb" which features a character named Perry the Platypus. Perry wears a hat when he is in secret agent mode. Big Bear was very excited to receive a hat of his own for his birthday. And yes, he wore it to bed that night.

Happy birthday, Big Bear!!!

A change of pace

After putting all of those quarter-square triangles together for Hop to It, I decided I needed to take a break from the machine and do a little bit of handwork.

Playtime is back!

Snowed in, stalled out

This week I spent a fair amount of time working on my Hop to It quilt, piecing the sashing. I finished all of the pieced sashing bits (yay!) and started to lay the quilt out on my design wall to get the placement just right.

It was then that I realized that the seemingly happy border fabric that I chose a few weeks ago just wasn't working for me. It just felt too cool and pinky for my taste.

So I moved on to plan B and shopped the stash. I found a potentially awesome candidate-- similar to the first, but in warmer colors. Maybe the best option wasn't to chop it up right away, but I was feeling confident and went ahead and did it. The warmer tones did work much better, but it still wasn't quite right.

Above is a comparison of the two border options. What do you think? A or B?

I called in my husband for another perspective. As he thought they both looked pretty much the same, he ended up being no help at all! Though, to be honest (and I do strive to be honest!), he's kind of right. They really do look remarkably similar unless one is standing very close. Hmmmm...

So then I spent awhile gazing at my wall and then at the pictures I took. Looking at them kind of shrunk-up in the computer helped me figure it out: the real problem is that they're just too dark. I need something lighter. I must find an option C.

On the down side-- I have to go shopping for the perfect fabric. Again. Which means I can't finish NOW.

On the bright side-- I get to go fabric shopping! And really, after having been snowed in for the last four days, any excuse to go out and about is a good one in my mind at this point! :)

Pumpkin pie!

The October pincushion from the Shabby Fabrics Pincushion Club was from Pine Mountain Designs. The Pumpkin Pie Pin Cushion is actually the second pincushion I've completed by them. The first was the Love Pin Wheel Pastry-- the very first kit I received from Shabby Fabrics. And, once again, I love the results. Their patterns are so dang cute!

The combination of embroidery and patchwork is a happy one. I really enjoyed putting it together.

The instructions were easy to follow and I really appreciated that directions for all of the stitches used in the embroidery sections were included.

Rick-rack on the side...

...with a little yo-yo, a wool leaf, and a button on top to finish it off. I stuffed mine with crushed walnuts, so it has a nice heft to it as well.

*happy sigh* I do love me a cute pincushion!

Shabby Fabrics still has some kits available if you're in the mood for a little bit of Pumpkin Pie for yourself.

Pillow party!

Recently, Stacy Sews reviewed the Personalized Name Pillow pattern from Kimberbell Kids. Hers turned out so cute that I decided to go ahead and pick up the pattern for myself.

The pattern is good-- the instructions are very clear and there are lots of photos throughout to illustrate the steps. It is true that this project is not rocket science, and I didn't really need a pattern to tell me how to go about making one. However the pattern also includes an alphabet-- capital and lower case letters, perfectly sized and already reversed for fusible applique-- making it more than worth its $6.95 price tag. (I don't even want to think about how long it would take me to accomplish the whole sizing/reversing thing... ugh!)

I've made two pillows so far, both for preschool friends of Big Bear. First up was Nathan:

The only deviation I made from the pattern on this one was to use the minkee dimple dot fabric on the back (so I also used 1/2" seam allowances when I sewed the front and back together).

It ended up about 12" high and 21" wide.

For Kyra, I got a little more creative:

I decided to go for a more square look and use diagonal letters mostly because her name is so short, it would have resulted in a pretty tiny pillow otherwise. Then I added the flowers to just fill in some of the open space.

Again, I used dimple dot micro-fleece on the back. This one ended up about 15" high and 14" wide.

Making these pillows is quick, easy, and a lot of fun (and a great way to use some scraps!)! And the kids seem to like them too!