Happy Spring!

No Ten on Tuesday post this week.  And this is a day late, but Happy Spring!  

Really quickly, I want to show off a bit.  Here's my Spring wreath for this year:

 

And here's the paper-pieced top for my mini-quilt inspired by this quilt.  I just made a paper-piecing pattern and then went with it when it tended toward wonky.  I'm debating how to embellish and quilt it. 

Monster Truck Birthday Cake

For Lincoln's third birthday, the kid wanted a monster truck birthday cake.  So, of course, I had to oblige. 

 

Unlike last year, I didn't take very many pictures of the process.  I did take a few to show how to make a monster truck fly over the cars on the cake, though.  And at the end of the post, I have a quick list of the cake basics.

Making a Monster Truck Fly

First buy a monster truck and some bamboo kebab skewers. The matchbox brand of monster trucks have the following handy quality if you're using them for this purpose: a random hole in the bottom of the frame.

I don't know why, but I'm not going to question it.  Check that your skewer will fit (flat side pointing in):

Now take the skewer out for a minute and squirt a nice glob of hot glue into that hole.  Now quickly insert the skewer, hold it as straight as possible, and wait for the glue to dry (about a minute):

 And seriously, that's it.  Now break off however much you want to depending on how high your cake is, and stick it in the cake over the cars or the "road" or what-have-you.  (It's not a coincidence that I used the superman truck for this part, either.) 

(Note: If I do this again, I think I want to paint the skewer brown or black so it doesn't stand out so much.)

Lincoln loved his cake and couldn't wait to finally get to blow out the candles:

And then I suppose it shouldn't have surprised us that the kids thought they needed to drive the cars on the road:

All in all, a culinary birthday success!

Quick Cake Info:

• 2 stacked 9x13" cakes (I used a boxed vanilla cake on the bottom and chocolate on top with canned cream cheese frosting in the middle)
• Buttercream crumb coat
• Sides are frosted with wilton buttercream and then sprinkled.  The best info I could find about how to apply the sprinkles was to just kind of throw the sprinkles on.  I found it worked best to put them in a little bowl, cup a few in my fingers, and then try to gently pat them on.  Then I wet the tips of my finger to pick up the sprinkles that had fallen and added them to the cake.  I also worked in sections around the cake.  (And I realized that I definitely don't have the patience to achieve something like this.)
• Whip canned chocolate frosting and then apply to the cake top.
• Scrape filling off of oreos and then coarsely grind the remaining cookie.  I used about a third of a package and had more than enough.  Use a big spoon to apply the cookie crumbs across the diagonal.
• Press (washed) matchbox cars into the crumbs.
• Add the monster trucks, happy birthday banner, and candles.

That's about it.  Let me know if you have any questions!  And if anyone uses any of these ideas, I'd love to see the results!

Throw Pillow Round-Up

Well, I have not done as well as Nicole on posting about my Thirty Before 30 list as I've been working on it.  Part of that is because I haven't done as well at WORKING on it as she did.  And part is just the general lack of blogging motivation the last few months.  But I have accomplished some things from that list, so over the next few weeks I'll try to post some of those results.

#7 on the list was finish my throw pillows.  In retrospect, that was just an ill-thought-out goal.  I'll never be FINISHED with my throw pillows!  There are too many fun new ideas that pop up each week, and I get too bored with the status quo to ever be DONE making throw pillows.  Silly.

But I think that coming to that understanding accomplishes the same goal.  The point was to cross something off my list so that it wouldn't be hanging over my head making me feel discouraged from my lack of completion and like I hadn't worked hard enough or stayed focused enough.  That's done.  Now that I've shifted my paradigm, the joy really is in the journey!  So I've decided instead to show you all some of the MANY throw pillows I've bookmarked over the last little while.  I will also add a linky at the bottom so that you can share any you like and recommend as well.

 

1. Petal Pillow  2. Sunny Summer Pillow  3. Felt Flower Pillows 4. Petal Pillow  5. Felt Flower

1. Chic Pillows  2. Quick Rosette Pillow  3. Chiffon Poppy Pillows   4.  Gathered Muslin  5. PB Knock-Off Felt Pillows

1. Stripes to Chevrons  2. & 3. Box Pleat Pillows 4. Cascading Bottom Pleats with Bow Accent 5. Felt Butterfly Pillow 6. Button and Piping Pillow

1. Pleated Pillow  2. Pleated Pillow  3. West Elm Rosette Pillow  4. French Lingerie Style Muslin Pillows  5. Herringbone Tucks  6. Wide Braided Pillow  7. French Braid Pillow

1. Pottery Barn Knock-Off Christmas Pillows 2. Embroidered Paper Pillow  3. Embroidered Linen Pillow

1. Zig Zag Pillow  2. Pumpkin Patch Pillow  3. Berry Laden Branch   4. Aster Manor Pillow  5."You" and "Me" Pillows

 1. Pillow with Ties  2. Big Bow Pillow  3. Give a Hoot Pillow

1. Ho Ho Ho Pillow  2. Floral Clustered Pillow  3. Scrap Buster Fall Pillow  4. Gathered Heart

 Now it's your turn!  Feel free to link up ANY pillow as long as a link is provided to give credit to the originator.  Share pillows you've made or want to make.  These don't have to have tutorials, either.  Just something that inspires you to create!

Bags for the Girls

For Christmas gifts this year, I decided to make bags for some of the girls on my list.  Typically, I forgot to take pictures of half of them.  I followed this handy tute to make a camera lens pouch for my friend Natalie.  I used the rest of the tinkerbell material I got for a gift for my niece last year to try out this knot bag tutorial for the same niece.  Then I just kind of guesstimated to make bags for two of my sisters-in-law and my sister (which I did, miraculously, remember to get pics of). 

My sister got this one.  It's a pretty simple bag, I made a seam with top-stitching down the center of each side, but other than that it's just a rectangle (reinforced with fusible felt) with the bottom corners squared.

 And two of my sisters-in-law got these:

I've had a request for the pattern for the gathered bag, so it's moved up on my make-a-tute list. 

Quick, Lined Drawstring Bag

 

Have you ever sat down to make something one weekend and you just kind of winged it because you think it was probably basic enough to make without a pattern or tutorial?  And it worked and you thought, "maybe I should make a tutorial for this?"  But then you didn't make the tutorial because you were too lazy? 

Did you then check your reader/blogs on Monday and find someone else had had the same project and thought but then followed through on the tutorial?  So you thought you'd just put up your pics with a link to that blog?  But then it still took you 3 months to get it posted on your blog?

K, just wondering.

On a completely unrelated note, check out this quick, lined drawstring bag I whipped up this fall for my son's toys.  Then check out this tutorial which shows one way to do it!

Strippy Quilt or Finally, A Tutorial!

I finally got my crafting bug back! I almost didn't know who I was without it. This weekend I worked on two projects that have been on my to-do list for quite a while: some hooded towels for an order (should be up in an etsy shop in the next few months!) and a Cars quilt for my son.


Lincoln is in love with all things car, so I decided to make him a quilt to encourage his habit. It's on the smallish side because I used a Cars panel for the backing, but this is a super easy quilt to modify to make bigger. It's a style of quilt my MIL has been making for years, and it's one I've not seen elsewhere. It goes together very quickly because you quilt it as you piece, so once you're done piecing you just bind and you're done!


Here's a quick tute:

Gather material - backing fabric and 3-5 (or more) fabrics for strips. I used 10 4" strips for a 35" panel and ended up a little short because I was just winging my seam allowance. You would need more yardage for a longer quilt - I would suggest 1/2 yard of 5 fabrics for a 2-yard backing fabric.

Start by laying out your backing fabric, front side down. Then place your batting on top.

Next place your first strip, right side up. So the first strip is wrong sides together with the backing. Pin that down.


Now, before you sew, place your second strip directly over the first, right sides together. It should look like this:


Sew along the bottom edge, then fold the second strip down so the right side is facing you and iron the seam open. Then move on to the third strip, placing it right sides facing with the second strip, like this:


Sew, iron, and continue for the length of the backing fabric. Notice how the front is being quilted with straight lines as you piece the strips:



When I got to the bottom, I had just a few inches left:


Since the panel is just a checkered piece on the bottom, I decided to cute an inch off rather than have a narrower strip. Depending on your backing fabric, you may or may not go with this option. If your backing fabric is not as forgiving, you'll want to pay more attention to your seam allowance and the strip width than I did.

Finally, bind along the unfinished edge, and you'll all done!


Easy peasy. I would love to make some of these with jelly rolls because the cutting is usually the most tedious part for me. I also think that embellishing the quilting with decorative stitches, stitching along the center of the strip, ribbons, etc, would be a fun variation. If you make a quilt like this, I'd love to see how it turns out!

I'll be linking to the parties on the left.

Poof Pillow Tutorial

I know I haven't posted very often lately, but please don't give up on me! It's been a perfect storm lately, but I think I'm getting my momentum back. :)

A month ago I directed you to this tutorial I did for Ucreate. Now I'm sharing my gathered-ribbon poof pillow tutorial with you here!

So, begin by gathering your supplies:

3/4 yard of a solid color for the foundation fabric and the back
6-10 yards of ribbon (depending on width, how gathered you want it, and size of your pillow. color should coordinate with the foundation fabric but doesn't need to match exactly.)
pillow form


ruler
fabric marking pen
string (if you're going to follow my steps to turn a square pillow form into a circle)
sewing scissors
sewing pins

I'm going to first show you how to turn a square pillow form into a circle. You can skip this step if you have a circular pillow already or if you want to follow the tutorial but onto a square instead of the circle. One of the nice things about doing this, though, is that your pillow form ends up being very full and giving a great shape to your finished cover.

Transforming the Pillow Form

Begin by measuring the pillow and marking the center on all four sides. then connect the marks across the top of the pillow to find the center. Once you have the center, push a pin with string attached into the center and tie your fabric marking pen onto the string at a good length for you to be able to reach the center of one of the sides. Like this:

Now, keeping the pen at the same angle, drag it from one side to the adjacent side, so that you're drawing 1/4th of a circle. It should look something like this:

From here, push all the stuffing into the center of the pillow, and pin your mark to the back of the pillow:


Notice here that you can see two lines? I messed up, but it's ok because this will be hidden inside the pillow and I'm using a fabric marking pen that disappears. ;)


Now take it to your machine and sew (carefully!) along your mark. Make sure to take your pins out before you sew over them. Sometimes I risk it, so I have a bunch of bent pins and a few broken needles. Learn from my mistakes! (Or just buy lots of pins and needles.)


If, like me, you hate hand sewing with a passion, follow me and do this with your machine. If you don't mind sewing, I think this can be hand stitched as well. Just make sure your stitches are close and tight.

Next cut off the excess corner (sorry, no picture).

Continue and finish the other 3 corners, and now your pillow form should look like this:


Yay! You're just taken a square pillow form and turned it into a circle. This could also be modified for other simple shapes.

Cutting the Front Foundation Fabric and Back Pieces

Now take out your foundation fabric, iron it, and cut out a square an inch or so longer on each side than your pillow form is wide (hint: the original tag should show the dimensions. If not, just measure across one of the center lines you have marked). Once you have the square cut, fold it in half and then again in half the other way. Now you should have a square of material like this:

Take your ruler and measure out from the center of the material (which will be one of the corners of the folded fabric), mark half the width of the pillow plus 1/2" for seam allowance. Do this from the center all along the top of the folded material. Now connect the dots, following the edge of the quarter-circle, and pin along the curve you just marked. It should look like this:


Notice that I have the pins just to inside of the curve so that I can cut along the mark. Unfold, and you should have very close to a perfect circle:


Lay your circle of material on top of your pillow form to see if you like the fit or if you want to trim a little before you start:


Now cut two pieces for an envelope closure on the back. Cut one about 1/2 the height of the pillow, and one 2/3 the height. Fold and pin for a simple seam on each exposed edge. Use the circle front to get an overlap that looks about like this:


Then, starting at one side, begin pinning along the seam. This is the back to show the pins:


Now use your front as a template to mark the circle onto the back:


And cut along your marked line:

When you're done cutting the back pieces to the shape of your front, very carefully take the pins out one or two at a time and switch them to pinning just the two pieces of the back together so that you can work with the front foundation fabric. You'll want the back pieces to be pinned together until the very last step.

Mark the Front Foundation Piece

Measure the width of your ribbon, and mark a curve about 1/4" less than that away from the edge (so for a 1.25" ribbon, mark each 1"). To start, make a mark on the edge and another at the correct distance from the edge about 5" along the perimeter. So your line should look something like this to start:

Now continue along the perimeter:


Once you get your first line drawn, you need to mark a approximate distances across the whole surface of the front foundation fabric. To do this, I marked my center point and then put my ruler across that point and marked every 1-inch interval. After turning the ruler and doing this across the fabric several times, it looked like this:


Then fill in any emptier spots:


And a few more for good measure, if you're like me and can't draw a good curve without help:


Now begin at your outside line and spiral toward the middle following your starting point to make the jump to interior circles. It should look like this when you're done:


It gets a little tricky toward the center. Just do the best you can. You'll be covering this with gathered ribbon, so it's pretty forgiving.

Gathering the Ribbon

Now it's time to get started with your ribbon.

I combined the steps for gathering that I used here with this clever tip from Little Birdie Secrets. I created my gather along one side. To begin I did a back stitch.


Then, using my seam ripper to scrunch it, I sewed slowly as I pushed the ribbon toward the presser foot. After a few inches, it starts to look like this:


Keep doing this until you need a break or you reach the end of your first spool of ribbon (if you do reach the end, stop about 5 inches short and backstitch. I'll show how to continue to another spool in a few steps). I decided to switch back and forth between gathering the ribbon and sewing it to the foundation fabric, so I just back-stitched when I got tired of gathering and switched.

Sewing the Ribbon to the Foundation Fabric

Beginning at the mark starting on the extreme outer edge, start pinning along your line towards the center. Don't worry about the raw end of ribbon hanging off the side; we'll take care of that when we sew the front and back together. Now use a straight stitch to sew the gathered ribbon along the line. As I said before, this doesn't have to be a perfect straight stitch - the gather of the ribbon makes this very forgiving. When you've finished the first line, it should look like this:

Now continue gathering, pinning, and sewing:

Until you've finished the first spool of ribbon.

When you get to the end, pin the start of your new ribbon to the end of your first ribbon, right on top with a 1/4" overlap rather than right sides together as you usually do. Then use a zigzag stitch to attach the two. I usually go back and forth across the entire length to make sure it's nice and secure. It should look like this:

Now continue gathering, pinning, and sewing (and attaching ribbons depending on the length of a spool) until you reach the center.

When you get to the center, just fold the very end over about 1/4" and stitch the center down with a straight stitch in an x-shape at the center:

The gather should make it fluff enough that you can leave the center like this, but if you would like to add something, you could use a fabric flower, a fabric-covered button, or a decorative button just to give you some ideas.

Now you're done with your cover and ready to attach the back:

Finishing

The trickiest part of attaching the back is avoiding the first line of ribbon. Just fold the ribbon towards the middle at the free side and pin the cover and the back with right sides together. At the very beginning of the ribbon along the edge, sew the raw edge of the ribbon sandwiched between the foundation fabric and back. It should look like this along the edge when you pin it:

And this when you're done sewing:

Now carefully take out the pins holding the envelope closure together and flip it right-sides out through the opening. Stuff the pillow form into the cover:

And you're done!

If you make one of these, I'd love to see it! I'll be posting to the parties on the left.