The year of the quilt…

1. For a girl who loves yellow.

It all started in January when I decided to make ONE quilt.

Then people started having all kinds of babies, and I decided to make my nieces quilts, and I decided my wedding guest book should be a quilt…

And now I’m deep in the throes of the year of the quilt. To this point, I’ve averaged almost one per month. I’ve completely finished three and have finished all but the binding on one of them (it’s machine stitched on, I just have to do the hand sewing to the other side), and I’ve finished cutting the fabric for number 5 and have four completed squares.

For someone who usually starts and stops projects a dozen times before completing them, I’m doing pretty good. I also made 8 or 9 quilted rag bags while I was at it (that led to a week of bruised thumbs from all the cutting!). And a funky looking patchwork monster.

I just hope by the end of the year I haven’t totally burned myself out on quilting. It’s so exciting to see how patterns and colors meld together as I get closer to finishing things, but it’s easy to lose sight of that when working on something annoying (like cutting fabric, or hand stitching binding).

Thankfully, I think I only have two more quilts in the plans for this year, and one is baby-sized. But the other one is a queen. If I think I’ve been overwhelmed by the giant lap quilts…I’m a little scared of how intimidating a queen size quilt will be!

Funky monster. (I guess I didn’t take a picture of quilt 2. I didn’t love it and haven’t figured out what I’ll do with it.)

3. For a special little baby. This is one of my favorites quilts so far. The flannel was cozy and I loved the mix of fabrics.

4. My second large lap quilt. Still need to finish the binding.

5. The start of another lap-size one. I trimmed the pattern down a little since the squares were a lot more work than I expected! I’ve finished four squares. 24 to go!

Checking our List

Please forgive all the smudging out of info. But our guest list is already so large, I couldn't risk having every blog reader showing up at the reception too! (Though I'd love it if we could handle it)

And I’m sure we’ll be making these more than twice (we’ve already made copy changes. Thank goodness they weren’t all printed yet)!

Over Thanksgiving I finally got together with my sister to go over invitation design. Thinking of how many we have to make, I figured we should get an early start!

I found this design on another Stampin’ Up consultant’s blog, and seeing as my sister is also a consultant…score!

After ordering all our supplies in advance (we went with papers in daffodil delight and pear pizzaz) we got to work cutting and sticking.

To be more economical, I decided to go with a A1 size card instead of a larger one like I first saw in the blog. This way we got 4 cards per sheet of paper.

Because it was smaller, the little ribbon doo-dad didn’t look very good anymore. I think the swirls stand well enough on their own anyway.

Now to print, cut, and tape about 199 more! That will be a project for Christmas break.

Little Gobbler, III

First, there was Little Gobbler. I believe this craft was Gretchen’s idea.

“Oh no guys! You don’t have to bring paints! I have plenty!” she said.

I guess her idea of “fall colors” is different than most people’s.

I’m pretty sure this was also the year Elena discovered her love for styrofoam balls and hot glue. I remember lots of random things being glued…

Last year, there was Little Gobbler 2.0.

He was fairly similar to the original gobbler, but with a handy body that could hold candy (I think my niece ate an entire pot of cinnamon red hots last year out of him).

We had more appropriate paint colors, but of course, like everything in the world, each Gobbler ended up having it’s own personality. Mine appeared slightly drunk, G’s looked sad, and Angie’s…wait, is that Elvis??

This year we decided that maybe we’d find a way to share our love of Little Gobblers with more people. Plus, how many styrofoam turkeys does any one person need in their own house?

We turned the gobblers into cards, so we can send them to people we’re thankful for.

Using four different punches (only the hats were cut freehand with scissors) we spent a couple hours each creating 10 cards each (and maybe drinking a bottle of wine and eating half a cookie cake while we were at it.

The results, once again, all had personalities of their own (yes Angie, homemade turkeys DO have personalities!).

So while each of the cards will be sent to people outside our group, I’m pretty certain that each of the three of us “seesters” is thankful that after three years, we can still make crazy crafts together and laugh until we cry about who knows what.

The trials of Doing it Yourself

Before (on the left), and after getting the right punch (right)

There’s a lot of debate in wedding-world over making things yourself. Is it really any cheaper once you buy all the supplies? Is it worth your time? Do things ever really look like Martha made them?

I ran into my first trials over the past few weeks.

Remember my “Guess what I’m making?” posts?

Yeah. I scrapped all of those flowers I made.

Why? Because for the paper pomanders I was planning for my flower girls, the flowers were just too small. The balls looked like balls of pin heads, not balls of flower. I tried several different techniques to see I could make them better and after showing them to Charles, I finally realized I simply needed bigger flowers. The poms were looking much more kindergarten than Martha.

After buying the right sized punch yesterday, things went much better (and quicker!).

First, I punched petals in two shades of yellow. I spread the lighter shade of petals (the one I wanted on top) on a circle of Styrofoam I had from when I made cake pops. This made it much easier to put the pins through their centers.

Then, I’d hold a darker flower onto the Styrofoam ball and push a previously pinned flower through the center. By pushing the pin in firmly, the petals would naturally pop up, creating a more three-dimensional affect.

With bigger petals, it took much fewer pins and punches to create a ball. I ended up making three of them in about 5 hours.

My biggest tip of advice on the project…although I don’t normally splurge for the name brand…buy the Martha Stewart punch. because you want to see what you’re punching in order to save paper, hers are much easier to hold and punch and watch. Most punches are made to be used on a flat surface and you can’t see what your punching. Hers have a handy lever system that’s easy to hold in one hand and saves your thumbs from a ton of soreness!

What I used for this project: 5 inch foam balls, cardstock, Martha’s hydrangea punch, yellow-ball tipped straight pins.

In the end, for me, doing it myself was worth it. I probably spend about $30 all together on the balls, but I like that they’re something I made myself, and something the flower girls can keep after the wedding if they want to. Flowers die. These balls won’t even need watering!

Guess what I’m making

Other than sore thumbs…

The best things in life are free

So what helps make DIY items even more affordable?

Part of the thought that must go into DIYs is…will it be cheaper to make this myself or will I pay more buying the supplies? Should I just PSE (pay someone else)?

When all the supplies are free, I figure I have to at least give it a try. Enter Freecycle. I love that not only am I getting items (like wine bottles and Christmas lights) that others no longer want, but I have this warm fuzzy feeling of my community giving me a hand. And picking up the items, I see different parts of the city I work in and live in that I normally wouldn’t see otherwise.

And let’s face it, sometimes it’s just fun to see what people are offering thinking someone else might be interested in having it! An alligator head anyone?

The start of DIYs

This weekend I got a head start on my DIY projects.

First, I headed to home depot to figure out how to cut wine bottles. Not as easy as one would think! The most helpful guy I found was the paint mixer man. What paint has to do with glass I’ll never know!

I found the one tool they had, got some masking tape to help guide me to make straight lines, and some rough sandpaper to dull the sharp edges.

Easy enough, right?

Wrong. Method number one of scoring a line, then using really hot and really cold water to make the bottom “pop” off failed. I could have achieved the same result by smashing the bottle into my counter.

On to fabric. That I know how to cut!

I had two livingsocial coupons to G Street Fabric that were about to run out, so I figured (in addition to getting stuff to finish Giggie’s quilt) I could do something wedding-y with that. I am a rock star at cutting 5 inch squares. Why can’t glass be that easy to cut?

Stay tuned to find out what they’ll become!

Have a drink…for me!

Thanks to a coworker, I have three of these beauties!

Planning a wedding over more than a year away has some drawbacks. When I see something I like, I often wonder if I’ll still like it in 14 months. Or will it become super trendy by then and unoriginal? Or if it is trendy, will it be tired then?

One thing I’ve loved since I first saw it, though, are wine bottle candles. I at least have to attempt to make them! If I fail at that, I’ll find a fall back plan.

I liked the idea because it was something different, it just plain looked cool, and lets face it, it could be pretty cheap!

But that was before we made the guest list. And now I’m realizing if I want to put five bottles on about 20 tables…that’s at least 100 bottles. And I’m sure some will break so I’ll need even more!

If anyone knows they’ll be seeing me over the next 6 months, do me a favor and have a drink, ok? Just save me the bottle!

The world’s biggest Cadbury Creme Egg

A couple years ago when my dad was sick, my sister and I decided to FINALLY create something from Pimp that Snack for him.  His favorite Easter treat had always been Cadbury eggs. Perfect, right?

First of all, while they call their egg the “Creme de la Creme,” I’ll go with “world’s biggest” for ours. Our mold was significantly bigger.

The ingredients are simple enough (for what seems like a complex treat):

1.5 kg of Cadburys Milk Chocolate
3lbs of granulated sugar
2 x 140 g bottles of liquid glucose (or corn syrup)
vanilla extract
red food colouring
yellow food colouring

Being that we’re not in Great Britain, milk chocolate was hard to find. I looked EVERYWHERE for dairy milk and couldn’t find it. My brother in law told us to just use hershey’s chips…BLASPHEMY!  Then it would be a hershey’s creme egg. Not a Cadbury one.

I finally found a World Market that had several cases of Flake bars. Close enough, right?

Well, the taste was right…but whatever it is that makes them “flake” also keeps them from melting. So while breaking $50 worth of flake into tiny peices and mixing in milk while melthing…my sister and I got rather sick of Flake.

You’d also think it would be easy to find an egg mold the week of Easter. You would also be wrong. We finally found ONE available in a candy store.

We spent hours stirring, melting, brushing, etc. It’s not as easy as it seems! (and we’d made candy in the past)

Next up, was the filling. Let me preface this by saying this was the first time my cousin’s boyfriend (now fiance) was meeting the family. He met us over a pot of boiling white goo. A pot of goo so gooey, we girls were too weak to handle the necessary stirring!

Thankfully, he was able to handle it while two or three of us held the pot down.

Once he got it stirred and out of the pot (and licked all our utensils!), we made our “yolk” with food coloring, and set about filling the chocolate shells.

(Note to self: I think I need to return to that haircut!)

It was a sticky job and involved some finger licking at the end, but someone had to do it!

Then, we attempted the magic. We put the molds in the refrigerator, the freezer, anything to help them “set.”

Damn Flake. It doesn’t set.

We ended up serving Dad two open-face halves of a Cadbury egg, but it was still the most amazing thing ever!

We all grabbed spoons and had at it, until we couldn’t have anything more. I also remember figuring out the Weight Watcher points the thing included. Trust me. You don’t want to know.

Finished Projects, Old and New!

This photo will be replaced when I remember to relocate my camera cable!

I realized over the weekend that I never blogged about my last two pillowcase dresses. And these are the ones I made completely by myself! Embroidery and all.

My favorite part about this whole project, I think, was when my cousin opened the present containing the dress for her daughter. I had used a pillowcase that came from my grandmother (hoping this would be extra special)…and to make it EXTRA extra special, my aunt immediately recognized the pillow case as one she had taken to college. I couldn’t have planned it better! It was also my favorite dress out of the bunch! (it’s the one in the middle of the photo at the linked blog.)

 

I mentioned last week about my Pay it Forward project for 2011…and over the weekend I succeeded in completing my first project for it! Yay for getting started early! It was actually rather easy since I’ve been making these felted balls for years with leftover yarn, but at least I was given a good reason to go ahead and string them into a finished project.

Pay it Forward!

And additionally, I started a birthday present (and am halfway done) for my sister-in-law whose birthday isn’t until February. Hopefully all weekends in 2011 can be this productive!

I would also like to take a chance to thank my boyfriend for my awesome phone for Christmas. The first photo (unless you’re reading this in the future and I’ve replaced it) was taken with my old sub-standard blackberry. The bracelet photo was taken with my new iPhone 4. Isn’t the difference amazing? The iPhone photos are actually able to be used!