Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle

Have you heard about the Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter  Bundle Challenge? It's going on over at Quokka Quilts and it's so much fun! You have to pick out 16 fabrics (full rules on the Quokka Quilts blog) from the Fat Quarter Shop and submit them to be judged. If you win, you get a half yard of each fabric!

I'm currently picking out fabrics for a new project anyway, so this totally motivated me to get a little more organized about it.

Here they are:

1. It's a Girl Thing Gray Doily Dance Yardage 

2. Bella Solids Aubergine Yardage

3. Bella Solids Marine Yardage

4. Echo Gray Aneta Yardage

5. Bella Solids Silver Yardage

6. Nursery Basics Sky Speckle Yardage

7. Sweet on NYC Grey Swirl Yardage

8. Sketch Pink Screen Texture Yardage

9. It's a Girl Thing Bloom Play Dot Yardage

10. It's a Girl Thing Blossom Disco Dot

11. Echo Gray and Purple Choma Yardage

12. Domestic Bliss Aqua with Cream Beaded Curtain Yardage

13. Terrain Foliage Seedpod Yardage 

14. Summer House Robin's Egg Blue Twinkle Yardage
15. Terrain Mist Leaves Yardage

16. Sherbet Pips Pink and Grey Play Dot Yardage

Let me know what you think!

Homemade Graduation Gift

My son's preschool class has had a very nice student teacher this semester. She'll soon be leaving though--because she's graduating! 

I made up this little sign for her to hang in her new classroom. I know if it was me that had to deal with a group of 20 preschoolers all day, I'd need a little reminder of why I wanted that job in the first place!

I kid. I'm sure they are all perfect angels for their teachers right? Someone please tell my children that...

I took a simple flat white canvas, and painted red acrylic paint on the section I wanted to be red. After that dried, I spelled out the quote using two different types of stickers (I have a Silhouette, and I suggest that if you don't want any bleed through around the stickers, to use one with vinyl). Then I painted the whole thing with a couple of coats of black paint. When it was dry, I peeled off the stickers.

Like I said, there was a lot of bleeding around the sticker edges. It kinda worked for the "worn" look I was going for, but I still touched up a few spaces, especially the red letters. The last thing I did was dilute a little of the black paint in a bowl of water and brush it all over the canvas.

Add a little flower and you're done!

Linking up here.



It's Raining Babies!

 Okay, they aren't quite pouring down from the heavens, but pregnant women are coming at me left and right. I have 3 close friends and a sister that's preggers right now. I can only pray that they name their children something that is easy to applique!

My work friend has already picked her baby's name (so convenient for me), Elissa Joe. Pretty adorable huh?

I whipped up some burp cloths for her. This was actually the first project I used my embroidery machine for:

A few hair do dads:

And a super soft minky taggie toy:

I wasn't entirely sure I would have time to make her a blanket, but this one was so super simple and I knew the fabrics would look so cute together, I just couldn't resist! This is one of my vintage sheets, with a backing of the same super soft rose minky.

Man, do I love this minky!



(It isn't technically a quilt, since I didn't use batting and I only tied it with yarn in a few spots)

I wrapped it all up in a personalized bucket with a little shrink wrap.

Linking up here.

Buttercup Bags

Who doesn't love Made by Rae's Buttercup Bag pattern? It's simple, it's cute and it's FREE. Perfection.

Here's a few I've made recently:

This one is made of some Japanese print that a friend gave me. It's for my niece:

I think that I'm going to give this one to the friend who gave me the fabric:

This one's for me. Red, white and navy. I love it!:

This one is a little special. I originally was just going to use only zebra print, however...



...after I finished it, I realized my daughter was so kind as to cut a little gash in the side for me. I couldn't be too mad, since she was probably trying to "help.":

A friend of mine mentioned I might try to patch it up, so I used the other animal prints in the above picture. What do you think?

Linking up here.



LadyBug Picnic!

I made this little cutie as a Christmas present to my daughter. It's the first time I have tied a quilt instead of free-motion quilting it. I have a tutorial coming soon!

Turkey Day Shirts

Linking up here.



Turkey Day Cookies

Sooooo, I know, I suck at blogging lately. Honestly, I'm working just as hard as I ever have at projects. I just don't really feel the need to share them as much. It makes me realize that most of my blogging endeavours were fueled by a not-so-little need for validation. You know, the whole "look what I made! See how useful I am!" sort of thing. I'd probably say I should explore this with a therapist if I didn't feel like I was already over it.

Sort of. I mean, I'm not shutting down or anything. I just need to get off my butt and take more pictures (and then upload them, write about them, etc.) Maybe I'm just being lazy.

Anyway, I saw these on Pinterest:



(originally from Poppy Cove)

I wanted to make them for my son's Thanksgiving feast at school tomorrow, but OF COURSE, all candy corn (that I could find anyway) is made in a factory that is contaminated with nuts. We don't personally have a nut problem, but the classroom is nut-free. So I improvised with:

Mike & Ike! And homemade icing and chocolate chips. I originally bought:



But before I started decorating, I noticed it said "Does not harden for stacking" and knew it would be a big messy mess.

So, yeah, mine aren't as cute, but they're a good nut-free alternative!

Linking up here.

Vintage Sheet Row Quilt

I've been on a bender.

On Saturday nights, you can find me on the bad side of town, jonesing for a fix.

Everytime I score, it just makes me want another.

(Yes, I've been watching a lot of Breaking Bad lately)

No, I'm not doing anything illegal, but you could call me a junkie.

I have an addiction...

to vintage sheets!

(source)

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So awesome, right?

And I've been snapping up every one I can find.

You see, my friend is having a baby. A girl! (Is it just me, or is everyone having a girl right now?) And she has some awesome vintage taste. So I started snapping up vintage sheets and thought they'd made a pretty cool quilt for her little one.

Please ignore that awful crease down the center. I've had it done for a week and it's just been sitting folded up in my closet--way to be on top of the blogging!

This is the first thing I've quilted on my new machine and I think I still need to work out a few kinks. The tension was really hard to set. But it worked out.

But I still have a lot of sheets. A LOT. I'm sure there will be more vintage goodness to come!

I'll be linking up here.

Spooky Shirts

Version I found on Zulily: 

 

My version:

I was going to do a jack-o-lantern face on Kiki's, but she picked out the scariest face that the Silhouette store had to offer. I didn't want her to make the other 3-year-olds in her class pee themselves any more than they already do. So we went with her fav, a kitty.

Loving my new embroidery machine!

I'll be linking up here.

Class Windchimes {Teacher Gift}

Things really get busy with 2 kids in school, huh? I'm always amazed by how much we get done by noon now.

Anyway, Finn's teacher's birthday is coming up next month and my neighbor (who also has a boy in Finn's class--YES, it's all my housewife dreams come true!) suggested we make her a windchime.

We went out and bought some metal alphabet stampers. Who knew they're sold at Hobby Lobby and only $12 (even less with 40% coupon)? Then we got some metal washers and stamped each child in the class' name on them. We went back and forth about what to hang them on, but while shopping at Goodwill, we spotted a cute door hanger and that was settled. I upcycled it by cleaning it up a bit and Mod-Podging the teacher's name to the bottom.

I added the teacher's name to it and voila! I think it was just such a great idea and a really cool way to remember the class!



I'll be linking up here!

And I'm entering this into Sew Dang Cute Crafts' Upcycled Linky Contest. Go check it out!

Welcome Fall {Bag Personalization}

Last week was my birthday, and it was fabulous! My dear friend gave me this purse I've been wanting:



And a few days later I was in Hobby Lobby (spending the gift card my mom gave me) and came across this lovely print on clearance:



I mixed the two together...:

And got a fab new personalized purse! I love it and the colors so remind me of fall:

I'll be linking up here.

Pina Colada Rum Cake {Recipe}

I have been sitting on this recipe for a couple of months now (I actually got it from my local liquor store), just waiting for a chance to make a cake--so I finally made it for my birthday last week!

It was amazing.

I'm a chocolate and icing kind of girl, but I didn't miss either of them at all.

***Non-alcholic version instructions (for kids and preggos) are at the bottom of the recipe***

Pina Colada Rum Cake

1 box pineapple cake mix
1 package (4-serving size) coconut pudding mix--I used vanilla on one of the cakes and it was just as yummy!
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup pineapple rum
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Glaze:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup coconut rum

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan, or use Baker's Joy spray. Sprinkle chopped pecans and coconut flakes over the bottom of the pan.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in the eggs, water, oil and pineapple rum. Blend well. Pour batter over nuts and coconut flakes in the pan. Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan while you prepare glaze.

To make the glaze, bring butter, water and sugar to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add in the coconut rum.

Remove cake from pan. Pour half of the glaze into the empty bundt pan and then place the cake back into the pan to absorb the glaze. Poke holes into the bottom of the cake while it is in the pan and pour the rest of the glaze over the bottom. Let the glaze absorb for at least 20 minutes. Remove from pan into serving dish.

***Kid-friendly version****
To make it kid-friendly, simple boil the coconut rum in the glaze instead of adding it in at the end.

Enjoy!



I'll be linking up here!