baby quilt

a friend of mine is having a baby any day now. i have been busy making her this baby quilt since last year. i can post this now because i finally sent it off to her last week.  i started with this tutorial found here. 

 

i had my fabric cut into squares and matched up right sides together

i drew a diagonal line and sewed on either side of it

 

i wasnt sure about this way of doing but it it was actually pretty quick and easy

 

then you cut along the line

 

voila, 2 pieces

open and press into place

 

i did that for all of them

 

i used dots and zig zags for the coloured pieces and a subtle white on white pattern for the other.

 

its important to trim extras, this makes it much easier later.

 

it looks like i could be done, but not yet

 

if you want to go the next level of pattern you cut the new 2 colour sqaures in half diagonally!

and then swap them around to make the 4 part new squares to be sewn together.

 

then the tricky part, figuring out the best layout to find the right balance of colour and repetition. in the end i went all sudoku and made sure only one of each colour was in each vertical and horizontal row. i know very OCD of me. 

i used some fabric i had already for the wadding and backing. and pinned it all in place to be quilted.

you can see on the back here the chevron quilting pattern. i used multi colour thread for that. its a bit tricky doing the quilting on my little domestic machine but the results are good enough for something that is to be used and loved.

here is the front of the finished quilt. i bound it in a light green and white stripe. although we know the sex of the baby, i wanted to make a quilt that was neither too girly or boyish and not the primary red blue yellow you see in all the kids toys. i think it is a pretty good quilt. i had fun making it and i know the new family will enjoy using it.

W, 1, one

a friend if mine had a baby boy last year on Australia day Jan 26. so this year was his first birthday, and i decided to make him some customised onesies.

i bought a set of three blue onesies outfits, and then went through my fabric stash to find the right patterns. then i bought some double sided iron on adhesive paper. 

 

i printed my artwork out to scale, in this case a number 1 that has a candle flame on it, the letter W and the word one.

 

then i copied the imagery onto the transfer paper with pencil, making sure they were in reverse, so they would be the right way around at the end.

 

once i ironed a square patch of the zigzag fabric to the drawn on iron on paper, i then cut out the patter, in this case the letter W.

 

this is the back,

 

i ironed it on right side around in position

 

then using some embroidery thread i slip stitched around the edges to make sure the graphic stays in place.  this is the candle number 1.

and this is the finished collection of three, the hand stitching took the longest but i did it while watching some TV so it wasn't that bad.

raw - vegan - chocolate - birthday cake

last year i made borris a raw vegan birthday cake. he loved it. loved it. well at least he spoke about it for a few weeks and then 6 months later couldn't recall it. :) but it was the start of a new tradition. last years was way too sweet for me, so this year i toned it down a bit.

the base is made by blending in the food processor, medijool dates, flax and sesame seeds, rolled quinoa, hazelnut and pecans, then pressed into the bottom of a loose bottom tart pan. put in fridge or freezer to set.

 

the main body of the cake was made in the blender (my food processor is a mini one or i would have used that) in there are cashews, more dates, banana, vanilla bean, maple syrup, coconut oil, coconut shreds, goldenberries, goji berries, hazelnuts, pecans and water.

 

then i divided the mixture up and put cacao powder in one of them. then i layered the 2 mixes on the base and because it is raw, no baking. just pop it in the freezer. in this case overnight to set.

the next day on borris' actual birthday we had dinner together and then i finished off the cake.

 

some toppings, shredded coconut, goji berries, chocolate covered goji berries

 

you can see the layers of chocolate and vanilla once it is out the the tart shell.

 

then i drizzled some melted chocolate over the cake and sprinkled the toppings on top of the melted chocolate.

 

borris on his birthday with the cake.

 

ready to enjoy, a slice of raw, vegan chocolate birthday cake. best part is that it keeps in the freezer for a while. this years cake was better than last years, not as sweet. i think the use of more cashews and nuts in the base of the cake helped with that, and less dates, more banana.

the cake was inspired by this recipe.

its been a busy week

last week was a busy week, and not just for us, but for everyone i imagine.

there was of course christmas. this was otto's first christmas, he got a squeaky squirrel toy from canada that he loves. borris and i were both spoilt. not sure of you can see our tiny potted tree on the table surrounded by the pile of presents.

borris got a new soft guitar case, and it fits his guitar perfectly.

i finally finished the quilt top of this project that me any my friend lindsay started (by mail) over a year ago. (her's has been done for a while now) next is finding fabric for the backing and binding. one of the many projects on the list for 2013.

speaking of sewing, me and my friend rosie finally had our long awaited, sewing date. in fact i think we have been talking about it all year. at least we got it done before the year's end.

i decided to make this pattern that i was given over 2 years ago at least, maybe even 3 years ago. i made the version on the left.

and following the trend of finishing long awaited things, i decided to use this fabric that i purchased at least 2 years ago.

this is the top gathering of the dress. rosie and i had a great time sewing but it took a long time to get into the groove of things. i finished this dress 90% and started another one that i will blog about when its totally done, hopefully soon.

i will post some images of the finished items then. hopefully rosie and i will have another sewing date soon, and not in a years time.

happy new years!  13 is a lucky number, so the next year is gonna be great.

SWIMMING POOL BIRTHDAY CAKE!

my weekend was spent doing some work in my studio and making the swimming pool birthday cake. it was actually pretty easy to do. just lots of simple steps to follow.

first make the cake from scratch.



let it cool for a day.



the next day, make your butter icing and colour a part of it green. colour some coconut green as well and sprinkle this on the green icing to make the grass for the base of the cake.



cut out a 1 inch deep well in the cake, to make the area the water will go into.
Place the cake onto the grass base.



colour the rest of the butter icing with cocoa and ice the top edge and outside of the cake with the icing and press the chocolate biscuits around the side of the cake, creating the fence.

be sure to make the blue jelly for the water a day before you want to fill the pool.



the butter icing is also used as a glue to make a musk stick and licorice ladder, and some pool toys.

the day the cake is to be served the pool can be filled with the mashed up blue jelly. the small dolls with their custom painted bathers can be set into the jelly in their candy floating rings, and some candy balls placed in the water.



the result is a swimming pool cake that looks great, and even apparently tastes good too.

here is the birthday girl with her cake, happy as.

swimming pool birthday cake!

this is my good pal shel. its her birthday this weekend.



this is the re-released 1970's birthday cake book.



this is the swimming pool cake, from the book that i will be making over the next few days for shel.

i spent the morning today gathering the necessary supplies. tomorrow i start making.
stay tuned for the results.