Sewing for grand-daughters...

In my post before Christmas I mentioned that I had been doing some sewing.  I have three grand-daughters, one in Quebec who received the little bag for her birthday in October, and two here.

I started off with some great fabric that Suzie had bought years ago for a baby shower.  She only needed a fat quarter sized piece and had enough left over for a little tunic.  This wasn't a Christmas gift as I had promised to make something of the fabric when she had a daughter.

This was a easy pattern to use, so I made another one from Matheson tartan fabric.  The hem is only tacked.

I love this pattern, it is from the '70s and is only size 2. This one is for Emily also and I'm searching for more small sizes to make this dress for the other two girls.  

The snuggle quilt is for baby Lauren.  I chose ballerina fabric on the fluffy side and blue and silver fairy wands on the back.

And this little smock is for Lauren.  Of course I couldn't stay away from the chicken scratch!  The neck binding is eyelet lace.

It sure was fun sewing these little items.  


Hope you all had a good Christmas.

And have a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

CQJP2012 Getting there....

I haven't been posting much sewing lately, mostly birthday cakes, and there's still one of those when  I get the photos.   But I have been sewing, but not stuff I can show.  I've been busy taking Stitchmap's Redwork Course, and doing a bit of sewing for my grand-daughters and those I will post after Christmas.

I've finished 15 fan blocks, trimmed them to 9 1/2" square and I'm ready to move on to the next step - putting them together.

After a lot of help from my friends and trips to the fabric store to test out colour combinations, I can finally say that cream will be the background colour for my fan quilt.  

Because the squares are on point, there are lots of triangles needed around the edge, and these will be filled with simple fan designs in neutral colours.  I'll use the same silk for the sashing, and I've ironed on the knitted interfacing to give the strips body and mainly to stop the silk from fraying. 

I'm off to Florida on Boxing Day for a couple of weeks and I plan to work on the nine fill-in triangles.  

I wish everyone a very peaceful holiday, and the best New Year!

Visit to Quebec

It's an annual event that I take the train from Toronto to Montreal to spend a weekend with my son and his family for the children's birthdays.  Brynn is such a girl, well into princesses and babies, and smart enough at four to point out to NanaD (me) that the princess on the cake just couldn't fit through the castle gate!  "Even her head got stuck!"

For this 8" heart cake I mixed lilac, pink and green fondant together and it turned out really pretty.

Caleb is into cars, of any sort, especially wrecked and rusted.  At a vineyard this summer we spotted a really rusted out wagon.  The front end, in sugar, became the cake decoration.

This is a smaller version of the backpacks I made earlier in the year.  And the pattern is the flip and sew quilt block design, only using satin, velvet and lace strips, with beads and bows.  Right away Brynn put the bag to the front, hooked her arms through the cord loops and popped a baby doll into the bag.  

A collage for Caleb of the vineyard wreck.

What's missing here is a photo of Brynn and Caleb at their birthday party.  It's coming soon and I'll post it then.

Hurricane Sandy Quilt Drive

The pattern is "Wonky Log Cabin" and these six blocks are my contribution to a quilt drive for those affected by the recent Superstorm Sandy.

I signed up at The Quilting Gallery to make some blocks.  The pattern is pretty easy and there are good instructions.
  

Recent Wedding Cakes

Here's a couple of wedding cakes Verdie and I have worked on recently.

The first one is from one of the Wilton books.  It has masses of roses and carnations plus the curved pieces that have to be pre-made and formed on the white Wilton curved formers, and then iced with dots and sweet peas.

Top tier

Bottom tier

This was mostly Verdie's work although I did give her a lot of moral support while I was working on my grandson's lego cake!  

East End Cake Decorators November 2012 Meeting

This colourful table-full of cookies are only half of those decorated on Sunday by members of our Cake Decorating Group.  It's an annual thing.  Each November we decorate cookies for local charities, these will be distributed by St. Margaret's in the Pines Church (our meeting place).  As usual, we are under a time constraint, because we have to decorate and package within two hours, so we devise ways to not have wet icing at packaging time.  Spreading a thin layer of royal and then dipping in sanding sugar works well, as does pre-making small decorations such as holly leaves, candy canes, angels and stars.  

Working hard

Above and below are close ups

Diane K and Shirley making a start on the packaging.

.

Elijah's 3rd Birthday

Elijah wanted a Star Wars Lego birthday cake.   Heather found a Yoda character that wasn't attached to a $$$lego kit.  Yoda is Elijah's favourite character and you can see him dressed as Yoda in my previous post on Halloween.

On the left is a space craft under construction.  On the right is the home of the characters, with table and chairs, a sofa and side table.

This is a great place for a kids' party, lots of running, climbing and sliding.

Halloween 2012

The five Ontario grandkids anxious to be on their way to candy heaven.  All the rest of us chanting...as soon as we get a photo of you all!

Finally, ready for a photo.
We were so lucky with the weather.  The bad storm was supposed to give us high winds and rain on Halloween night, but all it did was drizzle a little.

Jack and his sister Emily, the Owl.

Heather and her little ballerina Lauren

Joshie as Darth Vader

Elijah as Yoda

We all had a lot of fun.  The kids and their parents roamed the streets while the various grandparents passed out the treats at the door.

CreativFestival - Toronto

This is the cake that CSSA (Canadian Society of Sugar Artists) members created for the entrance of the CreativFestival in celebration of the Festival's 25th Anniversary.  

And in the background, hanging on the curtain is my Flower Quilt.

The cake represents crafts and hobbies that have been featured over its 25 years:  quilting, scrapbooking, jewelery making, doll making, knitting, crochet, embroidery, smocking, and cake decorating, etc.

And this is me with my Flower Quilt at the same show.  My quilt made it into the 10 finalists in the Quilt Category! 

When the large cake was being discussed I volunteered to make the sugar "quilt" to go with the sewing machine.  Verdie (my cake partner) and I worked on it last week and Glenys (the big cake coordinator) and I manoevered it into place onto the sewing machine.

Here it is, the sugar quilt on the sugar sewing machine.

All these are made from sugar - knitting, jewelery, dolls, painting.

Cake mixer, scissors, buttons, cake decorating items.

Second Quilt-as-you-go finished

Here's another one of those quilt-as-you-go strip quilts that we are making at our Seniors group.  These blocks are about 15" square, so is the size for a single bed.  

The cottons are mostly pastel shades of pink, lilac, blue, lemon, aqua and white, with some darker purple within the square and used as the sashing.  My friend Suzanne and I have been doing the machine sewing and we have a very neat quilter, Anna, hand-sewing the one finishing seam that cannot be done by machine.

We had so many fabrics to choose from.

August Block CQJP2012

Finished the August block, but only just before the September one is due!  This one is really the Technicolour Dreamcoat.  I used mostly Sassa Lynne variegated thread, and variegated silk ribbon with a good helping of orange and red.  

I used a selection of blue silk tie fabric for the block, but I don't remember why I chose to do so much orange and red embellishment.  But it worked OK. 

I know now because I'm in the middle of taking Stitchmap's Colour Theory Class and understanding the colour wheel a little more, I see that blue and orange are complementary colours. 

Here are a couple of close ups: 

  

CQJP2012 July's blocks

Here's my first block for July.  I used mostly  Caron Watercolours variegated thread for the fan part of the block.
Visit the CQJP2012 blog to feast your eyes.  

My swirls are improving.  These were drawn freehand with my disappearing pen.

I had a bit of fun with the various flowers.

This is my second block for July.
The embroidery here is all in a gold and silky thread.  

A close up of the buttons

A close up of the fan part.

"Birth"day girls

The newest little one to join our family is Lauren Grace, born 14 May.  Brothers Elijah 2 1/2 on the left and Josh 4 1/2 just love her to bits!  She's the calm in the storm.

And it's hard to believe, but little Emily is one.  The years fly by.  

Ooooh!

It took her a while, but she did get a little bit messy.

I tried Martha Stewart's Italian Meringue Buttercream and it was delicious.  This is a 12" diameter cake and those "Funky Letters" set fill it perfectly.