FFT#7 - Reneta's block

Reneta's round block will be on it's way tomorrow. The little angel in the centre now has a circling of beads and I filled in her wings with chain stitch using a single strand of the Oasis thread we have been discussing on the message board. I also made a trailing vine of bullion roses and buds over one of the seams.

Gumpaste Fuchsia Tutorial - Part 1

Fuchsias are the prettiest flowers I am making these for a competition cake later in June. I'll be taking pictures at each stage and writing instructions in the form of a tutorial.

Here are some real fuchsias. The colours and shapes are so varied. I'm making a purple and dark pink colour combination and I'll be making them double; similar to the one below, but opposite with the darker petal on the top.

1. Colour the paste you will use for the petals. You need three half stamens and one long stamen for each flower. Cut the tip off the long one.
2. Cut a 3" piece of 26 or 28 covered wire and bend a little hook at the end.
3. Take a small piece of paste and form it into a small rectangle.
4. Moisten very slightly, the inside of the paste and wrap it around the stamens and wire at the join.
5. Roll gently with your finger, back and forth, until the paste has spread up and down the wire and is smooth.
6. Leave to dry.
7. This is the set of fuchsia cutters. and the tooling pad I am using.
8. To make the first row of petals start with a small ball of paste and form it into a "Mexican hat".
9. I used the wooden tooling stick to roll out the paste from the centre outwards, leaving the "hat". If the "hat" part gets too long, then cut it off.
10. Then I placed the cutter over the hat part and cut out the petals. I turned it upside down and put the hat into the hole in my mat.
11. I used the ball tool to soften the petals.
12. I moved the petals to my board, turned the petals the right side up and used a tooth pick to frill each petal edge. Use a little cornstarch to stop the toothpick from sticking or tearing the paste.
13. I made a small hole in the centre of the flower, moistened it, and pushed the wire from the stamens into the hole far enough in so that the paste on the stamens is level with the petal.
14. I held the flower upside down by the wire and brought my partly closed hand down over the petals to give them a rounded shape. Hang them upside down to dry.
15. To make this a double fuchsia, I cut out a flower, this time without the Mexican hat. Tool it to thin the edges, then frill the edges. I use the wooden tool and a toothpick.
16. The I pushed this petal up the wire and on to the Mexican hat part of the flower. I had moistened it slightly.
17. Push it all the way up to the base of the other petal, and make sure that each of the new petals is over the space of the first ones.
18. Hang to dry. To be continued ....... I have the next step in the process, but I cannot seem to get the photos to the bottom of this post. So I will create another post and place it right below this one........                 

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"JUST RELEASED!"

My New (August 2011)

 *** Flower Tutorial Booklet*****

If you love making gumpaste flowers, please read
about my new Gumpaste Flower Tutorial  
which is available in Booklet form or PDF.



The tutorial covers these four lovely flowers:
Tulip, Gardenia, Lily of the Valley and Daffodil. 


Check it out at my Etsy shop here 

Tulip

Gardenia

Lily of the Valley

Daffodil

Fuchsia Tutorial - Part 2

This will be the calyx, the outside part of the fuchsia. Using the second colour paste, start with a small Mexican hat shape. Roll out from the middle until the centre post is about 1/4" and the paste is thin, but not paper thin. This is the calyx cutter. The hat part of the paste needs to fit into the hole, so roll it between your fingers until it is about the right size. You may have to lop a bit off the top. Now it's cut and still inside the cutter. It will not drop out because some of the "hat" is wedged in the hole. Use your paintbrush end to push it out. It won't be a pretty sight, all squashed, etc., but just rebuild it with your fingers until it is a neat shape again. If you are using a metal fuchsia cutter you will not have these problems.

Using a pointed stick or the end of a thin paintbrush handle make a hole right up the middle of the calyx. Tool the petals slightly so that the pointed ends raise upwards. Now, push the calyx onto the dried petals which you have already moistened slightly. Keep pushing gently until it covers the pink petal base. Smooth around so there is no pink showing through. Gently curl the calyx so that it is folding back from the pink petals. There's still the little seed bud to add at the top of the calyx. And then I will dust and steam. So, there you go, this is the fuchsia. It looks so complicated, but once you see each step separately, it's not rocket science!

Mother's Day

Here's my mum (93) with the gorgeous flowers my sister in New York sent. This lily is so beautiful.My two grandsons, Josh, 17 months, and Jack 6 years old having a great time with their corn on the cob. Thanks Suzie, Heather, John, Jason, Jack and Joshua for a great Mother's Day! Love you all. And to my dear Quebec family - son Neil, Lee-Ann, Caleb and Brynn....missed you guys, but see you soon.

Sugar Ice Skates

Here's the skates. Made from colourflow icing. And here's the cake. I added a few little blue flowers to the three empty corners after I took the photo, and across the front under the lettering I scratched the surface of the icing to look like skating marks on the ice.

Piping Ruffles

This pretty buttercream edging on the cake was done with a Wilton 140 tip. As I piped, I just moved the piping bag from side to side just a little bit and it produced these lovely ruffles. Below is the tip.

The cake has a figure skating theme and I made a pair of skates in colourflow. This was the pattern I used. I'll post a picture when I'm finished.

A new quilt

At the Piecemakers, the group that I mentioned in the violets post, we have just started to make a new quilt. Susan is one of our resident expert quilters and I am a very willing student. She brought in a sample block, made up of lights, mediums and dark values. This is a blue one, but the quilt will contain many colours. The fabric had been cut into small rectangles and pinned onto paper printed with sewing and cutting lines in triangles. It's a very interesting process, and I will do a step by step of this quilt's construction, week by week.

A closer look

Seen from a distance, just a blur of colour.......

But look closer.........

Joan, a member of the Piecemakers from St.Margaret's in the Pines Church, planted just a few roots in the church grounds ages ago, and these sweet little violets have multiplied over the years.

Marie's "Beaded Bits"

Marie Alton's niece Amy is riding 200km from Toronto to Niagara Falls in June in the Ride to Conquer Cancer and Marie has made a bunch of lovely beaded bits to sell towards this good cause. The whole story is on Marie and Amy's blogs which are on my sidebar. Anyway, these are the two "bits" that I chose:

CQInternational FFT#7, RR

Mary's block is on the move. In a previous post I showed it completely bare of anything as I am first one to work on it. Here's my stitching:

The fabric is pink metallic. I used a variegated dark green/maroon/pink perle 5 thread for the scallops and an pink perle 8 and dark green beads for the flowers.This fabric is a dark green metallic. The green thread is perle #5, the flowers are perle #8. This piece of heavy pale coffee lace is over cream coloured metallic fabric. I added some cream seed beads.