East End Cake Decorators - December 2011 Meeting

This was the last meeting of 2011.  We had a pot luck, a fun gift exchange and show and tell which included this pretty little chalet brought in by our long-time member, and the Christmas cakes below.

All this takes is a few cookies.  Two whole ones for the roof, two trimmed for the front and back, and one cut in half for the sides.  The trimmed bits are used for the chimney.  Then decorate.  

The challenge for this meeting was to only use the holly leaf cutter to decorate a Christmas cake.  There were a couple of variations:  the top left has a poinsettia made from red holly leaves, and the sleigh in the front is a clever way of using larger holly leaves.

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The next meeting will be on January 22nd at St. Margaret's in the Pines, Lawrence Avenue near Kingston Road in Scarborough.  Cynthia Lewis will be demonstrating the correct way to do brush embroidery.

More flower quilt blocks

Two more finished blocks on the road to the completed flower quilt.

I used wide two-tone wired ribbon for this flower.  

These three gorgeous hand made flowers were made by Sandy who took part in the Retreat in Colorado.  I loved these flowers and took them off the block they were on to make them part of my flower quilt.

Frosty!

This is the postcard I made for the Christmas swap on Stitchin Fingers.  

Star quilt

I posted this photo at the beginning of 2011.  I had just started making blocks for a paper pieced quilt for our Seniors' group.

Now here it is assembled by Terry. Jan (on left), Terry (top right) and Anna are getting on with the quilting of it. 

Boys and their toys

A  quiet moment.  It could have been a whole quiet afternoon if Jack (8) had been allowed to keep playing his game.  Josh (4) and Elijah (2) were fascinated with it.

This is Emily, now 6 1/2 months, and she still has blue eyes!

And sweet little Elijah who looks as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth!  (But we know better!)

Just a few pictures from our Christmas celebrations this year.  

WIPocalypse deadline

The WIPocalypse list of unfinished projects is due before the end of the year, only five days away.  Once listed (aka "owned up to" ), we will work on them during the month, and check in each full moon to report on our progress.  So as not to be late in listing (aka "procrastinating"), here is the list.  If you want to check out WIPocalypse look here for information. 

1. Flower quilt - 60% finished.

This will be a 3-block wide by 4-block long wall hanging.  I have completed the 12 blocks.  They now have to be joined together and finished.  

2. Handkerchief quilt  - 25% finished.

There are about 22 vintage hankies appliqued onto white cotton squares.  I have to square them all up, add sashing.  Then the quilting ladies at my seniors will hand quilt it. 

3. Asian wall hanging - 30% completed.  
These are naked blocks, but the embroidery is finished on all of them.  I want them together as a wall hanging, I just have to figure out how to do it.

4. Flag Project - 0% completed.

This is the flag of India which I have committed to stitching for the Flag Project.  This is due at the end of January, so I'll be working on this first.

5. Quilt as you go quilt: - 80% finished.
Still needs some blocks joined and the whole bound all around.  I made this "quilt-as-you-go" single bed quilt from men's cotton shirt fabric and silk tie fabric.  The centre diagonal strip in each block is silk.  

6. PDF Tutorial to make an heirloom baby block.
I've been working on this project for a while, I just want to get it finished.

Angel swaps

I took part in two swaps this month.  On the Swap Bot group Hooked on Dotees, Nancy and I traded our choice of dotees.  I requested an angel, and she a kitchen witch.  This is the outcome and we couldn't be happier!

Angel

Kitchen Witch

The second swap was for a Christmas themed postcard on Stitchin Fingers.  Again I requested an angel and received this great postcard from Liz.  The postcard I made went to Australia and hasn't arrived yet, so I can't post a picture of it until it does.

Angel fabric postcard from Liz

Gardenia and hydrangea wedding cake

I just really appreciate it when a customer shows me what they have achieved with their purchase from my etsy shop. 

I had a lovely surprise in my e-mail in-box when Carla from honeycrumb sent me photos of a gardenia cake she had made using my gumpaste gardenia tutorial.   The overall cake is beautifully made, the fondant looks perfect, and the gardenias and hydrangeas are just lovely.

Carla, thank you for letting me brag about it!

Wedding Cake

This was a very special cake that my friend Verdie and I worked on last week.  It was the wedding cake for her son and his fiance.  The bride chose beautiful jewelry which sparkled brilliantly on gorgeous wide satin ribbon.   

It looked very elegantly plain until you looked closer and saw the hundreds of little white flowers on various areas of the cake.

All About Angels RR - Joyce's block

Joyce's block arrived with lovely stitching already on it by Laurie N.:  the cross - lower right, hearts and gathered ribbon seam - upper left.  Wendy R. :sequin flowers with chain & drizzle stitches, and the lazy daisies below the angel.  Debbie S. added the lace with the blue stitching and gold bead clusters, the sequin flowers and butterfly to the left of the angel and the roses across the top of the block.  Also beading on the white rose lace to the right, blanket stitches and the gold stars above the angel. 

Joyce's All about angels block is the last I will receive in this RR.  I've enjoyed working on each and every one of these lovely blocks.

I really like working with blues.  This block had a great assortment of rich cream and blues.  The centre is a very pretty cross stitch that I think Joyce did.  

Double herringbone

My favourite two stitches at the present time:  the scallop and Kiko's flowers.  

Some large chevron to fill in the space on the right hand side.

Some pearl swirls with tiny charlotte beads.

While the block was hanging around waiting to be written up and then packaged for sending in the New Year, I had another go at it, encircling the angel block seams with four different tiny stitches that didn't intrude into the block and the angel. And if you look very closely, you may find three teeny angels.

Commitments for 2012

I'm signing up for things, right, left and centre!  I'm going to be busy, busy, busy in 2012.  


First of all there's the CQJP 2012 where we will make a block a month for a project of our choice;  then there's TAST, take a stitch Tuesday organized by Sharon B., where she will choose a different stitch each Tuesday for us to investigate, practice and experiment with. 


And now I have found WIPocalypse which deals with the forgotten, unfinished piles of sorry, neglected projects.  For this challenge we will list our WIPs, and check in each full moon to report on our progress.  I think this is brilliant.  If you think it's brilliant and worth a look, check here for information. 


And because I don't believe in writing something without  adding a picture, here's my biggest WIP that needs to be finished.

This is a lovely selection of vintage hankies I collected from E-bay a few years ago.  I appliqued each one onto a square of white cotton and they will become a quilt....hopefully in 2012!