Fall

It's been forever since I've blogged. I do have some crafty projects in progress, but nothing I can share at the moment. So, without further ado: pictures from our apple orchard trip this past weekend.

Buttercup, age 12



Daisy, age 8



All of us



Happy fall!

Kirsten's doll quilt is complete!

I'm so happy to finally have this finished. It's pretty basic - I stitched in the ditch to quilt it, nothing fancy. I've never done binding on a quilt before, and it went pretty well. I hand-sewed the binding to the back (is there another way? Please tell me there is!), which didn't do my wrist any favors, but then I also did rather enjoy the stitching process. This was a really good experience, and gave me confidence to quilt and bind a quilt top I made a few years ago. (I haven't started that yet, but soon!) I also need to make a doll quilt for my older daughter's American Girl doll.

Anyway, my youngest daughter is so happy to have a quilt for her Kirsten doll - can't have Kirsten, bundled up in her flannel nightgown, getting cold during these hot August nights, you know! :-)

Introducing... Buttercup!

I decided to feature one of my older daughter's ("Buttercup" as she shall be known in my blog) crafty projects. Wandering through JoAnn one day, Buttercup spotted these flip-flops and decided she just had to do the ribbon flip-flop project thing. She picked out a few ribbons at the store, then raided my ribbon stash, and voila! Cute flip-flops!

Just ignore the dirt on my rug, thanks!

Kirsten's quilt top

My youngest daughter just got Kirsten, the American Girl doll, for her birthday. We decided a fun project would be to make a doll quilt for her doll (and for her sister's AG doll, Nellie). This is Kirsten's quilt top - it's pretty basic, and while the corners don't match perfectly, I think it's really pretty. My daughter chose the arrangement for the blue squares - I like that it has some of her in it, even though I'm doing the sewing.

Now for the challenging part - actually putting together the quilt, quilting it and binding. I've never done that before, yikes! But, never going to learn if I don't try. And, I'm working my way up to sewing a bed quilt for my youngest, as we redo her room into a horse theme.

Horse cake

This post is like the other bookend to birthday season in our household (the previous post being the first bookend). My youngest had her birthday party on Saturday. She is waaay obsessed with horses, and wanted a horse/western theme to her party. I came across directions for making this cake, and it seemed perfect - and fairly easy.

Decorating it was a family affair - DH and our older daughter helped braid the licorice for the reins, and DH's cousin did the white mane for me. I think it turned out great!

The party was also a success - from my daughter greeting each guest saying, "Howdy pardner, welcome to the wild west!" to 10 kids devouring cake and ice cream in what seemed like seconds flat!

And now I can breathe a sigh of relief - no more birthday parties for another year!

Beach Cake

My oldest had her birthday this week, and last weekend was her party. It was a Hawaiian/tropical themed party. We found this idea from Family Fun magazine. We used Fruit Stripe gum for the surfboards, and we put Polly Pockets on the cake. It turned out really cute!

Heather Bailey Pincushion

I fell in love with this pincushion when I first saw the pattern! Last fall I decided to tackle it. Chasing down the pattern was a challenge - it was on the Better Homes and Gardens website, but the sizing was all wrong. I found the original magazine that it was in, so I'd have the correct dimensions. The pincushion ended up being a bit challenging for a newbie sewer like me - although what I had the hardest time with was sewing that button through the pincushion! Even with a long needle and such.

Anyway, today I noticed that Heather Bailey has the tutorial available on her website (www.heatherbailey.typepad.com - I'd insert the text in html but blogger has decided to be cranky and not do that today) which reminded me I wanted to post my photo on my blog!

I absolutely love the retro fabric I chose for this, too. If anyone has any great tips for how to sew that button through the cushion easier, I might make another one.