Hair all buttoned up!

I spent some time yesterday with Kim from Milkybeer handmade at the Regina Cathedral Village Arts Festival street fair. We had a great time even though the cold, windy and cloudy weather didn't cooperate. (but that's quite the running joke for the CVAF to never have nice weather. )

Beside some quilts, cuddly bunnies, reversible dresses, cool coasters and mug rugs, comfy baby sleep sacks (and more!), Kim had some little fabric button elastics for sale. Oh my the cuteness! I got to take an orange pair home. And some tips from Kim. ;-)

So after stopping at my local fabric store, I picked up quite a few kits and made some on this cold rainy Sunday. What an awesome way to use my tiny scraps!! Oooh this could be addictive! (Kim had warned me!) How many fabric button elastics can a child have? Is there a limit?

L is delighted and so am I! Maybe I could even wear them too?

(L's hairband is from Lil Diva Designs. I bought it at the CVAF street fair. )

Twins quilts! A charm friendly adventure...

I love to use charm packs from Moda! Do you? They are so affordable and I get to receive 42 different little fabric squares from the same collection. Sometimes, other collections also grab my eye! Like the ones from Riley Blake.

So. Darn. Cute!
For these quilts, I used the collections called Mod Tod for the boy quilt and Sunny Happy Skies for the girl quilt.

For the pattern, I gravitated again towards my Moda addiction: thank you Moda Bake Shop! Tons of free downloadable patterns in PDF using the Moda pre-cuts. (Love. It. )

I used the pattern Snuggle Play Laugh Love quilt from Jennifer at Gable House Sewing. (thank you Jennifer!)

It was my first time doing a diagonal quilt and I didn't realize you were not supposed to "stretch" your fabric to make your seams meet, not even a little bit! So my quilt tops didn't lay perfectly flat at first. Nothing the quilting didn't fix later. But that meant I couldn't add the border. Aaaaw! (I know, I was disappointed, to say the least.)

Well they turned out great I think! The perfect size for a stroller blanket or a car seat blanket. They are about 32 inch square.

Printed fabric in the back is from Ikea.
I decided to stipple the quilts using free motion quilting. I love doing it and really like getting better at it too.

I hope Miss P. and Mister D. grow to use them, love them, get them all dirty from carrying them everywhere and sleeping with them. :-)

Congratulations to parents A. and S. for their two little bundles of joy!!!!

P.S. oh yeah, check out the new quilt label with my logo. :-)

(Please excuse my feet! whoops!)

So what else is new?

Well...

It's been a while. Maybe I can give this a try again? I've been quite busy quilting in the past... What? 2 and half years!

So let's start with the now.

Monsieur lets me know tonight that we will visit his coworker on Sunday who had twin boys 2 months ago. "are we going to bring them a gift?" he asked. Well why not a little Friday night project I thought. Something quick and cute. And easy.

Two little tiny ribbon blankets. :-)
I've seen them called tag blankets too.

I used my left over fabrics from the Dr Seuss quilts I made the kids for Christmas. I didn't buy a thing to make these! (yay for using the stash!) Left over ribbons from pillow case dresses orders. Minky backing bought four years ago for the kids own tag blankets. Even adorned with their initials in appliqué. Each ribbon blanket is only about 12 inche square. Small but easy to grab for a little one. :-) (and not too bulky to bring along either. )

Not bad for a three-hour Friday project.

Don't you love to start and finish something quick, without dragging it?

What have you worked on that was quick?

No I have not vanished...

yes, yes, still here!

And still working on the three cushions. They are coming along nicely actually. I'm just sewing the binding to them. One is completed but need to be handsewn in the back. Pictures will come soon, don't worry about a thing!

Cushions to match, and a sweet tooth.

I've started three big cushions to match my living room Snapshots quilt. They will be 20 inches square. I'm using three left over blocks from my quilt. I intend to quilt them too. The outside fabric isn't my first choice. I would have much prefered to use the Joel Dewberry Aviary Sunburst one but I'm not sure I had enough for all the borders. But this will work.

I am piecing the back of the cushion covers with the scraps also from the Snapshot quilt. It was my first time using scraps and sewing them together without a pattern. So I just went ahead, making sure I would maximize my use of fabric.

Some scrappy scraps waiting to be sewn together.

And here we have two pieces that will be the back of one pillow cover. Not too complicated, but still cute and random. They are all different. I like that.

Do you know by now that I like this Joel Dewberry's Aviary Sunburst? .... no? Weird. I really thought I made that clear.... Well the binding will be made with... right, you guessed it. And it's all rolled up, ready to go. So neat.

I'm now basting the cushions to the batting and backing. But with many guests in my house (whom I'm very happy to see though), it's getting hard to find some time and space to baste.... So this project isn't coming along that fast.

So I spend more time in the kitchen. You know, entertaining my guests!

Would you care for some chocolate covered strawberries and cherries?

Oh my, so YUMMY!!!

I was going to use some of my own chocolate at home but I stumble upon this little box at Sobey's, right next to the strawberries.... How convenient (and so "marketing" I concur).

Anyway, I gave it a shot. At $2.99, I didn't have much to loose, did I? It worked pretty well and the whole box was enough for all the fruits in the plate (plus a little bit more eaten in the proces... who can blame me?) You just microwave the little chocolate waffers, give it a stir and voilà! you're ready to dip! Easy peasy yummy.

And last but not least, the PAVLOVA!

oh Heaven, Oh Goodness, Oh my oh my!

What is a pavlova would you ask? Here is a great recipe and some information too.

It is basically a thick meringue crust (that is crisp on the outside and soft and marshmallow-like on the inside). On top of that, you layer whipped cream and fresh fruits and berries.

Well thanks to my good friend Marlene, I've been introduced to it last summer and since then I've been making this consistently over the summer months. I would say.. once every two weeks?
Well no one here can resist it!

Purses? done!

I finished the purses for Leeann and Amy. Aren't they cute?

Amy's:
Inside pockets, a big one and a cell phone double pocket too.


Here are Leeann's purses.


Two cute purses, sitting on the bench, next to each other.... They just look like a girl and boy version of each other....

Something else got done yesterday! (they finally came to paint the front door! hum, I waited what... two years almost?)

Isn't it just beautiful? It just ties the whole house together, with the front red bricks that we have. I'm super happy with it! (even if the colour isn't a perfect match, it works great by adding so much more life to the house!)

J'adore ma nouvelle porte orange brûlé!

I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night

(yeah, you know, even my 4 year old sings it these days.)

Anyway, yes indeed it was a good night:

PRV'd The Real World Cancun last night and watched it.

Watched Big Brother 11.

Made some Florida Orange Iced tea. Yep from scratch, with real tea. A Rooibos tea from my friend Jacqui at Sisters Leap Tea. (which one of my friends isn't addicted to Rooibos Chocolate Mint yet? that's right, you know you all are! LOL)


After being at Amy's house on Monday, and tasting her iced tea, I decided to give it a shot.

I boiled about 7 cups of water and added the tea to that. (how much tea? about 6 or 7 tea measures I think). Then some sugar too (how much? well maybe 5 tea measures?) Got it all cold in the fridge too. There, we're ready for you Summer! Because The Weather Network tells us that you're finally coming back tomorrow for a while! hallelujah! It's about time!

Then of to the purses....
The "exteriors" are done.
Cutting the pockets for the interior.