Racing Shirts Quilt

 I was never really an athletic kid. I played a bit of soccer, but not all that well. I swam a bit in high school, but never on the first-string team. A few friends started doing Couch to 5k last year, so I tried it, too.  I signed up for a few races, then a few more, and, somehow, a year has gone by.

I'm not a big novelty t-shirt person; I knew I'd get a lot of race shirts I wouldn't want to wear. I got a great idea: make a t-shirt quilt with all my race shirts and embroider my finish time on each square. Twelve months and 12 races later, I finished it. 

A year later, I'm still not ready to run a marathon (or even a half marathon) but I'm definitely ready to try to got for a personal record at every race.

Fairy Houses

  Summer vacation is here which means lots of playing outside, no schedules and tons of free hours to fill. This summer, I'm going to try to do one fun art/craft/science activity each week. A.K.A.: Time to see what things on Pinterest really work.

The first week was fairy houses. The Bean had been ally into making a hiding spot for fairies in our front shrubbery so I thought she'd like to decorate an actual structure. I loaded up on coupons from JoAnn's and we picked up a few wooden bird houses, paint, shiny rocks and other fun, pretty decor. I let the girls paint the outside however they wanted before we had fun with the glue gun. I set the glue gun on low, put a good glop where it was needed and let the girls place what they wanted there.

I love the feathers and grassy puff balls and the shiny rocks are beautiful. I don't know if any fairies have set up shop, but they add fun to our front yard.

Rainbow Cutie Mark Cupcakes

  The girls wanted a My Little Pony birthday party this year. It was pretty easy, actually. A unicorn piñata, "pin the horn on the unicorn" and some foil swirl decorations from Amazon (very thankful for Prime and free shipping!) and food from the grocery store and we were good.

We had about 14 kids and 10 or so adults. For a party made up of mostly four- and five-year-old kids, it went amazingly smooth. All the kids, all girls and one boy, played baseball with Grandpa, popped bubbles from the bubble machine and had fun playing dress up. There were no serious meltdowns, just a few normal bouts of sniffles and pouting. I probably used up all my karma, but it was so much fun.

I prefer cupcakes for kids' parties--they're the right size, already portioned out and no on pe has to wait for it all to be cut up.  This year since it was a My Little Pony theme, I made Rainbow Cutie Mark cupcakes. (Cutie marks are the designs on each pony's rump, usually depicting his or her talent.) I just used a white cake mix for the cupcakes, fondant for the designs and frosting for the tops and some design accents. Oh, and food coloring. Lots and lots of food coloring. I got lots of help and inspiration from the Nerdy Yummies video on YouTube.

This was my first time working with fondant. It was pretty easy, much like playing with Play-Doh. My hands were stained for a few days from the gel food coloring, so I'd definitely use gloves next time. I think they turned out nicely, although the butterflies are a tad too large.

For the cupcakes, I made the mix according to the box directions and divided it into six bowls. I tinted each portion a different color: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. I put a scant teaspoon of each color in the cupcake liners, layering    each color. The gel colors turned out really vibrant. All the kids were very excited to pick out and eat one!

Now I have another whole year before I get to do it again.

Serged Infinity Scarf

  The final project in my serger class was an infinity scarf made with a knit and ribbon accents on one side and a woven on the other. The ribbons are woven through the ladders of a flatlock stitch and the top and bottom are sewn with a regular overlock with some decorative thread.

I wanted to do something other than my usual black/white/grey pattern fabric. I found a beautiful flower fabric in the quilting section. It had red, grey, pink and yellow; colors I can fit into my usual clothing rotation but different enough for a little oomph. I found a pretty red interlock and grey satin ribbon and bulky nylon thread.

It was really easy to make. So easy, that I decided I needed another one. I raided my stash and found a bunch of my favorite Paris map fabric and some soft black knit. I made this one a little narrower and used a white grosgrain and some of the leftover grey satin ribbon.

I really love these. I hope the Infinity Scarf trend doesn't peter out next fall so I can wear these all the time.

Ombre Ruffled Apron

  My second project in my serger class was an ombre, ruffled apron with rolled hems. I wrote down the wrong number of  colors so I only had four ruffles instead of five. I made it work with a bit of math and a drawing to help me visualize. I chose a bunch of shades of pink and got some fun variegated pink and white decorative thread.

It's definitely a learning curve. There are so many more variables and pieces than in my regular sewing machine. it's like learning to drive a stick shift after learning how to drive an automatic transmission. I made my ruffles a bit tights so I had to slide them on the thread tails a bit to get them the right width. I had to play around with the tensions to get the rolled hem right. 

It turned out really cute, even with all the frustrations. I think I can adapt these techniques to make some cute ruffled dresses and skirts for the girls.

Easter Cookies

  For our annual Easter Egg Hunt last weekend, I wanted to make a fun, cute, kid-friendly dessert. Last year, I made cupcakes (which I apparently didn't write about...) and the year before I made Bunny Cake Pops. This year, I was inspired by the King Arthur Flour catalogue and made Easter Cookies.

I used their Sugar Cookie and White Icing mixes with some Wilton cookie cutters. I made the dough one day, rolled them out and baked the next day and decorated on the last day. I wanted to try the "flood icing" technique, but I don't think my royal icing was runny enough and I didn't feel like mixing all my colors twice, so I just went with it. I piped the frosting, spread with a knife and smoothed out any bumps with a wet finger. They turned out really cute, if I do say so myself.

Exposed Zipper Bag

I haven't been sewing much because I bought a serger a few months ago and I've been trying to figure out how it works. I made the mistake of using it for something that was probably more suited to a regular sewing machine and got really frustrated.  It stayed in its plastic covering and I tried to figure out what to do.

A good friend suggested Craftsy. They have lots of online classes, for everything from pattern recreation to cake decorating. I signed up for a beginning serging class, assembled my machine and got ready to learn.

It's awesome. The instructor, Amy Allen, is so friendly and helpful. The projects are useful and all the handouts are clear. I feel much more confident now.

The first project was an exposed zipper bag. I got a couple fat quarters, b/w houndstooth and a blotchy pink, a black zipper and four cones of black thread. It was fairly quick and easy! My zipper seam allowances aren't completely even, but I'm probably the only person who really notices and cares. I'm totally going to get more supplies and make more of these.