Saturday, September 20, 2008

Choo Choo Sugar Bomb


I made Chase's 1 year birthday cake last night!  I borrowed the cake train pan from a friend and I was very pleased with the final results.  I think it is adorable, although with all of that candy on the cake it is certainly sugar filled!  The one thing I did learn was that I think I over filled the pan a bit and had to cut off the train bottoms - but it worked out alright.  The best advice I had for doing a cake like this was to grease the heck out of the pan...


Sunday, September 14, 2008

Embroidered Onesie





I finally figured out how to embroider onesies on my embroidery machine!

Things that I learned:
1)  Use a sticky stabilizer - otherwise the fabric tends to bunch and shift
2)  Use a water soluble stabilizer on top of the fabric to keep the threads from sinking into the onesie
3)  Hoop the onesie and then flip it inside out to keep the back out of the way
4)  The back is pretty rough after being stitched so it probably needs some kind of backing on it - I still have to figure out what kind of product I want to use for that

In general I am pretty pleased with the final product!

A Sewing Learning...



Chase absolutely loves tags so I decided that it would be a good idea to make him a tag blanket.  It didn't really turn out well and it was a bit of a disaster.  A few things I would do differently:
1)  Skip the tags on the corners
2)  Maybe add some kind of decoration to the fabric
3)  Use safety pins to pin the tags rather than straight pins

Yet Another Tote



So I am apparently addicted to totes...

Here is my latest one.  I used a heavier fabric which I was pretty happy with and I did a bit more decoration such as the cream stripe on the tote.  I also add a bunch of pockets inside so that I can use the tote as a diaper bag.  Overall, I think it turned out well.

Monday, September 1, 2008

My First Embroidery Project


I finally finished a project using my embroidery machine!

Check out this quilt.  It is 40 x 60 which I think is a nice size for a baby quilt or a throw.  The front is made of cotton and the back of the quilt is fleece.  I have never backed a quilt in fleece before but I was really happy with the results, it made the quilt very snuggly.  I did pretty minimal quilting on this because I didn't want to clutter the look of the front, I can't decide if I should add more or not...


Here are some examples of the embroidered blocks.  I thought they were perfect for a kid blanket and I love how detailed they are.





Overall the machine was definitely worth getting!  I can't wait to finish more projects with it.


Back to Crafting



Well  I have finally returned to the crafting world...

Here is the second tote that I have made.  I actually like this tote A LOT better than my first attempt.  I made it a little wider which I liked and I also made short straps which I think looks better.  The only thing I was disappointed in was that I wanted to do a bit of decorative stitching where the two fabrics meet and I forgot.  Otherwise I was very happy with the project.