I spoke too fast....

Last week, I spoke too fast

of the lack of interesting in Halloween costume!

This week, both kids decided that indeed there was

a need for new outfits.

 

So now I am up to my eye balls in tulle,

purple velvet and pink shiny fabric, lace...

you guessed it, there will be

another Rapunzel for Halloween!

Brick Master is still stuck on knight,

so technically it should be easy,

but since he is a growing machine,

everything is just too small!

So more shiny fabric (silver this time!),

felt and pseudo-leather!

There are still almost 2 weeks,

(party at school on the 29th!)

so I do not know what I am concerned about!

Oh yeah, there is that Holiday boutique just a week after that!

Better get back at it!

And yesterday I tagged along with Caroline from Artfully Caroline
to a discount fabric store,
you can read more about it here,
we had a great time!

Happy sewing!

about that cake

Lat time, I showed you a nice looking cake,

I call it my harvest cake,

it is a deceivingly easy and fast,

perfect to make for last minute dinner guests.

It is my Mom's recipe,

so I do not know where it really originated.

2 eggs
1/2 cup of sugar (100g)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour (100g)
1tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp milk
6 Tbsp butter (100g)
2 apples (or other fruits)

Mix all the ingredient together except for the apples.
I like to cut the apples into thin slices,
 a bit like for a traditional French apple pie.
When the batter is ready, add the apples
and bake for 30 min at 350-375.

It can be eaten warm or cold,
either way it is delicious....
I wish I had some left....
I guess I should not have eaten all yesterday!

Happy day!

Fall is here!

I finally decorated the house for Fall.

In a new place, it is always hard

to figure out where and how to decorate.

In this house there is no mantel above the fire place,

but there is a side board by the dining room table,

so I decided it would be the perfect place

for a Fall vignette.

I grabbed some large sticks/branches (thanks to the hurricane)

and added some older sunflowers for a touch of color.

The bird cage holds a pumpkin (made here last year)

The table runner is also from last year, it works perfectly here.

The terracotta pumpkin is made for candle, and glow beautifully,

my in-laws brought it back from over sea.

I printed this lovely fall picture from Today's Fabulous Finds,

just the right touch of words!

I also made this cute garland from felt leaves.

I followed a great tutorial but I cannot find from which blog....

I spend a fair amount of time looking for it,

so if anyone knows it, please let me know,

I would like to give credit to the right person!

(I am a RnD scientist, I like when my work is properly referenced!)

*here is the tutorial! from Maureen Cracknell Handmade*

Anyway I used my slice cutter for the leaves shapes (paper),

cut one leaf from felt, use a contrasting felt color (without cutting),

free motion stitched both layers together to make stems,

them cut the background felt a little larger.

It went fast and it was fun.

I used a band of drop cloth to make some binding

to attach all the leaves.

It looks much better in real life,

today is a very rainy day...

you can also notice that whoever (previous owner!) painted did a bad job,

which means I will have some more painting to do!!

Overall, I am happy with the result,

Fall is here!

See that cake on the table, just over the quilt?

I will talk about it next time!

Well I am going to have a slice with a nice cup of tea,

yes it is that rainy!

Happy sewing!

working hard...

I have been working hard on many projects,

but not taking pictures or writing posts,

just a case of more doing, less talking!

Which makes for a less than exciting blog!

On top of that I decided to participate to

 the Holiday shopping Boutique

at my kids'school, (my first one!)

so a lot of sewing and crafting getting done,

but again not so much blogging!

It is only a few weeks away,

I still cannot believe we are just a few weeks from Halloween!

Well nobody has been asking for new costumes,

so I do not feel the season coming!

Here are a sneak peak to a few of my projects,

some that I might post on later on,

other that will just disappear!

Happy sewing/crafting!

update on Miss C.'s quilt

Miss C. and I have completed the top of her new quilt.

And yes she is very proud of herself!

Because we change the design of the quilt,

after cutting the squares (!),

we have a few extra blocks...

Miss C. sewed some of them to make the back.

After reading this post from Swim, Bike, Quilt!, I felt like I needed to try a pieced back.

So for the first time, I sewed a simple design on the back!

I had used different fabrics on backs of quilts because of lack

of yardage, I have used pieced binding from left over fabric from the top,

but this was different,

and aligning everything was not very easy,

so we will see how everything turns out

once it is all quilted!



Happy sewing!

finished quilt

I finished quilting the quilt

for donation.

I went for simplicity

with a lot of quilting on the borders, and simple echoing on the print.

The back is one piece,

and I used the same white for biding.

I think it turned out pretty nice,

I wish I had read this tutorial from Briana Arlene

before quilting,

it would have been even cutter,

oh well I still need to quilt Miss C.'s

so I have another chance!

Happy sewing!



to the Renaissance fair we went...

Last week was hard, rainy and sad,

(more on than later),

so we went to the fair this week end,

nothing like renaissance fair to lift your spirit!

We of course dressed up for the occasion,

Miss C. went with her Belle dress

(may be not really Renaissance, but she was not the only princess!)

and Brick Master wore part of his conquistador costume,

I need to make him a new knight costume,

the old one is too small!

The plays were great, the jousting was excellent

and the food was perfect!

We just had a wonderful time!

We returned home happy and tired.

I needed this break, my grandmother passed away on Wednesday,

and her funeral was Friday.

We had a really good time with her when we visited this summer,

we saw her almost everyday, she was still at home,

and while she was already in pain, you would have never guessed.

Now I really miss GBD,

not that there are any connections between of the two of them,

but he always knew when I needed him!

(he was the best 90 lbs lap dog)



Miss C.'s first quilt

Toward the end of the summer vacation,

Miss C. and I decided to repaint her room.

It was an nice color but too dark for her

and definitively not girly.

So we painted it together a nice lavender shade,

perfect for a small room and little sun
(picture to come...still need to organise the room!).

After we were done, we realized we needed

to add more personality to the room,

(I still need to make the curtains with the fabric I brought back from France)

she knew what was missing: a quilt.

Do not get me wrong here, she had quilts,

made by me, by her grandmother, she is not lacking in the quilt department.

But what was missing was one done by herself!

After all, 7 is the right age to make one!

I took Miss C. to the quilt store and let her choose the fabric.

There were no hesitations, she saw the fabric she loved

(the one on the bottom)

and then chose 5 more to go with it.

Interestingly she chose 5 from the same line, they were placed through out the store,

not together as a collection, I guess it felt right for her.

I added the batik on the top for border/binding.

I cut all the fabric, I was too nervous about letting her using the rotary cutter!

We decided on 6 1/2 inch square.

Miss C. started sewing all these squares together, matching up the sides!

I first I thought we would just use these squares

and make them into a simple quilt,

but it looked a little uninspired.

Luckily I had just read this tutorial on Swim, Bike, Quilt,

and decided to use a similar pattern,

instead of a 2 x 2 center,

we went with a 2 x 3 center,

making it a rectangle.

We were able to use of the square that she had sewn,

I just added the border (3 1/2 inch wide) as it is a little harder to sew straight!

There is still some work to be done

 (finish the top, quilt it, bind it, which I will probably do since

 we did not finish before school started!)

but it is turning out to be beautiful,

a perfect quilt for a growing girl!

Happy sewing!



of quilt and school

This week end, after recovering from the hurricane and the lack of power,

I started working on a little quilt for donation.

I had not made one in quite some time,

and it was fun!

I followed the direction from this tutorial from Swim, Bike, Quilt!
and make this top.
I had purchased the flower fat quarters probably 7 years ago,
and this was a great way to use it, may be not very modern
but definitively charming!

I made the top in one afternoon, so a fast and easy project,

now I need to find some fabric for the back...

Today was the first day of school,

it is hard to believe that it is Brick Master's last year of elementary school,

and that Miss C. is already in 2nd grade!

They just keep on growing!

(guess who needs a bigger jacket?!)

Happy sewing!



gettin ready for school: the nook cover

Technically this is not really a back to school project,

but Mon Cheri spends a lot of time in the metro,

and we ran out of paperbacks!

It was time to embrace technology,

and go with an electronic reading device.

I guess it was the perfect present for

being one year on his new job.

I jumped on the opportunity to make

a cover for it,

it is not often that I get to sew

something for him!

I was inspired by this cover seen on Flickr,

make of wool felt and leather.

I made mine of wool that I brought back from France,
some imitation leather and quilting fabric.

I cut from the wool 2 rectangles:

10 x 15 and 10 x 5,

from the quilting fabric 1 rectangle:

10 x 11

from the imitation leather:

a square 4 x 4

and a rectangle 10 x 1.

I also used some interfacing for the quilting fabric,

and some velcro.

I used 1/2 inch seam, wool can fray pretty fast!

I sewed the pseudo leather pieces and

 the velcro on the top of the cover,

I sewed both pieces of the inside

and the other side of the velcro.

 

With right side together, I stitched around the top flap,

so just both wool layer, starting and finishing at the quilting fabric.

I then returned the flap, right side out.

I folded under 1/2 inch the bottom of the quilting fabric,

then I folded the rectangle in half, meeting the seam between

the fabric and the wool.

I sewed both side of the rectangle (short sides on the picture)

 

I did the same thing, on the wool side,

creating 2 pockets.

Then I turned right side out of the wool pocket

and slided inside the cotton pocket.

I then hand stitched the 2 pockets together.
I also top stitched the flap.
And voila a cute manly cover!

Happy sewing!

getting ready for school: the pencil pouch

These are our last few days of summer vacation,

we have been visiting friends (with the excitement of the earthquake!),

gone one more time to the beach,

done some yard work,

we are almost ready!

A few more sewing projects before it is officially back to school:

a pencil pouch for Brick Master.

I followed this tutorial from Noodle Head at Sew Mama Sew.
It went fast and well, even if sewing with vinyl is not so easy!
I used a large zipper, hopefully it will make it easier to open and close it,
anyway it will be much better than the one we purchased last year
(it lasted only one week!)
yes one more reason to make it myself!

Now I just need to finish the first day outfits,

and we are good to go!

Happy sewing!