chocolate cake: paper pieced

I am doing so well on this project,
here is the 3rd one:
The chocolate cake!

Pattern from Ellison Lane Quilt.

And here are my three first block together,
I am not sure I will totally be able to catch up,
but it goes fast and I an having fun!

Happy sewing!

popsicle: paper pieced mini quilt

Here is my second block of the cool summer treats series.

pattern from Ellison Lane quilt

So far, it has been a fast and easy project
I already chose the fabric for the borders,
it is guiding me in my color choices,
which are a little stronger than usual .

Happy sewing!

a glass of lemonade: paper pieced mini quilt

I am a little late starting this project,

but after seeing so many beautiful blocks

I decided to join the fun.

So here is my first block:

A tall glass of cool pink lemonade!

pattern from Ellison Lane Quilts: lemonade 

 This is going a great series.

Happy seeing!

sushi by the seashore or dolls in Breton shirts

The girls went to the shore for some sushi.

Since it was a cool day, they decided to wear their new Breton outfits.

Nevada was the bravest as she wore her swimsuit under her T-shirt,

but kept her skinny jeans!

Her swimsuit is from last year, made from Miss C.'s old suit.

For her jeans, I used this Liberty Jane Pattern,

just like I did for one of Miss C.'s friend, once again using some of my old jeans for fabric.

For her top, I followed another Liberty Jane pattern,

and used an old Breton top from Brick Master.

Being from Bretagne, I take Breton shirt very seriously!

Mathilde wore the the cut-out version of the jeans, made with the same old jeans

and a tank top made with a free Liberty Jane pattern, also made from the same Breton shirt.

Miss C. made the sushi with electric tape and pieces of felt,

following this video from my Froggy Stuff.

Polly wore a similar tank top (same pattern), made from a different Breton top,

Brick Master is going to need to get some new shirts!

She also wore some white shorts, made from the same pattern than the jeans,

with cool pockets and details.

Rebecca wore a dress made from this Liberty Jane pattern,

and I stitched it from the same Breton shirt that I used for Polly.

The rest of the Asian food are erasers, it also came with a little tray to display the meal.

The girls managed to enjoy their day,

even if the sun was not really present,

just like summer in Bretagne!

Happy sewing!

linking to http://www.realcoake.com/

another pillow

I realized after making the LOVE pillow

how much fun it can be to sew patchwork

without following any kind of pattern.

So I tried something different,

well at least to me.

I started with a stack of fabric I wanted to work with,

and a cute embroidery.

(I followed this pattern)

I used the horse at my starting point, 

and just added squares and strips of fabric,

without any pattern, following my whim.

When I reached a large square,

I used some thin batting and quilted it without backing,

alternating lines and flowers.

( I used the same quilting flowers on Miss C.'s quilt.)

I stitched another large square on the top and

a rectangle at the bottom of the quilted square.

I folded over twice the edges to have them neat.

Then I sewed the sides together,

turned it right side out,

and stuffed the large pillow in.

Now Miss C. has two new beautiful pillows,

with a mix of purple, turquoise and aqua,

which only means Miss C. is growing

and has a new favorite color!

I see a lot more work in my future to update her room!

Happy sewing!

Earth day recycle: doll couch

Happy Earth day!

Miss C. and I worked a little recycling magic,

thanks to this tutorial from American Girl Doll Play,

and made a couch for her dolls.

Yes, it did start as a clementine crate,

we just recovered it with foam, batting and fabric,

and it was ready to go.

And it goes so well with the mini Love pillow

I made last week for Miss C.!

The girls just love to hang out,

listening to some old records,

obviously from their mom!

The record player and records are from 

the Julie Color&Craft book,

I found it at Costco for $8.50,

and it has some nice activities,

there are a few different versions,

I also purchased the Kit one,

but I am keeping as a surprise...

Hopefully you are enjoy Earth day

and not seasonal allergies!

Happy day!

modern quilted LOVE pillow

Lately I have not been inspired about quilting.

I see a lot of beautiful quilts,

but I rarely fell like making one myself.
Well I was inspired by Oh, Fransson! and her SEW pillow.
(there is also a very interesting quilt with all the explanations)

Can you tell Miss C. enjoys her new pillow?!

I chose 4 different color groupings: aqua, purple, green, turquoise,
and made 4 little patchwork with various scraps
like in the instructions of the quilt.

Some of the fabric are Liberty of London, batik, other are regular quilting fabric from various projects,
I still had a tiny piece of the hedgehog fabric!

I drew large letters, and using wonder-under, ironed them on the back
of the patchwork, cut the letters out,
and ironed them on the white-on-white dragonfly background.

I sewed around the letters with a zigzag stitch (like in the directions)
and did some simple diagonal quilting.

I used some aqua/purple dragon fly fabric for the back and stuffed it.
Since the background is white, it probably would have been smarter to use
some kind of pillow form so that it could have been washed easily......Oh well!

I had some of the patchwork left, so I made a mini version for Miss C.'s dolls.
I used some rounder letters for the word, but the same color combination.

It looks like a total success for both of them!

Happy sewing!

storing baking pans

With the new lighting and the freshly painted cabinets,

the kitchen seems like a bright new room.

Now the eat-in area doesn't look good enough to be seen together!

We used to have a large metallic shelf in the corner, holding my bakery supplies

(and a collections of pans!)

While it had a great industrial look, it felt quite overwhelming for the space.

We also used to have a large TV armoire (from when TVs were not flat!).

We played a game of furniture moving:
the large armoire in the dining room,
the shelves from the dining room in the kitchen
and the metallic shelf in the basement (perfect for storage).
It made the room much lighter, with more space to move around.

As you might remember, I made a few boxes for the white cart
to store our lunch drinks (or how to make soda cans "sexy"!)

Here and here for the directions.

I really helped with our storage area of the cart,
 it is very practical and aesthetic.

Now I need to address these shelves,

they have replaced the metallic ones,
but need to store the similar baking pans.
I have already found a way to create a little baking center

in the little corner by the door.

Now I  want to store all of my baking pans in nice containers,

well just about anything is an improvement over the plastic milk crate,

the side of the wall for the cookie sheets (some were missing!)

and just plain pile of pans!

And Yes we need all of them,

I am a serious baker...!

Well I came up with a solution:

I think it is going to turn out great!

I am off to work on them.

Happy day!

lighting for the kitchen

While I was working on painting the cabinets, I realized the lighting was not up to par.

We have large windows in the room,

but at night the ceiling light did not illuminate the room well enough,

even after we installed lighting under the upper cabinets
(thanks to the addition of 1 X 2 and molding at the bottom of the cabinets).

We looked around for a while and decided on the

not-so-popular track lighting.

Why?

The electrical outlet was not above the island,

the pantry and my bakery corner were so dark.

With track lighting, we were able to address all of these problems.

Mon Cheri installed two 4 feet sections at a 90 degree angle,

allowing us to have 2 pendant lights just above the island.

Our island is at a 45 degree angle, which could seem odd,

but it actually works perfectly for the space:

good distance to the fridge and the stove.

Isn't the island so much prettier and interesting?

There are also 3 spots: one for the bakery corner,

one for the pantry and one more for the stove.

It is so much brighter.

The pendant lights look similar to the other 2 light fixtures

in the room, I believe it works nicely together.

 Light, finally!

Happy day!

spring break

This spring break was pretty good,

it started with snow:

 and sledding (for the first time since we moved here 2 years ago!)

The kids were so excited.

Then we really appreciated some really nice sunny days

where Miss C. fully enjoyed the outdoor,

nothing like little girls and trampoline

and flowers and puppies, of course!

Hope your spring break was as good as ours!

Happy day!

done with painting the cabinets!

I did it, I finished painting the kitchen cabinets,

and it is done before Easter!

(I had given myself this arbitrary deadline)

And it was done even with the crazy weather we have been having,

and yes, it matters as I have to sand the doors outside.

(as we do not have a garage, an attic

or any real place to work)

I did it in small sections as I am also limited by the surface of

my painting table: the dining table.

We have been eating in the kitchen for a while,

and each time I sat at the kitchen table,

I was reminded how much work I had left, 

but no more!

The room is so much lighter, it is amazing!

Here is where most of the work happened

(besides the painting)

My inspiration was this post from Remodelando La Casa.

Of course, as one project is near completion,

other things creep up,

like lighting, and annoying ugly pantry door....

Tomorrow is another day,

we came up such a long way from the time we purchased the house!

Happy day!