Aren't these Victorian silhouettes fun? I saw them on UCreate and had to make them for my home this Halloween. You can find the link to the images HERE at Value Village. Just print, frame, and enjoy. This took me about 10 minutes, with the longest part of the project being cleaning the glass on some existing picture frames and hanging them up straight. Definitely worth 10 minutes, I think. 
.....but I'm REALLY excited for dessert.
This week was learning double nine and double four patches...along with the flying geese square. I didn't get very far as you can tell. This is the double nine patch. Well, actually it's four double nine patches put together....confused yet? I'm confused 83% of the time myself and I've been taking the class for 3 weeks! Hopefully, I'll be able to make the other squares and post them for you soon
This week was the log cabin square. I felt a lot more confident making this one than I did the first week. I'm still not entirely sure about my fabric choices, but it is starting to grow on me a bit. It's amazing how different the colors can look from night (artificial light) to day (natural sunlight). This looks much better in the natural light. I'm not really going to know if I like it or not until I see it with the rest of my sampler squares when I actually put the quilt together. 
This was the alternative square for week 1, called the Roman Square. I decided to make it for the practice. Don't look too close, I've still got some learning to do....it's so hard to get everything EXACTLY measured and lined up correctly. Time and patience....and a lot of practice are all I need.
A great little "portfolio" bag to store kids' art work. You need a paper bag, scissors, and some strong tape.
First, cut your bag down the middle of one side panel.
Cut the bottom of the bag off and discard. You will now have one long rectangular piece with the handles still attached at the top.
Fold the bag over so the writing is on the inside and line up your handles so they meet in the middle.
Tape along the bottom and one side and your artist portfolio is complete. I made one of these for each of the kids in my son's class. For our first art class, we decorated them with a monkey, the kids' name and any extra artwork they wanted to add. They loved them. Now, we're ready to begin making some art projects!
What a cute little guy. And he is so easy to make. Just a few circles cut and glued and you're ready to go. I got this monkey face from the party masks HERE. Click on the picture that says "watch video" and you'll see the mask at the end of the clip.
Supplies:
Start by gluing your 1.5" yellow in the middle of your 2" brown circle.
Cut in half and you have monkey ears.
Cut your 2" yellow circle about 2/3 of the way down for the mouth. I turned the corners a little so he is smiling.
Glue ears and mouth to 4" brown circle.
Add some hole-punched black eyes and your little guy is complete. I am the art docent teacher for my 5 year old's class at school. We made these monkey faces to decorate art portfolios (another post for those) so the kids will have a place to store all of their art for the year. My son's class is "the monkey class" (each class is a different animal), so these worked great to decorate their bags along with writing their name and their own decorations.
Pear Custard Pie (tart)
Week #1 of my quilting class has come and gone. We were asked to come to our class with a light, medium, and dark fabric of our choosing. 
Ta Da! My first quilt square (or is it a block?)! We did a rail fence pattern. This square is 12"x12" and I think it turned out pretty cute. A lot of fun to do and definitely not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it considering it was my first time creating a quilt square/block/thing.
These are for baby Blake. Want to make one? Here's what you need:
Place fabric WRONG side up and place a piece of Wonder Under (rough side down) on top. Press with hot, but dry (no steam!) iron for a few seconds.
Peel the paper backing off of the adhesive.
Trace your letters onto your adhesive/fabric. If you are doing a non-symmetrical letter, make sure you trace it on backwards so when you turn your fabric over it is facing the correct way. Do it once, and you'll see what I mean.
Cut out your letters.
If you have enclosures, use a craft knife to carefully remove the excess fabric.
These first steps are quick, so you might as well make a few in case you mess up or want to use them for another project.
Place your letter on your onesie and press with a hot, dry iron for about 15 seconds or so. Don't move the iron around, since that might shift your letter.
They look so cute! For a one time wear, these are good to go. If you want them to hold up in the wash though, we need to sew them down for extra durability.
I do a zigzag stitch around the outside of my letter first. If you want to use stabilizer at this point, go ahead and do so. I don't use it, but a lot of people really like the extra control it can bring when sewing on knit fabric.
Make sure your needle is down when you lift your pressure foot up to turn around corners. This can take some time and practice, but once you got it...you got it.
Don't forget to sew the enclosures too, if you have a letter A, B, D, O, P, Q, or R.
I heard Blake received some camo burp cloths from his grandma, so I thought I would coordinate.
Hope this was helpful. Leave a comment if something needs clarification. Have fun sewing these, they are a bit addictive!
Hooray! My cake is featured on the best cake website for all of us non-professionals out there.
A Superman/Batman combo cape for my cousin's son, Jack.
Cut out two Superman shapes, one red felt and one yellow felt. Also one oval for the Batman shapes. I just traced around my printed images using a pencil and then cut.
Next, cut out the negative space of the Superman symbol and the bat out of the Batman symbol. I used a craft knife. Take your time so it's nice and clean cut.
Turn over your bat to the white side of cardstock so you can trace and cut out a bat from the black felt. (Easier to see that way so it's not black on black)
Trace and cut out the "S" on the red felt for the Superman symbol using a craft knife. Once again, take your time. This is the worst part of the whole process right here....so not too bad.
Once you have everything cut, you are ready to sew. Take your yellow Superman piece and trim just a touch around the edges so you don't see any of it peeking out around the red felt when you lay it on top. (See my little yellow trimmings above?)
Sew a zigzag stitch using red thread for your "S" and black thread for your bat.
I did a pretty tight zigzag, but you could do it a little looser if you wish.
I am making a copy of a cape I already have, so I just traced around the existing cape, and cut one red and one black. The dimensions of my cape are 26" long and 17" wide. Make sure you wash, dry and iron your fabric first to avoid shrinking!
Sew on your symbols to the coordinating fabric. Use red thread for the Superman and yellow for the Batman. (This step is not pictured, sorry.)
Your cape is inside out when you finish sewing. Turn it right side in (surprisingly easy to do) and pin your gap closed. (See above) Sew your gap closed with a straight stitch. I sewed this step with my black fabric facing up, and therefore, used black for my top thread and red for my bobbin thread. 
Finished Superman side
Finished Batman side
