The making of a cake.....

It was L's 10th birthday party with his school friends today. He was having a laser tag party - the perfect indoor venue for a winter baby! I asked L what he'd like for a birthday cake. "A laser gun", came the reply. Now, I'm not much of an illustrator and I certainly didn't idle my time away doodling illustrations of guns like boys generally do. I was more the 'etcher of rock stars names' over my school books. And we've been so busy at work, I'd had no time to research the illustration and print it out in an enlarged photocopy format. So this morning with iPad on the table I went searching for the perfect reference image. Enlarged it as best you can with an iPad, traced a dodgy pieced paper copy and made a paper template for a rough outline on the cake. It doesn't look much in these early stages with its patched bits (see the join at the tip of laser) and quite scary with limited blobs of butter icing. It's at this stage I always lament that I've bitten off more than I can chew and started to worry that my cake was going to look more like a hair dryer than a laser gun! Onto the full set of colour icing. Still a little bland without a lot of depth. (But nice colours...make mental note for next quilt!) Add some black icing...just like eyeliner for your cake! Not finished yet. Add some trim in the form of Smarties and mini M&Ms. Mmmmm....a winner. And what did L say? "It's perfect mummy!" What's more, we walked into Zone 3 and the staff went off, took photos and loaded it up onto THEIR Facebook site. I'm mildly chuffed to say the least! (Facebook: Zone 3 Adelaide check it out!)

Ten

Happy birthday L. You've been itching to turn 10 and have finally hit double digits, the big 'one-0'! You take life in your stride and work really hard with more homework than all the other grade 4's, you laugh a lot, love running outside and playing lego, your wii and DSi. Have a great year little man!

I'm going to make you a star....

My red, white and blue Maverick Star quilt top is finished. Now....for the back. Kay made the wonderful suggestion of using the triangles cut from the stars to make pinwheels. A few of these will definitely be incorporated in between 10th birthday party celebrations, an extremely busy week (or two) at work, a new computer and software and some uni chapters that need finishing. Life is never dull, that's for sure!

Channelling my inner Ralph....

I wasn't intending to work on a quilt like this but I was chatting to Joshua's mum about the quilt I made for him a while back (2009!) and it got me thinking about red, white and blue maverick stars again. I just love how these colours are just so classic and it's no wonder Mr Ralph Lauren sticks with them year after year. Here it is on the design floor. I've used a lot of Prints Charming that I've had in the cupboard, a heap of spots and dots in various configurations and splashes of solids. Each block measures 12" finished and I used this tutorial for the blocks (but without the wonk). It should finish up around 60 x 72.

Jumping to it....

My long term Katie Jump Rope quilt is finally a finished project! I think it's been on the go for nearly two years if you count the process of purchasing the fabric. Measuring 70" x 63", made from 5" blocks featuring about 26 fabrics from the range and quilted in straight vertical lines about 3/4" apart, this quilt has lost none of the charm that I imagined it would have. It's very vintage...slightly at odds with the 'mod' back that features a range of solids in co-ordinating colours pieced together in strips. The binding is the bandana print in blue which I acquired after the top was pieced otherwise it would certainly had been included. However, using it only as binding frames the quilt beautifully. Now back to the work in progress pile!

Adding to the collection....

I admit it....I'm a Denyse Schmidt fan....big time. I have two quilts in the 'works' featuring Denyse Schmidt fabrics - one Katie Jump Rope and the other Hope Valley, I've also been collecting OOP Flea Market Fancy and have a little bit of County Fair. I'm reserving judgement on her Greenfield Hill line BUT as soon as I saw her DS Quilt collection for Joanns in the US I just knew I HAD to have some. I've read some posts relating to the line coming to Spotlight in Australia but my interpretation is that it's only 11 fabrics and they'll be different to the lovely set of red, blue and green floating around US blog land. The Australian shipment was slated as May but hasn't materialised (pardon the pun) at my Spotlight stores.....much to the assistants chagrin!!! (please read as annoying/pesky customer asking wierd question) So, given my 'addiction', I've had to take advantage of a very strong AU dollar and purchase via Etsy. 21 gorgeous prints in colours and prints that are worthy of the collection!

Baby Bliss Bow-Tie.....

The 'Baby Bliss Bow-Tie' quilt is finished and is even more divine than the first bow-tie mini quilt I attempted a few weeks ago. This one is slightly bigger at 32" x 36", made up of 4" blocks (8 x 9) that feature triangles cut from 2 1/2" wide strips. All of these triangles are from the off cuts from a Bliss jelly roll (Bonnie and Camille for Moda). Bliss really lends itself to cream, pink, aqua, grey and green backgrounds. I've also used white in some of the blocks and whilst Bliss is cream based, these blocks really pop and look lovely and crisp.The quilting is straight line in between each of the joins in both directions....simple! I've used a Moda plaid fabric (sorry, I've forgotten it's name after cutting off the selvedge) in grey which is a lovely choice for a neutral backing that doesn't fight with the front or the binding. The binding is a Spotlight version of honeycomb in red and white which also works well Bliss. This range was a lovely quality and I'm kicking myself for not stashing more as the red has run off the shelves at my local stores.