Birthday cake fun

My littlest baby turned 6! Lily is quite a personality and I love her so much it's hard to believe she is growing up so fast. For all of you non parents there are big changes between ages 5 and 6 and suddenly Lily is a little girl not a toddler anymore, it can make a Mommy teary just thinking about it. For Lily's birthday this year she wanted a castle cake with "pink and blue frosting, a princess, sprinkles, and big" so big in fact she thought we should get started about three weeks before her birthday. I managed to convince her to wait but this is the final product.

I think it turned out pretty good considering I have never made anything like it before. I did have a lot of help from my sister who has taken a very intensive cake decorating class, thank you Mariah! The castle is made from rice crispy treats that we covered with fondant. Lucky for me they have pre made fondant at Joannes Fabrics and my sis had a lot of the decorating supplies we needed. Instead of covering the whole cake in fondant I made a yummy raspberry cream cheese icing that is so good and the perfect pink color. Of course all the work was quickly destroyed as we cut into the cake and the girls wanted to eat the towers but Lily loved it!

Creative Mom

Intersection Quilt

Intersection Quilt

This was a really fun quilt to make. The colors were cheerful, the quilting was line after line which I find meditative, and it wasn't too complicated. Today I was able to give the quilt to the Mommy-to-be who loved it. She is still waiting for her little girl to come out but I think it will be soon.
 That is the last baby quilt for a little while, although I already have 2 on the horizon to start in the fall. I did go over the original 5 but do I have my creativity back? I think it's safe to say I do but the drawing/painting piece is still missing. There have been images floating around in my head so I want to take advantage of this time to start some drawings. My hope is I can keep the same routine and excitement that I have for quilting and see how it transfers to drawing. I have another week and a half where my kids will be in camp every day so this should allow for some good studio time.


Creative Mom

New Quilt

I did the traditional cleaning of the studio after finishing the last quilt and then just jumped right in.

Intersection quilt by Laura Docommun

This quilt is for some friends having their first baby, a girl, their due date is the 7th! I was hoping to have this done a few weeks ago but was put behind with some of the challenges of the last quilt. The Intersection quilt has a really simple design and a modern feel which is why I chose it with the future Mommy's blessing. She also visited the fabric store with me and helped select the back ground fabric and a few options for the backing fabric but she wanted me to make the final selections so she would be surprised. I went with one of my favorite prints for the background that I hope gives it a less flowery look then the one in the book and then I had a lot of fun picking the fabric I used in the strips. I had some scraps of their fabric to incorporate as well.

Closeup of strips, I love the colors.

My favorite fabric for the background.

Knock on wood but as I hoped this quilt is coming together really quickly and I should start quilting tonight or tomorrow! 


Creative Mom

Finished!

Finished and ready to go to Tulsa!

Considering how long this quilt took me to start it wrapped up pretty quickly. The quick turn method I mentioned in my last post was really quick and I would recommend it for new quilters that aren't ready to tackle binding. 
 The quilting part of this piece was fun. The pattern called for you to quilt on the seams but the close ups in the book showed that it wasn't quilted that way, another mistake in the pattern.The quilting actually looked like random lines all over the place. I decided to vertically quilt lines but not perfectly spaced and then I did more random lines horizontally sometimes stair stepping or making other shapes. 

Closeup 

Back

I will be starting a new quilt today but will be met with the same challenges of summer...how do I make time for myself when the kids are home all day and just want me to entertain them?! This is a big question that I have only answered by working at night or for short periods in the morning when the kids actually manage to play together. Any suggestions are welcome! 


Another question crossing my mind is what about my fine art and the drawings I have been imagining in my head? I am loving quilting and making these for friends who I cherish but I am ending up with self imposed or due date inspired deadlines. I want these to be finished on time for my friends and then I have to choose quilt or draw? Quilt or blog? Quilting has been winning and then what about everything else? 


Creative Mom