Birthday Gift Shopping and Wrapping

    It's that time of year again.  Time to think of birthday presents for DD.  I will not be doing any sewing for her this year because we have several secret projects we are sewing together in the next few months and I don't think I will  have time to make her anything super cute this year, so I bought her a couple of gifts.  Her birthday will be special this year so I wanted to make sure I had them ready to go when her birthday comes.

    The gifts arrived but I didn't have any pretty birthday wrapping paper for them so while I was shopping in Hobby Lobby last weekend, I bought a yard of cotton fabric with the cutest print on it and I wrapped my boxes up in the fabric.  Instead of taping the ends to secure them, I sewed them together with some contrasting thread and big stitches.  It was so much fun to do and the gifts look so cute with coordinating ribbons on them.  I will definitely post a picture after the gifts are given.

   Don't hesitate to use fabric for wrapping.  It's fun and so unexpected.

Happy Birthday Cake

     I made my daughter's birthday cake a little early this year.  I like to get this done on the weekend.  Her birthday is tomorrow, but she got her cake yesterday.  It's a Bacardi Rum Cake, a recipe from the The Cake Mix Doctor book.  It's the only cake I make from that book because it's always so good.  I have been making this for DD's birthday for a few years now.  She loves it.

All The Colors

   I started another colorful crochet blanket this past week.  It's a ripple afghan.  This is a super simple pattern I got from a Mary Maxim Booklet called The Best of Mary Maxim Ripple Afghan Book.  I found that pattern booklet on Amazon.  The booklet has about 10 beginner to intermediate ripple afghan patterns in it.  I chose the classic ripple pattern.  I love the sharp peaks and valleys.  It's made with single crochet and I'm using tons of color in it.  Each row takes me about 25 minutes.  I'm adding whatever color wherever and however many rows I want.  I will be keeping track of the colors I use and in which order and I'll publish that list when I finish the entire afghan, just in case someone is interested.  This afghan will be made with all Knitpicks Acrylic Brava Worsted.  This is the beginning.

    Consulting my project list, I see it's time to start birthday sewing.  DD's birthday is in November and I want to make her a couple of things.  I will start those this next weekend.  I'm planning two projects, one will take a couple of hours to make and the second one will take about double that time.  I don't mind making things for DD, she is completely worthy of any homemade items.  She uses whatever I make for her and always takes time to tell everyone that it is handmade by her Mom.   So no photos of these projects until they are gifted.

      I'm also planning to make to make DD a birthday cake this year.  I stated a tradition several years ago and I would make a rum cake for her birthday each year.  She loves the cake and it is so easy to make.  I skipped last year because I didn't feel up to it, but I'm making one this year and I even bought the rum already.  I had to get the rum first because it's usually that last ingredient I think of and I end up having to make a special trip to the liquor store because I only go into the liquor store to get rum for this cake every couple of  years.

   After secret sewing is done I will get started on my souvenir fabric tote bag projects using the fabrics I purchased in Hawaii.  Here is a picture of the pieces all cut out.  Yeah.  I don't know why it took me so long to start these.  I can't wait to use them.   I'm using Crafty Gemini's Must Have Tote Bag Pattern with the only difference being I'm using two fabrics for the tote bag instead of one.  This tote bag pattern is the best.  I have been using it for years.  It costs three dollars and you get a picture tutorial and a link to a video tutorial.  Thank you, Vanessa.

   

Birthday Kitties!

   Happy birthday to my kitty cats.  They turn 11 years old today.  My kitties are bengal litter mates and devoted to each other.

    Merlin is the oldest of the two and is a tri-color male.  He has lovely brown and caramel swirls in his fur.  His fur pattern is known as marble.  He weighs a little over 12 pounds.  He can be very vocal when he wants to wake me up to feed him in the morning.   Merlin doesn't sleep as much as his sister does and when he does sleep he likes to be by himself unless my lap is available.

    Taffy Morgana is brown spotted.  The rosettes in her fur pattern are very smudged and not as pretty and defined as some of the bengal cats out there.  Taffy usually comes in around 9.5 pounds.  Taffy loves her naps during the day and will lay down with me at night on the bed.  She will even get under the covers when she is really cold.

   They both have gorgeous black paw pads and light brown bellies with spots on them.  They are both fixed.  They are seven generations (F7) from the foundation cats so they have a very sweet nature.  They both like to drink from the kitchen faucet when I turn on a light steady stream.  They put their face under the water and let the water drip down the side of the face to their mouth.  It's fun to watch.

     They still play like kittens and love to chase each other back and forth through the house.  Taffy  likes to jump up on the top of the kitchen cabinets close to the ceiling.  Merlin doesn't go up there much any more.

   I gave them a little party this morning with their favorite wet food (Fancy Feast, any variety, or as it is known by cat people, kitty crack) for breakfast.

   Here is Merlin.

   Here is Taffy Morgana.

Birthday Gifts

    I finally get to share the birthday gifts I gave my daughter.  She turned 39 years old yesterday and we got to spend some time together yesterday so she could open her gifts.  I bought her a shop vacuum in July that was part of her birthday gift, but I wanted to make her a few things for her new house.  So here are the homemade birthday gifts I gave her yesterday.

    I made her a rag quilt with a sale priced flannel that I found at Hancock Fabrics.  I posted about it  here.  This project took me about 4 days to finish.  She loves the cats on the fabric and the gray matches her new couch.  I bought 9 yards of this flannel fabric.  I cut it up into 108 - 10" squares.  I layered 3 squares together and sewed an X in each 3 layer block.    I sewed 6 blocks in a row and made 6 rows sewing them together so the seam is exposed on one side.   And this crazy fabric was directional so I had to be careful to get the cats all going in the same direction.  Fun.  After I sewed the entire quilt together, I snipped all the exposed seam allowances about 1/2" apart being careful not to snip the actual seams, then I threw the quilt in the washer and dryer to get the seams to ravel and become "raggy".

    The next project I made for her was an embroidery done on the embroidery machine she bought for my birthday last year.  I spent 3 hours getting this sewing machine embroidered because it had so many thread color changes.  It was very time consuming but it turned out pretty good.  I embroidered the picture on a piece of white muslin and framed it with a wooden frame that I painted.  It was really easy to do and the whole thing cost me about $12.00 including the cost of the embroidery design.  She loved this one as well.  Something she can hang on the wall of her craft room.

   

   And the last homemade gift I made were some linen napkins.  When I was shopping for fabric, I couldn't decided which color I liked more so I bought 1 yard of each and made four napkins from each yard.  I cut the fabric into fat quarters, hemmed them and then embroidered them with her last name initial on them.  The white is a linen blend and it was easier to work with than the blue or the brown fabric which were 100% linen.  If I were to make more linen napkins, I would definitely use a linen blend.  She loves her new napkins for her new house.  The fabric for these napkins was about $35.00.

      I didn't make the next gift.  I wanted her to have a wind chime for her yard so I found a reasonably priced wind chime on etsy and it's super cute made with recycled kitchen items.  We took the time to hang this in the tree in her front yard yesterday.

    I also gave her a home made sour cream pound cake and then we spent the afternoon at the North Florida Fair looking at the farm animals, eating junk food and enjoying the warm November weather.

My New Toy

  I celebrated my birthday yesterday and I had a really nice day.  Dear daughter took me out to dinner and gave me some birthday gifts.  One of her gifts to me was this:

     In November I talked to my daughter about the two of us going in together to buy the Brother PE 770 embroidery machine so we could expand our crafting horizons.  My daughter doesn't sew as much as I do but I knew that as soon as I bought this machine on my own she would want to use it.  I always let her use my sewing machines and whatever else she needs to make a project, but embroidery is a little more expensive so I thought it would be better if we shared the cost of this machine.  My plan was foiled by a sneaky child.       

    I can't wait to open the box up.  This morning I got busy doing some research on how to use it and figuring out what kind of supplies I have to have.  I also watched an hour long Youtube video on how to set the machine up and stitch out a design, then I found stabilizer, thread, pre-wound bobbins, and usb thumb drives on Amazon.  I'll place the Amazon order on Sunday so I should those supplies by early next week.  

    In the meantime, I'm going to set the machine up in the kitchen tonight (the cutting table and sewing table will be busy with the Pretty in Pink quilt, which I have to iron and pin baste tonight) and do some playing on it tomorrow, thank goodness for paid work holidays.  I have six spools of rayon embroidery thread that I can use to test the machine and I'll hoop two pieces of cotton on it for testing since I don't have any stabilizer.  The rayon thread was given to me by a friend who doesn't sew, but inherited her Mother's sewing supplies.  I wasn't sure I would ever be able to use those spools of thread, but now I'm glad I held onto them.

   I will share my stitching results with you tomorrow, in between cleaning my very dirty oven and quilting my Pretty in Pink quilt.

A Handmade Birthday Present

Today is my DD's 38th birthday.  Wow, is she old.   hehehehe

Earlier in the summer I decided to try my hand at embroidery and I made up this embroidery to give to her.  It's her first initial secured with buttonhole stitch in black and red, some french knots, some lazy daisies, her date of birth, and a primitive little bee I drew free hand to represent the first initial of her last name (not to mention, she loves bugs).  I wrapped the embroidery hoop with gray ribbon (silver is her favorite metal) and I mounted the embroidery by hand sewing a backing onto the embroidery to secure it in the hoop.  This was a fun freehand project.  Sorry the pictures aren't clearer, I took these with my cell phone.  My camera was being re-charged.

The front.

The back.

I can't wait to do more embroidery.