Wilton Certified!

I've been dabbling with all things baking related for quite some time. I've had some successes and some big time fails! If you just search cake on my blog you'll find several examples of cupcakes, cake balls, and even a few cookies. It's fun, it's creative, and you don't have to worry about storing your art because someone eats it!

So we had a cake decorating instructor at the store for a little while and the classes were very successful! But she left. And we haven't had anyone Wilton certified since then. So I applied, and got accepted, and now am authorized to teach Wilton cake decorating classes. Crazy, right? 

So I poured through training videos so I would be able to teach their curriculum. The section on royal icing flowers was really fun! I piped the flowers with white icing because I didn't want to mess with so many colors if they were a disaster. 

But they turned out ok! And then I wished they were colored... So I hand-painted them with icing colors. (food coloring)

Now I want to hand-paint a cake! This was so fun and relaxing. I was really surprised!

I tried to use my favorite buttercream frosting for piping pretty flowers, but it was a disaster. The pure buttercream gets too melted when you try to pipe fancy stuff. 

So I tried the shortening version, but I used the butter flavored shortening. I did a taste test today and everyone at worked liked it.  I know the difference, but I guess it passed the taste test. 

 The shortening just really holds up against piping for a long time and holds its shape better than pure butter frosting. I tried the technique where you have two colors in one bag to make the flowers above.

The funny thing about the frosting is I had a super hard time keeping the CAT out of it! He normally won't come near the baking, but there was something about the frosting that he couldn't resist!

I think he licked the bowl at some point because I caught him doing that thing that animals do if you feed them peanut butter! The cupcakes themselves were safe by that time! Don't worry!

So anyway, I got my Wilton Instructor box in the mail the other day, so now I just need to read through the instructor books and start scheduling classes! One more skill in the crafty toolbox.

PS. Mary Allen - if you still read my blog, you should get certified too!

March Recap

I know it's already the middle of April, but I still wanted to do a March recap post and share some fun things that happened!

First up, I got picked to be a pattern tester for Made By Rae! This was really fun! The pattern will be available soon and then I will post the pictures of what I made. Of course if you follow me on Flickr you've already seen them!

 I enjoyed some time with my colleagues and good girl friends for Long Night at the Museum. At the end of the night Martha and I caught the new Dunkin Donuts closing and giving out free donuts! It was seriously like 2 am and we were standing there in the train station stuffing our faces!

 We got together another night for dinner and a movie. Dinner at our favorite Greek place, Taverna Olympus. YUM! 

At work March was National Craft Month. We tried something new by taking crafts out to public places and inviting people to craft with us. We called them Craft Flash Mobs. We had one successful one and some flops. We probably won't do it again, but at least we tried!

 Teaching was busy too. I taught fabric nesting bowls, 

 and the Swoon pattern. 

There were a few other classes, but I either don't have photos, or already posted them. 

I also went to the Quilt Guild meeting for the first time! I can't believe I've been here 12 years and never made it before! 

 And lastly, Stuttgart discovered the Rainbow Loom! We're only a little behind. :) We are now carrying the original Rainbow Loom which is really exciting because we are the first military facility that got the original one!

I really like the Rainbow Loom because it's something crafty that Ethan enjoys and it can be complicated enough that I enjoy it!

March was seriously busy but it was full of joy and fun!

Clover Pants

I ordered my first pattern from Colette - the Clover pants. 

Colette makes patterns that are designed to be flattering on curvy women. The construction was easy and had easy to follow instructions. However I should have made a muslin first. According to my measurements I should have been a size 14, but they were way too big! It's possible because I made them out of super stretchy denim. I ended up cutting them apart and making them smaller, but then got them too small! LOL! Since they are stretchy though they are still wearable. They are jeggings now! I ended up putting a yoga band waist on them with a 3" wide elastic. I have never used the seam ripper as much on one item as I did on these pants! 

I don't know how long they will last, but I will wear them until they fall apart and then make another pair. I'm thinking I might try to make a pair out of floral fabric and give that trend a try. They'll be my muslin. :)

New Backpack

I LOVE my old backpack but I thought it was a little big. And of course new fabric came in that was perfect for my second backpack!

 I used a different pattern this time and it's a little smaller.

 I made it exactly according to the instructions, with only one change: a key hanger. Oh, I lied... I did add one little zippered pocket for the unmentionables a woman needs to carry. But other than that the pattern was great as is!

The front pocket has little credit card slots, which I would never use for actual credit cards... but it's nice for little things like my name tag and usb stick. It would probably be fine for loyalty cards too, but with only a velcro closure nothing is going in there as valuable as a credit card!

 The fabric is a super lovely new line from Riley Blake called Vintage Verona.

Pattern is "Got Your Back Backpack Purse" from byAnnie.

So I was cleaning the sewing room today and found a whole huge piece of soft and stable! I wish I had found it BEFORE I made the backpack, but that's ok. I ordered more for the store so I can recommend it if I teach this as a class. So anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to whoever left it behind!

This past week was Spring Break, however we spent it at home rather than our planned trip to Paris. Someone fell off his bike at the bike track and broke his arm. This kid. He said he was laying on the ground and didn't cry or scream, but yelled "dangit! I broke my arm AGAIN!" Poor thing. So he's in a cast again. This time it's his left wrist. I spent one day watching "how to fall" videos on YouTube with him to try to get some tips on how not to keep breaking bones. Sigh.

Getting Craftsy

I'm trying something new! I've decided to try and sell some quilt tutorials I've written on Craftsy. A lot goes in to writing up a nice tutorial, and I think I do a decent job. So we'll see if anyone bites! The first two I posted are the Carpenter's Star quilt I made for Mike, and the Hidden Hexagons quilt all made out of triangles.

To see the quilt tutorials I have for sale I have added a Craftsy bar across the top of the blog. Right now I only have two, but I hope to add more over the year!

Double Sided Quilt

A Kaleidoscope quilt had been on my Pinterest board for quite some time. In fact, I pinned two different versions without even realizing it! I made this quilt some time last year but never got it blogged. It hung in the craft store above the fabric line it's made from until a few weeks ago, and then I finally quilted it last week. 

I used fabric from the line Blythe from Robert Kaufman. I also made a shirt out of this fabric. 

I didn't paper piece this quilt. I didn't use a special ruler. I, like a psychopath, cut this quilt from a template and used 10" squares. And linen. I made a quilt with a gazillion points out of linen. It almost didn't work, but it was close enough that I was able to manage. If you want to make a Kaleidoscope quilt do yourself a favor and don't be like me! We will be stocking the Kaleido Ruler in the shop, so if you want to make one I would go with the ruler. 

For the backing I had some 6" hexagons cut out from the line so I decided to use them to piece the backing. There weren't enough for the whole quilt back, so I decided to "float" them in the gray fabric. I LOVE the back! I think I like it more than the front!

I used Moda's tutorial for sewing rows of hexagons together by machine. Gray hexagons and half hexagons filled in the holes to make it square, and then I added fabric around all four sides to make it big enough. 

I started quilting this quilt during a video interview with AFN at the shop. I loaded the quilt and did a little meandering to show them how the long-arm quilt machine works. Then I left it alone for a few days while we counted inventory. (Blech.) Then one morning I woke up and thought "BEES!" My quilt needs bees! People call the hexagons honeycombs because of looking like, duh, honeycomb. So between the flowers and the honeycomb, I really needed bees. So I picked out all the stitches I had done for AFN and started again with this pantograph from Digitech Designs.

So now I have a double sided quilt! And I love it!

Show and Tell (for real)

(note: I accidently posted this before it was finished. Oops!)

February was a really busy month for me as an instructor. I really enjoy teaching adult sewing classes. The only hard part is having enough different projects for the people who take multiple classes! 

I taught the Heart Twister wall hanging

I also taught the same lady as above (plus one other) Machine Quilting, but I forgot to take a picture! 

At Sunday Sewing one of the gals had some help from her hubby!

At today's Sunday Sewing I felt like a short order cook of sewing! All the ladies were working on something different and almost everyone needed help. So I had to keep track of several different projects and what their next steps would be. I kind of like that because it's never boring!

Andrea learned how to make PJ pants. 

We had some pillow case making, a tote bag, and a skirt that was started in a kids class.

 Lucy was all business trying to turn her UFO into a finished quilt top. A few more rows to go. That's it on the wall in the back of the photo. Beautiful, right? 

And Kim, who SWORE she would hate quilting, finished her first lap quilt and the backing fabric. She's already bought the fabric for her next project!

I love seeing how happy it makes people to be able to look at something cool and say "I made that." And I love seeing the students grow over the years that they are here!