American Girl Doll Quilts

Hello!

While I've been absent, I've been quite busy!  I know you have been too. 

For Christmas gifts for my nieces I made American Girl Doll Quilts.  They are large enough to fit the dolls, but also make a great wall hanging for each of their rooms if they choose.

I will show you the first quilt today, and the second one tomorrow.

The first quilt is for my oldest niece.  Her doll is "Kit" from the Great Depression era.  She looks very much like my niece, so that doll is perfect for her!  I did a little "research" into the quilts of that era.  Lots of pastels and different patterns like Grandmother's Flower Garden (hexes), Dresden plates, Bethlehem stars, and the string block.

Ultimately, I chose the Grandmother's Flower Garden  and the string block.  I enjoyed making the hexes and making the string block patterns. 

Wanna see?

Front of the blanket with the Flower Garden design and two borders

Close up of free-motion quilting with spirals in each flower hexie

Close up of the back of the quilt.  String block pattern.

Back of the quilt

Hope you enjoyed!  I trated myself to a Craftsy class: Free Motion Quilting A sampler with Leah Day in order to learn the quilting.  This was my first attempt at FMQ.  I was a bit nervous, but I it love how it turned out!

My nice was quite happy as well. :)

Thanks for stopping in!

Where.... are you?

Hello long lost friends!

Well.... maybe I'm the long lost friend.  We have been house shopping, buying, and then fixing-up since May.  Crazy times around our house.  Love it.

Let me just share a few little quick pictures of some house things.  No time for major share tonight.  :)

Did you know that you can paint tub tile in your bathroom?  I found out earlier this summer and made that a project of mine to fix in our new house.  This was awesome, labor intensive, major pain, totally worth it for the end result. :)  We started out with the "1970's gold/yellow" tile in the front bathroom.  Ugh! Seeing as how I wasn't even around for the first time of this wonderful hideous color, I wasn't a fan.  So a trip to the hardware store for a can of Tub and Tile Refinishing Paint was in order.  It wasn't that hard; but took all of an afternoon, and some wicked fumes later we have pretty and crisp white tub tile..  Take a look!

Before... 1970's golden tile...

Partway around the tub-first coat of paint

Finished!  Nearly 3 coats of paint in most places

Just so you can compare- in all it's new crisp, clean glory :)

That's what we've been up to around here.  I"ll try and check back more with updates about how we've made updates and improvements.  It's a work in progress.  We've been moved in about a week and a half, and I already have curtains up (we installed faux wood blinds the night before we moved in)!  Yeah me <3

Birthday Cake

So, I decided that I was going to make myself this amazing pink ruffle cake for my birthday a while back.  I decided that it was awesome and I wanted to create my own birthday cake awesomeness.  

Now, I do not have any cake decorating background or any training.  Just a crazy idea to try my hand at decorating.  I had fun... and so did my little one- swiping the icing!!

I first saw the idea from this blog via Pinterest.  I love the way hers looks!

I found this great tutorial video that shows you how to make your own ruffles.  Get your decorating bag and flat decorator tip. ;)

So, without further adieu, here are pictures of my cake.... in all it's glory... or whatever. :)

Remember, don't mind the swipe marks- my little one must have thought the cake was amazing.  The little one wouldn't leave it alone. 

This is how it started.  A four layer strawberry cake.  I started with a foundation layer-dirty iced.

Here's where I have half the side done.  Hiding a few swipe marks on the far left :)

All done!

A view from the top

So, a whole afternoon devoted to this cake, two batches of strawberry cake, and two and a half batches of pink buttercream frosting... we have a ruffle cake!

Warning: It did taste much more "awesome" than it looked.

Wreath

Here's an update to this original post.  I had made a wreath for my sister's wedding shower, and I didn't have a picture.  Well... now I do!

Thanks, sis!

Here's the lovely wreath:

Have a great day!