My brother's quilt

The one Christmas gift that I got a head start on was my brother's quilt. I decided in October that I would make him one, and then informed my sisters that I had chosen him for our annual gift drawing. I used this pattern and made the twin size version, which uses 10X10 inch squares instead of charm squares.

I used a walking foot on my sewing machine to do straight line quilting. I was still working on the binding the day before I gave it to him. Yay for procrastination!

Scalloped Flannel Blanket Tutorial

For this blanket you will need:
2 yards of flannel (1 yard for each side of the blanket)
1 yard of batting
Matching thread
a bowl or cup to trace around
1 yard piece of butcher or wrapping paper
Fabric marker (one that will wash out in the laundry)


Step 1-

Make a pattern by cutting your butcher paper into a 34x34 inch square. Use your bowl or cup to make an even scalloped pattern around your square. The size of the bowl depends on your own taste. Mine was 6 inches in diameter. (I have seen similar tutorials where they just trace around the bowl directly on the fabric, but I like making a pattern first so that I know that all of the scallops are even.)

Step 2-

Sandwich your fabric and batting as in the picture above. The fabric should be right sides together and the batting should be on the wrong side of one of the pieces of flannel. Place the sandwich batting sided down.

Step 3-

Place your scalloped pattern on top of the fabric, pin, and trace with the fabric marker.

Step 4-

Remove the pattern, smooth out any wrinkles and pin all three layers together.

Step 5-

Sew along the marker line. Make sure to leave a gap to turn your blanket right side out.

Step 6-

Trim around the scallops. Clip the inside corners.

Step 7-

Turn right side out. Be careful not to rip your stitches near the opening.

Step 8-

Iron the edges of the blanket flat. Pin the opening closed.

Step 9-

Top stitch all the way around the blanket.

Step 10-

Hand stitch the edge of the opening.

Back to School Treats

I made these little cookie jars for my kids' teachers on the first day of school. (PJ says its called sucking up, I just think its being nice.)

First bake some sugar cookies in the shape of apples. Any recipe will work, I used one with lots of butter. The cookie cutter is from Wilton, which I bought years ago from Walmart

Next, make up some royal icing. I use this recipe here, which uses meringue powder. Make a thicker royal icing and outline the apple in red.

Add a little water to the red icing and flood the cookie.

Using icing a little thicker than flood consistency, make your stems in brown, and leaves in green.

To make the these tags, download the printable at the bottom of this post, and print out. I sized the tags to fit a Stampin Up! 1 3/8" round punch and then I used the scalloped punch to mat it in red.

Back to School Printable

Birthday Tags

I figured out how to share PDFs here on the blog.

I made these tags a long time ago for some cards I made on this post.

They can be used for gift tags by printing out on card stock, trim to size, punch a hole in the top, use a little ribbon and attach to a gift bag.

Birthday Flower Tags

In order to print, click the download button (the cloud with the down arrow) and then print.

Week 1, Day 2

Couch to 5K stats: 2.19 miles, Average running pace: 10 min. mile, Average walking pace: 17 min. mile. New additions to my playlist: Headstrong- Trapt, Barracuda- Heart, Kashmir- Led Zeppelin and Enter Sandman- Metallica. I know, right? Weirdest combo in the universe, but I didn't quit so it must work for me. I also have been watching Food Network as I run on the treadmill. So to sum it up, the keys to successfully running for me are: Watching people eat while listening to many decades worth of music.

I'm cooking up some back to school treats which I will post about next week. So fun!

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies, and Cake

I was in a sugar cookie making frenzy this summer. I kept finding these really cute cookie decorating blogs and tutorials on the internet and I had to try some out for myself. The key to making cute cookies is Royal Icing. You can't get the nice smooth finish if you use butter based frostings.


Angry Bird Cookies! I made these early and froze them for his party.


I found this adorable onesie cookie cutter for 65 cents and had to use it right away.


Lemon flavored sugar cookies.


Angry Bird Pig Cake for Ellis' 7th Birthday.

I RAN

I have decided that I want to be a cool runner. I have started the from couch to 5K program and downloaded this app for my iPhone. I have never been able to run for more than 2 minutes in my life. I just figured I was physically unable to run. I feared that I would die. The last time I tried running I had what I thought was a stroke (turns out it was a complex migraine, which had nothing to do with the running).

On Sunday I did day 1 of the program and I am still alive. I went 2 miles on the treadmill without stopping, even though I had to pee every time I ran. The app is super cool and tells you when to walk and when to run. I downloaded a few songs to motivate me. I really like Maroon 5's new song Moves Like Jagger. What songs pump you up for a run?

Wish me luck. Peace out.

Dinner Conversation

PJ asked the boys who learned the most important thing today. Drew learned about parallelograms and Will learned about quadrilaterals. Ellis learned the following: "I learned that you shouldn't eat dinner in the bathroom." Drew also mentioned that he learned about pi today. Ellis made sure everyone knew "you need to put pie in the fridge." We decided that Ellis had learned the most important things today.

Weigh-In Update

Mom-6.6%
Alyssa-3.9%
Me-3.15%

Valentine Cookies

Weigh-In Results

After two weeks of Weight Watchers Mom is in the lead.

1st Place Mom: -2.2%
2nd Place Alyssa: -1.9%
3rd Place Me: -1.3%

And since every post is better with a picture..........

Toilet Trouble

After many hours of trying to unclog the toilet, PJ finally succeeded in pulling out 3 Clorox wipes that our youngest child had flushed. After cleaning up the dirty towels from the floor, Drew told Ellis that he wasn't allowed to use the bathroom anymore. I said "Yep Bud, you'll have to poop outside." Instead of getting upset, he just shrugged his shoulders and said "Hmpf." I laughed and told him I was just kidding and he said, "Good, cause I didn't want to get arrested."

1st Week of 2011