I have been a bit busy...

 September is always a busy month for us. Getting back into the groove at school, trying to catch up on the sewing that was not finished over the summer and 2 birthdays. My Emma loves to plan a party. Unfortunately she does not communicate well with me...or maybe I couldn't hear her over my sewing machine and the blasting Vitamin String Quartet that was playing in the background. Who really knows? All I know is that apparently I was having a birthday party at my house and 50 people were coming.  Cool huh? Well, actually it was a great party and I had as much fun as the kids did.

I really have a dislike for the party bags that are handed out at parties. I appreciate what they represent, but I like quality over quantity anyday.  I know that I tend to throw the little Indian Trading Company plastic made in Chinese nic nacks away as soon as I find them laying on the floor. I figure I am not alone in this. So I made all the kids (or at least the ones I anticipated actually coming to the party) a bean bag frog. All the frogs were different and each child got to select their own. I am still 2 short and their little bodies are lying beside my sewing machine awaiting to become beanbag frogs...I just need to find the time.

 Each frog has a pair of vintage buttons as eyes, if you have tiny kids the eyes could easily be replaced with little French knots or little cross stitches. My youngest son assigned himself the job of finding eacy frog some eyes. I bet you want to make frogs too? Of course you do! Use this tutorial Purl Bee Frogs.

 The kids played games...apple/lemon bobbing and an egg toss. These were improvised games as I was not going to the store to buy more apples, but I had heaps of lemons on hand. I also was not going out to buy little balloons for water balloon toss....eggs worked like a charm.

 Emma made her own icing for the colored cupcakes while I was sewing on frog eyes and stuffing frogs with fiberfill and mung-beans.

 For her real birthday I made a Lemon Curd cake. It was quite possibly the most rich cake I have ever had in my life. It was awesome! Just almost impossible to eat, maybe I knew how much butter was in the cake and how much time I would have to spend at the gym trying to work it off my hips?  I let Emma choose whatever cake she wanted out of the Martha Stewart Baking book. Of course her first choice was a wedding cake with 3 tiers. I said not that one. This was the runner up. So if you have an entire day free and 5 pounds of butter handy oh and about 20 eggs...this may be the recipe for you to try! I tried to find the recipe, but it is not on her massive website. You may have to buy the book.

 OK, if you are still here reading, thanks for sticking around. My wonderful husband made me a massive design wall for quilt block layouts. I love it. I love him too. He has been an enormous help with my long arm. You know how it is when you get a new sewing machine? You have to figure out all the tricks to make operating it easy. I have had a learning curve with each machine I have welcomed into my home. I have Angela on speed dial and I have been bugging her with all my questions. We were in KCMQG before I moved to Texas and her quilting is AWESOME! She knows EVERYTHING about long arm quilting.

 This is the quilt I quilted for Jennifer. She wanted organic lines and I put vines and feathers in the coin parts.

 I also finished quilting this quilt. It is awaiting a binding...well now that I can quilt a quilt in no time at all I have quite a few quilts awaiting bindings.

 I also finished some bags!

This order took me forever to make. I am so embarrassed about how long it took me to complete. I did make a bunch of extra stuff to send to her as well, some new patterns I was trying out, so I hope that makes up for some of the delay. It is a great set.

OK, I have sewing to do. I hope you all have a great day!

xo,
Tia