In a mere two days, my little baby boy will be a whole one years old.  Hard to believe, oh how the time flies.  We had to push back his birthday party a bit because of the never ending illness around our house these days, but that is ok, it gives me more time to plan and prepare.  I am thinking about going a simpler route for his cake.  One cake for the party goers, and cupcakes for my little man and the kids.  I always scheme these elaborate cakes and then end up cursing and swearing I'll never do it again, especially since all my cakes seem to fall into a million pieces every time I have to transfer them.  That being said, I am sticking with it, going the easy route, and plan to do a simple cake like the one below.  Easy enough right?  Maybe I will fancy it up with a pudding layer in the middle.  Yum.

Speaking of cakes, I realized I never shared the cake I made for my older sons fifth birthday.  A pirate cake, yes, he is still obsessed with pirates, which is fine with me!  I found this image originally through Pinterest, but have included the direct link here, just in case you attempt to make one yourself.  I was pleasantly surprised to find all the supplies needed at Walmart, all those different pretzels and all!  The only thing I did differently was to eliminate the breadstick on the front and instead just use another pretzel rod in its place.

What do you think?  It turned out pretty good, in my opinion.  I have a number five candle and 4 pirate themed candles stuck in the center if you were wondering what all that junk was.  The only thing I would do differently is to make the sails a tad bit smaller and work at getting more of a "yellow" icing color than the peach that is below.  My son was tickled pink and that is all that matters.  I had left over icing, so I dyed it blue and made the "ocean" around the ship, which also hid those crumby edges.  As good as this looks, the cake fell into a million pieces and is held together by mushing it with my hands and icing.  Very frustrating at the time, but at least the end result is good.  All this talk of cakes falling apart had me wondering, do you know of a store bought cake mix that holds together well?  I know for sure that Pillsbury is just too spongy and soft, it falls apart every time.  I used to think that Betty Crocker was perfect, but lately those cakes have fallen apart too?  Any ideas or suggestions?

Linking up to Tuesday at the Table over at A Quilter's Table.  Hop on over and visit all the other wonderful link ups.

Wow, I had no intention of taking a two month blogging break, but alas it happened and nothing I can do about that, so Happy New Year!  I am starting this New Year with a fresh approach, fresh outlook and fresh new goals.  I'm excited!  This is the first year in many that I made a New Year's Resolution!  Oh my!  This is a big deal for me, I'm normally not the type, but it feels good and I'm going with it.

Last year I started organizing and taking stock of the unfinished quilts and works in progress I had laying around and stuffed in cabinets and drawers.  Low and behold I discovered that I have 14 unfinished, started on, in pieces quilts.  Yikes!  So, my solution is to finish one a month for twelve months during this year and knock out the majority of them.  Most of them have all of the blocks done, they just need to be put into a top.  A few are finished tops, and a few need more work than that.  I am only focusing on one at a time, until it is finished.  Hopefully I can keep up!  If I finish it early in the month, then I will go ahead and move on to the next!  Below is my mosaic showing all 14 unfinished quilts.  Below that is my intentions for the next three months, and I will be linking up with She Can Quilt, who will be hosting the quarterly Finish-A-Long this year.  Monthly I will be following along with Cut To Pieces, who is hosting the Flickr group Project: UFO 2.0.  Wish me luck, I'm excited about this challenge and ready to get to work!

1.  January - Two Christmas table runners, made from these 10 blocks (see photo above.)  I need to construct tops, sandwich, quilt and bind it.  I have all of the supplies needed.  Good to go!

2.  February - One quilt made from these blocks, throw size.  I have either 15 or 16 blocks ready to make a top.  I just need to figure out what I am doing with them, make the top, sandwich, quilt and bind it.  I have all the supplies needed for this quilt too!

3.  March - Time to finish up Cosmic Burst!  The top is done, so all I need to do is sandwich it, quilt it and bind it!  Once again, I have all of the supplies needed.  Easy peasy!  This will be a wall hanging quilt.

4.  Anytime During the First Quarter - Construct three pairs of pajamas.  I have all the needed supplies, just need to cut them out and sew them together!  I want them ready for the boys to wear next winter.

That is it folks!  Interested in following along or joining in yourself?  Click on either photo below to go to either of these ladies lovely sites!

Hello!  Thanks for stopping by my blog today!  This is the last day of the UR Priceless Coin Purse Blog Hop, and I am happy to say that I am one of the participants.  I signed up for this particular blog hop because I have never tackled a "frame" pouch or purse and really wanted to give it a try.  This was a great way to get my feet wet and to join along with tons of really creative participants!

I wanted to make sure and thank Madame Samm over at Sew We Quilt and Katherine over at Sew Me Something Good for hosting, organizing and providing/designing the pattern for this lovely blog hop.

This is my only finished one (at the moment) and I am quite pleased with how it turned out!  For my first frame pouch, I think it is quite cute, and was really a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I started with some tiny half square triangles that I had saved from a previous project, stitched them together and created the front panel for this pouch.  I believe the hst measured 1.25" before they were stitched together, so you can see they are quite small.  After I created this piece, I ironed on the fusible batting and then machine quilted it.  I then echoed the quilting on the back panel of the pouch, just to tie the whole thing together.  Stitching together the pieces of this pouch was really easy, but I will say the size of this pouch is pretty small (a 3" frame) so it was more challenging than something larger.  My experience sewing Barbie clothing from my childhood days came in handy here for sure!

I used a Liberty of London print for the interior of the bag, and continued the color scheme on the inside.  I also wanted to use a busy print on the interior to in essence hide the stitching that does show from hand stitching on the frame.  I think I was pretty successful in this aspect.  Can you see the stitching?  It is there, and it isn't that neat or pretty.  Look hard and I bet you can spot it, it really is a hot mess in there, which is the only real downfall to these hand stitched frames.  But honestly, I prefer not having to use glue, so you win some, you lose some.

I wanted to mention the hand sewn metal frame process.  This was my first time doing this and I was really unsure as to how it would work out in the end, but honestly it fit much better than I ever would have imagined.  A near perfect fit, I was impressed.  I wasn't sure how to tackle it, so I just stuffed the top in the frame as much as I could and started stitching in the middle, and continued outwards to the sides, making sure the pouch was centered on the frame.  It worked great, I used a medium needle with a big eye, and once you got the hang of it, it really went pretty quickly.  Though it wasn't a perfect process.  I started with a navy blue Pearl Cotton size 8, was almost finished with my first side and the needle pierced the thread wrong and broke it.  No way to fix it other than to start over, take out the stitches and redo it.  Before I started over I tested the thread I was using (by yanking it really hard) and realized it just wasn't strong enough for this application.  Not having any other navy blue thick thread on hand I decided to quadruple up regular sewing thread.  So that is what I did.  Then once the frame was completely sewn on, I went back with doubled up thread and stitched the whole thing a second time for extra security.  This wasn't ideal, but did allow for me to use a needle with a smaller eye, thus making the stitching process easier.  Even with this one hang up, I think the pattern is great and made a cute little coin pouch.

I have another one almost finished, but alas had to go and get sick and wasn't able to finish it on time, bummer.  Oh well, I'll show it off once I have it finished.

Make sure to hop on over to all of the other participants today, check out their blogs and their versions of this cute little coin purse.  The full blog hop schedule can be found at Katherine's blog, Sew Me Something Good.

Julia P
Tina
Dachsies With Moxie
 -----> Marci Girl Designs <--- You are Here!
The Sunflower Patch
Wish upon a star
Mary on Lake Pulaski
Greco Mara
Linda M
Mack and Mabel
Dreaming in Patchwork
Judith Handmade Treasures
Kaydie
Caesarea Scrappers
Patchouli Moon Studio
Sew.Darn.Quilt.
Sew We Quilt

Thanks for joining me today and reading about my version of this coin purse!

It is Blogger's Quilt Festival time again!  My regular followers have seen this quilt before, earlier this year, but for those of you who are visiting for the first time, hello and thank you for visiting!  I chose to feature this quilt for the festival because it is my favorite quilt I have made this year and one of the first quilts that I actually started and finished in a timely manner.  Normally it takes me a year to finish a quilt, but this one was done within a month, a new record for me!  I won't bog you down with all the details because I have blogged about this quilt before and you can read the extended story of this quilt HERE.

This quilt was my entry into the Patchwork Prism Quilt Along hosted by Sweet Diesel Designs, though I didn't place in that contest, I was very honored to be a finalist In the Summer Sewing Contest over at Ellison Lane Quilts, though I didn't win that contest either.  Aww... do you feel bad for me yet.  Ha, I'm sure you don't and shouldn't because this quilt is a winner!  A few weeks ago I entered this quilt into the Cottonport, LA Festival of Quilts and placed first!  I was beyond thrilled to see that blue ribbon on my quilt, even though it was displayed sideways (I'll get over it.)  It was so nice to receive a ribbon for my work and even more honored to be displayed and judged against so many beautiful quilts.  There were 98 entries into the Festival of Quilts and I'll share some of those other beautiful quilts in a future post. 

The photo above illustrates both the machine quilting that was done around each "prism of solid color" and the hand quilting that was done inside of each prism.  I really love the combination of both machine and hand quilting, it gives the quilt the best of both worlds, in my opinion!

Quilt Specifications:
Pattern - Patchwork Prism by Anna Maria Horner for Janome
Size - Wall Hanging 24.5" x 27.5"
Fabrics - No duplicates with the exception of the solid "prisms" and mostly from a 5" charm swap of designer cottons that I participated in earlier this year.
Batting - Cotton/Poly 80/20 Blend
Backing - Cotton floral print by Alexander Henry
Quilting - Machine quilted with tan thread. Hand quilted with pearl cotton in the "prisms", all quilting was done by yours truly.
Binding - Lisette sateen print from JoAnn Fabrics
Special Techniques - A combination of machine and hand quilting.  I also added four small ribbon loops to the top of the back (sewn in with the binding) in order to hang it on the wall.

Category - ROYGBIV (Color Wheel) Quilt, Wall Hanging

Be sure to head over to Amy's Creative Side and visit all of the other fabulous entries into the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

My latest work in progress, an example block for my Always Bee Learning bee mates.  I'm the "Queen Bee" this month and these are the packets they will be receiving.  This block is from the book "Fresh Quilting" by Malka Dubrawsky.  It is the Modern Baby Quilt pattern, and is constructed entirely out of Y seams.  I will honestly say that this is my new favorite technique, and I absolutely loved putting it together.  Hopefully my bee mates agree with me!  The fabric is from Kate Spain and is one of her new lines, Cuzco.  The "solid" is by Laura Gunn and is called Painters Canvas, I just love the look of these fabrics with such great texture.  I personally think this quilt will be one of my new favorites, what do you think?

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Today is the start of Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at Elsie Marley.  Basically you sew clothes for your kids for one hour a day.  I have a busy week ahead, so I don't know that I'll be able to devote as much time as I'd like, but I am going to try!  I have the pattern, Sewing for Boys, Goodnight, Sweetheart Pajamas.  I have the fabrics washed and notions picked out, which is a pretty good start for me.  I might actually cut them out today too, which would be amazing.  I am going to make a short sleeved version out of the upper pirate fabric since it is a lightweight cotton.  The bottom two are flannel and will be a smaller size for my youngest and a larger size for my oldest, both to be worn next winter, not this winter.  Preparing for the future folks!  I decided to make the same pajamas I showed off lately (the Star Wars pair) simply because they turned out so great and the pattern is fresh in my head and should whip up quickly.  Fingers crossed!

Hello and TGIF!  I just wanted to share my little guest posting over at Sew Sweetness this week.  You can go to the original post HERE, my contribution to the Tula Pink Sew Along was this past Wednesday.  I was so excited to be a contributor in this Sew Along, and so excited to get to make such an awesome quilt for my sweet little boy!  Thanks so much to Sara for having me!

The photos that are here on my blog today are the "outtakes" from the photo shoot, you know the ones that didn't quite make the cut.  To be completely honest, I was really disappointed with this photo shoot all-together.  I think that even though I was on a ladder (much higher than I'm comfortable with) the quilt is just too large to fit into the frame well.  I think I would have needed to be on the roof!  Oh well, live and learn.  The wrinkles in the quilt are killing me too, but once again, with a quilt this size I ironed it several times, but the wrinkles just didn't seem to go away.  Yuck.  What is done is done, right?  Below is a shot of my binding all ready to go, I just need to make the backing and quilt it first! HA!  I am just thrilled with this quilt and can't wait to finish it up so that it can eventually go on my son's "big boy" bed (I know, I still have a while, he is only 8 months old!)  I hope he loves it as much as I do!

You still have plenty of time to make an item from a Tula Pink pattern or using Tula Pink's fabric and enter it into the Sew Along contest.  You can join the Flickr group HERE and get all of the information and details.  There are a ton of great prizes to be had!  Go ahead, join and get sewing!

See, I told you, pretty busy huh.  Oh well, that is me...busy!  I recently made a new tablecloth for our dining table.  It is a patchwork tablecloth that includes the fabric lines Echo, Simpatico, Hope Chest, Summerlove, Loulouthi and Modern Meadow.  Quite the eclectic collection!  I bought a fat quarter bundle of Hope Chest by Josephine Kimberling, cut the fat quarter into 4 pieces, added from my stash any fabric that I liked and matched, and presto...patchwork tablecloth!  I just love it, so pretty and so "me!"

This summer I participated in Rachel's Hand Stitched Class over at Stitched in Color.  One of the last projects of the class were some great hand quilted cloth napkins.  Well you can see those above.  I made eight and hand quilted each one with pearl cotton.  They are trimmed in ric rac and I just love them.  I have them folded into squares and nestled into the Fiesta Ware bowls, so I could show them off, they deserve special attention, don't you think?

The centerpiece of this crazy wild table are fabric stuffed fruit and vegetables that I made a few years ago for my first son to play with and to help him learn about fruit and veg.  Once they were completed my husband said they were too nice to be toys, so even though my kids do play with them, a lot of the time they work as a great centerpiece on our table.

Above you can see those cloth napkins in greater detail here.  I used a DS Quilts print from JoAnn Fabrics on one side and a Kona cotton on the back.  Below you can see a closer shot of the centerpiece, all the fruit and veg are nestled in a simple wire basket.  This collection contains two different types of squash, a carrot, banana, cabbage, egg plant, tomato, orange, pear, beet, corn, apple and string beans!  Can you spot each one?

I am entering this "tablescape" into the Sew, Mama, Sew! contest.  I stitched, then set it up, and now I get to enjoy this wild and crazy table.  Though I will admit, my plates, silverware and glasses do not stay out day to day.  I have two small children for goodness sake, I don't want to think about that kind of disaster that can happen by leaving out all those breakables!  Just keeping it real folks!  I also have handmade place mats that I could have added to this hot mess, but honestly, you have to draw the line somewhere!

I am also linking up to Tuesday at the Table over at A Quilter"s Table.  Make sure to stop by, get some great recipes and visit all the other link ups!

It's time for this month's bee blocks!  I'm glad to have them done on time... woo hoo!  First up is a block for Leanne "shecanquilt" in the Modern Blocks Bee.  Leanne asked us to make the "Stonehenge" block, designed by Amy Ellis found on pages 182-183.  She sent us fabric from Tula Pink's Birds and Bees line, oh so pretty!  I love the simplicity of this block and really look forward to seeing what great modern quilt Leanne creates with them.  This block measures 12.5" x 12.5".

I will start by saying that these blocks were a little time consuming and on the "harder" scale of blocks, but I will say the effort was worth it and boy these are stunning. "Watch Meesh Run" asked us to create two New York Beauty blocks in the Always Bee Learning group.  I think I remember these being blocks number 1 and 7, and you can find the patterns for them HERE.  This is going to be an all purple quilt and I think it is going to be FABULOUS, especially since purple is my favorite color, just saying.  These blocks measure 8.5" x 8.5", and are paper pieced with the exception of the curves.

Last but not least are three simple Snowball blocks for a special charity project.  You can find the tutorial HERE, these blocks measure 8" x 8".  We had the option of using green, red, or black fabrics, which I thought for sure I had plenty in my stash.  Well you can see from these three blocks that apparently I only have black in my stash, no true green or red.  I guess I know what I need to buy next...

I just wanted to pop in and share with you guys an awesome event that I am participating in and you have the opportunity to participate in also!  The Tula Pink Sew Along hosted by the lovely Sara over at Sew Sweetness!  I made a quilt for this sew along and you can see the pattern below, Le Petite Salon.  I will be sharing this quilt on October 3rd!  I'm so excited to share it with you guys and be part of this awesome event!  You can find the full details and schedule below, and keep reading to find out how you can participate in order to win some great prizes!  Oh and there are some discount codes down there too, just in case you want to purchase this pattern yourself...or maybe buy some fabric!