…in a multitude of activities is the main reason for not posting for well over a week. I am now coming up for some air and want to share what I have been up to during that time of “no blogging.”

The week immediately following my return from Hew Hampshire I found myself in need of fondling fabric. The result is a batik dress and a couple of baby quilts  for little ones that have either arrived or that are on their way… two quilts  are completed, a third one is nearing completion shortly.

The baby quilt featured above is from a pattern I purchased at The Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw. It has been waiting to be pieced and quilted, and last week the opportunity presented itself. Here is the full view (sorry it is a bit crooked):

Another, more traditional quilt was assembled from a variety of vintage inspired flannels and tied for a change. It should evoke some special childhood memories for the mom of this little one.

I used Minky for the backing for a special touch and extra warmth this coming winter.

Most of my time and energy went into creating this batik dress from rayon fabric I purchased at World Quilt in Manchester.

I am not 100 % satisfied with the final outcome. I spent about $ 100 on the fabric of which one of the 7 fabrics was to be a 2 yard length. When I came home I realized that out of all the fabrics the 2 yard length was not one piece but had been sewn together. The seller neglected to point this out to me… No matter how often I rearranged and refolded the fabric and worked on placement of the pattern pieces I could not make the dress symmetrical. The pattern is called the “Xeptional Patchwork Dress” and I have another colorway to recreate the dress – hopefully with an outcome that better meets my expectations.

Here is a close up of the dress – It came together well but it is definitely not for the faint of heart…

Saturday of last week also saw a special celebration. Several of our friends, including my husband Colin, are marking a special milestone this summer and fall. What a wonderful opportunity to get together and celebrate. The weather turned quite cool and the garden party had to be moved into the house – thirty guests were not deterred. It was my pleasure and an honor to create a special birthday cake for everyone. When I started baking the guest count was around 35 to 40 and I made sure the cake would feed a crowd.

The image does not do the cake size justice. I used 34 eggs for the cake (checkerboard vanilla and chocolate layers) and the German Butter Cream icing. With making sure that everyone sang “Happy Birthday” I totally neglected taking a photo of the cake (after it was sliced) or the birthday “kids” enjoying it. Let it suffice to say – there was not much left over by the end of the party!

I returned to the studio last Monday and made a date with a frog…

This image came from a frog calendar from several years ago. I had based a dynamic design on this little guy and finally found a block of time to translate the design into fabric…

I plan to blog about the experience tomorrow and will share the final outcome!

Oh yes, before I forget: I am on track with my August CDAs… “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” this month was not too difficult to interpret despite traveling. What’s coming up for September, you ask? The theme for next month is “Time Passages.” Yes, it is based on one of my all time favorite songs by Al Stewart. Check out this YouTube video for inspiration!

 

 

 

 

 

30 Aug This entry was published on August 30, 2014 at 5:23 pm. It’s filed under Art, Creative Daily Act Challenge 2014, Creativity Update, Design and tagged Al Stewart - Time Passages, August CDAs, baby quilts, birthday cake, date with a frog, pattern from "The Quilt Patch" in Moose Jaw, rayon batik, September CDA theme, sewing and quilting, the Xceptional Patchwork Dress. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.