Monogram pillow case tutorial

I should have taken a picture of the supplies needed before I started but...I didn't think of making a tutorial until after I started soooo...this is as good as it gets. :)

Here's what you need;

• A white pillow case
• Fun fabric
• Cardstock (to make your letter template)
• Iron on fusing
• sewing machine

I started my project with a quick stop at the dollar store, where i picked up twin packs of white pillow cases for $2.  (I got 3).  I brought them home and ran them through the washer and dryer.  Next time, I'll open the packages first, though, because a few of them were this thin weird non-nice fabric, while the other 3 were a nicer thicker cotton. 

Once they were washed and dried, I ironed them to get them ready for the monogram. 

My next step was to cut out letter templates for each of the girls.  S for Sophia, B for Bronwyn etc...I drew them out on cardstock and traced them onto the fusing.  (*Note - remember to flip it over so that you're tracing the mirror image onto the fusing - like the Z.  The fusing goes onto the wrong side of the fabric so that when you iron on to the pillow case it's not backwards.) 

 

Now that you have your fusing letter traced and cut out (sorry - missed the pic on this one too)  You can move on to the next step.

 



Remember that we flipped over our letter so that we cut it out of the fusing backwards.  Lay your backwards fusing letter on to the wrong side of your fabric and iron as per the instructions. (Leave the paper backing in place for now). Once it is ironed in place, you will cut it out.

When you cut the letter out, though, be sure to cut it slightly larger than the fusing.   The reason is that you don't want the fusing going clear to the edge of your letter because a) it will gum up your iron...and b) you want a small edge to fray (it looks cuter)

This is what the S looks like once it's flipped over

Continue this process for as many pillow cases as you want to make.  Once you have them all cut out - they'll look like this. :)  (See - they're not backwards anymore...well...except for the Z cuz I'm a total bone head and didn't realize it was backwards until after it was sewn on to the pillow case...and we were at the hotel...and was passing them out - DOH!  Sorry Zaide - I'll make you a new one. :(

 

So - remember that paper backing that's leftover from the fusing??  Well...once it has cooled, that paper will peel right off.  You'll know it's perfect cuz it will have a bit of a sheen on it.  You'll need to peel the paper off before you iron it on to the pillow case.  (Not talking down to ya - just outing myself for forgetting a few times myself. ) 

 

See the sheen??  Aint it purdy?! :) 

 

So the next step is to place your fusable letter on to the pillow case wherever you want it to be and iron it in place as per the instructions on your fusing. 

 

And there you have it - a letter - stuck to a pillow case!! :)  The final steps are to head to your sewing machine and stitch it down leaving a small seam allowance all around.  After that - toss it in the washer and dryer. 

Note that by the time I got this far - it was late and I was fighting with outlets and old sewign machines so I didn't get any more pictures...but will psot more later.





Parties are exhausting!!

Today, we wrapped up youngest kiddo's 10th birthday party.  She chose a sleepover birthday party at a hotel (cuz they have a pool and room service).  I have to say that it went very very well (crazy kids aside and all! :) )  We've been planning her party for ages but life always got in the way. 

Yesterday, 4 of her friends arrived at the hotel.  I had a schedule of events for their entire stay and (for the most part) we were able to stick to it. The first thing we did was pass out pillow cases to each of the girls with their initial on it (to keep them from fighting over pillows).  I made them from dollar store pillow cases and scraps of fabric that I had on hand.  (I'll post a tutorial later). They swam for about an hour, then we went back to the room for pogo's and room service french fries (which were awesome btw) followed by birthday cake and presents.  Before heading to the pool again, we all made fleece blankets (the kind that you tie knots around the edges of).  It was fun for all and they were all super quiet for the first time in hours! lol  Before bed, they made duct tape purses (another tutorial to post later) and watched a movie until well after 1am.  (side note - air mattress = not awesome!)  This morning, everyone was up and away by 11am, but not before taking in another swim.

 Today, the Birthday girl is smiling from ear to ear from having all of her friends call this "the best sleepover ever" and Mommy is totally beat! :)  Here are some pics of the big day - including one of her cake which I'm completely in LOVE with!!!  It's my first owl cake...but was almost a pigeon. lol   

A LalaLoopsy cake will be born today

I'm really excited about my most recent cake.  It's  LalaLoopsy cake...more to the point, it's a CHOCOLATE LalaLoopsy cake!!!  Have I mentioned how much I love chocolate cake?? :) 

I had a super nutty week this week - lots going on at home and work, so I decided to remove all stress from my life and take today off - so - I get to spend the entire day working on it. :)  My fondant has been done for a while now.  I made it last week when I made the Cheburashka cake.  My frosting has also been sitting at the ready - so basically, all that's left is the cake (which is half cooling and half in the oven) :)  I'm not entirely sure what it will look like when it's done - all I know is that she likes pink and purple - and the blue LalaLoopsy (Mittens) is her fave. :)  I know it will be a 2 tier cake and be very colorful.  I've been working on fondant buttons and sculpting Mittens...and the rest will sort itself out as i go. :)

A 3 cake week!

I think I'm getting better at planning my cakes because I just delivered my 3rd cake of the week and I'm remarkably sane! :)  That said - It was delivered to one of my fave cake customers EVER so that's probably why. :)

Cake 1 - Cheburashka

Huh??  lol that's what I said when I got the request for this one. :)  It was from a friend and collegue who's husband is from Russia.  I learned that Cheburashka is a character from a Russian Childrens book/story.  If you click on the name above, you can read all about it. :) 

The next fun part is that this cake was CHOCOLATE!!!!! :)  I hardly ever get to make chocolate cake - but it's one of my favorites!! :)  anyway - the request was for a Cheburashka cake witha pink background, a red present and Happy Birthday Klara.  I think I did ok. :)  Oh - and the birthday girl is out of this world A-DOR-A-BLE!!! :)

Cake 2 - Happy Birthday Boss :)

This week is my Boss's birthday and every year I have made him a Canadiens cake.  This year, however, I didn't plan very well and realize far too late that...I didn't have red coloring.  Contrary to Sophia's suggestion, I knew that a pink logo was not an option so instead...he got a boring blue frosted cake.  It was so boring, in fact, that I didn't even bother with a picture. lol

Cake 3 - Happy Birthday Sophie!!!

Remember the Octonauts cake from a few weeks back??  Well - this one is for his little sister!!!  This cake has perplexed me for weeks!  Cake customer gave me creative freedom - which was a bad idea cuz my creative cake brain was on over drive!!!  I finally settled on an idea with some help and guidance from her and this is what I came up with...I wish I could have cut into the cake to show the inside, but that would have been inappropriate. lol  She did promise to send me a picture, though, of the 6 layers of pink to mauve ombre inside. :)

I also made a little smash cake for the birthday girl, so that she coudl rip through it at her hearts content. :)  I used my Nanna's recipe for basic white cake, which is a little more dense and less "flingable". :)  Still - lots and lots of super pink frosting to provide a suitable sugar rush. :)  The picture is deceiving, though, it's not as big as it looks.  It's actually the same size as a can of crushed tomatoes. ;)  hehe  - I love cans. :)  And that's the end of my cake week.  Next weekend, though, I have a LalaLoopsy cake due for Friday followed by a shower cake for work the next week.  After that ...I'm done with cakes until 2013 so that I can spend the holidays focussing on Family. :)  YAY! 

p.s.  Dontcha just LOVE the pink?? :)

Ginny's quilt

The first time I met my Mother in law, she commented on my "birthing hips" and how easily I could have more children since I had already done so once....You know that little puff of smoke that follows the road runner when he takes off??  Well...that's what I was doing in my head! lol  At the time, I was recently divorced and had a 3 year old little girl (who had just charmed the pants off of my soon to be Mother in law).  The last thing on my mind was having more children! In her defence, she really did mean well.  She simply wanted desperately to see her youngets boy have children.  To this day, I'm sure that's why she held on as long as she did.

On November 1st, 2002, Ginny got her wish when Sophia was born.  She was so excited and couldn't wait to meet her.  From what I can remember, though, she only got to hold her once. :(  At that same time, her heath took a serious turn for the worse and continued that way until May when she was admitted to the hospital for the last time.  This is where the quilt story begins...

It was a Tuesday afternoon when I decided to make her a picture quilt.  She was always cold and was surrounding herself with family pictures so I thought it was something that she could enjoy.  By Thursday morning, I had everything cut and sewn together with the back pinned to the front.  I had all the pics together and took a quick trip to staples to have the pictures color copied on to iron on transfer paper.  The next 2 days were a blurr because staples used the wrong paper and I had to find a local printing shop that would hire out their heat press to transfer the pics to the fabric (side note - if you're looking for a heat press on a Friday afternoon...only the hand of God is likely to get you out of that jam.)  Oy!  So the quilt only made it to this point.  I took it into the hospital to show her though - so she did get to see it mostly finished but she passed away before I had the chance to finish it and it sat in a bag in my closet for the next 9 years.

A few months ago I was chatting with a friend who commented that she was going to have to learn how to crochet so that she could make an afghan that she had already bought the yarn for.  Knowing that she quilts, I offered a trade.  I sent her my work in progress quilt and she sent me a box of yarn.  Monday, she showed up at a meeting (we work together) and she had the quilt!  All I can say is...I bawled! :)  This what she brought back to me...

She completely scrapped the plain white backing that I sent her, in favor of a beautifully quilted picture filled back.  It's amazing and beautiful and so much more than anything I could have ever done on my own. 

Not only did she completely redo the back, but she added little extra's all around it in the form of stitched words like...

family

laughter...(tilt your head to the left...you'll see it! :)

and several others.  It wasn't hard to tell that my friend had put every bit as much love and caring into this quilt as I would have.  Sophia would never know her Grammy, but thanks to Louanne - she would finally have her quilt. 

Thursday was Sophia's Birthday, so we gave her the quilt.  She was absolutely thrilled with it.

When bed time came, her Dad tucked her in and told her the story of the quilt - how it started and who it was for.  She's my softie kid and it immediately became even more important to her...So much so that she didn't want to spread it out on her bed because she was worried that Ninja cat would claw it.  That night she rolled it up and stuck it next to her  pillow so that she could keep it safe and look at it all night.  lol 

she really does Love this quilt and I will never be able to say thank you enough to my dear friend Louanne, who was able to make something so beautiful out of my unfinished project. :)  Thank you VERY much my friend. :)  Your beautiful work has made 1 little girl extremely happy.

       

My baby is 10!

Before I get into my post about Sophia's 10th birthday, I would like to note that typeing on a laptop...witha  cat pressing into your left side - his head directly under your left wrist - is not nearly as easy as one would think.  I'm guessing he's perched there because of the heat. 

So - on to bigger things...This is what my baby looks like the minute she turns 10.  :)  It's tradition that we take a picture every birthday morning. Here she is this year! :)

 

This year, she wanted a Sheep cake to take into her class.  Because I was crazy enough to have my baby the day after Halloween, I wasn't able to start it until after trick or treating.  (what was I thinking?)  Anyhoo - here she is.  Her feet are marshmallow wrapped in fondant. 

I wanted to add a little surprise to the cake.  Her school mascott is a frog and soo...I had to add one. :)  The best part was a total accident.  When I pressed him into the frosting, his little tongue looks like he's eating the frosting fleece. :)

 

Another fun detail were the little hearts I put here and there (specifically, the one on his butt)

 

One of the highlights of her birthday was her Birthday Quilt. :)  The quilt needs it's own post, though, the story is too important to not tell. :)

 

Happy Birthday Kiddo! :)