3 x 6 Quilting Bee

I've signed up for another quilting bee through Flickr. This one is a 3 x 6 quilting bee. You have to complete 6 blocks in 3 months time and send them off to their respective owners. Each person gives you their color preferences and you make the same 12" block for each person, but use their color choices.

My "Bee Hive" consists of people from all over! California, Ohio, Utah, Sweeden and South Africa! Seriously how cool is that? My goal is to keep this up for 1 year and when it's over with I'll have enough blocks for a quilt top.

My color selection was a bit out of my norm. I'm one to pick neutral colors, something that will go in my very traditional looking home. However, I went rogue this time and chose ORANGE and AQUA. Below are some inspiration photos I shared with my Bee Hive.


I've decided to do a paper pieced block. I enjoy doing this method because my points line up every time, and my blocks always turn out the correct size. Here is the pattern I'll be using. Isn't it pretty???

The blockwork orange

For those of you who know me know I love to create. Whether it's a sewn purse made from my favorite Amy Butler Fabric, working on my monthly block from the Saturday Sampler at Sauder Village or baking one of my yummy cakes or other confections - I LIVE TO MAKE STUFF! And I'll find any excuse to do so.

So, with that said I've joined a group of quilters from Flickr in making and swapping orange quilt blocks using a tutorial from OhFransson.

These blocks are so easy to whip up. You need nine different fabrics which you stack, wack, sew, shuffle and repeat. I managed to get 18 blocks done in a few hours. It wouldn't have taken nearly as long, but my craft room is upstairs, and my iron is in my basement. So after every round of sewing, I'd trudge through the living room, dining room, kitchen, down the stairs and to my iron. Then back up to work on the next step.

Who says crafting isn't a workout!?!







25 of my 27 blocks laid out. And before you ask... NO! I will not be putting my quilt together this way! It's way too busy. I'll probably be following in OhFransson's footsteps and laying it out in a lattice pattern, like this.

Here we go .... again.

Okay. I admit it. I'm not that great of a blogger. I've started blogs with the best of intentions but then realized I didn't have much to write about. So I'm going to combine all of my little bits of life - my family, my crafts, my cakes, my vinyl and everything else that happens and document it here.

So please, bear with me on this journey and if I don't post enough, send me a message, toss a rock, give me a nudge and say HEY!!! DO YOUR JOB!!! HA ha ha!

I did manage to import some of my older posts from my previous blog. See? It's been a LONG time since I've actually posted something!!!

Puppies: 5 days old

The pups are now 5 days old and everyone is doing well. It's amazing to see just how fast they've grown in these few short days. Their bellies are nice and plump and for the most part the litter is all growing at the same rate. There's one female that is a little smaller than the rest, but not by much. Enjoy the photos!

(Female)

(Males)

(Female)

The Puppies are here!!!

Dharma Whelped 7 puppies today... yes, 7! That's a big jump from her last litter of.... one. There are 6 surviving pups (the first one didn't make it). 4 females, 2 males all black and silver in color.

Mom and babies are doing GREAT!

Cake Mania

I think this is the first post that's NOT been about Wyatt. Sarah Nafziger, Emily Baer and I took a Cake Class in Toledo for the past four weeks. We learned all kinds of things, like how to properly frost a cake to piping. Before all of this I just figured you opened a can of frosting, slapped it on the cake and called it good. In reality decorating a cake takes time, lots of time... sometimes a few days in order to let your decorations dry correctly.

The above photo is of some cupcakes we had to do. We learned drop flowers, figure piping, how to make a clown out of frosting (and let me tell ya, it takes A LOT of frosting) as well as some writing techniques.



Ah, the "Wilton Rose". The crowning glory to any cake. ha ha. Let me tell you it's not all that easy at first. Who knew that the consistency of the frosting would play a big part in making our decorations. It was crazy. After practicing a few times though, all three of us got the hang of it. My roses started off looking like cabbages, then transitioned into carnations and finally started looking like roses. Whoopie!







I wasn't too keen on the color of my cake, but the taste... oh my. It's dark chocolate fudge cake with a layer of chocolate mousse in the middle. The frosting was espresso butter cream with dark chocolate decorations. I added some dripped chocolate ganache to the outer rim. mmmmmmmmm... heaven.

So all three of us passed the class with flying colors. I'm planning on taking the 2nd course once I get some free Saturdays again.

I've been itching to put my newly learned skills to use, so with some help from Wyatt (he helped mix the cake) I made a Good Luck cake for their forthcoming tournament game.

It's a white cake with white buttercream filling and frosting. The blackbird is dark chocolate that I piped and filled. The stars are also dark chocolate.

It was delish! - They forced us to stay and have a piece of cake and some icecream. :)

I'm really enjoying making cakes, so if anyone has a birthday or special event and you'd like a cake, I'm for hire!

The next American Idol...

I'll let the videos speak for themselves; but I have to say, my son is a bit of a Ham.