Floating Hexagon Mini Quilt

I have a confession to make.  I spend too much time on Pinterest.  One day while exploring, I came across this machine stitched hexagon mini quilt.  I thought it was gorgeous, so I pinned it.  I also took the time shortly thereafter to read the whole post and watch the hexagon making tutorial that she referenced.  And looked at her post about the holiday mini quilt she made.  And I was hooked.

Instead of making the quilt that I originally saw posted, I ended up with something a little more like the second one.

I went through my piles of scraps and found six variations of purple fabric that I've used mostly for things for my daughter (like this quillow).  I decided this would be a mini quilt for my daughter's American Girl style dolls.  Then, I got to work sewing hexagons.  

I wanted to spend as little money as possible on this project, so I printed my own hexagon templates on card stock and cut them out myself.  I got the template here.

I made 24, then ironed them, took out the templates, then made 24 more, and kept going.  I found out later that I needed 99 total hexagons.  I did 18 in each of five different colors and 9 in a sixth color.


















I did have to buy the backing fabric and I let my daughter pick it out.  I wanted white so the hexagons would "pop".  She picked a white with a bit of a faint design on it.  I cut two pieces of the white fabric and one piece of batting at 18" x 25".  I used basting spray (for the first time) to hold the layers together.

I tried a few different designs for the layout of the hexagons.  

Scattered, mostly random

Pattern

We liked this one best so I ran with it.

Light to dark - the winner!

After laying them all out perfectly and making sure I had the correct number of each color, I used fabric glue and glued them all into place.  (Part of laying them out perfectly was drawing a horizontal line with a temporary marker every two inches to line up the top of the hexagons in the odd numbered columns.  The hexagon was about 1 3/4" tall when measured from parallel sides.  I allowed about 1/4" in between.)

All glued down and ready to be quilted

Next up was quilting.  I followed the instructions on the mini quilt tutorial. And I love how it turned out!

Close up of a quilted hexagon

And another one

Then I machine bound the quilt.  After making 99 hexagons by hand, I didn't want to hand stitch the binding.

And that's it!  The mini quilt is done!

Finished!!!

More pictures...

quilt detail

showing machine binding

Quilting pattern on the back (yikes, my white doesn't look very white)

Looking down the quilt

First Communion Cake

This weekend was my daughter's First Communion. We sketched up a cake idea together and this is how it turned out. 

I baked a Funfetti box cake mix in a 9x13 pan. After it baked and cooled, I put a piece of wax paper on top and drew out my cross shape until I got it right, then cut it. I used the cut-away corners to build a second layer to make it a taller cake. (I put the pieced together layer as the bottom and the solid cross on top with white icing in between.) 

I used white store-bought icing and did a crumb coat. Then I made a batch of white homemade fondant and rolled it out to cover the whole cake.

I tinted a can of store-bought icing light purple and piped tiny flowers around the top edge of the cross to define the edges. I then piped slightly larger flowers around the bottom to hide the fondant edge. 

I cut a small circle out of Candy Clay for the host and used a toothpick to draw a cross. I used the toothpick to lightly draw a chalice outline in the fondant, then I piped the outline with white icing, and filled it in with gold sprinkles. 

Cake is done!  It looked great and tasted great and my daughter loved it. 

Candy Clay

I've been using Candy Clay for quite a while for edible cake decorations.  The recipe on Wilton's site has you use an entire bag of Candy Melts.  (Melt one 12oz package of Candy Melts according to package directions, then stir in 1/4 cup light corn syrup until smooth.)  That makes a ton of candy clay and I never need that much.  So, a while back, I did the math to scale down the recipe.  If you want a smaller amount, use one teaspoon of corn syrup for every ten candy melt discs. (This only applies to Wilton brand Candy Melts.  Other brands may have different sized pieces.)  The instructions Wilton provides are easy to follow - but basically, it is melt the candy melts (I use microwave method), stir in the corn syrup, then spread out on a plate or wax paper and let it cool overnight.  When you are ready to use it, you knead it a little at a time to soften it up and you are ready to go.  If it starts getting too soft, put it in the refrigerator (or other cool location) to firm up a bit.

Examples of things I've made with Candy Clay:

Trees for a "Frozen" Cake

The host for a First Communion cake

Rapunzel and her hair, Pascal, flowers, hairbrush, sun

Red trim, basketball hoop and net

For the tree above, I shaped the prepared candy clay into a cone shape and then stuck a lollipop stick in.  I used kitchen scissors to make small snips all the way around.  When done, I stuck them into the cake evenly around the bottom layer.

My kids and party guests seem to always argue over who gets the Candy Clay pieces.  I think they like it more than the cake itself. Try it out and see if you like it.  Let me know how it turns out for you.

"Frozen" Cake

"Frozen" is the biggest movie on the planet currently, right?  So, of course, my daughter requests a "Frozen"-themed birthday party and cake.  Here is the finished cake...

The first thing I did was search Pinterest for ideas.  We found this image of a cake and my daughter gave me the go-ahead.  

She chose two different flavors of boxed cake mix (because I have yet to attempt baking a cake from scratch) - blue velvet and pink lemonade.  I baked them according to package directions, leveled them, stacked them, and crumb-coated them in store-bought icing.

Somewhere along the line, I decided this cake would be the perfect opportunity to finally try using fondant, and homemade fondant at that.  I followed the instructions for Homemade Fondant found on Johanna's blog My Crazy Blessed Life.  It was easy to make - just marshmallows, powdered sugar, and water.  I added a bit of blue gel food coloring at the end and kneaded it in to make a marbled effect. However, after I rolled it out nice and thin and got ready to pick it up to gracefully drape over the cake, it was hard-core stuck to the counter.  So I had to knead it some more before rolling again (with way more powdered sugar on the counter this time) and my marbling was gone.  I did the bottom tier by itself first, then did the top, and then stacked them.  I covered the rough edges with a fondant rope.  The ice/snow steps in front were blocks of fondant and a fondant rope railing held in place at the top and bottom with a cut toothpick.

Now for the other decorations...  I made the trees out of candy clay.  I've been using candy clay for quite a while for edible cake decorations.  The recipe on Wilton's site has you use an entire bag of Candy Melts.  That makes a ton of candy clay and I never need that much.  So, a while back, I did the math to scale down the recipe.  If you want a smaller amount, use one teaspoon of corn syrup for every ten candy melt discs. (This only applies to Wilton brand Candy Melts.  Other brands may have different sized pieces.)  The instructions Wilton provides are easy to follow - but basically, it is melt the candy melts (I use microwave method), then stir in the corn syrup, then spread out on a plate or wax paper and let it cool overnight.  When you are ready to use it, you knead it a little at a time to soften it up and you are ready to go.

I shaped the prepared candy clay into a cone shape and then stuck a lollipop stick in.  I used kitchen scissors to make small snips all the way around.  When done, I stuck them into the cake evenly around the bottom layer.

Next up, I needed some Anna and Elsa and Olaf to actually make this look "Frozen" and to meet the approval of my daughter.  This is where things got surprisingly complicated.

I planned to just go to Target or Wal-Mart and buy small Anna and Elsa toys to put on the cake like in the inspiration photo.  Not so easy.  I went to every store I could think of and couldn't find Elsa.  I found Anna at a few stores, but the cheapest small Elsa I could find was included in a larger playset and cost around $40.  I love my daughter, but I am not spending that much on a cake topper.  Sorry.  I explored every option I could think of and settled on printing my own Shrinky Dinks.  If you are not familiar with Shrinky Dinks, immediately stop reading this and go Google it and then buy some and have hours of fun.  Just come back and finish reading this blog post eventually.

So, anyway, I found these printable "shrink sheets" forever ago and tucked them away.  

It looks like Avery maybe discontinued the product, but this product on Amazon looks like it might work.  I found the images for Anna, Elsa, and Olaf on Google Images.  I used Photoshop to get them all on one sheet of plastic and faded the color quite a bit.  (You will want to experiment with this if the instructions don't give you specifics.  If you leave the image full color, it will be really dark after you bake/shrink it.)  I flipped the image and printed on the back also.  Then I carefully cut out the characters leaving a spike at the bottom of each one under the feet.  I baked them and stabbed them into the cake.

Shrinky Dink Elsa and Anna

And since my daughter wanted an "8" candle, I stuck a toothpick into the bottom of the candle for extra support and cut out a small spot of fondant for the base and placed the candle.

Elsa, Anna, Olaf, and a giant 8 candle

And with a finished cake, I had a very happy birthday girl.

The End.  And we all lived happily ever after.  Right?  Well, mostly.  Just one thing I wanted to point out.  This fondant is rather heavy.  Everything worked out just fine, but you may be able to see the fondant on the bottom cake layer buckling a bit.  Next time, I think I need to make a change or two to prevent this.  

Some options:

-roll the fondant thinner, thereby using less

-use a denser cake (at least for the bottom) to better support the weight

-put some sort of support system in the bottom cake, dowels to hold up a base for the top cake, maybe.

I think I was the only one that noticed it (and then pointed it out to everyone) and the cake didn't collapse or anything, so it all worked out, but just a word of warning...

Thanks for stopping by!

Fuse Bead Princesses

After a full week of snow days from school, we finally got out the fuse beads today.  All of the princesses are based on photos we found online.  My daughter came up with the pets on her own.  

Pascal - the chameleon from "Tangled"

Clover - the rabbit from "Sofia the First" and a carrot for him.

Pascal, Clover, and a carrot before melting

Rapunzel was done a month or two ago.  She is based on an awesome photo we found online.  That one had various shades of yellow/golden hair.  We weren't that ambitious.  We added her friend Pascal today.

Merida from "Brave" and Cinderella and her mouse friend Gus before melting.

Sleeping Beauty and Sophia the First before melting.

Snow White and Jasmine before melting.

The Hive Baby Blanket

I learned to crochet while my sister was pregnant with her second child.  I didn't have a lot of money, but I had time.  (That was before I had two children of my own.  Now I don't have money or time.)  I started making some granny squares and at some point decided to make enough to make a blanket for my sister's baby.  She wanted to wait to find out the baby's gender until the delivery room, so I needed to find a yarn that was gender-neutral.  I have never been a fan of straight up pastels - pink, yellow, blue - for babies, so I needed to find something a little less traditional.  I ended up with Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Watercolor.  In my opinion, this yarn is/was perfect.  The price was right for a project that involved several skeins.  And I thought the color was great for either a boy or a girl and I thought it wasn't so babyish that an older child would refuse to use it.

So that was over 9 years ago.  My sister loved the blanket and showed it off to everyone who visited her in the hospital.  She ended up with a second boy and I am pretty sure he still has the blanket somewhere.

Fast forward a year and a half and I am pregnant with my first baby.  I found out I was having a girl, so I started work on a pink blanket.  And I still haven't finished it.  Oops.

While I was pregnant, my husband's sister announced she was expecting and she wasn't going to find out gender in advance.  I got to work on a blanket using the same yarn as before in a different pattern.  She ended up with a girl.  Blanket was a huge success.

Then my brother and his wife decided to start having babies.  They didn't find out gender with any of the three.  Blankets for all, same yarn, different pattern.  They ended up with three boys.

Somewhere in the middle of that last batch of boys, I had a boy of my own and knit him a blue blanket.  Daughter is jealous because I finished his but not hers.  Oh well, she will get over it.  (And I have made her a ton of other stuff in the meantime.  Don't feel too sorry for her.)

So, anyway, for that last baby, what will likely be my last niece/nephew, I searched high and low for the perfect pattern.  And by high and low, I mean I searched Pinterest.  And I came across this gem - The Hive Knit Dishcloth by Being Spiffy.  (Head over to her site and show her some blog love.  This pattern is only possible because of her.  I am not creative enough to come up with stuff on my own.)  I fell in love.  Yes, it is a dishcloth, but I loved the pattern.

I did a few test swatches to make sure I understood the pattern and to see what the back would look like and test out a few modifications.  One thing I decided to change was to "tack down" the vertical bars so you can't stick your finger through.  I actually like that you can stick your finger through, but since I am making it for a baby, I thought it might be asking for trouble if little fingers can get in there and stretch and tug and tangle all my hard work.  So I changed the middle row of the pattern (rows 7 & 17) slightly so it attaches.  And, just for fun, I left one in the middle of the blanket somewhere unattached.

The night before leaving on vacation in July, I cast on the starting row.  Standard cast on, nothing fancy.  However, I have a serious problem with casting on and knitting too tightly, so I always hold two knitting needles together and cast on around both.  When I have the right number of stitches, I pull out the extra needle.  (That's a bonus tip,  You are welcome.)  I knit most of the two hour drive to our vacation destination (don't worry, my husband was driving not me), and I knit for a little while in the hotel, and I knit a good chunk of the way home.  And it felt like I made NO progress.

In August, I knit for most of the six or seven hour train ride to and from Chicago.  The minions on my fingernails helped.  (Also, I highly recommend Amtrak when traveling with children, but that is a whole other discussion.)

My sister-in-law's due date was mid-September and I was really hoping to have it done so I could give it to them right after the baby was born.  Well, baby Owen was born and the blanket was still not done.  New target completion date was Baptism, which still hadn't been set.  I knit off and on, whenever I had time in the evenings and on the weekends, and I finally finished it in mid- to late- November.  Baptism was December 1.

I love how the blanket turned out!  But mostly I was glad it was done.  If I had it to do over again, I would use two strands of yarn held together and use larger needles so that it would go faster.  Or I would magically become a faster knitter.

So, without further ado, here is that pattern.

The Hive Blanket

With US size 7 needles, co multiple of 8 plus 2. [I cast on 170.]

Row 1: Purl across.

Row 2: Knit across.

Row 3: Purl across.

Row 4: K1, {p3, slip 2 purlwise (yarn in front), p3} across to last st, k1.

Row 5: K1, {k3, slip 2 purlwise (yarn in back), k3} across to last st, k1.

Row 6: K1, {p3, slip 2 purlwise (yarn in front), p3} across to last st, k1.

Row 7: K1, {k3, p2, k3} across to last st, k1.

Row 8: K1, {p3, slip 2 purlwise (yarn in front), p3} across to last st, k1.

Row 9: K1, {k3, slip 2 purlwise (yarn in back), k3} across to last st, k1.

Row 10: K1, {p3, slip 2 purlwise (yarn in front), p3} across to last st, k1.

Row 11: Purl across.

Row 12: Knit across.

Row 13: Purl across.

Row 14: K1, {slip 1 purlwise (yarn in front), p6, slip 1 purlwise (yarn in front)} across to last st, k1.

Row 15: K1, {slip 1 purlwise (yarn in back), k6, slip 1 purlwise (yarn in back)} across to last st, k1.

Row 16: K1, {slip 1 purlwise (yarn in front), p6, slip 1 purlwise (yarn in front)} across to last st, k1.

Row 17: K1, {p1, k6, p1} across to last st, k1.

Row 18: K1, {slip 1 purlwise (yarn in front), p6, slip 1 purlwise (yarn in front)} across to last st, k1.

Row 19: K1, {slip 1 purlwise (yarn in back), k6, slip 1 purlwise (yarn in back)} across to last st, k1.

Row 20: K1, {slip 1 purlwise (yarn in front), p6, slip 1 purlwise (yarn in front)} across to last st, k1.

Repeat Rows 1-20 until you reach the size desired length of the blanket. [I think mine was 403 rows total.] End with Finish Rows 1-3.

Finish Row 1: Purl across.

Finish Row 2: Knit across.

Finish Row 3: Purl across.

Bind off knit-wise.

To edge left and right sides, crochet across once, then crochet back in back loops only. (Or use your own favorite edge.0

Finish off and weave in ends.

And that's it.  I hope you enjoy this pattern.

And here are some photos of the finished product.

Close up of the front

The crocheted edge

The back of the blanket

Front at an angle - I love this pattern!

Front of blanket - I love this pattern!

The blanket is finished!!!

The whole blanket - complete!  (Just ignore that it looks uneven on the sides.)

All folded up, ready to wrap.

Baby Owen with his new favorite blanket