Rolling Mat

A few years ago (before Celiacs entered our lives) my sister made me a rolling mat for Christmas.  I have loved it, although I have been meaning to make a bigger one.

Basically you use it to roll out pie crust, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, rolls, cookies, etc.  I have loved using it and not having to clean the flour off my counter.  When you are done you shake the excess flour off and fold it up and put it in the freezer for next time.  Wonderful!  I usually only wash it when I make things like Cinnamon rolls and get cinnamon & sugar on it, or if oil gets on it, which is usually about once or twice a year, which may seem like it is not enough, but the point is that the more you use it the more the flour gets in the mat and the less flour you have to use in the future, it is great!

Since my daughter was diagnosed 3 years ago I have been meaning to make me a GF one.  And since we moved earlier this year into a home with tile countertops I knew the time had come.  Let's just say that rolling things out on tile is for the birds, and crazy people.  I first went to Jo-Ann's and bought some duck cloth.  I had planned on buying cream colored but they were out.  Which was just as well, since I wouldn't have bought pink instead.  And I love the fact that the pink is stark contrast to the cream and I won't get them confused on accident (which I have been known to do more than once).

So first I soaked the cloth in the hottest water I could get out of my tap for about 30 minutes.

The green was going to be for my non-GF bigger version, unfortunately I was about 1/4 yard short

Then I dried it on the highest setting of my drier.

I then measured the depth of my countertop and used that measurement to cut the fabric to a square that would fit nicely on the counter.  Then I got bias tape that matched (I ended up making my own) and pinned it around the edge.

I then sewed the bias tape all around the mat. folding the end under where the two ends of the tape meet.

And voile, I'm done!

Don't look too close since I decided not to worry about perfectly straight seams or binding, I was just throwing it together.

When you are done using it just fold it up and place in the freezer (mine fits in a quart size Ziploc freezer bag.)

My 2 mats, size by side.  My happiness is overflowing. 

Here are some recipes that this would work great for:

Biscuits

Twisty Sticks

Navajo Tacos

Mini Pies & Turnovers

Vinegar Pastry

Ham & Chicken Roll-Ups

Soft Sugar Cookies

Online Quilt Show

A friend sent me a link to an online quilt show. Basically, bloggers post a link to the favorite quilt they have done. If you love quilting, like I do, you should check it out! There are some amazing quilts.

The Rocket Quilt

So 3 1/2 years ago we moved into our house, and my son moved into his own bed. Since then I have been planning on making him a quilt. First I was going to make a "Transportation" quilt with "paper pieced" boats, planes, cars, trucks, etc. Well, that went really slow and I just never got more than a few blocks done. Then when he started his rocket craze I realized this was not something he would grow out of, which is just fine, and I should do a rocket quilt because that is what he really wants. When I was designing the quilt I had to figure out which rocket to use and decided on the "Cosmic Cobra" which met a very sad ending last summer -- for the second time.

Could a rocket land any better -- or worse?

The rocket was really quite neat, What it was suppose to do was to pop the nosecone off and then it fell by a helicopter mechanism and the body tube (yellow part) came down with a parachute. The first time the top came down right but the body tube crashed. The second time we just had impact and it was decided that the our household no longer flew cosmic cobras. But now my son can enjoy it on his bed.

Close up -- the fire ended up a little wonky, but I will just have to do better if I make another one.

In case you are wondering, the long points on the stars and the wing angles (4"x6" half-square rectangles) were the hardest. Thank you the internet (star points) and paper piecing (wings).

Halloween Costumes

Halloween was never a favorite holiday until I had kids and got to help them dress up. This year I was really proud of what we came up with.

For my youngest I used a dress that I made from a Butterick Pattern #3236 over 5 years ago for my oldest daughter when she was my youngest daughter's age. Over the years I have lent it to cousins and friends and was so excited to see another daughter wear it. When I made it my oldest was a little short for the pattern, but I didn't realize it until I had sewn the dress, so I cut it off. The original pattern had an extra row of black lace on the skirt. Little did I know I would have a daughter who would need the extra. For the necklace I used the lace from the dress and hand stiched a Victorian cameo button onto the middle and then safety pined it in the back. For the bow in her hair I cut a piece about 4" x 12-18" (I don't exactly remember it has been too many years) from both the lace and dress fabric. I then folded each in half and layed the lace on top of the fabric with the folds even. I pinned those together and then serged them together. I then used a basting stitch and ran it across the layers next to the serging and gathered them up. Then I rolled them into a flower and hand stiched the edges together. Then I hot glued the flower to a hair clip. When worn next to the bun the edges dissapear and it just looks like a fancy flower. Now just had red lipstick and a beauty mark and you have a flamanco dancer!

A beauty!

My oldest want to be a ballerina, despite many attempts at talking her into something more interesting. It is just too cold here for ballerinas. But she insisted. Since she is tall and super skinny (don't we all want to be like this) I decided to make her leotard. I used McCall's Pattern #MP279. I then got an iron-on from a local craft store to iron on to the top. For the skirt I got 3 yds of some beaded tulle (it looks like glue gun drops) and regular tulle. I then cut to to the length I needed with the folds being on the bottom of the skirt. I then basted the edges together and sewed a seamed up the back leaving about 4" open. I then gathered the top of the skirt and sewed a ribbon to the top. I ended up making 2 seams on the ribbon. One about 5/8" down and then another a little further down to help it lay better. I wish I would have sewn one at the top of the tulle as well to help it lay even better but it worked out pretty well. I then dumped som flower petels into the skirt through the opening in the back and voile add a bun, tights and ballet flats and you have a ballerina. I was so afraid it would turn out boring, but to my suprise I think it turned out rather sophisticated, for a halloween costume.

The "sophisticated" ballerina.

My son and husband are obsessed with rockets and he HAD to be an astronaut. The outfit turned out to be one of the easiest I have done. I found clipart on line by googling "astronaut clipart" and by going to the NASA website. I then printed them out on Black T-Shirt iron-on paper and ironed them onto a gray sweatshirt (he was a Mercury astronaut). For the helmet we found an old football helmet and covered it in tin foil. For the boots, he has both out-grown and out-worn his tennis shoes so I took some silver tissue lame and, using his shoe as a guide, made a boot. I then seamed the back seam and front seam and made a 1/2" casing at the top for 1/4" elastic cut to fit his leg. I threaded the elastic and then hot-glued the bottom of the fabric directly to the shoe above the tread so he could walk safely.

Our "spacey" Space Man

Birthday #1 Prep

For my daughter's 8th birthday she is having a Candyland party. While a younger child game we are adapting. She couldn't decide what she wanted to do for her party so I told her to look at the cut-up cake designs I have and see if she finds and idea she likes. She liked the flower cart, but we did a theme similar to flowers last year, so we changed it to a candy cart. I am trying to come up with ideas for activities and the like based on the characters from candyland. So far we have gingersnaps (molassas swamp), ice cream (Queen Frostine), candy cart for King Kandy (if real adventurous I will make the cart look like a candy cart castle -- we'll see) making a candyland girl out of foamy and suckers (Princess Lolly), Pin the doornut (doorknob) on Grandma Nut's home, I am probably going to do a photo treasure hunt or obstacle course to get something back from Lord Licorice, I am still thinking on what to do for Mr. Mint and for Plumpy and the gingerbread tree with plum forest. For Jolly the Gumdrop guy I am making Tic-Tac-Toe bags with small pebbles in them.

I started with a 9-patch square, added 1/4" borders on top & sides. Then added the back and front border to bottom. Then I added a lining and sewed them together.

Then I sewed a thin line of velcro to top of each side of the lining. then serged them together to make a bag to hold the pieces.

Now they can play with their "gumdrops".

Headbands

I have been making headbands lately.  My daughters are growing their bangs out and we need something to keep them back and barretts are not doing the job.   We had a rubber headband we had bought at the store has been doing a great job, so we used it for a template.

Here are some the the headbands we have made.  If you want to see how I made them you can go here, on the photo with the pattern, if you view full size you can just copy the pattern off the computer screen.  Thanks Meg for the hint!

This is the one I made on the link.

I think this one is my favorite

I used a little more decrative stitch on this one.  I really like it.

This one matches a dress I made for my oldest when she was 4 that fits my younger daughter now that is 2 1/2.