Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Quick Wins

Sometimes, when you've been working on the same project for a while, it's nice to have some quick wins.

On Sunday, I put together a self-binding receiving blanket. I mostly used the Cuddle Baby Self-binding Receiving Blanket tutorial found at the Shannon Fabrics Blog.  I used flannel for both the front and the back and made it rectangular instead of square. The backing fabric I made 41"x45", and the front fabric I made 28"x32", so altogether it is 34.5"x38.5". It came together fairly easily and quickly and I am quite happy with it. Now I just need the baby to be born.



Last night, I also decided to throw something together for a co-worker's new nephew. I have been interested in trying my hand at a tag blanket, but had never gotten around to it. I decided that I could pull it together with materials I already had. I got out my ribbon supply (thanks to anyone who has given me a present with ribbon on it), and my fabric, and set to work. I pieced together a couple pieces of flannel for what I thought would be the front of the blanket, and grabbed an extra piece of denim I had lying around for the bag. I decided to put the baby's initial on the denim with a piece of flannel. Once everything came together, the denim piece looked nicer than the flannel piece, so I switched what I considered the front and what I considered the back. Big shout out to Becky for helping me with my last minute idea - she handled the ribbon aspect of the blanket.

Flannel side

Denim side
Blanket might be a bit of a misleading word. I cut my squares 11.5", so that the finished square is 11". We felt that 3" of ribbon made a good finished size for the loops, so we cut each piece of ribbon 3" long. We pinned the ribbon tags in place on the top of the flannel square and I stitched around the edge, about 1/8" in, so that the ribbon would stay in place for when I stitched the two sides together. Once I had stitched them together and turned them right-side out, I topped stitched the outside. It really added nicely to the look.





 Finishing things really does feel good.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Time With Friends

One of my university friends is home from England right now. I was lucky enough to get to spend some time with her, and another friend, for the last 24 hours.

We picked her up and headed to Stratford to see Crazy for You. We took advantage of the Play On program which allows people aged 18-29 get tickets for $25. I would strongly recommend it to anyone in that age category. The show was very good - full of energy, great dance numbers, awesome sets and set changes. We've had I Got Rhythm stuck in our heads ever since the show.

Today we tried to fit as much Canadian food into what we were doing as possible. We started with a delicious breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup (along with fresh Niagara peaches). We then went to the store and picked up ingredients before making Nanaimo bars. We used the recipe from the Nanaimo, BC website, and it was quite good. I might skip the nuts in the bottom layer next time, but overall they turned out well - especially considering it was a first time experience for all of us. We then had Kraft Dinner and caesar salad for lunch. Apparently Kraft Dinner is not something that is available in England - how sad is that? We finished everything off with some maple leaf creme cookies.

It was great to spend some time just chilling with my friends. Now I need to go help my kitchen recover from the invasion.