Birthday Bread

As Mike's birthday approached, I mentioned that I was going to have to find a substitute for egg whites in royal icing so that I could write Happy Birthday on his cake. He promptly replied that he didn't really like icing, and would in fact prefer bread to cake anyhow. So...

A new apron for Mike

Mike wanted a half apron like the ones on the Food Network show "Chopped". A quick look online and at Joann's suggested this would be relatively pricey to buy completed, but fairly cheap and quick to make. Unfortunately, I ran out of white thread at about 10pm, so I finished it in black - an interesting contrast, I thought. Since this was entirely utilitarian, I did not spend a huge amount of time keeping the stitching even, though, and with the black thread it really shows.

Curtains for Jazz

A friend had some sheer curtains in a very interesting fabric, but they had no hem! After many years of them shortening from the bottom as the threads pulled away one by one, she got tired of trimming the fringe, and asked if I would be able to hem them. I hadn't thought to make a "before" photo, but here's the "after". The stripes of the ironing board below obscure the stripes of the fabric, but do demonstrate the sheer curtains. I did a "blind" hem, so only a couple of the stitches show through, with most of the sewing happening on the part that gets folded under. Choosing thread for this one was difficult because of the sheer fabric, but I think that the tan I eventually went with was the best choice. This was also a huge effort in basting -- three basted folds for each hem! Perhaps I went a bit overboard with my perfectionism :)

Josh's quilt

When my friends Jeff and Anne announced they were having a baby, there were only two things to do. 1. Make a quilt of one of Jeff's favorite games - Ricochet Robots, and 2. Make cloth diapers with a theme for Anne--horses. Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to take photos of the diapers, but here's the quilt, along with a photo of the original game board swiped from www.boardgamegeek.com. I made the base of the quilt with four pastel colors to differentiate the squares, and then appliqued on all the bits and pieces. I brushed off my needlepoint skills (and had to look up the stitches in my hand-me-down book of sewing from my mother) to complete the colored "shapes". Finished size was about 42" square.