I LOVE Baby Girl Sewing!

I absolutely LOVE sewing cute baby things! Especially baby girl things! :D

So, do you remember the Easter dresses I made this year? (If you don't they are shown at the end of THIS post.) I also made a matching tie for my son later this summer (shown in THIS post) but he didn't want the "girly" yellow I picked out so I used grey instead.  That meant I had a half yard of coordinating yellow polka dot fabric just waiting for Hannah to be born. I guess it was meant to be. ;)

So, I whipped up an Itty Bitty Baby dress (free pattern available HERE) and then went overboard with a Peekaboo Bonnet (pattern for sale HERE). 

I know, I almost never ever buy patterns, but I have always wanted to make a bonnet and this was my last chance! Oh, it is sooooo cute, too!  I am super pleased with how these turned out. I love piping and eyelet lace trim. (And tiny little baby feet, too!) LOVE!

I also love the sunshiney yellow color, and it matched the dress I wore for a pic taken 12 days before she was born when I was ginormous, so we did a little "after" pic to go with the "before" one.

Before...

...After.

Actually, first I made another dress for my niece so that they could match. The cousins were born two days apart and we all got to hang out at the hospital together. How cool is that? Of course, my niece was a big girl, so I made her dress in the 0-3 month size instead. Since this was my sister-in-law's first girl, I knew a little pink was in order, too. :)

I ran out of piping to do another bonnet, but I also made her a crocheted bear hat (using my free pattern HERE) that should fit her this fall and increased the size on that one as well.

I know I used the word "LOVE" an awful lot in this post, but making things for baby girls, especially girls this cute, really does that to me!

Freezer Jalapeno Poppers

OK. So, I took these pictures last summer. I mean, I DO plan on making jalapeno poppers but not just yet. I am supposed to be taking it easy (which is killing me!) Instead I am just gonna' sit here holding this super cute baby and blog about it.

The ingredients...

24 jalapeno peppers
12 oz. softened cream cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/4-1/2 cup crumbled, cooked bacon or bacon bits
2 cups milk
1 cup flour
2 cups bread crumbs

The directions...

Wash your jalapenos. 

Put on some gloves if you know what is good for you.  Cut off the tops.

Slice 'em down the middle.

Scoop out the seeds.

Look how pretty!

Mix up softened cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and crumbled bacon or bacon bits.

Fill each pepper half with the cheesy mixture.

Lay them all out on a cookie sheet covered with paper towels.

Now, here is the secret to these... a triple dipping process! It gives them a lovely coating. So... dip in milk...

...then flour.

Here they are all spread out on the cookie sheet to dry a bit.

Dip in milk again...

...then bread crumbs.

This is how they look after one bread crumb coating.

Not good enough. When they are dry, do it again.  Milk, then bread crumbs.

Much better.

Then, just pack them in freezer bags. All done!

Yes, the triple dipping is tedious, but worth it.  When you want to cook them, just throw 'em in the deep fryer until they are golden brown and crispy.  We have tried grilling and baking them, which is OK, but frying works best.

It is so nice to have something quick and easy to make in my freezer (which is not often the case since most of our food is home-grown) and these are much, much, much cheaper than the store bought ones!

One of these days, when I fry some up, I will take a post-cooking picture and update this post.  Right now, I am too busy holding this sweet little baby!

Jungle Star Quilt

It only took a little over five years, but I finished it! :)

You see, I pieced this quilt top for my 5yo daughter before she was born. We like to leave the baby's gender a surprise, so I was going for something bright and fun and gender-neutral.

After the top was finished, I was afraid it was too girly and made another one. That one isn't very neutral either. I was thinking "rubber ducks" when I made it, but all the blue made it a little more masculine and, of course, we had a girl.  I should have just stuck with this one.

I made a lot of sawtooth star blocks back then, too.

Lots and lots of star blocks.

The finished quilt is pretty big, so the back was pieced to make the leftover jungle fabric work (it isn't like I could buy more now!) I usually don't like to piece backs, but that is growing on me, too.

The I am pretty new to machine quilting, but I really love the texture on this one! I didn't know what to do with those large jungle print blocks, so I decided to quilt the entire thing using long, random, "organic" wavy lines.

I watched a video tutorial HERE that was very helpful.  When it was all washed it created such a lovely, crinkly texture. I tried to capture it with a picture, but this doesn't do it justice.

 So, I guess this quilt is a mixture of my old style and new style. I suppose that is what you get when you wait so long to finish something. I am really happy with the way it turned out, even if I did struggle with my sewing machine and all of the tension issues. I am just hoping that it comes back working better than ever because I would love to try something like this again.

I don't know what I am doing with this quilt now. I might sell it or give it away. I guess it depends. I still can't decide if it is gender-neutral or not.  Anyway, I am just glad to have it finished. :)

Sneak Peek ~ A Little Sewing Time in the AC

My sewing machine is in the air conditioning. 

I have really been in the mood to sew a lot lately!

First up, I expanded upon this years' Easter collection:

I made a tie for my very unhappy son who says that polka dots are "girly" but I think it is very classy.  I also made a purse for Grace with scraps from her Little Diva Dress.  She is really into purses right now.  I used the Buttercup Bag pattern, but it came out a little short and funny-shaped this time. Oh, well. Good enough. A 2yo doesn't care.

This is more gluing than sewing, but I am working on some headbands for a very bald little girl I know. ;)

I have also been making more maxi skirts. Tutorials on the way 'cause I have some clever new tricks up my sleeve. I just need more pictures of the final products where I don't need to crop my belly out to post it here. I might have to leave the AC for that one. :P

The biggest project I am working on right now is this jungle themed star quilt.  I pieced it over five years ago! I am machine quilting with multi-colored thread it in these loose, "organic" wavy lines but my new sewing machine is having tension issues. :(

This quilt is also my July goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Finally, some non-sewing.  I made a Pinterest-inspired July 4th cake. I had good intentions of making red, white, and blue layers.

I forgot that my bright yellow, farm fresh egg yolks would affect the cake color...

Oh, well. I am giving myself points for effort. I am enormously pregnant, it feels like it is over 100 degrees out there with this humidity, and I have five kids to take care of here. The fact that I went to the trouble to bake anything down in my kitchen with no AC has got to be worth something!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend! Happy Independence Day!! :D

Maxi Skirts Galore!

A few weeks ago I was on a maxi skirt sewing frenzy...

Please excuse my modeling skills in the following pictures. :)

As you can see, one of my daughters, however, thinks she is QUITE the little model. Sometimes she overdoes it, though.

For the girls' pink and blue skirts I used THIS tutorial, but the waist needs to be an inch or so smaller than the actual measurement (these are little girls without womanly hips after all).  I also made one in the pink for myself, but, unfortunately, I DO have womanly, child-bearing hips and it looks pretty awful on me right now as I was trying to make do with some fabric I had on hand. Maybe maxi skirts will still be in style next summer.

I also need to hem the girls' skirts, but the girls won't part with them long enough. I mean to swipe them straight out of the clean laundry basket, but they are faster than my folding, sometimes ripping them right off of the wash line.

My gray skirt was made using THIS tutorial like the skirt I made HERE, but I extended it to maxi length. So comfy and I can wear the waistband over the large belly or folded down. I think the girls' skirts look better, though.

Since my girls now also request matching clothes for their dolls every time I make something for them, I made maxi skirts for their dolls, too.  It was easy peasy and I have a tutorial coming up for that one as soon as I take pictures of the dolls wearing them (they are better models anyway!) 

These are all really easy skirts! I made two skirts for the girls, two for me, and two for the dolls in one morning. Mass production at its finest. Go ahead and give it a try!