x3

In one week's time we had three birthdays to celebrate--a friend's, JP's and Maria's. I made birthday treats 3 times and made 3 different sets of gifts, kind of*. The treats weren't just any old cake or cupcake recipe but a yummy and very rich cake/candy recipe. This recipe deserves a post of its own so I won't say more about it here. Stay tuned.

*"Kind of" defined:
My friend had a milestone birthday this month so her husband and I planned a surprise sewing party for her. She's been wanting to learn to sew and this was the perfect opportunity to get her started! Our party was at a local craft store where I teach basic sewing classes. We served food and drinks and sewed a couple of fun projects. Since my camera only had enough battery power for one photo that night (I was so busy getting ready for the party that I forgot to charge the battery!), I don't have party photos to share but I do have photos of one of the projects we made.

side A

side B

We made these lovely lavender eye pillows inspired by the eye pillow pattern in Denyse Schmidt's book. I wanted the party to be a social event with a simple project that would allow us to continue chatting, eating and having fun. This project was perfect! I chose four different fabrics and pre-cut them before the party. Each invitee selected two main fabric pieces and then used scraps to dress up their eye pillow. There weren't any layout guidelines and everyone was quite creative making very unique eye pillows. I'm sure they all slept very well that night thanks to the lavender.

The 2nd project we made was a simple card holder with a snap closure. Sorry no photos. It was such a fun night and I can't wait to get to sew with these ladies again; I think they're hooked!

Gift #2:
Two days later my JP turned 2 and I made him a few fun appliquéd t-shirts. My favorite is the guitar tee that he wore on his birthday.

These are the other tees I made:

The large rocket and the train were made by piecing different fabrics together. The traffic sign tee was made by cutting out the signs from the fabric. Simple.

Gift #3:
Maria's birthday was next and I decided to make her a blouse. I used Simplicity 3511 and Heather Bailey's Wallpaper Roses. I trimmed the hem in a solid blue cotton that does not match the rose fabric because I really like the look of "doesn't match but still looks good together". She was very happy with it.


September has been another fun stitching month for me! Can you tell?