Piped Binding- Baby Blanket

Well this is my second try at getting this posted...cross your finger!

Piped binding is my favorite embellishment and its super easy to make so gather your piped binding fabric iron it flat and lets get to work!

first off you will need to cut strips that are 1 1/4 in wide and as long as you possibly can! You need to cut enough to go around you blanket plus some extra so about 180 inches. You will have extra but I'm sure you can find a project for it. Make sure to cut off selvage's.

next you are going to sew the strips together using the following technique. place one end of the fabric strip face up take another strip end and place face down on top matching up the edges like a corner of a sq see below.

You are going to sew a diagonal from one corner to the other but please make sure you do it exactly like the picture.


open it up and you get this

Trim the back seem and iron flat
Next you want to fold the strip in half and iron flat

Get your zipper foot set up
Now place the cording inside the fold as close the edge as you can.

Place under zipper foot so its right along the edge and start stitching.

On a note you will have to continually place the cording in the fold of the fabric. I usually sew about 5 inches at a time checking to make sure the cording is right up against the edge with my thumb.

You should end up with this!

You should be able to click on any of the pictures for a larger view!

Baby Blanket-Cutting to size

So After you get your material you may want to wash the fabric. It's up to you and if you do wash in cool water with like colors. If you are afraid of the edges fraying use pinking sheers to trim them. Otherwise you will need to iron your fabric. You can skip the chenille but Always iron your cotton fabrics.

First cutting the chenille

Now a yard of fabric should be 36inches wide along the selvage. Mine was not. So I trimmed my edge down so it was about 35 inches instead.

What it should look like Pretty square to be honestWhat mine looked like...not exactly square so I trimmed the edge

Next you want to trim the Selvage off. Its a little hard to pick it out on chenille but its there I promise.

Next you want to Measure up 37 inches and use your marking tool to make a straight line across and then cut

you should now have a rectangle that is 37x35inches.

Now chenille is very stretch so don't expect perfection because in the end you really wont be able to tell is off by a 1/4 inch.

Now for the other piece of fabric

First remove the Selvage

The easiest way to do this is to lay the fabric flat then lay the 37x35 inch cut chenille over it and then cut off the excess.

If you are piecing you should keep in mind that you want your end product to be 37x35inches.



Next up making the piping edge!

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

My life right now is CRAZY!!! So much to do so little time! But I did take some time out to make banana bread with chocolate chips while making pancakes for dinner last night. Yeah I multitask!

Its a recipe from my Mom so of course its my comfort food!

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Pre-Heat oven to 350Degree's

3 Bananas Mashed-(we save our brown banana's in the freezer until we have enough)
2 Eggs
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Shortening or Butter (I like the Shortening makes the bread light and fluffy!)

Combine the above ingredients one at at time in the mixer

2 cups flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda

Combine above in separate bowl and then slowly add to the wet ingredients in the mixer.

Finally Add Chocolate chip I use about 1-1.5 cups depends on how chocolaty you want them!

Now you want to grease a bread pan or silicone shape pans (I get mine at target after a holiday so they are dirt cheap!). You can also do cupcakes. Place in oven and bake.
Bread Pan 45-60 minutes
Cupcake or silicone shape pans 30-40 minutes

Check the bread by piercing with a knife. The knife should be clean (ie no wet batter)

Best served warm with ice cream...or is that just me?

Make a Baby Blanket with me!

So a friend of mine has asked me to make a baby blanket as a gift for an expecting mother. I of course was up to the challenge and thought what the hey lets do a tutorial for all of you out there so you can do it with me! I can whip this bad boy up in probably a day but I'm gonna spread it out so you can take your time. I'm making it just like this blanket which I made for BT.
One side is a pattern of your choice or you can just choose to do one piece of fabric and the other is Chenille. The thing that is a little bit special about this blanket is the edging. The edging is a piped edging its super easy to make so Don't Be Afraid! Here is a close up of the piped edgeSo I did a little research and found out that the best size for a baby blanket is between 34"-36" on either edge so I'm sticking with this. So here is a short list of what you will need to make this blanket

1. 1 yard of Chenille fabric
2. Front fabric if you are just doing one piece of fabric you will just need 1 yard. If you are going to do a pattern just make sure your finished top measures in between the 34"-36".
3. 1/2 yard of piping fabric
4. Thread you can use whatever color you want but please note you will be sewing on the top of the blanket so you might want something that matches.
5. Sewing machine and Zipper foot
6. Cording. Now this can be twine, nylon rope, actual cording you get at the fabric store whatever you want. Because I like piping I actually went to Home Depot and bought some White Nylon twine that is used to rope off areas of a construction site. You can get whatever size you want mine is about 1/8"7. Ruler at least 18inches
8. Tape Measure
9. Scissors or Rotary Cutter (if you use a rotary cutter you will also need a cutting board)
10. Marking Tool
11. Needles

This should be all you need! next up will be cutting the front and back or piecing the front (if your looking for something fancy).

Hope you enjoy this and join in on the fun!

Well you know who butters your bread!

This weekend was long. Not in the sense I was bored but there was just a lot to do. Saturday I went to work for the Creamery and did an event at the International House in Davis. Needless to say didn't go so well, but we got some free marketing and I also learned a few things that we need to get and improve upon so all in all it was successful.
Now I know I said I'm working on a quilt for myself. My first full fledged attempt at a quilt from start to finish. Well that has now been pushed to the side for some custom projects for a friend, for mothers day, and for a birthday. As my mother said "well we know who butters your bread". Which is true. the money is a big help though in paying those pesky bills. Other than that im just enjoying the ride of being so busy I cant see straight.

But as for the Baby stuff. I thought I would try to do a how two in steps for this project for the Blanket. Here is a photo of the top of the blanket its not cut to size quite yet bit its getting there!

Ice Cream!!!

I love Ice Cream...

I love it so much that I worked at an ice cream store for 5 years before entering the real world. We had our ups and downs as a store. But my Love still remains. My love is so strong that I'm back at it again working in the ice cream world. Its the same place but a new name with a catchy little slogan.

No I'm not working behind the counter but I do serve on occasion at Catering Events which is my dept along with marketing and all of our Internet tools which are being set up! So besides working at the university and crafting I'm now catering and marketing. I don't know how I find the time but I'm Loving Every minute of it!

Oh and for all of you out there looking for a freebie Come by Indie Sac on May 2 were giving away 50 free ice cream coupons! You can also catch us every Wednesday at Farmers market where a scoop of ice cream is only $2

Quilt Along

As promised here is an update on the quilt. I'm done cutting about 1/2 of the fabric. The 2nd half still needs to be washed and ironed. Hopefully my color scheme will work with lights and dark's (pink, blue, green, orange, brown, purple).

Picture Days

As Days go by...

So apparently summer has hit early here in Northern California. Its supposed to be in the 90's for the next few days then we dip back down to the 70's. I for one am enjoying every minute of the sun except for the sun burn on the shoulders. BT and I went to Picnic Day here in Davis it was the Centennial for the school so it was PACKED. I took my camera with me but it didn't make it out for a single shot I'm kinda upset with myself for that one. But this week I'm hoping to be back on track with the Blog Ive started my quilt or at least cutting all the fabric so I will have some shots of that up soon as well.

But lets get back to Picnic Day. Its probably one of my favorite days of the year. Mainly because its just one big party with a freak show involved. The crowed are well interesting to say the least. It's a little bit of sensory overload with the smells and sights. The whole school is out partying from the early morning mimosa pancake breakfasts, lunch time slosh ball, to the wee hours of the evening at the bars. I didn't partake in the partying this year and decided to just enjoy the scene's. BT and I biked from one side of campus to the other met up with some friends and just had a relaxing day at the school. By the end of the day we were beat. Next year may be a different story but it was nice to just take it all in for once. But then again Once is just enough for me next year party hardy!

Flower Power Quiz 1

Okay so apparently I'm really into taking pictures of flowers and or nature. But from this I have been able to devise a little game. So here is how it goes. I post the picture you name that plant! I'm gonna try to make it a little tricky but at the same time fun! Here in Davis we have a HUGE Arboretum which has placards with the name of the plants so why not make it a game for the rest of you?

So Here is the photo I will accept generic names as well as the actual scientific name of the plant pictured below. Leave your guess and email in the comment area. If you guess right I will be in contact with you to receive your mystery prize!!! OOOH AAAHHHH. There's no deadline for a guess so good luck!

And yes this is what im doing because I have little to say right now.

AWOL

So I've been a little AWOL this week. To be honest I just don't have much to say. Creativity wise I've just been putsing around trying to get started on this quilt along. Which I SWEAR I will post pictures of my adventures through this. Ive also been on more of a health kick lately and even BT is in on the action helping me out. Other than that its just another week. Only a few more to go before Indie Sac which hopefully I will be able to unload some of my stock. Please Creativity GODs let my items SELL!

On another note does anyone know a good way to keep track of tutorials/projects online that I may want to attempt or recreate? Right now I'm printing as I find them (I'm using the scratch paper from work so yeah for me and my attempt to be sustainable), but I'm not really liking this idea. HMM

OOH here are some pictures from the park near my place. It has an enormous rose garden that are attempting to open up and bloom so here are some shots of that!