Frozen Birthday Cake

When a friend asked me if I could make a Frozen cake for her niece's birthday the first thing that popped in to my mind was sparkly snowflakes. And Elsa, Anna and Olaf. But mostly sparkly snowflakes. I just thought they would look so pretty on a blue cake.

Making princesses out of colour flow is something I've only done once before, and since they turned out not too bad I thought I try it again. The trouble with making princesses is that they are so detailed and they have to big enough for the detail to show, but small enough to fit on the cake. It can be a bit of a challenge and sometimes the smallest icing tip isn't small enough. Anyway, I gave it a go (and I actually bought little plastic Frozen characters for back up in case of a disaster!) and in the end they looked like Elsa and Anna. With bad makeup. I need to work on that.

The snowflakes turned out beautifully! Although I did break a couple and had to repair them!

If I made this cake again, I think I'd do it a little differently, although I'm not too sure what I would change. Elizabeth liked it, and I guess that is all that matters!

Mine Craft Quilt

For my nephews birthday, my sister-in-law planned to redecorate his bedroom. She asked if I would make a quilt for him. She had found one she really liked and wanted me to make him one similar. It was just simple patchwork, using the colours from Mine Craft, with a nice wavy quilting design. I didn't think it would be that complicated.

I had gotten the top all sewn together when, unfortunately, we had water issues in the basement. Since the basement was out of commission I had to set up my quilting frames in the living room which literally took up the whole room. That was the least of my troubles - all of my supplies, for all of my hobbies, were packed away in boxes in the garage. There was no hope of finding my quilting needles or my good thimble. (Luckily I did have a thimble that didn't get packed away, but it wasn't the best.) Since our fabric store closed there is no place that sells sewing supplies. I did finally find a little sewing set at the Dollar Store (I was pretty desperate) that consisted of a bunch of needles, a couple of thimbles and a seam ripper. For $2. The thimbles were completely useless, as was the seam ripper, although I didn't need that. It was the needles that I really wanted.

So I got to work quilting - sitting on the couch, because there was no room in the living room for a chair, using Dollar Store needles and a thimble with very shallow pits. Hardly ideal quilting conditions! I broke 7 needles quilting the first row. I was frustrated, to say the least! When the weekend finally rolled around, the kids and I drove into the city, took in my sister's basketball game (they won!), and went to Fabricland. I bought some real quilting needles and a decent thimble!

After that things went smoother, although I was so behind schedule I was worried I wasn't going to get it done in time. I talked my husband into helping me. I was shocked that he actually agreed! It took him 10 minutes to do 4 stitches, which was long enough for him to decide that I was crazy and that I really needed to invest in a quilting machine. Those 4 stitches were pretty nice though!

I did get it done, but I didn't get it done for his birthday. That was okay though, since his room wasn't ready yet.

I made matching pillow shams as well, that I machined quilted on my sewing machine.

We took it over to them the other evening and my nephew was just so excited to have a Mine Craft quilt! Seeing his smiling face made it all worthwhile! It will be fun to see his room when it is all put together!

Basketball Cake

This is the cake I made for my niece for her 14th birthday. She plays on the junior basketball team at her high school and just happens to be #14!

This is the third time I've used the ball cake pan. It always turns out good, but the getting it to stay in one place can be a little tricky! Even with a stick through it, it still wanted to shift. With some extra support underneath I got it to stay.

A little tricky to transport! I had to hold it on my lap and keep it balanced on the way to the birthday party. Luckily they only like a few blocks away!