Its All About the Baby and the Pinwheel Quilt

Sound the trumpet... It's All About the Baby Month is here.  I have been so excited to get this started and I am kicking it off with a whole week of baby blankets (oh there is enough for a whole week of baby blankets) and 2 giveaways.  (excited squeal)  So with out farther ado I am so please to introduce Lyle's Pinwheel Quilt.

I made this sweet little quilt for my sister's baby.  When I asked her what she wanted she said bright blues and green and the rest was up to me.  I love being given creative freedom.  I really wanted it to be fun so right away I thought of a pinwheel block.  I guess this one is actually called a double pinwheel block.  I found the free pattern here.  At first I was a little confused by it until I realized their medium and dark fabrics where switched, not that that really matters for this quilt because I used the same fabric for the medium and the dark.

If you follow the pattern you will want to end up with twelve 12 inch blocks.  I serged mine together.  Now if you are a super awesome quilter who knows what they are doing you may be shacking your head at me right now.  Disclaimer:  I am a 100% self taught quilter and have just learned by doing what works for me.  If you are doing this one word of advice is to snip off some of the seam where the corners/seams come together.  That way you will avoid having a big fat hard lump at the center of each of your pinwheels.

Next lay them out.  I used 12 different fabrics so I didn't have to worry about having two of the same fabrics next to each other, but I did alternate the blues and greens.

Then I just picked them up two at a time and sewed them all together until they looked like this.

For the borders around the edges this really nice lady once told me to fold the quilt in half, measure that, then double it and make your border strip that size. Then pin it on and make it it fit even if you have to stretch it a little.  By doing that for all your borders I guess it will help your quilt not get wavy at the ends.  I assume she is right.  

To make the strips running through the border I sewed together 6 inch wide strip and then cut those so I would have 2 inch wide strips that I then sewed together to make one long strip.

I cut those one at a time as I went around the quilt so the pattern would turn the corners. Once that was on I added the last border piece and it was ready for basting, quilting, and binding.  

For the back I needed extra on all sides for quilting so I took a bunch of the scraps of left over pinwheel fabric and sewed them together in a long strip down the back off to one side of the back fabric.  I somehow forgot to take a picture of it, but it was seriously almost as cute as the front.

Since it was for my sister's baby I had his name quilted into it at the bottom.  Do you see it there?  I love how subtle it is.  In case you can't read it, that sweet little baby's name is going to be Carlisle Baxter Rathburn V.   I know right?  On one hand it is like "OH poor little baby," and on the other it is pretty awesome.  :)  My sister and her husband Carlisle Baxter Rathburn IV Carl like to tease that they are just going to call him Five.  Well it is more like Carl likes to tease Aimee that he is going to call him Five.  

Of course, before shipping it off to Alaska, Bryce had to test it out.  You know, make sure it would be good enough for his cousin Lyle to play My Little Ponies on.

It looks like it passed and Bryce is off to do other important pony related things.  I should rename that kid The Blur.  It seems like there is always a part of him that is blurry when I take his picture.

Well I think that is it for the pinwheel quilt.  See you tomorrow for the faux chenille baby blanket. (excited smiley face)

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Silver's Dora Cake

I get a call yesterday from a mom who needed a birthday cake for her 3 years olds birthday party on Sunday, but I don't do cakes on Sundays so that meant I had to have it ready for pick up today.  Normally one day isn't really enough time for me to decide how to make the cake look, make everything, and get it made; but when she told me she just needed a Dora cake that would feed about 17 people right away I saw it in my mind.

I am really please with how it turned out.  Yay it was a good cake day. :)  The only lame thing about it was that my Silhoette came today I finally gave up on winning one and just shelled out the big bucks and I have been SO BUSY I haven't even opened it yet.  But tomorrow you better believe I am going to set that baby up and get to work.  (Insert girly squeal and heal pop here).

Don't forget All About Baby Month starts Monday with the Pinwheel quilt!!

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Family Room Curtains

I have had so many people ask me about the curtains I thought I had better just tell you all about them at once.

The number one question I get it 'Where did I get them?'  I am sorry to have to tell you this... I made them.  I guess that is good and bad news for anyone who was wanting them.  It is good news because I am guessing the fabric is still available, it is bad news because that means you would have to make them and although it is easy, it kinda takes FOREVER.  I seem to remember only ever being able to get like one panel done a day and singing this is the project that never ends to myself while sitting at the sewing machine.  It just takes so long because they are so big.

The fabric is 56'' Wide Harmony Basket Weave Spa Mist Fabric by Diversitex.  I bought the first 10 yards at Hancock fabrics but not the first Hancock Fabrics I went to that is only 20 mins from my house, but the second one that was more like 45 mins from my house after hours of shopping for curtain fabric with 3 small kids.  When I walked in and saw it, it was like the heavens parted and the angels started singing.  And then they only had 7 yards and I needed like 14 yards to cover my windows. I bought another 8 yards online at Buyfabrics.com and lucked out that the dye lots looked the same.  I don't think they have it anymore, but if you google it I bet you will find some.

Here is a little how to for the curtains.

First I cut the fabric just over 9 ft long, because I have 9 ft ceiling and I wanted them to be pretty much floor to ceiling.  I cut the first panel and the laid it next to the next piece so that the pattern would line up just right.  Trust me, even if the pattern seems pretty random you want to make sure the pattern lines up.

See how nice the flowers line up.  I don't normally have them closed during the day.

Next I used sewable iron on bonding stuff (fusible web or whatever it is that people call it)around all the edges and folded it over and ironed it down.  I did one inch on the sides and 3 inches on the top and bottom.   I didn't sew on the side at all.  I did sew one line across the bottom and then across the top I sewed on tabs as I sewed across.  I think that makes these tab back curtains.  I felt like the tabs gave them a nice contemporary look.  For the tabs I used 3 inch pieces of 1.5 inch wide grosgrain ribbon.  I am not sure that is the best choice, but it has worked well for us.  There are about 7 "tabs" per panel.

I think that is about it.

 The fabric has a really nice weight to it so I really like the way it hangs.

One more note about curtains.  As I may have mentioned,  I looked high and low for the fabric for these curtains.  I had this new empty house that was totally a blank canvas.  I wasn't 100% about how I wanted it all to look and I wasn't finding anything anywhere. During this search I talked on the phone with my mom a lot while walking up and down fabric aisle. While wondering through what was probably my 4th store with 3 kids in tow my mo gave me some really good advice.  She said "Don't pick one until you see it and think to yourself that is the fabric that I want people to associate with me when they come into my home."  Possibly the best advice EVER. Pin It

House Keeping

Please don't mind the mess.  Over the next few day/week You may notice things changing and changing again.  I am trying to make my blog look and feel like I want it to.  The thing is I don't know what I am doing so please bare with me and if something looks a little weird when you stop by chances are I am planning on fixing it really soon.

Also I am going to do All Things Baby Month starting March 1st.  And can I just say I am SO EXCITED.  Especially since most of it is for baby BOYS (although if you can make it for a boy you can always change the colors and make it for a girl), I have a few fun things like giveaways and a linky party all lined up, and tons of tutorials for almost everything you can make for a baby, but if you have something awesome baby related and want to take part in baby month with a feature, tutorial, or giveaway let me know.

laura@cornerhousecakes.com

See you when all the virtual dust on the remodel clears.

Love ya 2 pieces,

Laura

      

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Crown Molding Tutorial

I have seen a lot of post on line about crown molding and everyone said it was relatively easy and like an weekend project.  So I thought it was going to be no big deal.  I had know idea how to do it, but I rarely know how to doing things before I decide I can do them.  In my naivete I loaded 3 of my kids into the van and headed off to Home Depot.

I now know why the very nice guy at Home Depot who helped me pick out and cut the molding and gave me a few tip on installing it was looking at me like "yeah good luck with that crazy lady."

Lets just say crown molding is not something you can install by yourself in one day while your kids are around.   Especially if one of those kids is a crazy one year old who thinks the the ladder is in fact his and feels the need to try to climb it every chance he gets.

Supplies:

However many ft of molding you need plus like 12 ft. (One nice thing is that if you buy it by the foot you can return it be the ft)

A ladder or two would be nice. 

Some liquid nails are nice to have

A caulk gun

Paintable caulk

Nails and hammer (or nail gun whatever you like)

A miter saw

Sandpaper

Spackle

Paint and stuff you need with paint (tape, brushes)

So one Saturday my in-laws took the kids to go play and Scott and I got to work.  Scott was nice enough to start cutting the pieces while is finished getting the kids ready to go.

To cut the molding the best description I can give it to hold it against the miter saw like you would the wall and ceiling.  Make sure your molding is upside down, and turn the base angle to the 45 degree angle you need and leave the saw angle straight up and down.  I would suggest cutting one corner at a time. 

To put it up Scott took one piece and I took the other and we lined them up, then with each of our free hands we nailed them up.  We used liquid nails to help hold the pieces in place while we nailed, BUT ONLY USE A FEW DOTS!!  If you put a whole line of liquid on the pieces they will be really hard to move to get it lined up really well and you will end up with a mess like this...

I know it is not pretty.  This was our first corner.  All the dark stuff is liquid nails.

Once all our corners were up we then put in the middle pieces.  Somehow the angles are not always 45 degrees once you get to the middle.  I would suggest taking a scrap piece of wood and testing your angles before cutting the ones you plan on putting up or just leave the middle parts straight.  We worried that doing straight lines wouldn't be as "professional," but honestly I don't think it would have mattered.

Then once it is all up caulk the cracks.

I caulked the tops and the bottoms of the molding.  I thought it looked better.  Basically just caulk everything. This took FOREVER because I have to climb up, caulk a little, climb down, and then do it again.  We only got the molding all hung on Saturday.  So Monday I caulked.  I started when Bryce when down for his nap.  There was lots of caulking the sanding the places where the pieces met together.

I didn't get it all done while Bryce was sleeping and I couldn't have him crawling around while I was working (I learn my lesson the first time.) So I put him in his high chair and gave him something new to eat every few minutes.

I don't think he minded too much and once I was done cleaning up the mess in the family room for the day, I got to clean Brycey up.

By Tuesday I was really sick of my family room looking like this (all the furniture is moved to the middle so I could move the ladder around and not get paint on anything. Added to the fact that my husband had bought a huge bag of popcorn at the store and the kids got popcorn EVERYWHERE.)

So Tuesday night after all my little ones were in bed I stayed up until the wee hours getting it done.  It took a while to paint and then once I had paint on it I could really see the spots the needed more sanding.  The last time around I just put a little mound of spackle on each seem and the sanded it down smooth. Then painted one more time.

 Lastly pull off the tape and enjoy!

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Wall Molding Tutorial

Let's get one thing very clear from the get go.  I have no idea what I am talking about.  I am glad we got that clear.  That said here is how I did my totally awesome molding.

Step One:  Pick a wall and look at it.  I picked this wall.  Please excuse the Christmas decor.  Funny story the night of Dec 23rd I took all of that down, even the tree and totally redecorated this room for Christmas in slivers and white and snow.  Yup I am just that CRAZY.  I guess I was just tired to the same old same old Christmas decor I had been putting out for years.

Step 2: Get an idea of where you would like your molding to be.  After a lot of thought I decided I wanted thin molding forming rectangles the height of the niches.  I knew I wanted them on either side of the tv and 3 on the sides.  That was about as far as I got on the planning stage before I went and bought the supplies.  I guess you could draw it out, pre-measure, and stuff like that, but my mind doesn't craft that way.

Step 3: Get your supplies:
I got the molding at Home Depot.  It is not the wood stuff that you buy by the foot.  If you walk all the way down the molding aisle and then look to your left or right on an end cap thingy you will see these sticks of molding.  It is usually white, but the shape I like kinda had a wood color look to it.  Best of all it is like $3-4 for a I want to say 7 ft stick.  That is right it was like $40 to make my wall look that good.
Okay so what ever molding you want... check
You will need caulk and a caulking gun.  (Can I just say that after this project caulk may have replaced spray paint as my new best friend.)
Umm and you will also need nails, a hammer, measuring tape, level, and the all important miter saw.  Oh and paint and one of those sand paper sponges and other stuff you may need for painting.

Step 4:  Pick a place to start.  I picked here.  Holy Cow how did picking a place to start end up as step 4.  I could have sworn that was step 1.

First I measured the long part, 36 inches.  I knew I wanted it the start at the top corner and then I decided I wanted it to go down to about 1.5 inches from the mantel.  I decided to make 1.5 my spacing number.  After I measured the long part I measured the whole width of that section and subtracted 3 inches (1.5 and 1.5)  then I nailed that rectangle to the wall.  I thought since I had no idea what I was doing it would be best to cut this one rectangle of molding at a time.

Step 5: Cut your molding.

I know you are looking at this picture and wondering "where is this saw?  Is that a blanket and garbage bags?"  I took this picture after I was all done and the saw was already in the back of my van so I could take it back to my wonderful friend who let me borrow it.

Back to cutting wood.  Lay the molding flat on the base of the saw.  Turn the saw table to one of the 45 degree angles and leave the blade straight up and down.  Can I just tell you that using a saw is F U N!

Step 6:  Use a level, make sure it is straight and nail those bad boys on the wall.

Repeat Steps 4-6 Measure and cut and hang and measure and cut and hang.   By the time I got to the 3 rectangles on the side I was feeling pretty good about my abilities so I cut them the pieces in groups (like four 36 inch cuts, twelve 25 inch cuts and so on.

(At this point I would like to point out to avoid step 6.5 where your baby spills a gallon of paint on the carpet and you spend hours cleaning it up.)

Step 7: Caulk.  Load caulk into the caulk gun, snip a little off the top at an angle and get to work.  This may be breaking thing down a little to much, but just pull lightly on the trigger and run the bead of caulk along the edge of the molding then use or finger (or I realized I like to use a wipey) and run it along the caulk so it is nice and smooth and fills in the little crack between the molding and the wall.  If you skip this step, ,when you go to paint the wall and the molding there is be a dark not so good looking line where the paint runs under the molding.

See look no dark lines.  I can't believe I am showing you this close up.  Ahhh  oh also make sure you caulk the corners so they look better.

Step 8:  Sand any ugly spots.  See the lines by the nail there?  I maybe should have sanded that better, but other than look at it super up close in this picture I don't think anyone will ever notice.

Step 9: Paint.

Step 10 Enjoy!

Oh oh oh I almost forgot.  I have had a lot of people ask about that chair.  If you have been eyeing it at overstock and you where wondering what the color is really like.  The green is kinda a like a 70s (in a good way) light sagey avocado green and it is on a creamy not white background.  It is nice and light and not to bright.

Happy molding! Next up CROWN Molding. Pin It

Thinking About My Direction - Also Known As "Sorry this post is so long, but please read it anyway."

Today when I logged on to blogger I saw that I had 100 posts.  I was like, "huh, that snuck up on me."  But then I looked back through my posts and realized that I had a few unpublished/never gonna publish posts so this is in fact post #96.   But still this got me thinking about my little blog, way I started it and where I want it to go.
Believe it or not a year ago I did't even realize there was such a thing as craft/idea blogs.  I am not really sure why.  I knew about hair blogs, recipe blogs, I had a family blog, but I guess I was living in a little bubble of busy mom with 4 little kids age 5 and under.
Then one day I was sitting around on my lap top feeding baby Brycey checking in on my sister-in-law Andrea's blog and I started looking at all these blogs she has listed off to the side.  I think the first one I clicked on was 320 Sycamore.  Then I am pretty sure Bryce fell asleep in my lap while I spent hours mesmerized by this amazing world full of these amazing women like The Idea Room, V & Co., and Make it Love it.  Then my family blog started to fill up with links to things I wanted to make and these craft blogs that I wanted to follow and more pictures of the stuff I was making than the kids.  After a few weeks it became clear to me that I need a new home for all my crafty needs and so I created Corner House.

Over the next few weeks I am going to be giving my little blog a bit of a face lift and hopefully making it a better, more user friendly, enjoyable and maybe an inspiring place to be.

So I am looking for comments, questions, opinions, suggestions, advice and so on.  Basically anything you want to know or you like or you think could make Corner House better.  If you are stopping by for the first time or if you have been with me from the beginning I would love to hear from you.  I have a few changes already planned, but I think hearing from you would really help.  You can leave a comment on this post or email me at laura(at)cornerhousecakes.com. 


Also I am done (well as done as I am going to be until at least April.  I know it needs a few more well thought out accessories, the walls need a few more things hung here and there, possibly a little faux taxidermy, and the sofas need pillows) with the family room remodel.   I am still trying to decide how best to decorate our mantel.  With the tv there it can get a little tricky.  After all you don't want to have to take everything down every time you want to put a new game in the Wii or play rock band, but it definitely needs something.  Blah blah blah it looks good for now. :)  Oooo and I am thinking about stenciling in the nooks and behind the tv.  Did I already tell you that before?  So when I say I am done I really just mean I finished painting the walls and stupid pain in my neck ceiling and putting the molding up.

  I LOVE IT!  I am in love with my white accent wall.  In a house where the builder painted every wall and ceiling beige, white is considered am accent wall color.  A friend came over today and I think she put it best saying it is just airy, bright, whimsical, and a little eclectic. 

I promise to do a tutorial on how I did the wall molding tomorrow.

And then I will probably tell you about the adventure that was the crown molding on Monday...

maybe Tuesday.   I made the mistake of starting a book that I am having a had time putting down.

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Valentines

I am not sure where I saw this idea first.  I am pretty sure it was at eighteen 25, so I will give the credit to them.

These seriously turned out so cute and I loved that they were so easy.  I am going to blame the fact that I took the pictures of the valentines at night and that is way they don't look that great.  But trust me in person this is awesomeness!

It is all pretty easy.  Just take a picture with their hand out like the are giving someone something, add some words (I used picnik), then print them out and cut little slits for the candy and you are done. 

Do you need some more inspiration?

I was totally tempted to make these awesome sliding door valentines from Positively Splendid.  Positively ADORABLE!

Mustache you to be my valentines at Carft Monkey.

I am a total sucker for these sweet Valentines at Jac o' lyn Murphy.

I've got my eye on these cute monster valentines from make and takes.  I think Logan will be making these for preschool next year.

So many cute ideas, so little time.  Good thing I have years of slaving late into the night making my kids valentines helping my kids make valentines to look forward to.  At least they're cute.

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