Fabric Pennant Banner

Remember these cute aprons I made for my sister?  Well, there was plenty of left over fabric so I decided to make her something else with them.  But what?  After a little thought, I decided a fabric pennant banner would be something she could use when she is selling her dog treats.

How cute is this?  And it's reversible.

With the help of Google, I found this fabric pennant banner tutorial from Your Home Based Mom.  I made some alterations to the directions.  I cut my pennants out with a pinking shears.  I didn't have bias tape so I just used the fabric to create my own ribbon to hang the pennants from. 

For a little whimsy, I fussy cut some dogs from the patterned fabric and used wonder under to apply to the brown pennants.

I really like how this banner came out.

And my sister liked it too.

I am sharing at these parties.

#RBDmysteryblocks - March Mystery Block

I'm back with another completed Riley Blake Designs mystery block.  I skipped February {because it was intimidating} so this is the March block - Simplicity.

Check out my January block here.

Pillowcases {Operation Slumber Party}

I love to sew.  It's a great way to unleash my creative juices.  And if you give me a reason to sew, I love that even more.

Last month I came across a story about a local girl scout troop that was planning to make 1,000 pillowcases to be donated to the children's hospital.  {Read about Operation Slumber Party here.}  They were looking for volunteers to sew pillowcases for them.  I did not have to think twice about contributing to this cause.

So, I grabbed my Jo-Ann's coupons and headed out to pick out some fun fabric and proceeded to make ten pillowcases.

Yes, I know there are only 8 in this picture.  I only have 8 pillows.  The real question is why do I have 8 pillows for only 2 beds.

I used this pattern from American Patchwork and Quilting to make these pillowcases.

It uses the "burrito" method and the result is no raw edges which I really like.  And it is quick and easy.  Double bonus!

Here's a look at all ten pillowcases I made:

I will be dropping off my pillowcases this afternoon.  This was a project I really enjoyed doing.

Have a great weekend!

{Confidential} - April Project Board

I think March was a pretty crafty month for me.  Some projects from the board, others not.  Let's see what happens in April.

Compare to the March project board

Read my March review

{Not So Confidential} - March in Review

Apparently spring did not get the memo that it began on March 20th.  This is how the first day of spring started here and it has only been marginally better since then.

And don't even get me started on daylight saving time.  I didn't realize that the sun was my back-up alarm clock.  Getting up for work has been a struggle since the time change.

But enough of my complaining, here's what else happened in March:

{What I made} Craft Projects

In case you missed it:

Butterfly Collage

Pretty Crafty Apron

Easter Egg Place Cards

Easter Eggs

{What I made} Yummy Eats

• Chicken and Wild Rice Soup from Iowa Girl Eats - I made this with turkey instead of chicken and it was mmmm good!
• Cauliflower Cheese Sticks from Key Ingredient - I was skeptical about this but it was really, really good.
• Homemade Chewy Granola Bars from Iowa Girl Eats - I will never go back to store bought granola bars again!
• Apple Sausage Mac and Cheese from Food Network - A yummy twist on mac and cheese.
• Chocolate Cream Pie from Food Network - I decided to make pie this year to celebrate pi day (3.14).  This was delicious and easy - a winning combination.
• Cheesy Gnocchi Casserole with Ham and Peas from Food Network

{What I read} previous count - 4

1. B is for Burgler by Sue Grafton
2. Betrayal by Danielle Steele
3. Eleventh Hour by James Patterson
4. C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton

Easter Eggs

Happy Easter weekend.  My Easter tradition is to color eggs on Easter Saturday.  I think I'm going to try this method this year.  That will actually be the second batch of eggs I color this month.  Last weekend I dyed eggs the all-natural way so I could enter this contest hosted by My Baking Addition.

From left to right:

• Grape Juice - this one didn't quite work for me.  Instead of turning a pretty purple color mine were black.
• Tumeric - yellow is my favorite color and I love how these came out.  Vividly bright yellow.  Wow!
• Red Cabbage - after these eggs were cooked, they were still white so I was skepitical that it worked.  But the next morning after keeping them in the red cabbage water overnight, they turned this pretty blue.

While the black eggs were a bummer, it wasn't a complete fail.  Along with the yellow {gold} eggs, these were perfect for this University of Iowa alumni {go Hawks}!

 Here are some other past Easter projects:

These silk tie eggs are probably my all-time favorite Easter eggs.

I made these Easter eggs last year.  The colors were so pretty.

And who can forget the peep topiary.

Have a happy and blessed Easter.

Easter Egg Place Cards

Easter is right around the corner and I wanted to make some creative place cards for our Easter dinner.  Instead of the traditional {and boring} paper cards, I decided on eggs {of the wooden variety}.

I found these wooden eggs at Michaels.  The flat bottoms made them perfect for this project.  I simply painted them as colorful Easter eggs.

And then I wrote our names on them.  Viola - place cards!  Or maybe I should say place eggs!

These just make me smile.  I love them.  Our Easter table will be very colorful this year.

Have a happy and blessed Easter.

I am sharing at my favorite parties.