To be any fun…I had a crazy idea the guitar had to be a life size Fender Stratocaster. Here are the WIP shots.

For the wood grain effect I used the spray gun but got carried away so it ‘s a bit darker than I had liked.

Here’s a shot of the little bits and pieces going onto the cake.

I even managed to use a needle and thread for this cake. Yep, the guitar strings are a Perle 8 cotton(!) and I used the needle to thread them through the tuning pins.

It’s not everyday you blow out 50 candles so I made sure the birthday boy would have to huff and puff every single year of his age!

The cake was life size but not big enough to feed the whole party so I baked music themed cup cakes for the kids. The cakes were topped with music notes piped with royal icing.

For the cake stand I found some old vinyl records at the local op shop, bought a handle off ebay, googled some tutorials and $5 later had a pretty cool stand!

I loved how the cake stand turned out, might try this out with my stash of  pretty cake plates!

I started with this 5″ square cake…

Then added a lid.

And finally tied it all up with a bow!

So now my little girl wants a Tiffany box. She’ll have to settle for a cake one!

At the moment I love star quilts! I hadn’t even finished my doll quilt when this little beauty came in the post  from my talented swap partner Emma.

Emma foundation pieced these tiny little 4″ stars and machine quilted tiny stars all over. It’s amazing! Thanks Emma!

As for my doll quilt, my secret partner was my crafty friend Sheridan. It took me a while to determine which style I would make, but finally decided on japanese folded blocks. Each block is a circle of fabric folded over a padded square, then hand quilted.

Here’s the back…the quilt is kinda reversible!

 What’s a swap without extra goodies? I used the pattern from ‘I love patchwork’  to make this pincushion. This book is fantastic and fullof cute projects.

 You can see all the swapped doll quilts in this flickr group.

And if you need some inspiration to cut up your DS Quilts fabric, take a look at this gorgeous quilt  by Sarah at The Last Piece. It’s a free pattern too!

First step was baking it in a large dolly varden tin. This cake needed height, to avoid left over chocolate cake for a week(!), I used a covered styrofoam round for the base of the cake.

Then I made some coloured toffee and poured it over the cake tin to resemble lava. I used the spare shards of toffee for the lava sprays.

A couple bars of crushed peppermint crisps for the rocks and grass and it was all finished!

And of course it needed some sparks!

Birthdays in our household generally mean a week of celebrations. We had another party and this time my girl requested a ‘moshi monster’ cake. With some frosting, a printed logo and a few figurines, here’s the second cake…

Just a tip, instead of piping or printing logo’s using icing sheets, I often print the desired design on paper and cover it with clear contact. The contact protects the paper from any moisture in the icing. It’s quicker and cheaper than printing on icing sheets! Happy Baking!

So the cake decorating stopped and I bought a sewing machine and the rest is history. I did however pull my tins out this week and made a delicious chocolate mud cake for my cousin Kristy’s birthday. Kristy wanted a cake she had seen on the Couture Cake Classes website. I was afraid I’d lost my cake decorating skills…but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out….and it was a FUN cake to make!

Firstly the cake was covered in chocolate ganache to prepare it for the fondant.

Then I whipped out my Kitchen Aid pasta attachment (for the first time!) to help roll out the pink and white stripes to the same thickness.

And finally a candle on top for the finishing touch, and some matching camellias from the garden.

Design inspired by Couture Cakes

Now my little girl wants one for her birthday!

Two years ago I took my sister to the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair. I’d been promising to make her a quilt, but I was lost as to which style would interest her. As we wandered around the exhibition hall admiring the amazing quilts on display, I mistakenly said, ’Pick any quilt and I’ll see what I can do’.

Silly me, guess which beauty my sister picked…

'Material Obsession 2'

A Lone Star!

'Material Obsession 2'

So two years later I’m finally beginning Sarah’s ‘Sunday’ quilt  from  Material Obsession 2. This gorgeous pile of solids from Just Wing It by MoMo will form the Lone Star against a chocolate brown background. I’m beginning to think I may need to make two of these!

Tomorrow, being Sunday is also a SPECIAL day. Yep, I’m blowing out some candles. I love how the Craft and Quilt Fair always falls during my birthday week, so much easier to justify my purchases! Here are my birthday pressies I picked up earlier in the week…

If you go to the Fair this weekend, don’t forget to drop by Sarah’s blog at The Last Piece to get the secret info on the awesome daily prizes. I also had the pleasure of helping Nicole Mallalieu at her show stand full of great bag patterns…do stop by and take a look! Have a great weekend, I know I will!

Congrats to Sara a copy of Mollie Makes is coming your way!  I’ll drop you an e-mail shortly. Sara will also receive an extra little pressie…..

One of my apple jackets with a twist! Instead of a button jacket, I’ve threaded the chain around the top of the jacket and added a little cute bow!

Thanks to everyone for playing. Back soon, off to start my new quilt project…pics in the next post!

There’s a handy step by step guide to learn how to crochet here. 

The pattern is from the new UK craft magazine Mollie Makes. This mag is gorgeous! I can’t put it down…and one lucky reader won’t be able to either. Yep, I’m giving away a new copy of Issue #1. Just leave a comment and tell me one of your favourite blogs. I’ll post anywhere, and will draw a winner at 10am Monday 20 June.

Edited – Giveaway has now finished!

There are over 1,000 tiny squares, but don’t let that deter you, this quilt is fun and eats up all your tiny favourite fabric scraps.

My auntie gave me a quilt as a gift for my wedding many years ago. That gift inspired me to take up quilting and one day make my own. I’ve made quilts for my kids and family, but now I finally have my very own for my KING size bed. Yay!!

Pattern by Sarah Fielke from the book 'material obsession two'

So what’s the next project…will show you next time. It’s only a Queen size one…phew!!

Thanks to Sarah and Cara for organising such a great challenge. To see some of the beautiful quilts in this challenge, take a look over here.

Quilt design from: Material Obsession 2

This quilt is King size and huge! As I lay the blocks on the lounge room floor I have to keep moving the furniture (and mess!) to make some space. 20 more blocks to go, and of course I’ve left the tricky ones til last. I love the striped effect of this block but I do cross my fingers each time that the stripes match up!

Better get back to it…