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​First Year Quilt

9/12/2019

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I have known I wanted to make this quilt since I was pregnant with Andrew. Throughout his first year, I set aside my favorite onesies, pajamas, and shirts just to make this quilt.

To start the quilt I cut out a square of each item. Because of the small size of some of the items those squares were smaller, so to even it out I made bigger squares of others. I laid each square on our bed to figure out the layout. Once decided I started sewing them in rows, then sewed all of the rows together.
I used flannel fabric to create a border on both the front and the back. The rest of the back was a big square of flannel fabric. After all of the pieces were sewn, I used temporary fabric adhesive to stick the two sides together and sew them in place. The last step was to sew on the trim.
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This quilt is so precious to me and something I will probably cherish forever!
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Update:  My quilt won second place in the memory quilt category!
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Claude Monet Water Lily Cake

9/17/2018

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In my standing tradition of fair cakes, I recreated a piece of art on a cake. This year’s masterpiece was inspired by one of Claude Monet’s water lily paintings. I had a fun time playing around with new techniques to decorate the cake, from hand painting to piping buttercream, even some fondant work. 
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Step 1:  Glue a 8" Styrofoam cake drum to a 1" think 8" Styrofoam circle to create the base of the cake.
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Step 2:  Cover the cake base in buttercream 
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Step 3: Cover the cake in blue fondant that the color wasn't fully blended to create the look of water.
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Step 4: Pipe on green lily pads all over the cake. Add a flower on several of the lily pads.
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Step 5: Using shades of blue and green food coloring thinned with a little vodka to paint all of the blue fondant area. This made it look like a water painting.
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Step 6: Using the same shades of green food coloring at a little extra color to the lily pads. Then place white fondant on a cake board and create board lines and wood grains and paint with brown food coloring thinned with a little vodka.
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Step 7:  Using different sized heart shaped cookie cutters cut out green fondant to make the 3-D lily pads. The green fondants color wasn't blended fully to create the same look as the blue fondant. Attached all over the cake, making sure to cover and problem spots. 
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Step 8:  Using flower cookie cutters cut out white fondant and layer them and curl them up and a yellow ball of fondant and "glue" in place. To finish the cake use a little light pink food coloring thinned out and add touches to the flowers. Then repeat with a deep green color for the lily pads.
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This cake is truly is a masterpiece!
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​Update:  I got first place!

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Vincent van Gogh Sunflower Cake

9/16/2017

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I think there is something about the fair that starts to get me excited for the fall. It's always at the end of September and it still is hot here, but it makes me feel like fall is just around the corner. It is always a fun way to celebrate the change in seasons and eat great food you can only find at the fair! Like I have done for the last several years, I entered a cake into the decorated cake category. This year I needed to keep the design simple, but beautiful because of baby boy coming in a few months. So I decided to go back to doing a buttercream cake instead of another fondant cake and like past buttercream cakes, I decided to be inspired by a work of art. In the past, I have done a few Vincent van Gogh Starry Night cakes and like how his painting translated into buttercream frosting on cakes and decided to do one of his Sunflower painting. However, this year I wanted to do a different shape cake and when with a half dome and regular round Styrofoam. The dome was covered in light blue frosting and bottom was frosted in a light yellow/tan and cream to create the vase. I piped a base for the sunflowers to create depth and piped on the stems. For the sunflower petals, I used yellow and copper food coloring and a leaf piping tip and slowly went around on each base until a flower was formed. Once all of the flowers petals were finished, I used a grass tip and pipped on the center of the flowers. I repeated using the leaf piping tip to create the leaves and finished the cake off with Vincent's signature in black buttercream frosting. The cake turned out really cool and I really like the 3-D look the sunflowers have. I can't wait to see how I do this year in the contest!

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 Update: I got first place!!
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Our Baby Boy's Quilt

9/14/2017

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Our Baby Boy will be here before we know it and I just finished making his baby quilt. I’ve made several quilts in the past to give as gifts, but it was even better making a quilt for my own baby. I know when it comes to things like this that I will never complete it if I don’t have a deadline so I decided to give me one by entering the quilt in the fair! I’ve done this before and it usually works well for me.
As crazy as this sounds I wanted his quilt to be all white. I’m not sure why but I thought it would look so pretty. I bought several all-white fabrics with different textures, prints, and patterns. I cut each one into 4 X 4-inch squares and laid them out in a pattern I liked. Once that was done I started sewing all the squares together.

When the body of the quilt was completed I used quilting temporary fabric adhesive to a solid white flannel fabric that would be the back of the quilt. Next, I sewed lines along the squares to attached the two pieces together. The last thing I did was add a thick border of fabric to create the quilt’s trim.
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I love how the quilt came out and can’t wait to wrap my little one up in it!
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Gold  World Cake

9/17/2016

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Its fair time again and that means another fabulous fair cake! Like last years cake, I wanted to do a fondant cake and not another buttercream cake. I also didn't want to do something that I would be asked to do for someone else. I try to take this time to do a cake I really would want to do for myself, after all, no one is going to eat it and it's going to sit in a case for two weeks. The cake design was inspired by the wall art I created for my office last year. I started by covering the Styrofoam cakes in white fondant and used a world map print out to trace the shapes of the continents. I used vodka and different shades of blue food coloring and brushed on the bottom layer to create the shades of the oceans. I also did this to create the look of wood on the cake board using shades of brown. To create the golden continents I used vodka and gold food coloring and powder and carefully brushed in the lines. I finished the map by adding a few pops of edible gold leaf for a touch of elegance. For the top tier, I kept it simple and just added ribbons of gold fondant and a few white royal icing roses that also had a touch of gold to them. It was fun to play around with a new technique and I could not have hoped for this cake to turn out any better!

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​Update: I got second place!!!
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 Something Wicked This Way Comes...

9/29/2015

 
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This was another apron that I have wanted to do for years and knew it was time to make it so I could enter it into the fair. I saw a similar apron at Pier-1 years ago and thought it was cute, but it I knew I could make it cuter! I decided since my favorite holiday is just around the corner that it was time to pull the fabric out of the project bin to complete. The bodice was created the same way as the Fourth of July Apron, but instead of a sweetheart neck I wanted more square. After pinning and sewing the orange ribbon in place between the bodice pieces I sewed on the web fabric belt and started working on the skirt. The skirt layers were created with a ½ a yard of each print being cut into ½ a circle. Next I used a triangle I cut out of a piece of paper to cut out the fabric. I didn’t want the triangles to directly lay on each other so it took a little maneuvering, but finally got it perfect. To be completely honest the skirt was that hardest part of this apron. It took a long time to sew all of triangles for each layer. Once all of the skirt layers were sewn, I pinned them to the belt, layering each section over another and sewed in place. The last step was to sew on the ribbon for the neck and ties. The apron was a long time in the making the finished project didn’t disappoint; it even got Honorable Mention at the fair. I can’t wait to wear it for Halloween!

 ​Fair Cake

9/19/2015

 
Its Fair time again and that means the decorated cake contest. The last two years I did an adaptation of art, this year I decided to test my fondant skills. 
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The pervious cakes were created by piping and brushing buttercream, this year’s cake was rolled fondant with different layers of decorations. Each layer started with plain mint fondant, the bottom layer I used sugar water (fondant and water) to adhere a thick layer of gold sprinkles. I used edible gold spray to help them stay in place. The middle layer I used gold air spray gun paint and the edible gold spray to create the look gold wash texture. To do this I added both paints to a small paper bowl and using a damp cake safe paint brush I slowly painted the texture. After each layer was dry I repeated the process until got the desired look. The top layer was the easiest. I wanted this layer to remain simplistic since the magnolia flower was going there. I repeated the process of the gold wash for the ribbon along the bottom of the layer and leaving the rest of the cake the original mint fondant. The magnolia flower was created by using a leaf cookie cutter on 100% gum paste. Each leaf was attached to a flower wire and shaped on a fondant sponge with fondant tools. Once all of the leaves dried they were painted and taped together. The center of the flower is a wire covered in gum pasted and left to dry. To complete the cake I placed the magnolia cake in place and it’s ready to be delivered to the fair! Since I knew I was going to be very busy next weekend with some fun projects I used Styrofoam cake layers like I have done previously. This allows the cake to be done days in advance and will hold its shape in the warm cases at the fair. This cake is very different than the cakes in the past, but it came out so elegant! Hope it does well!

Update: I got Second Place!!!
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 Amber's 2015 Fair Entry Photos

9/18/2015

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Amber just finished dropping off her fair entry photos and I know she is going to do great this year. She chose one of the fair pictures she took last year, a picture of their Bronco, and my favorite sunset picture. I love the picture so much that it is my desk top background at work.
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The Bronco picture really could be on the cover a magazine and the carousel brings back so many childhood memories. 
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Amber continues to grow in her photography style and each picture is better than the next, no wonder it was so hard to narrow it down to three pictures ​this year!
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Easy Mocha Cake

9/27/2014

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I love to bake and when I don't have time to bake from scratch nothing beats adding to a pre-made box mix. One of the baked good categories for the fair is just that, this year I decided to do an easy mocha cake, here is the recipe.

Ingredients
      One box French Vanilla cake
      3 eggs
      1/2 cup oil
      1 cup extra strong coffee

Instructions
    Preheat the oven to 375
    Mix all the ingredients together
    Pour into two 8" greased and floured pans
    Bake 30-35 minutes

To make the frosting mix 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup of crisco, one pound of powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 3 tablespoons of cooled strong coffee. Blend until smoothed and fill and spread over the cooled cake.

Super easy, super tasty and won me 3rd place in best cakes!


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Starry Night Cake - Last Years Fair Entry

9/22/2014

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The other day I showed off my cake fair entry from this year and I'm really excited that I got best in division again this year! Since I brought up my Starry Night Cake in that post I thought it was only fair that I took the time to share the process and what it looked like. The hardest part of this cake was the amount of time it took. I followed the same process as I did on this years cake, I would pipe buttercream and then brush and blend it with a paint brush. I started with the cypress tree since that was going to be my measuring guide for the other details. I used a dark chocolate buttercream and piped thin black lines as in the original picture. I knew the original also had a lot of texture due to the think layers of oil paint so I replicate that feature with the buttercream. After the tree was completed, I followed the same process for the houses and mountains. For the stars and moon I used several shades of yellow and white buttercream and blended it accordingly. Lastly the sky was used with lots of shades of blue and I carefully created the swirl in the trying to mimic the same brush strokes as Van Gogh used. The sky was really the hardest part because it took the longest and the most blending!  When I was finished I even sent a picture to my former Modern Arts Professor who got a total kick out it!     from        fro 
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My Fair Entry Cake- Tiffany Window

9/16/2014

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I love entering things into the Fair. I feel like it is a fun way to show off my creativeness. In the past I have entered quilts, aprons, photos, baked cakes and over the last two years I have entered decorated cakes. Last year I did a cake version of the Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night painting.  This year I didn't want to do another painting so I decided to do my version of a Tiffany Stain Glass Window. I found a stained glass window I liked online and blew up the picture. I hand drew the image on the Styrofoam cake; it's always best to do a fair entry cake on Styrofoam since it will sit in a warm display case during the fair and it  will melt very quickly. Once the image was sketched out I piped the lines using black royal icing. Over the next 12 hours I piped and brushed the remaining buttercream onto the cake, and blended the colors to give the look of stained glass. I didn't intend on staying up all night watching my favorite disasters movies (Independence Day, Twister (watched twice), The Day After Tomorrow, and  Jurassic Park (watched one and  a half times) and working on the cake, but I just got into working on it that I didn't want to stop. I love when something in my head comes out so beautiful....can't wait to see how I did in the fair!!!

Update:  I got Best in Division Advanced Cakes!!!
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Amber's Fair Entry Photos

9/15/2014

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Amber has a great passion for her photography hobby. She loves to take pictures and later play with editing styles. I think she is an amazing photographer and I love sharing her beautiful photos with everyone here on Oak Tree Lane. This year she took a huge leap to share them with everyone else by entering three of her incredible photographs at the County Fair. I hope everyone is inspired by them as I am.
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Category: Landscape (I really want this picture somewhere in my house.)
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Category: County - Hart Park (Reminds me of an old John Wayne western film.)
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Category: Transportation (This picture belongs in a Mustang magazine!)
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 Wedding Guest Book Quilt

9/12/2014

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This quilt was a year and a half in the making. In March of last year, my cousins asked me if I would be willing to sew her a wedding guest book quilt. I happily agreed and we went out to buy the fabric we needed. I cut out all the fabric in 5" x 5" squares and for the signatures I suggest using a none print fabric with a permanent fabric marker. The wedding came and went and a year later we realize that we never finished working on the quilt. During my birthday party in June, we started talking about it again and I asked if she would care if I entered it into the fair. She agreed and I now knew I had a deadline! In August we finally got together and planned the layout of the quilt and picked out the pictures she wanted to add to the quilt. I used a direct print on cotton fabric product that I purchased at Joann's for the pictures since I knew I didn't want to use a print and iron on product. I've used them in the past but I find them to me more work. With the direct print fabric I was able to center the picture in a Word document, printed it, then cut the fabric to the size square I wanted. It took about a week to sew everything together and that was working on it only a few hours a night. I love how the fun fabrics work so well together, and hopefully so will the fair judges!  

Update: I received Second Place in the Memory Quilt Division!!


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    From Me...

    I created this blog to share my creations with hopes that it will inspire others to show their creative side.

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