Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Festive Banner Tutorial

Well, I can hardly believe it.. Shep is turning ONE! How fast they grow... *tear*   
Anyhoo, I'll get right to it. I've made him a festive banner for decorating the house for his {multiple} parties.
I Stumbled Upon this wonderful tutorial @ stitch.rip.repeat.  I then created my own using the following.

1/4 yard, of two fancy polka dotted fabrics, on sale at The Quilting Bee. {Very nice place.}  I added that to my 1/2 yard solid fabric. I grabbed 5 yards of a 1 1/2" silken ribbon from Hobby Lobby.


I drew out a triangle, first by marking 6" across the top. I then marked the center point and drew 8 1/2" down. Then went out the edges of the 6" and met up with the point at the bottom for a perfect triangle. I then cut out 11 solid, and 5 each of the polka dots, with my pinking blade on the rotary cutter.




Next, I fold the ribbon in half and iron.  And now, begin sewing!  [My favorite part.]  I sew about 1 1/2 feet of ribbon for tying space.  I gave them about a 1/2" space between each flag.  I didn't bother pinning, as these are easy to line up with the fold of the ribbon as you're sewing.


And viola!  You've got a fancy, festive, *reusable*, cusotom made banner for all your celebrations!

ENJOY!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Big Ol' Blackberry


Blackberries are ripe and ready.  I went out for my first picking yesterday and found an enormous berry on the first bush!  It was so amazing I left it there to come back for pictures.   Here it is on the vine...

Here's a size comparison to show you how big it really is...
We used it as a centerpiece for our 4th of July celebration...
Shep and I had fun, kicking back outside all day...
And Shep had fun eating the giant blackberry...