Tea Party and Lemon Squares

I had the tea party this weekend that I made invitations for earlier and it was lovely!  I didn't get any good photos of the setup for the party but since I kind of collect teapots (since I keep making them and don't give them all away), it worked out really well.  I wanted the party to feel like spring so I made more spring flower and animal themed sugar cookies (using my regular icing recipe this time), and we had blueberry muffins, fruit salad, cucumber tea sandwiches and hummus tea sandwiches, and lemon squares.

The lemon squares are, like the sugar cookies, from my family recipe, and they were really yummy as usual.  I actually cooked them a bit less than usual accidentally and they were less fully set but still light and delicious with a fresh lemon taste.

Lemon Squares

For shortbread crust:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 cups flour

For lemon layer:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 tablespoons flour (1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon)
• Juice of 2 lemons (5-6 tablespoons)
• confectioner's sugar to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan.  Mix together ingredients for shortbread crust until combined and dump mixture into the greased pan and pat into an even layer.  Bake 20 minutes.

Mix together ingredients for lemon layer and pour over crust.  Bake for another 25 minutes or slightly more, until edges are brown and top is beginning to slightly brown.  Remove from oven and lightly sprinkle confectioner's sugar on top (I use a sieve to evenly distribute it).  Let cool, cut into squares and serve.

Pincushion for Swap

I have been wanting to participate in some of the fun sewing swaps online, so when I heard about a pincushion swap on twitter being organized by Cara of Cara Quilts, I went ahead and put my name in.  The person that I got as a partner hadn't listed their blog or flickr or any preferences for what they'd like so I had pretty much a blank slate in thinking about what to make them... which actually had me stuck for a while because I of course wanted to make something they would like but didn't know what direction to go in.   Ultimately inspiration struck and I ended up making this pieced pincushion using a flower from Caleb Grey's Suburbia fabric line (with the same fabric as backing).

It is a bit on the larger size but hopefully not too big to be useful.  I had fun using some of the solids in my stash... since green is my favorite color I had quite a good selection!  I filled it with crushed walnut shells, which I got at a pet store as Cara suggested - which was as cheap as buying a tiny amount on Etsy but now I have a 5 quart bag of it!  Thinking I may see if folks in the DC modern quilt guild are interested in any of the filling, maybe I can bag it up and give it away to folks at the next meeting.  I may make more pincushions in the future but I will definitely never go through all that I have.

I'm sending this off to my partner today - I really hope they like it!

Owl Themed Baby Shower - Wrap Up

I hope you all have enjoyed reading all about the owl-themed baby shower that we co-hosted last weekend!  I posted about the scrapbook paper owl garland shown above, the desserts, and the onesie decorating activity that we did.  I had a few more things that I wanted to show you that didn't make it into the earlier posts:

Check out these cute favor bags that my co-host put together - I love how they fit with the theme perfectly!

I stamped some plain green napkins with owls and deer to go with the theme.

And of course, I had to give an owl-themed gift, too!  I made another quick baby blanket using Anne Kelle owl fabric and yellow flannel lining and am really happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for sticking around for all the baby shower posts!  I hope you enjoyed them.

Baby Shower Activity - Decorating Onesies with Freezer Paper Stencils

I guess I had a lot to share about the baby shower we co-hosted last weekend - I posted about the decorations and the desserts earlier this week and today I wanted to share the fun craft activity that we did during the shower, decorating onesies using freezer paper stencils.  I made a stencils in a variety of designs including animals, fruits and veggies.  It was a very accessible project because using the stencils made it less intimidating for folks that otherwise don't do a lot of craft projects - they didn't have to think of their own design or figure out how to draw a certain shape if they didn't want to, but they still had a chance to get creative and make something.

I had so much fun coming up with cute designs that I didn't have enough onesies to fit them all!  If you want to make your own onesies (or anything else) with freezer paper stencils, you can download and use my animal, fruit and vegetable freezer paper stencil patterns here.  I also found great designs by searching for different key words and "stencil" or "outline" - so not every design you see in this post is in the file, only some of the ones I drew myself.  As usual, these patterns are for personal use only, so please don't sell the pattern or items that you make from them.

You may have seen other projects using freezer paper stencils - this was my first time using it and it was really fun!  You want to make sure you get freezer paper, which has a plastic coating, not wax paper.  I also got a sampler of fabric paint (which had the benefit of being one of the kinds you don't have to heat set), brushes, and fabric markers for those who wanted to draw their own design rather than paint in a stencil.  I traced the designs onto the freezer paper and cut them out with a craft knife.

Then I went ahead and ironed the freezer paper stencil right onto the front of the onesie, and put a piece of folded card stock inside to make sure the fabric paint didn't seep through to the other side.  One thing we did find was that if you watered down the paint it tended to seep under the freezer paper so if you are doing this project I would definitely recommend using the paint without thinning it out with water at all.  The folks that just used the paint straight had virtually no seepage and very crisp designs!

I felt bad that some of the earlier ones did have some paint seeping through so I went back and painted over those parts with white paint on some of them and it mostly covers it up.  I love the way these turned out with the cute faces and fun colors and designs that people painted on them.

Check out this amazing tiger whale design that one couple did!

I also left a number of onesies blank so that people who wanted could draw freehand designs.  Didn't these turn out great too?  (The parents-to-be are in a bocce league if you are wondering about the middle shirt).

One final onesie... this baby is going to be a rockstar!

I hope you have been enjoying this series of baby shower posts!  If you can believe it, I have one more post coming, then we can move on to other things.

What is your favorite activity that you have done at a baby shower?

I'm linking up at a few linky parties:

Creations by Kara