A new hobby?

A co-worker of mine, Ellen, is leaving next month and I was asked if I wanted to contribute to a memory quilt for her.  I said "Of course!  Although I have no idea where to start."  I do have a friend, Jean, who does a lot of quilts so I knew I could count on her if I got stuck. 

Ellen and I always plan the monthly birthday parties at work, so I decided my quilt block would have a birthday cake on it.  Like you didn't see that coming!  I considered a slice of cake or a traditional cake, or maybe even a quote of some kind...after sketching some ideas on paper I decided on a topsy turvy cake.

I spent what felt like hours walking around the craft store looking for inspiration and finally found a group of fabrics that I liked together.  I decided to just ask Jean for help and I'm glad I did!  She had some tricks that really helped this project happen much easier and faster than I ever would have thought. 

Making this seem simpler than it is....First I cut out the pieces of my design in each fabric using a paper template.  We then used a spray adhesive to place the pieces on a large square of fabric.  Then each piece is outlined with a decorative stich using Jean's fancy sewing machine.  The border fabric was sewn on and small iron on crystals added for pizzaz.  There was actually alot of measuring, math and cutting but I'll save you the details :)

Thanks to Jean I'm happy with my design and they way it all turned out! 

While I did enjoy working on this and it is kind of therapeutic because you really have to focus, I think I'll stick to cake decorating for now.