A mixer cover

I finally made a mixer cover! Finally! It's not exactly what I wanted but it'll do. It's really thick (hard-to-sew-on thick) vinyl or coated cotton in very 70's or is it early 80's colors? All I know is this make me think of our house in Oceanside with the mustard color fridge (I hope I'm remembering that correctly. Something was that color!) and brown cabinets. This print though is anything but early 80's. It has dear, mushrooms, squirrels, and hedgehogs.

I had started out sewing the seams to the outside using the brown colored bias tape but the stuff is so thick my stitches on the bobbin side were baaad. Anyone know why this happens? That's one reason I stopped making the bibs. So I took the tape off and sewed the seams wrong side together like you see it in the photo. I did use bias tape around the bottom. I used the pattern from here (instructions here and pattern here) and it was so EASY. Had I used cotton I would have lined it and put a pocket for the manual on the outside (like this one or like the one made by kitchen aid)

I don't think I showed the below quilt since I changed it up a bit. I went back, ripped out squares and sashing to add wee gnomes. I saw someone had done it on flickr and had to do it on mine! Right now it's at the quilters being quilted. I opted not to do it myself because of the trees and I wanted special stuff and I'm not experienced enough on the long arm to do it.

Boy gnomes above and girl gnomes below. I used this paper piecing pattern and tutorial. It's soooo easy once you get the hang of it. look at her store on etsy. She has new Halloween paper piecing patterns that I want just bought because they are $5 on sale from $7 in her store (not the etsy store)! So cute! Emily's going to love the monsters!!

And I don't think I ever showed or at least talked about the polka dots I had painted on Emily's wall when she was about 1. These were so easy. I cut holes on quilters template (thin flexible plastic) using a scraping booking paper circle cutter. I actually cut several holes at random on one sheet so i could make several dots at once. Using blue painters tape (my very best sewing friend) to hang it on the wall and using acrylic craft paint in the color butter I think and a sponge brush, dabbed and filled in the holes. Then moved the sheet to a new spot and did it again. This method of using quilters template isn't the best as the paint can leak around the edges and not form a perfect circle but it is faster than tracing each circle then carefully painting them in. Anyone know of a better way? I would love to do it again although Jon wouldn't. We had to paint over it (as you can see in the picture) before we moved out. It took two coats and it went fast so what's he crying about? I just had a thought that maybe I should try fabric decals.This person used cornstarch but I thought you were supposed to use actual starch? Anyone? I wonder how my German walls would like that! Do any of my friends that have lived over here know how that stuff does on the German walls? They are so porous and wall-papery. I'm afraid it won't come off.

I just wanted to show a picture of Ava and how she can't keep her clothes on. This was one of our drives to Schweinfurt loaded up with household stuff. I looked back and she had done this with her shirt. She also had taken off her socks and shoes. She does this ALL the time!! She tried to take off her clothes at Emily's parent teacher conference. One gross thing she tries to do now is take off her diaper and dump the contents in the toilet after she poops. The 1st time I caught her doing this I almost had a heart attack! I mopped the floor good that day:) I feel like I maybe should have covered her boobies in photoshop with stars or something. Does anyone feel violated?