Bunting Tutorial

A few years ago I made this bunting with some old curtain fabric and we have had fun with it, but I wanted to make a longer string so I went fabric shopping at JoAnnes, but I just couldn't find anything I liked. After stewing about it for a couple of days I remembered that WalMart has fabric so Teen2 and I trotted over there one evening and SHOCK! they had some of the cutest fabrics! I got two yards of two different patterns and four yards of a third pattern; all co-ordinating, of course.

 Here's a drawing of my template and how I laid the triangles out on the fabric. I cut the template out of cardboard so I could trace around it again and again. The triangle is 11" x 8 1/2" and it fits perfectly on a strip of fabric 12" long leaving 1/2" seam allowances all around. So if you use this template, you will get 21 triangles out of one yard of fabric. You need to unfold the fabric and refold it as shown to make best use of the width. Then trace around the cardboard template leaving 1" between triangles, and 1/2" at the top and bottom. Put three pins inside each triangle to hold it together whilst you sew. Don't waste time cutting around each triangle before you sew, simply sew the fabric together in the 12"x44" chunk and cut it apart after you're done sewing.

 I actually used a felt pen called Marks Be Gone for my tracing. These pens are used by quilters and the marks disappear with a spray of cool water after you are done sewing.

Here is how the fabric looks with all the marking and pinning done.

The I cut it into a manageable chunk.....

and started sewing. Make sure to leave the top part open for turning later.

After sewing, I cut the triangles apart.....

and trimmed the points to make the turning easier.

Turning the triangles inside out was the most time consuming part of the project, but I made 60 triangles, so maybe you won't feel so overwhelmed if you only make 20 or so. After turning the triangles, iron them so they look nice and crisp....

then trim off the little pieces of seam allowance that stick up on the top.

Here are the stacks of triangles at the half way point. The fabrics I chose are fairly bright, but I wanted that cheerful almost "Cath Kidston" look, so I'm quite pleased with my WalMart fabrics.

When they were finally all done I played with them, laying them out on the bed to "Ohhhh" and "Awww" at their prettiness. Then I took 60' of seam binding and marked it every 12". And then came the long process of sewing them all together. I encased the raw edges on the top of each triangle with the seam binding, sewing close to the bottom edge. Then I went back and sewed along the top edge to strengthen the seam binding. Then....

Happy, Happy, Day, I strung them all around this awning thing that's over my patio. And then we had a wonderful English tea party here Amongst The Oaks. 

You can make paper bunting too like I've done here above my range in the kitchen, and it's a lot easier. Just cut the triangles, fold them over and glue them around a ribbon, and you're done. You can decorate them with letters or pretty pictures too. I hope you try one of these ideas and let me know how it turns out.

Me and Teen2 at Easter.

When she was little I dressed her in frilly dresses.

When she got to be about 9 I had to pay her to even wear a dress.

Now she likes to dress up again.

In frilly dresses at that!

Will wonders never cease?

Citrus Season Gourmand Party

We've joined another Gourmand Dinner group and it was our turn to host last weekend. Since it is citrus season I decided to make it a citrus theme and every dish contained citrus of some sort.

To decorate the table I made a yellow tablecloth using 108" wide fabric from the quilting section of the fabric store. Folks us it for quilt backs and it is just a thin cotton, but with a nice hem and a plain white undercloth, it looked pretty good. There was enough fabric left over to make napkins too so I made eight of them. Then I found these nice red, white, and yellow striped place mats to pull it all together.

Instead of flowers I decorated the center of the table with citrus fruits. Most of the guests brought citrus from their trees to help. I had to buy the ruby grapefruit and the blood oranges, but I found plenty of lemons and leaves, and even a few flowers. I was quite pleased with the table when we were all done.

Blood oranges are not very pretty in the stores, but they are so beautiful inside. And they make a gorgeous addition to a winter salad.

Here's the ruby grapefruit. I like them in salads too and sometimes in the winter we make a grapefruit and avocado salad with a lemony dressing that is just delightful.

Here is the main course that we made; pork tenderloins with orange sauce, mashed red potatoes, and green beans. That's candied orange zest on top and it was pure heaven. We paired it with a tempranillo wine from Spain. I'd never had tempranillo before and it was quite nice! In fact, each couple did a great job of pairing a wine with their course. Speaking of wine.....

this was the scene on my counter the next morning. It's almost embarrassing, but there were eight of us!

Random Party Photos

Just had to share a few more photos from the Halloween party. Above is Myrtle before she was Moaning.

Here are spiders fleeing the castle. Remember Ron saying, "Spiders! Why does it have to be spiders? Why couldn't it be 'follow the butterflies'?"

Here are two cute students. They perfectly illustrate that costumes needn't be difficult or expensive to be effective.

Oh, here is one of my favorite costumes. She is Tonks with the pink hair and pig snout. Too cute!

These two photos show the party in the Gryffindor Common Room after they won the Quiddich cup. The music was loud, everyone was dancing, and I'm pretty sure some snogging was going on somewhere.

Here is one of the educational decrees that I (Umbridge) posted in the Entry Hall.

Here is Bellatrix LeStrange's dark mark. Pretty cool, eh?

And here are Hermione's books and a jar for S.P.E.W. donations. Of which she received NONE! What a bunch of cheapskates.

Hogwarts Party Details

One of my favorite details about Hogwarts was the floating candles in the Great Hall. To recreate that I used those battery operated candles you see around Christmas. You've probably seen them before. The neat thing about them is you can put them in your own candle holders, turn the switch on at 5pm, and every day they will come on at 5pm and stay on for about 5 hours. The batteries last for months, so even in the cold, dark days of January they still come on to cheer your evenings. I got my first batch years ago from the Lillian Vernon catalog, but I've since found them online here.

To get the Great Hall effect, I took them out of their holders, tied thread around the bulbs and suspended them from the ceiling of my dining room with clear pushpins. I was quite happy with them and I think the Fat Lady was too.

The invitations were printed in green ink using a font I found online called Hogwarts. I tried to use similar verbage to Harry's first acceptance letter. And I tried to address each one using descriptive terminology for each kid's bedroom. If we had no idea about their bedroom we used the Cupboard under the Stairs.

When the guests arrived they had the option to don the Sorting Hat and be assigned a house. We had several stickers for each house, but the Gryffindor stickers seemed to be the most popular.

We also found some Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans and gave them as prizes. They are always fun. The flavors seem to change over the years. I remember getting a dirt flavored one before and I heard there was earwax and vomit too, but this year the icky ones were FISH, CHEESE, ONION, PEPPER, GRAVY, and SAUSAGE. And yes, they really taste like their names.

And Ollivander (Teen2) made a little display of wands that guests could borrow.

I hope you enjoyed visiting our Harry Potter theme Halloween party. Now, who's excited about November 19th? I know we are!

Start of Term Party

Our Halloween party last night was wonderful if I do say so myself. We had butterbeer which was quite good. We made the butterscotch base ourselves, but I think it would be just as good to use premade butterscotch syrup. Basically you blend a little syrup with cream soda, top the glass up with more cream soda, and float a dollop of slightly whipped cream on top. Just like what is served at the Three Broomsticks.

We also had Scabbers scampering around...

and Crookshanks was seen soaking up some late afternoon sunshine.

And bless his little heart, Dobby nearly wore himself out cooking, cleaning, serving and cleaning up. I heard pots and pans being clanked around in the kitchens all night long.

Dumbledor gave an inspiring Start of Term welcome speech...

and introduced the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Mad Eye Moody.
We had several promising new students; Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, Harry Potter, Cedric Diggory, young Bellatrix LeStrange, and Moaning Myrtle.

But several characters that showed up seemed to be at the wrong party; a SWAT guy, a crack dealer, Abraham Lincoln, Indiana Jones, Dr. House, Pyramid Head, and the Mad Hatter.

This strange woman was lurking around all night with a clipboard. Does anyone know who she was and what she was up to? I don't really trust her.

Harry Potter Halloween Party

Hello, hello? Is anyone there? I'm sure you all thought I'd dried up and blown away, but no, I'm still here slogging through life one day at a time. It's been a wild and busy year with one crisis after another; health issues and surgeries for family members, business woes and the stress they bring, money going out and out and out, and just today $600 for a new motor for the washing machine! Don't get me wrong, there have been some good times too, but I for one will be glad to wave Bye bye to 2010. 2011 has GOT to be better, right?



This time of year I always start thinking of Halloween and planning a party. We are doing a Harry Potter theme this year. I've printed the invitations to look like Harry's acceptance letter and I've started setting up the rooms. The living room will be Professor Trelawny's classroom; Divination.


To create a smaller door, I built stone walls between two of the openings from the entry hall. Well, they aren't really stone walls....

they are brown paper that I colored to look like stone walls and taped into position. Then I hung tablecloths in the opening and pulled them back with some old tassels and made some glittery letters to say D I V I N A T I O N.

Then I moved the sofa out and substituted three small tables with red tablecloths and arranged comfy chairs around them.

At each table is a crystal ball. Ok, it's not really a crystal ball, but a glass globe from some old light fixture. I found them at thrift stores. I spent less than $2.00 for all three of them. I set them in some gadgets I found at the thrift store and around the house. I think maybe I'll spritz a little white paint in them to cloud them up a bit, but they look pretty good, don't they?

I think Professor Trelawny made them read Tarot cards too, so I scattered some of them around on this table too. I wonder what the King of Swords means?

At this table the students are studying tea leaves. Remember when Trelawny sees the Grim in Harry's cup? That's not the Grim in there now, is it? Gosh, I hope no one gets the Grim at our party.

Now I'm off to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I've been watching a lot of Harry Potter movies lately for inspiration and we can HARDLY WAIT until November when the next movie comes out. Are you a Harry Potter fan? Which character would you be if you came to our party?