The Cupcake Sewing Factory

Baker's Dozen - the first cupcakes fresh from the Cupcake Sewing Factory!

The Cupcake Sewing Factory presents... Baker's Dozen! The first 13 cupcakes fresh off the sewing machine! As with any recipe, there are variations in the end product as we perfect our technique. These cupcakes are available "as is", but we will also soon be offering custom cupcakes. These measure between 7 and 8 1/2" square and come with a hanging loop on the back.

You can have a cupcake of your own from the first batch for 25.00 USD, plus shipping. #1 and #7 have been sold as of May 13th. Please contact me at sharonleebenton at gmail.com (please copy and paste the email address, replacing the word "at" with the @ sign.)

March Madness

March Madness has a whole new meaning for me now. The days are getting longer now, but the weather is still crap. So that means more daylight so you can see more crappy weather. Absolutely no sign of spring yet and probably not for two more months. Yeah, I am kind of bitter. The only thing keeping me going is the sun lamp and re-runs of "My Name is Earl".

However, there have been spurts of creativity here and there. Art-o-mat pieces are fullfilling because I can create so many of them in so little time. Here's the latest batch:



And I've also been busy formatting photos for art show submission. I submitted to two shows -Art in the Pearl and Inland Craft. I should hear back in April if I am accepted.

Here it is at home

Here is Let's Hyggelize at home. A nice bright accent for Dark Danish December Days.

Project Blehm becomes "Let's Hyggelize!"

Project Blehm was delivered 21 November, just in time to be hung for CPH Thanksgiving! Heidi held a naming contest and the finished piece is called "Let's Hyggeilze!"

Nanda came up with the winning name - very appropriate considering the very Hyggelig** time we had celebrating an early Thanksgiving with our CPH friends.

**Hyggelig is a Danish term that loosely translated means cozy, comfortable, friendly.

The Tale of Two Backings

Tuesday: The plan for hanging this quilt was to add a second backing into which I could slip a piece of foamcore, then add a hanging wire. Well. For many reasons that did not work out. Tuesday eveing I put the quilt down. I knew what I had to do, but was not prepared to do it until Thursday.

At this point, I was rolling the quilt into a tube and hefting it over my shoulder to stitch the back and binding on:

Adding the velcro strip that was to be used to secure the backing after the foamcore was inserted:

Wednesday: Uncovered the quilt, looked at it, covered it back up. Considered my options.

Thursday: I knew I had to remove the existing back and binding and opt for a traditional hanging sleeve instead. I worked on this for about 3 hours, then took break to meet Heidi, Nanda, and Karine at a La Glace for the world's best hot chocolate. (Mmm) Back in the studio late afternoon to continue the work.

Friday: Finishing touches - added the last binding strip and finished hand-stitching the hanging sleeve. I made a sandwich of two pieces of foamcore with the quilt in between and wrapped it all in two layers of plastic and taped it securely. It has begun to snow - the first snow of the year - and I was delivering PB by train to Any and Heidi's. Probably a 5 minute train ride and 15 minute walk and man were my arms tired by the time I arrived!

Project Blehm. Completed November 21, 2008. Tomorrow I will take pictures of the artwork in it's new home!

Sharon in the studio

Here I am hard at work in the studio! I should wrap up PB on Monday, Nov 17th. Now just need a dry day to deliver it!! Guess that's what those giant garbage bags were made for...

The Finishing Toches!

Whew! This part always takes longer that I imagine. And I am just a little anal about it. Here's the process of the last two days, which has taken about 7 hours thus far:

Square the quilt: This involves trimming off excess binding and making sure all the sides are straight. In this case, I also have to make sure the two small pieces are the same length and width and they are the same length as the large center piece.

Attach the backing: Cut white muslin and fusible web for each of the three pieces. Iron the muslin to remove wrinkles. Iron the fusible to the quilt, then layer the muslin on top of the fusible and iron to attach.

Make binding strips: Iron fusible to the binding material, then cut one inch strips. This will be added to the quilt by stitching 1/4" from the edge, then folding over and ironing to the back.

Attach top binding: Attach binding strip to the top of each piece only.

Add the second backing: This quilt has an additional backing sewn on three sides and left open on the top. The top of the second backing is not stitched, as I will slide a piece of foam ore into this opening and then close with Velcro closures. The foamcore will help the quilt hang nice and straight.

Add binding to the other three sides.

Insert foamcore and add hanging wire for each of the three pieces.