Nothing nearly so exciting happened today.  Though I did go to church with my pink hair.  Only one person rolled their eyes at me.  Most people have been very complimentary, or they say nothing at all.  Which is fine, I don’t expect everyone to like it or approve or whatever.  But I was surprised at how much that one eye roll hurt.  I almost started to cry.   So do me a favor and in honor or pink week don’t roll your eyes at anyone for the rest of your life.

I drew a winner this morning for my Pink Week Giveaway and it’s Mrs. Moen!  An email should be waiting for you.  Thank you to everyone who played along and told me all about your favorite pink things.  Reading about your favorites is one of the best parts of Pink Week.

I’m making lists and collecting ideas for next year. I can’t wait to start working on Pink Week again!

I hope you are all having a great weekend.  I am off to bake my favorite pie for dinner and if I can convince Scott to take pictures while I cook I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.  See you soon.

Just a few of the over 200 cupcakes.  After the party was over I carried a tray of cupcakes around the part handing them out to anyone who wanted one.  With my pink hair I looked just like Strawberry Shortcake.  And I was easy to spot for the kids who missed me the first time around.  I can just imagine their friends telling them “yeah, that lady with pink hair is giving away cupcakes.  FOR FREE!” It was probably my favorite part of the whole party actually.

My best friend Linsey and her girls.  She hosted last year’s Pinkalicious Party.  And she loves pink as much as I do.  (With 4 daughters how could she not!)

The genius at the Starburst factory who came up with the idea to sell bags of just pink starbursts is my idol.

His shirt says “tough boys wear pink.”  I LOVE it!

So, my biggest reason to DIY: I had three friends bake a batch of cupcakes for me (Thank you Jessie My Neighbor, Rachel and Kim!) and I made the rest.  And for over 200 cupcakes + frosting it cost less than 10 dollars.  I used 7 boxed strawberry cake mixs, which are 88 cents at Walmart.  If I had to BUY 200 cupcakes?  Well I would have to have sponsors for the party.  It was about $12 for the 400 popsicles, and about $3 for the pink lemonade mix.  I spent another maybe $12 on ice and that was it.  The polka dotted tablecloth is a thrifted sheet, as was the striped backdrop.  So $35 total for my party.  I think we had more than 100 people stop by through the course of the afternoon.  And that is what I call a good party.  It was perfect!

What with the party planning and all, I missed a few posts I had planned for this week… oops.  I’ll save them for next year I guess.  After the pinkalicious party was over I decided I was pretty much done doing anything for a while.  Instead of finishing those last posts I laid on the floor of the living room and colored with Creamie for a few hours.  It was fun.  And more important.  And that’s the great thing about pink week.  I feel zero pressure from anyone to do something/finish that other thing/post something else.  Because the whole thing is on my terms.  And that means that terms can change without notice or explanation.  And you guys are awesome enough that you let me do that.  So thank you.  And thanks for playing along this week.  It has been really fun for me.  I am so grateful for my internet (and real life) friends who indulge my love of pink things, cupcakes and parties.

Today is the last day to enter the Pink Week Giveaway.  I’ll announce a winner tomorrow afternoon.

[ Bursts of Pink by BronxElf on flickr ]

I’ll finish going through all my pictures from this afternoon tomorrow and I’ll post a full party recap in the afternoon.  Once I recover a bit.  And maybe that one almost finished tutorial.  Maybe.   Thanks for playing along with me today.  And thank you for your kind comments and general excitement for this project.  I’ve already got a list of ideas started for next year.  Pink Day 2012 is gonna be awesome.

PS- You still have till Saturday to enter my Pink Week giveaway.  I’ve loved reading about all your favorite pink things!

And I am really going to try and ignore  the two coolers of melty ice and Otterpops, two plastic totes of pink party gear and a mostly empty 5 gallon jug of now kind of watery pink lemonade.  See you tomorrow.  (Also I have one more tutorial to share, only it didn’t get finished for today.  It is so close to done it is ridiculous.  I think it will take four dots of hot glue.  So maybe tomorrow… and you can pretend that I posted that project right now.  Tada!  One more pink project! Ahem.)

More on my pink hair here, and the tutorial to make my pearl and pink necklace here.

[ 1983 ]

[ A very grainy 1988, first day of Kindergarten. Man,I loved that little white and pink skirt!  ]

[ My brothers wedding in 2002 ]

[ 1986 ish]

This last picture is one of my very favorites.  This is me and Heidi and my grandpa when we were two or three years old.  Today is Famp’s birthday, and he is 84. Happy Birthday Fampa, I love you! (And am totally jealous that you get to have a birthday on Pink Day! It’s OK, it’s my unbirthday, and that is almost just as good.)  It’s been so much fun to celebrate pink today.  I am dead tired, and ready to go to bed, but I’ll probably have one more post before I end up going to bed.  You can’t call it a real celebration without fireworks, right? I’m going to go find some fireworks…

A few weeks ago I was out thrifting and I came across a whole pile of necklaces that were fifty cents each.  I think I bought a dozen of them.  At least.  And these two white plastic “pearl” necklaces were too long to just wear, and not long enough to loop twice.  Which I of course didn’t realize until I got them home.  So a little fixing was in order.  My favorite part about it is that if I get sick of it and want to use the parts in other projects it is easy to take apart and I could use the necklaces again.  Here’s what I did:

Gather some supplies.  I pulled out my ribbon scrap box and pulled out a bunch of scraps in all colors of pink, some white, and a little bit of pale pink lace.  I also had a few parts from silk flowers that were in my same color scheme.  (Pulling apart a flower is pretty easy, just pop off the little plastic part that holds the center on at the back, then you can use the individual layers for whatever you’d like.)  I also had a big pink gemstone floating around in my sewing box, and it got added to the pile.  I also needed a little scrap of felt for the flower pin and an alligator clip.

Start by folding your necklaces in half and then tying a piece of ribbon through the loops.  This adds some interest to an otherwise boring string of white palstic beads, and it also gave me the length I needed without having to cut my necklaces apart.  Cut a circle of pink felt, and make two slits in the middle.  Then thread your clip through and use a dab of hot glue to hold the two together.  Next stack up all your flower bits until you like them and hot glue them together as well.

Next lay out your ribbon tails s you can check length and composition.   I ended up using the bright pink ribbon as a backer or the lace so that it shows up better.

Working in layers, glue your ribbons all together.  Then glue your stack to the back of your flower and cover the ends with your felt circle and alligator clip.

Then it’s as easy as clipping the flower over the knot on the side of your necklace and tada!  You are done.  Because I had so many ribbon scraps this necklace cost me exactly $1.  And I can still take it apart to use the pieces again.  And because the flower clip is removeable you can use it  on another necklace or a bag or if you are feeling totally awesome, put it in your hair.

I love how with very little effort I can dress up my standard T-shirt.  We took this picture at our not quite midnight but still really late for a 2 year old summer solstice picnic.  Nothing like eating pizza at the park and watching the sun go down on the longest night of the year.  It was awesome.  But now this outfit looks awesomer because I have pink hair.  Yay!

And that means a lot of frosting.

Lots and lots of frosting.

I’m off to celebrate Pink Day with cupcakes and pink lemonade and popsicles.  But I have a few more posts scheduled this afternoon to keep you company.  Be back soon!

Each recipe only makes 8 cups, and you’ll want to drink at least two yourself.  Yep, that good.  Mix together 6 cups of water and 1cup of sugar until the sugar is dissolved.  Add 1.5 cups of lemon juice and 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice.  This is two or three limes and 6 or 7 good sized lemons.  I got this Breville citrus juicer for Scott a few years ago.  It’s amazing.  And we use it more than our toaster.  It makes quick work of juicing citrus fruit!  Stir the juice into the water and sugar, and then add a cup of washed raspberries.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

When you first make it, it will be a nice lemonade color.  But those raspberries will work some serious magic overnight.  Serious tasty pink magic.

I added a few more lemon slices before we had it for lunch this week.  And it was heaven.  Far and away the best beverage I’ve ever made.  And easy.  It only took me about 10 minutes to put it together, it just takes a little planning ahead.

I can see myself making this every single week as long as Costco has gigantic beautiful raspberries.  Even thinking about it later makes my mouth water.

You can count on it disappearing quickly.  Next up in my Pink Day Party are some of my favorite pink things, and another tutorial this afternoon.  I love blog parties, they are a lot of work, but so much fun!

I think it’s a success.  It is now by far one of my favorite things I’ve ever made.  Ever.  I wish I’d thought of it three years ago when I was making baby quilts for Creamie.  The ruffles have a great texture, and I bet a baby would LOVE to play with them.  (I’ve got a non-ruffled boy version whirling around in my head that I’ll post as an addendum sometime this summer.  Sewers for boys, never fear!)

What I love most about this quilt, besides rows of pink ruffles, is the large white space around the edge.  My friend Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting filled it in with beautiful flowers and swirls and I couldn’t have dreamed up something more beautiful!

Alright, let’s talk details.

• 1/8 yard x13 fabrics for ruffles
• 1 1/4 yards white
• 1 1/3 yards backing
• 1/3 yard binding fabric (This is for a straight cut, not bias binding)

You’ll need:thirteen 4″x42″ strips of fabric for the ruffles.  I was happy I had enough pink scraps to do this quilt almost completely from my stash.  I choose to do mine all different, but you could repeat a few fabrics if you’d like.  I thought of doing an ombre effect, but didn’t have enough of the dark pinks. (The ruffled quilt kits we have at the shop are blue/turquoise, greens, gray and yellow and are so so pretty!)  I would suggest choosing dense/small prints, or one’s with allover color.  I have one ruffle that was a large pink flower on white, middle of the bottom row below, and though I love the fabric I don’t love it as a ruffle because it mostly just looks white.  I should have switched that fabric for something else.

If you are buying fabric for this quilt 1/8 yard will do for each ruffle. (An 1/8 yard is 4.5 inches, and you’ll need to trim them down to 4″ wide.)  I pieced a few of my ruffles together in the middle because I didn’t have a long enough strip left.  And that’s OK too.  You’ll also need 1 1/4 yards of white.  I used Kona snow.  The white I had in my piles was too white, and the cream I had was too cream.  Kona snow is a great not bright white, not cream white option.  That’s it for the front!  You’ll need 1 1/3 yards for the backing fabric.  I pieced mine together from bits left over from this project and a big, but not big enough piece.

After you’ve cut your ruffles, let’s cut the white fabric to size.  You’ll  need one large 21″x21″ square, and two 11″x21″ strips.  Cut your remaining fabric into two 11″xwidth of fabric (42″ish) strips.

Sew one 11×21 inch piece to each side of your 21″ square and press the seams open on the back.  Then fold it in half and press a fold down the center in both directions.  This will help you get your ruffles sewn on straight later.  Let’s make ruffles!  They aren’t as hard as they look.  A long time ago a woman in my neighborhood who was teaching a sewing class for the young girls at church showed me an easy trick to turn long skinny things right side out.  I’m sure a few of you have heard of this before.  But at the time I thought “Wow.  Why is this not printed on billboards in front of every single sewing store!”

For this part you’ll need a roll of ribbon, or a long length of it.  I don’t cut mine off the roll, I just roll it back up when I am done.  So here’s my not so secret trick to make long skinny ruffles easy!

1. Take your 4″ strip of fabric and lay your ribbon across the top with about 1/2 inch hanging off one edge.
2. Fold your fabric right sides together and pin the ribbon in place.  Make sure the ribbon is laying down right next to the fold.  You don’t want to catch it in your seam.  Sew a 1/4 inch seam along the raw edges.
3. After you’ve sewn your ruffle, start pulling the ribbon tail.  It will start to scrunch up, and you’ll just need to use your fingers to help it flip inside out.
4. This is what it will look like when you are finished.  It only takes about 15 seconds to flip this whole long ruffle inside out.  Tada! Magic.
5. Carefully snip off the ribbon right at the seam on the outside (But don’t cut your fabric!) Then you can reach in and pull out the 1/2 inch tail from the inside.  Then you’ve only lost 1/2 inch of ribbon and 15 seconds of time for each ruffle.  Not bad at all!

Repeat for all thirteen ruffles, and then take your stack over to the ironing board.  press each ruffle with the seam down the center.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, but try to keep it in the middle to give yourself a guide for gathering them up later.  When they are all pressed take them back to the sewing machine and using mostly matching thread (I wish I’d changed thread for the darker pink ruffles) stitch a long gathering stitch down the middle of each ruffle.  (Set my stitch length to it’s longest setting, mine is a 5, and don’t back stitch at the beginning or end.)

Now it’s time to start pinning on the ruffles!  Find the center of each ruffle by folding it in half and marking it with a pin.  Then line up your first ruffle along the two center lines you pressed earlier.  Pin it in the center, and then very carefully pull your bobbin thread to make gathers.  Do one side at a time, the pin in the middle will help keep your gathers even from side to side.  I used about 8 pins on each side of the center to hold my ruffle in place, and as straight on that center line as possible.  Pull your thread gently, if it breaks you’ll need to pull it off and redo the gathering stitch.

Stitch that ruffle right down the center.  Make sure to leave the selvedge edges hanging off your white background square.  You don’t want those to show up in your quilt!  We’ll need to trim everything even when we are done with the ruffles anyway.  And tada!  You’re first ruffle is done.  Now add one to each side, using your first ruffle and your pressed center line as a guide to keep things straight and even.

You’ll want to butt those ruffles right up against each other.  Pack them in tight or they won’t all fit inside the square in the middle.  (And see, that darker pink ruffle at the top would have looked a lot better with dark pink thread instead of light pink.  Oops.)

Continue adding ruffles, one on each side  until you’ve gathered them all up and sewn them all down.

Every couple of row measure the distance between the side seam and your ruffle to make sure you are still straight.  My seam is under the blue line, and thankfully my rows were still straight.  If they aren’t, just adjust the way you pin on the next one to compensate for a little bit of slanting in one direction.

I just used my regular sewing foot to sew these down, but if you have a walking foot you could use that too.  I have a ruffler foot too, but since I needed these to be a very specific length I decided it was just as easy to gather them by hand.

And tada!  All those ruffles are sewn down.  Try to keep the edges of the last rows of ruffles inside the side seams.  This will keep your center square of ruffles a true square.  Now it’s time to trim down the edges and add our other white strips.

Measure the length of your center panel from edge to edge.  It should be somewhere around 42″.  Trim your remaining white strips to the exact length of your quilt x11 inches and pin them right sides together at both ends.  Lay everything out evenly across the ruffles and carefully trim off the selvedge ends.  Then carefully pin the raw ruffle edges into the seam allowance.  I used one pin on each side of each ruffle.  Which was more pinning than I usually do for anything, but I didn’t want any of those raw edges to escape the sewing machine.  You want them sewn in really well so they don’t pull out and fray.  Do the same thing on the other side and you are done with the top!

Tada!  Having those big wide borders makes for a really fast quilt. I didn’t have a piece I liked for the backing that was big enough, so I added a strip of scraps to add the length I needed.  I actually think I prefer scrappy backings better.  They are more interesting I think.  And maybe one day I’ll get around to putting a label on there somewhere…

Now do whatever it is you do to quilt the thing together.  Me?  Don’t enjoy that part at all.  And my friend Melissa is a LOT better at it than me!  So I took it to her.  And she did an amazing job.

After I got it home I realized that it needed some quilting in the middle of the quilt too.  A 21″ square is a lot of space to not be stitched together!  So I added a few straight lines between each ruffle to help hold all the layers together.  If you send it somewhere to get quilted, you can ask your quilter to do this part for you.  I didn’t think of it until after I started binding it, so I added these few rows of quilting after it was completely finished.  I should have used my walking foot, but I really hate putting it on my machine, and I figured if it puckered or wrinkled then the ruffles would hide it anyway.  Just make sure you don’t catch a ruffle in your stitching.  You can either hold them out of the way with your fingers (my lazy girl solution), or you can pin them down so they don’t get caught in these rows of stitching.  Don’t those rows of ruffles just make you want to touch it!

I bound my quilt with a solid pink, not cut on the bias.  Here is a really good tutorial from Amy at Diary of a Quilter on bindings.  I should have read it before I bound all those quilts a few weeks ago.  She has some good info there and shares the secrets to making square mitered corners.

If you make a ruffle quilt, please let me know!  I’d love to see your version, even if it’s not pink.  You can add any projects you make from my blabberings on to the pinksuedeshoe flickr group.  It’s still a little lonely.  And boring.  It’s only got my stuff in it.  So if you have any projects you’ve made from my tutorials please add them!  My pictures could use a little company.