Baby Girl Bunting

My granddaughter is due in April, and my daughter and son-in-law have been working to get everything ready! She requested a "bunting" to hang across a little ceiling alcove in the room they are converting to a nursery. She sent me a photo of an Etsy bunting she liked and the measurements of the alcove and away I went!

Armed with a Whitney Sews You Tube video and Whitney's free pattern, I created a bunting that I think will serve the purpose!

I adjusted Whitney's template to a larger size and used leftover fabric from baby girl quilt. I like Whitney's pattern because the seam is in the back of the "flag", rather than on the sides like many other bunting patterns I found.

I cut a 2-inch wide piece of gray and white diagonal striped fabric (it is lighter than it appears in the photos) for the "stringer", sewed it on like quilt binding, and made a small loop on either end, for hanging.

I sewed the stringer around cord to give it a little weight.

Now I've got my fingers crossed it fits the space!

A Mug Mat for My DIY Guy

After I made myself a mug rug, I decided to surprise my DIY Guy with one. "Mug Rug" didn't sound quite manly enough, so his is a Mug Mat.

His favorite "OU Sooners" coffee mug is crimson, so shades of red, black, and gray will compliment it!

This time I did regular straight-line quilting instead of quilt-as-you-go. After taking my usual long time choosing fabric, I finished it all up in less than an hour - almost instant gratification!

The back is solid red. Although it appears blue in the photo, the binding is a Kona gray.

I'm linking to Cynthia's Oh Scrap!

Mrs. Ekoff's Molasses Cookies

Mrs. Ekoff was an older woman who attended my childhood Methodist Church with her husband during the 1960s and early 1970s. Everyone young and old called them Mr. and Mrs. Ekoff. My Granny Mitchell called her "Miz Ekoff" and always sat next to her in church. Although they didn’t talk much, they really liked each other. Mrs. Ekoff was often called on to "lead us in prayer" because she prayed the most articulate and meaningful (and not too long!) prayers. She was kind, warm, and gracious. Everyone fought over her molasses cookies, which she brought to our “church suppers”. I recently found the recipe in our old church cookbook and made it with the addition of ginger and vanilla for my granddaughters. They were delicious - buttery and chewy with slightly crisp edges and fragrant with molasses and ginger. I have included the original recipe and instructions as well as my adaptation of both. I love her simple directions!

Mrs. Ekoff’s Molasses Cookies

Original recipe:
1/4 cup sorghum or honey
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix together and chill dough. Form in small balls. Roll in sugar if desired. Bake in moderate oven 8-10 minutes.

My adapted version:
6 tablespoons shortening
6 tablespoons salted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons soda
Scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
heaping 1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Cream shortening and butter until smooth, add sugar and mix. Add egg, vanilla, and molasses and mix until light. Whisk together flour, soda, salt, and spices; add gradually to batter. Form in small balls. Roll in sugar if desired. Bake in 350 oven 8-10 minutes.

Giveaway Winner!

The winner of my giveaway is:

Diann of Little Penguin Quilts!

Congratulations Diann, I will be contacting you by email for your address. Diann wins a six-piece fat quarter bundle of Sweet As Honey by Bonnie Christine, a mini-charm pack of Prairie by Corey Yoder, and Rebecca Bryan's book: Modern Rainbow - 14 Imaginative Quilts That Play with Color.

Thanks to all of you for reading my blog and entering the giveaway. I wish all of you could have won!

RSC 2016 - Scrappy Curved Log Cabin Block

Angela at So Scrappy is hosting her annual Rainbow Scrap Challange, and I've decided to join the fun! You may follow the monthly color choices and/or design plan for a scrappy sampler, and she has a tutorial for beautiful Twinkle Stars. For January the color is blue.

Last summer I made a eight scrappy curved log cabin blocks using this tutorial for scrappy offset rainbow blocks by Cynthia Brunz at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. Yesterday I remembered them and decided to resurrect and complete the blocks for RSC 2016. Each completed rainbow "circle" is composed of four blocks, and I had made one block each of blue, aqua, hot pink, red, orange, and green. I pulled more scraps for three more blue blocks and finished them last night.

My "cheat sheet" for Cynthia's instructions!

Can't wait to see what next month's color will be! And after seeing Cynthia's version of Twinkle Stars, I may have to make a few of those blocks too!

There's still one more day to enter my Giveaway!

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

First Finish of 2016 - QAYG Mug Rug

Taking inspiration from Diann's tutorial on Little Penguin Quilts, I not only made my first mug rug but also my first quilt-as-you-go project! Diann's beautiful mug rug was featured as a guest post on Cyndy's Oh Scrap! back in February, but I didn't see it until I read Diann's Best of 2015 post.

Last year I had every intention of making a mug rug like Christine's and even downloaded the pattern from Craftsy but I forgot about my plans as the year progressed. I loved the look and simplicity of Diann's so I decided to try it first.

I used scraps for the front and for the binding and pulled a larger piece from my stash for the back. The amount of time I spent picking out scraps to use was ridiculous - I had a lot of trouble deciding, so maybe that's a sign I need to make more! Although I had many stops and starts removing stitches and re-positioning fabric, I finally got the hang of things and finished in about two hours.

I followed Diann's example and quilted diagonal lines

I finished it yesterday evening, and loved having it on my sewing table waiting for me this morning! I'm linking to Cyndy's Oh Scrap!

Don't forget to enter my End of Year Giveaway!