Bits and Pieces, Soup, Stranger Things, and Life

I am finally cutting into the Hello, Bear by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics that I purchased for a baby quilt for my great-great nephew (I think that's right). The fact that he is 3 should tell you what a procrastinator I am. I am hoping that he is still young enough to enjoy the forest-y nature of the quilt!

Last month I bought myself a new acrylic ruler. I started my quilting life in 2010 with a Big Daddy (24-inch) and Big Mama (12-inch) both by Trudie Hughes. I loved them but had noticed lately there was a bit of a warp to the larger one, and I wanted one that wouldn't slip on the fabric, so I purchased an Olfa frosted ruler. I love it! It stays put beautifully when I cut fabric, and I like the frosted feature - it seems to help me see what I'm cutting a little better. I've already ordered the 12-inch size as well, to replace my old one.

In a strange turn of events, my husband, who has never wanted to eat broccoli or cauliflower, tried them both raw in a salad at a cafeteria and now wants us to make those salads at home. Finally I get to make my sister-in-law's recipe that I have had so many years! While my husband is out of town I made Closet Cooking's Roasted Cauliflower Mushroom Soup. It was delicious and I will definitely try this on my husband to see if he likes cooked cauliflower!

While we have had many blessings the last two years - love, family, a new granddaughter, good health, stray kitties, a move to a beautiful 5 acres in a national forest - an ongoing distressing situation will finally get some resolution, and it looks like 2017 is going to be a much better year for us. Joy is on its way back into our lives!

Pumpkin Pillow

Back in August, Cynthia gave me good advice for paper piecing after I admired her paper pieced scrappy Basketweave Star and confessed to FPP (Fear of Paper Piecing). She said "Paper piecing is easy. You just need a technique that works for you. I have tried many over the years but I always go back to how I learned long ago and that is the Carol Doak's method. She really is the master of PP and has a ton of tricks to share. For me, it is the easiest to understand and is very methodical. It is also the method I teach when I teach paper piecing...Give paper piecing a try!"

Fast forward to September 17 when my daughter messaged "There is such a cute pumpkin pillow on the Stitched with Love webpage!" Of course I had to make it for her. Stitched With Love is located in McKinney, TX, near my daughter but 3-1/2 hours from me. I called the shop to place my order since the pattern isn't listed in their online store.

I was alarmed to find out it is a paper pieced pattern, so Lysssa at Stitched with Love suggested adding an Add-A-Quarter-Plus ruler to my order. Although she might as well have been speaking a foreign language, she explained why it would help me.

While waiting for the pattern to arrive, I took Cynthia's advice and purchased Carol Doak's Craftsy class. I love Carol's personality - she has a dry wit that amuses me and an uncomplicated style of teaching. I haven't finished the class, but I've watched enough to become familiar with the process. I have to admit the concept was so different for me, it took several viewings before the light bulb went on. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the class to learn more tricks and tips.

Last week I finally started the pattern and slowly but steadily worked on it - I really enjoyed it!

Now the pillow is on its way to my daughter's beautifully fall-decorated house!

2015 Plans and Dreams

My husband and I used to talk about retirement and dream about how we could slow things down and just enjoy life. Well we are definitely enjoying life, but regretfully time has not slowed down. Time flies when you're having a good time!

My goals for 2015 are simple:
1) Have plans and dreams instead of "goals"
1) Enjoy what I'm doing with no pressure on myself
2) Refrain from buying new fabric, yarn, or patterns and utilize my storehouse of goodies

Quilts In Progress (WIPs)

My niece's grandmother's quilt top (you can read about it in this post) is now sandwiched and ready to quilt. I've "only" had it 3 years, so this is the year to get it done!

The Jingle Bell Rock quilt is sandwiched and quilting is about 1/3 done.

The very first quilt I planned to finish, started in 2011 and still in the designing stages, will be for my daughter (you can read about it here.)

This Math Class quilt will also be for my daughter. I have six blocks completed.

This Winterlude table runner is cut and will be ready to sew after I sort out all the pieces I dropped on the floor.


New Quilt Projects

My Christmas gift to myself was fabric for this gorgeous quilt. I have the pattern, which is found in Fat Quarter Style.

I love the fabrics, which are Moda's Atelier by 3 Sisters and Autumn Lily by Blackbird Designs.

Scrappy Quilt Challenges

In the spirit of not buying new patterns or fabric, I am learning how to recreate patterns I like and would like to eventually design my own patterns. I love these ideas for scrappy projects:

I am planning to join Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict in her Sweet Sixteen Quiltalong 2015, a scrappy 16-patch challenge. I'd like to try something like the Reverse Rainbow shown above in a 16-patch instead of the 25-patch shown. I found the above picture online. I'm not a big fan of the wonky stars so I'll determine how to make them as standard stars.

I am a little late to the Swoon Quilt party, but I love Camille Roskelley's remake of the Carpenter's Wheel. Yesterday I used graph paper to recreate her pattern and will start cutting from scraps today.


Needlework

I've recently become interested in Sashiko, a traditional Japanese embroidery technique and am excited about the ways it can be incorporated into quilting. The photo is from the blog of Jess of Elven Garden Quilts, and she has a nice tutorial here.

Purses

I want to make more coin purses like the one I made for my granddaughter and get started on the pattern I bought for these little see-through bags.

Crochet

I have plenty of yarn in my stash!

I learned to crochet in 1972 and was a crocheting fool for many years. I have not picked up a crochet needle for too long and have a deep desire to get back to it this year. I want to make these cute boot cuffs, and these beautiful Nordic Wrist Warmers, a pattern I purchased from Annette of My Rose Valley.

I have my eye on a couple of crochet patterns - Tunisian Crochet Entrelac throw and Log Cabin Arrow throw.

And while I love crochet, knitted items have a more polished look to me and knitting seems to be more a more versatile stitching method, so I am determined to learn to knit this year. I would love to learn to make the gorgeous drop stitch scarf pictured above with this pattern.

Home and Garden

Outside of quilty/crafty things, I also have a few homey projects in mind:

Last spring and summer we planted a modest vegetable/herb garden, and our moderate success led me to add a bit more space for this coming spring.

In a rush of excited anticipation I purchased a bunch of seeds from Pinetree Seeds.

We also have plans to re-stain our master bathroom cabinets and rearrange the dishes, glasses, and trinkets in my china cabinet. What doesn't fit gets sold!

Felt Stockings and Other Things

A dear friend who helped me prepare dinners this past fall for our church's Wednesday Night Dinners asked me if I would help her with a Christmas project in which she participates. Each year volunteers sew hundreds of Christmas stockings to be filled with goodies and delivered to homeless vets. She already had the felt pieces cut out - all I had to do was decorate them and sew them up.

My confidence in my sewing led me to ask her for two dozen, and I have to confess that I ended up asking another friend to take a dozen of them to complete! These little stockings were more of a challenge than I anticipated! I have little imagination when it comes to decorating, so I turned to Pinterest to find samples of felt stockings. Decorations couldn't just be glued on - everything had to be sewn on just to make sure the stockings remain intact from the time they are filled until they are delivered. Some of the decorations were too small to attach with a sewing machine, so I did a lot of hand sewing. And I had to search for a tutorial to see how to sew the stockings together to hide the seams of the cuff at the top. It was like it was my first time sewing.

In spite of my difficulties, it was a joy and an honor to do these stockings. How sad that the words "homeless" and "vets" are even in the same sentence; nevertheless there is apparently a disproportionately large percentage of homeless people who are veterans. As I worked on the stockings I prayed and thought about who would receive them and that they would be blessed in some way.

My cat Katy was involved in her very special way.

In other news Randy and I celebrated 45 years of marriage and traveled to Dallas to visit our daughter and son-in-law. Our anniversary is the day before our baby girl's birthday, so we often get together for our two events. We ate at Gordon Biersch and had a wonderful evening. I gave her the Secrets and Dreams Journal to use for her iPad or as a journal - she was delighted - yay!

Here Kitty Kitty Coin Purse

Part of the fun of joining Stitched in Color's Purge-Along was finding things hidden under the mess in my closet that I had purchased for projects, and I discovered purse frames and fabric I had intended for purses. Since my youngest granddaughter turned 11 today, I decided yesterday to make her a coin purse to contain the cash we gave her. I followed the tutorial posted by Bethany on Sweet Bee Buzzings blog and it all went together in about 2 hours.

I made a little card with scrapbooking paper

The "wrapping" was a decorative take-out box I got at Hobby Lobby

The purse frame was a purchase from Etsy

The outer fabric was Michael Miller's Here Kitty Kitty

The inner fabric is from In The Beginning Fabrics

My impromptu decision meant that I didn't have everything recommended for the best results. I didn't have fusible fleece and used a piece of felt instead, and the extra thickness made sewing and turning a bit difficult. I had foam glue instead of fabric glue, but it seemed to hold well. Bethany's instructions and photos were great. I was clueless about purse-making, and I will definitely use her tutorial again.

My granddaughter was very happy with both the purse and the cash. I also made cupcakes for her, and those will be on another post.

Rainbow Quilt

One of the associate pastors of our church has been appointed to another church, and since we moved here less than a year ago, she and I have enjoyed an all-too-brief period of getting to know one another. From the first time we shared Starbucks until now, I experience a lift to my spirit every time I see her. She is one of those people who makes you feel not only accepted but cherished - that is a rare gift.

She will still live close enough to visit from time to time, but I wanted to commemorate her leaving by making her something special. She recently shared vacation photos of rainbows and mentioned that rainbows have a special meaning for her. I haven't heard that story yet, but I decided a rainbow quilt of some sort would be a perfect gift. I looked at several patterns, but when I thumbed through the March/April 2014 McCall's Quilting, I found exactly what I wanted.

This quilt, called "Prism" by designer and quilter Abigail Dolinger of Aby Quilts, was easily adapted to a rainbow theme. I pulled from my stash, rather than purchase new fabric, and I like the way it's coming together so far.

Reds through yellows

Yellows/oranges through greens/blues

Blues through purples

snickerdoodles, cakes, and a creche cloth

Creche Cloth

My husband is the Business Director of a church in The Woodlands, and he asked me if I would make a tablecloth for the nativity figures that grace the narthex during Advent. After measuring the table, I went to JoAnn Fabric and chose a creamy gold brocade with tiny crosses.

Brocade fabric

I mis-calculated the width of the fabric and had to put in some tucks to make it fit the table, but several commented they liked the added interest. I did purchase additional fabric and intend to make the cloth a true round tablecloth for next Advent season.

Engagement Party Entwined Hearts Cakes

The engagement of my daughter and her fiance was celebrated at the home of my son and his wife in December. I made them a cake of entwined hearts with the logos of their respective universities. For Jenni's Oklahoma University cake I baked this 1-2-3-4 cake, and for Chris's Texas Tech cake I made Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake. I'm really not bragging, but both cakes were delicious. The 1-2-3-4 cake was sturdy but tender and flavorful - everything you would want in a yellow cake. The chocolate cake was moist and chocolatey and addictive. Both were frosted with buttercream made with butter, a bit of cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cream.

Snickerdoodles and Nestle Tollhouse Cookies

Yesterday we went to my son's house for a New Year's Day feast of sliders, homemade guacamole, caramelized red bell peppers and onions, and jalapeno slices that my son sautes in coconut oil until they are crispy. They purchased To-Go salsa, queso, and chips from Chili's. Everything was so, so good! I made cookies - chocolate chip and snickerdoodles. On a whim I followed the old tried and true standard Nestle's Tollhouse Cookies recipe on the back of the chocolate chips package, and after all the chocolate chip cookie recipes I've tried the last few years, my family declared these the best! I always cut back on the salt, because I use salted butter, and I use Mexican vanilla which imparts a delicate whisper of cinnamon. I really don't know why I ever tried any other recipe.

The snickerdoodles were a hit, and the recipe is adapted from the recipe on Joy of Baking website.

Snickerdoodles
Makes 4-6 dozen

2-3/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup salted butter, room temperature
1-1/2 cups white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Sugar mixture:
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

In large bowl whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. Combine sugar and cinnamon, set aside.

In another bowl using electric or hand mixer, beat butter and sugar until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes; add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until mixture is fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat in vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture and mix on low until dough is smooth. Cover and refrigerate until firm enough to roll into balls, about one hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch round balls, roll in sugar mixture, and place on sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. Use bottom of glass, gently flatten each cookie to about 1/2 inch thick.

Bake cookies 8 - 10 minutes, or until light golden brown around edges. Let cookies sit on pan for 5 minutes, then place on wire rack to cool.