January in Canada

I've got to admit, Trina had a good idea last year.  I liked her monthly reports.  I didn't post too often last year because I was working so much on one quilt that still isn't finished.  Other bloggers post progress on projects and honestly it is just as much about the journey as it is the completed object.

So far this year I've been sewing pretty much constantly, with a drawing added in there for good measure.  My house may suffer for it, but it isn't like I can keep up with the mess anyway so I might as well have fun.

Project Quilting mystery quilt along, 

that I totally tweaked and made my own.

Project Quilting challenge -

a baby quilt for a friend made in just a week.

I got further on the Twilt 

(or Twin Quilts - the Squared Away BOM from last year).

I'm going to make a scrappy border for it

so LOTS of 2.5" squares for that.

Made a replacement block for the Twilt - 

I just didn't like the original blue one.

Now that we both approve, I need to make a second one.

  

NEW PROJECT!  Sew Fresh Quilts is making a Harry Potter quilt!

It is more exact that I've ever had to be, but super fun.

I'll just be doing the first four blocks instead of the whole thing. 

(See, this is something that I wouldn't have posted about before,

since it isn't a complete project, just a block.)

And since there's time for something between the HP blocks,

I started a mini quilt with economy blocks, because I think they're fun.  

I plan on donating it to A Doll Like Me like last year.

chicken and spinach saute

Adam was being inventive awhile back and created this really good recipe. We liked it so much that he hurried to write it all down before he forgot what he did ... which is a good thing, because when I made it tonight for dinner, he'd completely forgotten that he made it at all!

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, diced
1 onion, chopped
spinach - choose your own quantity
sundried tomatoes - choose your own quantity

salt and pepper
1/2 tsp grains of paradise
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (you could just leave this out if necessary due to nut allergies)
1 tsp oregano

In skillet with olive oil, saute the chicken, onion, spices and extracts. When the chicken is cooked through, add the sundried tomatoes. Cook until soft. Then add the spinach and stir it around until it's wilted.

You can eat at this stage. OR you can make it into a sauce to put over pasta. We poured straight cream over the whole thing, and added a splash of apple juice. Yum.

stylin'

So fashionable for age 5.

2019 To-Do / 2018 Ta-Da!

I know this sort of post isn't required, but I really like to see my to-do list become a Ta-Da! List.  2018 was full of fabric and sewing.  It was wonderful!  My posting dropped off those last few months (my personal blog is at least six months behind!), but I was still very busy - my sister got married and I made four dresses for the flower girls!  And the twin quilts (or Twilts and I've started to call them) that I talk about below...

QUILTING

• Maple Mission: My own design!  My parents love it.
• 2 Doll Quilts: Made for and donated to A Doll Like Me.
• String Bean: My first Project Quilting challenge, and the string piecing I wanted to do.
• Mini Pink: Little doesn't always mean faster. 
• 2 Narwhal Quilts: Started and finished in time for two new nieces!
• Christmas Cake Quilt: All the blocks finished. Hoping to finish in 2019.  I also started a table runner with the scraps!
• Block of the Month Twilts: This is probably where I put in my most sewing hours, and yet I haven't posted about it at all.  Trina suggested we do the Squared Away Block of the Month on Academic Quilter and then share blocks with each other.  I've made 44 10" blocks - two identical sets of 22, half for me and half for her.  So much work!!  We haven't gotten the last of the blocks sorted out so I can't finish it yet, but I've been cutting even MORE little squares to make a scrappy border for it.  Countless hours of work, but I love it!

As for my non-quilty sewing, I actually accomplished most of what I had hoped to.  My color challenge fizzled out, since I didn't give myself any rules.  And I never made jackets - which I should do soon before Cupcake grows out of the pattern!

• two sets of pajamas and a sleep sack
• six towel baby bibs
• two Mckenzies
• 
• two baby peasant dresses
• four baby crinkle toys
• two Ishi dresses for Easter
• four Alder skirts for me
• Maggie Mae sheepy top
• matching My Little Pony outfits for me and my daughters
• MLP purple top
• Strawberry top x4 (two for my girls, two for a friend - they wore them for family photos!)
• 
• four TMNT drawstring bags, plus four Christmas ones
• six eye patches
• 
• Quilt-As-You-Go placemat for a church activity (and helped with many others)
• Sailor Mercury costume pieces
• six Garden Party dresses (two for Christmas)
• 
• four Everyday Necktie (two for Christmas)
• and mended 49 items.

This year I hope to work on Christmas projects (including at least one [maybe three!] quilts) throughout the year, so I can give more homemade, meaningful gifts. (I'm so over the commercial aspect of the holidays it isn't even funny.)  I've got ideas for ornaments and a few other surprises, so I hope the week after Christmas is full of project posts.  I want another skirt and I've already got some Ravenclaw flannel set aside.  Cupcake will be needing more pajamas.  For quilting: paper piecing and hexagons are still on my list, and I've added economy blocks (unicorn fabric?), perhaps as a pin cushion.  Lots of ideas but I also want to be flexible enough to join in on Sew Alongs as I am inspired (I've already got my eye on a few blocks from this Harry Potter one).  Happy sewing to you!

First Finishes of 2019

Since I've started quilting, I've noticed lots of quilt-alongs and Blocks of the Month and lots of fun in the sewing community.  Trina and I are still working on our BoM from last year, and I haven't even done my 2018 review post, but that isn't stopping me from playing with new projects!

I follow Project Quilting and have done one or two of their challenges -- sew a project, from idea to completion, in one week, within the suggested theme.   Right after Christmas they hosted a Mystery Quilt, which sounded quite intriguing.  So I jumped in on it!  Lots of tiny 2.5" squares.  But half way through I figured out what it was going to say - I heart PQ.  Which is great, but I've only done a few of their challenges so it isn't super inspirational to me.  So I spent some extra time to add MORE squares and came up with this:

It is 16" x 42" and is hanging up above my sewing desk.  I adore it.  Aside from being first finish of the year, and my first mystery quilt, it was also the first time I had made fabric from scraps (the heart), the first time using low volume fabrics (not just white on white), and my first time using decorative stitching to attach the binding (which was harder than I thought it would be).  Lots of firsts, lots of fun.

----------------------------

And then immediately after finishing that I started the first challenge of Season 10: Hope Springs Eternal.  Start the timer, I've got one week.

Sunday: Project Quilting posts the first challenge of Season 10, Hope.  Perfect.  I had a stack of grey and yellow fabric just waiting to be turned into a baby quilt for a friend.  And what is more hopeful than a brand new baby!  I finally settled on this Giant Block from Kitchen Table Quilting and got started.  I added an extra block in the middle to feature the little lamb fabric - my first economy block!  It was fun to make and I want to make more in the future.

Monday - Wednesday: Making the top.  Aside from adding the center square I followed the directions for the 36" square and added a 3" border around it.  I like how the grey and yellow play together.

Surely you remember Cupcake's best buddy Grey, right?

Thursday: My favorite sandwich is a quilt sandwich.  Actually, basting is one of my least favorite parts of quilting, because I just can't seem to get it right and always end up with wrinkles in my backing.  But this time wasn't so bad - I used grey flannel for the backing and it stuck to my rug just enough to keep everything pretty flat while I pinned!

Friday - Saturday: Quilting.  I had to keep it simple to make sure I got it done in time.  To keep it even faster I used the backing for the binding - and it's the only way I can manage to get the binding to look decent.

I hope my friend loves this for her baby due next month.  I hope it brings a bit of sunshine as she adjusts to being a mom.  And I hope that baby is healthy and happy and brings great joy to family and friends.

December journal

This month was the closest I came to no sewing at all. I've been working on a book project all fall - ghost-writing a memoir for someone else. The manuscript deadline was dropped on me out of nowhere, and I had only 10 days to get it done, reviewed, and submitted to the publisher. After being so completely furious that I cussed out the author for destroying Christmas for my family, I worked nonstop for a week (my kids ate a lot of store-bought pizza) until it was submitted at 1 a.m. on a Friday night. Mr. Author went with me to the school to pick up my kids that day, in the middle of our 15-hour marathon push to the end, and my 5-year-old wouldn't even look at him, much less give him a high-five. She had informed me that morning, "After today, I don't want you to work with him anymore, Mommy." Noted. 

So, with all of THAT, there went all my Christmas energy, any Christmas activities, and any Christmas sewing.

What I did instead was I took my DC map embroidery project with me on our Christmas break trip to Tennessee and Virginia, and worked on that while at my husband's sister's house. It was nice to have something productive to do instead of watching TV. I didn't quite finish the entire bottom section of the quilt, but I came awfully close! The whole project still has a LONG way to go and I doubt it will be finished in 2019, but I hope I can get a lot closer to that.   

And that concludes my 2018 year of sewing! I'm not going to do an entire review post like I have before, because I've done all the monthly journal posts. Just click on "review" in the index and you'll see my 2018 months all neatly in a row. I didn't finish any quilts this year, which is my one disappointment - I did want to do that. Other than that, I'm happy with what I did! 

For 2019, I have no new projects I'm adding - I still have a huge list I wrote out last summer that needs to be done! Mainly the four quilts for my kiddos. I have 5 kids, and I finished JE's quilt ages ago ... 2 years? I started on SM's quilt right away after that, but 2 years later, the pieced top is nowhere near being done. I'm making the Squared Away for JK. RG and TA are planned but nothing is started. It's way past time to get ALL my kids their quilts. I also have fabric that I bought to make myself a skirt AGES ago, seriously, I think 6 years ago. It's way past time to make that skirt too. 

November journal

1. Loads of fabric pumpkins. I lost count, but there were more than 30.

2. Two more Squared Away quilt blocks - I did make two of this block, but when I went to take the picture, I realized I'd put one of them together wrong. Fortunately, I just need to take one of the side rows off to turn it around.

3. And it's not sewing, but I made my Christmas letter blocks ...

I'm excited to do a lot more sewing this month! I spent the summer traveling and doing theater and camps. This entire fall has been totally sucked up with editing a book. Ya know what? It's December tomorrow. I'm self-employed, and I don't work during Christmas! I'm doing service, and baking cookies, and sewing for my kids!

If anyone needs me, I'll be in the kitchen. See ya.

gimme some sugar!

Welcome, blog hoppers, to the Virtual Cookie Exchange hosted by Just Let Me Quilt! Thank you for including us, Carol! We are sisters who live at opposite ends of North America.

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MINDY
Christmas and crafting go together for me. I was just beginning my sewing adventures when I came across this tutorial for a tiered skirt.  I pulled out the small stack of Christmas fabric I had been given by my mother-in-law and tried it out.  Once I saw it on my toddler I was hooked!  Now, five Christmases later, I have started quilting along with making clothes for my two daughters, so many of my holiday gifts are made from fabric.

But this couldn't be a cookie exchange without some sugar!  Our family made tin-foil-covered plates of cookies to give to our friends and neighbors as we went caroling every year.  As we got older, and many of the siblings moved out, Emily was in charge of the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and I made the sugar cookies.  

I now make these sugar cookies multiple times a year.  I play with food coloring, cookie cutters and cookie stamps.  I've made several cookie bouquets.  Last Christmas I painted them with dyed egg yolk.  And for Halloween I added crushed candies for a stained glass effect.  I've swapped out the vanilla for peppermint extract a few times, or even turned them into lemon or pumpkin sugar cookies.  This is just the best go-to sugar cookie recipe for soft, chewy cookies.

SUGAR COOKIES

Cream together 3/4 cup butter and 1 cup sugar.  Add 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon each of salt, vanilla and baking powder.  Stir until smooth.  Add 2 1/2 cups flour, one cup at a time, incorporating it fully before adding more.  Refrigerate the finished dough for 30-60 minutes before cutting into shapes, or immediately roll into balls and smash lightly to flatten.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes on a non-greased baking sheet.

• You can freeze both dough or baked cookies.
• When using food coloring, add it before the flour for even color.  To blend colors make two (or more) batches and then pick small pieces from each to roll out together.  Or you can add color to finished dough - it will be more saturated and will get all over your hands. 
• To make egg yolk paint, simply add some food coloring (and water to thin it out if you'd like) to some egg yolk.  A little goes a long way, so one yolk can be used for multiple colors.  Paint on the cookies with a clean paintbrush before you bake them!
• I used lollipops but jolly ranchers or other hard candies would work for the stained glass.  Crush it and use it to fill in the cut out shapes.  Bake as normal with parchment paper on the pan, but let it rest on the pan a few extra minutes afterwards to harden.

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TRINA
There's a back-story with the sugar cookie recipe. Because there's a bit of an age gap between us - I'm the oldest, and Mindy is the 7th of the 8 siblings in our family - it didn't occur to me until we were adults that the recipe story hadn't been shared until one day Mindy said something like, "I heard there's a story about this recipe and a shirt but I didn't know if it was true." Well, I do! Because I was there!

Once upon a time, Tawnia (#4 of 8) was about 2 years old and wearing a shirt with Cookie Monster and a bunch of words on it. Eric and I were 7 and 8, and it dawned on us that those words were a recipe. Did it really work? Was it a real recipe for Cookie Monster Sugar Cookies? So we asked our mom to try it. Tawnia was plunked up onto the counter, still wearing the shirt, while we read off the ingredients and measurements. And it worked! The best sugar cookies! We read it off the shirt at least a couple of times, usually while Tawnia was wearing it, before Mom got around to writing the recipe on a piece of paper. It has been our family's go-to cookie recipe for decades now, all because of a 2-year-old's shirt.

And now - seriously, just last week - I learn that it originally came from a book.

Trina's real-life, un-staged messy kitchen with sugar cookies. 

Bring on the frosting and the sprinkles! 

My go-to is three-ingredient fudge, which I first found on here on Made Everyday with these ingredients:

Chocolate mint is my FAVORITE. I wondered if it would also work with white chocolate and peppermint, so I tried my own variation.

Put all three ingredients - the both entire bags of chips (12 oz chocolate chips) and the full can of sweetened condensed milk - into a microwave-safe bowl and nuke it for a minute at a time for 3 minutes, until it's all soft enough to stir and blend together. Then spread it in a pan lined with parchment paper and let it set. That's it! Seriously!

YUM. If you get super-peppermint-y chips, I've actually had this turn pink in the past. Pink fudge is AWESOME!!! And it won me the Most Creative Dessert at our church's Christmas party a couple of years ago.


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Thanks for visiting - we'd love to hear where you're from in the comments. Please check in with the other blog hop participants as well!

November 27

Kwilty Pleasures

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Songbird Designs

Creative Latitude

Ms P Designs USA

Gray Barn Designs

Alycia Quilts

Happy Cottage Quilter

Sew Many Yarns

For The Love Of Geese

November 28

Creatin' in the Sticks

Vroomans Quilts

It’s A T-Sweet Day!

Domestic Felicity

That Fabric Feeling

Home Sewn By Us

Karrin’s Crazy World

Adventurous Applique and Quilting

Bumbleberry Style

Melva Loves Scraps

Beaquilter

November 29

MooseStashQuilting

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Kathleen McMusing

DesertSky Quilting

Life in the Scrapatch

Ridge Top Quilt

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Pumpkin Patch Patterns & Quilting

Operation Domestic Goddess - YOU ARE HERE! 

Just Let Me Quilt

black friday boycott - craft day!

My sister-in-law and I had an awesome Black Friday! No shopping - we didn't even leave the house. Instead, we raided the bin of blocks that Adam made for the girls years ago that rarely get played with anymore, and played with mod podge, craft paper, and paint. I had some letter stickers for "Joy to the World" and little teeny wood letters for a bit of 3-D-ness on the "Happy Christmas" sign. That one needs to have a couple of holes drilled into it so I can loop craft wire through to hang it up.

My halls are a little more decked now ...

 

plump purple pumpkins

I'm the Wednesday night activity leader for the 8 to 11-year-old girls at my church, and these kiddos love crafts! They're required to do a certain number of service projects for their award program, and I love it when we can combine the two. My partner Megan and I decided to have the girls make a craft to give to the elderly ladies in our congregation as a holiday gift for Thanksgiving, and we went with these fabric pumpkins.

I cut the fabric in a 9x18 rectangle - I bought a bunch of fat quarters at the fabric store and cut them in half. So quick. I also used fall-ish scrap fabric I have kicking around in my sewing area. I ran the side seam through my sewing machine so the girls would have time to make more rather than spending the whole evening on just one.

At the activity, the girls handstitched the bottom to pull them closed, stuffed them, and sewed the top closed. I have a lot of scrap felt that they used to make stems and leaves.

Each of the girls had time to make two - one to give and one to keep. They were SO excited to keep a fabric pumpkin, and they really were very cute. Both the girls and pumpkins.

The girls LOVED it so much that I sent all their moms the link so they could make more at home to keep for themselves. I was told later that a couple of them did.

When I got them home, some of them needed some extra stitching on the bottom because it wasn't tight enough. I did large side stitches with colored embroidery floss for the pumpkin "grooves." I also made more so our gift bags would have two each.

I loved the variety of colors they chose to put together.
 

I never got a picture of all of the pumpkins in one big pile because we started giving them away before we finished them all. We made more than thirty all together. If you have time tomorrow, or maybe for next year, they make a great little centerpiece or are fun to put on a shelf or windowsill! 

Happy Thanksgiving!