March Along Progress

We are a little over halfway through the month, and since weekly check-ins for March Along have not happened, a halfway point check-in seemed like a good idea.

I did very well for the first 2 weeks, but week 3 I got very busy with life. Between kids events, job interview, church stuff, school volunteering, doctor appointments, dance lessons and then getting sick with the Flu (I think), I was just tired out! Sewing did not appeal.

I am still sick, so I think today I will just read my newest Block magazine for my 15 minutes.

Here are some of my efforts this month.

Pieces cut for making a "Farm Girl Vintage" quilt block.

First round of fabric choices for the quilt pattern test.

Squares cut for quilt pattern test. The light where I sew is not good for photographs. See the photo below for truer colors.

Scraps from the quilt pattern test. They look very different in this light. It is pretty true to the real colors.

Diaper clutch made for a neighbor of my mom's.

Shirt appliqued with a little shamrock for St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day outfit with a  rosette on the headband  and an appliqued shamrock on the shirt.

2 of 6 rosettes made for St. Patrick's Day. These went to teachers to pin on their shirts.

Drawstring bag made to carry a camping sleep-mat. Later it will house my yoga mat.

Throwback - when I was a kid, I took clogging lessons. I have recently started taking them again with my sister. It is quite fun and funny. We laugh a lot!

 

Tasty Thursday: Auntie's Sugar Cookies

I am sharing this again because I am making these again for my kids for Valentine's Day. They are my very favorite Sugar Cookie (although Otis Spunkmeyer's Butter Sugar Cookies are a close second). This recipe is halved from the original (shared here) and I added vanilla and butter.

Here is a recipe card you can download.

 Amy’s Auntie’s Sugar Cookies – Famous Mormon Recipes - Adapted by Amy W

3 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter (room temp.)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs beaten
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
    Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in shortening and butter. Stir in sugar.
In a separate bowl, mix milk, eggs and vanilla. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture. (If dough is too dry, add milk 1 TBSP at a time.)
    Roll dough onto floured surface and cut out shapes (1/4” thick dough works best). Place on un-greased cookie sheet (or line a cookie sheet with parchment paper) and sprinkle with sugar, (omit this step if decorating with frosting). Bake 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
 *These bake up soft and light at 1/4" thick.
The thinner you roll them, the crispier they will be.


I use the Wilton's Buttercream Frosting Recipe when I frost these cookies.

 

Gift Card Holders for Christmas

I am giving a lot of gift cards this year as gifts, for 2 reasons. One is that my daughter's band has a purchasing program for them that fund-raises for her. Free money in other words. Buy a gift card, get x% deposited in the account. If I am going to eat at Chili's I might as well get a kickback right? :)

 The other reason is that they are easy to mail.
At least normally they are. Until you go all creative and paper-crafty and stuff.
But I saw these cute candy bar/gift card holders and just had to step up my gifting plan for a few of them.

 I started with a tutorial/template from Two Peas in a Bucket (now discontinued) for the card holder. Fairly straightforward, although my ability to cut on the lines with scissors was seriously challenged. I did shortcut after I made the first one, by measuring the straight sides and cutting the papers to size first then trimming the curves. (Measurements for holder are 4" x 6.75", with score marks at 4.25" and 1.5". Decorative layers: Large flap is 3.75" x 2.25" and small flap is 3.75" x 1.25".) She used ribbon to close hers, while I made a paper band that slid over the flap. (Paper Bands: 0.5" x 9.5")



Then I made the candy bar from a tutorial I found in my computer archives from my Stampin' Up Days. I think it is by Mary Brown who blogs at http://stampercamper.com/create-with-connie-and-mary/, but I am not 100% sure since my archived tutorial is from 2007!

Basically though, you just measure the edges of the candy bar (feel the edges inside the wrapper) to see how wide to cut the paper, then wrap the paper around, cut off the excess and stick down the edges with glue dots. Decorate however you like. Slide a ribbon that is twice the length of the candy bar, plus enough to tie how you want. Slide the ribbon under the paper and pull the end out the other side. Then put the gift card in it's cute little holder, without the paper band that holds it closed, put the ribbon under the flap, then slide the band up from the bottom to cover the flap and keep it shut. Tie the ribbon and you are all set.

Here are my paper cover measurements for the candy bars I used:
7 oz Hershey Bar: 7.5" x 11"
4.25 oz Reese's Peanut Butter Bar: 5.75" x 8.25"
4.25 oz Hershey's Special Dark: 7" x 8.5"

I mailed them in a plastic bubble wrap type envelope, with stiff cardboard scraps down the front and back to (hopefully) keep them from breaking too much.


Merry Christmas to you!

 

Pumpkin Cheescake again!

Pumpkin Cheesecake is what's on the docket for today.

Enjoy!

I will try post a photo tomorrow of the finished product.

 

Mother's Day Cards

Mother's Day is right around the corner and I wanted to make the cards for my moms this year. I think we have purchased cute or funny cards the last couple of years.

I had all the supplies except stamps and ink out already, since my son had to do a family history project board. He used a bunch of my scrapbook supplies to decorate it.

Seeing all those lovely colors and embellishments gave me the itch to get stamping so I pulled some stamp sets out last night and got busy.
 I often forget how fun stamping is! Here are the 2 cards I made.

 I might just do some more today.
Have a good one!

 

Roasted Peeps? Yes please!

http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/product-detail/easter/original-peepssup-sup-marshmallow-chicks

Last night my husband and kids went to the beach for a cookout with their cousins. While I was at the store picking up the marshmallows to roast, I saw the enormous display of Peeps and thought, "Hey those are marshmallow...I wonder how they would roast?"

 I sent a text to my husband and he also thought it would be fun to try, so I bought four colors of Peeps chicks for them to roast over the coals. (I was hoping for some different color reactions to the heat. I don't think they noticed anything though.)

What they did notice was that they were delicious! Apparently the sugar coating caramelizes and contains the gooey goodness and tastes fabulous as well. They also said the centers seemed to cool a little faster. I don't know how true that is but it sounds nice! :)

I am going to give it a try over the stove today. I must taste them!

Let me know if you try this!
Happy Easter!

 

March Along: Week 3

This week was hit and miss more than last week. And I have done 0-nada-zilch work on UFOs. I technically made my minutes goal, but did not sew or do something sewing related every day. It was  a busy week. Friday was my only appointment free day.

Sunday 17th - No sewing time
Monday 18th - 45 min Sketching quilt blocks, 2 hours testing quilt blocks

One of my testers. It is very pretty in person. Phone photo coloring is not fabulous!

Tuesday 19th - Made Easter Basket

http://sewlux.blogspot.com/2012/04/easter-basket-tutorial.html

Wednesday 20th - No sewing time. Time? What time?

Thursday 21st - No sewing time.

Friday 22nd - Toddler Tea Towel Apron gift for a party Saturday morning. I would have liked to fancy it up a little but I was stumped. No fabric I had on hand went with it. I did have a brainstorm after I gave it to her, to use the top that gets cut off for a pocket. Next time!

http://harriethomemakerstrikesagain.blogspot.com/2013/03/toddler-tea-towel-apron-tutorial.html

 
Saturday 23rd - Cleaned and organized sewing area. Ahhhh. So much better!


March Along Podcast link: http://scientificquilter.com/2013/03/23/30-3-sneak-attack-marching-in-the-march-a-long/

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was littlest miss's Valentine party at playgroup. She didn't have anything festive to wear, so I grabbed a shirt that she wears under tank dresses, because it has a stain and is almost too small. I traced a heart onto Pellon with a cookie cutter that I conveniently had left out, ironed it to some fabric and slapped in on the shirt. My machine was already set up for FMQ so I just scribbled some stitching around it to secure it.
 (Side note: turns out yesterday I had been FMQ-ing with the feed dogs up! No wonder it was so hard to maneuver!)

She loved it it took about 10 minutes or less and now I can pass the shirt on, since the stain is more or less hidden by the heart. (I thought I had it all covered, but nope. Not quite. :) . Oh well.)

Hope your Valentine's Day is Wonderful!

PS

My 3 year old made her own Valentines with a little cutting and folding help from me.
She did great stamping, gluing, and assembling them. They have a little candy watch or bracelet inside.

 

Tasty Tuesday: Sugar Cookies Revisited

Tomorrow is the playgroup Valentine Party, for which I am responsible for providing cookies for the kids to decorate. In initially we only had 6 kids coming, so I started out making them a giant heart to decorate. But then I got another RSVP so I had to abort that and switch to regular sized cookies, because there weren't going to be enough to go around. I had already used 10 and a half cups of flour. My kids will get the ginormous ones. :) I am sure they will appreciate that.

To make the huge hearts, I used the heart shape from my spring-form pan that I never use because I don't know how. :) It is about 8 inches tall and 7.5 inches wide at the widest part. What kid would not love a cookie that big!

 I used my go-to sugar cookie recipe, Aunties Sugar Cookies, but I changed it up a little bit. I replaced half the shortening with butter, and added some vanilla for a little flavor. Don't get me wrong, I love these cookies as I usually make them but they don't stand alone well. They need the frosting. :) But now, I can totally munch on one with nothing on it. Just a little sweet, and ever so slightly buttery. YUM!
The dough turns out a little wetter and not as stiff, but I was still able to work with it just fine to roll them out. You can always add a little flour if you like. And as you can see in the photos, I used parchment paper on my cookie sheets.
I had to roll out the big ones directly on the floured parchment, cut them out, and then lift the parchment onto the cookie sheet. It worked beautifully. The big cookies baked about 7 minutes longer than the regular ones.


And 'cause I love you, here is the new and (I think) improved Auntie's Sugar Cookies recipe. (This is half of the original recipe.)

Auntie’s Sugar Cookies – Famous Mormon Recipes - Adapted by Amy W

3 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
½ cup shortening
½ cup butter (room temp.)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs beaten
1 ½ tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
    Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in shortening and butter. Stir in sugar. In a separate bowl, mix milk, eggs and vanilla. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture. (If dough is too dry, add milk 1 TBSP at a time.)
    Roll dough onto floured surface and cut out shapes (1/4” thick dough works best). Place on un-greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugar, (omit this step if decorating with frosting). Bake 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
 *These bake up soft and light at 1/4". The thinner you roll them, the crispier they will be.

Happy Valentines Day!

 

Joseph

I was not his Father, He was mine.



Forgotten Carols

 

Fun and Easy Gift: Pop Top Surprise!

I have made these cans many times for many reasons and they make fun Christmas gifts for teachers, neighbors, and friends. I made these last year, but wanted to share again. The tutorial is here. Just change the papers and embellishments to suit the occasion.

Enjoy!

The Shepherd

Forgotten Carols

 

Homeless

More Forgotten Carols




 

Music: Let Him In

More Forgotten Carols.



 

Music: Handel's Dream

A song by Michael McLean, called Handel's Dream. This is part of one of my favorite Christmas stories, The Forgotten Carols . No visual, just audio. But a sweet story, worth a listen.





The music is available for download on iTunes, If you can find the version narrated and sung by Glenn Yarbrough, you get the whole story with the music.

 

WIP Wednesday: Christmas UFOs

Linking up these works in progress at Freshly Pieced

It's Wednesday and I actually worked on some long time Works in Progress that can be classified as UFOs, the Thangles Tree Skirt and matching Advent Calendar (Tutorial here). I finished the stockings in time for Christmas last year. I am hoping that at least one of these 2 will be done before Christmas this year.

The Advent calendar just needs to be bound. That means making binding.

November 2012

I know, it looks kind of atrocious. Apparently I am terrible at pressing consistent 1/2 hems. None of the pockets is the same size, exactly, so when I sewed them down, going up and down and the rows and across the bottoms of the pockets, the quilting lines went really wonky between them. (Yes I was being lazy.) I have not ironed it yet, so that might help. Or I may need to quilt the white areas to death to hide the crazy. :)
I had some trouble fitting them all on the background, probably from my inaccurate pressing. I had to trim the header a ton to get them to fit. I think if I made it again, I would cut the background a couple inches wider all around and give the pockets a little more room. I also need to ping Lee and see what batting she used. I used fusible fleece, which looks pretty darn bad. It only fuses on one side too, so I quilted down the middle and around the edges to get the front to stay down. I used the cruddy looking side for the back.



The tree skirt is transitioning to a quilt, or rather not transitioning from a quilt top to a tree skirt. I decided to keep it as is and use it to cuddle under and keep on the couch instead of under the tree. I can still put it down there, it just won't be so easy to do without the slit.

October 2010

November 2012

December 2010

December 2012

Did you notice that I put the corners on backwards? :) I noticed too late, but since it is not going to be a round tree skirt I don't mind, so they stay.
The reason it has not been put together is that when I trimmed the blocks, I had no idea what I was doing (still don't) and left very little seam allowance, which cuts off points. I put the rows together and lost the points. I ripped them out and packed it up. 2 years ago.
So this time when I put them together I used a very scant seam allowance and only lost one point, just barely. Of course, when/if I border it I might lose a few more.
I plan on doing a scrappy back with all the leftover fabrics.

I still have several scarves outstanding that I need to get going on. Then my holiday sewing will be done.

Have a great week!