quilt monday

All custom quilted. I did a loopy meander in the background and lots of details on the appliques. 

And straight lines in the borders.

snack saturday

Pumpkin Gingerbread



2/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin(or use fresh)
½ cup molasses
½ cup milk
2 ½ cups flour
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

2) In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and pumpkin; beat 2 minutes.

3) In a separate large bowl, sift together remaining ingredients. Add to wet ingredients; mix well.

4) Pour mixture into prepared baking pan; bake 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool slightly, remove from pan, and serve.

card friday

changes

I made this little runner with my leftover scraps from this runner. I quilted it up a few weekends ago and it has just sat here waiting for the binding. And waiting. And waiting. You see, I don't  like how I quilted it. I wanted to cross-hatch it and at the last moment, I changed my mind and did some ditching and straight-line quilting. And I hate it.

So tonight, I am going to rip out the quilting(thankfully there isn't a lot of it), make a new backing and requilt it. And I still might not cross-hatch it. I'll keep you posted.

58 days and counting

 Until Christmas. Scary isn't it?

I'm right in the middle of our Christmas rush this year; quilts going out as fast as they are coming in. I love the business even though it is absolutely exhausting lol.

Here's a few recent customer finishes.

Ciska's beautiful quilt quilted with Bubbles.

Ali's gorgeous flannel log cabin variation.

Quilted with a simple meander and some ditching in the center.

This stunning quilt is by Eileen. 

Quilted with Morning Glory.

I love this quilt by Bea. And I will admit that it was painful to slap an allover pattern on it!

Quilted with Flowing Feathers.

I love the backing

A beautiful quilt by Sheila. This one is custom quilted with lots of meandering(appliqued border), cross hatching in the outer border and some ditching in the center.

I love this quilt by Agnes.

Quilted with Folk Heart.

Lastly, Timothy pieced this quilt for a school project. I love the quilt pattern and it is so striking in the red, yellow, black. He did a fabulous job piecing this quilt.

Quilted with Laurie.

Now I've got to get to work and finish some more!

wordless wednesday

i'm a bad blogger

I've been spending every spare moment in my sewing room lately. And if I have some free time when I'm not in there, than I'm embroidering. I fully intended to post yesterday but once I sat down to do it, I couldn't get a good picture of what I wanted to show you. I'll just have to save it for later this week :)

Embroidering has taken over here lately. In 8 days I finished up my Birdie Blocks. The last time I showed you my blocks, I was just finishing up June. I have October finished but it's drying so I'll have to get a picture later.

September.
blogger won't let me move it

July

August.
and yes, my iron threw-up on this block too. guess what I'll cleaning once I post this?

I also completed two of these stitcheries. 

I'm hoping to add the borders on them today. One is a gift for a friend; she just might get it before she starts decorating for Christmas lol

snack saturday

Wacky Cake 

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract(I've also used mint extract)
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup water(or cold coffee)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into an 8x8 inch ungreased cake pan. Make three depressions. Pour oil into one well, vinegar into second, and vanilla into third well. Pour water over all, and stir well with fork.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Frost with your favorite icing. I usually sprinkle some icing sugar on top or once the cake is out of the oven, sprinkle with chocolate(or mint) chips.

card friday

Not a card this time but a cute gift bag.

Happy Friday!

today

Was a good day. No, scratch that, it was a great day. I worked yesterday; I don't normally work Wednesdays and that would explain why this sums up my work day.

yes, it was that sort of day Wednesday

Today I had a custom quilt to do. I planned to work late; tomorrow we have no school and I didn't want to have to come back and finish the quilt if I didn't have too. Instead, I knocked out the pretty quilt in 4 hours and go to go home early. And even better, I don't have to work tomorrow!!

Judy did a fabulous job with this quilt and I had so much fun bringing it to life. I did free-hand loopy stars in the outer border and a loopy meander in the black border. Stippled all around the appliqued snowmen and ditched the stars. 

My favorite part, 

the pretty ribbon stitch through some of the borders.

When I got home, I debated about doing another Swoon block . Instead I got my Full Circle quilt sewn together. I bought the layer cake on a whim and to be honest, I'm not a fan. I wasn't sure what to do with it so last weekend I just started sewing the blocks together. I finished the top this afternoon and still don't like it. 

I'm going to have some fun quilting this and if I still don't like it, I have a few charitable places I can drop it off at. Someone will love it!

wordless wednesday

have you ever wondered

Just how far a spool of thread will go? I decided to see how many quilts I could piece off of a spool of Aurifil thread; there is 1300m of thread on the spool. Here's the quilts I pieced.

Pure table runner

Not a Yellow Brick Road table topper

A Jelly Roll Race quilt

Batik Awesome quilt 

Awesome Quilt

Disappearing 9-Patch table runner

ZigZag quilt

Another Jelly Roll Race Quilt

Not one but THREE Pure baby quilts

2 Lily and Will 2 baby quilts

Blogger is being a problem and I can't get the pictures of the next few quilts to show up. So we have

The Safari Baby Quilt

ZigZag Quilt

And finally, my Luna Notte quilt.

And how much thread is left?

we interrupt this post

Been working on and off today on a blog post and I just got the bestest news so I had to blog it right away!

 I just found out that this quilt here is going on the cover of Keepsake Quilting!

I am so excited!!!

still swooning

I spent some time yesterday putting together my second Swoon block. And yet again, the seam ripper made an  appearance, once or twice. I'm not thrilled with this color combo, I almost wish I hadn't gotten the darker print but I'm sure once I get the rest of the blocks done, it will blend nicely. 

and yes, my iron leaked some blech onto my white background *sob*. thankfully a quick treatment of Grandmother's Quilt soap and we are as good as new. 

Now here's a trick that Kim showed us.

When you are assembling the blocks and take the 6.5 x 3.5 to make a flying goose unit, before you cut off the excess, draw another diagonal line,

Sew the 1/4 inch from your drawn line and cut.

You will end up with these little hsts. And once you sew them all together, you get a mini quiltie. (let's pretend I've done that part okay? lol) I might work these into the backing of this quilt. Or make something new; decisions decisions.

I'll be back later today for Quilt Monday. See you then.

snack saturday

Cheerios* Lemon Dessert Recipe

3 cups (750 mL) CHEERIOS* cereal, finely crushed
1/3 cup (75 mL) butter or margarine, melted
1 tbsp (15 mL) sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) cinnamon
2/3 cup (150 mL) boiling water
1 pkg (85 g) lemon flavoured jelly powder
2 cups (500 mL) lemon or vanilla flavoured yogurt


Heat oven to 350°F (180°C). Stir together cereal, butter, sugar and cinnamon. Reserve 2 tbsp (25 mL). Press remaining cereal mixture into ungreased 8 or 9- inch (20 or 22 cm) square baking pan. Bake 9 minutes. Cool.
In medium bowl, pour boiling water on jelly powder and stir until gelatin is dissolved. For fast chilling, place this bowl inside another larger bowl that has ice and water in it and let sit for 2 to 5 minutes or until chilled. Stir yogurt into gelatin mixture until blended. Pour over baked layer.
Sprinkle with reserved cereal mixture. Refrigerate 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until firm. Serve immediately or refrigerate until needed.

card friday

photo shoot

Last month my friend Sheila came by the studio to take some pictures for us. We got the pictures this week and we couldn't be more thrilled with how well they turned out.

Here's a few of my favorites,

Wordless Wednesday