snail mail

I made a bunch of cards the other night and popped them in the mail for random friends. 

I also made another one of these wall hangings and mailed it off to a special friend. I had thought it would have arrived yesterday and it is driving me nuts not knowing if she has received it or not. I must remain patient and not spoil the surprise!

quilt monday

I bought a Lil Twister  so many years ago that I don't even remember when it was. It was since sat on my shelf collecting dust. A few months ago on a whim I picked up a charm pack of Mama Said Sew where it too started collecting dust on a shelf. One day, I had a light bulb moment and I ended up with this.

I couldn't decide how to quilt this so I went with straight lines on the diagonal. I love the look it gives the quilt.

I had to go with this print for the border; I love it!

Happy Monday!!

snack saturday

Chocolate Butterfinger Brownies

1 1/4 cups cake flour 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 6 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped 3/4 cup butter, cut into pieces 2 cups granulated sugar 4 large eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 22 pieces NESTLE® BUTTERFINGER® Bites Candy, chopped, divided

1.	Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line 13 x 9-inch baking pan with foil.
2.	Combine flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl; stir well.
3.	MIcrowave chocolate and butter in large, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 45 seconds; stir. Microwave an additional 30 seconds; stir until smooth and melted. Microwave at additional 15-second intervals as needed. Whisk in sugar. Add eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition. Whisk in vanilla extract. Gradually stir in flour mixture. Stir in half of chopped Butterfinger. Spoon into prepared pan.
4.	Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes; sprinkle top with remaining chopped Butterfinger. Cool completely before cutting into 2-inch squares.

card friday

wordless wednesday

mini's

I adore mini quilts. So fun to make. Great to showcase special fabrics. And quick to finish.

Back in February, Megan started the Fresh Mini Quilt Club. I debated joining than I saw all the great minis for March popping up and knew I had to sign up.

I finally got my March mini made on the weekend.

fabric is Zen Chic

How fabulous is this block? I love it so much that I may have another already on the go. And I have two for April almost finished.

Now get to Megan's blog and sign up so you can play too!

quilt monday

I made this quilt for a sweet new baby in our church. He was born at a teeny tiny just over 4lbs and weighed roughly 6.5lbs at his baby shower last week. So tiny!

I adore this quilt; such a great one to use up scraps on.

I love these fabrics.

quilted with Figure 8

I went with a solid aqua binding which I love. And my standard flannel backing; this was the end of my bolt so time to get some more!

snack saturday

Irish Coffee Cupcakes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 2 tablespoons instant-espresso powder
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs

frosting

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon whiskey
• Instant-espresso powder, for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the cupcakes: Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour water over espresso powder; let cool. Combine espresso with milk. Beat butter and granulated and brown sugars with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with espresso-milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour (batter may look broken).
2. Fill 15 cups (of two 12-cup muffin tins) three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool; turn out cupcakes from tins.
3. Make the frosting: Whisk together cream and confectioners' sugar until medium peaks form. Add whiskey; whisk until slightly stiff peaks form.
4. Top each cupcake with 2 tablespoons frosting; dust with espresso powder.

card friday

doubles

I love when I get the same quilt from two different clients. Sometimes they pick the same quilting pattern; sometimes the quilts look the same. 

Betty pieced this Thangles quilt. Sure wish I gotten in on this one; I love the fabrics.

quilted with Bluster

The quilting pattern matches the fabric line so well.

Wilma also did a Thangles quilt.

quilted with Bluster

Wilma also did this jelly roll race quilt. On this one, she just wanted the quilting in the body of the quilt. The red in the pictures was a flange and she didn't want that quilted down.

quilted with Daisies and Loops

Nancy made a similar quilt to Wilma, adding a flange to the border. She also wanted a pattern just in the body of the quilt but asked for piano keys in the border.

quilted with Jasmine Leaves

The pattern matched the fabrics so perfectly.

Nancy also made this lovely string quilt.

quilted with Clinging Vine

I love that Nancy went with a vivid emerald green thread on the backing; shows the quilting pattern so nicely.

wordless wednesday

Friday

I made a quick stop at the quilt store to pick up a quilt when I spotted these.

They just be what brings my mojo back. Stay tuned!

PS- a quick shout out to Terri who may have just tried to steal the purple in the above stack :p

quilt monday

I had a spare hour one afternoon at work last week and snuck in a quilt of my own.

I've blogged this quilt before and I love it even more now than before.

I kept the quilting simple and ditched in the blocks. For the plain rectangles, I quilted a decreasing rectangle into the spaces.

And when I cleaned out my scrap bin, I found just enough leftover fabric to make the binding. Win!!

snack saturday

Lemon Cream Cupcakes

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese
Zest of 2 lemons
1 tsp lemon extract
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 stick softened butter (1 cup.)
2-4 tablespoons fresh raspberry pureé (I chose not to strain the seeds out, but if they bother you
feel free to.)
4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
Raspberries to garnish (Optional)


1. Preheat over to 325.
2. Beat together the butter, cream cheese, lemon zest and sugar, then beat in eggs and extract until
smooth.
3. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the cheese mixture and beat with your mixer on low speed until
just combined.
5. Divide the batter evenly between 12 cupcake cups that have been lined with paper cupcake liners.
6. Bake for 25 minutes until firm to the touch.
7. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan- then transfer to a wire rack.
8. Frost when cooled.
9. Beat butter with an electric mixer until it is fluffy and pale. Gradually add in powdered sugar and mix
in low speed until it is thick and paste-like. One tablespoon at a time, add in the raspberry puree
until the frosting as reached a good piping consistency. (If it is still too thick, you can add it 1 tsp of
lemon juice)

card friday

missing

This is the current state of my sewing room.

This is the first full week of school since the end of February and it has felt like the longest week ever. Sadly it's just not the business going on that has caused me to not have any desire to do any quilting. My mojo is just gone.

Instead I hosted our monthly craft night at church earlier this week.

Didn't get a lot of cards finished but we had a good time.

I picked up a new book.

And have spent every spare moment in the past two days sneaking time to read more. I finished it tonight(mostly the reason why this post is so late. That and the nap I had when I came home from work lol) If you are looking for a good book to read, get this one! It was fabulous.

Lastly, the last thing I finished in my sewing room

Maybe my clean sewing table will inspire me this weekend and my mojo will return. I'll keep you posted.

wordless wednesday

quilt monday

Seems like a very long time since I've posted one of these :). Today, a very late Christmas quiltie I made for myself. It took what felt like for-e-ver to get the binding on. And I love this quilt so very much!

quilted with a meander

I lucked out and found just enough yardage to make the border; the quilt is a perfect snuggle side for cold winter nights.

I love this block.

I kept the quilting simple and went with a meander. I didn't want anything to compete with the fabrics in the quilt.

I wish I had taken this pictures in the daylight but we were pulling apart our crawl space and I wanted to get this in the Christmas boxes so night pictures it was.

I wanted a fun flannel backing; I found this great penguin fabric and snapped it up.
Brought it home, sewed it together and discovered that I was short :( So not happy. 

But I still love my quilt. Is it Christmas time yet?

it feels like spring

snack saturday

Chunky Apple Cake

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 cups sugar 
• 2 large eggs 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

1. Stir together first 4 ingredients in a large bowl until blended.
2. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; add to butter mixture, stirring until blended. Stir in apple slices and 1 cup walnuts. Spread into a greased 13- x 9-inch pan.
3. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Spread with Cream Cheese Frosting; sprinkle with walnuts, if desired.

card friday

wordless wednesday

re-dos

Hello hello!! We(I? lol) survived our 2.5 weeks long spring break. I love having the kids home but I was really looking forward to today; I need some time alone lol!

I didn't get as much sewing time as I had thought I would have gotten but I did manage to squeak in some time Monday. And what did I do? Remade some quilties that I had second thoughts about.

First up, my Lil Twister quilt. It's not actually a redo; I picked up some yardage for the borders and now it is an actual quilt top.

Next, a disappearing 9 patch. I wasn't thrilled with this top; I'm on a rectangular quilt kick right now and didn't like that this one was square. So again, found some yardage, broke out the seam ripper and now we have this.

I will not admit to how many times it took me to rip apart and redo the borders so they evened up. And quite possibly they didn't even up in the end and out came the rotary cutter ;) Regardless, I love this top now.

Next, I started this quilt last week. It's based on a Moda Bake Shop tutorial.

I had the top together than pulled off the top/bottom rows and added in the sashing. Some borders and this is ready for quilting.

Lastly, I do have a finish for you. We went on a roadtrip last week and I love nothing more than binding a quilt while driving long distances. I was able to sneak in a wee quiltie for myself before we left.

quilted with Figure 8

I had wanted to custom quilt this one but I didn't have the time and wasn't able to decide how to quilt it so I smacked a panto on it and called it done.

I still don't love this quilt but it's growing on me. I think, (I know!), it would be better with a lighter zig in the zag (or would that be a lighter zag for the zig??) but it's better than what it was.