Star in the Cabin

My mother in law has a lot of great quilts, but this one was my favorite from our visit. What a great pattern! The whole quilt reminds me of Christmas. Not the colors, but the qualities. The star in the log cabin pattern reminds me of the star of Bethlehem and the manger.


It's super heavy and made of all heavy corduroy. Reminds me of cold weather and snuggling around the Christmas fireplace. Must have been hard to piece! By machine, I'm sure. I wouldn't want to try it by hand!


Even the backing is all corduroy! This thing weighs a ton but is very soft and snuggly. Do you like it?

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Well I had a heck of a time figuring out how to get this random number generator to show up (thanks Sarah!) but here it is. Congrats to Lucky number 12: freeindeed! She wins the straight quarter of American Jane. Thanks all for playing, i'm going to have more of these in the future.

Do You Love American Jane?

While we were up visiting my MIL for Thanksgiving, we stopped in the local quilt store in Paris, Texas. Here's what I got! Love American Jane.


I also got these guys - love the soft colors in the big dots and the gradations of pink in the small.


And guess what? I picked up a straight quarter for you! Above is Peas and Carrots American Jane and it's all for you. All you have to do is subscribe to my feed and leave a comment. If you already are a follower, just leave a comment saying that. That's all! I'll pick a winner on Monday at around 2:00. Good luck!

Purrrrrrrfect

Almost done! I just need to get to the quilt store to add some green to the top and bottom to make it a bit bigger and more rectangular. Like it?


This heart's for you. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Sweets!

Yum! I love baking from scratch and I had lots of fun making all these with my older daughter last night! Here's what we made, with recipes, so you can make them too!

* We made the strawberry cake in the front for her friend's birthday today.
* The chocolate truffle cake on the left is soooooo thick and rich. More like a brownie. You really need vanilla ice cream with it.
* That's a tiramisu in the back. I should have taken the springform off so you could see all the little soldiers standing up in a row. I used the new instant coffee Via from Starbucks to soak the ladyfingers. It was really good! It's the new thing for when you need coffee flavor in baking.
*And finally, that's a sugar and spice pumpkin pie on the right. I had never made it before so I can't tell you if it's good yet. It had a ton of spices in it, including black pepper!


Enjoy your day!

Edited to say: What is it about pumpkin pie? It always tastes the same, no matter what you put in it. The pie was very good, but no better than any other pumpkin pie from the store or homemade! I did think, however, that it needed a 1/4" layer of bitter chocolate over the top - that would have made a flavor splash!

The Orange Baskets of Doom

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll! Hope you're enjoying the day with love and family.

Today for your viewing pleasure I have the famous, dreaded orange baskets of doooooom!!! My mother has made these every year for what, like 25 years now? She fashions the baskets from a whole orange, puts sweet potatoes and marshmallows in and bakes them. We've teased her about them our whole lives, mercilessly ragging on how awful and horrifying they are, and how much we dread seeing their little faces appear on the Thanksgiving table, but she continues to visit them upon us as a form of torture for making fun of them. Oh, the humanity!

(Actually, I kind of like them, despite an aversion to orange peel. Shhh, don't tell her.)

She sent me this photo to fill me with dread as a preview of dinner. I have no clue what's going on in that third basket, maybe she'll comment and tell us. It might be blackberries, but knowing her penchant for torture, it's probably stewed prunes. Yeah. Definitely the prunes.

Bella

And last but not least, we have Bella. She's the same pattern as Gabby, but I built her facing the opposite direction. Bella was described as a brown and grey stripey tabby with green and gold eyes and a brown collar. You know, as a former Milwaukeean, I can't stop thinking that her eyes are exactly Green Bay Packer colors!


Meow! Which was your favorite cat of the five?

Mei-Mei

Meet Mei-Mei! I like this cat, #4 of 5, the best. She was described to me as a "tortiseshell" with gold eyes and a red collar. Not being a cat person, I had to look up tortiseshell on the internet and it showed cats that were combinations of orange, black and white. I was super happy when I saw this Joel Dewberry fabric in my stash with basically just those colors, and also kind of Asian looking to fit her name!


I love how it looks like she's hiding in the tree, camoflauged so well that she's transparent, waiting to pounce on that bird. See the look of concentration on her face? Her tag is crooked because she's leaning forward gathering her legs under her.

Lily

Lily, #3 cat of 5 I will show, was described to me as a Siamese cat with big blue eyes. I assumed there must only be one color of Siamese, as they didn't specify. Sure enough, a google search turned up that all modern Siamese are white with grey faces, ears and feet. Well ok, here ya go!

They also said she has a black collar with studs - doesn't that fabric look like it has studs? So cute! And of course, the Lily nametag embroidered. Click on the photo to see the swirls in the white fur.

Turkey Cupcakes!

No, not cupcakes made FROM turkey, cupcakes made to look like A turkey! Silly! If my sister in law makes it to Thanksgiving with her kids, I will totally make these with them. I promise! Except I will steal an idea from another internet site and make the tail not with cut outs from fruit roll ups, but with a row of point-down candy corns.

Hop on over to cakespy.com and check out the tutorial in the guest post from Meringue Bake Shop.

Gabby

Today's cat, #2 of 5, is Gabby! Gabby was described to me as solid black with gold eyes and a brown collar. Isn't she just sweet?

Trip

This is the first in a series of five cat blocks coming your way this week! All five are based on actual cats I was asked to replicate. The description of this guy, Trip, said "swirly grey and black fur, brown collar, and orange eyes." Ok, that's what ya got! Plus an embroidered name tag.


The green will be the back ground of all the cats, and they are going to alternate with heart blocks for a cat lover.

Got Cats?

Help! I need two new cat block patterns to finish a new quilt comission. Got cats you can spare?

I'm making the quilt as a Christmas present for my friend to give her friend. It needs to include five cats, all based on the recipients actual five cats. I'd like to use a different pattern for each cat to make them unique, but I only have three patterns.

Here are the restrictions for the block patterns I need:

* must feature a whole cat, not just the face (like the ones i'm showing here)

* representational of a real cat, not cartoonish

* must be pieced, not appliqued or paper pieced

* must include cutting directions for a 12" block - or at least a 10", I can add a border if needed

Can anyone help???

Half Done!

It's half done! The ginormous quilt I'm making for myself and Mr. Babyquilts is halfway there. It's ten 12-inch blocks by nine 12-inch blocks, not counting sashing!

This is "his" half, the blue and green half, all sashed and ready to go. It also includes the 'snuggling' row on the right which are blue/green combined with red/pink. Now all that's left to do is four more rows of red/pink to attach to the right hand side.


Here's a six year old child and a koala for scale. It's huge! Click a photo to see the square themes better.

You know, it looks all innocent and fine and dandy now, but boy was I mad last night. I carefully pinned and sewed one whole sashing the long way, all the way down. Then when I opened it out, guess what, it was sewed onto the wrong side of the block strip, so the seam was on top! I was hopping mad! I had to then hand rip the whole seam, re-pin and re-sew. It took me several hours to get back to where I should have been. Oh well. Days like that really make me want to buy a machine, especially with all of these straight seams. I like piecing the blocks by hand, but sashing and borders by hand are straight up boring!


Wolfie says hi. "Hi!"

Amazing Blueberry Streusel Muffins

I know it's a quilting blog, but I just had to share this recipe! Believe me, they taste about 1000% better than they look. They sit there, unassuming and boring looking but when you taste it - wow! It's like a blueberry cloud in your mouth. So light and moist and popping with blueberries, plus the crunch of the oatmeal topping.


Gigi thinks about trying one....I don't know, they look kind of boring.


Ok, I'll try one, but they're still hot!


She loved it and so will you.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Makes 18

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream (I didn't have any, so I used just under 1/2 cup of sour milk and 1 1/2 T. butter extra)
1/2 cup milk
1 t. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (or raspberries, or blackberries, or a combo!)

Heat oven to 400. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, then sour cream, milk and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add them to the mixer, don't overbeat, just until moistened. Gently fold in berries. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full.

Now to make the streusel for the top:
Wash the mixing bowl and paddle, replace. Put in 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup oats, 3 T. sugar, 1/4 t. cinnamon, 1/8 t. salt and 1 1/2 T. brown sugar. Combine. Then put in 3 T. butter and mix well to cut in. Sprinkle mixture over each muffin until it's all gone.

Bake 18-20 minutes. Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes before removing muffins to rack.
Eat while warm!!!

Felt Thanksgiving Meal!

How cute is this??? Learn how to make a felt food Thanksgiving meal from Dana at Made!

Come on, the grapes velcro on individually and the broccoli is stuffed!

Double Your Fun

Hi All,
I've got a new internet quilt commission! Lovely Amber, together with her mother, wants to get a quilt made for her sister who is having a baby soon. Awwww!!! So sweet. Check out her blog, she's got a funny article about pants up today.

Amber wants the quilt to be super soft and she loves Japanese prints, so she is picking out some Echino double gauzes! Now everyone knows about the Heather Ross Far Far Away double gauzes but not many know about the Echino ones.

Here's an article about using double gauzes in quilts. Will you try it???

Book Giveaway at Pink Chalk Studios!

I love Malka Dubrawsky's blog astitchindye and respect her as a fellow Austinite and crafter. Well she has a book out now! Go team Malka! It's all about how to dye your own fabric and it looks amazing.

If you want a chance to win a copy, jet on over to pinkchalkstudios, Kathy Mack's blog, and leave a comment. I know I did! I'd love to get my hands on it.

Today I am Loving...

These quilts! Click the link to check them out, they so rock. Kind of like my current one, but with a huge improvement using the white framing. It makes a world of difference. Perfect! Love the light grey and love the munki of course. Good job filminthefridge!

I actually like the backing on her other munki quilt (above) better, the one in her shop. I love it! So inspiring. Click to see it bigger, it looks way better. Also, check out her cute shop!

Munki in the Middle!

So...those munkis I got in the mail yesterday were burning a hole in my, uh, stash closet (?) and I had to do something with them right away! I wanted them to be in MY quilt which I'm currently sashing, so I went through the pink/red blocks to see which ones I didn't like that also had fabric that would match my new munkis. Since it's a charm quilt, I can only use each fabric one time, so somebody had to go.


I really didn't like the block on the right that I had made. It's hard to tell in the photo but the saturation of the bright yellow and the pink clashed with the super bright white of the flower fabric. Bleah. Aw yeah, these kitties look right at home in their matching frame. The saturated pinks match perfectly.


I also found this block on the left that I don't hate, but it's just too much busyness going on at once. I was going for birds/trees but it's just too much. Look at how sweet and cozy my bicycles look in there instead. So calm and frame-y. Sigh.

So do you think the new blocks are an improvement or a step down???

Hope you're enjoying my National Blog Posting Month daily post! Stay tuned for a post every day in November.

Munki Business

Yay! When I saw these rare Heather Ross Munki Munki's in my mailbox, I knew I was in love. My DH bought them for me on the sly from etsy sellers who have recently figured out how to buy the pajamas HR made for Munki Munki and sell them off an arm and a leg at a time! I have all drumsticks, thank you very much, and they are great!


How could you not love these kitties!? They are just like the fish, they all have names.


And these "Bicycles I have loved" - so cute! I like Carrots, personally.

And the famous ice cream trucks! My favorite pink/red/orange, bits of lavendar color scheme.

Click on any of these to enlarge and appreciate all the detail HR puts into her designs. They really do look better larger!

Enjoy!

On the Design Wall - MY Bed Quilt!

Today on the design wall I have the quilt i'm making for my husband and my bed! Finally, I'm going to keep a quilt! Here is some fine artwork by my six year old decorating my sewing room.


My design wall, as it turns out, is WAYYYYY too small. This is only HALF our king-sized quilt: the green and blue blocks for Mickey's side. And it falls off the bottom and onto the floor. I need to get a king-sized flannel sheet and tack it up as my design wall. This picnic table cover flannel back is not working for me.


I'm putting the sashing in between the rows right now, it's going pretty quickly. Do you like it sof far?

A Finish! Squares and Frames

A while back I posted about the beginnings of this quilt on my design wall. You haven't seen it since then but it's finished! Not such a big deal for machine quilters, but every finish is a big deal for me, especially a full size quilt!


Wolf picked out the fabrics himself and he's very pleased with it.


Is that munki munki? Why yes it is! A Poolside scrap from my sister Heidi.


The quilting didn't show up very well, but it looks good. I used the top sheet from a queen sized sheet set I had laying around that we don't use. It worked perfectly and is very "sheety" feeling against the skin! Here's the full shot (right). Click to enlarge to get the full effect.

Enjoy!