Sunday, December 5, 2021

2021 Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange Blog Hop

        



        Merry Christmas and welcome to the 2021 Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange hosted by Carol at Just Let Me Quilt.  Hands down, this is my favorite blog hop of the year, and I always ask permission to participate.  Carol has hosted this hop for many years and it is always such a treat to share memories, see new ideas, and swap recipes for Christmas goodies with fellow quilters.  Thank you, Carol, for another year of yummy goodness!  

        'Tis the Season to be Makin' and Bakin' and Takin'!  And I imagine the busiest lady is Mrs. Claus.  It can't be easy being married to the big guy and making sure he and the reindeers make their flight on time.  It's my guess Mrs. Claus and the elves breathe a sigh of relief when they see him shoot across the sky on his merry way.  If I were in her shoes, I would drop in front of a cozy fire, switch on a Hallmark movie, and fill my lap with a big plate of cookies. 


            And what better treat than a plate Rice Krispies treats in the shape of 8 tiny reindeer!


        These are so simple to make.  To make you will need a full batch of thhe original Rice Krispies Treats, milk chocolate wafers melted, candy eyes, chocolate-covered pretzels, candy sprinkles of your choice, and round candy pieces for the nose (like M&M's, Whoppers, Junior Mints, etc.).  

        Follow the directions on a box of Rice Krispies cereal to make the treat mixture.  Scoop the mixture into 2 greased pie plates and flatten with a spatula.  Let set until cool.

        Remove the firm cereal mixture from the pie plate, being careful to keep its round shape, and cut pie shape into 1/8th slices.  You will have 16 slices. 

        In microwave, melt approximately 15-20 chocolate wafers.  Dip candy nose, eyes, and pretzels in melted chocolate and set in place.  Drop a small amount of melted chocolate between pretzel antlers and cover chocolate with candy sprinkles.  Wait a minute, then shake excess sprinkles back into plate. 

       





         If you would like to make your own Mrs. Claus Cookie runner, the dimensions are in the blueprint below.  Her mouth is a 3" circle cut in half and sewn between the middles and bottom face pieces.  Her eyes are 1 1/2" circles sewn between the top and middle face sections.  Her nose is a 1 1/2" x 4" rectangle folded into thirds so that width of nose is 1/2", and then the 4" length folded in half and sewn in seam between top and middle section of face.   


        In the coming week, you will see many more projects and, best of all, more yummy recipes.  Make sure you add them to your cookbook!  Be sure to visit all the busy elves in this blog hop for the merriest of times!

                                                                            December 6


         



  

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Fairy Tales Blog Hop

Once upon a time . . . 


Hello & welcome!  Today is my day to share with you my project for the Fairy Tales Blog Hop, the brain child of Joan at Moosetash Quilting.  When Joan first announced she was going to host a hop with a theme of Fairy Tales, I jumped at the chance to sign up.  I love fairy tales!   

It didn't take me long to decide what I wanted to make.  I have been wanting to create a Mary Poppins quilt for some time but just never had the right incentive.  Joan's blog hop was just the impetus I needed. 

Of course the first step was getting a design on paper.  This is where I always start, usually with a pencil and grid paper and a big eraser.    

Once I had an idea of how many blocks there would be, I drew the images I would cut from fabric and made templates.  








There were 10 blocks in all of various sizes and alternating backgrounds of yellow and aqua.  I used tiny dots of glue to hold my pieces in place.  I used the raw applique method for this project and sewed around my pieces 2-3 times in black thread on the sewing machine.  The quotes are embroidered with 2 strands of black embroidery floss.  

To make the blocks stand out, I added black lattice strips.  The finished quilt is approximately 46" x 68".  


The most challenging block was the word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."  Trying to get all those 3" letters to fit on a piece of fabric 42" long was difficult.  Another drawback to sewing that block was that the song by the same name got stuck in my head.  LOL 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my process and my finished Fairy Tale quilt. Thank you so much, Joan, for this fun blog hop.  We can always count on you to think of something special to make us smile!

Be sure to visit all the other Fairy Tale Creations from these talented makers!




Thursday, June 10, 2021

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Born to Be Wild Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Born to be Wild Blog Hop hosted by the fabulous Carol of Just Let Me Quilt .  Today is my day to reveal my project, and I am so excited to show you what I have created. 


I took my inspiration from Shabby Fabrics and their treatment of Safari Life by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda.  This is the cutest line.  In addition to its fabrics depicting wildlife, it has 2 panels, one for making stuffed animals and one for making a quiet book.  





In my first quilt, I made a simple 4-patch pattern of 4 1/2" squares with 2 1/2" lattice strips defining each, then made a 3 1/2" border.  Following Shabby Fabrics' example, I used the stuffed animals panel for embellishment.   



The animals are easy to sew together and stitch to the top of the finished quilt.  The ears and manes of the animals are not sewn down, the tails, however, I did sew down at the ends to keep them straight.  This quilt measures approximately 40" x 50" -- perfect for kids or couch potatoes like me. 


All of my grandchildren are too old for a quiet book, so I turned that panel into a little throw quilt.  From the panel, I cut the pages free, then added strips of different widths of coordinating fabric between the pictures.  This little quilt went together very quickly, and measures about 40" square.  


If you would like to take advantage of the free pattern and tutorial at Shabby Fabrics, go to their website at  https://www.shabbyfabrics.com/ and click on Free Downloads at the very bottom of the page.  Scroll down until you find Double Cross Quilt Pattern.  

Thank you, Carol, for hosting such a great blog hop.  Where do you come up with all these ideas???   This has been such great fun!

Look who else is Born to be Wild:

 May 17th