Valentine/Baby Girl Quilt

I was SO excited to make this quilt for one of my best friends! She picked the color scheme for the quilt; pinks, purples, and grays. Immediately, I knew I wanted to make appliqued hearts, since she's due in February.

Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Sandwich Cookies

I sure love chocolate! These cookies are soft & the combination of chocolate with caramel is divine. Just in time for Valentines day, you can make these as a gift for yourself, or if you feel the love, share with friends.
Ready to make your own-

Yes! You can Machine Quilt!

Why you CAN and SHOULD machine quilt your own quilts. 

When I first started making quilts, I was intrigued at the idea of quilting them myself, but I thought it required a fancy sewing machine and a high level of skill. Quilting can be an EXPENSIVE hobby (wonderfully fun, but expensive). I would take my little table runners into be quilted and pay between $20-40 to have a cute pattern quilted on. I realized that financially (with the number of quilts I was busting out) I just couldn't justify paying so much extra for all my quilts. I decided to give machine quilting a shot and did a quilt with machine quilting (FREE MOTION QUILTING). I was a little crazy and started with free motion quilting, trying to do patterns and designs. My next two attempts were using a WALKING FOOT (STRIP QUILT)(EASY BABY QUILT) and were SO much easier! 

Machine quilting was actually kind of fun! I am able to finish my entire quilt, on my machine, by myself!

 I've been hooked ever since.

OWLdorable

I took my inspiration for this cute little family from the owl fabric. This is my second attempt at hand appliqueing and it was easier than the first and even enjoyable. First, I drew my pictures on paper. Second traced them onto cardboard (used an empty cereal box). Third, placed cardboard cut-out on wrong side of fabric and traced around about 1/4 to 3/8 inch bigger than picture. Fourth, cut out fabric and sprayed it generously with fabric starch. Fifth, placed cardboard cut-out back on wrong side of fabric and ironed around around all edges to turn them down. (This took a while and more fabric starch to really press them and make them lay flat). Sixth, placed them on fabric and pinned down carefully with small straight pins. Seventh, cut out a couple of double sided interfacing and ironed finished shapes down (this was just to hold them in place, you don't want to use a piece the size of your picture as it makes it very stiff and difficult to hand stitch through). Eighth, hand stitched around each owl with same colored thread. Ninth, used 3 strands of embroidery thread to sew eyes and beaks.

Here is a link to a tutorial I viewed to perfect my hand stitching.

http://www.connectingthreads.com/tutorials/Hand_Applique_Stitch__D54.html

This item is available in my Etsy shop

Quick Valentine T-shirt

15 minute Valentine shirt! 

1- Grab a plain (pre-washed) t-shirt, and iron 

Cute Little Mittens

I cut the mitten pattern out on a cardboard box, then cut out fabric about 1/4" bigger than cardboard. I spray starched the fabric and  ironed  the extra 1/4" down under cardboard so there wouldn't be raw edges.

Then I placed mittens where I wanted them and used fabric spray glue to hold them in place. Additionally I pinned them down so they wouldn't pucker and using a size 10 straw needle and single thread I hand sewed them down.
Next, I hand sewed the rick-rack on because rick-rack makes any and everything cuter! After that I sewed all the 2 1/2" squares together and added them to top and bottom of creation. Then, added batting and backing (which also were held down with the spray-on glue and safety pins). I didn't use my walking foot, just changed the length of my stitch to 2.8 and began sewing about 1/4" away from mittens. It was so easy I just kept going.....kind of got carried away.
Lastly, sewed on binding and some little tabs at the top and  it took school where it is currently hanging on my white board. I told the kids I use math even when I'm not a school.

Close up
I know that I am sew addicted!

It's a Bird Wallhanging

This is a Rachel design. It should be apparent to all by now that the woman was infinitely blessed with talent. My son and daughter-in-law gave me a picture to hang in my sewing room so Ray decided the picture needed another friend. She sewed the squares together and I did the appliqueing and the machine quilting. It was a quick, fun and simple project.

I can feel change in the air. In all my thirty-plus years of sewing I've never actually had a "sewing" room. Especially not a "sewing" room that had any type of sewing decorations.

Triple Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache Cake

You can't go wrong with a chocolate & peanut butter. I wanted a cake that taste like a delicious version of a peanut butter cup. This was made using my go-to vanilla cake recipe, but I added 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter to the batter. I used peanut butter cups and a peanut butter mousse for the filling using a recipe I found on pinterest PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE. I sweetened my mousse with half powdered sugar and half agave. The recipe uses coconut cream, I love coconut, but when I tasted the final product, I thought the coconut flavor was going to be a little overwhelming in my cake. I decided to go for it, and it actually worked perfectly. There wasn't a strong coconut flavor at all! YEAH!

The whole cake was covered in GANACHE, with some melting off the sides. Topped with more mousse and cups. 

Peanut butter cake, peanut butter mousse, and peanut butter cups. The ganache is so rich that the triple peanut butter combination works perfectly to balance the flavors! 

This cake was absolutely delicious!

Violet's Baby Quilt

This is a picture of the finished baby quilt that I began last summer. I quilted it using my sewing machine and walking foot. It was a more challenging task since the back is minky, but I am pleased with the end results.

Love, love, love the coral minky!!!

Winter Wonderland Snowflake Pinwheels

Start with your winter Wonderland fabric and cut 5 inch squares from a light color and a dark/medium color

 Place right sides together and sew along the entire perimeter of your square (all 4 sides) 

 Carefully measure and cut your square into half triangles

Another Value Quilt

I love this fabric so much that I decided to make yet another YW values quilt! 

Each one of these quilts is a little different. This time I outlined the panel, and used the recipients favorite colors (scarlet and aqua) as the highlight colors of the quilt. I went a little crazy and decided to machine quilt the entire thing using a simple swirl pattern.