Crayon Box Audition

I may move some pieces around before I start sewing ... Looking good!

Grape Salad ... Yum

This is so good, better than my pictures! My sister made some, I tried it to be nice and WOW ... It was delicious! You MUST try this recipe one time.

8 oz cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 to 4 lbs seedless red grapes
Mix together cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla. Then add the grapes.

Topping
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup pecans or walnuts
Mix together and sprinkle on top

I used fat free cream cheese, fat free sour cream and chopped pecans.

Snow for Christmas

Now that Christmas is over, it's back to my Crayon Box pattern quilt. Yahoo!
This is what we got for Christmas in Clemmons, NC. SNOW! It started snowing Christmas morning, snowed through the day and during last night.

Two More Fun Pillowcases

I was unable to find coordinating fabrics for these two pillowcases. I used the Magic Pillow tutorial again. I love the French seams. The narrow band is a nice touch. I added a few extra inches to the pillowcase body length and to the band. These pillowcases are 20" x 36".

More Pillowcases Using Magic PillowcaseTutorial

I needed some last minutes Christmas presents. I found enough large pieces of fabric in my fabric stash to make 5 more fun pillowcases. This time I followed the tutorial more closely by adding the small narrow fabric band. I also enclosed the raw edges with French seams.



Pieces of fabric stacked and ready to sew as suggested in the tutorial

Princess Pillowcase Using the Magic Pillowcase Tutorial

I've made a lot of fun pillowcases, but this is the first time that I've made one using Michele Bilyeu's "Magic Pillowcase" blogspot tutorial. Michele uses three pieces of fabric in her tutorial, but I used only two. Other than that, I followed her tutorial. I'm very pleased with the results! Easy.
Michele's blogspot is full of helpful information and sewing tips. She's taught me a lot.

http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com/2009/05/burrito-or-magic-pillowcase-tutorial.html

Pillowcase Gift

Spider-man went out in today's mail. A special young guy is going to be so surprised when he opens the package and sees this pillowcase made especially for him.

Mother and Yvonne Make Candy

Yesterday my dear sister, Yvonne, came over to help our dear Mother made her annual Christmas candy. They filled numerous containers of white trash candy, peanut butter dandies and rocky road squares. The house smelled heavenly. Yum!

Super Simple Deviled Eggs

The grandkids like these because they're simple ... no pickles, mustard, garnish! And they disappear fast at parties, so go figure.
For this dish, I hard boiled 6 large eggs. When the eggs had cooled, I peeled them, cut them in half and scooped out the yellows. After crumbled the yellows in a bowl, I added a couple tablespoons mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste. The most difficult part about this dish is not wanting to eat a few immediately after spooning the mixture back into the egg white shells : )

More Crayon Box Squares

I have a twin sized piece of Dream Cotton batting that's 93"x72". Bonnie Hunters' Crayon Box quilt pattern makes a quilt that's larger, about 81"X95". Her quilt pattern calls for 5 squares X 6 squares for a quilt with 30 squares. I'm going to make my quilt fit the batting I have by doing 4 squares X 5 squares for a smaller quilt with 20 squares. My quilt will be about 81"X67" when finished. Also, a smaller size should be a little easier to quilt with my sewing machine. We'll see.

I Believe in Fairies Pillowcase

Today I made a cute pillowcase using Fairies Secret Scenic fabric by Disney. Pictures of Tinker Bell and some of her smiling winged friends are printed on the fabric.
I used a purchased pillow case as my pattern to cut a 38" wide by 39" long piece of fabric.
After folding the fabric in half with the right sides together, I sewed two sides using a 1/2" seam. I clipped the corner, turned and pressed. After pressing under and stitching 1/2" of fabric to hide the raw edge, I turned under, pressed and stitched a generous 4 1/2" hem. Easy.
This pillowcase is off to a friend, an angel in Wyoming. She has 5 grandkids now. Once, years ago when I needed help, she was there with a random act of kindness. But that is another story.

Crayon Box Quilt Project

I started his quilting project last month. It's a WiP (work in progress). I found the pattern at Quiltville.com. Bonnie Hunter calls it "Crayon Box". Bonnie is a very talented quilter and book author.
I chose several pieces of brightly colored fabric from my fabric stash, downloaded the directions from Bonnie's website and got to work. Unfortunately my first square turned out a little wonky and on the small side because my seams were too generous and not consistent. I'll use it when I piece the back of the quilt. More care in both areas resulted in blocks I can use in the front. This is going to be a pretty quilt.

Christmas Hot Pad

I found a hot pad tutorial at Riley Blake Designs. I used two 8 1/2" squares of cotton batting and six 8 1/2" squares of fabric from my fabric stash. The tutorial called for five, but I though if the triangles separated, I would see the batting. This would not happen with an extra square of fabric under the triangles. Because my sewing machine has issues sewing through many layers, I didn't sew around the edges, turn and sew a quarter inch seam as described in in the tutorial. I simply layered my batting and fabric and bound it like a quilt.
This is how I layered the fabric and battings squares. I placed one fabric square right side down. On top of it I placed two squares of cotton batting, a fabric square right side up, and last of all, the 4 remaining fabric squares pressed into 4 large triangles which were weaved into a square. I bound all the layers like a quilt using a 2 1/2" strip of fabric. It was easy. I tried to choose Christmas colors from my stash, but I think the flower side would work anytime of the year.
This is the link for the tutorial. http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/cutting-corners/2010/01/20/hot-pads-101/

Christmas Mug Rug

This Christmas mug rug was made with the six cookie images cut from the child's apron panel, some red with white stars fabric from my fabric stash and a scrap of cotton batting. Using white threat, I machine quilted a meandering pattern. After watching a YouTube video of Jenny from Missouri Star Quilt Company binding a table runner, I was able to bind and finished my first little mug rug. Thank you Jenny. There are a several 'how to' quilting videos on YouTube.

Completed Adult Apron

All done! Remember, I had only one waist apron tie because the other was missing. I didn't get an entire panel. My fault. I should have checked before I left the store. Anyway, I cut a strip of light green fabric from the child's apron panel. It included the words 'Gingerbread Bake Shop'. Because the strip wasn't as long as the dark green waist tie that I did have, I split the difference and added a some of the dark green fabric strip to the light green strip with the printed words. In the picture I wrapped the apron strings from the back and looped them in the front so you can see how it turned out ... I sewed the dark green end to the apron side. Turned out okay after all.

Christmas Aprons

Christmas apron panels were bought at Hobby Lobby in Asheville. They're from the "Gingerbread Bake Shop, Lainey Daniels 2010 Springs Creative Products" collection.

Granny's Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

These cookies have been a hit with my family and friends for about 40 year.

3 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla

Mix ingredients, form dough into a log, wrap in wax paper, chill, cut into quarter inch thick slices, place on an un-greased cookie sheet, bake in pre-heated 350 to 375 degree oven for about 7-9 minutes, cool, frost with confectioners sugar and water or milk mixture. Then sprinkle with red or green sugar and enjoy. The dough may also be cut into shapes!
The original recipe for these cookies came from the pages of an old cook book, a wedding gift in 1969. I changed it a bit over the years. Still I'd like to thank Mrs Kenneth G Mang of Trenton, NJ, the inspiration for these cookies. She entered her original recipe in the North Central Missouri State Fair and won a Blue Ribbon. Thank you Mrs Mang.