It's Friday already??

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you seemed so busy but don't have a lot to show for it?

Well this was one of those weeks, it's Friday already, when did that happen?

 

Here are a few of those things that have kept me busy.

 

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, we had a sew day to make pillow cases for cancer patients. I have not brought the pillow cases to the American Cancer Society because a very generous quilt group has made pillow cases but they are having a quilt show and asked if they could keep them until after the show. So I am waiting for those pillow cases before I make my delivery. So this week I decided to check over the cases to make sure there were no threads (yes, I am anal about threads). So I check all hundred of them and folded them pretty.

 

 

I also made more headband for my sister to take to her work, she brought one in the other day and the girls went crazy.

 

Yesterday I made 2 dozen cupcakes to take to my son's girlfriends work. It was her birthday and we decided to surprise her.

I was running late and forgot to take a picture of the final cupcake, but here you see the chocolate cupcake with the surprise cherry center. There was a chocolate ganache frosting. I call them my Cherry Bomb cupcake.

 

 

But what has taken the most time this week are the lovely flying geese I am making with my beloved Roman Holiday.

I have been told.... that I have Adult ADD, what?? me?? Ohh look at that pretty bird, what's for lunch I am starved, why did I walk into this room???

Okay maybe there is some truth to that! Anyway, I do get bored when I have repetitive steps to do in a quilt. Thank goodness I love Roman Holiday soooo much, it keeps me going.

Here is a shot of the flying geese for this quilt, and that's only half of them!



 

I love this fabric so much, even the garbage can looks good!

 

Okay back to the geese!

 







 



Finished Scrappy Trip Around the World

This is one project I have had a lot of fun making.

I saw this pattern popping up on a lot of the quilting blogs I follow and kept reading how fun and easy it was. So I followed the links to a tutorial on Bonnie Hunter's blog http://quiltville.blogspot.com/      Her directions were great and easy to follow and before I knew it I had my first block finished.

This a great quilt to use up all those Jelly Rolls we have purchased over the years and the neat part about it is no two will ever look the same.

 

As I stated in a earlier post, it was my husband who told me I needed to add the brown border.....he was right.

 

I did an all over feather pattern and used an olive green thread.

 

 

Thanks to all of you who have posted your great Scrappy Trips quilt and Bonnie for posting such a great tutorial.



 

Are you a fabric hoarder?

Silly question!

 Most quilters I know hoard fabric, but I'm talking about  that one special line, that one you just couldn't get enough of. You know the one you bought yards, Jelly Rolls and Charm packs.

 

Well, mine is Roman Holiday by Moda. I fell in love with this line and just kept buying it. I have several yards of several different prints, 2 Jelly Rolls and 5 Charm Pack.  I having been buying up patterns over the years to use my beloved stash and nothing was ever good enough.

 

 

With the recent passing of my quilting buddy and fellow fabric hoarder, I have been doing a lot of sewing, I guess it has been my therapy. I also have been thinking what am I saving this for? Who knows what tomorrow will bring, right?

 

So yesterday I took out my Roman Holiday and picked a pattern. I spent most of the day cutting up my fabric obsession. Guess what? It felt great.

So I encourage you to go to your stash, get your fabric you have been hoarding, and getting cutting.

 

What fabric have you been hoarding?

 



Fun party favors.

I made these cute fabric headbands for my friends granddaughters birthday party favors.

 

What a great way to use up your scraps.

 

 

Crumb Cake Experiment.

The other day I made homemade Blueberry Muffins with a Cinnamon crumb topping. They were such a huge hit, they got gobbled up before I could share a picture.

The cake part of the muffin was so moist I thought to myself, this is a great base that I could add any thing to it.

My husbands said to me, this crumb topping reminds me of the crumb cake I used to get in up state New York.

 

So of course I figured why not try and make a Crumb Cake Muffin.

I used the base recipe and added a great product I recently discovered at my favorite cake decorating supply house, ABC Cake Decorating here in Phoenix.
It's called Butter Vanilla. The ladies at this store call me the purest because I read every label and always tell them I don't want a bunch of chemicals and fake flavors. They assured me this was pure vanilla and butter extract and they also told me  that they can't keep it in stock.  They said people are adding it to all kinds of recipes  including pancake and waffle recipes.

 

 

Once I had the batter made I filled my pretty cupcake wrappers a 1/4 of the way full.

 

I just love these, I get them at Micheal's in the $1 bins, the only trouble is they are not lined so they don't stay so pretty once you bake in them.

 

Then I added a layer of the Cinnamon Crumb topping.

 





The I used the remainder of the batter to cover the crumb topping and then covered that  batter with the remaining crumb topping.

Into a 400 degree oven for 22 minutes.

 

I found the original recipe on AllRecipes.com

 

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

Add all the dry ingredients into mixer and mix together. Next use a liquid measuring cup  and add 1/3 oil, one egg and fill remainder of the cup with milk.

Add to dry ingredients and blend. Next not in the original recipe I added 1 1/2 teaspoon of the butter vanilla extract, however, you can just add vanilla.

Here are the ingredients for the crumb topping.

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cubed chilled butter

2 teaspoons Cinnamon.

 

I doubled it for the crumb muffins.

I pretty sure  my husband is going to love these.

 Note there is only 11 in this picture, the 12th one found a happy home in my belly!

 

 





Darn, I hate when he is right!

So last night when my husband came home, I couldn't wait to show him the finished blocks of my Scrappy Trip Around the World.

 

 

He stood there for the longest time and didn't say anything.

Of course, I loved it and was waiting for a positive response. When I asked him if he liked it, he said yes, but he didn't know where to rest his eyes on the quilt.

As I stood there and looked at it I had to admit, I saw his point of view.

So this morning I laid several different color borders along side my blocks.

When I put a solid brown around the sides it calmed the quilt and gave my eyes a resting place. Darn! I hate when he is right! But I also love it too!

 

 

I have the back all piece and ready to load onto my Long Arm.



Love a rainy day!

I just love a rainy day, it's the perfect excuse to spend the day in the sewing room.

I have anxiously be waiting to put my Scrappy Trip Around the World together.

I laid all my blocks down on the floor and just kept turning them until I found the one I liked the best.

 

I found that if I looked through my camera I could see the blks better.

First I liked this one.

Then I decided to change one block and than another until I came upon this one.

This is the one! I really don't like the double red in the corner and I thought about taking the blk apart and changing it, but then I got a grip of my OCD and decided to leave it alone.

I have really enjoyed making this Scrappy Trip and have pulled out all my Jelly Rolls out to make more!