Thursday, December 7, 2023

Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange

 

Every year we have what we call 'Cookie Day', we spend the Saturday after Thanksgiving gathering at my mom's house and baking cookies. It's a tradition that we started years ago! My boys were little! I always looked forward to baking that day with my sisters and nieces. I always make the same things, caramel, dipped pretzels and peanut butter yo-yos. This year I bought some special frosting Santas and penguins to decorate my peanut butter yo-yos with. I also got some cute snowman carrot noses to make snowmen! I also purchased some cute boxes and bags to package things in. Most everything I make is an almond bark dipped item so that my nieces and sisters can use the oven. Mom's oven sure gets a workout that day! It's always a fun filled day full of visiting and baking. 

I make six batches of caramel and I'm also so appreciative when I have help wrapping it all!


Microwave Caramels
1/4 Cup Butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light Karo Syrup
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk.
Combine all ingredients. Cook 6 minutes, stirring every two minutes. Stir and pour into lightly greased dish. (I butter a glass pan.) Let cool. Cut, wrap in wax paper and store in airtight container. My mom's microwave takes 10 minutes. I check the caramel using my grandma's method. Dropping a little of the mixture into a glass of cold water, if the caramel can be formed into a soft ball, then it's done. 


DECEMBER 4

Just Let Me Quilt

Inflorescence

Songbird Designs

Words & Stitches

DesertSky Quilting

Quilting Gail

Days Filled With Joy

For The Love Of Geese

 

DECEMBER 5

Selina Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Karrin's Crazy World

Quilt Schmilt

Domestic Felicity

Happy Cottage Quilter

Nettie Sews and Lucky Quilts

 

DECEMBER 6

Hill Valley Quilter

Beaquilter

Crazy'boutquilts

Bumbleberry Stitches

That Fabric Feeling

Homespun Hannah's Blog

 

DECEMBER 7

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilt Doodle Designs

Quilted Snail

Sew Many Yarns

Just Sew Quilter

The Life of Grammy





I have a notebook that I have been keeping recipes and photos in over the years. I love flipping thru it and remembering all of our cookie days and how our kids have grown up. They are now starting to have families of their own. I hope that this becomes a tradition that is passed down to their families too. I know that the recipes will!


Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope that you find time to listen to some holiday music and do some baking for the loved ones in your family. The complete list for the hop is above... stop on by and show some holiday love!


Happy Baking,

Cindy and Josephine


Peanut butter yo-yo cookies

Friday, December 1, 2023

December's Here!


Happy December! It's hard to believe that the end of the year is almost here! There is so much to do this time of year. I haven't gotten my tree or any of the decorating done yet. Hubby did his part; I came home thanksgiving weekend to a beautifully decorated house all lit up with the Christmas lights. He always waits until after thanksgiving to put up the lights. It's such a treat to come home to see the Christmas lights on. I have to say, I did get the front porch decorated with pine boughs and dogwood once the Christmas wreath arrived. I'm planning on getting the inside of the house done this weekend. I'm going to need some help hoisting the tree boxes upstairs. 

It's also time to wrap up our yearlong project with a big red bow. But first there's some more to do on it. It's going to be a lengthy post so grab a cup of coffee and let's get started. Make sure you head on over to Quiltdoodledesigns.com and download the pattern. It's free the month of December. Gather your fabrics, try to work from your scraps from the previous blocks if you can. I have also added a few fabrics from my fabric stash. Those of you who got the kits may want to do this also. 


Grab your .... and to all a goodnight section and applique the cozy cottage on it. Trace out one set of the snow-covered cabin shapes onto the paper side of the fusible interfacing. Group shapes that share the same color fabric. Press onto the wrong side of the fabric. Cut out the shapes, peel off the paper backing and place the shapes fusible side down on the right side of the blue background strip, centering the design onto the ... and to all a goodnight panel. Press shapes in place following the fusible manufacturer's directions. Stitch around the raw edges of the applique using either a straight stitch or buttonhole stitch. If you're unsure of your stitch size, practice on some scrap material until you find the setting that you want to use for the machine applique. The snow can be made using white buttons or small yo-yo's. These will be attached after the quilt is quilted.


Sew the small 7" x 7" tree and gold house blocks together to make a long strip as pictured above. Press. Strip will measure 7" x 52 1/2". Applique the moose and jumping dog onto the strip as pictured below.

From blue fabric cut:
    6- 2 1/2" x WOF strips   WOF=width of fabric

Sew 2 of the strips together end to end, press. Then cut 1 - 2 1/2" x 52 1/2" strip

From the remaining blue strips cut:
    12 - 2 1/2" x 8 1/2" strips




Sew the large 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" tree and green house blocks together with a 2 1/2" x 8 1/2" sashing rectangle in between each block and on each end as shown above. Press. Strip will measure 8 1/2" x 52 1/2".


Sew the large 8 1/2 x 8 1/2" tree and red house blocks together with a 2 1/2" x 8 1/2" sashing rectangle in between each block and on each end as shown above. Press. Strip will measure 8 1/2" x 52 1/2"


Then sew the house sections together with the 2 1/2" x 52 1/2" strip in between and then sew this section to the .... and to all a goodnight section as shown above. This is then a great time to do some more embellishment if you want to. Add the snowman and snowdrift applique pieces as shown. Remember the falling snow won't be added until the quilting is complete. 


Then sew the stars strip and the Merry Christmas to all section together, press and then add it to the top of the house section. Press again. Then it's time to add a cheery red border and layer your quilt with batting and backing and quilt as desired.

When you are completed with the quilting then it's time to embellish your quilt with snowflakes using either buttons or white fabric yo-yo's. Embroider a face onto your snowman, eyes and jingle bells to your reindeer and Santa's eyes. Have fun embellishing! Those added touches add to the quilt.

I'm still quilting my Santa's Journey quilt and I'll do a big reveal in a week or two. I'm planning on using my quilt as a wall hanging to adorn my dining room. It'll be so much fun to put on display.

Finished measurements of the 2023 BOM quilt will be 60" x 70"

 Each month's pattern is a free PDF instant download. If you miss a month, the patterns are available for $2.50 on my website and also in my Etsy shop.  


If you don't have a printer, you can purchase a PRINTED copy of the monthly patterns.

 There's also a Facebook Group, please join and post your progress! It's also fun to see everyone else progress too! Make sure to post your blocks so far! I've had to change postings to be approved since I'm getting lots of spam posted on the Facebook page. 

I have also been posting time lapse videos on my Instagram feed on how to stitch the blocks together. @quiltdoodledesigns. I hope that you all have a wonderful day and find some time to do some stitching! I'm looking forward to seeing your quilt too! Remember to post pictures and tag me! 

There will also be a new BOM starting January 1st.... stayed tuned for the details.

Happy quilting,
Cindy and Josephine





Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Turkey Trot!

                                                    

Welcome to my day of the Turkey Trot Blog Hop! I have a complete listing of the participants down below. Make sure you visit them all and give them some love! Thank you Joan from MooseStashQuilting for hosting this wonderful event.

I have been busy around here getting ready for Thanksgiving. I'll be having my boys, and their families join us this Sunday for an early celebration. I need to make some serious lists so I don't forget to do something! I have busy decorating the house with fall leaves and pumpkins, some of it was leftover from Halloween. I like to decorate the table too for dinner and I've been on the look out for something for the place settings. I've been looking online, made a couple of trips to Hobby Lobby and I didn't have to look further then my sewing room! I decided to make some quilted leaves using up my bits and pieces that I had in a fabric bin. Let me show you how I made them. 

I first pulled out my orange and brown fabric scraps...

I drew out a big maple leaf shape. Then I stitched together my scraps without paying any attention to what I was doing. Just sewing the scraps together. Then layer my pieced square with a backing and some scrap batting.


I then pinned my paper template onto my quilt sandwich and stitched around the edge. I also added a 'stem'.

     

I then cut around the edges using a pinking shears and top stitched the leaf's veins using a variegated thread.

  
I love how the leaf turned out. I think it's the perfect touch for my place settings. I've got 4 done, I've got a few more to go!

These leaves also make adorable coasters!


I hope that you have fun hopping around and enjoy my little tutorial for my leaf coasters, mug rug. It can also be used as a candle mat. It was a great way to use up some of my little scraps that I have a hard time throwing away. I found the perfect project for those little pieces of fabric!

Here's a fun project I made years ago. I traced some leaf shapes and using fusible web I appliqued them onto an easy table runner. It's one of my favorite projects to put on display each year.


  Monday November 13


MooseStashQuilting

Words & Stitches

The Morning Latte

Quilting Gail

The Life Of Grammy

 

Tuesday November 14

Karrin’s Crazy World

Just Because Quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Domestic Felicity

Nettie Sews and Lucky Quilts

 

Wednesday November 15

Selina Quilts

Quilt Doodle Designs  (You are here!)

Inflorescence

MS P Designs USA

 

Thursday November 16

Just Let Me Quilt

BeaQuilter

Quilted Snail

Songbird Designs

Scrapdash


I hope that you have a wonderful day and a blessed Thanksgiving!


Happy quilting,

Cindy and Josephine 

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

November's Block Santa's Journey BOM


Happy November last night was a lot of fun. I love Halloween! It was fun to see all of the trick or treaters out and about even though it was a cold evening with remnants of our overnight snowfall. Yes, we woke up to snow yesterday morning! I made my traditional mummy meatloaf and a Jack Skellington pumpkin pie for my family. It was pretty good.  Now onto this month's section of the quilt. I decided to split up this month's planned sewing into two. So, the final applique sections will be out December 1st. There is a section that can be pre-sewn together and I will go over that in this blog posting for those of you who want to get a head start on sewing. This month we will be doing a Santa and his reindeer applique onto the Merry Christmas to all... panel. 

Make sure you head on over to Quiltdoodledesigns.com and download the pattern. It's free the month of November. Gather your fabrics, try to work from your scraps from the previous blocks if you can. I have also added a few fabrics from my fabric stash. Those of you who got the kits may want to do this also. 

After you print up the applique pattern, trace the shapes to the paper side of your fusible web.

Following the manufacture instructions, iron onto the back side of the fabric grouping shapes that will use the same color fabric. Then cut all the shapes out.

You will lay these shapes out onto the Merry Christmas to all fabric panel. (Here's a big sneak peek at what the finished quilt will look like. 

Peel the paper backing off your shapes and lay them out onto the 'Merry Christmas to all...' panel. Some of the shapes will overlap. 

Following the pattern directions position the four reindeer onto the panel. Once you are happy with the placement of the design, iron in place.

The finished design will be embellished with fabric yo-yo snowflakes and buttons. I advise that you wait until your quilt is quilted before you add the 3-dimensional embellishments. you can stitch around the edges of the design with a buttonhole or satin stitch if you want. I recommend doing this if you plan on using this quilt.

When your quilt is quilted, the reindeer can be embellished with embroidery or buttons to add extra details. I'm planning on using buttons on my quilt.

If you'd like to sew ahead, piece the small trees and small gold house together as pictures. Sew the blocks together using a 1/4" seam. Iron.


Finished measurements of the 2023 BOM quilt will be 60" x 70"

 Each month's pattern is a free PDF instant download. If you miss a month, the patterns are available for $2.50 on my website and also in my Etsy shop.  


If you don't have a printer, you can purchase a PRINTED copy of the monthly patterns.

 There's also a Facebook Group, please join and post your progress! It's also fun to see everyone else progress too! Make sure to post your blocks so far! 

I have also been posting time lapse videos on my Instagram feed on how to stitch the blocks together. @quiltdoodledesigns. I hope that you all have a wonderful day and find some time to do some stitching! Next month we will finish up the applique onto our quilt blocks and also assemble our quilt.

Happy quilting,
Cindy and Josephine
The Jack Skellington pumpkin pie I made for Halloween.




Friday, October 27, 2023

Vinyl Project Bags

I just got back from a relaxing weekend at quilt retreat. The weekend just flew by! It always goes by so quickly! I like to bring a special treat for everyone so this year I made project bags for each of us and filled them with sewing supplies. (thread, spool holders, wonder clips, hand-made labels and candy, gotta have candy!) For my nephew I got him a couple of Lego sets to work on. These bags are fun to fill for quilting or other crafts that your friends may be doing.

Making project bags was a great way to use up my scrap fabrics from projects past. The bags I made used 2 1/2" squares, a couple fat quarters, or scrap fabric, a zipper and some vinyl. I used fabrics from my stash, so it was a great way to use up what I had. The only thing I had to purchase was the clear vinyl. I'm not a bag maker, I struggle with making bags, but this pattern was easy enough for me to make!

I like to chain stitch my squares to form my scrappy back for my project bags.

Iron the backing well.

Layer with a fun backing fabric, batting (I used up scraps for this) and your pieced square block.

Quilt as desired. I like to quilt corner to corners to form a nice cross hatch design.

The finished project bag measures, 12" x 12" when finished and is the perfect size to pack your sewing notions in for a weekend retreat!

This is a fabulous pattern, and it can be found here!



 These bags are awesome to fill for your friends, add some fun sewing stickers, candy for your retreat, thread, cute notions. Whatever comes to mind to personalize your gift. It's like filling a Christmas stocking but for quilters! Go plan your next quilting adventure with your sewing friends, pick a weekend, find a great restaurant for dinner, pack your clothes, fabric and project ideas. And don't forget to make some project bags for your friends!

Have fun and make some memories!
Cindy and Josephine