I could only be just a SMIDGE more last minute...Valentines Pillows

If you are a giant fail at Valentine's decorating (like me), then join in for one tiny attempt at showing the love.

Fun and easy conversation heart pillows.

Raw edges.

Simple embroidery.

Quick, easy and fun!

1. Make a heart template out of paper

2.  Trace heart shape on fabric and cut out two hearts. 

3.  Mark lines so you can write your message straight and even.  Use an erasable pen.  I went straight down the middle and across where I wanted the words to be.

4.  Write your words

5.  Embroider words.  I used a back stitch and, wait for it...yarn!!!  I wanted my words to really stand out.  Had to use a giant needle.

6.  Pin both pieces of fabric together.  You'll rarely see these words on this blog, but Wrong Sides Together!   Raw edges, baby!

7.  Using a walking foot, stitch the two hearts together using a 1/2" seam allowance.

8.  Make sure to leave a space, about 2 inches wide for the fluff

9.  Pink the edges.

10.  sorry, no pic.  Stuff with fluff until you feel it is fluffy enough.

11.  Sew the gap so the fluff cannot escape.

Make a bunch because they're so cute and easy!  And fast!!  And easy.  Best kind of last minute craft.

My kids have been sleeping with them, so I haven't even been able to use them in my non-existent Valentine's decor.

Tell your kid to lay on the pillows like she does at night and this is what you'll get.

No, with your head, like you do at night...

Close enough.

Happy Valentine's.

Heather

X's & O's Pillow Cover for Valentine's Day

I almost entitled this post XXX's and OOO's....then I quickly realized, that might bring me the type of traffic I'm not interested in...so I quickly omitted a few letters.  Wise choice...wouldn't you agree.

These are my Valentine's Pillow Covers.  I am pretty pleased with how they turned out.  In retrospect, I wouldn't have put the solid yellow fabric in.  It just sticks out a bit.  But in my mind I was thinking it was gold...like jewelry...and I felt like it would work for a V-Day pillow...now that it's all said and done, I should have gone with another cool tone.  But, this is not a pattern testing facility.  I sew in real time and don't have the time or resources to test things out much before I just jump in...both feet...into the deep end.  Sometimes it works, sometimes...I just go with it until I can make something else.  The patterned fabric is from Pat Bravo's Rock N Romance collections...and I think it worked perfectly.  Lovely, soft and romantic!

My X's.  I pondered quite a bit on how to make X pillows...there are several methods and then it dawned on me to make it in the method of a string quilt!  I am so happy with it.  Big smiles over here.  My Ghastlies Halloween Quilt and my husband's Man Quilt are both made with this method...so I clearly like it.  And you can do so many diverse things with this paper piecing technique.   I am actually thinking up a wall-hanging for My Oldest using these X's....we'll see what happens.  Good things, I'm sure.

My Os.  Ohhh.  I also love this pattern.  This is an old fashioned pattern called Shoo Fly and I think it was a blast to make.  I am going to put up tutorials for both of these patterns that I've made next week.  So, stay tuned.  The fun thing about this one, is it's really just a modified 9-patch...which means it works up really fast!  And sometimes, that's just what you want, some fun, fast sewing.

Of course for the back, I used my Pocket Pillow Tutorial which works up like a charm every time.  Listen, I am not going to go to the effort and pain of putting a zipper in my pillow cases when this works so well.

See..Peek-a-boo!  Me, as a hand model.  Thank you, thank you very much.  You can contact my agent for any further gigs.

These both were fun to make and even though I'm not 100% satisfied with some fabric choices, overall I am happy with them both.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Creative Rose Cards for Valentine's

Okay...cards are fun to get and give...except...I'm cheap.  I rarely buy a card...unless I am giving a gift like cash or a gift card.  Instead...I am a big fan of making cards.  My kids always make their own cards for their friends and family members who are having birthdays.  This not only gives them the joy of spending time being creative and making something fun, but I don't have to spend the time buying  a card.  Win-Win!  I do have to buy the supplies, but the nice thing about supplies like this...they make a heck of a lot of cards and/or art projects!  So, I don't mind the expense if my kids are getting their creative on.

This card is a fun one for V-Day.  You need corrugated cardboard, white card stock, patterned card stock, twine, scissors, ink and an adhesive of some sort.

If you don't know what corrugated cardboard is...it's the cardboard that has two layers with a cushion-y, patterned layer in the middle.  Cut a piece about 6 inches wide, or so.  Play with it...you can make the roses smaller or larger depending on how large a piece you use...then you roll it up, loosely, tie it with some twine and...voila!  You have a rose stamp.

Cut a rectangle out of your patterned card stock and fold it in half so the recipient can open it up and read the special message on the inside...cut a small piece of white card stock and glue it on the front of the patterned paper...and then stamp to your heart's content.  You and your kids will have fun with this V-Day project...I also tried to make a stamp out of a potato...in the shape of lips.  That's what the blue is....you can kind of tell they're lips.

Have fun making home-made rose-stamped cards this year for your loved ones.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Best no chill Sugar Cookies....LOVE!

The quest for me is over...to find the perfect sugar cookie.  To be honest, it wasn't really much of a quest....my own mother had the secret to lifelong happiness.  Yeah, it wasn't even hidden away in a secret vault or written on ancient papyrus and tucked away in a chest under the enchanted oak trees in her backyard....it was in her recipe box.  A bit of a let down, you might think but, to be completely honest, that worn little box holds many family secrets and interesting and unique conjurings and spells...AKA the family recipes that have been handed down for generations....

These cookies, like nothing else, mean it is Valentine's Day.  I cannot have Valentine's Day ruined by store-bought sugar cookies when these are so easy and so good. Luckily I happen to have all the necessary ingredients on hand, pretty much all the time as they're pantry basics for me.  And, the best part about this recipe is you don't have to chill the dough! This is good because whenever the mood strikes, you can bake up a batch of these in no time.  I mean, you don't even have to make them just for V-Day!!

The other thing about them, is they're so easy, you make them by hand.  You don't  have to bust out your stand mixer...until frosting time.  Nope.  Cookies that are hand made.  So gourmet and old fashioned of you!

VALENTINE'S NO CHILL SUGAR COOKIES

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper

5 C. Flour (have more on hand for flouring your surface and I always need more to get my dough stiff enough and not be so sticky)

2 C. Sugar

3 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

Combine the above ingredients in a large bowl.

1 C. Shortening

Cut this into the above flour mix by hand. I just mush the shortening around in the dry ingredients until there are no more large chunks. (It'll look a bit like pie dough).  Make a well in the middle of your dough mixture.  This is part of the charm of my mother's recipe...a well, you say?  Just kind of dig out a bit of a dent in the middle.

3 Eggs, beaten

1 C. Milk

1 tsp. Vanilla

Combine the above ingredients together and then pour into the well in the dry ingredients

Gradually blend in flour mixture to the wet ingredients until all flour is incorporated. The dough is likely to be very sticky now, so this is the point where you have to make a judgement call and add additional flour until it is no longer sticky and won't stick to your floured surface when it is rolled out and cut.

Flour your kitchen counter liberally. Roll your dough to 1/8" - 1/4" thick. I err on the thin side, as they do puff up. Test if it is sticking at this point. If so, grab all the dough up and add more flour to the counter and knead the dough into it.  Re-flour your counter top and roll out again. If your dough sticks at all to your counter top, the shapes you've cut will not come off cleanly and will not be as beautiful...oh they'll be tasty, but we're after looks too with these cookies.

Use heart-shaped cookie cutters in all sizes. It was a tradition in my family growing up that everyone got a large cookie with their name on it. That was so special and is something I do for my family now. Plus dozens of little cookies just for munching. But the big cookie was the big deal, and oh how it was savored.

Place on parchment-lined cookie sheets. Don't place too close, but don't worry either, these cookies don't really spread much. So you can get away with an inch between each of them.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. I find that the first couple batches take 10 minutes and then the subsequent batches take around 9 minutes. They should not be brown at all, but remain lily white, but not be gooey in the center at the same time.  The bottoms should be lightly browned.

Allow to cool on paper towels or wire racks, completely.

Decorate with Frosting. YUM!

p.s.  Once you have cut out your shapes, grab up all the scraps that are left, mush them back together and roll it out again so you can cut out even more cookies.  This dough does not get tough. I cannot tell you how many times I have rolled and rolled again.  Use it all up!  The recipe does make...a lot of cookies!

I may have had some little hands helping make these...but that's perfect, the dough is so much fun to play with and so smooth,  the littles will be excited to help you make them...just don't expect perfectly shaped hearts as the end result.

VANILLA BUTTER CREAM FROSTING

3 C. Powder Sugar

3/4 C. Butter, softened

Combine the above ingredients in the mixer until well mixed

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

1-2 Tbl. Milk

Add to sugar mixture and beat until smooth and spreadable. Add red food coloring and mix well.  Add dye until you get your desired shade of pink. Pipe or spread this on your cooled sugar cookies.

Daddy is a big deal at our house.  Use a small tip and you can write out all the names of your family members...this is how they know which giant cookie is theirs!

Embellish as you like with dots and swirls...

You can also violate the sacred tradition of just sugar cookie and pink frosting and let the kids decorate with candy...I wouldn't recommend as...well, just because I'm a bit of a fuddy duddy and like it the way my Mommy did it.

This was my sister's idea...bad, bad sister!

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy these...delicious and easy sugar cookies!

Heather

A Little Piece of My Heart...Valentine's Wallhanging

Big smiles today.  My Valentine's wall-hanging is finished and hanging on the wall as we speak.  It's always a relief when something you think in your mind is going to be pretty...actually is pretty once it's all said and done.  I used two old sheets when making this...The white background fabric was a percale sheet.  Let me tell you a little something about percale...it has the same number of threads going up and down as it does side to side...you know what this means...no stretch.  So, if your quilting needs a little....we'll call it...easing...once in a while, like mine might...then stretch is a big deal.

I will say that I am so happy with how the appearance of this turned out.  On every single one of those half square triangles I used a piece that was red or pink (mostly) and the other half was from another sheet that was a cream color with pretty roses on it (not percale).  This is the perfect meshing of patterns.  I love patterned fabric...but even I can admit that sometimes too many patterns can make your eyes go crazy...so a solid every now and again makes things so much nicer.  I was using the cream floral as my solid...what, it's totally a solid.  Look, if these fabrics are neutrals...then those are solids.  HAHA!  The reason this is good, is because it gives the eyes a place to rest for a minute to regroup from the madness of the other prints.  You do not become overwhelmed by just a ton of wild fabric.

It is hanging in my living room proclaiming for the entire world...Danni of Silo Hill Farm, that even I...have at least ONE Valentines piece for my house.  And yes...that is all I have..unless you count that pillow in the corner there...that is the first half of a Valentine's duo of pillows....the o's.  The x's are somewhere on a piece of paper getting envisioned...

But, my house is grateful.  It feels like it's almost one of the cool houses on the block...finally!  It's like when all the cool kids in school were wearing Guess and Girbaud Jeans...and you got Chic jeans from Shopco...and then...all of a sudden one Christmas, your Mom...I mean Santa...buys you some off-season, clearance item, white Girbaud shorts.  Oh yes...now who's the cool kid.

 Terrible shot of my binding here, but I chose to go with a light binding.  I didn't want to distract attention away from the fun heart.



The back.  I have always enjoyed putting a little whimsy on the back of my quilts.  Whether it's just pairing completely unexpected fabrics or if it's doing a little something like this with some of the scraps I have left over.  Make your backs fun...but cheap!  I do not believe in breaking the bank for the back.



Once Valentine's is over, this is going in My Youngest's bedroom...until next Valentine's when I will steal it from her again.  She loves pink and red.  Although, if you notice the very bottom half square triangle at the furthest tip...she told me I'd done it wrong...but she still liked it.  Gee...thanks.  I guess I could have put a solid square there...but chose not to.  Live and learn.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Shared at these beautiful blogs:
Feather's Flights
Sew Many Ways
Sew Chatty





Blaming it on the head cold

It's not my fault.  I said so in the title.  I am blaming this on the head cold.  If you aren't a quilter...you might not know what I'm talking about...but this is a big fat mistake.  All...or at least mostly all of the triangle points up there should meet neatly in each corner.  If you look closely, you will see that my points aren't matching up.  Any of them.  This is bad...very, very bad.

&*%$#@

The real tragedy is...I didn't make the connection until after I'd cut a goodly amount of fabric and had mis-sewn a grundle of squares made up of half square triangles...right then.

That pile up there...all bad!  I was supposed to cut my half square triangle fabrics into 2.5" x 2.5" squares.  Did I do that?  NO!  I cut them into 2.25" x 2.25" squares.  In an alternate universe somewhere...I may have just said...ehh....what's the big deal with 1/4" anyway and would have kept sewing.

Uhhhh...it is a big deal.  My 18 year old self wouldn't have worried about it, but as I am a much more conscientious quilter now...my 34 year old self knows this is no good.  Clearly my points are nowhere near matching up.  As I was sewing the last two rows I kept thinking, huh, I must not be cutting very accurately because my seams sure aren't matching up very well.  

 But it didn't compute.  I went about my business, kept on sewing then cut up some more fabric pieces...and then I started matching up some of the fabric I'd cut....wrong...with the previous fabric I'd cut...correctly and I thought....huh, man, I see what I did...I cut all this fabric 1/4" too big!!  

And went about "fixing" some of the pieces that were too big...then after I'd cut a considerable amount of perfectly good squares into perfectly unusable smaller squares...realization hit...big time.   Ohhhhhhh man!  I was supposed to cut the half square triangles 2.5" not 2.25"  dangblastitall!

Yeah....that up there is what is known as myself having a conversation with myself...and it's not going very well for...myself. 

So, as it would be terribly difficult for me to find all the patchworks pieces that I cut incorrectly in the above piece, I have made a few measurements and decided what I will do is toss the last two rows.  Those seem to be mostly sewn with the wrong size half square triangles.  There may be some in the previous rows...but it's not as obvious.

Sigh.  It is very disheartening to make a mistake like that and realize all your time and all that fabric are now for naught.

I now have several 2.25" x 2.25" squares made of seriously pink half square triangles.  I will save them, of course, and hopefully find a use for them at some later time.  In the meantime...I will find my seam ripper and weep into my Valentine's quilt as I tear away yesterday's work.

Fear not dear friends, I will not be defeated...I will just pay better attention next time.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Getting my Valentine's butt in gear!

I am not known for decorating my house on holidays except for the big two....Halloween and Christmas.  So, a few days ago I was talking to the lovely Danni from Silo Hill Farm and she told me to get my ever loving tuckus in gear and make something using datgum red, white and pink...it sort of sounded like that...at least it did in my mind.  See, here's the thing, I made a reference to Coal Miner's Daughter in this post and Danni is the only one who caught it...or at least made comment on it.  So, she then recommended me to read a book called...

...I just realized you can hardly read the title on the book up there.  It's called Prayers for Sale, by Sandra Dallas and it's about a woman who has lived in the high mountains of Colorado in a mining community for her entire adult life.  It's early 1900's now and she's an old woman and her daughter wants her to leave her home in the mountains and move in with her. So, she's tidying up her affairs and helping a young wife who has just moved there with her husband, acclimate to mountain life.  It's all about quilting and women passing on wisdom...and so far I am loving it.  Last night The Mister asked me what I was reading and I told him it was about quilting and mining and....he said... No, no...it's too late to talk about quilting and mining.

You see, he used a technique of my own when he wants to talk math and science.  I have a rule that I can only discuss such matters after 8 am and prior to 9 pm.  Apparently he has the same threshold for quilting/mining talk that I do about math/science talk.

Alright, back to matters at hand.  Because of Danni...and all that up there, I have started making a Valentine's wall-hanging.  Now, if you want to see some seriously cute Valentine's decorations, check out her blog that I linked to above.  She's got some talent!!!

I am using a strip technique where you map out your pattern and then sew in downward strips and then sew all the strips together.  Hopefully...when all is said and done, this will be a heart.

The three strips on the right have been sewing together.  I just match up seams and sew.  The two on the left are waiting to be stitched.  It's a bit of an experiment so I'll just see how it turns out.  I am using all half square triangles to fill in the middle bit and I am pointing all the triangles along the outer edge the same directions with a dark color.  Hopefully this ends up looking liking a heart and not something freakish.  We'll see, won't we.

My homemade pattern.  See, anybody can design a quilt.  This particular type of quilt is nothing new.  Just google "heart quilt" and you'll see a dozen similar quilts.  The strip method I am using makes what looks like a daunting task, much simpler.  As I complete a strip, I just draw a line through it and move on to the next.  I count how many white squares on top and bottom I need and how many half square triangles I need in the middle and sew them together in.

Once I had my pattern figured out, I grabbed a pile of red and pink fabric and then set about cutting them into squares.

Of course there's a bit of trial and error when it comes to getting things just right.  See, if you want a square that's 2.25" X 2.25" but you want to make it with a half square triangle...there's a bit of geometry involved and tragically I was a failure at geometry.  So, I had to re-cut all my squares to get everything just right.

One of my favorite things about this quilt is...I'm using old sheets to make up the bulk of it.  The fabric above was an old sheet and I am using it in all my half square triangles.  One half of the square is this and the other half is pink or red.  It is so soft and pretty.

The white fabric on the outside of the heart is also an old sheet.  The Mister thinks I'm a bit of a hoarder because I keep old sheets to use later...but see, I'm not a hoarder because I am actually using them.  Hurray for not being a hoarder!

Well, I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Tasty goodness from a past life

I'm on a low-carb diet.  Blah.  But, it's a good thing and now that I have made it past week 1, I am feeling much better about life in general...until I watched America's Test Kitchen and it was an episode on English desserts.  They made shortbread.  Funny thing about shortbread...I really, really like it.  I love the butteryness (is that a word?) and I love the crumblyness (again?).  I even like the grittyness (I am on one apparently) of it.  It's just good. 

Luckily for me...and you, as I am about to share, a month ago I made a very delicious recipe courtesy of Picky Palate.  They were Chocolate Shortbread Bars and I found them to be most delicious!  In fact, I don't often repeat recipes as I love to try new things, but these...these I will definitely be making again...even though...and this is going to sound kind of heartless; My Oldest did not find them to be enjoyable in the least.  She took one little bite and declared them worthless.  And then, Mr. Because I Can only gave them a 6 out of 10.  But...did that stop him from eating several?  I don't think so.  I think they grew on him and he liked them more than he was letting on...these Shortcake bars...I would like to point out though, are one of the primary reasons I am now on a Low-Carb Diet.  Eat with caution.  They are addictive and you will want to eat the entire pan.

My Youngest and I declared them awesome and they got 10 out of 10 for us.  So there you have it.  There's a 50/50 chance of true love with these.  Oh yeah, I used chocolate M & M's.  My store didn't have white chocolate ones like Picky Palate recommends in her recipe.  I would say if you are looking for a Valentines Day treat, these would be perfect!  Do you notice the Valentine themed M & M's?  Very clever!!!  I even made them decorative by using an individual color for each strip.  Do what feels right.

I am not going to put the recipe here, as I will let you scamper on over to the Picky Palate  if you want to make them, but I am going to give a couple of tips...

This dough is some kind of thick!!!   I used a piece of parchment and mushed it down evenly.  I suppose you could use your hands, but I'm a lady.  If you want to be extra fancy, you could smooth it out a 2nd time with the back of a spoon.  I learned that on America's Test Kitchen.

You will want to make a sling out of foil before adding the dough to the pan. What that means is you will lay a piece of foil lengthwise so that the edges hang out a few inches, and then you will lay another piece of foil going crosswise (also so that the edges hang out above the pan) so that when you need to get the bars out, you just grab the flaps that are on the bottom, and lift up, out of the pan. Very fancy!


Now, time for a lesson on cutting your bars evenly!!

Step 1: Remove bars from pan and let cool completely

Step 2: Cute straight down the middle

Step 3: Cut straight down the middle of the two new pieces you just cut (now you will have 4 pieces)

Step 4: Rotate your bars and now cut straight down the middle of your 4 strips

Step 5: Cut straight down on either side and now you will have 16 fairly even squares.

There you have it.  Now as long as you aren't on a low-carb diet, enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Heather