Happy Halloween!

Snow In October

I don't care if you are a snow lover or not, there's just something WRONG about snow in October! I guess I shouldn't complain about the dusting that we got...some people not far from here woke up to over a foot of snow this morning!

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

The cold, windy, rainy and snowy weather is not only good for quilting, but it is also good for baking! Last week I found a recipe for peanut butter sandwich cookies and being the peanut butter lover that I am, I had to try them. Let me tell you...they did not disappoint!

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Cookies:

1/2 cup shortening

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons peanut butter

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup flour

Filling:

1/2 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon finely crushed graham cracker crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar with an electric mixer. Add the egg, salt, and peanut butter and beat until well blended. Put the oats in a blender and blend on medium speed until they are almost as finely ground as flour. Add the oats and flour to the mixture and blend well.

Pinch out small portions of dough and roll into 1-inch balls in the palm of your hand. Press these flat on ungreased cookie sheets so that they form 2-inch circles.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until light brown around the edges. While the cookies bake, combine the filling ingredients in a small bowl. When the cookies are cool, use a butter knife to spread a thin layer of filling on the flat side of a cookie and press another on top. Repeat.

Makes 2 dozen cookies or 1 dozen sandwich cookies.

*Don't let the fact that there isn't any baking powder or baking soda in the cookie recipe throw you off...follow the recipe as is and they will turn out perfectly. However, I did make a change to the filling and added a tablespoon or two of milk to make it easier to spread.

Trick Or Treat?

I guess fall is going to be over before Halloween even gets here this year. Snow in October is one of Mother Nature's worst tricks, but the treat is that it is perfect quilting weather!

Time To Get Busy!

Between a visit from my brother and battling a nasty sinus infection I haven't had much time to spend in the sewing room lately, but now it's time to get busy! Our fourth granddaughter is due in a little over a month and I have yet to start on her quilt. The theme for the nursery is "tea party" and I found this tea party fabric by Susan Branch last spring when I was in Lancaster and I think it will be the perfect base for this quilt. If all goes well, I hope that I will have a lot of tea party quilt updates to show you this week!

Wind Wrap & Sew

Here's a great video tutorial based on the book It's A Wrap by Susan Breier to help get you started on making a fabric bowl of your own.

Clothesline Bowl

Awhile ago my friend, Maryann, showed me how to make baskets and bowls by wrapping fabric strips around cotton clothesline and then zig-zagging the cord together to form a bowl. Today I finished my bowl and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. This could easily become a new obsession for me! It's a great way to use up leftover strips of fabric and the result is a really neat scrappy bowl!

Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild 2008 Show

Thanks to Anya and our guild's webmaster, Nick, there is now a wonderful slide show of the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild's 2008 exhibit on YouTube! Enjoy!

Another Sugar Cookie

These cookies aren't what you would call "traditional sugar cookies". They are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside and wonderful with a hot cup of tea!

Crackled Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Granulated sugar for rolling

Cream together shortening and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in cream of tartar, baking soda, salt and flour; mix well. Shape into walnut size balls, roll in granulated sugar, and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes or until tops are slightly cracked and sides are set (do not let edges brown).

Changes

Every third Saturday for the past three years I have worked with several other ladies from our quilt guild to teach a group of children to quilt. The program has been completely sponsored by the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild and at one time had as many as 25 children enrolled. Unfortunately, attendance has dropped considerably over the past year and it was decided that it is time for the youth sewing group, as it is now known, to end. I have enjoyed working with this group of children, especially watching their sewing skills improve, and sharing in their excitement as their quilting projects took shape. I am really going to miss working with this group of kids, but as the saying goes, "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" and that will be true in this case as well. With the ending of the youth sewing group will come the beginning of a series of basic quilting classes geared for beginners of all ages. It is our hope to be able to help preserve the art of quilting in our community by providing classes for all of those who want to learn and not just children. Even though I am sad to see the youth sewing group come to an end, I am looking forward to this new endeavor and meeting a new group of future quilters.

Quilting For Charity

Once a month I get together with several of my quilty friends to make quilts for various charities. Yesterday five of us were able to put together eight tops, that once finished will be donated to Project Linus.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Project Linus, it is a non-profit organization that provides handmade quilts, blankets and afghans to children who are hospitalized, seriously ill or otherwise in need.
You don't have to be an expert to create a blanket that is beautiful to a child and Project Linus quilts are a great way to try out new patterns or techniques. If you can quilt, crochet, or knit - please consider making a blanket for a child who needs a little extra love.

Another Disappearing Nine-Patch

After I finished my Priority Hope Challenge top on Saturday I decided to cut the remaining larger scraps into 6" squares for a disappearing nine-patch crib quilt. If you look closely you will see a few four patch blocks mixed in because I didn't get enough 6" blocks from the scraps for the whole quilt, but I'm pleased with the overall look and how it turned out.

Priority Hope Challenge

Here is my finished top for the Priority Hope Challenge that Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting is sponsoring. It was my first attempt at free pieced letters and for a first try I don't think it's too bad. It was a little strange to be working without a pattern, but it didn't take too long for me to find out that I really like the "if it's too long, cut it off and if it's too short, add to it" method! Once I finish this quilt it will be donated to Ami Simm's Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. If you would like to try free piecing this is a great starter project and it can then be donated to a great cause! The deadline for the challenge is November 20th, so there is still time to join in.

We Need To Do This More Often!

I think all of the ladies who attended yesterday's MLQG Mini-Retreat had a wonderful time...I know I did! It was fun visiting with everyone and seeing all of the different projects that they were working on. The pot luck lunch was out of this world...I think we all know that quilters are the best cooks! The 2 1/2" noodle swap went well too. As you can see by the photo, I now have a nice selection of batik strips for a yet to be determined project. There were several requests for us to have another mini-retreat this winter and I have to agree...I think it's something that we need to do more often!

Back To Sewing!

Our son and daughter-in-law have gone back home to North Carolina and now it's time to get back to sewing. I can't think of a better way to get back in the groove than by spending the whole day at a mini-retreat with my quilty friends! I have several projects packed and ready to go as well as a plate full of cookies to share with everyone. We're also swapping 2 1/2 inch batik noodle strips. The batik I chose to swap is shown in the photo...it was brand new at our local quilt shop and the first cut off the bolt, so hopefully it will be different from all of the others. It's going to be fun coming up with a project for this batch of noodle strips!

The Quilt ~ Joshua Creek

Today I Am Eating Cake!

Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake!

Busy, Busy!

October usually brings perfect weather, beautiful fall foliage and a lot of visitors to our part of Pennsylvania and it is certainly true for us this year! Our youngest son and daughter-in-law are visiting this week as well as my mother's sister and her two daughters, so needless to say I am very busy with family activities. If you don't see a lot of blog activity from me over the next week or so don't worry...I'm just off having fun with my family!

Cowboy Quilt Top!

The top of the cowboy quilt is finished! The job of removing the foundation paper from the star blocks wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated thanks to Carol Doak's foundation paper. The paper came out easily and didn't leave those annoying little bits that require tweezers to get them out of the seam. Tomorrow is the baby shower, so I will wrap the top just so that everyone can see it. I would have liked to have had the whole quilt finished by the shower, but life does get in the way of quilting sometimes and my daughter-in-law understands. Next week I will work at piecing the back and decide how it should be quilted and I have promised that it will be done long before the baby arrives!

Do You Selvage?

I discovered Karen Griska's Selvage Blog awhile ago and my life hasn't been the same since! I never used to cut the selvages off of my fabric before cutting it...I would just trim the little end pieces as I cut, but now I make sure to cut the selvage in one long piece first and rather than tossing it in the trash, I fold it and add it to a basket of other colorful selvage strips. Who knew that there were so many things to make with selvages and why did it take me so long to realize that I was wasting valuable fabric every time I tossed a selvage into the garbage?

Recently Karen posted photos of a selvage key chain that one of her readers had made. Right then and there I knew I had to make one for myself! I found the plastic key tag next to the photo frames at WalMart, added a couple tiny pieces of selvages, a few minutes at the sewing machine, some careful trimming and presto...a unique quilter's key chain!