Friday, February 28, 2014

Hook




As soon as I saw this new Schnibbles pattern by Carrie Nelson I was definitely hooked!

It was one that I had to make.

The blocks remind me of pinwheels spinning in the wind.  Perfect for Spring!


  






When Sherri and Sinta announced that for this month's parade we could choose whichever Schnibbles pattern we wanted, there was never a doubt in my mind that I was choosing Hook.

My new Botanics charm packs by Carol Friedlander and some bright white screen yardage from the same line had just arrived in the mail.

It was a perfect fit!

Don't you love it when things just work out like that!  











Although I love it and I'm glad I used it, that really light tone on tone crosshatch that I used for the background was a bit tricky.

  It can be difficult to tell which side of the fabric is the "right side" depending on the light.

Even thought I was aware of this, I still sewed one of the inside borders on the wrong way and I had to go back and redo it.

Of course, I didn't do this with any of the small pieces, it had to be one of the longest pieces of the quilt.

 That. Was. Frustrating.

I wish I could say that I'm sure it will never happen again, but I've done that before with a really light border fabric, so there's no telling!

It's all fixed and finished now and I'm so happy with how it turned out.










This orange and blue pinwheel.....that's what I'm calling them......is probably my favorite!

I do have a least favorite too.

It's been banished to the back of the quilt, probably for use as a label.

I made up an extra one in the beginning, just in case, and I'm glad I did.

The color combination on that one just wasn't doing anything for me. 










This quilt was a joy to put together!

I absolutely love 60 degree triangles, so since this quilt was full of them, I was thrilled!

I just love how they go together.

It's fun that it was a little different than what I usually do.

I use Fon's and Porter's 60 Degree Pyramid Ruler that I had gotten for a previous project.

  A piece of blue painter's tape that I placed on the ruler at the correct measurement was really helpful to keep my triangles the correct size. 

My youngest son is taking Geometry right now, so he was really interested in how this one was cut out and put together.










This month's parade on Sherri's blog and on Sinta's blog too will be great!

Since anything goes, as far as Schnibbles pattern choices, it should be a spectacular parade!

Be sure to take a look this weekend and see what everyone chose to make.


This month was a slow blogging month for me.

That includes commenting too.

I just really didn't feel much like writing posts.  No particular reason why.

I was fairly busy, but I was still quilting.  I just needed a break from it I guess.

Since the posts weren't popping in my head, I decided not to worry about it much and I just considered it a little vacation from blogging.

Have you ever felt like that?

It's supposed to be fun, right?  No pressure?

So, I'm hoping to get more posts done next month and write more comments too.

I was still reading your posts, I was just being quieter about it than I normally am.

Thanks so much for coming back to visit and hopefully I'll be back soon!    



Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Red Velvet Valentine cookies and unfortunately the word "things"



Hey, everyone!

Not, surprisingly hearts and flowers don't go over really well at my house. 

With two teenage boys, I'm always on the lookout for fun, little Valentine's things that aren't too Valentiney, if you know what I mean.......okay, I keep telling my eighth grader not to use "things" in his writing and here it is in mine!  And I can't think of anything to replace it, ugh!.......

  I was thrilled when I ran across this cookie recipe last month.

  I think I saw it first on Pinterest, but I can't be sure.








........Somehow they look even better in real life, maybe I should stick to photographing quilts!....... 

Jenny has some great pictures on her blog.

Anyway, these Red Velvet Cake Milky Way Cookies are delicious and so easy too! 

There isn't much more to it than a Red Velvet Cake Mix and Dark Milky Way bars.

I love the regular Milky Ways and I was tempted to put them in this recipe instead of the dark ones, but I'm glad I didn't.









These cookies are so good!

You can find the recipe at Picky Palate if you're interested in giving them a try this week!

I've made these twice recently. 

One batch to test them out, and another to mail to my son in college........We should test the cookies before we ship them don't you think ;-)







The Red Velvet cake mix size I used was 16.5 ounces.

I had read in the comments on Jenny's blog that the cake mix size seems to matter.


My tip is - don't chop the candy bars up too much and don't mix too much after you add them to the batter. 

The larger the pieces, the more you can see them and taste them in the cookie!

Yum!!