Marie Antoinette Quilt Block 3

I mentioned in my post earlier today, that I wasn't feeling great for a few days so I was taking it easy.  I did some small projects and started on Block #3 of my Marie Antoinette Quilt.  This is the block before I did any stitching on it:

And this is what it looks like at the moment:

I was in my Cedar Chest over the weekend and found some pieces of vintage jewelry that belonged to my grandmothers.  I decided that I could enjoy having them more if they were on this quilt rather than hidden away in my Cedar Chest so I added the blue floral piece to the left of Marie.  That one belonged to my paternal grandmother.  The snowflake looking brooch belonged to my maternal grandmother.  I'm going to add some silk ribbon roses on either side of that piece.

I have a few other pieces of my grandmothers jewelry that I'll be adding to the other blocks.  Might as well enjoy them!

And these are the recent ornaments that mom and I made.  Mom made the Santas and I made the angels:

Speaking of my mom, her gallbladder surgery is scheduled for December 14th.  The surgeon was trying to hold off until after the holidays but mom has been in so much pain these last few months, they just can't hold out any longer.

And in other news, my Simba kitty seems to be doing much better.  After some research, my vet diagnosed him with Colitis and that was putting the strain on the kidneys.  He's now on special food for Intestinal health and a 3 month regimen of Prednesone.

He's still using my floor from time to time, just for good measure I guess, but 98 % of the time, he's using the litter box.  And, he's looking like he's bulking up a bit.  Not so frail and thin now.  Kathi picked him up to maul him yesterday and she said he feels a little heavier.  He was a 15 pound cat all his life and dropped down to 8 pounds.  He was so tiny but hopefully, is on his way to feeling better.  He actually pounced Lucy the other day so that's a good sign!

A New YouTube Video

Hello Ladies!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  By Friday, I was feeling very burned out.  I know now to pay attention to the warning signs so I've been stitching and taking it easy.  I'll have an update on Block 3 of my Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt soon.  In the meantime, I thought you would enjoy seeing my newest YouTube commercial.  Enjoy!

Vintage Gingerbread Cake Recipe

First, I'd like say thank you to everyone who left a comment for mom yesterday.  I'll help her reply to your messages tomorrow.

I tried a new Gingerbread recipe yesterday and thought I'd share it here.  The recipe is from my grandmothers 1945 cookbook called, "The American Women's Cookbook":

There are 3 recipes for Gingerbread Cake in this book.  I just love the way Gingerbread makes my house smell!

SUGAR & MOLASSES GINGERBREAD CAKE

1/2 cup Molasses
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Shortening (melted)
1/2 cup Sour Milk (to make sour milk, add 1 Tablespoon Vinegar to 1/2 cup milk)
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Ginger
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

Mix all ingredients in order given.  Bake in a 350 degree oven in a shallow pan or muffin tins.

The recipe doesn't say how long to bake this but I made mine into cupcakes and baked for about 18 minutes.

This is a very sweet gingerbread cake.  I made a double recipe and ended up with 24 cupcakes.  I added sprinkes and cinnamon sugar to the top before baking.

Corn Bread Muffins Recipe

I mentioned on Facebook yesterday afternoon that I had just baked some Chocolate Chip cookies and a batch of Corn Bread Muffins.  I was asked for the recipe.  I intended to post it here anyway because, this is the best Corn Bread I've ever had in my life!  It's mom's recipe.  She's been using this one for years and years and although we've both tried others, nothing compares!  So here it is:

CORN BREAD MUFFINS

1 Cup Milk
1 Egg
1 Cup Flour
3 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Cup Corn Meal
1/3 Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Cup Melted Butter

In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  In another bowl, combine all wet ingredients and mix well.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Spoon into cupcake tin lined with cupcake papers.  Bake at 400 degrees for 18 - 20 minutes.  Makes 12 regular size muffins.

You can also bake it in a pan.  Either way, you'll never find a better recipe for corn bread than this one!

In other news, I'll have an update on my mystery crazyquilt project either later today or tomorrow.  I did stitch on it yesterday but want to get a little more stitching done before I post an update. So far, you have some very interesting guesses!  I knew it would be fun to keep you all wondering!  LOL!!!


Tomorrow, Kathi and I will be heading up to Delavan Wisconsin for a Holiday Show at Tall Grass Farm.  If you live in the Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin area, you might want to check it out!  It's a beautiful farm and there will be all sorts of handmade goodies, roving for felting & spinning, handmade soap and more.  Kathi & I were there in October and had a wonderful time!  If you do head out there, look for the girls with the crazy quilt purses.  That will be us!

I'll leave you for now with some new Christmas Tussy Mussy's by mom:

Custom Order - It's A Mystery!

I thought I'd have some fun with all of you!  I have a custom order for a crazy quilt piece.  The finished item will be rather unusual.  Something I've not done before but I know it'll be fun.

I pieced the block over the weekend, pulled some lace and trims yesterday and will start stitching on it today.

This mystery is, I'm not going to tell what it's going to be.  I thought it would be fun for you, my readers, to watch my progress and figure it out on your own.

Stay tuned to see where this goes!

Now Accepting Phone Orders & Email Orders

I had no clue that some people don't care for ordering online.  After having several conversations earlier this week, it's come to my attention that many people either don't want to mess with signing up at Etsy, or just find it easier to pick up the phone and place an order.  It's funny how things come about sometimes.

Mom and I discussed this and we agreed that taking phone orders would be helpful so, here we go!  We are now accepting phone orders as well as email orders.

Everything in my Etsy shop is available to order by phone or email.

To order by phone, click here.  If you call and I'm not here, please leave a message with your name and phone # and I will return your call ASAP. 

To order by email, click here.  Just send me a list of what you would like to order and again, I will reply ASAP.

I will have to send a PayPal invoice via email either way.  It's the only way I can accept Visa/Mastercard payments at this time but who knows what the future may bring!  One step at a time.

With all that said, I will make our entire catalog available right here on my blog (at the tab on the top marked Phone Orders) but that's going to be time consuming so I'll have to add it a little at a time.  For now, everything we offer is available to see on my Etsy site. 

I'm getting ready to list some new items so for now, I'll leave you with the weekends additions:

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

First, I would like to take a moment to say thank you to my very dear and sweet friend, Mary Anne Richardson for being my Guest Blogger yesterday.  I hope you all enjoyed Mary Anne's post and the photos of her gorgeous work! 

I made some muffins over the weekend and they were so good, I thought you would enjoy having the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

3 1/2 cups Flour
2/3 cup Sugar
5 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Milk
2/3 cups Vegetable Oil
1 can Pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 bag Mini Chocolate Chips

In one bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  In another bowl, combine all wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well.  Spoon into cupcake tins and bake at 400 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes.

I used the large cupcake tins and get 12 muffins from this recipe!

I have gobs & gobs of new things to share with you over the next couple of days so please be sure to stop back regularly.

Crazy Quilting For Newbies - Working On A Foundation

 I always work on a foundation fabric.  A medium weight muslin is my foundation of choice.  I find that this stabilizes the block and supports that variety of fabrics used in crazy quilting.

Other than my sewing machine, these are the tools that I use.  A self-healing cutting mat, a rotary cutter, a quilters ruler, a permanent black marker and a glue stick.  And of course, an iron and ironing board.

The first thing I do, is to mark off my fabric.  The center lines are where the fabrics will be sewn.  It's also the sewing line.  This tells me how far I can go with the beading.  I piece my fabrics to the outside border.  This is because the block will shift a bit when adding stitching and beading.  It allows for that shifting and helps to give a little extra room for squaring off the block later.

 I use a black permanent marker because it bleeds through to the back side of the block.  I'll explain why momentarily.

Once you have your block marked, you can choose your fabrics:

These are the fabrics I used on my Marie Antoinette quilt.  If you're like me, you have way more fabric than you'll ever use!  I always seem to be like a chipmunk stocking up for Winter.  Like I'll never find another piece of fabric, bead, button, piece of lace and so on, ever again!  LOL!!

Anyway, choose your fabrics and cut 2 pieces to start with.  I use what's called the "Sew & Flip" method.

The first piece (dark piece) is face up on your foundation.  The next piece goes face down on top of the first piece.

 

Now, just sew your seam.

 

Flip the top piece open and press with your iron.

Apply the next piece and repeat.

 Continue the process until you've covered your block.

I will explain how I do curves in my next article.  For now, turn your block to the backside.  You'll be able to see the marker lines.  Sew on the outside line all the way around the block.  This holds the fabrics down along the outside edge.

Before stitching (and working on the back side of the block) run a basting stitch (by hand) on the inside line.  That's how far you can take the beads!  Don't put beads beyond the inside line.

I will write an article on preparing a block for finishing down the road.  In the meantime, I thought anyone new to crazy quilting might find my process helpful.  If you have any questions, please leave me a comment and I will gladly reply.

Vintage Embroidery Patterns

Mom and I spent yesterday looking through my collection of vintage iron-on embroidery patterns.  I've been collecting these for years and years so my collection is quite extensive now!

It's been awhile since we've had them out and decided we would actually stitch a few.  So mom picked out a couple and so did I.  We traced them onto white quilter's cotton (muslin is fine too) and crayon tinted them:

As you know, I like pink!  LOL!!!

Anyway, Kim had asked me to post some photos of my patterns so she knows what to look for when she's out and about.

The easiest patterns to find are the old Aunt Martha's:

These are all vintage but new versions can be found in Hobby Lobby, JoAnn Fabrics and other craft stores.  You can also order them online from Colonial Pattern Company.


My absolute favorite vintage patterns are Vogart:

Vogart patterns are no longer being produced so the only way to find them is to search them out at Flea Markets, antique shops and Ebay.  I'm not sure why I'm so taken with Vogart patterns.  I think they have a charm that other brands don't have. 

Vogart patterns are pretty easy to find but one of the more elusive brands are Superior transfer patterns:

I've been lucky enough to find quite a few Superior transfers but they are a bit more rare.  Walker and Monarch are 2 other brands of old patterns that you can keep your eyes open for.  I only have a couple of each in my collection but am always on the look out for those.

So how do you find these little things in flea markets and antique shops?  Yes, that's a challenge if you don't know what to look for.  They're small and flat and don't usually jump out enough to catch your eye.

Look for sewing, crocheting and knitting supplies.  Those things are larger and if you find some of them, you might find some patterns tucked in.  Balls of crochet thread, knitting needles, larger pattern booklets, even cookbooks will pop out at you and sometimes these vintage treasures will be tucked in along with them.  Look for bags of old lace, bags of fabric scraps, old quilt pieces....ladies things I guess would be the best way to describe what to look for.  Of course, Ebay has a catagory for vintage transfers under "Sewing Supplies".

If all else fails, visit my friend Vicki at Patternbee.  She too is a collector and offers reproduction patterns that can be ironed on to fabric.  You might also enjoy visiting Vicki's Turkey Feathers Blog.  She shares recipes, photos of her lovely gardens, her hand embroidery, quilts, resale treasures and more.  It's a lovely blog with a very homey feel!

For me, I use a washout blue pen and a light-box since I love my patterns and want to keep them in one piece.  In many cases, I scan mine into my computer, print up a copy and trace them from that.  Any vintage patterns that are red, are much easier to scan and then convert to b/w.  It's hard to see the red line transfers with a light-box.

So what do vintage patterns cost?  They're usually quite inexpensive.  I pay an average of $1 - $2 for vintage Aunt Martha patterns and about $3 for Vogart.  If the patterns are complete and uncut, they'll usually go for a little more.  If the envelopes are still sealed, expect to pay about $7 or $8 for Vogart.

If you would like to learn how to do Crayon Tinting, click here.

Before I head out to stitch, I'll leave you with 2 of my vintage patterns for Thanksgiving:

You should be able to click on them and download to your computer.  If you have any trouble doing that, try here at my Flickr site.

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Marie Antoinette Quilt Block 1 Completed

Yes, I do sleep and I do eat!!  LOL!!!  But I still managed to finish up on Block #1 of my Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt yesterday:

The soft pastel colors of this project are very soothing on my nerves! 

Here is block #2:

I'm not going to start on this right away.  I need to make this project last until March!  Just thought you'd like to see the next one.

For now, I started stitching on some new little felted brooches:

The blue one will have a sea theme with some fishies.  I wanted to use a one of my pieces of vintage jewelry on it but I didn't have any vintage fish that were small enough.  Instead, I'll use some fish charms.

I've been meaning to mention, for those of you who cope with depression, that the November 1st issue of Women's Day magazine has an excellent article on the disorder.  You might want to check it out.  Very good article!!!

Today, I'll be going over to mom's and we'll be making another stack of business cards.  Yes, we make our own!  Mom is not feeling well these days.  She's still recovering from the last surgery and now is having gall bladder problems.  She can't have another surgery so soon after the last one and the medication they gave her is only helping a little bit.  All the pain and discomfort is aggravating her Bi Polar and depression but I know she'll get through it with my help.

I'm planning on having Thanksgiving here this year.  Will have to keep it simple since I'm still not 100% yet either.   Scott said that he would help me so we'll do fine.

That's my news for today everyone!

If you have a free moment, please check out Today's Specials in our shop:

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Update On Marie Antoinette Quilt

I did a lot of stitching on this the past 2 days:

These get quite heavy as I pile on the beads!  Those leaf beads to the right are not purple.  They're pink.  Anyway, I'll be stitching on this for an hour or so before I get myself together to go into town for groceries.

In other news, I added a few new things to the shop.  First, Kathi's precious little snowman watch:

And then mom has been making Christmas ornaments:

I'm not feeling very chatty this morning so I'll wish you all a great day and I'll head off to do some stitching.

Marie Antoinette Quilt Block 1

Among other things, I started stitching on Block #1 of my Marie Antoinette quilt:

I'll be taking this over to mom's with me today and I'll do some stitching while I'm there.

And speaking of being at mom's, she has some emails to answer so if you're waiting for a reply from her, I'll be helping her do that today.

I also put my Pansy piece in the frame yesterday:

I just added it to my Etsy shop in case anyone is interested.

Finally for today, Scott will draw a name for my Snowflake Crazy Quilt ornament & magazine give away when he gets home from work tonight.  I will post the winner's name tomorrow morning!

Good luck everyone!

Low Carb Pizza

It doesn't get any easier than this! 

I cooked 1 pound of mild Italian sausage then drained it on paper towels.  Actually, I wrap it up in paper towels to get rid of as much grease as possible.

Spread about a Tablespoon of pizza sauce (I used a canned pizza sauce that didn't have any corn products in it) on a 6 inch flour tortilla.  Sprinkle with a little shredded mozzarella cheese, add some Italian sausage and add a bit more mozzarella cheese.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and some Italian seasoning and bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

You can of course use any toppings that you like.  I just thought I'd share how I make pizza to cut back on the carbs.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe

I cannot take the credit for this one!  This is Kathi's recipe and it was so good, I asked her for the recipe and if I could share it here on my blog.  You would never know there was zucchini in here.  This cake is so moist, so chocolately and so incredibly good, you'll have a hard time leaving it alone!

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Ingredients
… for the cake

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) butter
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (4 ounces) sour cream
2 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
¼ cup Hershey Special Dark Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup Hershey Cocoa powder or a Dutch-process cocoa
2 teaspoons espresso powder
2 cups shredded zucchini (about one 10″ zucchini)
1/2 cup Ghirardelli large chocolate chips
… for the icing

6 oz heavy cream
9 oz Ghirardelli chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly coat a 9″ x 13″ pan with baking spray
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, oil, sugar, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat in the eggs.
Stir in the sour cream alternately with the flour. Then add the cocoa and espresso powder, mixing till smooth. Finally, fold in the zucchini and 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake for 35 – 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and cool on a rack.
To prepare the frosting, heat the heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate chips (chocolate must be at room temperature). Wait 3-5 minutes then stir to combine. It may take a few minutes of stirring for the ganache to come together. It will thicken as it cools… when warm (but not hot) pour over cake and smooth over the top. Allow frosting to set for about 30 minutes before serving.

Directions For Crayon Tinting

I've been asked many times about Crayon Tinting and how to do it so I thought I'd give you a quick tutorial on it.

It's actually quite easy and the results are beautiful!

I recommend using 100% cotton fabric such as Muslin, Quilter's Cotton or Kona Cotton. The fabric should be washed beforehand to remove the sizing.

Trace or transfer your pattern onto your fabric.

Before coloring, make a pad of several layers of extra muslin. Lay the piece that you want to color on top of the pad. This will give that soft tinted look that you see in my pieces.

Then simply color as desired. I usually start out very light and then build up my color closer to the edges. I also use several shades of the same color in my pieces. This gives it a little more dimension.

When you're satisfied with your tinting, place your piece between 2 sheets of paper or paper towels and heat set with your iron.

Then stitch as desired.

If you have any questions about Crayon Tinting or anything that I've discussed here at my blog, please don't hesitate to leave a message for me here or you're welcome to send me an email.

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