Friday Finish: Pointy

Well, here it is a week later than it was supposed to be! I finished this up before I left for Atlanta, but only managed to get a picture of it a couple days ago.

This is an Elizabeth Hartman design, and it uses her signature elements of strong graphic design, solid colors, and a linen background. This was fast to sew together, but then languished in my "to-be-quilted" drawer for almost two years! I'm glad I finally finished it up, because I really think this is a cool quilt.

I quilted it in a meandering geometric squares design that I seem to use on my more "modern" quilts - something about the straight angles seems to suit these types of quilts more than my loops or swirls. The backing is a Jill Gordan print that I've had for awhile. I wasn't sure how the floral would work with the solids in the front, but I think it turned out fine.

The linen/cotton blend used as the background is a little heavier than regular cotton, so this quilt has some nice heft to it...perfect for the cooler MN weather coming our way!

Basting Dreaming

Finally, the 6th quilt in the "Finish 6 Quilts" initiative! I picked this one to work on, because like "Pointy", the top has been finished for awhile now and it just feels good to move some of those projects on and be DONE with them.

This quilt is made entirely from batik fabrics, and batiks have a much tighter weave to them than normal quilting cotton. This makes pushing the basting pins through them a bit more challenging, and my poor fingers are hurting as a result!

Look at the "frankenstein" batting for this one! I pieced it entirely out of batting scraps from other quilts. I just sew them together on my machine using a big basting stitch and a tiny barely-there seam allowance. This is frowned on, as the seams cause a ridge that could theoretically be seen, felt, noticed in quilts...but I've found that the bulk from the seams in the quilt top hides any bulk from batting seams. Would I do this for a show-quilt or something extra special? No! But for my regular everyday quilts, this works just fine. Batting isn't that cheap...might as well use it all up!

Some Travel and Embroidery

I had a friday finish all ready to go last week....but then I forgot to take a picture of it and I didn't realize it until it was 5 a.m. Friday morning and I was on my way to the airport to visit a friend in Atlanta! So no blogging, no sewing, no nothing for awhile.

Instead of all that, I had a great few days of catching up with my friend, getting a lovely massage, pedicure, lounging by her pool, and eating some good southern BBQ.

One thing I did accomplish was a little embroidery project. I belong to the CozyBlue Stitch Club, so once a month I get sent a cute little embroidery project, complete with a printed-on design and thread. I'm a few months behind on these, but sitting at an airport is PERFECT for a little embroidery work, and I was able to complete this pretty barn quilt design. The whole thing is made with the satin stitch, and I'm not such a great satin stitcher...but nonetheless I'm please with my embroidered quilt - the next best thing to making a real one!

Pointy Quilting

The "Pointy" quilt has been basted and ready to go for over a week now, but I haven't had much sewing time to start working on it! I finally sat down at my machine for an hour yesterday after work and started working on this guy.

I'm doing my sort of boxy geometric stipple that I also used on the "Aviatrix Medallion" quilt, and so far so good.

Should have this finished up by the end of the weekend!

Another Cross Stitch

Cross stitch has just been something I've been into lately, so I finished another one - more butterflies!

Recipe Time: Baked Donuts

I love donuts really a lot. I once paid $40 do go to a donut crawl, where a bajillion people stood in line in the rain for hours on end all to eat donuts from a selection of local shops. So, eating donuts I'm a big fan of. Making donuts? Not so much - the oil, the smell, the mess. Plus they're only good while they're warm, and the next day you're stuck with a bunch of cold oily pucks nobody wants to touch and a gallon of oil you don't know how to get rid of.

Enter this phenomenon called Baked Donuts! You have to buy a special pan, yes. But once that $10 investment is made at Target, you're good to go! You can make all kinds of donuts with about as much trouble as a batch of cookies, and there's no old oil, no icky smell, no expiration date of approx 4 hours.

Are there downsides? A few small ones. First of all baked donuts are not the same as fried donuts because that hot oil imparts a certain kind of magic that just can't be replicated with the oven. I'd say they're about 80% as good, like the equivalent of cauliflower mashed potatoes - you know it's not QUITE the same, but not enough for it to matter a whole lot.

I've also heard some people say that baked donuts just taste like muffins with a different shape, and I think that's where the recipe you use is really important. You want one that uses yeast for the leavening vs. just baking powder. I don't understand the science behind if all, but the yeast makes the donuts more donuty instead of muffiny. The recipe I used is from The Kitchn, and I'd say it's just about perfect but for a few small changes:

• The recipe says to pipe the dough in the pan, but it's too thick for a piping bag and I just dolloped it in the pan with a spoon instead.
• Instead of making the two different glazes, I made one batch of the vanilla glaze and dipped 1/2 of them in that, then added chocolate and dipped the other 1/2 - so 6 plain glazed donuts, 6 chocolate. 

Friday Finish: Snapshots

This is may be the cutest block of the month I've ever done. Each month was just better than the other- Teapots! Dogs! Picnic Baskets! Cake! Pretty much all my favorite things are represented in this quilt, and I've been excited to get this finally finished up.

One thing I knew I wanted to do was to fix the ice cream block - remember how I screwed this up and one of the ice cream scoops looked all weird? In that moment I didn't have energy to redo it, which was stupid because it was a lot harder to go back and fix it a couple years later, let me tell you. When will I ever learn that lesson? Get it right the first time Ruthann! I seam-ripped the offending parts out, redid it, and sewed them back in.

I quilted this with an all over spiral design, backed it in a combination of a Bonnie & Camille print from Moda, and a Connecting Threads floral, and the binding is the same print as the narrow block borders.

A very special aunt has claimed this one right from the beginning when I started working on this in 2015, so this one will be going to Aunt Alice!