Westering Women and Cake!

Wow - I had so many problems making this block.  I blame it on Mercury (see below).  Maybe it was having to resize it, then calculate making the half square triangles.  Maybe I'm just not that into this sew along.  

The Lone Elm Tree Block - 9" 

Here is the first block which is too small.

Here are Sheila's blocks

Kathy's first block, which she told me she thought looked liked mens PJs.

Kathy's redo block - I love how free and scrappy it is.

Okay - Mercury!  We get it.  You're in retrograde.

See this link to learn more about it.  I think I'm sensitive because as a Gemini, I'm a Mercury girl and it is my ruling planet.

Hooray for Derby Day.  I always love the tradition of watching.

 Woo Hoo - winner winner - $173.40 on a $12. bet.

We had a nice group meeting up at the quilt show a couple of weeks ago so I decided to bring Birthday cake for my friend, Norma.    It is called Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake.  Yum!

I made a baby cake for Mr. Fun since he wasn't coming to the show.

Mmmm.  It has a warm fudge like frosting.  Did I say Yum?

(Recipe below)

Have a great weekend Everyone.
xo




CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRY CAKE

Cake:
1 pkg plain devil's food cake mix with pudding
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure almond extract

Chocolate Glaze:
1 c sugar
1/3 c butter
1/3 c whole milk
1 pkg. (6 oz; 1 c) semi sweet chocolate chips

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly mist a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with vegetable spray. Set pan aside.

Place cake mix, cherry pie filling, eggs and extract in a large bowl. Blend with a mixer on low for 1 minute. Stop and scrape down bowl. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more. Batter should look thick and well blended. Pour batter in pan, smooth top. Place in oven.

Bake cake until it springs back when lightly pressed and pulls away from the sides of the pan. 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Prepare glaze while cake is hot.

Make a glaze, place sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until it comes to a boil. Boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips. When chips are melted and glaze is smooth, pour it over the warm cake, covering the entire cake. Glaze will be thin but will firm up as it cools.

Westering Women

Happy Friday!  Yesterday Susan came for lunch and sewing and brought her finished Alice Payne top.  It is such a fun fresh pallet.

Well, I knew it was coming, a block in the WW sewalong that would be a challenge.

The Sweet Gum Leaf.  Here is the one from Barbara's post:

And Mine:

Here is how I made mine with HST and 9".

I opened this bottom seam and inserted the stem before appliqueing it.

Here is my friend Kathy's~

And Sheila's with her cute dog Paddy~

Here is a photo of the Eastern Bluebird.  They are very shy.

With my recent success with the Bluebird, I've decided to try for Baltimore Orioles which are a beautiful.  Greedy - I know - but wish me luck.

Aaahhh, that's better.  Last Friday started the outdoor quilting season.  It was fabulous.

Happy Friday I'm hoping to spend the day in the sewing room.  I need to get back in the sewing swing!

xo

Westering Women with Friends

I'm popping for a Westering Women and Alice Payne Update.

My friends, Sheila and Kathy (no blogs) are also hitting the ole' wagon trail on Barbara Brackman's sew along.  We are making them in the 9" size.

Here are Sheila's Blocks for week 1 and 2

Here are Kathy's - I love the little "variance" on the first block ;)

Sheila told me about a ipad, iphone app that you can use to resize the blocks.  It's called BlockFab.  It has a huge library of blocks.  Here is how the anvil block looked in the app.

I'm challenging myself to do it myself so here is my chart.

I also employed this wonderful technique.  It was perfect because 8 was exactly how many I needed for this block - winner!    This is a sheet that Jill sent me years ago. 

Here is the formula:

Take the finished size, add 1" then multiply by 2.  Mark lines on the diagonal, sew on both sides and cut at shown.   Viola' 8 finished HST.

Here are my blocks.

   I had to change out the corners because the darker looks so much better.

It's not too late join in!

Alice Payne Quilting Update:  4 blocks finished!  woo hoo

 I give myself a B - I'm getting most of the back stitches.  I actually get a dot of the back and not a full stitch.  I get called out on it by the judges, but I say "pooh" this is how I quilt.

 MMMmmm the texture always shows up so well on muslin.

 This is the block I'm working on now.  Not a lot of open space here so it seems a little slower going.

Happy Weekend.

xo

Westering Women

I'm opening today with my first block of Barbara Brackman's Westering Women Sew Along.  Last year was so fun I decided to jump in again.

Week 1:   Independence Square - 9 inches

I printed out a couple of sizes and made some re-sizing notes.  It was easy to make this 12" block into a 9" block.  I wanted to do 6" blocks, but didn't have the brainpower yesterday so 9 it is.

I've decided on a color theme for the whole quilt; brown, red and pink.  After 25 years of quilting I learned the hard way to layout my block.

I played with the value placement a little and I'm really happy with it.

At my local guild we had a crayon challenge.  We picked 3 crayons and threw one back.  I ended up with an orange and blue crayon.  We were allowed to add white, black or grey, but I challenged myself to use only the 2 colors.

This was WAY HARDER THAN I THOUGHT.  I guess I just don't work in this free form style well.   I'm calling "Da Bears" for the Chicago FB team whose colors are blue and orange.  I think it is eh - okay.

 I used this fun color print on the back.

 It is 17" square.   Here you can get an idea of the size with my 2 crayons.

My blog friend, Kyle of Timeless Reflections published a nice post about her beautiful basket quilt which also featured my fan stencil.

Kyle had such wonderful things to say about the stencil.  Thanks Kyle for the review and for sharing your amazing talents with us!  Your blog is one of my favorites for inspiration.

We had an easy time with the Blizzard of 2016.  Here is a morning shot of my balcony after a night of snow.

I enjoyed watching this little fellow munch the bird seed that that I had spread on the table.  Once he found it under the snow he settled in for a long snack.

Lastly, here is my little angel.   As a digging out treat we went to Dunkin Donuts and Subway and brought coco along for a ride.  She ate the donuts while we got the sandwiches.  I suppose it was our fault and it could have been worse; we could have gotten the sandwiches first.

I'm off to visit the Harvest Quilters of NJ for my Hex Vex workshop on Saturday.

Are you doing the Westering Women sew along?
xo