Month: February 2012

My Life, New ideas, New Pattern Sample, New quilt pattern, Quick Little Projects

Happy Valentine’s Day

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope you had a nice day with a bit of love included too!

Along with the day-to-day business stuff I made cookies for my valentines.

I love this recipe for two reasons; they taste great and you roll them into a ball then roll the ball in sugar, not the roll out and cut sugar cookie.

Sugar Cookies

From Suzette Krummel Quilt Retreat 1999

1 cup Butter

3/4 cup Vegetable Oil

1 cup Granulated Sugar

1 cup Powdered Sugar

1 tsp. Baking Soda

4 cups Flour

1 tsp. Cream of Tartar

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Vanilla

2 eggs

Decorative sugars or nonpareils

Cream butter, oil and both sugars; add eggs & vanilla.  Sift dry ingredients, stir in and blend.  Chill dough for 1 hour.

Roll a teaspoon of dough into a ball.  Roll in decorative sugar.

Bake at 375˚ for 12 minutes.  Remove to cooling rack.

Yields approx. 8 dozen cookies.

I then quilted my “Heartfelt Table Runner” a mystery I designed for my guild, but soon to be a new pattern.

I also made Valentines for my sweethearts from here.

I just printed out 4 per page onto cardstock, punched a hole and added ribbon and a message then tied them to my gifts.  Isn’t she adorable?

I hope you had a lovely day too!

Until next time,

Susan

My Life, new fabric collection, New ideas, New Pattern Sample, Quilt Retreats

Retreat means sew, sew, sew

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Last weekend I was once again fortunate to attend our annual reatreat at Rosemary’s Quilt Shop in Highland Illinois.

The first floor & basement are the quilt shop floors.  Rosemary lives on the second and third floors.  It’s a beautiful older home and the owner/occupant is a wonderful host!  On the days that she has retreats, she reatreats to the third floor leaving enough sleeping rooms for 6 quilters on the second floor.

For the past 8(?) years a group of us have met for a weekend each winter and sewed, sewed, sewed.  The basement is set up to sew and snack 24 hrs. a day if you want.  Within two blocks there are authentic Mexican, Italian and Chinese restaurants. No need to pack any food!  Of course there are lots of other restautants around town too as well as Walmart, Walgreens, etc.

Another great perk to sewing here is that Rosemary has everything you might need at any time, day or night; fabric of course, basting spray, batting, you get the picture!

This year I decided to take along a project that I started at our quilt designer retreat in November.

I made 7 of the blocks in Minnesota where I bought the book & kit. I pieced all day Thursday (un-pieced half the day on Friday) and finished the top Friday evening.

It’s “Peony Patch” from the book Summer Gatherings by Lisa Bongean & Carole Charles.  The finished size is 20″ x 24″.  It was designed with little leaves on every block, but after I got those appliqued on I didn’t like them!  It took me about 6 hours to remove them and re-sew the stem…  I love it now.  I’m trying to decide how to quilt it.  I’d like to give it to a professional, but it’s so small I’m embarrassed to send it out!

Next I made more of these; mini Dresden plates with my template.

I love using my Clover Mini Iron.

It gets super hot and presses the little petals very flat, plus it’s light-weight and doesn’t heat up the whole room while I’m pressing a million of these things.

Since these seams are pressed open, the mini iron tip can get right in there and press those flat too.

These are looking great with my Salt Air fabrics.

Love, love love them!

Can’t wait to show you how these are going together, but no photos ’til they’re done!

I’ve also got a new lap quilt just for little boys about finished…Nothing like a quilt retreat with all sewing, all the time to get my creative juices flowing!

Until next time,

Susan

New ideas, New Pattern Sample, Quick Little Projects

And on that trip I took this bag

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It’s my “Pack Rat Sack” and I made it the day before we left on our trip.

There is a drawstring to close up the top,

and then a cute clasp,

an inside zipper for small items,

and best of all it folds up super small for travel.

I like this kind of bag to take to the beach (wish I were back there now…) and for shopping while we’re out and about; large capacity, but light-weight.

I see a pattern in its future.

Until next time,

Susan

My Life

New year…

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Yes, but that was last month!  Where have all the days gone???

It’s always a tough transition back to work after the holidays & my birthday…

So we decided to take a last-minute trip to Mexico

and last week David & I were here

relaxing,

eating French food,

drinking,

eating Mexican food,

eating Italian food, (7 restaurants in all)

a bit more drinking,

and this was our room…

Is it any wonder I can’t get back into the swing of things now???

If any of these photos entice you to take in a Mexican holiday, check out the Secrets Silversands Resort at Mexico’s Riviera Cancun.  It’s hands down the nicest place David and I have stayed at and the staff was remarkable!

Now I have a retreat to pack for leaving tomorrow where it will be all sewing all the time and eating out (again!), for three days. I plan to get a bunch of sewing done and come back energized to get working on the new designs that I’ve been dreaming up.

Hope you’re sewing during this lovely, mild winter.

Until next time,

Susan