What eight hours of baking looks like...

My friend Nacole and I thought it would be 'fun' to send out valentine's cookies.  I made 4 batches of dough (using my only go-to recipe for sugar cookies - The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies) the night before hoping I made enough.

This is 2 batches of dough:

Hours and hours of baking later we had these.  But then we still had 2 entire bags of powdered sugar to go to frost all of them.  There's approximately 260 cookies here.

Our spirits gave up the last couple hours.  There's nothing 'perfect' about these cookies other than they taste freaking amazing.

They dripped all over the place.  I still suck at frosting.

I think Nacole tried every design she could think of:

But everyone loved them! :)

The recipe I use for frosting is here: Sugar Cookie Icing

Del Hi Quilt

My friend is due at the end of this month to have a baby, and I was attempting to beat that due date and get this to her early.  She got the package today in the mail so I'm good to post the photos I've been hiding now!

This is a modified Colorbrick Quilt.  As I flipped through the in-process photos on Flickr for that quilt-a-long, I loved the way it looked pieced with just the vertical sashing between the blocks.  I added a few rows for length too. It is supposed to be a baby quilt... but I wanted it big enough so it didn't have to be. Since it measures approx 60x50 there is really nothing 'baby quilt' about this.

I had fabric photo exchanges with her so she could pick out the fabrics she liked.  This Del Hi line from Valori Wells has a lot of large prints, so I needed a quilt design that wouldn't take away from them.  These blocks are cut at 10" x5.5" and worked out perfect.

The back is the remaining blocks and a place where I actually got to show off the butterflies without them being chopped in half.  I just randomly pieced as needed and as fabric supply allowed.

The quilting I debated forever until I saw freshly pieced's quilt and finally decided on wavy lines.   This is the wavy stitch on my machine at max width/length.

Here's a couple in process photos while I was rearranging the blocks.  (btw - That is the The Practical Guide to Patchwork on my coffee table)

I love the way the sashing instantly brightens it up.

More pillowcases

My husband wanted something made for him.  This is the best I could do.  All my fabrics are pink and/or covered in flowers/polka dots...etc... so I made a special order for this Pac-Man fabric from Timeless Treasures.

 I used the same tutorial that I used for my first pillowcases and my Love pillowcases from the Magic Pillowcase Tutorial but added the red stripe this time.

 It's cute, therefore he has no choice but to like it:

Mug Rug Swap

The Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild had a mug rug swap for our February 2011 Meeting tonight.  I modeled mine after the logo created by Andrea:

the back I just filled up with the left overs:

Used Kona Spearmint, Ash, Azure and Caribbean

Here's all of them!

Vic @ ZanyQuilter presented a Wonky Blocks Tutorial and let us chop up her her Central Park layer cake to make the blocks.  This was first time having to haul my sewing machine crap away from home so I attempted to be organized.  I got a Petite Press Portable Iron and a portable iron/cutting mat from Joanns with sale upon sale.  This is something I needed at home anyways because with my big iron I open seams while shutting others at the same time and I'm constantly running back and forth between the iron and the ironing board.  So this solves two problems!  But then I lost my 1/4" foot.  I realized how much I love that foot as soon as it goes missing.  I'm not even bothering hunting for it... I've already ordered another.

Here's my finished blocks.  These are actually the first 'quilt blocks' I've ever made.  The fabric is super cute too.

and here's all of them!

Kitchen Chairs

Here's the before and after of my dining room chairs! I recovered them in Anna Maria Horner Shadow Fabric in Ivory from her Drawing Room line.

These little buggers didn't want to come out. It looks like someone was working overtime to put all those staples in.

You are now looking at 175 staples from the bottom of ONE CHAIR. (I counted because I was mad...) My hand was bruised for a week from pulling these out. We did all four of these but it took a couple of days! And by we, I mean I made asked my husband to help.

Trinidad Flag Pillows

This was also made as a gift.  I pretty much winged it.  One fits a 20" pillow and the other a 16".  I used all Kona Red, White, and Black and quilted it with diagonal 1" lines following the stripe.  The inside is all lined nicely with muslin and of course I added a invisible zipper so it's easy to wash!  Here's a quick and easy invisible zipper tutorial courtesy of Sew Katie Did.

Cool Scrap Pack

This arrived in the mail the other day.  Surprise fabric is fun. :)  It gives me a chance to get stuff I wouldn't normally pick out.  It's the Cool Scrap Pack from Hawthorne Threads.  Most are 1/4 yard, a couple are fat quarters, and just one is about 4" x WOF (bottom left).



Top From Left
1 - Riley Blake - Samantha Walker - Enchanted Garden - Rows of Dots in Turquoise
2 - Anthology Fabrics - Diane Kappa - Sweet Tooth - Ogee in Teal
3 - Timeless Treasures - Totally 80s - Boomboxes in Black
4 - Amy Butler - Love - Bali Gate - Periwinkle
5 - Benartex - Kitty Yoshida - Prospect Park - Through the Branches in Espresso
6 - Anna Maria Horner - Garden Party - Receiving Line - Ice

Bottom From Left
1 - Studio E - Flourish - Beads
2 - Valori Wells - Del Hi - PomPom - Sapphire
3 - Michael Miller - Patty Young - Flora And Fauna - Ta Dot - Sea
4 - Riley Blake - My Minds Eye - Love Birds - Strips in Blue