Keychain Swap

 

I finished the keychain for the RATZ Swap that I'm involved with on Flickr! I used a scrap of Lila Tueller Soiree fabric and embellished it with a little embroidery. Added a button and stitched all the way around.

I can't show you the back, because it will give my partner away! But it is an initial that has a few embroidered flowers on it. I'm shipping it today and when it finds it's new home, I can show you the rest!

Winners!

Thank you all so much for entering my Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day contest! There were some awesome prizes to be had out there! I enjoyed visiting some fun new to me blogs and entering as well.

I had three Bunny Hill Designs Ooh La La Layer Cakes to give away! I picked one winner for each colorway and required that each person tell me which color they would pick.

Here are the winners:

Grey:

Blue:

Pink:

Congratulations to my three lucky winners! I will ship your prizes on Tuesday the 29th because of Monday's holiday.

And just in case you are curious (because I was!) Here is the tally for who wanted which colorway:

Grey: 209

Pink: 127

Blue: 104

 

Thanks again for stopping by my little neck of the woods and hope you'll visit again soon!

Maple Snickerdoodles

I have to admit, Snickerdoodles have not always been my favorite cookies. A little bland maybe? But my kids love them, so I've made them now and again. Then I came across this recipe and I'm in love! 

  Maybe it's the extra sweetness, or just that I love maple flavor, but I don't think I'll ever go back!

Here is the secret ingredient that makes them so special. Maple Sugar! Doesn't that just sound delightful? I'll admit it's a little frivolous. This stuff doesn't come cheap. In fact, I didn't try this recipe for a long time because I couldn't find Maple Sugar except online at a hefty price! But good old Trader Joe's carries it now, so I knew I had to give it a shot. And it was worth it!

 See those yellow crumbs on the cookies that look like cornmeal? Maple Sugar, yum!

Maple Snickerdoodles

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup maple sugar
• 6 tablespoons REAL maple syrup
• 2 eggs

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup maple sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and maple syrup. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients until just mixed. In a small dish, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup white sugar, the maple sugar, and cinnamon. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and roll the balls in the sugar mixture. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies will be crackly on top and look wet in the middle. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. 

Makes about 5 dozen.
 Enjoy, but don't say I didn't warn you!  

And FYI, if you don't have access to maple sugar you can replace it with white sugar and add more cinnamon to the topping sugar. :) 

 

Giveaway Day, Yay!

I have not had a giveaway on my blog for a very, very, very long time! I thought that Giveaway Day over at Sew, Mama, Sew! would be the perfect time to do just that.

Because it's been so long, this giveaway is going to be BIG, HUGE, GINORMOUS, did I say BIG?! I'm giving away not one, not two, but THREE LAYER CAKES!! Come back and read more after you've revived yourself.

Okay, so here's the deal. I have three Bunny Hill Designs Ooh La La fabric layer cakes from Moda. One is the BLUE colorway, one is the PINK colorway, and one is the GREY colorway.

Photo: Bunny Hill Designs

Here's how you win:

Leave a comment on this post and tell me your FAVORITE colorway (blue, pink, or grey). 

I will pool the comments for each colorway. Then I will pick one winner for each of the three layer cakes.So remember to leave a comment for the color that you want, because that's the one you'll get!

Fine print:

This giveaway will remain open until May 25th at 5pm PST.

I will contact the winners by May 27th and ship by June 1st.

I will ship internationally!

Visit Sew, Mama, Sew! for more awesome giveaways! And while you're at it, follow my blog! C'mon, you know you want to make a girl's day, right? :) Good luck!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012!

I have loved being a part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side for a few years. It's such a great way to find inspiration in all the wonderful quilts out there. And it's that time again!

I'm going to share a recent quilt that I finished, the June Bug for Jennesee. This was made for my cousin's daughter for her baptism day. She helped pick the fabrics and the pattern and wanted ric rac and buttons. I love the way it turned out, it's such a happy quilt! It is a full size bed quilt. I put cozy minky on the back and it was machine quilted.

The best part of the festival this year is the prizes! Amy is making categories and we can vote on our favorite quilts. So get on over there and vote people! 

 On a side not if you want to vote for my quilt, you would make beautiful little Jennesee very happy :).

Farmer's Wife Friday

 I finished up some blocks in the past couple of weeks. As you may have guessed Farmer's Wife Friday won't be happenin' every Friday! I go in spurts. What are you going to do?

  
The Four Winds block was tricky. At first I had made the inner pinwheel yellow polka dot to match the Flower Pot block, but it just died with that green. I decided red would show it off better and it worked.

 I have seriously been waiting for forever to do the Friendship block! Something about the simplicity of it. And I knew just what I would do with it, polka dots! It's polka-dotty alright. I stayed with that theme for the next block too. Only I'm thinking it looks like the Red Cross logo. Oh well, I'm going to stick with it. What do you think?

Mother's Day Gift

My Mother's Day was wonderful. My little Mags made me a cereal bar breakfast with juice and muffins. I got beautiful pink hydrangeas. And my favorite, homemade cards from school. I was actually a little sad my oldest is in high school and they don't go there anymore.

Of course as moms we don't always get what we might really want gift wise. So we have to take the matter into our own hands. This was my Mother's Day gift to myself. I had forgotten to include this on my list of fabric wants! Moda's California Girl by Fig Tree Quilts.

Even though I'm not a big blue person, this line just called out to me. Maybe it's because I'm a California Girl myself. It just feels like a summer day. I plan on making a Granny Squares quilt with it.

Photo: Blue Elephant Stitches

Here is a great Granny Squares tutorial on Blue Elephant Stitches blog. It is so popular it sparked it's own I ♥ Granny Flickr group. I just love the simplicity of it and of course it looks like flowers. How could I resist? I'll keep you posted!

Happy Mother's Day!

Walk in the Park Quilt

It's always so fun to see one of your quilt patterns made by someone else! Lindsey made my "A Walk in the Park" quilt and posted it to my Craft Sew Create Flickr group and I wanted to share it. 

 

She used Moda's It's a Hoot fabric by MoMo. I love how she kept each row in the same colorway and I love the contrasting brown and white borders. Amazing job Lindsay!

If you've made any of my projects, I would love to see them! Post to the Flickr group or send me a picture to craftsewcreate@gmail.com. 

Key Chain Fun

Now that Doll Quilt Swap Round 12 is done, the swap mamas decided to come up with a fun way to pass the time in between the swaps. And decided to do well, another swap!

They are calling it the Rapid and Tiny Zakka Swap, or the RATZ Swap! Cute little projects that can be done quickly to keep our swapping hands busy.

This month's swap is a key fob/chain/holder. Perfect, I currently do not have a key chain and the keys just look so lonely. Here is my mosaic of some of the darling little key chains out there in the world.

I just got my partner and it's time for the creating to begin! Hmmmm, what to do?

 

Primary Teacher "Nuts" Thank You FREE Printable!

Like I've said before, I serve in my church in the Primary where we teach children up to 12 yrs. Each age group has a teacher and those teachers work hard! We decided that once a month we would give them a thank you with a little treat attached. I thought I might share what I've done. Maybe you need some simple little thank you ideas.

This month I steered away from chocolate and went nuts! I found these cute little packs of almonds at WalMart for only $2.48 for 7 packs. Perfect! Then I made a little tag, punched a hole and tied a bow. If you'd like a FREE printable of the nut tag, I made one for you! 
Click HERE for a PDF that says, With Love, The Primary Presidency
Click HERE for a PDF that says, With Love, and then is blank

It's so simple, but it's so fun to see the smiling faces on the teachers when we hand them out. Everyone likes to feel appreciated! Thank you teachers!