Category: Projects

Perfection

Entertaining

In the three years we’ve lived in our home, we’ve had overnight guests more than 50 times.  I’ve always wanted to have a trademark treat that I leave in my guest room for our guests when they come.  I’ve tossed several ideas around and have done a few things here and there, but never struck on something that was simple, practical, economical and uniquely me.


Well, now I’ve got it.  My lavender shortbread cookies are my trademark treat.  Everyone loves them, and it’s my own recipe.  I can make them in advance and have them ready for my guests.  So, I’ve been fiddling with them a little bit, and now they’re perfect.  Introducing my new and improved lavender shortbread.


Being smitten with all things “bird” for the past year or two, they’re now bird shaped cookies.


Bird shaped lavender cookies, dipped in milk chocolate.  I decided to try vanilla flavored as well.  It’s delicious.

And since I’m always craving lavender lemonade at this time of year, I decided to formulate a lemon coating as well.


Oh my, they’re good!  Now I’ve got three different flavors that my whole family loves, all ready to share with our guests.


Oh, but that’s not all.  I’ve had so much fun playing with some of these ideas that I also tried making these lavender bites.


Candy coating, lavender shortbread middle.


They’re so pretty and yummy it made me giddy when they turned out just how I hoped.


So, if you’re among those who have stayed with us before, it looks like you need to come again!  Or ask really nicely, or have a birthday or something like that so I’ll make you some.

I’ve got a long road to travel before I’m as organized as I’d like, but it sure feels good to do the little things sometimes.

Isn’t life fun!

Hopeful Homemaker

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Beauty in Monotony

Musings on Life and Beauty, Quilting and Sewing

Most projects  have steps that are fun and some that are necessary but really not enjoyable.  Basting quilts are, for me, necessary but not very fun.  Who likes kneeling on the floor to put a couple hundred safety pins through three layers of fabric?


As I basted my Chirp Chirp quilt, I straightened up for a minute to rest my back and my eyes fell on my basket full of safety pins.

Beautiful.  And the whole exercise was changed.

Today I wish you a glimpse of unexpected beauty in some monotonous activity.

Jennifer

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Chirp Chirp Quilt Top

Quilting and Sewing



I put together this very basic quilt top in an afternoon.  The pattern comes from the Spring 2010 issue of Quilts and More.


Instead of piecing together strips of solid colored fabric for the stripes, I swapped in a striped fabric that I absolutely love.  Doing this meant that piecing the quilt top (excluding the applique) required only 5 seams.  Talk about easy!  Sometimes it’s nice to work on something simple in between more complex projects.  While I loved the idea of a large bird on the quilt, the bird in the pattern wasn’t my style, so after a bit of brainstorming, I changed the background shape and drew a bird on a branch.

This is my finished quilt top.


I love the way fabric choices and a bit of tweaking can change the way patterns look.  The original quilt in pastels is lovely, but I also love the way the deep blues make it more sophisticated.


The fabric I used for this quilt is, once again, Rural Jardin by French General for Moda.  Part of my motivation was to make a quilt using the bird print in the deep blue colorway, which is my favorite print in the collection.  Scrapping the oval in favor of a more modern shape was a fun twist.   I simply drew the shape, bird and branch and used some featherweight interfacing to stabilize them.  Instead of doing the applique by hand as I did in my Faith Sings quilt , I decided to work on my machine applique skills.  Overall I’m very pleased with the results, and I also like how the fabrics work together.  It was fun to use some of the Rural Jardin wovens.  They’re even lovelier than they look in pictures.


Because it’s so small, this project should be fun and fairly simple to quilt.  It’s my third quilt top in the lineup, so I’d better get quilting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer

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