Happy Spring!

Hope Spring in your area of world is treating you well this holiday weekend. I love Spring with all the trees and plants coming back to life. The color is so wonderful after a long and snowy winter. I also love Spring because my birthday is in late March. This year my wonderful husband bought me a new SLR camera (Nikon D5000) that I have been wanting. You see photography was my thing for a very long time. My Dad bought me my first SLR (Olympus OM-1) when I was fifteen and it was the one I used until 5 years ago when I got my digital "point and shoot" camera. It was an Olympus as well but it was a simple "view finder" and it never got the richness that I was used to in a shot. Every time I uploaded a picture of one of my projects to this blog I was disappointed. My projects looked so blah! Well now I hope you can see the difference. I went out and took a few pictures of my spring garden. I started with the Daffodils....

Love the new camera! Now I have to get started on all my sewing projects so I can take a picture of them with my new camera and share them with you. I just have to get the kids off to school next week. Love them but Spring break seemed to last forever this year!

Here's to Spring and great holiday weekend.

Coasters

Well, the weather has finally perked up here in the north east. 70's in March! The great sunshine has given me a bit of a boost in energy and I'm actually doing another post within two weeks of my last one.

When I made those great place mats I had some leftover fabric from the backing. It was such a small amount that I knew that there wasn't much I could use it for. I had an idea. I had been seeing these cute coasters selling on Etsy and thought that well, I could make some too!

You can make these as well. All you need is a strip of fabric about 5" wide and 40" long. Cut 8 5" squares. Cut 4 5" squares of interfacing. I used a fusible fleece. Fuse the interfacing to one wrong side of 4 squares. Layer up the pieces- wrong sides together. Sew around leaving a small opening on one side for turning. Turn, iron and stitch around the outside edges. This will close the opening and add a nice finish. Done!

Enjoy. I think this was one the easiest and quickest projects I've done in a long time. Sew up a bunch and give them out as gifts to all your friends. They make a cute gift with a set of mugs and some coffee/tea and biscuits.

Have a great day!

Placemats

I have to apologize for being such a lazy blogger. Mind you I have the best of intentions but for some reason my ideas and thoughts never make it to this blog except for once a month - if I'm lucky. There are so many of you out there that do such a great job posting all the wonderful and fun things you are creating. I wish I could be you, but there's no changing me. I'm a procrastinator at heart and having two kids that keep me constantly busy - even when they are not home - just side tracks me even more.

That being said, I am finally posting these great place-mats I originally made for a gift but decided that my patio table needed them more.

Each place-mat is different with respect to the fabric placement. This one is my favorite combination.

The pattern is so easy! It takes 4 different fat quarters plus 1 yard of fabric for backing and 1 yard of fusible interfacing. I like to use a fleece one.

Layer the fat quarters on top of each other. Measure and mark 5" in from the top left and 3 3/4" from the lower right. Align your ruler with the marks and cut diagonally through all layers. Take one of the pieces from the top of one stack and put it on the bottom so that each layer now has two different fabrics. Sew these two different fabric together for each layer. Press seams open and re-stack layers with the seams roughly on top of each other and aligned.

Now measure and mark 2 1/4" in from the bottom left corner and 3 1/4" in from the upper right corner. Align ruler with marks and cut diagonally through all the layers. Shuffle pieces by taking the right top 2 layers and placing them on the bottom of the pile, making sure that each layer now has all 4 fabrics. Sew to make new rectangles. I try to align the center seams but it doesn't always work out that way.

Once you finish sewing, press the seams open. At this point you can cut the rectangles down to whatever size you prefer for a place-mat. Cut the backing and interfacing to match in size. Fuse the interfacing to the pieced top of the place-mat, layer the backing, sew all around leaving a 5" opening for turning. Turn, press and top stitch as you desire. I use a decorative stitch along the seam lines.

I hope these directions are easy to follow. Once again, if I was a good blogger I would have taken some pictures of these place-mats in progress to help you along. I'm striving for that for my next little tutorial. Wish me luck. I need lots of it these days.

Have a great day!

Spinach Roll

I think it is time for another recipe. I had been making this yummy spinach roll as an appetizer and bringing it to parties throughout the holiday season. It's very simple and has lots of flavor from the fresh herbs and feta cheese. I used to make it from refrigerated crescent dough but I discovered that frozen puff pastry works a lot better - no little triangles to try and pinch together to make one large rectangle! I got a few requests for the recipe so here it is finally.

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed (it takes about 40 minutes to thaw on the counter)

1 TBLS Olive Oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1 10 ounce pkge frozen spinach, thawed and excess water squeezed out

2 TBLS chopped fresh parsley

1 TBLS chopped fresh dill

4 oz crumbled feta cheese

4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

1 small jar marinated artichokes, slightly chopped

1 egg, beaten

sesame seeds

salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1. Heat a medium skillet and coat with olive oil. Add the chopped onions and red pepper and saute until softened. Turn off heat.

2. In a medium bowl mix together thawed spinach, parsley, dill, feta, and mozzarella. Add the onion and red pepper mixture and chopped artichokes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Lightly flour puff pastry and roll with a rolling pin to flatten seams.

4. Brush pastry with beaten egg. Then with a sharp paring knife make cuts approx. 1" wide, 1/3rd of the way into the pastry dough on the long edge. Do this on both sides. Then place spinach mixture in the center of the pastry dough (uncut area). Flatten slightly with the back of a spatula making sure mixture extends the length of the dough but not onto the cut strips.

5. Bring cut strips of dough across the top of the spinach to the center and connect them together. (the egg wash will help them stick together) Sometimes I twist the strips as I bring them over the spinach. In the picture above I did not do that.

6. Brush top with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

7. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown.

8. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

A Teeny Tiny Doll Quilt

It's be ages since I posted a thing and that's because it's be ages since I did much more than get my kids to school, clean the house, shop (X-mas is a killer for me because both kids and my husband have their birthdays around the holidays!), picked the kids up from school, go to Daisies, go to dance, playdates......I could go on more but there is a real post I would like to do.

Well back in the late summer I started a tiny doll quilt for my daughter which I finally finished around Thanksgiving. And now in January I am finally posting it. A nice simple nine patch with some machine appliques. Who would have thought it would take me so long.

I am always amazed at the women who blog and do it everyday and post amazing stuff. I wish I had the time and energy for that. I want to know their secret!!!

I do have motivation for the new year. So be on the lookout for more blogs. I know you probably don't believe me but I think I can redeem myself. Have a great day

Oh, another giveaway!

To all my quilter friends here's a quilter's dream giveaway. Jackie at Canton Village Quiltworks is having a giveaway with 5, that's FIVE, chances to win! I want to win this one! So check it out.

Have a great day!

Out of this world Apricot Scones

It's Friday and I finally figured out how to redesign my blog page. Hope you all like it. I also realized that it has been almost a month since I posted anything. So here is one of my favorite recipes- Apricot Scones. Every time I make these everyone goes crazy. And yes, this is my second recipe that contains apricots. You could say they are one of my favorite fruits. They are sort of unexpected and different. Hope you like them as well and can get a chance to try this great recipe!

Apricot Scones

2 cups, plus 1 TBLS all purpose flour

2 TBLS granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 TBLS baking soda

1 tsp. salt

grated zest of one orange (this is the secret ingredient that makes the scones!)

12 TBLS cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into cubes

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup diced, dried apricots

hot water

1 egg with 1 TBLS water for egg wash

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

4 to 6 tsp. freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a slipat or parchment paper.

• Pour hot water over dried apricots and let them stand for 5 minutes, drain.
• With an electric mixer, mix together 2 cups of flour, 2 tbls. sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest.
• Add the cold butter and mix a the lowest speed until the butter is the size of peas.
• Combine the eggs and heavy cream, and with the mixer on low slowly add to the flour and butter mixture. Mix until well blended.
• Combine apricots with 1 tbls. flour.
• Dump dough onto work surface and gently add flour coated apricots.
• With floured rolling pin, roll out out dough into a large rectangle until it is 1" thick.
• Cut out scones with round biscuit cutter or cut dough into 3" squares and them slice them in half to create triangles.
• Place scones on baking sheet.
• Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until tops are browned.
• Let scones cool then mix together the confectioner's sugar and orange juice. Drizzle over scones. Let glaze set before serving.