The Aunts’ Quilt – Page 2

The Aunts’ Quilt — Month 8

17 Comments / June 15, 2015 June 15, 2015 / Chat, Cookie of the Month, The Aunts' Quilt

Well Kids, it’s time for the monthly Aunts’ Quilt report — if you’re an Auntlet, I hope you’re caught up! If you’re behind, these summer months are slow and our assignments are a little lighter, so it’s a great time to catch up!

Our assignment for this month was the same as last month — 4 inset triangles. I cropped my triangles, just because the pictures were so awkward with all that triangle edge space in them. Then, after cropping, I put them all into one picture — you probably have better things to do than scroll through the four separate pictures.

The applique this month was fun and easy. This little blue flower in the middle below, is by far my favorite flower. It might be because I love the fabric on the main part of the flower.

Now, if you can believe it, my house-cleaning, weeding, trying-to-get-the-blocks-done-on-time self forgot to make the cookie of the month. The shock! The horror!!! I was just working too hard this weekend — that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. Not to worry though, because I DID pick out the cookie of the month and just because I didn’t get it made doesn’t mean that you can’t make them. This month, for your cookie-loving pleasure, I selected my blog-friend Jody’s famous Soft Molasses Cookies. Here’s an older picture from one time when I made these cookies.

Luckily, Jody shared her recipe with us years ago and I’ve been making them since then — they’re just the right combination of chewy and delicious and they’re wonderful! These cookies sort of scream fall, or colder-weather cookies, but I think they’re amazing ALL year long — Yum, Yum!!!

Back to work Ladies — Month 9 on the Aunts’ Quilt is another light month — the last two inset triangles and then just two of the corners. Maybe you Auntlets can work ahead and be working on those border scallops — those border months are going to be a lot more work. Only one more month and then we’ll start putting the quilt top together — Yipee!

Also, if you follow me on Instagram, you know that Little Joys by Elea Lutz has arrived in my little Etsy shop. It’s an adorable holiday collection (ha! I didn’t say the C-word), in case you’re starting to think about a few holiday projects. I only have a few sets left, so don’t think too long!

Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

The Aunts’ Quilt — Month 7

18 Comments / May 15, 2015 May 15, 2015 / Cookie of the Month, Recipes, The Aunts' Quilt

Yipes! No time to blog these days. I didn’t even get to tell you about our fun Mother’s Day weekend. We escaped to Chicago for an overnight and had a great time. Everyone made it except for TheSecondChild and MeMum and BigDaddy. The kids in this family sure are a lot of fun now that they’re all grown up.

Anyway, I’m busy busy at Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis, but I had to pop in to give the monthly Aunts’ report. We were to do 4 inset triangles this month. Even though it was a light month, I barely made it!

I wish I hadn’t cut the triangles out before I appliqued on them. It would have been just as easy to applique onto a big square and then cut them out later. I worried a lot about stretching out those bias sides while I was handling the blocks. And the pattern shows legs on the birds, but I’m undecided on that. We’ll see.

And, we certainly couldn’t forget the Cookie of the Month. This month, I had a craving for our old family favorite, Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. MeMum has been making these since ~~the dark ages~~ I was a little girl and they’re particular favorites of mine.

Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 lb. raisins — Cover with water and boil. Let cool.
1 c. shortening
2 c. sugar
1 c. milk
4 c. flour
4 c. oatmeal
4 eggs
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
3 t. soda added to water and raisins
1 t. vanilla
salt
1 c. chopped walnuts

Cream shortening and sugar together. Add eggs. Sift flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together. Add to mixture alternately with milk. Add oatmeal. Drain a little water off raisins, then add soda. Add raisins with water to mixture. Add nuts. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

This recipe makes a lot of cookies and they freeze beautifully. They’re also great for breakfast! (Just sayin’!)

Ok — back to the fun. Sorry I don’t have more time to chitchat — hopefully things will slow down a bit in June. I wish you were all here!
XOXO,
Anna

Checking In

20 Comments / April 23, 2015 April 23, 2015 / Chat, Chuck Nohara, The Aunts' Quilt

Man, I have no idea where the last week went. I feel like I just posted yesterday, but according to the calendar, it’s been 8 days. Work, Work, Work, it sure makes time fly. I’m sure you’re busy out there too — it feels like it never lets up, doesn’t it?

I spent the whole of last weekend cleaning. and boy, was it ever needed. Sort of big cleaning. Like, clean the windows cleaning — I can’t remember the last time I cleaned the windows. In addition to cleaning, we had a visit from Winston for a few days while the kids had a few days away. I enjoyed being able to take him on walks in the neighborhood. Spring is finally peeking out from under winter’s rock — late, but here. And looky who we found on our walk:

Can you see them? It’s Mr. and Mrs. Duck! Winston spotted them right away and wanted to go and play. Sorry about the picture quality, but I felt lucky that I had my phone with me. Anyway, if you’ve been around for a few years, you know that our duck couple is our official sign that spring has arrived. The trees are just barely showing a tinge of green and in spite of the snowflakes we saw this week, beautiful weather is right around the corner.

In the meantime, I’ve been doing a bit of sewing here and there. When I started the Aunts’ Quilt, I mentioned to the Auntlets that they might want to think about prepping the scallops for the border as we go along, in order to save a ton of work at the end — only I haven’t been following my own advice. After I finished last month’s blocks, I started to panic a little. Only a few more months and it will be time to do those borders and I hadn’t prepped any of the scallops. So, this past week, I got with the program and prepped some scallops in the evenings while we watched tv. Very fun work. And pretty too!

And there’s been another little project too. There are a bunch of crazies over on Instagram and I’ve followed them over a cliff. They’re having a quiltalong — you make a few blocks a month from the book “2001 Blocks of Patchwork” by Chuck (it’s a woman!) Nohara. (Click on the link, scroll down, click on the book and you can view a few pages). I need another project like I need a hole in the head. But, the ladies are a fun group, and what’s another deadline anyway? It’s good to keep busy, right? I hope I can finish some of them in this lifetime LOL. Anyway, here’s my first block:

Before I go, here’s a few fun links for you:
Randi is making smoothies and this one looks deeeeeelicious!
Flossie Teacakes wrote a great post about solids. Do you have a solids stash? Mine is sadly lacking. Hey — maybe we should have a Moda Bella Solids of the Month Club and build our stashes.
Speaking of Crazies, Ms. Ric Rac has her very first line of fabric coming out at market. Here’s a peek. I can’t wait to see it.
And finally, Irene has a new book coming out and I can’t wait to see it too. Spring Quilt Market is almost here — lots of exciting things on the way.

Ok, Peeplets — I’m off to bed. Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

The Aunts’ Quilt — Month 6

24 Comments / April 15, 2015 April 15, 2015 / Cookie of the Month, The Aunts' Quilt

Happy Tax Day — for those of you in the U.S. Aren’t we happy that‘s over for this year? The less said about that, the better! ;-D

Moving right along, it’s the 15th of the month and therefore, it’s time for the monthly Aunts’ Quilt Report. How are you Auntlets doing? I haven’t seen many updates this month — I hope you’re just too busy to post. I will say though that Karen R is killing us! She even finished and posted early this month — WooHoo Karen — Congratulations!!! I barely scraped by this month, but I got my blocks done. Here’s the applique block:

I had a hard time with the applique block this month. It’s definitely not my favorite, and I think my fabric choices made it even less of a favorite. Maybe the parts that really annoy me will get fixed, and maybe not. Anyway, here are the two pieced blocks:

And my little sneaky animal piece? I chose a deer this month and I think he’s cute.

Here’s what the blocks look like all together. They’re too big for my little design wall now, so I had to lay them out on the floor. I’m sure they won’t stay in this order, and there are a few little pieces that need to be fixed, but you get the idea.

And let’s not forget the Cookie of the Month — a girl needs sustenance for all this applique work. I had some leftover lemons from the Debutante Lemon Cake, so I decided to consult my cookie board on Pinterest. I ended up choosing Chewy Glazed Lemon Cookies and boy, were they ever good! A great choice while doing hand work and stitching. If you like lemon, you should definitely try these cookies!

Ok Auntlets, don’t give up yet! According to our schedule, we’re halfway done with this quilt (can you believe it???) — it’s all downhill from here! For month 7, we’re scheduled to do 4 inset triangles. Easy Peasy, right?

Ok — get going!!!
XOXO,
Anna

The Aunts’ Quilt – Month 5

20 Comments / March 14, 2015 April 15, 2015 / Cookie of the Month, The Aunts' Quilt

Gosh, I can’t remember the last time I posted just two days after my last post. It’s time for the monthly Aunts’ Quilt update though, so it must be done! Here’s my applique block for this month:

The first pieced block:

And the second pieced block:

I’m still having a lot of fun with these blocks — I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of them. For my little buddy on the applique block this month, I chose a teeny bee.

But he’s not my favorite part of this block. I Love the pink flower. It reminds me of the Flower Power graphics of my childhood! It was great fun choosing the fabrics for this little flower.

And for the Cookie of the Month, I decided to make Hello Dollys. You probably have a favorite recipe for these cookies — I have one too. Somewhere between making the grocery list and making the cookies, I lost the recipe. Good ol’ google to the rescue! These cookies are known by several different names — Hello Dollys, Magic Cookies, Seven Layer Bars, and probably others. There are lots of versions of this recipe and I’m pretty sure I chose one that’s not exactly the same as my original. I sort of went with the one that was more decadent than the others — more of most of the ingredients — ooooops! Anyway, I used this version, except that I used walnuts instead of pecans. Also, the recipe says to cut the pan of cookies into 12 bars, but they’re so rich that I cut them smaller.

Next month I’ll try to choose a little more sensible cookie. Or one that’s a little less messy — this one probably shouldn’t be eaten while actually sewing, which sort of misses the point. We need these monthly cookies for sustenance while stitching!

Oh, and heads up Auntlets! Is Anne the only one that noticed the missing center on block 4? If you look closely at the cover of the pattern, there are circles in the middle of block 4, but they aren’t on the the actual pattern used to make the block. I totally missed it — good catch Anne! I’ll definitely be adding some circles to my block

Ok ladies — have fun with your blocks next month. This is our last month for big blocks — WooHoo!!!

XOXO,
Anna