January 2010 Archives
QUILTS
I have been up to my ears in fabric and quilt batting while in the process of making 4 blankets. The first quilt is for my sister Amy. She is having a baby girl in May and she has always made quilts for each niece and nephew, so I thought I'd return the thought for her. We spent two days picking out fabric for it. She wanted something sweet, but contemporary. This is what we came up with:
I appliqued some of the plainer squares with flowers and used minky fabric for a more textural blanket. The picture is of the squares before I appliqued and sewed them together. Since then I have sewn it and basted the layers together with the batting. All that's left is quilting and binding. More pictures to come when it's done.
I had to put that blanket on hold when I found out about an opportunity to make blankets for Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion that is going on this year. Each member of the family had to make a blanket and Seth had to pick out fabric for one of the blankets. He ended up helping me cut out and sew the newborn blanket we made too.
Here are the blankets we made:
Here Seth is showing off his mad sewing skilz. Actually, he sat on my lap while we sewed it together, but for the picture he had to go it alone. This blanket is only 36"x36" and the organization we are donating it to sends this size to the babies in the NICU at Primary Children's hospital.
I really enjoyed making this quilt because it was so easy and yet is totally cute. The fabric was printed with all the wavy stripes and I just used the walking foot James gave me for Christmas to follow the white lines between the stripes. When you first see the quilt it looks like I pieced it myself, but thankfully I didn't have to. This whole quilt probably took about 3 hours.
This quilt was my first attempt at free motion quilting. It went really fast and it was not as hard as I thought it would be to move the quilt around under the needle. This is the fabric that Seth picked out. It's totally boy-a-licious.
I need to work on my binding skills a little bit, because none of the binding were very fabulous. But it was really fun to make all of these and even better that they are going to such a good cause. All of them go to hospitals or for police officers to keep in their cars for when kids need a little comfort from whatever situation they are in. I plan on making a few more blankets over the course of the next year to donate as well.
CAKES
Jacob turned four on Sunday and wanted an Orange Submarine birthday party. One of the toys he's been coveting all year is an Imaginext submarine that is dark yellow (slightly orangey). He had a friend party with his preschool friends and his cousin Caleb, for that party I attempted to make cake pops. Which are cake and frosting all crumbled together to make a ball and then the ball is dipped into chocolate to form a hard coating. These were a pain in the butt! I don't know if I just did it wrong, but out of the 12 cake balls I had rolled, only 6 of them actually stayed on the stick when I dipped them. Then I couldn't get any of the decoration quite how I imagined them. It was a valiant effort, but I don't think I'll be attempting these again any time soon.
For his real birthday I made a submarine cake. It turned out so cute. I used marshmallow fondant and had much better success with it this time than the last time I used it. I also made a cute shirt for Jacob to wear so he was totally matchy with his cake and his present.
Here are some more detailed views of the cake:
I have been up to my ears in fabric and quilt batting while in the process of making 4 blankets. The first quilt is for my sister Amy. She is having a baby girl in May and she has always made quilts for each niece and nephew, so I thought I'd return the thought for her. We spent two days picking out fabric for it. She wanted something sweet, but contemporary. This is what we came up with:
I appliqued some of the plainer squares with flowers and used minky fabric for a more textural blanket. The picture is of the squares before I appliqued and sewed them together. Since then I have sewn it and basted the layers together with the batting. All that's left is quilting and binding. More pictures to come when it's done.
I had to put that blanket on hold when I found out about an opportunity to make blankets for Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion that is going on this year. Each member of the family had to make a blanket and Seth had to pick out fabric for one of the blankets. He ended up helping me cut out and sew the newborn blanket we made too.
Here are the blankets we made:
Here Seth is showing off his mad sewing skilz. Actually, he sat on my lap while we sewed it together, but for the picture he had to go it alone. This blanket is only 36"x36" and the organization we are donating it to sends this size to the babies in the NICU at Primary Children's hospital.
I really enjoyed making this quilt because it was so easy and yet is totally cute. The fabric was printed with all the wavy stripes and I just used the walking foot James gave me for Christmas to follow the white lines between the stripes. When you first see the quilt it looks like I pieced it myself, but thankfully I didn't have to. This whole quilt probably took about 3 hours.
This quilt was my first attempt at free motion quilting. It went really fast and it was not as hard as I thought it would be to move the quilt around under the needle. This is the fabric that Seth picked out. It's totally boy-a-licious.
I need to work on my binding skills a little bit, because none of the binding were very fabulous. But it was really fun to make all of these and even better that they are going to such a good cause. All of them go to hospitals or for police officers to keep in their cars for when kids need a little comfort from whatever situation they are in. I plan on making a few more blankets over the course of the next year to donate as well.
CAKES
Jacob turned four on Sunday and wanted an Orange Submarine birthday party. One of the toys he's been coveting all year is an Imaginext submarine that is dark yellow (slightly orangey). He had a friend party with his preschool friends and his cousin Caleb, for that party I attempted to make cake pops. Which are cake and frosting all crumbled together to make a ball and then the ball is dipped into chocolate to form a hard coating. These were a pain in the butt! I don't know if I just did it wrong, but out of the 12 cake balls I had rolled, only 6 of them actually stayed on the stick when I dipped them. Then I couldn't get any of the decoration quite how I imagined them. It was a valiant effort, but I don't think I'll be attempting these again any time soon.
For his real birthday I made a submarine cake. It turned out so cute. I used marshmallow fondant and had much better success with it this time than the last time I used it. I also made a cute shirt for Jacob to wear so he was totally matchy with his cake and his present.
Here are some more detailed views of the cake:
James started a diet and I have been trying to help him (and me) eat a little bit healthier by making whole wheat bread with wheat from our food storage. We use a mix of hard red, hard white and soft white wheat berries and grind them in the handy dandy electric wheat grinder that is who knows how old, but still works just fine. Then I make this wonderful bread....
Are you totally drooling yet? Here's the recipe that I liberally adapted from the back of the Blue Chip Baker Dough Enhancer canister:
Easy Whole Wheat Bread
1 1/2 c. Warm water
1 Tbsp. Yeast
1/3 cup Honey
6 c. Whole wheat flour (freshly ground if possible)
1 Tbsp. Salt
3 Tbsp. Vital Wheat Gluten
1 Tbsp. Blue Chip Baker Dough Enhancer
1/3 c. Cooking oil (vegetable, canola, etc.)
Stir the yeast and honey into the warm water and let sit for about 5 mins until the yeast is dissolved and the mixture becomes frothy.
Put the flour into your Kitchen Aid mixing bowl (if you don't have a Kitchen Aid, simply erase the word "easy" from the title of this recipe and try and mix it by hand. I've never tried it by hand so I can't tell you if it will turn out the same or not, but I can tell you it won't be nearly as easy :)! )
Along with the flour add the salt, the wheat gluten, and the dough enhancer. Give the mixture a few stirs to mix all the dry ingredients together. The add the oil and honey-yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on the 1st or 2nd setting on your mixer. Mix until all the ingredients come together and form a ball. Check the dough for stiffness or sticky-ness. If it's too stiff add more water a little at a time, if it's too sticky add more flour a little at a time. You want the dough to be slightly tacky, but not sticking to the sides of the bowl. (I usually end up adding about 1/4 c. of water, but that's probably because I don't measure my flour very carefully.) Once you get a nice consistency, knead the dough in your mixer for about 8 minutes.
When the dough is nice and smooth and somewhat elastic, take it out of the bowl, shape it into two loaves (or one loaf if you have a mondo loaf pan like mine), place the dough into greased loaf pans, cover loosely with a towel or plastic wrap and let it raise in a warm place for about 45 minutes. Keep an eye on the dough after 30 minutes or so, because the last bit of raising goes really fast and it might raise too much.
While the dough is raising, heat your oven to 350 degrees. When the dough has risen just slightly over the top of the loaf pans, pop them in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes.
Then sit back and enjoy the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through your house!
I know that the Walmart's and Macey's in Utah are carrying the Vital Wheat gluten and the Dough enhancer that I use, and I also know you can order it online at The Blue Chip Group .
