Home is Where the Heart Is

The Home is Where the Heart Is quilt pattern combines my two favorite quilting motifs:  hearts and houses. Kyle and Becky opted out of knowing the baby's gender before birth so the only thing I had to work with was teal, Becky's favorite color.  Emboldened by her declaration that "Boys can wear pink!" I chose prints from Maywood Studio's Roam Sweet Home fabric collection. I was first attracted to the collection by the Pennant Patchwork print, which reminds me of another favorite motif:  bunting.

I used Pennant Patchwork for the backing and the quilt was small enough that the backing did not need to be pieced. I love every single color and pattern in this fabric.

It is quilted with Loopy Hearts, which seems perfect. The quilt turned out a bit more ... well ... girlie than I had intended. But I hope all those hearts convey to Louis, born on Christmas Eve 2017, how much he is loved and cherished.

Nativity

Christmas came and went all too quickly so I am happy I started looking for a Christmas present project fairly early. I found these sweet nativity scenes on Pinterest and it turns out that the year of the house remodel was the perfect year for this project. I have an aversion to vacuuming carpeted stairs and convinced Craig to replace the carpet on the stairs with hardwood at the same time we replaced the upstairs carpet. The scraps of maple left over from the stair project were perfect and I just had to purchase heads from Joanne's. And chalk paint, which I have always wanted to try out.

I love the distressed look and read up on how to achieve it with chalk paint. Several articles suggested Vaseline and I tried that approach first. This technique is a bit messy and difficult to control the results, though I think it would work better on larger projects. Since we have a (seemingly) endless supply of every grade of sandpaper imaginable (or so it seems to me), I just painted the pieces then used a very fine finishing sandpaper to achieve the amount of distressing I wanted. I got carried away a few times and had to repaint a couple of pieces, but got the hang of it pretty quick.

I had sage green burlap on hand, left over from office Halloween decorations, which worked well for Mary's shawl. I love it when craft supplies have multiple uses!

Scrappy Trees

For finals week we all contributed a little something for goodie bags for our work-study students. I made seven of these cute little trees, finally using some of the little scraps I've saved for years. The flying geese rectangles use 1.5 inch squares and I decided that I could sew a straight line for 1.5 inches and didn't pencil in the customary diagonal line from corner to corner. As it turns out, I can't sew a straight line for 1.5 inches and my trees turned out a bit wonky. Which I decided just adds to the charm of these handmade ornaments. When I took them to work, my co-workers also wanted one, so I made seven more. And then I made another handful to share with friends and tie on Christmas packages. And I'm thinking I may need yet another handful to decorate the containers of caramel corn we will distribute to the neighbors. Turns out, my policy of saving little scraps of fabric is not that crazy after all.

Boise Wedding

 

Rob and Courtney's wedding made my Top 5 List of Best Weddings of All Time. Unsure of the travel time from Boise, we decided to make a dry run to the Red Chair Lavender Farm on Saturday morning.  We arrived just as the owner was mowing the field, dew sparkling on the freshly cut grass. As Craig was chatting with the owner--it was assumed that we were part of the wedding party--I tentatively started exploring and immediately fell in love with the venue.  What a fantastic place! It was difficult to tear myself away when the real wedding party arrived to begin preparations; however, etiquette won out and we made our way back to Boise to run our appointed errands prior to the afternoon wedding.  We picked up Grandpa's suit that arrived with the Salem contingent, delivered it, returned for the forgotten dress shirt and delivered that and had just a few minutes to chat before returning to the farm for the wedding.

And it was a lovely wedding.  The fall day was warm and the smell of lavender drifting on the breeze was absolute perfection. The country setting was rustic yet charming, with a slant toward the whimsical.  An iron bed frame in a sea of tiny white flowers, dozens of birdhouses crafted from an assortment of random materials (the Texas license plate roof was a personal favorite), bundles of drying lavender hanging from the rafters, the colorful tin rooster casually leaning against the side of the barn (another favorite) ... such a special place that inspires wonder and amazement, delights the senses, and fills the heart with happiness.

Before returning to the hotel, we stopped by Rob and Anna's house and chatted on the deck as the sun set over Boise. Very happy trip.

Third Street Neighborhood

More scrappy houses, this time for a wedding. I found the Third Street Neighborhood quilt pattern on Etsy and though I'm usually not a fan of black and white prints, this particular pattern--with its colorful doors--intrigued me. I originally planned to bind the quilt with the same fabric used for the backing--a pure white with black and gray Queen Anne's lace print--but at the last minute was inspired to use the same solid red as a couple of the doors. I am still undecided if that was a good design choice, although everyone who saw the finished quilt loved the red binding. I am just a pastel sort of person at heart. The quilting is a whimsical design with hearts and spirals, reminiscent of Dr. Seuss, which softens both the bold colors and geometrical shapes and suggests a Home Is Where The Heart Is theme.

We delivered the quilt this weekend to Rob and Courtney's wedding, which was a completely lovely event.

Suburbs

I first saw the Suburbs quilt on display at Fabric Depot and it instantly became a favorite.  Even better, the pattern was in the discounted section of the Outdoor Sale for only a few dollars.  I'm not sure why, but I've found some of my favorite quilt patterns in the Outdoor Sale.  There's something about flipping through a basket of discontinued patterns, looking for a bargain.  Or maybe I'm better at focusing when there are not aisles upon aisles of patterns competing for my attention.  The Suburbs pattern is very fat-quarter-friendly, with little waste.  Each fat quarter makes four houses and four doors.  I used fat quarters from my stash for a scrappy look, a marbled blue for the winter sky, and a spirally quilting pattern that evokes images of snow swirling around houses where everyone is snuggled inside by a fire.  I probably need to live in Connecticut or Vermont or somewhere that actually gets snow; perhaps that would end my purely romantic view of snowy landscapes and winter wonderlands.

The only thing better than a scrappy quilt is a scrappy baby quilt and this one is for Baby R.  A bunting was also made that was oh-so-cute, but for reasons unknown, no picture was taken. 

Latest Obsession

My latest obsession is cake pops.  When Cara announced she will marry in August (in our back yard!), I immediately began my internet search on 'backyard' weddings.  Though the dinner will be catered, Cara wants a dessert table with favorites provided by family and friends.  Cake pops abound in lavish displays of wedding goodies on Pinterest and I decided to give them a try, though  I've never been a fan of the traditional cake pop.  Being a cake connoisseur, the idea of taking light and fluffy cake, reducing it to crumbs, mixing it with frosting then mushing it all together in a ball seems quite disgusting to me.  And I've had one or two that were made that way ... ick.  But I have seen those cute little appliances produced by Babycakes and, as I have never met a kitchen appliance I didn't like, determined that might be the way to go.  Not readily finding a Babycakes cake pop maker on the shelves of local department stores (though Amazon and Ebay are adequately stocked), I picked up a Nordic Ware cake pop pan at Target. 

Prior to testing out the pan, I read many internet reviews, as well as debates on the methods used to create the perfect cake pop.  Who knew cake pops could be a controversial subject?!?  Fans of the mush & smush method routinely criticized the cake balls that the Nordic Ware pan produced, and there were a few pictures of baking disasters where the pan either refused to release the cake or the overfilled/underfilled pan produced shapes that did not resemble a round ball.  Still, there were a few reassuring reviews that led me to believe that this pan could perhaps produce a decent cake pop.

Anna's birthday provided the perfect opportunity to test out the pan.  The recipe that came with the pan produced a fudgy, brownie like cake and I used Ghirardelli chocolate from the Decorette Shop for the coating.  The technique of dipping the stick in a bit of melted chocolate, inserting it into the cake then freezing the pops before dipping--widely recommended by all internet reviewers--is a definite must.  Not only does it keep the cake on the stick, but the chocolate hardens a bit faster, producing a smoother surface. 

The cake pops were a hit at Anna's party and very yummy.  The cake was very moist and the texture was perfect.  Though I underfilled the first batch a bit, by the second batch I had learned the exact amount of batter needed to make the perfect sphere.  Though many recommended using a pastry bag to fill the pan, my tablespoon cookie scoop worked perfectly.  Clean up was a breeze, just a swipe of the sponge with a bit of dish soap was all that was needed.

By August, I should have this down.  And hopefully I will find a cake pop display rack, although the inside of an orange juice squeezer worked just fine this time around.