Peanut Butter Bars

Crust
2/3 C butter, melted
1/4 C peanut butter
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C corn syrup
1/2 t vanilla
4 C oats
Mix together and press into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  Bake at 400° for 14 minutes. Remove from oven and frost while hot.  Let cool completly.  Cut and serve :)

Frosting
Melt together in the microwave or in a double boiler:
1C milk chocolate chips
1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips or butterscotch chips (I use semi sweet)
1/3 C peanut butter

Notting Hill Tote

My niece is being baptized tomorrow :)

My mom suggested I make her a tote for her new set of scriptures.

(I am so glad that she reminded me about a gift for Megan)

With the wedding and other madness around here, it was likely that I forget this special event :(

Megan's favorite color is pink.

I busted into my newly aquired Joel Dewberry stash ;D

I am LOVING this cute little bag.

Of course I added one zippered pocket and one regular open one.

I hope Megan likes it :)

...if not, I'll gladly take it back :)

Super GEEK Out!

Are you ready for a story?

Me and Michelle

Well, my bff is Michelle.  She is AMAZING!  She also runs REALLY fast!!!

Michelle beating all of the boys!

 She moved to Hong Kong a few years ago :(  Anyhoots, I have known for a while time that she had a brother-in-law that did something with fabric.  I had been to family events where Michelle's in-laws were, met them, I'm sure, but not much registered with me. ...until summer 2012 when Michelle was here for her annual visit to the US.

Michelle drinking while beating a boy.

As we were chatting on the sofa about my brand new quilting hobby [obsession] she mentioned again that her brother-in-law did something with fabric.  I asked his name, but it was not familiar to me.  I looked him up online and just about fell over!  Her brother-in-law is Joel Dewberry!  I knew his fabric but I didn't know his name.

Breaking the tape for the WIN!

So fast forward to this summers visit and as Michelle and I are chatting on the sofa again, she gets a phone call from non other than Joel's wife, Laurie.  I completely start to geek out!  Michelle proceeds to pimp me out to them for sewing projects and starts to procure fabric for me as well. [Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Michelle?]

On the podium with her AWESOME cup!

Michelle has been back in Hong Kong for many months now, but I finally was able to get my hand on these two beauties...

They have been waiting in Orem for me to pick up since this past summer :)

Yes, it is a GIANT pile of fabric GOODNESS from the Dewberrys!!

[It's nearly a foot tall]

I sorted it into collections and colorways :)  

..oh, yes!  There is a TON of Notting Hill :)  ...my FAVE!!!

There is so much fabric here, I can keep busy for the next year :)

[Most pieces are quite large.  Fat quarter on up, baby!]

Thank you, Laurie & Joel!!!

...and Michelle, for being the best BFF EVER!!!

Temple Bag QAL Fabric Requirements :)

Welcome to the first installment of the Temple Bag QAL :)

[I am SO excited!!!]

Are you ready? :D

I used a fat quarter bundle of Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie & Camille for my daughters bag.  That particular fat quarter bundle has enough fabric to make 2 messenger bags, if you are careful.  The benefit of using a fq bundle is that you will end up with a very scrappy bag :)  This bag can FOR SURE be made with scraps of fabric you have laying around or whole pieces of fabric....  I totally believe in shopping the stash first ;D

Here is what you will need:
2 fat quarters for lining (or a 1/2 yard of fabric)
3 fat quarters for three large pockets, two for the inside and one for the outside. (or one yard for all three large pockets and the two zippered pockets)
1 fat quarter for the two zippered pockets (see alternate fabric requirements above)
1 fat quarter for the messenger flap interior
1 fat quarter for the messenger flap binding (scraps of left over binding you have will work perfectly)
2 coordinating fat quarters for the strap (or 2 - 6" by wof of two coordinating fabrics... or a 1/4 yard of the same fabric if you want both sides of your straps to be the same)
Here is the tricky part, you technically only need 3 fat quarters for the exterior of the bag and the exterior of the flap (or one yard of solid fabric)... but if you are wanting to make this all scrappy like, I would recommend at least 10 different fat quarters, or a BIG pile of scraps to make your exteriors.
2- 9" to 10" coordinating zippers (longer is fine, we'll just trim them down during construction)
~25x40 piece of batting plus a fat quarter size piece of batting ~18"x22"
2 yards medium to heavy fusible interfacing... ***CORRECTION*** I buy 809 Pellon Decor Bond at Walmart and it is 45" wide.

Happy shopping or stash raiding as the case may be!!!

On Instagram use #MQDtemplebagQAL and #MyQuiltDiet to share your progress:)

Check the schedule for the QAL HERE.  Visit all post's tagged Temple Bag Qal HERE

**** As a special side note, if you live anywhere close to Payson, Utah, we will be doing this project together on the last Thursday of each month SEW DAY, starting in January.  Please message me if you would like information about coming to sew with us :)

***One of my quilty BFF's is an Embroidery Guru!  She has templates for many of the LDS temples :)  She will embroider an LDS temple for your bag, if you'd like :)  It is $5 if she already has the template, and $10 if she needs to order it.  Please leave me a comment, if you are interested.  Be sure that you are not a "no reply blogger" or I cannot get your info to her :(  If you are not sure if you are a "no reply blogger" please include your email in your comment.  One hint that you might be a "no reply blogger" is if I never reply to your comments :(:::.....

The Groom's Cake

There are few wedding traditions as important as the groom's cake, seriously.  You may ask, "Why?"  Well, I see it this way.  Most grooms I know, don't really care much about the wedding details.  They don't care what color the flowers are, or what the bridesmaids wear.  I have found that most grooms do have a favorite cake or dessert.  The groom's cake gives us a chance to make him a cake that is just for him, just the way he likes it :) ...for the most part ;D

Earlier this year, our oldest daughter go married.  For her groom I made this AWESOME chocolate cake...

Yes, there are a Han & Leah, Playmobile and My Little Pony bride and groom on this cake ;D

This cake is a dense chocolate cake with a whipped ganache filling and frosting and then COVERED [as you can see] with thick AMAZING glossy ganache :) 

 It is the BEST chocolate cake ever.

You can read more about it and get the recipe HERE.

For our second daughters wedding, this coming Saturday, her groom does NOT like cake :/ 

....but he does LOVE cheesecake and pumpkin pie.

So why not combine his two loves into a little bit of heaven?

Pumpkin Cheesecake!!!

My mom has been making this recipe for years, and we LOVE it!

The pecan, brown sugar, butter topping is AHH-MAZING!

I used a different cooking method,

 so I had to try one out for good measure.

There will be a 10", 8" and a 6" cheesecake, stacked like a traditional wedding cake.

(minus the bride and groom toys on top)

Here is the recipe for your gluttonous Thanksgiving pleasure ;)

Pumpkin Cheesecake       Sue Ford (my AMAZING mom)

Crust:

1-1/2 C graham crackers, crushed

6 T butter, melted

1/4 C sugar

Mix and press into bottom and up the sides of a 10" spring form pan.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Filling:

Cream:

3-  8 oz. cream cheese

3/4 C brown sugar

3/4 C sugar

Then add:

5 large eggs, one at a time

2 C canned pumpkin

1/2 C whipping cream

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 t ground cloves

Spoon onto crust.  Bake at 325F 1-1/2 hours or until set (won't jiggle, about 1 hour longer in Utah, seriously).  Then top with topping and bake 15 minutes more.

Here are my modifications for the 10" groom's cake layer.  I cooked it in a bain-marie/water bath (follow Martha's directions HERE or watch a video HERE).  I cooked the 10 " cake for 2-1/4 hours at 325, then added the topping and cooked for 15 more minutes. (the jiggle was still slightly there) Then I turned off the oven and let it cool in the oven for several hours.  Bring the foil up over the top to cover and refrigerate overnight. [To read more about why a bain-marie is important click HERE]

Topping:

3/4 C Brown sugar

6 T chilled butter

1/2 C pecans (chopped or whole) I brake them up by hand so they are not to big, nor too small :)

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

A little love note I left for my kids :)

This is our FAVORITE pie around here :)  I met a lady while we were getting our nails done for the wedding and she wanted the recipe.  So here goes :)

This comes from my BFF Michelle via recipezaar.... which is now food.com.  Here is the link to the original recipe.

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie
4 large eggs
1 cup light corn syrup
6 tablespoons butter or 6 tablespoons margarine, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons Bourbon (I prefer only 2T)
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsel
1 (9 inch) pie shells
Directions:
1  Whisk together eggs and next 7 ingredients until mixture is smooth; stir in pecans and morsels.
2  Pour into pie crust.
3  Bake on lowest oven rack at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until set.

Note- Always make a homemade crust with this pie.  I prefer and extra thick crust with this pie :)

Morganson's Custom Framing

Have you ever wanted to find the perfect frame shop with the most wonderful customer service?

I have got the place for you!  Morganson's Custom Frame and Sew Forth.... YES!  They not only do amazing custom framing, but they are a ROCKIN' quilt shop! ...the original birth place of the $29 mystery quilt ;D

I brought in Ashley's bridal portrait and Kelly knew just what to do.

Didn't he do an WONDERFUL job?

Stop by in a few day's and I'll tell you ALL about our OVER-THE-TOP Aah-MAZING

 photographer, Nidia Corzo of Corzo's Digital Memories.

Temple Bag (aka HUGE messenger bag) Quilt Along

...or is it an assemble-a-long?

A few weeks ago, I made the cutest Temple bag for my daughter Ashley.  Some of you may be asking yourself, "What on earth is a Temple bag?"  Well, in my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka "The Mormons"), when we are adults we attend our temples for sacred worship.

This is the artist rendering of the temple they are building in my town :)

While we are in the temple we wear special/sacred clothing.  We use small suit cases or other bags to carry this clothing to and from the temple.  Since my daughter was going to be going to the temple for the first time, I thought she needed a SUPER awesome [super cute] brand new temple bag :)

My Mom's Christmas present :)

I have had quite a few requests for the pattern, so I have decided to do a quilt-a-long :)

This is a VERY roomy bag and would work well for all kinds of things, not just for Mormon stuff ;)

Here is the schedule of events: (the link will not work until the date of the post)
Fabric Requirements - November 25, 2013
Cutting Instructions - December 2, 2013
Making the Outer Bag- December 9, 2013
Making the Messenger Flap - December 16, 2013
Making the Interior Lining - December 23, 2013
The Zippered Pockets- December 30, 2013
Adding the BIG Pockets - January 6, 2014
Making the Straps- January 13, 2014
Bag Assembly - January 20, 2014
Diaper Bag Modifications - January 27, 2014

So, WHO'S IN????   Leave me a comment and let me know who is joining in on this AWESOME adventure. ....it's my first QAL, so be gentle ;D

On Instagram use #MQDtemplebagQAL and #MyQuiltDiet :)

**** As a special side note, if you live anywhere close to Payson, Utah, we will be doing this project together on the last Thursday of January.  Please message me if you would like information about coming to sew with us :)  No creepy murderers, please ;D

***One of my quilty BFF's is an Embroidery Guru!  She has templates for many of the LDS temples :)  She will embroider an LDS temple for your bag, if you'd like :)  It is $5 if she already has the template, and $10 if she needs to order it.  Please leave me a comment, if you are interested.  Be sure that you are not a "no reply blogger" or I cannot get your info to her :(  If you are not sure if you are a "no reply blogger" please include your email in your comment.  One hint that you might be a "no reply blogger" is if I never reply to your comments :(:::.....

$29 Mystery Quilt

It is getting to be time again for Morganson's Stitches & Sew Forth's monthly $29 Mystery Quilt :)  The last Tuesday of each month, the Morganson's offer a generous throw size mystery quilt for only $29!  (Please sign up as early as possible to make sure you get yours!)

Each month, Becky designs a DARLING quilt out of a scrumptious pile of beautiful fabric.  November's awesome fabric is Cyndi Walker's Calleope Collection by Riley Blake.  (Also seen HERE)

(I hijacked this picture off of The Whimsical Willow Botique etsy shop listing :/
 ... you can shop for this fabric HERE)

I can only imagine what Becky will create with this sweet collection!

Just in case you are worried that the mystery quilt will be 20x20,

 ALL of her mystery quilts are a generous throw size. (~70x60 +/- 2-4")

Call 801-465-9133 to sign up

PS- They will ship their kits :)  BONUS!!!

BE SURE TO COME BACK  on monday the 18th to get the info to join in on a Quilt-A-Long making the temple bag I made for my daughter.

The bag is blogged HERE.

Boomerang Wedding Sign In Quilt

For my daughters wedding, she wanted a quilt for the guests to sign, instead of a book.

We looked at a ton of different options, but she always came back to

  Emily Herrick's Boomerang quilt pattern.

 

I used 13 different fat quarters that I already had and a creamy yellow solid that was also 

just laying around begging to be put to use ;)

I did a sparse straight line quilting.  I will come back and quilt more after the wedding.

For the label, I used my printer and freezer paper.

The binding is mostly from Emily's newest collection, Technicolor :)

For the back, the groom wanted minky.  Thank heavens Dave's Bernina in Provo had the perfect match! ....and a special THANK YOU to Annette who happened to be in the store at the exact moment I needed it!  (She even delivered it right to my door ;)

****Back story- the day before I was supposed to give this to Ashley, I was madly trying to finish the quilt.  I only had just enough time to finish it if I didn't leave the house.  Well, suddenly I realized that I didn't have a backing :/ ...and NO time to go get one :(  I madly started calling friends to see what they had on hand.  April...nada!  Konda....something that probably would work, but..... Annette...BINGO!  She was at Bernina and found the perfect backing :)

AND, there is more!!!  So I had the quilt all the way quilted when the last row of quilting was not right :/  I didn't know what to do!  We had company coming at 6 for dinner and then we were headed to the Provo Temple with Ash and Dayan at 7.  I walked away from the sewing room and got busy with the company.  On my way to the temple, I texted April and begged her to let me borrow her spare machine.  She graciously agreed and left it on her porch for me.  We picked it up on our way home from the temple at about 10:30 pm.  I woke up early and made the binding and sewed it on.  I was able to hand sew about 3/4ths of it on and the label before the shower at 10 am :)

BE SURE TO COME BACK  on monday the 18th to get the info to join in on a Quilt-A-Long making the temple bag I made for my daughter.

The bag is blogged HERE.

Cupcake Anyone?

My dear friend Nidia Corzo (of Corzos Digital Memories) had me make this GIANT cupcake for her granddaughter's 1 year old photo shoot.

Nidia is our wedding photographer and she is AHH-MAZING!!!

If you live in Utah, Corzos Digital Memories is the BEST!!!

Happy Go Lucky Messenger Bag

My daughter is going to be going to the temple for the first time this week.  In our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) it's a very exciting, very big deal :)

I decided she needed a really pretty, super cool, quilted bag to take with her. :)  I mean really, what else is a crazy quilting mom with a wedding in 2 and a half weeks supposed to do?  One more thing, of course ;D

Ash chose the fabric collection "Happy Go Lucky" :) ...and a "quilt as you go" method for the design.

"Luckily" I had a fat quarter bundle of it just itching to be made into something :)

There are tons of pockets in the messenger bag.

Inside, there is one zippered pocket and two LARGE pockets, one of them divided.

This floral pocket is just plain HUGE! :)

It is so big, that it hides this awesome little zippered pocket.

See?  Isn't it cute? 

The large orange floral pocket is divided in two.

All of these pockets will come in handy.

The back side of the bag had a zippered pocket too :)

Ta da!

This is the underside of the messenger flap/cover thing :)

This is the front of the bag and pockets that hide under the flap.

See, in the big pocket, there are two smaller ones.  

One for Ashley's temple recommend and the other for Family File Ordinance cards :)

I am so excited for her :)  What a fun time!

Would you like to make your own bag?  Join us for my first QAL!!!  Details HERE.