Just Sew Quilter: 2024

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Virtual Cookie Hop

I don't know how many years I have been a part of Carol's (Just Let Me Quilt) Virtual Cookie Hop, but it is with joy and with some sadness that I take part this year. All of us participants are sorry to see the end of Carol and Joan's hosting hops, but I am sure we all understand. Life has a way of changing and moving on, and we change and move with it. Thanks and congratulations to both Carol and Joan on so many years of wonderful hops full of inspiration!

This year, I am making some of the same things I have made in the past.

Our women's group at church take candy orders during November for an early December delivery. I have already made 8 or 9 batches of peanut butter meltaways and 4 batches of fudge, along with 7 or 8 pounds of peanut clusters and 1 batch of almond joy "cookies." Most of that goes to family and friends, outside of our sale!

Peanut Butter Meltaways

10 - 12 ounces of dark chocolate candy melting wafers--Ghirardelli has been my favorite

10 ounces of vanilla (white) candy melting wafers

15-16 ounces peanut butter

Line 48 mini muffin cups with candy (mini muffin) papers.

Melt the candy wafers in the microwave. I do 1 1/2 minutes at 50 percent, then 30 seconds at a time (50%) until melted. Then add the peanut butter, and MW 30 seconds at a time until melted. Stir each time the microwave stops.

Once all is melted, pour it into a zip lock bag (this bag is in a 4 cup measuring cup while I pour in the melted mixture). Zip shut and clip off about a quarter inch from one corner. The bags with boxed corners will not work--ask me how I know. :)

Squeeze carefully into the muffin cups. If you can do this without dripping, I will be amazed. Hee, hee! Depending on how full the cups are, this should make between 45-48 candies, a little over 2 pounds.

Let harden, no refrigeration needed, and package. I bang the pans on the counter to loosen the cups from the pans. :)

You can store them in a cool place or in the freezer, if you end up with any left.

Fantasy Fudge

3 cups sugar

¾ cup butter or margarine

2/3 cup evaporated milk

12 oz Baker’s semi sweet chocolate, chopped (12 oz chocolate chips)

1-7 oz jar marshmallow crème

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Line 9-inch square pan with Aluminum Foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Bring sugar, butter and evaporated milk to full rolling boil in 3-qt. saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook 4 min. or until candy thermometer reaches 234°F, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in chips, marshmallow creme, and nuts. Then stir in vanilla. Pour into pan, spread evenly, and let cool. Lift fudge out of pan with foil edges and cut into 1" squares.

Lesson: Be sure to carefully study the recipe after a year of not making any! I pulled out my recipe, noted the ingredients, and dumped in my butter, milk, and sugar. It would NOT cook to 234 degrees, nor would the chocolate chips melt, even after I put it back on the stove for many minutes! I hadn't paid attention to the amount of milk and put in the whole can! FAIL!! It tasted good but was a gooey mess.

Easy Peasy Peanut Clusters

Chocolate melting wafers (I use dark chocolate wafers)

dry roasted peanuts

Melt the candy wafers and stir in peanuts until it looks like the right amount for spooning out onto wax paper. Stir in more peanuts, if and when needed. As I dip out, most of the time I realize I can add a few more peanuts into the mix as I work.

Let harden, package, and eat (or eat and package).

I tried a new-to-me recipe and if you like coconut, this is for you:

Almond Joy "Cookies"

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 14 oz bag coconut flakes

1 12 oz bag chocolate chips

2/3 cup chopped almonds (I will add more next time)

Stir together.

Use a cookie scoop, pack it with the mixture, and put onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I have 3 sizes of scoops and used the medium, but as sweet as these are, I will use my smallest scoop next time.

After putting them on the pan, moisten your fingers and make each into a ball, flattening the top. Bake at 325 for 12-14 minutes or until a bit brown around the bottoms. Of all the candy I made, these are my brother's favorite! I think they are really good too. The photo below shows baked cookies.

I store all my candy in our cool basement until it's shipped or delivered.

Below is the wall hanging I made for auction at our church's district conference. I still had 8 more of the panel squares I used in the corners, so I made a wall hanging for our church with 6 of those--no pic yet.

Below is the quilt I made first. I can't remember if I showed it before, so if you've seen it, forgive me!

I was given the fabric but I didn't have enough border. After an internet search, the only place I found it was in Canada, so I ordered all she had; shipping was as much as the fabric. I barely had enough to be able to miter the corners. THEN I made the above wall hanging and the one for church. I still have 2 more squares that I will make into a small wall hanging for a friend who is getting remarried after losing her 1st husband 3 years ago.

Here are some of the Christmas stockings the Cerro Gordo Quilters have made:

I am pretty sure I made around 300 of the total 710 made by our group. These are used by the Salvation Army, DOVE (a domestic violence shelter), Toys for Tots, etc., who all work together at Christmas time. Around 3000 total stockings are made and filled.

Well, you all enjoy visiting everyone on this lovely hop!

And have a wonderful holiday season!

I'll see you on the journey sometime!

December 2

December 3

Just Sew Quilter You are here!

December 4

Homespun Hannah's Blog

December 5

Friday, November 15, 2024

Coming Soon: the Virtual Cookie Exchange

Look for lots of yummy things to eat in this annual event!

Thanks to host Carol of Just Let Me Quilt, our mouths will be watering and our fingers will be itching to make some of these goodies!

December 2

December 3

December 4

Homespun Hannah's Blog

December 5

Monday, October 21, 2024

Something Wicked--My Turn

Welcome to the Something Wicked blog hop! I get to post on the first day! Many thanks to Carol of Just Let Me Quilt for hosting what I know will be a wonderful, inspiring hop!

The first project I want to share is Jumping Jack. This fabric is designed by Stephanie Brandenburg of Frond Designs (one of my favorite designers), and the pattern is by Phoebe Moon Studio. I bought all of this at my local quilt shop, Stewart's Sewing in Mt. Zion, IL. I did change up the pattern, however. Those wide borders were supposed to be 8.5" but I made mine 6.5" because I used the spider web BOB from Accuquilt in the upper right corner instead of making bats with flying geese (I despise making flying geese). Then there should be another outer border, but I didn't want my wall hanging to be that big, so I left it off.

It's hanging on our loft railing above our stairway--elsewhere it is too long.

I was hoping you could see some of the quilting in the photo below, but I'm not sure you can.

I did loops and threw in pumpkins every now and then. While quilting the pumpkins on the panel, I decided to write Happy Halloween. It's in this photo but not too visible...

Here's a photo of a corner, and you can see one of the FMQ pumpkins.

And here is my label.

Next up is a Jack O'Lantern, a kit I purchased at Country at Heart in Rock Falls, IL.

The squares were all pre-cut, which was nice. I appliqued the eyes, nose, and mouth and also zigzagged around the pumpkin with glow-in-the-dark thread, but it doesn't show up very well in the dark, and my camera couldn't get a photo of it. I still think it looks pretty neat. :)

Another kit I bought at Country at Heart was this table runner.

The pumpkins were pieced using a Dresden plate template. Then they were cut out and appliqued onto the background.

Ready for 1 more? Also on our shop hop, I bought a table runner kit at Our Crafty Life in Geneseo, IL. The pattern is Villa Rosa Dapper Runner.

The next 2 projects have nothing to do with Halloween but they are for fall.

I bought these panels and wanted to get them into wall hangings but had no place to hang them. Since I do most of the decorating at our church, I decided to hang them there.

Both are by Northcott. They are exactly the same size.

People at church seem to appreciate them, for which I am grateful.

Guess that's it for me this time.

Many thanks to Carol for hosting!

Be sure to check out everyone on the hop and leave a comment--we all enjoy reading what everyone has to say.

OCTOBER 21

Just Let Me Quilt

Just Sew Quilter (you are here)

Sew Many Yarns

Patchouli Moon Studio

OCTOBER 22

OCTOBER 23

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Beaquilter

Homespun Hannah's Blog

OCTOBER 24

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilted Delights

Quilting Between the Rails

Monday, October 14, 2024

Something Wicked is coming!

The Something Wicked blog hop will be here soon! Starting one week from today, you can visit lots of wonderfully wicked websites (see what I did there? Hee, hee!) and get inspiration! Here's the list:

OCTOBER 21

Just Let Me Quilt

Just Sew Quilter (you are here)

Sew Many Yarns

Patchouli Moon Studio

OCTOBER 22

OCTOBER 23

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Beaquilter

Homespun Hannah's Blog

OCTOBER 24

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilted Delights

Quilting Between the Rails

Monday, September 23, 2024

Bee Kind--My Turn

For my show and tell on this hop, I decided to get my shop hop quilt completed.

The fabric of choice for the East Central Illinois Shop Hop in July was Honeycomb Gardens by Laura Berringer for Marcus Fabrics. Because of the bees, I was enamored with the fabric and ordered the kits for the 12 blocks.

(It was a gorgeous day so I had my personal quilt holder display the quilt for me. LOL!)

There were 11 shops that participated in this hop, which means one shop provided 2 blocks. Three of us in the Cerro Gordo Quilters group had fun going to all but one shop in 2 days. I had visited the other shop (Stewart's Sewing in Mt. Zion, IL) myself the day before our big excursions.

Each shop provides a pattern and kit for a block--the pattern of the quilt is Are We There Yet by The Fabric Shop Network--and offers finishing kits based on those designs. This time, however, I wanted to just put the 12 blocks together with sashing and add borders.

The outer border is Bee Grateful by Deb Strain for Moda. With a yellow binding from the shop hop fabric, my quilt was done.

I FMQed the quilt with loops and bees, hoping the loopy pattern looked like bees' paths through the air.

Can you find my bees in the quilting? :)

As far a being kind to others, our Cerro Gordo Quilters regularly do charity work. Last fall we made lots of Christmas stockings for the domestic violence shelter. We are making them again this year. Somehow, I missed taking a photo of the stockings, so I can't include one.

In August we made 12 drawstring backpacks to give to kids at school. The library put some school supplies in them and then gave them to the teachers to hand out. Again, I did not take a photo!!

A number of years ago I made this little pillows from a kit. I forget the designer but it may have been Rachel of Greenfield... They fit perfectly with this theme.