Easy Apple Bundles

I have recently seen recipes for appletarts made from strips of pie dough or crescent rolls so here is my variation.  These make up in minutes and bake for 13 minutes; you can eat them warm or reheat for 10 seconds in the microwave.

You need:
1 tube of crescent rolls
1/2  stick of butter, melted
1 large apple, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges
Mixture of 1 tsp cinammon and 1/4 cup sugar

 

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  If using a convection oven, I use 365 degrees. So first I mix 1 teaspoon of cinammon and 1/4 cup of sugar in a small bowl.  If you use a smaller bowl it is easier to roll the bundle and not chase the sugar mixture around a large plate.  Next melt the butter in a microwave safe dish. I roughly peel the apple and then I use an apple wedge tool that cores and cuts the wedges all at the same time. Now I am ready to open the crescent roll tube.  Take each

triangle and lay a wedge on the wide end and then roll it up. 

 

Now take the bundle and roll it in the melted butter and next dip lightly in the sugar/cinammon mixture. I have successfully used Splenda Baking Mix in place of sugar. Place the bundles on a cookie sheet; I always use parchment paper because the sugar tends to carmelize and over brown when placed on the sheet directly. 

 



 

Place the apple bundles in the preheated oven and bake for 13 minutes.  Serve warm or reheat in microwave for 10 seconds when ready to serve.  Great when served with with vanilla bean ice cream!

 

 



One More Block To Go........

So I have been working on the blocks for this Christmas quilt since March.  It is the pattern Merry Merry Snowmen from Bunny Hill Designs.  I have just one more block to do.  Then I can sew the blocks together and free motion quilt it.  Each block has the design appliqued on it and then adorned with buttons and/or embroidery. I hope to be finished with it by mid November so I can display it on a quilt rack for the Holidays.

Baby Isabelle in Her Bunting

So often we make gifts and know they are appreciated but never see them being used.  One of my favorite baby items to make are buntings to swaddle the child in.  Earlier I blogged about this gift http://juliannasjourney.blogspot.com/2012/06/gifts-for-baby-shower.html and just received a pic of baby Isabelle in her bunting.  Isn't she just beautiful and doesn't she look comfy!

Free Motion Quilted Pumpkin Runner

 

 

As I referred to in an earlier post, http://juliannasjourney.blogspot.com/2012/08/pumpkin-runner.html, I have been practicing free motion quilting and am really getting better at it.  I want to FMQ 2 quilts by Christmas so I need to get better at it.  With this in mind, I quilted the Pumpkin Runner shown above.  I used different patterns on the background, pumpkins and border.  Hopefully you can see my designs in the following pics.  The different patterns really added alot of dimension to the runner.

 

 

I did a circular design in the center of the pumpkins and a 2 way design between them.  On the right I used a graded long parallel stitch which looks great on it, although it is hard to see in the picture.

 

 

On the border I used a paisley design that I saw on Leah Day's site  Paisley  and it did come out fairly well for my first try.

 

A few things that have helped me with FMQ are Little Genie Magic Bobbin Washers http://www.daystyledesigns.com/magicgeniewashers.htm, the teflon oven liner http://juliannasjourney.blogspot.com/2012/09/fmq-and-teflon-slider.html that I made a slider out of for my machine and quilting gloves.  Along with these items, I have practiced FMQ for 15 minutes a day for weeks.  But I must say what finally made it click was a comment that I read, unsure of where I read it, that compared drawing with a pencil; when you draw you move the pencil around the paper but when you free motion quilt, you move the fabric around the needle.  For whatever reason, this radically changed how I envisioned the patterns and I have become better at FMQ.

 



FMQ and Teflon Slider

I am practicing free motion quilting and I read that one can make a substitute for the Supreme Slider (which is way too pricey for me) by using a teflon oven liner.  I found a teflon liner at an outlet store and cut a hole for the needle with an exacto knife.  Then I placed it on my extension table and used blue painter's tape to hold it in place.  It definitely makes the quilt sandwich easier to move around.  I will be using it to FMQ a Fall Runner later this week so I will display the results.

Tomato Basil Gratin

My tomatoes are in full bloom so last night I made Tomato Basil Gratin as a side dish.  My daughter had this over the weekend made by her boyfriend's mother.  Since my daughter eats very little meat, we are always on the lookout for vegetable dishes.  This one is from David Venable on QVC.  I substituted whole wheat bread crumbs which gave it a little more of a nutty taste.

Tomato-Basil Gratin

Ingredients:
6 tomatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 cup parmesan, grated
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1-1/2 cups mozzarella, shredded
2 Tbsp olive oil
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Combine the bread crumbs, garlic, parmesan, basil, parsley, salt, and pepper in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

In a 3-qt casserole or baking dish, cover the bottom with a layer of sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella and 1/3 of the bread crumb mixture over the tomatoes. Repeat twice, using all the remaining ingredients.

Drizzle olive oil over the top and cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until bubbly and the cheese has browned.

Pumpkin Runner

I got together with several friends and started a monthly sewing club.  Our first project is the pumpkin runner shown above Pumpkin Runner from Hoffman Fabrics.  It was intended to be made of batiks but we each went through our fabric stash to come up with our designs.  We were able to get most of the front constructed in our first session.  Next we will add the backing and batting and at the next session we will free motion quilt our runner.  The directions for this runner are vague for beginners but we figured it out.  The term 'snowballing' was new to us and so I found a tutorial on how to snowball http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltpatternsprojects/ss/snowbal_economy_4.htm which clearly explained it. The last part of constructing the runner was the mitered corners which proved to be the most difficult part but again, we figured it out.

Now we are all beginners at free motion quilting and it is truly an art in itself. There are many helpful videos on the Internet but the most comprehensive source is The Free Motion Quilting Project by Leah Day http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/.  FMQ takes hours of practice but I am quite intrigued by the beautiful results I see posted everywhere on the Internet so it has become an obsession to me to master it. 

So look forward to the posting of my finished product in the next few weeks.

Puzzle Bouse

I have recently become intrigued with a pattern for a Puzzle Blouse that I found in the book Simple Serger Sewing by Julie Johnson.  You can also find a variation of it by Suzy Seed on the Alice's House blog.  Basically it is a square piece of fabric that gets 3 serged seams and serged edges on the hemline, armholes and neckline. The finished blouse is on the bias. When I made my first one, the tangerine shown below, I realized that it makes a great bathing suit cover-up. So I proceeded to make a few for friends. The ones I like best are made of silky prints from Joann fabrics; they hang quite nicely.  The key to the size is making the square either your hip measurement or high bust measurement, whichever is greater. However, a 38 inch square makes a nice cover up for most sizes.  If you use the pattern for a blouse, you have to shorten it appropriately.

After you make the first one, it takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.  On the first one, it is truly puzzling to figure out how to make this serged blouse.  I actually do a rolled hem on the armholes, neckline and hemline.  The pink one is made from a soft cotton and instead of using a rolled hem stitch, I just serged around the openings. What I have learned is that I need alot more practice serging curves and probably need to take a serger class.

Zucchini and Potato Casserole

As I looked at the garden today, I saw that I had a zucchini and many small tomatoes.  I was having breaded Parmesan chicken with a salad and knew I needed a carb side dish.  Many times I have made a gratin by layering whatever vegetables I had on hand, so I proceeded to cube the zucchini into 1/2 pieces, cut the small tomatoes in half and sliced the potatoes in 1/2 inch slices.  I sprayed an 8x8 casserole dish with olive oil spray, threw in the zucchini cubes followed by the tomatoes.  I layered the potatoes ontop and seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with 2 tablespoons of margarine.  I popped it into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  By this time it was starting to bubble but I saw that it had produced a little more liquid than I liked.  So I stirred in a tablespoon of Acini De Pepe and figured it would soak up the extra liquid from the vegetables. I baked for 15 minutes more and then topped with some shredded Parmesan cheese.  I let this cheese bake for a few minutes and my casserole was just the right consistency.  In addition, the little pasta beads had soaked up the additional liquid and were just yummy.  The vegetables were glazed with a delicious sauce rather than sitting in liquid.  This is so easy to make and bakes while you prepare the rest of your meal.  Experiment with various vegetables and different cheeses.  I am even thinking of layering some barley in my next casserole.

A Taggie for Maggie

It has been very hot this week so I spent a little extra time indoors sewing.  My daughter-in-law dropped off fabric for throw pillows so I figured I would whip them up.  Also my niece had a baby a few weeks ago and I wanted to make something personal for her.



A Taggie for Maggie

I got the idea for this taggie from a couple of posts on sewforum.com.  I used fleece for the center that I embroidered on and flannel for the borders and back.  Since she was 9 pounds and was born on June 9th, I was able to use the 9 for 2 stats - I am hoping my niece likes it!!

The pillows were made with outdoor canvas from Joann's.  The plain one were made from the method I described in an earlier post Decorator Pillows and the one with the sash I just added a rectangular tube of fabric and neatly sewed a button to the center after I added a pleat. I must add here that I just love sewing buttons on with my machine; I simply hate sewing buttons on by hand and with the sewing machine they are so much more secure. The pillow with the 4 buttons was just a strip of fabric that I finished both short ends; of course I sewed those 4 buttons on with my machine also.

Gifts for a Baby Shower

I recently made some items for another baby shower.  The nursery theme is pink and purple butterflies and the baby's name is Isabelle.  I made the baby bunting from Simplicity pattern #2165, as I did for a gift in a  previous post.  But this time I added the baby's name on the inside of the upper back, along with a butterfly.

I made a blanket of two different flannels, one side with butterfly print and the other plain so that i could embroider the name on the top.

I made 2 types of hats, both that I had not previously made but adorned both with butterflies.  I also bought a onesie and added a butterfly.  Lastly I made 2 burp cloths with flannel left over from the other items, a pacifier bib and a case for baby wipes.

Monogrammed Robe

My son wanted to give his wife a lightweight robe as a gift.  So I monogrammed it using the Fancy Monogram Font 1 from embroitique.com.  I used a cut away stabilizer to maintain the shape of the fine lines and also fused a piece of Solvy Tender Touch on the inside for comfort. 

Embroidered Golf Shirts

I was at Penney's today and found these 2 Xersion shirts for $14/each.  They are Quick-Dri, stretch and semi-fitted short sleeve shirts for sport activities.  Since they will be perfect for golf, and it has been unusually hot thus far this golf season, I bought a white and a mango one.  I thought they might look cute with a golfer emblem and decided to adorn them. The golfer stick lady design I had saved in my stash and, unfortunately, do not know the source.




For the first one (mango) I used a layer of No Show translucent mesh 1.5 oz. Wunderstitch stabilizer in the hoop and floated a sheet of Stitch and Tear underneath. Afterwards, I ironed a piece of  Sulky Tender Touch on the underside.  I found that fusible does not work well on this thin fabric, as it shows through.  So I removed the Tender Touch and it looks much better.

For the white I just hooped a piece of Wunderstitch 1.5 oz. mesh cutaway and am much happier with the result. This fabric is too thin to just use tear away on because the design would not keep its shape. The design on the mango one is 2"X2.33" and on the white it is 1.6"X1.9".  Although both are acceptable I prefer the smaller design.  Both look nice on and I think are just a little cuter with the design on them.

DIY Stagecoach Blind

I just made this stagecoach blind for my son's kitchen window.  My daughter-in-law selected the fabrics and the yellow-gold ribbon really makes it pop.  It is not just a window topper but a workable blind.  I basically used directions from eHow but modified the bottom to have a placket to hold a second identical rod.

She chose a decorator fabric for the top; Rich FC Jovial Island from Joann fabrics. The robin egg blue matches their KitchenAid Mixer.

We used an Offray grosgrain 1 1/2 inch ribbon; Yelgld 9.



The lining is a cotton; Meadow Lark Circle in orange