Baby Quilt Started

I got almost the whole top completed on my baby quilt today. 

(The colors are off in this image.  The bright pink is too bright and the rest is too dim.)  I like it better in person.  I'm going to put another border on it using the same pink print (not the bright one), and then it will be ready to quilt. 

In the past, I've just done a diagonal grid in the main part of the quilt.  Then I use a decorative stitch from my sewing machine in the narrow first border.  Since the print has butterflies in it, I'm going to try my hand at free motion quilting some butterflies in the outer border.  I've never been very good at drawing, so this could be interesting.

That's what I worked on today.  I didn't expect to get this far with it, and so I'm pretty happy this evening.

Baking on Friday: Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

These are sooooo yummy!  They aren't a sweet muffin, and so they're a good healthy choice for breakfast, brunch or snacking.  They'd be a nice addition to an Easter brunch! 

I found this recipe on the Myrecipes.com website, which is a terrific resource, if you haven't seen it before.  The recipe first appeared in the August, 2010, issue of Cooking Light.  And here it is:

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
Recipe from:  Cooking Light, August 2010

1 2/3 cups quick-cooking oats
3 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2/3 cups)
2 1/3 ounces whole-wheat flour (about 1/2 cup)
3/4 cup packed golden brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
2 large eggs
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons granulated sugar or Demerara sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place oats in a food processor; pulse 6-7 times or until oats resemble coarse meal. Place in a large bowl.

Weigh or lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add flours and next 5 ingredients (through salt) to oats; stir well. Make a well in center of mixture.

Combine buttermilk and next 3 ingredients (through eggs). Add to flour mixture; stir just until moist.

Toss berries with 2 tablespoons flour, and gently fold into batter. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray; sprinkle 2 tablespoons granulated or Demerara sugar evenly over batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove from pans immediately; place on a wire rack.
NOTES : Tossing frozen blueberries with flour before adding them to the batter keeps them from turning the batter purple while they bake. If you use fresh blueberries, skip that step.

The original recipe notes that it makes 16 muffins.  I filled the muffin cups of my 12-cup tin, and that pretty much used up the batter.  The recipe as I have written it assumes a 12-muffin yield.  Also, the original recipe specifies sprinkling granulated sugar over the muffins just before placing them in your oven.  I've always liked the look and texture of Demerara (or raw) sugar, and so I've added it as an option.  If you don't have any, just use granulated sugar as the recipe suggests.  Or, if you don't want that added sugar, leave it out altogether.  Your muffins will still be appetizing and delicious.

Book Review: Your Machine's Decorative Stitches

This is the first book of Karen Linduska, who is an art quilter from Illinois.  I became aware of this book when I saw it available for pre-order on the American Quilter's Society website.  I ordered it (prior to publication) some months ago and just received it yesterday. 

It's an interesting book, and unique in my library.  The objective is to teach the reader to use all those fancy stitches you have on your sewing machine.  I happen to have a Bernina, but it can be used with any machine.  If you don't have the specific stitch she's talking about, you can substitute a similar stitch.  There are also 12 projects included for practice and inspiration.  These two especially appealed to me, and they are representative of the others that you might choose from.

Very cute.  There's a good explanation of tools you might use as well as techniques for making the stitches longer or wider, or distorting them by either pushing or pulling the fabric faster or more slowly. 

I'm not sure when I'll get around to trying these, but I can imagine a project for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative to try out some of her techniques.  I can recommend this book to anyone who's interested in putting those decorative stitches to work.  I've used them for quilting narrow borders on table runners and baby quilts before, but this book has given me some ideas about using the stitches in a more creative way.

Odds and Ends

I feel as if I accomplished a lot today, even if the things I accomplished were small things.  I put the border on my "Secret Garden" quilt.

This quilt began as a challenge quilt for a guild I was attending a while back.  The challenge was to do a technique that was new to us, and to tie the theme with a children's book.  The plan was to donate the quilts and the books to the CARES NW program, which is a medically-based child abuse assessment program in Portland.  Then, I stopped attending the guild, and so the challenge never went anywhere.  Nevertheless, I had already decided that my new technique would be to make this mystery quilt that was running in American Quilter magazine at the time.  I'd never done a mystery quilt before.  Since my focus blocks were floral, I was going to pair it up with:

That's how my quilt got its name.  So . . . that was supposed to have happened two months ago, but since I stopped going to the guild, I didn't participate in the challenge.  That doesn't mean I can't still donate the book and the quilt to CARES.  I think I probably will.  But first, I need to make a back for it.  That will mean purchasing some fabric, since I don't have anything large enough in my stash.  And it still needs quilting and binding, but this one is going to my long arm quilter.  I don't think I can stand any more free motion quilting right at the moment.

Then, I put a label on my "Spring!" quilt.

This one has been finished for a while, but I'm only just now getting around to putting a label on it.

George was very helpful through that process.

Then I started on something I've been wanting to do for a while.  This is my "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" quilt.  I haven't taken any pictures of it since it's been quilted.  I still need to do the hand-sewing on the binding, and so I'll post those later.  For now, I'll just show you the quilt top.

This quilt will go on our guestroom bed when it's all finished, and I wanted to make matching pillowcases for it.  I was all set with a pattern, and then I found this one on the Fabshophop website.  It's called Tulip Fields Forever (that link will take you to the PDF if you like the pattern).  It looks like this:

but I'm doing mine in black instead of white, and I'm making the paper-pieced tulips in the colors of the tulips in my quilt:  yellow, blue, pink, and purple.  Here's the first of 18 that I need to make (9 for each pillowcase).

Finally, I selected and washed the fabric for a baby quilt I want to make for the woman who does my facials (a little treat I give myself a couple of times a year).  The last time I saw her, I learned she was expecting her first child--a baby girl.  I'm going to use the same pattern I've used for Downy quilts in the past since it goes together fast, and the quilting is simple.  These are the fabrics I'm going to use (all from my stash):

I asked her if she was decorating her baby's room in pink for her little girl.  She said she was using pink, mauve, and gray, and I had just the right colors in my stash.  I'm kind of excited about this one.  She will be completely surprised.

So that's about it for me today.  Oh yes, I went to the grocery store too--one of my most hated tasks.  But with all that fun, I figured I should accomplish something house-holdy too.  Now we have food for the next week, which is always a good feeling.