746.46 (Patchwork and quilting)

Christmas has come and gone and this holiday season and my funds for purchasing gifts was minuscule. Grad school will do that to your budget. So most of the gifts this season were handmade, including a quilt for my sister-in-law, one that was supposed to be a gift for her bridal shower, which never happened because of a pushed up wedding date. I had already purchased the fabric for the quilt, so it was basically a no extra cost gift. It's not "done" yet, but it's pieced. Just need to get a nice batting and backer.

Pieced quilt. 

Close up of quilt.

Close up of quilt.

The quilt doesn't have an official pattern, it's just a series of 4"x4", 6"x4", 8"x4", and 10"x4" squares and rectangles cycling through a pattern with each row, alternating reds and blues. The starting pattern is laid out like this: 4", 6", 8", 4"(white), 10", 4"(white), 8", 6", 4". The following rows cycle through this pattern, taking the block on the left and then putting it on the far right of the row: 6", 8", 4"(white), 10", 4"(white), 8", 6", 4", 4". Next row then looks like 8", 4"(white), 10", 4"(white), 8", 6", 4", 4", 6", and so on.

I didn't pay attention to the exact fabric order, just ensured that squares next to each other weren't made of the same fabric. Rows vary on how they match up - sometimes a row will have 4 or 5 seam matches, sometimes only 2. It's easy to cut out and easy to stitch together, though. It was quick work (maybe 4-6 hours total) to cut and piece.

394.262 (Secular holidays - Holidays of March, April, May) - A Memorial Day Post

My mother's church has an annual Memorial Day bake sale. The church sits right on the parade route, so as long as the weather is decent (which sometimes happens in Wisconsin), they do pretty well. Since I was in town for a surprise party that day, she asked me to bake some cookies for the bake sale.

I've been wanting to try the "stained glass" cookie technique for a while, so here are the awesome results!

The hubs helped with these cookies, for which I was EXTREMELY thankful. They're kind of a pain!

I made my normal sugar cookie dough (the one out of the Betty Crocker (c)1973 cook book) and cut out stars using two different sized cookie cutters. After a little SCIENCE!, the hubs and I discovered that the best way to make them without either a) the candy melting too fast and then becoming bubbled and burnt or b) the dough being under cooked was to follow the steps below:

1. Bake the cookies for 2-3 minutes on the parchment paper lined sheet before adding the candy.
2. Remove the cookies from the oven and add "large-ish" chunks of jolly rancher to the center of the cookie, using more candy than you think you'll need to ensure complete coverage of the inside of the cookie. Also, doing this carefully so no candy ends up on the dough itself, but stays on the inside of the cookie.
3. Bake until all of the candy has melted (another 3-5 minutes) and the cookies appear a little brown around the edges.
4. Use a toothpick to quickly (and carefully) spread liquid candy to any blank spots.

Instead of wasting or re-rolling the middles I cut out of the cookies, I baked the middles and then frosted them with a simple pour-frosting (Wilton recipe).

They definitely turned out beautifully, though! I've got to hand that to them! And if you like jolly ranchers, they're pretty taste-y, too!

A few more pictures for posterity, right?

Cooking in the window - I love the reflection on the window sill!

Cookies in my mother's antique glass bowl. Aren't they patriotic?

Closeup on my favorite cookie of the batch - I love the way the color swirls!