Kid Scraps #2

I distracted myself from the the 3  projects on my design wall (last weeks post) with this basket of kid fabric scraps.  It's kind of like comic relief!  You know...when you're stuck on one design problem just move to the next!  Anyway,  I have been accumulating scrappy units made from kid fabric for some time and when I pulled that basket out I realized I had more than enough 'units-to-sew' to make a kid quilt!  With Scrap Strategies when you have enough sub-units it really is as easy as 1-2-3 to pull together a top!

So here's how the scrappy units progessed ...

Some I used in an earlier quilt and some were used for this top and others were set aside for future tops...

A little further on in the piecing...  The group on the left were chosen to go in this top and the group on the right were set aside for another top.

A few seams and done!

These scrappy tops are a lot of fun to piece and they are made from all real scraps!  

There kind of like 'Ready to go abstract designs'.  If you like scrappy, asymetrical designing you might try this technique.  Here are some links to earlier posts that describe the beginning parts of this fun process.

go here

or

here 

Whatever your preference...

Have a great weekend!

cheers, Claire W.

My Favorite Birthday Cake Recipe

I love to bake but I don't bake to much these days 'cause the old waist line can't handle it!  But when my daughter called and said she wanted to bring a couple of her co-workers / friends home for the weekend to escape the big city (San Fransico) and celebrate one of their Birthdays ...I thought what the heck I'll bake the Birthday Girl a cake.

This is my favorite go-to cake recipe.  It is a dense, almost flour less chocolate cake from Julia Child's cookbook "The Art of French cooking" circa 1961 published by A.Knopf.  If you like to make cakes from scratch and you like dark chocolate this is the recipe for you! pp.677-678

"Queen of Sheba"

It's really not hard to make but you do have to be familiar with whipping and folding in egg whites.

The original recipe calls for a chocolate butter icing but I decided to make it extra rich and use chocolate ganache instead!  I like Julia's comment at the beginning of the recipe!

Copied from "The Way to Cook"  Julia Child, 1989, page 476, A. Knopf, 1989

I would not add as much liquid as recommended.  2 tsp.of vanila plus 3 tbs. of coffee was just a bit to much liquid for the mixture to set-up for truffles but it was OK for the icing.

Do I sound like Martha Stewart yet?!  It always cracks me up when she talks like she just "whipped up this batch of Madelines"  when there's a small army of people behind the scenes who prep everything for her!  But have no fear this is what my kitchen counter looked like when I was done!

It was a big mess!  But it does not actually take That long to clean up even without the scullery crew!

Here's the Birthday Girl!  (I think she liked the cake)

Well however your tastes run in Baked Goods, I hope you have a Sweet Weekend!

Cheers, Claire W.

Busy week, some sewing, nothing finished...

Here's the design wall yesterday...

Thanks to Lori D.  I dug out the Friendship blocks from last summer and made some progress with those and then I got momentarily distracted by some pink orphan blocks which I will make into a charitable quilt.  And I've made reasonable progress on the 'Modern' Scraps thing, but now I'm a bit bogged down because I'm having trouble with the bottom border?!  I've kind of run out of scraps and looked through my stash but  not found any ideal candidates. But I'm not going shopping!  Here's what I've auditioned...

I think the color is good on these two but the prints are more refined than the others?

The fine print may be the calmness that it needs at the bottom but I do like the colors of the circle print?

This print has paisleys like the side borders but the color is a bit dull?  Or maybe I should just go for a solid?

What do you think?

Happy Saturday Sewing!

cheers, Claire W.

'Modern' Scraps

No finishes the past few weeks but I have been struggling to work out a layout for these scraps I culled from the scrap pile in my last Scrap Strategies class (see last post)...

I often get to take home the leftover scraps from my Scrap Strategies classes and I always have fun going through the pile before bagging them up for the guild flea market!   This time round I decided to make a new sample for my Scrap Strategies class with some of the 'Modern' scraps I gleaned from the take home bag!   I'm still not sure what's considered Modern.  I might have stretched the definition a bit...
The chartreuse colored roof tops were pieces that came out of the scrap bag just that shape.  Here's how I made them fit:

Start by matching the 'roof' to a background strip that is fairly wide.

Sew right sides together,  If the strip is long enough you can assembly line the units.

Square off the sky on two sides.

Flip the roofs around and sew the other sides to the space left on the strip. You can see why you want to start with a wide strip.

Iron and trim the other two sides.

It's kind of a spin-off technique from Gwen Marston's liberated techniques.  Remember these are all REAL scraps so experimentation is free!  

I hope your Spring is going well!

Cheers, Claire W.