Wrapped in Love

By Kathryn


I have been thinking about Grandma's birthday since last week, so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We love living so close that we are able to visit often. It is always a treat to be down on Sunday nights to enjoy tradition with everyone. 


For your birthday Grandma, I wanted to share with you the quilts we love at our house. When I tuck the kids in bed, I like them wrapped in love. 

There are four squares near the middle that have kittens on them. 

She loves this kitty right now, so a kitten blanket is just perfect!

Four puffed-up hearts are in the center of this one. 

I love that they poke out, up above the rest of the blanket. 

I love the soft flannel on this nine-patch. 

The quilt in the back in mine from high school graduation. 

The polyester front and flannel back make it just perfect. 

It still looks like new- even after ten years of use!

We're sleeping in our lovely blankets,

Well, mostly. :)

A warm greeting from the kids. Listen to little L near the end...

And a final song for such a wonderful person on this special day. 

With Lots of Love, 

Katie

Fabric Stash Heaven

One of my most favorite memories with Grandma was when I just started getting into quilting. I told her about it and she was so tickled. Then, she took me to her sewing room and opened up her fabric cabinets to me. She let me pick whatever I wanted! I was in heaven to say the least. 

These are some of the prints she let me have. (I've been hoarding them for years, waiting for just the right project) I think she said she made Betty a blouse out of that apple fabric. I love it!

 

 She also gave me some quilting books. 

 I love the vintage feel of the patterns. I've got my eye on this one next.

 I made her a quilt this summer. I can't believe I hadn't done it sooner! It was probably my favorite quilt to give away. I think she knew first hand how much work went into it, so she was happy!

My love of quilting definitely comes from you, grandma. I cherish that I'm named after such a wonderful mother and grandmother (and quilter) like you. Happy birthday!

Love you,

Mary

Pecans, Anyone?

For Grandma's birthday, I baked her a pecan pie.  It is one of her favorite desserts.

I found a new recipe (NOT the Karo syrup version--I don't think I'll be doing that one again).  

 I think this is worth sharing:

PECAN PIE

• 1 cup light brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• ½ cup butter, barely melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1½ cups chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Mix flour with sugars. Add to eggs and beat.  Mix in melted butter, milk, and vanilla. Stir in nuts by hand.
3. Pour into an unbaked 9-in pie shell. Cover edges with foil. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until done. As soon as the top of the pie is a light golden brown color, cover it lightly with a sheet of foil to prevent over-browning.  Towards the end of the baking time, if the pie is not brown enough for your liking, remove one or both foils the last few minutes.

Hey, I might as well throw this in.

 This is from a Bunkerville Ward cookbook that Grandma gave me years ago:

PIE CRUST (makes 3 - 4 single crusts)

3 cups flour 

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups Crisco

1 egg

milk

Mix salt and flour. Cut shortening into flour with a pastry blender. Put egg in measuring cup and fill up to 1 cup with milk. Blend well. Add to flour mixture, stirring with a fork until barely blended.  Roll out crusts. (For baked shells for cream pies, bake at 450 degrees about 7 minutes, or until lightly browned.)

Memories:  I loved going to Vegas with Grandma when I was a newlywed. 

 We had long visits in the car--a great chance to get to know my fabulous new mother-in-law.

Also, once when John was a newborn, I became very ill.  

Grandma took me in, put me to bed, and took care of our every need until I was better.

She's taught me so very many things--from homemaking skills to her philosophy of life.  

She he has always made me feel like one of her own daughters.  Happy Birthday! 

Love, Lynne

How about a game???

Some of my fondest memories as I got older was playing games with mom.  After I moved to Mesquite with children that was my out for the day.  I loved going to her house and pulling out the Chinese Checker or Rook.  She would visit with me and vent a lot of my frustrations as a young mother.  I knew what I was feeling was all normal and she had a lot of the same feelings but never a mother to share them with.  With great graditude I thank my Heavenly Father that he gave me a mother that understands me and who I am.  I love you Mom so much.  I am so grateful that I have always lived close.  I am grateful for the love you give my children and husband.  I still enjoy playing hand and foot with you.  Love, Janet

Mom taught me to sew!!

This past week I was working with a bunch of Activity Day Girls teaching them how to embroider.  I have so many memories of sitting and watching, helping or learning homemaking skills from Mom.  I remember making dresses for dolls, pulling threads for a fancy tablecloth (in 4-H) to determine the right place to cut so it was square.  I remember her teaching me to embroider; lazy daisies and french knots were always the favorite.  I remember some fun fancy cookies that were made in 4-H that were layers with coconut, chocolate chips and nuts.  So many fun times at the kitchen counter or sitting and learning at her knee.  As I do this with my own granddaughters it brings such fun memories back and a desire to pass it down.  Right now my little granddaughters think that Grandma can do such wonderful things in the kitchen and sewing room and all these skills started with my Mom.  Happy Birthday Mom, thanks for all you have taught me and for the patience and love you have always shown. Have a great Birthday!!!   Love ya, Betty

 Janet & I at a fashion show in Alamo.  I made my dress and mom made Janet's.  We modeled and were judged.

Grandma's Quilts (Grandma Janet that is)

For Christmas I made all my grandchildren quilts.  It was a lot of fun.  I even made Baby Abby one.

Hers was pink and green with baby buggies on it.

Next came Jessie's it was done with a vintage print and accented with Christmas green.  I really think she likes it.

Then Embers it was done with bright neon colors with flowers and butterflies and all sorts of cuteness.

Then last but not least was Neil's.  It was frog's and more frog's.  I really loved it.

But the greatest accomplishment was that they were all quilted and bound.  My kids were very impressed with that talent of mine.  ( but the truth is I have a wonderful neighbor that helped me finish them and bound them for me)

Photography Fun

The new Young Womens Theme this year is from D&C 115:5. 

"Verily I say unto you all: ^aArise and shine forth, that thy ^blight may be a ^cstandard for the ^dnations;" 

We do a bulletin board of the theme in our room every year with the girls, and I thought it would be fun do do something special for the words "Arise and Shine Forth." So we set my camera on a long exposure (2-3 seconds) and the girls "wrote" the letters in the air with a flashlight.

If you want to try this, just make sure the room is dark, and the flashlight is facing the camera the entire time. And you must use a tripod, or set your camera on something stable.  Otherwise, it will be blurry since the exposure is so long.

Turned out pretty cool! The girls had a blast figuring it out. 

Valentine Bunting

 I'm kind of obsessed with banners like this. 

I loved making this one. I picked fabric that felt a little vintage, and I love how it turned out. 

I originally found the inspiration here. She stenciled her letters on, but I liked the look of applique better.

Here's the cool part: I ran the fusible web through my printer with the paper side up so I didn't have to trace the letters on by hand. I felt so smart with this idea. Make sure you print the letters backwards though!

 I did this mock up to practice my blanket stitch length, and to make sure my proportions were right. Good thing I did this first. I put the Wonder Under on the wrong side :) Just iron it all on, and stitch around the heart and the letters. I chose a straight stitch for the letters and a machine blanket stitch for the hearts. You could zig zag, or do whatever you think is cute. 

Then I sewed bias tape on, and that was it. I made my own so it would match that coral pink, but you could make it easy on yourself and just buy some. 

All done. Love it.

Crayon Hearts

 I saw this idea on the Martha Stewart website ages ago. I finally found time to put it together this year. The instructions are here. This would be fun to do with kids (just be careful with the hot stuff). You could do this for any season too-leaves in the fall, shamrocks for St. Patties, you get the idea. (PS, I spy our Christmas tree still in our back yard)

You just use crayon shavings and wax paper and melt into sheets using your iron. Once it cools, cut out the shape you want. My house smelled like an elementary school art room with all that melting wax :)

 I searched "heart template" in Google and it came up with a million results. I used this one. 

Then put it behind your sheet of wax when it's cool, and trace your design.

Hang them with fishing wire, and you're done. 

It's a nice lovey-dovey touch to our kitchen. 

More Valentine's decorations to come...

High Chair Makeover

Since we moved into a bigger house, we now have room for a bigger high chair. We've loved our little clip on, but this one is nice to have in the kitchen area while I'm cooking. I found a high chair on Craigslist for $10 (total steal!), but it didn't have a cover. So I made one.

I'm pretty proud of this baby. I just looked at some pictures online (I found an amazing tutorial here),  measured the dimensions, then I just guessed and did the best I can. It would have been easier if I could have used the old one as a template, but I just did a mock up with some scrap fabric and tweaked it from there.

 I kind of love this fabric. I think it could go either boy or girl. It's totally washable too.

I feel so good about this one! I'm so thankful that my mom taught me how to sew. I found some places on etsy selling high chair covers for $50+. No thanks.

A Special Day

On Saturday, January 7th 2012, my Danielle was baptized. It was a wonderful day. We were so blessed to have Grandpa and Grandma come! It was certainly a treat! I thought these pictures would be appropriate for Grandma. Read the full post about the baptism HERE. 

I love this picture!

What a wonderful heritage this little girl has. 

Flower Headband

 Kat and I whipped some of these headbands out while we were home for Christmas. It was really fun and easy.

There's about a bazillion tutorials for these kind of flowers, I liked this one. I think the biggest thing is to make sure the fabric you're using is synthetic, so when you burn the edges the whole piece of fabric doesn't start on fire. Also, she used a lighter, but I think it's easier to light a candle and do it that way. 

You can really customize it however you want. I used 12 layers to get the look I liked. You could use thinner elastic, different beads in the center, layers that are different colors. Whatever. Quick and easy, perfect for a baby gift too!

It Feels Like Spring

With Christmas over,  I decided I wanted a spring-like feel on my kitchen table

 (since it's been almost 70 degrees here lately!)  I grabbed a few flowers I had around the house to see what I could do. The rose buds were from my flower bed out front.

  By the way, the table runner is my favorite: 

 It came from Holland-- a gift from Janet.  Thank you!

                              

 Here's another one I recently put together for the upstairs bath.

It's surprising how much just a little change can brighten up a room.

Christmas Projects

by Kathryn

This year I decided to make each person in my family a homemade gift. 

I had a lot of fun sewing these projects- they were made with love!

These are dolls clothes I made for Dani. She has a matching bag too. 

I free-handed the snowflakes. 

Looks like they fit!

This is my dad during food day at the institute. 

Lindsay and I stopped to visit him during Thanksgiving dinner. 

I made him this chef's hat to wear on those food days.

I think he likes it!

I didn't have a pattern, so I follow this child's one, and just altered it. 

The embroidery took as long as the total hat construction!

Lindsay got this apron for her new cooking things. 

On Christmas morning she was especially excited about these "POTATOES!"

which are actually clementine oranges. 

For Sam, who works for the department of transportation, 

I made this NEON orange fleece hoodie with reflective piping. 

It is SOOO bright in real life.

I don't think he'll be mistaken on the road. 

For Will I made a blanket for Sheriff Woody and a pillowcase to match for him.

What I really wanted to sew all during the break was a skirt for myself. 

Last Saturday I finally got it done!

It's a pencil skirt. This is the back. It ruffles. I like it. 

My last project is a black knit dress. I haven't worked a whole lot with knit, so I'm interested to see how that will go. Sam surprised me with a serger in August that I have been LOVING. It's so nice to have the details as pretty on the inside as on the outside.

Merry Christmas!