YAY! for Patriotic Pillows

My 4th of July pillows are finally done! They really don't match the sofa so I think I'll keep them on my bed. Pattern is a paper-pieced block from a quilt pattern called Morris and Company, by Moda.

I don't have a pillow form for the larger one yet, so it's filled with pajamas ;) 

The block is easier than you would guess as it's paper-peiced. The original square was only 6 in, so I blew it up on the copier to 8, then added borders to make the pillows the right size. 

I can't make a pillow cover without piping anymore, they just don't look sharp enough! These have navy, which suits me fine. 

I hand quilted the tops during General Conference, and just got around to finishing them up today, mostly because I want to start on a Christmas quilt. I hate to have unfinished projects. 

So Much Snow!!

Last weekend we got about two feet of snow in Salt Lake City. In one day. Katie and I had fun playing in it (but much less fun driving in it!)

Door Latch Cover Tutorial

I've decided to make a full tutorial on the door latch cover. I've noticed that several of the searches people have found my blog with are for the words "door latch tutorial," and after doing a search myself, I found that a true step-by-step tutorial didn't exist.

Here's what you'll need:

Fabric

Heavy iron-on interfacing

Elastic headband

Cut two 3x5" pieces of fabric and one 2x4" piece of interfacing

Iron the interfacing in the middle of the wrong side of one of the pieces of fabric

Fold each short edge back 1/2".

 Iron and pin to make a 3x4" rectangle. 

Sew about 3/8" from the edge.

Place fabrics right-sides together

pin and sew at the edge of the interfacing, or 1/2" 

Turn right-side out and press flat. Sew the casing by sewing 1/2" from each long edge. Be sure to back-stitch to make it secure

Look at your headband. You should be able to see where it is glued together. Cut it near the glue to keep at least one side from fraying

Put a safety-pin through the elastic on the end with the glue. This will help your elastic go through the casing.

Put the elastic through both casings. 

Pin the ends of the elastic together and fit them over your door handles to make it the right size for your door and door handles. Paint the end of the elastic with clear nail polish to stop any fraying.

Sew the elastic together. I've tried to do this on the sewing machine, but it doesn't work. It's much easier to do a few hand stitches. Pull the elastic through the casing to hide the stitching.

Pop it over the handles of the door, and you're done!

I hope this tutorial helps!

Buzz Lightyear Cookies

Katie went to Girl's Camp this week as a counselor. Her group name is Buzz Lightyear; all the groups have light-themed names. I made cookies to send up mid-week as a surprise. I hope the girls like them!

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Happy Birthday Evelyn!

Today is my nieces birthday. Since I couldn't be there to bake her a cake I sent decorated sugar cookies instead!

She lives in Hawaii and loves the beach, so I went with tropical colors and shapes. I tried to pick shapes that would break less (I hope!) 

YAY! for the Solar Eclipse!!

Jonathan made a cool device to look at the eclipse. He stacked two welding masks and added a pair of sunglasses to reduce glare. It was really cool to see.

Mom modeling the fantastic goggles

After we all had a look, he took them to the neighbors across the street so their little boys could have a look too!

YAY! for Brownie Torte!!

This is what we had for dessert tonight. It was a small and rich chocolate cake.

This was a fast recipe to put together.

6 oz semisweet chocolate, divided
2 1/2 T butter
1 large egg
1/4 sugar
pinch salt
4 T AP flour

Set oven to 350 F. Melt together 4 1/2 oz chocolate, chopped, with the butter. Let cool slightly. Whisk egg with sugar and salt until frothy. Whisk in chocolate. Fold in flour then remaining chocolate, chopped. Pour into greased 6" pan. Bake 20-30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes before turning out. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve with ice cream.