Cookie Ice Cream Cake

This recipe is for Sara...the new mother-to-be!!

Cookie Ice Cream Cake (not really any cake involved)

One package regular Oreos
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup hot fudge topping

2 quarts Fudge ripple ice cream

Whiz 20 cookies in the food processor to make crumbs.  Combine crumbs with melted butter and press into bottom of 9" springform pan.  Spread 3/4 cup topping over crust.  Stand remaining cookies around edge of pan.  FREEZE 15 minutes.

Spread 1 quart softened ice cream evenly over fudge layer.  FREEZE 30 minutes.  Scoop remaining ice cream into balls and arrange over ice cream layer.  FREEZE 4 hours. 

Garnish each slice with more warmed topping and whipped cream.

You can switch out different kinds of cookies and different flavors of ice cream. 

First Customer Quilt on the Handi Quilter

 To the left is my first customer quilt quilted on my Handi Quilter.  I learned some things about the machine while quilting it. 

A woman from my church asked me to quilt this top her MIL had started.  I wondered if she wanted me to just do it for free.  I told her (and it was true at the time) that I was not quilting for anyone,  but I would get her a quote from a friend that quilted for a business.  After getting her quote (which totaled nearly $200 for quilting, batting, backing, and binding), I got the Handi Quilter machine.  I worked up my own quote at one cent per square inch (the quilt is 80" x 88") and included batting, backing, and applying bias binding (which turned out really nicely...I used a red and white check and cut it on the diagonal).  I didn't think she would want to invest that much money in it, but she told me to proceed. 

Check out some of these fabrics.  I think of these as prints only Bonnie could love!  Bonnie Hunter loves to see vintage prints and wonkiness and fungly fabrics (so ugly that they are fun).

This quilt was a challenge in several ways.  The edges were not straight.  It did not lie flat.  Seams were not sewn well, so one side of the fabric was not even in the seam leaving holes.  I didn't think I could send this to someone else to quilt because they wouldn't take the time to repair everything before quilting it.  A lot of the blocks were coming apart on the edges of the quilt top from handling no doubt.  It was a doozy.  Made me appreciate a well-constructed, flat, intact quilt top. 

And whew-whee....these prints.  If only quilt tops could talk!  I could find out where these prints originated.  Were they a skirt?  Curtains?  Jumper?  Bedding?

Susie's Quilt Top Update and More Hearts & Gizzards

To the left is Susanna's quilt top before borders (she hasn't added those yet.  She did a fantastic job of arranging the colors.  There are many fabrics in this, and some stand out more than others, but see how pleasing this is to the eye? 

To the right is a close-up of the center of the top.  She trimmed all the blocks to a uniform size before sewing them to each other.  That took about 90 minutes, but see how well it all went together!  Nice, flat quilt top. 

I added a couple more blocks to my Hearts and Gizzards top.  I like the way it's turning out.  I am not big into "naming" my quilts, but I did name this one.  Hearts & Gizzards just doesn't do anything for me.  I still wonder how it came to be called that?

See where the 8 half hearts join into what looks like 4 hearts where the 4 blocks intersect?  That reminds me of myself.  I have 8 children, and it seems like my heart is in 8 different places at once.  So I'm going to call the quilt, "This Mother's Heart".  Obviously, this one is going to live right here at my house!

~Joan

What to My Wondering Eyes??

My husband and I went to bed REALLY early last night, as in right after 9 PM.  We have gotten into the bad habit of staying up too late to get up early.  We just ran out of steam last night.  He puts in many many work hours, and I just mess around for hours every day! 

When we awakened this AM, he said, "I think someone is taking a shower."  That would have been odd since it was 6 AM.  It was raining, so I thought that was the water sound he heard.  But when I came down to the sewing room (to read, of course), what to my wondering eyes should appear, but my daughters' handiwork, and a quilt so dear?

The three of us girls had a sewing night last night.  Emily is making a dress from her bridesmaids pattern to wear to Steve's brother's wedding in April.  I was surprised that she's never made a garment from a pattern.  She's pieced many a quilt and made tons of doll clothes (no pattern there).  That's it to the right.  The jacket on the hanger is not the one she is going to wear with it.  She hasn't started on the jacket yet.  It will be a short-sleeved jacket made out of silver shimmery fabric...beautiful.

Susanna was finishing the 30's print Rail Fence you see at the top.  That is the sight that met my eyes when I walked into the sewing room.  When I went to bed last night, she was still piecing the units.  I had been ironing for her during the "sewing" time, and then I hand appliqued a few more units for my Hearts & Gizzards.  She explained that they stayed up all night sewing.  I couldn't do that at my age and not have serious repercussions the next day month.  Below is Susanna concentrating on pinning a diagonally-set row... 

Yesterday I told her I would machine quilt that quilt for her.  Maybe that's what gave her the strength to stay up and get it done.  Well, that and a little Pepsi Max!!

I will post a picture of the whole top later.

~Joan

I'm Thinkin' Scrappy!!

Here is the block done in one background fabric.  This AM I cut out and appliqued blocks with three other backgrounds.  I am aiming for 81 of these units, so what is the problem with mixing it up??

Here it is with 4 different backgrounds.  Guess which one this scrap lover is going to make?  THIS ONE!!  Six down and 75 to go.  Won't be long now.

I have been searching (in vain) to see why this block is called Hearts and Gizzards.  Obviously I get the heart part.  Can someone help me figure this out?  Is there a resource online for such information?

~Joan

One Outer Border On

Here is my Scrappy Stars (have I ever mentioned that I found out the real name of the quilt in spite of STILL not finding the magazine that has the pattern?).  It is called Pick & Choose.

Here is one side with all 3 borders on...1-1/2" finished, pieced HSTs and then 4-1/4" finished.  I picked the light cream for the pieced border in hopes that it would bring out the cream squares in the center (plus, I had a chunk of it in my creams box and didn't want to cut out 50 different creams).

I am worn out.  My feet started swelling again yesteday.  They are not very good tonight.  I think I'll go lie down in bed and do my Bible reading. 

Sweet dreams...
~Joan

One Pieced Border In Place...AND IT FITS!!

What in the world are all these hieroglyphics?  They are the mathematical computations to get my quilt to a size that would allow my six inch unit border to fit perfectly.  My plan seemed perfect. But when I checked the numbers one more time before starting to cut the strips, I realized I had left the seam allowances out! Good thing I checked!

Once I did the math, I decided that I wanted the brown border to be the same width all around the quilt.  So I added the cream border on just two sides to make the brown the same width as the top.

I have the other short pieced border pieced.  I have all the other HSTs pieced.  I am going to add another brown leaf border outside of the pieced one that is about the width of the pieced plus inner brown (4-1/4"??). 

I used the Judy Martin Pieced Borders book a few times now.  My borders always come out perfect after following her plan, but I am ALWAYS SURPRISED!!

~Joan, who loves a good surprise once in a while