Holiday Trees

Yep, it’s another pillowcase blog post—one of thousands you can find online at many a seamstress’ blog. They are so much fun, though, it’s kind of hard to stop with one—just like the potato chip commercial asserts. And much like a favorite recipe you make over-and-over again, I have a favorite sewing tutorial. Michelle’s Magic Pillowcase tutorial is my go-to sewing instruction when I want to sew something fun and easy.

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I made some adorable flamingo pillowcases for my sister at Christmas but completely forgot to take a picture of them. But you can see the cute pillowcases I made for my own bed using festive holiday fabric. What could be more fun than sleeping on holiday trees—and these aren’t even crunchy under my head.

Chips off the Banana

Happy Epiphany (Three Kings’ Day)! Today marks the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Epiphany colors are white and gold to celebrate new hope. It’s a feast day and I have a small food offering—homemade banana chips using a recipe I found on Pinterest. Although you have to stretch your imagination just a tad, the concept somewhat invokes white and gold.

Banana chips ready for baking! © June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Turn your oven on to 200°F. Using olive oil, lightly coat a piece of parchment paper to fit your cookie sheet(s). Slice bananas into thin chips, dip in lemon juice, and spread on a cookie sheet. Bake for 2 hours at 200°F, then turn over each little chip. Bake for another 1.5-2 hours or until crisp.

Banana Chip Crisps© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Each oven is different, so monitor your banana chips now and then. My husband actually liked the little treats and they do make for a healthy snack. I’ll give this recipe a repeat try in future.

Knitted Easter Bunnies

The Knitters Guild at my church has been busy the last couple of weeks making little bunnies. I’ve not made bunnies before, but it was a fun project to do with my friends.

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We made simply tons of hoppy little bunnies. Each child attending Easter service will receive one of our little handmade cuties.

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Happy Easter!

St. Patrick’s Blessings

Spring equinox is only a couple of days away. Florida is starting to feel more like—uh, Florida—than I’ve experienced over the last few months. For a purportedly warm state, it has been a cold winter. Or maybe it just feels that way to me since I’m a transplant from Arizona.

Spring also means the inevitable pollens running amok as plants join the animal kingdom in doing the wild thing to repopulate the world with their particular species. I’ve decided pine pollen is definitely not my friend as I’ve been sick with sinusitis for over a week and now have bronchitis.

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Other than required English department meetings and my actual classes, I’ve had to opt out of all sorts of other activities in order to try to get well as tomorrow morning I’m flying back to Tucson to visit my husband, sister, and friends during my college’s spring break.

Although I feel as though a huge pine tree actually fell on me as opposed to just sharing its own form of plant pheromones to irritate my allergies, I did manage to bake numerous batches of traditional Scottish Shortbread for my students in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

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Yes, I do know that St. Patrick was Irish. However, my shortbread mold represents all of the British Isles, so my baked offering works fine. Each segment of the mold offers the following representation: Thistles for Scotland, Celtic Knot-work for Ireland, a Tudor Rose for England, and a Welsh Dragon for Wales.

X0X0X0

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

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XOXOXO,

American Heroes

Today barbecue grills are smoking across the U.S, beaches are populated to the max, sales are rampant in the stores—it’s a day of freedom to do whatever you wish. But the true meaning of today is respect for the men and women who sacrificed their lives for our country.

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Here’s a bit from America the Beautiful (words by Katharine Lee Bates, melody by Samuel Ward), in honor of our nation’s fallen.

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife.

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness

And every gain divine!

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig

I wish you all the blessings of St Patrick's Day and the "luck of the Irish" with it!

Source: Wikipedia (permission to use via GNU Free Documentation License)

Since the shamrock symbol is a popular one for today, I’ve knit a dishcloth using Kris Knit’s free pattern. Even while washing dishes, I can still hope for lucky blessings.

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I have to be away for a few days, so I’ll not post again until Monday. May the rest of your week be full of blessings.

Blessings Friday: Welcome 2010!

A new year has begun and I’m looking forward to seeing what each day brings as time goes on.

My regular blogging schedule has been put aside so my husband and I could enjoy the holidays together, but I’ll be back to my normal schedule on Monday with a number of new projects to share with you.

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When we were in Florida over the Thanksgiving holiday, I wrote “Peace” in the sand at Navarre Beach and took a picture of it to share my wish for you and the world today.

I’m starting the year with an open mind, joyful heart, and a sense of peace within—may you all be blessed with the same.

Thanksgiving Vacation

We’re off for Florida to spend Thanksgiving with our family. I’ll be back in Tucson and blogging again on Dec. 7. Please come back to visit as I’m offering a give-away that day.

Source: I just plain don’t know, but I like the graphic.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween—my favorite holiday of the year! Our treats are ready to give to the costumed characters visiting us this evening. Tonight is also when many folks adjust their clocks for daylight savings time. I think we can call this the witching hour this year.


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This is our huge pumpkin basket we fill with the treats we’re handing out. We bought the basket about 10 years ago at some store in Tucson which I can no longer remember.


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Just like last year, I’ve decorated little muslin bags by stamping different Halloween designs on them. Candy treats are tucked into each bag.


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The basket is stuffed, but we have many, many extras in case the basket empties too soon.


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Each year I try a different Halloween cake. This year it’s the Over the Moon cake from the October 2009 issue of Country Living magazine (page 68). The instructions call for making black bat cookies as decorative elements.


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Since I had to dig out my bat cookie cutter, I thought I’d go ahead and make a simple drawstring bag to store my Halloween cookie cutters.


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The end result is a hauntingly-festive dessert to offer my sister Connie and her husband Jim when they come for dinner tonight.

Have a boo-ful Halloween!

Brunhilda's Midnight Ride

Brunhilda is ready for Halloween night. I finished a pillow featuring her late yesterday from a pattern created by Crabapple Hill Studio.


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My finished pillow is 12-inches wide and 45 inches in length, fitting just right on our small couch. You get to do all kinds of things with this whimsical project: draw (trace), embroider, piece, sew, and embellish with beads and fun trims. I love projects that engage me in multiple ways.


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I took the pillow outside to try to get pictures in a better light. Crabapple Hills Studio offers quite wonderful projects. I’ve made some of them before and always enjoy them.

An extra great thing about this pillow is that the outside case can be removed for washing. Now I’m thinking maybe a Christmas or other holiday design could be stitched and then simply insert the separate pillow I made out of muslin.


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The pattern calls for using Weeks Dye Works floss; however, my local cross-stitching store closed months ago and this floss isn’t carried at Jo-Ann’s. So I substituted DMC to approximate the colors as best I could: DMC 3852 instead of Weeks’ Marigold #2225, DMC 3776 instead of Weeks’ Pumpkin #2228, and DMC 413 instead of Weeks’ Kohl.


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The fabrics I chose match the floss colors pretty closely. The embroidered is worked on a cream fabric. Instead of a bright orange, I chose fabric with a bit of orangy-clay tones to it, the black is a subtle print which goes well with the witchy concept, and the third fabric has kohl-colored swirls which seems like Halloween night to me.

Brunhilda is ready for Halloween night’s merry mischief.

Make Easy Jack O’Lantern Treats

When my siblings, cousins, and I were wee children, my grandmother made us simple little treats using pieces of leftover dough on her pie baking days. She’d cut the dough into strips and sprinkle them with cinnamon before baking them. The fragrance coming out of Grandma’s oven made us drool in anticipation.


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Many years later when I had my own children, I discovered a similar trick perfect for Halloween—Jack O’Lantern treats made of flour tortillas and cinnamon sugar.


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All you need to make these treats are non-stick cooking spray, flour tortillas (in whatever size you wish), and cinnamon sugar.


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1. With a sharp knife, cut out various Jack O’Lantern faces in the tortillas. Keep the tortillas covered with a damp cloth and just use one tortilla at a time.
2. Spray a skillet with Pam, heat the skillet on medium high, and plop in a tortilla. When the tortilla shell starts to bubble (this only takes a few seconds), quickly flip it over and repeat for the other side.
3. Lift it out and place on a plate, generously sprinkling cinnamon sugar on both sides.
4. Do the same for additional tortillas.
5. Eat ‘em up right away.
   
   

Make Halloween Cookie Mix Gifts

I don’t know why I do this, but I’ve stockpiled projects over the years instead of doing them right away. Maybe my brain worries I’ll run out of crafty ideas and such a backlog makes me feel better. Who knows? Suffice it to say there’s always something creative to do at my house.


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In 2005 I saw bagged Halloween cookie mixes in the stores and thought they’d make nice gifts. This is the original Make & Paint Vanilla Sugar Ghost Cookies kit I purchased. Along with the dry ingredients, it includes the recipe, instructions, and a ghost cookie cutter. I bought one kit and saved it as it dawned on me I could make my own, similar to the frugal gifts-in-a-jar projects you find on the Internet. The project is being implemented this year as Halloween treats for our neighbors.


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Ghost cookie cutters found on sale were added to my stash. Then I discovered Halloween bandanas in the same fabric as used for the store-bought kit on clearance at JoAnn’s for $1 each after Halloween a couple of years ago. Last week the same bandanas were in stock and priced at $1.94, but any Halloween fabric will work.

Now all the packaging components are gathered, it’s time to make the cookie mix. Assemble and bag the following dry ingredients:

• 1½ cups powdered sugar
• 2½ cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

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Plastic treat bags work for the dry ingredients. I added a can of icing in case the recipients want to decorate their cookies.


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An instruction card helps your recipient know what to do; just tuck it inside your gift set.


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I traced around one of the cookie cutters to make a tag template; use it if it’s helpful to you.


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Here are our finished gifts which we’ll deliver this week. This same project can be used for any holiday by merely changing the fabric, cookie cutter shape, and modifying the name of the cookies.

Spooktacular Magnets

Magnets are always fun to make any time of year. I’ve made a couple for Halloween.


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The magnets were made using the free project download found here offered by Kreinik.


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Kreinik’s glow-in-the dark embroidery floss makes these magnets a bit extra special at night when you turn out the lights. We took them outside last night to try to capture their glow. How fun to walk in the kitchen at night to get a drink and be greeted by Frankenstein or a witch glowing on the fridge.

TIP


Source: Amazon.com

It occurred to me you can also make magnets for other holidays or themes by emulating the process in Kreinik’s Spooktacular Magnets project and using small cross-stitch patterns found in such books as this one I have in my collection: Better Homes and Gardens 2001 Cross Stitch Designs: The Essential Reference Book (Better Homes & Gardens Crafts)