Wicked Wicked Wicked

Hello everyone! If you are here for the first time, welcome! If you're a follower, then welcome back! :) Do you like my picture? I couldn't resist putting up a shot of the creepy spiders that are all over my house and garden. I just wanted to set the mood for this wicked day! :)

I'd like to thank Wendy and Mdm Samm for hosting and cheering on this hop. I have the privilege of sharing my day with these lovely ladies:

Becki hosted by Why-Knot-Kwilt

Bumbleberry Stitches

Nini & The Sea

Dancing Moon

Create In The Sticks

Negligent Style

Rose Creations

Kris Loves Fabric

A Geeky Crafty Life

My Quilting Journey

The Recipe Bunny (you are here!!)

Please stop by and visit these ladies today too. We hope you enjoy the hop!

Last year I created a couple table toppers for the Wicked hop, so this year I wanted to make something to adorn my wall. My husband and I moved to Portland this year and so I have new walls to decorate this Halloween season. I decided to put this together for you all today:

It's a spooky graveyard scene on a night with a blazing full moon. I would not want to be stuck there at night!

This wall hanging was a lot more work than I had originally anticipated. Here's a look at my planning sheet:

Yikes! So many tiny pieces! Here's a close up of one of the spots with those little pieces (1" HSTs!):

I will confess it was murder trying to get all of my points to turn out, and I wasn't completely successful. But, that's just fine since this little quilt is staying with me! Here are a couple other "in progress" pictures that I took for you guys.

Top Complete

Embroidery

So, I hope you liked my little project! Please remember to stop by the other blogs today for more Wicked projects and fun! I hope you come back to see me again soon! Happy Halloween!

Beat the Winter Blues! Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hello everyone! If you're new here, welcome to my blog! If you're returning, welcome back! This is my first time in participating in one of the Quilting Gallery's blog hops and I'm excited to check out the line up.

I'm going to highlight some of the projects I've completed over the last couple years and link you back to those posts. Otherwise, feel free to browse around my blog. I hope you're all inspired to create!

My blog is called The Recipe Bunny because I initially wanted a place to write down the recipes I was trying out (and my husband's nickname for me was/is Bunny). As you will see, I quickly turned from recipes to crafts, but I still do a savory or sweet post every now and then. My favorite recipe so far is my Roasted Garlic and Sausage Pasta. I tried to recreate my husband's favorite meal at our favorite Italian restaurant here in Madison - Lombardino's. It turned out really nicely, but still can't beat the original.

One of my favorite craft projects is the hallowed-out book safe. My husband actually asked for this to be completed. Actually, he helps me come up with ideas for lots of projects and is usually the one I ask for a seal of approval. Anyway, we needed a place to store a flask his parents brought home from Ukraine. So - the book safe was created. We bought the book from the thrift store. It was a thick biography about Colin Powell. Probably not a book we'd usually have on the shelf, but thick enough to hold the flask!

My favorite knitting project so far has been the kindle case I made for my sister. It looked like a little monster and was the first knitting-in-the-round I had ever done. I still need to make one of these for me sometime now that I have a smaller kindle too. I originally had a large kindle and made a quilted case for it. Alas! That kindle broke and so I gave the case to my friend who was visiting for a weekend to fit her nook. She was happy to have it even if it was used. :) Otherwise, I'm pretty new to knitting, so I make a lot of scarves. I have one I'm still finishing up for a friend, even though I hope she doesn't have to use it any more this year (I'm ready for spring!!!). I also did my first cabling on a scarf for my mother-in-law for Christmas. She was the person who originally taught me how to knit and purl and I'll be forever grateful!

Now, on to the quilts! I made my first quilt at summer camp when I was in grade school and I'm pretty sure I've been hooked ever since. I made one with my mom for a wedding present in high school, and I did make 2 in college during finals week my Junior year. Yes, I was a little crazy but it really helped me wind down in between all that studying! Now it's much more of a regular hobby.

My most popular and probably crowning quilting achievement is my Super Mario Brothers quilt. This quilt was 9 months in the making. My husband and I sat down one night and drew up the pattern for most of the blocks. Some I had found a pattern for out of perler beads or cross stitch - like Mario and Luigi. But others like the Piranha Plant, Thwomp and Angry Sun we designed ourselves. A lot of the characters in the quilt were pretty tricky to fit in a 16x16 grid. I had to scale down Cheep Cheep the fish and the Koopa Troopa turtle quite a bit. Then, lo and behold right after I get my quilt finished I see there's a Mario Quilt-A-Long! If I had just waited a few more months someone would have done all of that designing work for me!!! I did share my quilt with the QALs flickr group and I've loved seeing my patterns put into different color combinations. I'm happy other people have enjoyed my patterns/characters as much as I did! It was a lot of fun to figure out the blocks with my husband. It was also probably the project he's been most interested in. He was involved with the pattern, fabric choice, quilting, and now we sleep with it just about every night. It's cold here, and we have basically every blanket we own on our bed. :)

But, the Mario Quilt is special and I don't want it to get too much use, so I'm making more quilts. Please stop by my Quilt Projects tab at the top of the blog to see some things I've come up with. Most things I've given away, but this year I have several quilts planned just for us (and I'm sure I'll throw in a few for other people too - it always happens!). I've had a Double Irish Chain planned out for a couple years. I've got a Fall Leaf Quilt with about 1/3 of the blocks done. I've also got my longest WiP ever all pinned and ready for quilting. Hopefully that will get finished this month, and I started that when I was in 8th grade!! (I'm 26 now...too long to keep it in a box!)

Besides that, I love to design and dream about quilts. Sometimes I even post my sketches. Maybe one day I'll make one into a real quilt! :) Here's my favorite, so maybe this one will be next... Sun, Moon and Stars

Well, if you've made it through this long post you deserve a treat! I've got just the thing for this Quilting Gallery hop - some fat quarters!

So, I'll definitely have at least one drawing, but let's try to make it 2! I'm really close to 200 followers on my blog. If I get to that level, I'll give away 3 fat quarters to 2 different people. If I don't then I'll just have a giveaway to one person.

So, what can you win?

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

These:

 Or these:

How do you enter? Please leave just one comment. You don't need to be a follower, but if you like what you see here, please sign up! And, let's make the comments fun. Give me an answer to this question: What is your favorite quilt pattern?

If you are a no-reply blogger, please include your email in your response. If I can't contact you, I can't send you your winnings! I'll pick a winner on Saturday, March 16th.

And, last but not least, please go check out the other blogs on the hop! I know I'm going to be very busy going from one to another and I hope you have fun with it too!! Just click on this button to be directed back to the main page for the hop. The list of participating bloggers should be up by late afternoon on Friday, March 8th, so if it's not up when you stop by, come back later! Happy hopping everyone!

2012 in Review - on to 2013!

Hello everyone. I hope you all had a great new year celebration! I had a lovely time with my family with good food and fun activities - just the way I wanted to ring in the new year. :) I'm a little behind with getting this up, but here's a look back at the projects I put together in 2012:

Quilts

I made 9 quilts - 8 of them are completely finished and the last one just needs to be basted, quilted and bound. He's on the list to complete in 2013. My prized finish was my huge Super Mario Quilt. It was in progress for 9 months and I finished it on my birthday in July. That was the best birthday gift ever!

Knits

I learned how to knit in 2012. I started off with the black and white scarf (modeled by myself, but knit for my husband) and ended with the red kindle case. I see a lot more knitting in my future!

Hops and Bee Blocks

I participated in my first blog hops this year and signed up for my first bee. From top to bottom - and left to right, they are: Wicked Hop, Wicked Hop, Dots on Dots Hop, Leafs Me Happy Hop, Red White & Blue Hop, Red White & Blue Hop, Red White and Blue Hop, Think Christmas Hop, Think Christmas Hop, Think Christmas Hop, Color Bee Shocked Bee, Color Bee Shocked Bee. I'm looking forward to participating in more hopes in 2013 and seeing how my first Bee shapes up.

Food

Just a few scrumptious things I whipped up: Super Bowl Chili, Strawberry Mango Soup/Smoothie, Grand Marnier Souffle, Sausage and Roasted Garlic Pasta, Caramel Apple Pie, Skittles Vodka

Small Sewing Projects

I made some of my blog hop blocks into smaller projects rather than into big quilts. I also made a couple other table runners pot holders and pillows. My favorite project was the cathedral window pin cushion.

Small Craft Projects

And lastly, here are the small craft projects I put together. A few wreaths, a Super Mario cross stitch, some Christmas items and some book crafts. I think my husband's favorite was the hollowed-out book safe. :)

I guess when I look at all of these things together I really did make a lot during 2012! I feel like there were so many days I could have been doing something more, but I'd say I'm satisfied with this. 2013 will see more craft, food and sewing projects, but hopefully my skills will continue to improve. I received a new book on free-motion quilting, so you'll be seeing some new designs! Thanks for following along, and happy new year!

Wicked Winner

Hello everyone! Just a quick post to let you know who won my giveaway.

Thanks to random.org, the winner is comment #7: Theresa who said:

Love your tale of Halloween naughtiness! that peanut brittle looks 

very tasty indeed. Your blocks are fabulous, especially the spider.

Thanks so much Theresa. I've sent you an email about your winnings. :) 

Thanks also to everyone who stopped by during the hop. I'm sitting out for the next 2 hops hosted by Mdm Samm (coin purse and Christmas pillow) because I just have too many things to get done between now and Christmas. I hope you'll all continue to stop by and I'm sure I'll be back in the hops next year. Sounds like there are going to be some great ones coming up. Happy crafting everyone!

Wicked? Who, me?

The Case of the Missing Halloween Candy

"No, officer, you must have me mistaken with someone else. I wouldn't eat all the Halloween candy before the kids get here to Trick or Treat. I'm not that cruel!"

"Ma'am, the evidence is overwhelmingly against you, but I'll hear your story before we put you away for good."

My heart was pounding. How was I going to get out of this. There had to be someone who could vouch for me. My head scrolled through the list of contacts in my phone, email, neighbors, friends, family - finally I came up with someone. 

"Mdm Samm and Wendy. They've been organizing this blog hop that I've been furiously sewing for. You see, I wouldn't have time to eat all of the candy, I've been too busy." I showed him the burn on my hand from the iron, the welt on my finger from the needle and he seemed to be considering my innocence. "They have a whole list of people who've been involved. You can find it on Wendy's website at: http://why-knot-kwilt.blogspot.com."

"I'll look in to those people too, but why don't you give me a list of the ones I should be concerned with today."

I searched my head and came up with a list of talented quilters who could have pulled off a candy heist. I told him if he looked into the following people he wouldn't be disappointed.

Beaquilter
Fun Thread Designs 

Stitch, Stitch, Stitch

Made By A Brunnette

Buttons And Butterflies

The Recipe Bunny

Quilted Delights

Sunshine Reflections

Louzeekreativ

Mice In The Mix

Rosemary - That Other Blog
The Fuzzy Hat Quilter
Sew We Quilt

That should have kept him busy all day, but he was back questioning me in an hour. 

"Ma'am, all of those people have alibis and completed quilt projects as well. They've been too busy to steal Halloween candy."

My mind raced on to the last few people I could pin the crime on.

"OK officer. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but I have no choice. There's a couple strange people in town that have been asking questions all week on where to get more Halloween candy. But, they are a little spooky and live in that old house on Main Street."

We got into his squad car and sped over to Main. I'm sure the house was a lovely Victorian home when it was built, but now it was dilapidated and in bad need of repair. It gave me the creeps just looking at it and I desperately didn't want to go inside.

We knocked on the door and no one answered. I started down the front stairs, ready to jump into the squad car and lock myself inside. Instead, the cop knocked harder and the door did that creepy thing it does in the movies and opened up on its own with a haunted groan. Much to my dismay, we entered the house. 

"The first one you'll want to question is Belinda," my voice said with a crack. "I've heard talk around town that she's the biggest witch around - a real piece of work. I'm sure she had something to do with the missing candy."

We heard a wicked cackle behind us and turned around just in time to see a puff of smoke. Belinda had vanished leaving behind only her hat as evidence of her existence. 

"She's got style, I'll give her that, but she knows we're on to her. I bet she'll never show her face here again," I said. The cop just gave me a look of disbelief.

"There's one other person you should talk to before we leave, officer."

Horace had to be around there somewhere. He liked to lurk in dark corners and wait for prey to fall into his trap. He was my last chance of getting out of this mess. 

We walked up to the attic, the last place in the house to check. Upon opening the door we saw nothing but dusty windows and old cobwebs. Just as I was about to give up hope Horace swung down from the rafters and blocked our way.

"Leaving so soon?" He asked. "We haven't even had a snack yet."

This was promising. Horace was a devious little spider. He was gifted at catching anything in a trap - his web of horrors - and he could get himself out of any sticky situation. 

I patiently waited while the officer asked Horace for his alibi. Unfortunately for me it was rock solid and he had the web to prove it. He'd spent all week building it. This time his web looked hypnotic, almost like a time warp, and I was ready to jump right in and escape the house, the cop, the town - everything.

As I was about the jump, the officer placed me back in cuffs and herded me out to the street. The officer paused before putting me back into the car. "You spin a good tale," he said as he reached into his breast pocket for a photo, "but I'm placing you under arrest for candy theft."

I had one last option, but I doubted it would work. "Wait, can't I give you something to make you change your mind? Some fabric maybe? All you have to do is say something, anything, and make sure I can get in touch with you later to give you the fabric. I can get it to you by November 2nd, I promise!"

He shook his head and I knew my bribe hadn't worked. "There's just one thing I'd like to know," he said, and with a glint in his eye he flipped over the photo. "How'd it taste?" 

THE END

**Giveaway Closed**

I hope you've enjoyed this little tale and the picture of me eating a giant slab of peanut brittle. :) If you didn't get it from the story, just leave me a comment below to be entered in the giveaway. Please leave me your email address if you're a no-reply blogger. The giveaway is open to everyone. I'll pick a winner on Friday, November 2nd. Now go cheer on the other bloggers of the day! Happy Halloween everyone!

Leafs Me Happy Blog Hop and Giveaway

Fall is here! Fall is here! Fall is here! That means it's time for things like apple pie and the changing of the leaves! 

Fall is my absolute favorite season, so that's why I jumped at the chance to be in this hop! Thanks so much to Mdm Samm and Cherry for hosting and getting everything ready for us all.

You can find the full hop schedule on Cherry's blog - here. Here's a list of everyone sharing the day with me:

Plum and June

The Recipe Bunny

VroomansQuilts

It's Sew Kiki

PigTales and Quilts

Quilting fiesta

GrammieQ's

Nancy

Just Let Me Quilt

Selina Quilts

The Learning Curve~Quilts and Such

You Please visit them all and cheer on their day!

I have just one block to show you all, but plan on making many more of them. Here's the fabric that I used.

I wanted a variety of reds, orange and browns to bring out the colors of fall. I plan to make these into 36 blocks - 9 of each type. 

So, without further ado, here's the block I put together for you:

This picture doesn't look too good, so I  snapped a couple more outside on my balcony (see below). The leaves around us are right at their peak for changing colors and I wanted to capture that in my quilt.

This block features brown, crimson and red colored fabrics on an orange crinkled background. I plan to make 3 other leaf color combinations in reds and oranges for the other blocks with backgrounds in red, brown and tan.

I made up the leaf pattern myself. It's pretty similar to the other ones that I've seen. When I created it, I didn't have a computer nearby to look up a pattern, so I sketched it out and made it work. I hope that the finished quilt looks something like this, but with more saturated colors:

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

So, if you've made it this far through the post you deserve a giveaway! I have 2 things to give away this time:

3 fat quarters of this fall print. It has bird houses, wheat, sun flowers, hearts and other cute little prints on it.

And this Christmas panel. It has some really cute snowmen prints and quilty stars on it, so it would make a really fast wall hanging.

To enter to win, you have 2 chances. For the first, just leave a comment on the post letting me know what your favorite fall food is. For a second chance, be a follower and leave me another comment letting me know. I'll draw a winner on Saturday, October 6th, so comments will count until Friday, October 5th to 11:59PM central standard time. Good luck everyone!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Enjoy the rest of the hop, and happy crafting!

Dots on Dots Quilt Finished!

Yay, I've got my first September goal finishes! I guess the first one was to sew together all of the blocks from the hop and the second was to finish the quilt.

I did end up putting the left over pieces on the quilt as a scrappy squared border. There's a funny story about how those pieces came to be. (Well, funny now but very frustrating when it happened...)

I was cutting all of my pieces for this quilt, some needed to be pieces to make into half square triangles and others were just going to be regular squares. I cut the HST pieces first because there were more of them, so I needed to cut those to be 2 7/8ths inches square for a finished square of 2 inches. Somehow I had it in my head that my regular squares then needed to be cut to 2 inches square, so of course that's what I started cutting. Much to my horror, I realized as I was cutting the last strip apart into squares and looking at all of the pieces together that I had cut all of the regular squares a half inch too small. I didn't even have enough fabric to re-cut them all either.

I quickly ran to JoAnn Fabrics to see if I could get more of the pink, green and center blue and teal colors. Yes - I had to find more of 6 fabrics! I searched and searched for the teal color that wasn't a batik. I couldn't find it. I looked through all of the fat quarter cuts twice, then went through all of the bolts, nothing. So, I decided maybe I was going to have to find another teal fabric to complete the quilt. So, I looked through all of the bolts again and wasn't finding anything that I really liked or that matched the quilt.

So, I said a little prayer (literally), and went to check the fat quarter cuts one more time before heading home defeated. Lo and behold, I found the fabric I was looking for! I think I actually let out a little squeal in the store I was so elated. It surprises me the power of prayer sometimes, especially because all I needed was a little bit more fabric. So, I happily went home to re-cut those 6 fabric colors into 2 1/2 inch squares. I saved the ill-cut 2 inch squares and figured I'd do something with them.

I started sewing them together into a strip thinking I might use them on the back of the quilt, but when I put it up next to the quilt I realized it was the perfect length for a border on the long sides. I had 4 piles of those 2 inch squares that I made into 4 long strips that became the borders of the quilt. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the whole situation turned out! Thank you Lord for having a plan for my mistake!

I made the back scrappy out of the left over polka dot prints I had from the quilt. I haven't had much practice making a pieced backing before and I had a couple puckering issues on the backside while I was free-motion quilting this. Those weren't fun to rip out, but at least I caught them before they were huge issues There's still one little bubble on the back where I couldn't quite ease the back into the FMQ, but it's not too bad. I notice it, but I'm not sure my husband would notice it if I hadn't pointed it out. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

For the FMQ pattern I did a spiky swirl design. I got the idea from Bea who did something similar on her latest quilt. Mine didn't turn out as beautiful as hers, but this is the first time I've done a swirly pattern. I've done loop-de-loops and stippling, but this one was different. I really like how free you can be with FMQ. Straight lines look really crisp and clean, but FMQ is just so much fun! I'm not sure I ever want to go back, haha! Anyway, that's my finished dots quilt. I hope you've enjoyed seeing it come together. :) On to the next project! Happy crafting!

Dots on Dots Quilt Top

I've been busy the last few days. I finally finished sewing together all of the blocks from the Dots on Dots hop. I also got them sewn up into a flimsy.

Sorry for the bad indoor lighting. I finished sewing this together around 11:00pm, so there wasn't really time to get a picture outside.

I'm still debating whether I'll put a border on it yet. Right now I'm sewing together some of the scraps from the fabrics in the quilt to include on the back. But, the squares of fabric I had left over are long enough to make a border all the way around. So, we'll see what I decide. I hope to be quilting and binding this weekend, but we'll see how distracted I get.

Here's a picture with my cat Sasha enjoying the quilt - for scale references. It is about 48" x 60". I still have to figure out what kind of quilt design I'm going to do on this thing... Thoughts??  Happy crafting!

Dots on Dots Blog Hop and a Giveaway!

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for stopping by for the dots on dots hop. I've been looking forward to this hop for a while now, so thank you to Corrie at Quilt Taffy for hosting and to Mdm Samm for all of her work and guidance as well! If you're looking for the full list of participants, you can find it at Corrie's blog (linked above) by clicking on the dots on dots button on the right hand side of her page. Here's the list of everyone sharing the day with me:

Why Not Kwilt

Stichin by the Lake

Beth @ Plum and June

The Recipe Bunny --> you are here! :)

Sunshine Girl

Aunt Marti

The Fuzzy Hat Quilter

Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm

Cliodana

I'm sure you're in for a treat with all of these blogs, so please hop along and cheer along as we take off on the second day of the Dots on Dots Hop! Here's what I put together for you:

I had a lot of dots fabric to choose from for my block...

So many that I guess I really couldn't decide which ones to use, so I used pretty much all of them. Those fabrics turned into this design:

Which then turned into all of these half square triangles (all for just one block!):

Which then turned into this layout:

And eventually made its way into being this 12.5" unfinished block:

I have a whole quilt planned of these - 20 blocks - but I only have 8 sewn together. I've been super busy planning a wedding (which just happened this past Sunday), so my time to sew has been non-existent. It's one of my crafty goals this month to have the whole quilt put together, so cross your fingers that I get it done!

Here's what I have so far:

As you can see, the blue squares and the middle orange or yellow squares change from block to block. 1/2 of the quilt will have some form of aqua/orange combo and the other 1/2 will have a darker blue/yellow combo on them. The outer fabrics for each block stay the same. I was hoping to get one more done of the darker blue center, but just ran out of time. :( 

I really like putting these together because the fabrics are so colorful and festive! I also like that the dots are all different sizes. Some are big, some are really small, and on some of the blue pieces the dots form circles. For some reason it reminds me of the circus, which I always loved as a little kid, so that's probably why I like this odd combination of dots and colors so much. I had thought about giving this quilt away when it's all done, but I think I'm going to keep it as a guilty pleasure quilt all for myself and make something else to give away - darn! :) 

Speaking of giving something away... I have a giveaway for all of you! More dots fabric! These are some of the fabrics I was considering using, but didn't. I have 2 fat quarters of the green with white dots fabric, and 1 FQ of the rest: orange with white dots, orange with splotchy orange dots, white with really tine pink dots, and pink with really tiny white dots.

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

So, now what you need to do to enter is leave a comment on my blog post below. Please, please, please make sure I have your email if you're a no-reply blogger. Otherwise, I won't be able to let you know you've won! I'll pick the winner via random computer drawing on Sunday, September 16th because that's my husband's birthday. So, comments will count until Saturday, September 15th, through 11:59pm central standard time. No pressure to become a follower, but if you'd like to keep tabs on the next set of things I create, please sign up and follow along. When I reach 200 followers, I might just be tempted to have another giveaway just for you!

And now, just to leave you with something fun, here's a picture of my cat Sasha. She decided to lay down on the stack of finished dots blocks while I had my back turned. Never fails - she has the whole rest of the apartment to find a cushy spot to lay down and she always lays on the quilt pieces. Maybe my next quilt will have to be for her... :) Happy hopping everyone!