Valentine's Day Gift Bags

Well, I think I have found a new favorite gift bag pattern! Recently, I sewed up a couple bags from the Little Fancy Purse pattern out of the book Handmade Bags In Natural Fabrics by Emiko Takahashi. The bags were cute enough, but I didn’t really care for the construction method, and they were too small for most gift giving. (Watch for more on those bags in a separate post.) However, since the shape was super cute, I decided to make them bigger and better. It was easy enough to draw larger templates from scratch and to construct these bags with a method I like better, similar to the Reversible Drawstring Bag tutorial by Pink Penguin.

The smaller bag is roughly 9.5” by 9.5” and made from a few different Cotton + Steel fat quarters. The larger bag is approximately 14.5” by 14.5”. The main fabric is “little bit’o love” by Alexander Henry. My daughter picked out the other day at Island Quilter and it made me happy to sew something for her with it so soon after she had chosen it.

These gift bags turned out to be the perfect size for my Valentine’s day gifts for my husband and daughter. I’m so pleased with them that I anticipate making many, many more, especially for Christmas.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Perseverance Prevails Quilt

While it's a little out of season, I am pleased as punch with my latest quilt. When I first started reading quilting blogs, the Internet was awash with red and neutral half-square triangle quilts, such as this one by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew. When I signed up for Katie Pedersen's Half-Square Triangle class over two years ago, I figured it was the perfect time to get started. However, the local quilt store provided the class materials list for a different class, so I started off the project with the wrong yardage. Then I decided to make two different sizes of half-square triangle blocks, 2.5 inches and 5 inches. Between the itty-bitty blocks and the level of scrappiness that I was going for, the making of this quilt ended up taking longer than I would have liked. However, perseverance prevails and now it's finished! Even better, my little quilter-in-training loves it and was more than happy to help with the photoshoot. It took some time, but now I have a new quilt that the entire family can enjoy.

 

 

Salted Fudge Brownies

Happy Valentine’s Day, dear readers! For me, Valentine’s Day means three important things:

1.       My brother’s birthday. (¡Feliz Cumpleaños, hermano!)

2.       Traditional heart-shaped pizza with my sweetie. (It may be an unconventional tradition, but it’s ours and it’s yummy!)

3.       An excuse to eat chocolate. (Like I needed an excuse!)

This year, the chocolate has been accompanied by a healthy dose of salt. My sweetie surprised me by making these sweet treats:

But that’s not all! In honor of Valentine’s Day, I present to you my favorite salt-and-chocolate recipe:

Salted Fudge Brownies

Ingredients

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa

2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt, divided

Directions

1.       Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a square 8” or 9” square pan with foil. Grease.

2.       In a large saucepan, melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate. Keep the heat low, and keep a close eye on it. Once it is good and melted, turn off the heat.

3.       One at a time, whisk in the cocoa, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and flour. Pour batter into the pan.

4.       Sprinkle half the salt over the batter. Use a butter knife to swirl in the salt. Sprinkle the rest of the salt over the batter.

5.       Bake the brownies for 35 minutes. Let them cool on the counter so an hour or so, then in fridge for another hour. Take the brownies and foil out of the pan and cut the brownies into equal portions. Enjoy!

For more Valentine’s Day treats, check out Tuesday at the Table at A Quilter’s Table.

Half-Square Triangle Love

I love Half-Square Triangles, but haven’t played around with them much yet. For my birthday, my mom gave me the gift of taking a class together at one of our favorite quilt stores, The Quilting Loft. I chose the Half-Square Triangle class by Katie of Sew Katie Did. I had a bunch of Valentine’s Day scraps and a stash of coordinating solids that I brought to the class. Unfortunately, we had the wrong class list and were supposed to bring all solids. After sorting that out, I set to work and got a good start on the Valentine’s Day quilt I have been thinking about for a while. I enjoyed learning new tricks and tips from Katie and having three hours of uninterrupted sewing time with my mom!