Shauna's Sugar Cookie and Pumpkin-Gingerbread Trifle Recipes!!

By popular demand, here are the recipes for Shauna's deliciouis sugar cookies and pumpkin-gingerbread trifle. Thanks Shauna!!

Sugar Cookies

Sift together 3 ¼ c. flour
1 tsp. soda
½ tsp. salt
Put in large bowl and set aside
Cream together:
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat until well blended, then add ½ cup thick sour cream don’t over mix the cream into the mixture.
Add sifted flour mixture beat only until well blended.
Roll out on lightly floured surface to ¼ “ and put on pre-pared cookie sheet.
Bake @ 375 for 10 minutes.
Icing:
Small dab of butter, ½ tsp. vanilla, 4 oz. softened cream cheese, milk and powdered sugar to consistency you like for icing.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

Two 14 ounce packages gingerbread mix
One 5.1 ounce package cook and serve vanilla pudding mix
One 30 ounce can pumpkin pie mix
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
One 12 ounce carton cool whip

Bake the gingerbread according to the package directions; cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare the pudding and set aside to cool. Stir the pumpkin pie mix, sugar, and cinnamon into the pudding.
Crumble one layer of gingerbread into the bottom of the bowl. Pour layer of pudding mixture over the gingerbread, then add a layer of cool whip. Repeat with the remaining gingerbread, pudding, and cool whip.
Refrigerate overnight.

October 2009 Q2 Meeting

We had a wonderful Q2 meeting in October. Thank you so much Shauna for your hospitality! It was an evening of beautiful quilts shared, foreign fabric to delight, and not one, but two desserts!! It doesn't get better than that. Shauna the little pumpkin sugar cookies were delicious and the gingerbread trifle was to die for! (I would love to post the recipes on the blog if you can send them to me:) We received Rosy the Riveter fabric from Shauna, a great orange fabric Judy brought back from Colorado, and some autumn leaf fabric Laurie brought back from Utah.

Bobbi began the evening telling us about a fun quilt shop she visited. It's called Bayside Quilting in Olympia. The link is now posted under the "site seeing" list of shops on the blog. Bobbie also shared her finished round robin Black & White quilt. It is stunning!!

Shauna had three fantastic quilts to share. The first is a 4th of July quilt -

Next is a darling western themed quilt with great cowboy boots

And lastly, this quilt was made as an incentive to the women in Shauna's ward to complete the goals they have set. For each goal accomplished Shauna would give them a corresponding quilt block. This is the finished quilt -

Roxanne shared two fun, bright quilts. Her I Spy and also a darling Jar quilt -

Judy shared a lovely quilt she made for her neice using original 40's fabrics made by her 90 year old neighbor, Effy. She used reproduction fabrics for the sashing and finishing. It's adorable!

We had a wonderful visit from our dear former member and Q2 leader, Carol Ann. She timed the visit just right to be able to attend our meeting, go to a quilt retreat, and hand deliver some quilts she had finished. While at the meeting she shared two quilts, the first one a round robin made with the Q2 group and the second quilt an incredible Halloween round robin made with her Monday night group. It was so fun having you with us Carol Ann! Remember, you will always be an official Q2 member and you are welcome to drop in any time:-)

And lastly we laid out the American Hero blocks that we pieced together into strips. Thank, thank you to everyone who worked on these. The quilts will show our wounded soldiers the love and gratitude we have for their service on our behalf.

It is with a sad heart that we say goodbye to long time members Lori and Kim. This mother/daughter duo have impeccable quilting skills and always brought a large measure of delight and good humor to our meetings. I feel we are all better quilters because of your contributions and you will both be sorely missed. Please feel free to drop in on a meeting any time you have a new quilt to share or just catch up. Good luck in all your future endeavors, both quilting and family related.

This brings us to our November meeting...we now need a new place to have our November meeting. Would anyone be willing to hostess? Our meeting is November 12th at 7:00. We get to bring Happy Birthday fabric for Bobbi (red and white or light cream and white) and also Shauna (Olivia fabric). Also bring Shauna's finished hostess block. If there are any unfinished hostess blocks or birthday fabrics you may have missed please bring those too.

Bobbi, Carol Ann and myself had the opportunity to join Shari's Monday night quilt group on a retreat to the Wild Rose Quilt Shop and Retreat in Orting, WA. It took less than an hour to get there and was an incredible facility to have a retreat. All of us Q2 members at the retreat kept thinking how much the rest of our group would enjoy this bit of quilting heaven. I've posted the link to the Quilt Shop and Retreat on the blog. Check out the website and if this is something you would like to pursue, bring your calendars to the November meeting and we can discuss some possible dates this spring.

See you all in November! I will email you the location of our meeting ASAP.

Laurie

Your Fearless Leader

P.S. As an experiment to get used to the whole blogging thang', I wrote a little post about fat quarters. Check it out, it would be fun to have various "guest bloggers" to post about their favorite quilt topics from time to time. Bring your ideas for the blog to the meeting. Please excuse any grammatical errors or mis-information. I was in and out at our Oct meeting picking CA up at the airport and I may have missed some things.

What Can You Get From a Fat Quarter?

Fat quarters...we love them. We are drawn to them like candy in all their colors, prints, and styles. Of course, we would love a big, ol' yard of a beautiful fabric but if we don't have immediate plans for said fabric we often settle for the fat quarter. We can't simply ignor a fabric that "speaks" to us, it wouldn't be right and we also wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing we had turned our back on such a beautiful speciman of fabric lovlieness...it would be quilter's sacrilige for goodness sake!!

Fat quarters are great when we want a scrappy look, using mulitple little bits of fabric color and print. These can be themed like our I Spy quilts or put together just because we love them and they go together nicely.

In the evolution of quilting, I think fat quarters are the modern girl's answer to the way our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used bits and pieces of worn out clothing to scrap piece their quilts together. What is it about taking little bits of fabric and making them into something beautiful that is so satisfying? We all have our different reasons but I think all of us can agree that creating something beautiful from little bits of fabric can fill a need that is almost primal. Ok, maybe primal is too strong a word. But for me I can't seem to help myself! Maybe it's the DNA that was passed to me from generations of quilters.

What can you get from a juicy, fat quarter?

99 - 2" squares...or

50 - 2 1/2" squares...or

42 - 3" squares...or

30 - 3 1/2" squares...or

20 - 4" squares...or

16 - 4 1/2" squares...or

12 - 5" squares...or

12 - 5 1/2" squares...or

9 - 6" squares...or

6 - 6 1/2" squares!

And lastly, I love the sentiments of a t-shirt I came across while perusing the web for fat quarters - "A fat quarter is not a body part!"

September Quilt Group

Thank you Sunny for hosting our September quilt group meeting. We brought our blue hostess blocks for Judy and also Roxanne’s hostess blocks. These hostess blocks will turn into darling quilts for sure. The great hunt for Bobbi’s missing quilt block is over…Yay! It has been located so no further searching under couch cushions or in quilt stashes is necessaryJ

Sharing time brought out a variety of quilts. The first was Wendy’s…it was stunning! The colors were perfect and there were lots of oohs and ahhhs. Next was Shari’s I Spy quilt that had just been long-armed by our dear, former member Carol Ann. This was the traditional octagon I Spy. We loved the borders! Shari also had a “turn-over” quilt and a darling Christmas quilt done in blues and browns.

Judy shared her version of “frogs on a pond” that she made for her little sister’s new baby. Judy’s attention to each frog really made the quilt come alive. (Love those eyes!). Judy’s next quilt was a green pineapple quilt that looked like it had a million pieces and a darling flannel baby quilt. Judy does an outstanding job keeping the babies and children in her life wrapped up in her love that comes sewn into each quilt.

Sunny brought out her quilt book in progress and asked for ideas, suggestions, and feedback. She has put so much work into this project and we are all itching to get our hands on it. This would be a fun group project to do come 2010!

The next big project for the evening involved laying out all of our patriotic blocks in order to get the quilts color balanced and “looking right”. Each person was given 7 blocks. Sew these top to bottom and press the seams towards the setting block. It will make for much smoother seams. If you have an odd row, the setting blocks will be on each end. If you have an even row, you will have patriotic blocks on each end. See the pictures on the blog to confirm you have your blocks in the right order. (Thanks Sunny!!)

• Bring sewn Patriotic Blocks
• Shauna & Lori come prepared to hand out your Hostess Blocks
• Bring any Hostess blocks or birthday fabric you may have missed
• No Birthday Fabric this month

Looking ahead - November Birthday Fat Quarters:

• Bobbi – red & white or light cream & white
• Shauna – Olivia fabric

August BBQ

Our Annual BBQ at Roxanne's house was a success! The food was great, the company was better and the quilts were amazing (as always). Here are some photos of the Grand Event. A special thanks to Roxanne for being such a gracious hostess...

Sunny's Book

Sunny shared her quilt book idea with us. Although it's a lot more than just an idea - it's a masterpiece! She has a whole binder full of drawings of blocks. It's incredible. The idea is that there is a basic quilt pattern and basic measurements, but you get to choose the block style, layout, and whole look of your quilt. You get to design your own quilt and she's done all the work - you know it will turn out beautifully!

She describes it like going to Subway. You get to pick out the kind of bread you want, meat or no meat, vegetables, sauces, toasted, etc. It's a quilting smorgasbord!

We can't wait to see where this idea goes next! I can't wait to try it out for myself and make a quilt!

Laurie's Star Quilt

Lori's Sewing Bag

Quilt Pattern

Finished House Quilt (also a pattern)

Shauna's Pinewheel's

Wendy's Cousins Quilt

Roxann'es 9-Patch

Block for Laurie's Seattle Quilt

Baerbel's Finished Seattle Quilt

Michelle's Quilt

Michelle joined us and brought a quilt she started with the group serveral years ago. It looked beautiful and was fun to see. Thanks Michelle for sharing with us!

More American Hero Blocks

Bobbi's Hostess Blocks