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Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of old fashioned rolled oats (look in the cereal section – Quaker Oats- NOT the instant or quick cook kind)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugars about 2-3 minutes until creamy (use paddle attachment if you have one). Add egg and vanilla and beat to combine. Add baking soda, flour, salt and oats and stir until incorporated. Stir in cranberries, chips and pecans.

Drop cookies on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten cookies with palm of hand and bake 10 minutes for small cookies and 13-14 minutes for larger ones, or until they are golden brown. Cool 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then cool completely on wire rack.

Makes about 24 small, 16 large cookies.

I have considered using cranberry extract instead of actual cranberries: http://www.olivenation.com/Pure-Cranberry-Extract-P367C55.aspx?gclid=CJDas7XLo60CFYPc4AodSjynlg

I machine quilted this.  I quilted large “retro” flowers, which I thought matched the look and feel of the fabric.

The corners of the binding gave me a little bit of trouble; but every quilt needs to have a few mistakes – it proves it is homemade, right?

I made this quilt for a friend of mine to celebrate her divorce from her husband who was a complete ass.  Good riddance!

If you are new to paper piecing a good block to start with is Flying Geese or Square in a Square.  These blocks are simpler than the New York Beauty block.

I use Electric Quilt to make my NYB patterns.  I can make them any size, changing the number of points etc., very easily.

Here is a NYB block pattern I created using EQ7.  You can enlarge it to make a larger sized block, but if you print it without changing the size, it will be a 6 inch block. (Keep in mind that when you print a pdf document, make sure the page scaling is set to “NONE” if you want this to be a 6 inch block).

My favorite New York Beauty block is this “sunset” small quilt I created when I first experimenting with the block.  It is hanging on my “inspiration” wall in my craft room.

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I used silvr tulle on the front, gathered it and stitched it together and then hid the stitches under black silk – I used the selvage from black silk fabric so it would not unravel.  I made a necklace out of silver glitter glue and glued a small glass stone in the middle.  My necklace looks little sloppy – I”m not that good with glitter glue.

For the hanger I used some thin wire and tacked it to the back.  I think if I make this again, I will put the hanger on under the fabric on the back side, then tack it down and then fuse the fabric.  The only issue would be cutting out the fabric once it is fused to the Fast 2 Fuse; that might be difficult with the hanger in the way – but I think it might look neater in the long run (see photo to the right)

I have decided to give these little art projects a try because they are so tiny – how can you screw up something that is only 2.5 x. 3.5 inches?  Here is a photo of my first ATC.

I made this using a double sided, very stiff interfacing called Fast 2Fuse. I used a small zig zag stitch around the sides.  I cut out the shape of a bird from some sheet music from an old church hymnal.  I  wrapped the card with various ribbons I had.   I put some blue glitter on the bird and some gold glitter around the edges.  I printed “Joy to the World” on velum paper and stitched it on the bottom.

There are lots of examples on the web of ATCs.  You can make them out of fabric, paper or any other material you like.   You could make Christmas tree ornaments out of them.  You could make a banner out of them – although I like the look of upside down triangles instead of squares for banners.  This is a really cute example of a triangle banner.  You can use scrapbook eyelets to create holes in your ATCs or small triangles.

I also found a template for making an envelope for ATCs.  It would be fun to make one of these out of freezer paper (be sure to use glue that is transparent when it dries).

Here is the website with the template for the envelope for your ATC.

Here is the template in PDF form in case the website takes it down.

So I searched the CPS website for the template they used and well, their website is not as easy to navigate as it should be, but eventually I found it.  I decided to upload the template to my website – giving CPS credit – just in case they take the template down and I want to use it again.

Here is the website that explains the challenge – even though it is over.

Here is the web page that shows you the submissions - some of them are really creative and inspiring.

Here is the web page that has the template, or you can just download the template here.

If I ever get around to making one of these, I’ll be sure to post some photos.

I first took an old wool sweater and washed it in hot water to shrink it – and “felt” it.  The wool is a nice insulator to protect your hand.

I cut it using a pinking shears so that the wool would be less likely to unravel.  I then decorated it with some ribbon.  Finally, I tacked on a metal charm, that I heated in some boiling water so I could easily bend it so it would fit the cup a little bit better.  I just needed a slight slope to it.

I then sewed it closed, but you could close it with a button, or Velcro.

For a template, I just used a Starbucks sleeve, but made it a little bit wider.   The sleeve should have a slight curve to it, which is why you should use the Starbucks sleeve as a template.  If you just cut a straight rectangle, it won’t fit the cup as well.

About 9 or 10 years ago I purchased fabric created for Andover /Makower called Atlantis.  The fabric had a very modern feel to it and was different than any other kind of fabric I had used before.  While I was never a fan of Thimbleberry fabric (how much brown can you put in one quilt!), I was using more “cute” fabrics like Debbie Mum etc.

So back to the Atlantis fabric.  I bought a ton of the fabric – probably $100 worth – and this was 10 years ago when the fabric was $6 a yard in Lancaster PA, which is the next county over from where I live.

Here are some samples of the fabric  - in blue:

So now I have $100 worth of fabric that I have no idea what to do with.  The fabric came in blue and red and orange and gold and of course I bought a bunch of all the colors.  I knew this was not the kind of fabric you used to make a log cabin or ohio star quilt.  I had to figure out what kind of pattern I wanted to use.

So I kept this fabric for several years and did nothing with it, other than take it out and look at it and dream of the quilt I would make with it.  I was afraid to cut it.

I then came across a book on paper piecing and saw a New York Beauty block in it.  I had always been intimidated by paper piecing – I mean who makes a quilt by sewing on paper, right?  But the NYB block seemed like the perfect block for my fabric.  I used Alex Anderson’s book on paper piecing.   I normally don’t like her books because she insists on doing things the hard way – when there are tricks to do things easier!  But this book taught me how to create a NYB block.

So I started making the blocks.  I had no idea how I was going to lay them out, but each block took a few hours for me to make.  I made 24 blocks.  It took me about 5 years.  Granted, I made other quilts in between, but still – five years is a long time.  In the end, I finished the quilt and donated it for a silent auction and it fetched about $300.  Which was great.  But in my mind no amount could ever be enough; that quilt was a true labor of love.  By donating it I did not have to come up with a price.

Here are some photos of my NYB quilt:

And ever since I finished this quilt, I have not had the desire to make a single Ohio Star, Broken Dishes, Turkey Feet, Log Cabin quilt block (well, I never wanted to make a turkey feet block) again.  (And yes, I know, New York Beauty is a traditional block – but the NYB block never looked right in a traditional fabric.)

But I also decided that I was going to make some simple quilts, using just squares, because having the actual quilt, finished, washed and being able to cuddle under it on the couch in January, is by far the best part of making a quilt.

http://www.tilependant.com/diy.html

I am thinking of trying to use resin – I find that the Diamond Glaze and similar products never get truly hard. you can always dent them and they can’t be in the heat.

I buy the digital artwork online – I’ve found several places that sell “inchies”.  The problem I have is that they are all bigger than the 7/8  inch by 7/8 inch needed for a scrabble tile and despite the fact that I have Photoshop and am very computer literate, I can’t figure out an easy way to reduce the entire sheet to the right size.  it is extremely frustrating.  Even when the ad says it is for scrabble tiles, they are always still too big and I have to shrink them – usually by trial and error – by making them smaller and printing them out to see if I made them the right size. I feel like I am missing something and there is a much easier way that is just eluding me.

I primarily buy my inchies on etsy.com