It’s a Piece of Cake.

Hi and welcome to the merry merry month of May.  Its definitely spring here, there, and  everywhere in the northern Hemisphere.  So, IMHO its time to celebrate surviving another long cold winter.

At our house, when we celebrate there is always a big beautiful cake involved.  Sadly, my favourite cakes are chock-a-block full of  carbs, sugar and other things which are not great for my waistline.  So, whatdaya say we make fabric cakes instead.

Before we get to the recipe lets talk about general tools and ingredients.

• Make your Cake dimensions as per the pattern on line
• Choose any shade of grey, preferably a tone on tone, or small-scale print for the block backgrounds
• Cake stands can be any shade of teal or turquoise, solids or prints are fine
• Cake stand design – choose the one that suits your cake block parameters or modify  one that you like – or design one of your own as long as it fits within the parameters of the block
• You choose the kind of cake that teases your tastebuds.  There are lots of choices provided.  Give it a name if possible – Turtle cheesecake, Black Forest cake, etc. (Irene, I’m really anticipating something awesome from your fabric pantry)

The pattern we are using is called “Sweet Cakes”. Its a a free downloadable pattern by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller Fabrics.  I cannot give you the link to the pattern as it is encrypted, but I am happy to give you instructions on how to go there yourself to download a copy of the pattern for your own use.

Go to michaelmillerfabrics.com by clicking here

1. Click on “Get Inspired”
2. Choose “Free Downloads”
3. Scroll through until you come to the Sweet Cakes Pattern. (Pattern cover has a navy blue background and 9 yummy looking cakes)
4. Click on “Download pattern”
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “download instructions”
6. Save the download to your computer or print it out. (I printed mine out so I wouldn’t always be having to go back to computer).
7. Choose which cake you want to make and which cake-stand you want to put it on
8. Bake it

Here is one I made just before Christmas.

Strawberry Torte

And, here is another one.

Orange Explosion Cake

Let me know if you have any problems getting this pattern to download.  Also let me know if you do not have the technology on your computer to download the pattern.  You may also be able to find a link to the pattern on Pinterest.

Thanks so much for baking me a cake. I’m looking forward to taking a delicious bite from each and every one.

A quiz about us.

http://quiltgranny.polldaddy.com/s/a-grimm-but-not-implausible-fairy-tail
http://quiltgranny.polldaddy.com/s/how-well-do-you-know-kate

 

Here is a little collage of the blocks that Ms. Kate sent me a few days ago.  I love them. They will look sooooo cute in my quilt.

It looks like “Murder” to me….

This is a very short post for my “Bee Inspired” Quilty buddies across the cyber world. This month one of our group is dealing with the  worry, unease, and anxiety that comes when a family member is sick.  Karen, my whole family reaches out to yours with a sincere hope that your dad rebounds from his illness and makes a good recovery.

When Karen asked for volunteers to switch Queen Bee months  so that she could help her mom and dad, I offered, even though I had not completely decided what Block I was going to request from you.  Fortunately  my newest project was screaming for help.  I am calling the quilt “It looks like Murder to Me”.

Crazy Coloured Crows!

See my sample block below for these  fabulously wingy things.  I think  they are awaaaaay too cute.  Amirite? Just sayin….

FYI…a group of crows is a called a  “Murder”.  And, because my block is made up of  4 crows,  technically speaking each block is an actual  “Murder” of crows. Who knew…

Block Information

Please make 4 bird segments similar or not similar to the four in the block above but don’t sew them together.  I want to mix and match your crows with some I’ve made and with some plain blocks and possibly some trees I’m imagining up even as I write this.

As you may or may not know, I love love love colour, so please indulge me by

• using  lots of brightly coloured,  or black on white, or white on black,  fabrics for the 3 1/2″ square body pieces.
• If you used black/white fabric for the 3 1/2″ square body parts, then please use bright coloured fabric on the 1 1/2 x 3 1/2″ body rectangles (or vice versa of course).
• The itty bitty beaks can be colourful scraps that contrast with the other fabrics.
• Legs can be any colour that strikes your fancy.
• The backgrounds can be as scrappy (or not!) as you like using low volume fabrics.  (I used the same fabric for all the background pieces in the lower left segment above and I think that looks great in one segment too.)
• let your improv wings soar (pun intended).  The birds can stand facing either left or right …beaks can be big or small…legs can be straight or on an angle.  Really, seriously, whatever floats your boat.

As you can tell by my blog post, I have an unorthodox relationship with the crows that inhabit my tiny world, and I want to celebrate it with this quirky little quilt.  I cannot wait to see the finished blocks.

Ladies, when you are finished your blocks, please make a short post on our Facebook page to say they are in the mail, but don’t post any pictures of your crows…I’m planning a contest to see if we are getting to know each other well enough yet to be able to tell who made each crow.   I will post lots of pics I promise.  I’m already all a-twitter to see them…sigh…I am so pathetic. 

 

 

 

My take on “Inside Addition”

Hi, Sue and everyone else too.

It’s me Velda, (aka GRANNYcanQUILT). I’m happy to post a pic of the block I made for you, Sue.  I love simple quick piece blocks and this one is very like the one I’m planning for my month.  Great choice!

Now that it’s finished I recognize my obvious color confusion.  Holy Heck Hannah, I could have sworn that center fabric was the same value of purple as the outer corners, but nope, nosiree Bob it is not, which becomes clear as a bell when I get the block into a better light. Sigh…my apologies. 

Sue asked us in lieu of extra fabric, etc, we simply tell her a bit about where we live when we post a pic of our block.  Lucky me, I live on a tiny green island on the East Coast of Canada called  Prince Edward Island. It’s the smallest province in the country and is home to less than 140,000 people. Our main industries are potato farming and tourism. Almost all the thousands and thousands of tourists who visit each year, come to see Green Gables and/or Anne Shirley, the fictional orphan character made famous by Author Lucy Maud Montgomery.  Seriously gazillions of people from all over the world who read the “Anne” books come to see her home in Avonlea (Cavendish) every year.  

Our home is in Stanhope on the north shore of PEI, and we like to claim our miles of pink sand beaches are the best place to spend a day when you get here. Our home borders the National Park so we can walk to at least two public beaches from here. I don’t want to sound too boastful but it really is beautiful here. 

Here is a picture of Teapot Rock, which shows what some of our north shore beaches look like. 

 Well you cannot actually see the beach here, but trust me it is fabulously beautiful. 

I’ll put your block in the mail this week. Hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it. 



I’m GRANNYcanQUILT

Hello all.  I just thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce myself to the group.

I am retired…Hubby and I moved home to PEI Canada from Alberta in July 2014.  We absolutely love the simple life we share with our two man cats, Ed and Phinny and a big black Standard Poodle, Tigg.  We are adding another poodle puppy to our pack later in December. O yeah, we also have 3 adult kids, along with two wonderful son-in-laws and two grandkids, one grown up and living in Victoria BC, the other only 10 years old.

I started quilting on a whim around 20 years ago and immediately fell in love with this art form. I describe myself as a contemporary quilter because more often than not, I am drawn to big beautiful bold colourful quilts made with modern fabrics.  I love love love taking a traditional block and making it look all shiny and modern by using something fabulous from Alexander Henry or Tula Pink to name a couple of my current fave fabric designers.

I often have many projects underway at the same time….Right now I am 2/3 finished a quilt from a pattern from Sew Kind of Wonderful called Chic Picnic.  I am also working on two Splendid Sampler quilts…(this was a huuuuge unwieldy commitment which may or may not get finished in the next month or so…I  quit making blocks in October because I already have enough for my quilts). Also tucked away in a cupboard is a partly finished Gene Pool quilt from a pattern by Jen Kingwell (another favourite designer of mine), that I bring out every month or so to work on for a few days. On American Thanksgiving I finished my “100 Blocks in 100 Days” challenge. YAY!  This quilt top is ready to go to be long-arm quilted, early in the New Year. In August I joined a Canada Wide “Patchwork City” QAL that has another 6 months or so to go.  Just last month the PEI Modern Quilt Guild  sent out sign up sheets for its 2017 Round Robin quilt group and our 2017  Behive groups.  I signed up for both. So, as you can tell I spend lots of time every day in my sewing room and I love it.

There is not much more to tell anyone about me.  I blog somewhat sporadically at GRANNYcanQUILT.wordpress.com so feel free to pop over there to visit.  Finally here is a photo of me so you can all put a face to my name.

I am really excited to get to know each of you over the next year or so. Let’s have lots of fun and share our creative ideas!