Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Last Minute Gift

Last week I made some little gifts to give to friends.  The recipe is for banana nut bread that my mom used to make a lot.  I think the original recipe came from one of those homemade cookbooks from a church or a school.  She always added frozen blueberries and I remember several of these wrapped up for teacher gifts when I was young.
DSC_0034

I also whipped up some little fabric bags to wrap them in and made some gift tags.  The bags fit a mini loaf pan.
To make the bags cut a 20" x 10" piece of fabric.  Fold the fabric in half, right sides together lengthwise and sew up the sides.  Flatten out the corners of the bag, still inside out, so that the seams are centered.  Sew straight across each point, perpendicular to the seams, about 2 inches in from the points.  Trim the points, turn the bag right side out and trim the top with pinking shears.


Click here to download your very own gift tags.  (I took my name off of them, don't worry.)

Blueberry Banana Nut Bread

This recipe makes two regular sized, 2 pound loaves or 4 mini loaves.  I used disposable aluminum pans to give as gifts.

1/2 cup (one stick) butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 mashed bananas (bananas that have turned black on the outside are great for nut bread)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together butter and sugar.
Add eggs and vanilla and combine.
Add mashed bananas and combine.
Sift dry ingredients.  Add lemon juice to milk and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with the milk and lemon juice.  Mix until combined.
Gently stir in the nuts and blueberries.
Pour into 4 greased mini loaf pans.  Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the middle of a loaf comes out clean.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Regifting

Special Delivery
If you were around last year you might remember my little pet Christmas project, Lady Harvatine's Ukulele X-mas. Well...it's back!  You may not have thought it ever went away but the links have been kind of broken for a while (I'm not a very good web master).

If you didn't get it last year, now's your chance, 5 tracks plus a printable sleeve in case you want to burn a cd!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Darlene Mae Harvatine

Harv's mom passed away last week after a 4 year battle with ALS.  She was an avid crafter and did her time with just about every craft imaginable, from decoupage to knitting.  For the last decade and a half one of her main passions was quilting.
Darlene Mae Harvatine

As Dar's ALS progressed she lost the ability to use her hands, arms and legs but she kept sewing as long as she possibly could.  With the help of some very good friends and whichever family member she could get to wield the rotary cutter, she persisted.  One of the last quilts she finished was for our baby.
Two Dar Quilts

We are lucky to have known her and to have plenty of her handiwork around to remember her by.
Our wedding quilt.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Have no fear.

As I suspected, there are several of you out there who are intimidated by piecing curves.  I am here to put your fears at ease.  This video will walk you through not just piecing curves but piecing curves in the laziest way possible, with almost no pins!  I hate pinning and I love piecing curves so really, you've got the best of both worlds right here.  I'm demonstrating using pieces from my Christmas version of my Mod Beads pattern.  I hope some of you find this helpful!