the sunday afternoon quilt and dessert society...

this is what my husband calls us! he is always wondering what delicious treats we are munching at our meetings... this time it was lovely fudge brownies and a great cream cheese and spinach dip. and we were very busily working away...

look at the adorable spiderman pajamas that pilar has made for her son! she made the pajama bottoms with her new sewing machine, then appliqued a piece of the same fabric to the soft cotton top to make a set. she also told us very funny stories about her son in the pajamas-- she was loosening up the waistband on sunday so they wouldn't pinch him!on the blue pajamas, she also made the pajama bottoms on the sewing machine then added a strip of coordinating fabric to the top as an applique. they are very cute pilar!

gisele was working on her lovely blue and yellow quilt... right now she is doing a very pretty scalloped quilting around the edges.




and carmen finished her baby quilt on sunday during our meeting! i love the colors in this quilt-- orange! :) she quilted it all over, following the circles, so there is a bubble pattern on the back. it's very cuddly because the orange fabric on some of the squares and the binding is a soft fuzzy velour-type fabric... so nice!





and here is claudia with maria from chile, who was new to the group. she has made amazing progress on her quilt since last week... she is piecing these squares together with a green binding in between each block. it's hard to tell here but she has made a strip as long as the couch!

for my part the baby quilt was put aside in favor of the wee bunny, and carmen and gisele helped me position his ears and make him cute!

oh, i also wanted to share with you all the recipe for the banana bread i made a couple of weeks ago. it is very easy and tasty... i bought a big bunch of bananas yesterday hoping that some might go a bit squishy by the end of the week so i can have banana bread :) here's the recipe:

2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

mix all of these dry ingredients together. then add
1 c. mashed banana (i use 2 or 3 bananas... however many are sitting around!)
1 tsp. vanilla (i tend to splash a bit extra in too)
2 large eggs, and
1/2 c. oil.

mix only until everything is mixed and wet-- don't beat or overmix. pop into a loaf pan at 350 degrees for an hour and there you go!

Tissue holder tutorial

I have made a couple of tissue holders to give as presents. I think they are cute and practical and a nice little and easy to make, quick gift. So I wanted to make a tutorial and share how I made it with all of you.
This are two tissue holders I made recently:


And here it goes the tutorial:
1. Cut two pieces of fabric, one for the outside and the other for the lining. The dimensions should be 6 inches x 7 inches.


2. With right sides together, sew a 1/4 inch seam around the border leaving 4 inches open in the longer side.


3. Open the seams of the side you left open and iron.


4. Turn right sides out and iron again. To make sure the corners are nice and pointy I use a chopstick to push them out.


5. Fold it with lining side out so that the 2 sides overlap 3/4 inches.


6. Sew it in the sides, this time leaving only 1/8inch seam allowance.Turn around and push corners out again with a chopstick. Iron again and voila! there you have it!

Quilts and so much more

Another week passed with a nice Sunday Meeting. It's our time to share with friends our project's progress, taste delicius food (everybody cooks really good!) and have a great conversation.

Amisha's baby quilt is growing pretty and faster.

Pilar is so happy with her first spider man pijamas
that she made with her new sewing machine.

Ana Clara is finally back from Portugal (and she looks gorgeius!). And next to her is Laurene who showed us her creatives photos albums that she is decorating every month for her 5 year old daughter. WELCOME!!

Tery has a lot of work to do yet, but the quilt is so great as it is...

And look at this cool hat that Flor made from her baby boy.

Gisele, we have no photos of the summer top you made from your old dress, but everybody saw you wearing it this sunday and it's fantastic.

About me, the 'bag girl', I finished a bag (ja, ja, ja!!) that will be a birthday's present for a girlfriend (so it's secret).

Sunday afternoon......working and working!

Our last Sunday meeting was very productive. If I'm not wrong it has been our fullest meeting, we were 10!!

And then, we could see many hands working.

Tery was with us, our teacher, and always we learn new things with her.

And I...kidnaped Carmen and she tought me how to use my new sew machine!!

An other Sunday very productive!!!

Tery with her beautiful big quilt

Camila already has half of the bedspread!!

Camila shows her beautiful yellow bag

Carmen finished her baby quilt too!!

Yanina with her first cushion finished!!

Claudia shows her new bedspread proyect

The socks made by Amisha

Amisha with her baby quilt with orange triangles

My first Pokemon Pillow

Mi 8 year old son -Gabriel- is a Pokemon fun. He loves everything related to this characters.
In my last visit at Joann store, Gabriel and his brother Santiago found this amazing Pokemon fabric; so I spent my 40% off coupon on it to make this pillow.
So let me share with you the hapyness of my child with his new 'made by mom' pillow!!!

Baby quilt is done!... and Meringue Tart recipe

I had finished the Elizabeth baby quilt, she will be born this week, everybody waiting for her ! and she has taken her time....

I liked so much the baby quilt, the colors combination resulted funny and the embroider are not too bad.

In the pictures there are details of appliques: the sun, the butterflies, the flower, the bee.

He terminado la colcha para Elizabeth, ella nacera esta semana, estan todos esperandola y si que se ha hecho esperar!.
Me gusto mucho como quedo la colcha, la combinacion de colores resulto alegre y los bordados no salieron tan mal.
En las fotos se ven los detalles de las aplicaciones: el sol, las mariposas, la flor, la abeja.

And the promise...the Meringue Tart recipe!

Meringue Tart

5 egg white
1 cup sugar (250 grs)
5 tbsp. sugar powder (confectioners’ sugar)
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. pure corn starch

Beat the egg white until it is hard. Add the sugars’ cup, by tbsp. When this is good incorporated, add baking powder, corn starch and sugar powder, slowly, with wood spoon.
Prepare the cake pan, with butter in the base and put a circle of paper to fit the base of the pan. Above this, put the meringue, without touching the pan on the borders.
Preheat the oven to 325 F and bake the meringue for 5 minutes at this temperature and then, low the temperature at 200 F and bake whit oven a little open (put a spoon in the oven door). This is for 50 minutes else.

The cream is a little box of heavy cream, beat to hard and put a 1 tbsp. of sugar and 1 tbsp. of vanilla.

When the meringue is cold, put above the cream and above this pieces of strawberry or raspberries, to covering the surface. Maintain refrigerated.

If you do other meringue, put over this and you have a meringue cake that is bigger when you need for more people.

Y lo prometido... la receta de la Tarta de Merengue!

Tarta de Merengue

5 claras de huevo
250 gramos de azucar granulada (1 taza)
5 cucharadas de azucar flor
1/2 cucharadita de polvos de hornear
1/2 cucharadita de chunno

Batir las claras hasta que esten duras, agregar el azucar granulada por cucharada. Cuando el merengue este firme agregar el azucar flor, chunno y polvos de hornear e incorporar suavemente con cuchara de madera.
Preparar un molde, enmantequillar el fondo y poner papel sobre este y los bordes. Poner el merengue sin que toque el papel de la orilla. Poner en horno pre calentado, horno mediano, por 5 minutos, despues de esto bajar la temperatura, bien baja, y abrir la puerta del horno levemente, dejando una abertura con una cuchara entremedio, esto por 50 minutos.

La crema se hace batiendo crema liquida hasta que este firme, poniendole un poquito de azucar y unas gotas de vainilla.
Cuando el merengue este frio, poner encima la crema y sobre este frutillas (fresas) o frambuesas cubriendo toda la superficie. Mantener refrigerado.

Se pueden hacer dos merengues y colocar uno encima de la crema y fruta y te queda una torta (pastel) de merengue mas grande, para cuando necesites para mas gente.