OATMEAL COCONUT/NUT RAISIN COOKIES (GF/DF)

 Six months surely can go by quickly. Seems like I just had my teeth cleaned yesterday. If you follow me, you know that I always take a treat to the dental staff. I tell them it is a bribe so they won't hurt me. They never have, but there is always a first time for everything. (Just kidding.) I enjoy seeing and hearing their pleasure when they try them. One of the hygienists needs GF and another one prefers little or no sugar. So I am always looking for a recipe that meets those requirements or I can make it with substitutions to meet those requirements.

This recipe came from an older small booklet type Pillsbury County American Cookbook. I just made sure the ingredients were GF and substituted sugar substitutes. I usually don't add nuts to their treats just in case. Since the recipe called for a whole cup of chopped nuts, I felt I needed to substitute something so the consistency would be similar. I had unsweetened coconut so I added a half a cup of it for the nuts. (We like coconut in our treats.)

Since the recipe called for shortening, I didn't expect the cookies to spread. I left the cookie dough for the first pan as a "dollop", but then the next three pans, I flattened the dough with my fingertips as I liked the looks of the "flatter" cookie than the "dropped" cookie. 

Print recipe.

OATMEAL COCONUT RAISIN COOKIES (GR)

3/4     cup shortening

1          cup firmly packed brown sugar (I used truvia brown sugar complete)

1/2      cup sugar (I used stevia)

1          egg

1/4      cup water

1          teaspoon vanilla

1          teaspoon cinnamon

1/2      teaspoon cloves

1          cup pancake mix (I used a GF pancake and baking mix)

1          cup chopped nuts (I substituted 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut)

2         cups rolled oats (I used GF rolled oats)

1          cup raisins (Mine were GF)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Cream the shortening, brown sugar, and sugar in a large mixing bowl until soft and creamy (about 2 minutes).

Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Add egg, water, vanilla, cinnamon, and cloves.

Blend until completely mixed up.

Lightly spoon the pancake mix into a measure cup and level off.

Add the pancake mix,  oats, raisins, and nuts or coconut. Mix until blended.

Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the dough and flatten off before dropping 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.

Cookies do not flatten much so if you prefer a flatter cookie, press lightly with finger tips to have a flatter cookie.

Bake 12 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.

Immediately remove from cookie sheets and cool on wire racks.

Makes almost 4 dozen cookies.

No changes for high altitude (above 3500 feet)

DIY PET SCARVES

 Our church recently did a Furry Friends Blessing in the Park and some of the members of the Blankets of Hope quilting ministry made different sized scarves for the pets. Some of them tied and some you just slipped over the collar. 

Since we have cats, I made smaller ones that slipped over their collars. They were so easy and so much fun. I took lots of pictures as I made some to be able to share the process with you since it doesn't really require a pattern so you will be seeing pictures not always from the same print.

Before I go any farther, I should admit to just a little bit of OCD. The good news it doesn't affect every aspect of my life. The bad news is in the areas it does affect, I come off sounding like I am really micromanaging and that's not good. I sound that way when I write up tutorials such as this one. I apologize now and hope you will still continue to read this post and appreciate it.

I had to go buy Charlie and Parker new collars because I think we donated the ones we bought them when we first got them because they hated them. I wasn't really sure they would wear them now that they are three, but they do. Charlie is happier than Parker, but every time I find Parker's on the floor somewhere or notice that he isn't wearing his, I put it right back on. Charlie has never removed his. I will be making them a Christmas one after Thanksgiving so they will be festive. Right now Charlie is wearing sunflowers and Parker is wearing pumpkins. They look so cute.

I measured around their necks and decided an 8.5 inch square would be big enough and it was.

1) First I cut a square 8.5 inches.

2) Then I folded it in half vertically with the pattern.

3) I lined the bottom of the "rectangle" with a horizontal line on my cutting mat so that the cut edges opposite the fold also lined up with a vertical line on the mat.

4) I lined up the edge of my cutting template with the lower edge of the fold and then 2.5 inches down from the top on the cutting edge opposite the fold and

cut two triangles off. (Discard the triangles for another project.)

When you open it up, it should look like this.

5) Cut the point off the scarf. This is to reduce the bulk at the tip. If you don't cut off enough, just snip off a little bit more.

6) Now you are ready to move to your ironing board. You will be turning the edges under about 1/4 inch and pressing them down.

Start with the top side edges first and

then down the diagonal sides.

Once you have done this, you will start back with the sides and fold them one more time and press.

If you need to pin it help hold it down, do that. It doesn't really matter which diagonal side you start with. Fold one side again and press. (Pin if is helps.)

When you fold the first diagonal side for the second time, you can cut off any excess. (Look closely at the picture.)

Then fold the tip down to the fold so that when you fold the other diagonal side down,

the tip will look like this. Pin as needed. 

Press the top of the scarf under 1/4 inch once.

7) Now you are ready the sew the folded hems on the machine stitching close to the folded edge.

It depends on which diagonal side you started folding first the second time, but when you are stitching down the hem as you go around, stitch to the end of the top hem at the point. It might be hard to see in this picture. Maybe it will be easier in a picture of a finished scarf.

8) Once you have stitched down the hem along the bottom 4 sides, you will fold the top portion down to make the casing. 

You are bringing the top fold to the point in which the diagonal sides start. Pin if it helps you.

This will cover up where the hems meet so don't worry if it didn't look good before. (Remember I have some OCD issues with some things I do.) 

9) Stitch close to the edge across to form the casing. Remember I only folded this edge down once. That reduces some of the bulk.

AND you are finished. All you have to do is push the leash through the casing at the top.

Here are some I made for the Pet Blessing... (and Charlie and Parker)

This size would work for a small dog also.

A NEW BLANKET FOR HENRY

 It has been a while since I shared a tutorial for a new quilt, but this one is surprising easy and looks awesome when it is finished. I liked it so much that I made one quickly for Henry, our ten year old grandson in CO. I can't wait to make another one for Blankets of Hope, the quilt ministry at church.

I just love when I see a picture of a finished quilt especially if it looks challenging but discovers it really isn't when I see what the pattern is. I so enjoy "patterns". When I taught math in middle school, I was always telling the students to look for the pattern.

Back this fall, I took a day trip with two quilting friends to Hamilton, MO to a quilt show. We didn't see as many quilts as we thought because I was helping one of them who is new to quilting to look at the quilt and find the pattern. By the end of the day, she was doing really well. 

Henry living in CO is a Denver Bronco fan so a few days before we left to go to have an early Christmas with them, I decided to make him a blanket using some scraps I had left over after I made a Blanket of Hope for a young man at church who was very ill. I asked his mother if he liked the Chiefs (we do live in Kansas City afterall) and she said, "No. Actually he likes the Denver Broncos." I had to order the fabric because our fabric stores sell Chiefs material. I did have to buy some more blue and orange flannel because I was out of it for Henry's quilt.

I didn't have enough time to completely finish it before we left, but I got the top made, sandwiched it with backing, machine quilted it, and sewed the binding on. After we got to CO, I handstitched the binding down in the hotel that night and gave it to him the next morning when we saw them. 

This is the best picture of the quilt top for you to see how pretty the pattern is. It looks like a Bronco square is resting on top of blue and orange squares/blocks.

 Here it is hanging over the railing which is where quilt tops usually "live" after I get the top made but before it is finished as a quilt. It does usually end up back here after it is finished until the group meets.

Here it is as it went with me to CO with the binding sewed on with the machine. Many of my friends sew the binding down also with the machine, but I like to finish the binding by slipstitching it down by hand. It is so relaxing for me and gives me a chance to enjoy the quilt.

This binding was a piece in my stash that I have had a long time. It worked perfectly though with its navy background and small orange flower with a little added green leaf. 

And finally a picture of the finished quilt showing the backing. If you look closely, you can see how I machine quilted it. Since I made the blanket a little bigger than my usual lap-sized quilts, I purchased an oversized throw and it worked perfectly. I didn't use any batting since the blanket was thick and the top was mostly flannel.

     

My quilt/blanket consisted of sixteen 12-inch finished blocks and a top and bottom 3-inch finished row that is a partial block. I hope that is easy to see. The secret to the pattern though is that it is sewed together in 6-1/2 inch rows and not this 12-inch finished block.

Let start at the beginning with the cutting...just two ways of cutting.

The focal square is a cut 6-1/2 inch square from the print that I wanted to "showcase". I cut sixteen of those. I did this by cutting three 6-1/2 inch wide strips across the width of the fabric (wof) and then cutting six 6-1/2 inch squares from each strip. I had enough of the fabric, that I could "fussy cut" (chose where I was going to cut) where I cut the strips to feature either the word Bronco or the horse's head. (I initially cut twenty squares but settled on just using sixteen of them.)

I arranged the squares on my design wall to make sure I didn't have two similar blocks next to each other.

With the blue and orange flannel fabrics, I cut 3-1/2 inch wide strips across the wof from each color. I sewed two strips together, one of each color and made a bunch of these. They will form what looks like the blue and orange squares that the Bronco squares rests on. This technique is called "strip piecing".

I pressed them open and

then cut across in either 3-1/2 inch pieces (called a twozie*) that will be used with the 6-1/2 inch focal print square 

or

6-1/2 inch square pieces also a twozie* that will be used in rows with other 6-1/2 inch square twozies*.

That's it. After I have all of my pieces cut,  I go back to my design wall and lay the pieces out in the pattern. Look at the picture on the right at the top row above the blue line. This row consists of the 3-1/2 inch twozies* and the 6-1/2 inch focal print squares. (There is a twozie* before and after each focal print alternating for a checkered board effect. As you look at the picture you can see the fourzie** that forms with the twozies* since they come before and after the focal print. The row consists of four focal prints squares and eight twozies*.) 

or

eight of the 6-1/2 inch square twozies*  cut from the orange and blue wide sewed strips. (just below the blue line) Every other square is inverted to give a checkered board effect.

To further show making the row with the focal print, first sew two of the twozies* together alternating the colors to make a fourzie**. (four squares sewed together) (I know you can't see this in the picture.) Press the seam to one direction.

Then sew the fourzies** between the focal print starting and ending each row with a twozie*.

I did the same for the other row of just 6-1/2 inch twozies alternating across for the checkered board look. The top three rows are sewed in the picture, but not sewed together even thought it looks like it in the picture. I usually wait until I have all of the rows made, but you don't have to.

When you are ready to sew the rows together, the only seams that you have to match are the ones between what is the 12-1/2 inch block. To make this easier, I resort to my normal way of pressing seams...the odd numbered rows, I press back toward the beginning of the row and the even numbered rows, I press toward the end of the row. This allows me to "nest" the seams. 

I finished the top by repeating a  row of the 6-1/2 inch square twozies* and sewed one on the top and the other one on the bottom. 

To machine quilt the blanket, I first sewed an asterisk in the center of each focal square. This was a fancy stitch on my machine that made a line of these. I just stopped it when it finished the asterisk. Look closely - it is below the big C in Broncos and the ER in Denver.

I made sure I had the layers flat and pinned it in each corner and then pinned the center where I would stitch the asterisk. 

After that I machine stitched along the seams of the 12-1/2 inch block horizontally and vertically with a wavy pattern my machine will make.

Depending on the look you want for your quilt, if you want it to look 3 dimensional, if you want to use prints instead of solid colors for the background, choose small prints  so that the seams won't stand out. You also should not chose a directional print since you are alternating/inverting the background pieces. 

As I said earlier, I know I will be making another quilt by this pattern for Blankets of Hope.*** I would love to see pictures of your finished quilt, if you decide to give the pattern a try. If you have any questions just ask in the comments. 

My finished quilt/blanket for Henry was 48 x 54 inches.

 

It consisted of five rows of the 6-1/2 inch square orange and blue fourzies** (eight 6-1/2 inch twozies* sewed together) 

and four rows of the 3-1/2 inch twozies* before and after each focal print. (eight 3-1/2 inch twozies* on each row and four 6-1/2 inch focal print squares.) 

If you do the math, from the 3-1/2 inch x wof strips, I started with each color and cut thirty-two 3-1/2 inch twozies* and forty 6-1/2 inch twozies*. So I cut about 10 strips of each color, orange and blue - 3-1/2 inches x wof from approximately 1 yard of fabric of each color. I had a yard of the Bronco focal print.

* a twozie or two squares sewed together

** a fourzie or two sets of twozies sewed together. The four smaller squares can be four different colors or two different colors arranged with the same colors/prints sewed* diagonally from each other.

*** I picked out three pieces for the Blanket of Hope. What do you think?