Lucky Charm Lotto Blocks of the Month

It seems as I forgot to post last month's block.  If you remember I'm providing a block made from 5" charms in an effort to use up our stashes and charm packs for my guilld.  This was what I am calling the "Six Pack".

How easy is this one?  Just choose three light browns and three darker/black charms and make two rows of three for each block.  Of course the winner may put them together the way she chooses, but I'm thinking a frame or sashing of the same fabric and this would turn into a manly looking throw very quickly!

And for this month, I've chosen the "Nickel Brick".

This block uses four 5" squares, different prints.  Cut squares to 3" x 5" rectangles.  (Save the 2" x 5" strips for piano keys border).

One 1 1 /2" x 40" strip of solid black fabric.  Cut eight 1 1/2" x 5" strips.
Sew a black strip to each long side of 3" x 5" prints.


Arange the four blocks together and sew together as above picture.  It is most important that you position the four mini blocks the same way for each block.  Ask me why I tell you this.  Yes, I was sewing along just trying to get the twosies to match colorwise a little bit and was not paying attention.  Sure enough, I had sewed some with the upper left mini block going horizontal and some vertically.  It does make a difference, trust me!

I have several layed out in the following picture to show how it would look in a quilt.

There are several blues that need to be re arranged, but this is just to give you an idea how the blocks will appear to be woven.  A great way to use up those scraps!

Granddaughters making MUD PIES!

My granddaughters love making MUD PIES!  Actually, they make pies, cakes, cookies, puddings and anything else they can think of.  They were over last night, and decided it was time to have another "baking session".  (Actually, it was hot enough to "bake"" them pretty quickly.

As you can see they had a ball.  They added "chips" (rocks), coconut (grass), cinnamon (sand) and just about anything they could find.  They found some roly poly's and wanted to add them, but I said no live animals.  :)  Mostly they love making "batter" and playing IN IT.



Kayley loves to "mold"cookies!

Lyndey with the PECAN PIE

They even decorated the swing set!

They had a ball!  They wanted their cousin, Paige to be there and she will be in a couple of weeks.  She gets to come along with her brother to spend a week at Nana's and Papa's.  When that happens the cousins are together most of the time.  I love that.

Easiest lint brush YOU can make in a flash!

Today I made the "neatest" (that's not an in word, I know), "coolest", (okay, I'm still not there) LINT BRUSH, but suffice to say it is pretty darn "nifty"!

It is a lint brush to clean the bobbin area on your sewing machine!  Okay, I know I have one that came with my machine and I also have a "big"fuzzy one I use quite frequently.  But this one is made with things you probably have in your home if you're a grandma or mother and you make it in SECONDS.  AND, you can make multiple ones at a time and if they get lost--no big deal.

All you need is a pipe cleaner and a straw.


Fold the straw in half and poke both ends into the straw.

You are done.  How great is that!!!

BEFORE

AFTER



I always clean the area when I change bobbins. But with this handy, I'll be doing it a lot more often! The straw is long enough you can manipulate it very easily. I forgot to tell you that the straw I used was a thin one and it worked perfectly. I expect if you had a bigger holed straw you could just double again and it should work.

Now I CANNOT take credit for this. Cheryl over at naptimequilter.blogspot.com

had posted this on her blog. She gave me permission to tell you about it. Hop on over and check her site out. Thanks for sharing, Cheryl!



Tortilla Steamer

Today I made some of those very easy tortilla steamers.  You insert your tortillas and stick them in the microwave for a couple of minutes to heat them.  Of course, the time varies from microwave to microwave.  We eat a lot of Mexican food and love flour tortillas.  This will be used a lot.

I have one of those plastic tortilla "bowls" with the lid like you see in the restaurants.  One time I put that in the microwave.  Not too smart.  I didn't think I'd ever get that lid off!  I learned you heat them first then put them in those containers. 

The next picture shows that one half of the steamer opens up to insert the tortillas.

The pattern is by Legacy and really a quick project.  The only thing you must remember is to use 100% cotton fabrics AND batting. 

You can even put potatoes or frozen corn on the cob in there too.    I may get some potato or corn fabric and make me some more of these!  Too cute!