Sunday Mornings...

I love Sunday mornings.  We always celebrate being together by having a special breakfast, accompanied by fancy drinks.  It is a little known fact that you can pick up decadent syrups from coffeehouses like Starbucks inexpensively and then fix drinks for yourself at home.

Today we had Cinnamon Mochas.  Here is how we made them:

Ingredients:

• chocolate milk (or regular milk with chocolate syrup - 2% is best but anything will work)
• coffee
• slightly sweetened whipped cream
• Cinnamon Dolce syrup (but any flavor works!)
• ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Make coffee.
2. While coffee brews, steam the milk, stirring occassionally.  You can mix the chocolate milk with regular milk if you prefer a less chocolatey flavor.
3. Combine coffee and milk in the mug as desired.  (For kids, either omit the coffee or make decaf.)
4. Stir in syrup to taste.
5. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle on a bit of cinnamon to garnish.

Note:  This may or may not have been inspired by my new line of fabric for Robert Kaufman.  (I see a lot of decadent desserts in our future - hint, hint!)

Sew Much Fun!

Yesterday we paid a visit to "Sew Much Fun" , a fantastic fabric store in Gastonia North Carolina.  If you are ever in the area you must go.  They have a huge selection of patterns, fantastic machines and notions, and miles and miles of beautiful quilting fabric. 

They had a display of Robert Kaufman's Dr. Suess "Cat in the Hat Fabric".  I love the panel print - it would make a quick, easy, and colorful baby quilt.

Am I the only one who salivates at the sight of ricrac and ruffled trim?

We found this great little deep-brown pom-pom trim, which coordinates perfectly with my next collection.  (News to come about that soon.)  The ricrac is from Mary Jos - a huge fabric warehouse less than a mile down the road.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Ambrosia Bag

The Ambrosia Bag pattern is finally available! 

I used the summer colorway, but included directions for the spring colorway (periwinkle, greens, and blues) as well.  Happy sewing!

Amanda

Prairie Points (Part 3)

So, you get your beautiful quilt back from the quilter and you need to finish the prairie point edges...

Spread the quilt out so that your batting fabric faces up. Trim your backing and batting fabric 1/2" out from the seamline that attaches the prairie points to the quilt top. Then go back again and trim your BATTING ONLY right down to the seamline. Wrap your backing around the batting so that the fold meets the seamline. Press and pin. Slip stitch the backing to the back of the prairie point so the seamline is covered.

That's all you have to do to add prairie points - a little something special for your quilt!

Ambrosia 3 Ways

Starting October 1st, Ambrosia Ten Squares will be shipping to stores.  (Ten Squares are comprised of 40 10" squares of fabric, in this case 31 Ambrosia prints and 9 coordinating solids.)

You can whip up a quilt in no time using one Ambrosia Ten Square, plus binding and backing fabric, using my new complimentary pattern, "Ambrosia 3 Ways".  Three designs are included.  If you want to make a bigger quilt, just add a border!

Quilt A  (43" x 51-1/2")

Quilt B  (48" x 57-1/2")

Quilt C  (45-1/2" x 57-1/2")

Happy quilting!
Amanda

Accuquilt Giveaways

Any quilter would love to try the Accuquilt fabric cutter and there are (at least) three give-aways going on now.

Julie Herman of Jay Bird Quilts writes a fantastic blog about everything quilting related - I love to read it.  (She also contributes to the Robert Kaufman blog "The Swatch and Stitch".) Two other great bloggers are Ryan Walsh of "I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts" and Sherri of "A Quilting Life".  (Sherri's giveaway ends today so you have to hurry!)

Check out these great blogs and enter to get a chance to win an Accuquilt cutter!

Springtime Garlands

"Springtime Garlands", my complimentary pattern for Ambrosia, is now available courtesy of Robert Kaufman.  Pick it up at your local quilt shop or download it here.

This quilt is deceptively simple to make.  Even though there is a lot of visual movement there are barely any seams to match!  It makes great use of fusible bias strips that you can make with a Clover bias tape maker.  Having never used one before I am now a big fan...  Kay Giese did the quilting - thanks Kay!

Ambrosia ships to stores October 1st.  I am SOOOOOO excited!  You can download more free projects for this collection from my website.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Amanda