Swell Christmas Quilt

 

Years ago, while visiting my sister in Seattle, we went into an amazing quilt shop that had a little of everything. I was thumbing through their Christmas packs and I found the cutest little charm pack, Swell Christmas by Urban Chiks. It was love at first sight!

 

 

I knew this pack was destined to come home with me and become a beautiful Christmas quilt. In all honesty though, I didn’t have any Christmas quilts at the time. I didn’t have any good fabric, and I didn’t have the time to go hunting. So, the charm pack as tucked away and I moved on to other projects.

 

 

Years later, I finally decided it was time to get some Christmas quilts into my collection. I pulled out the few pieces I had and found the charm pack. I looked it up online and discovered there was still some pieces out there to order. All I had left to do was figure out what pattern to use.

 

I always find it a bit tricky with charm packs because they’re a bit small. I don’t want to cut them up smaller because I don’t want to loose the patterns. So, I decided to do a simple window pane pattern with the squares, using white as the sashing. 

 

 

I wanted a color pop in the center of each block and I found this great fabric that’s pink with red polka dots in my small collection of Christmas fabrics I had. Perfect!

 

 

Once the blocks were assembled, I wanted the sashing between the blocks to be a bit bigger to help create definition between the white in the blocks and the white sashing.

 

 

So, remember I said I’d found some pieces still online? Yeah, I ordered a bunch that could be used in this or other Christmas pieces. I absolutely love the santa faces on the red background! I think it’s the main reason I loved this set originally. I still wanted it a bit bigger, so I added another border of the holly leaves on a red polka dot.

 

 

So, then comes the backing. Again, I did a bunch of searches. Not only did I discover there was still some of the Swell Christmas fabric line out there, but there were a couple of other lines by Urban Chiks that had the same vintage feel to them. 

 

 

The line called Deer Christmas had a panel of a deer. It was so cute, and the perfect size for my backing.

 

 

Because of the scrappy nature of the quilt, I did a basic meander all over the quilt. Finally, I finished it off with a binding from a fabric from the most recent Urban Chiks Christmas line, Holly Jolly. It works great!

 

 

This quilt was so fun to make. Honestly, it came together really fast and turned out just like I envisioned. It’s a wonderful blend of vintage and modern. I love that!

Scrappy Fall Leaves Quilt

In the spirit of the fall season, I wanted to use some of my moms fall fabrics collection to make a scrappy fall quilt. She really loves fall colors and her collection was getting to be a bit too much. Perfect for me to swoop in and grab a few things to apply to my plans.

 

 

I decided instead of making a geometric scrappy quilt, I would instead use a leaf pattern to use with each fabric and use the copper brown fabric as a background. I completed a few in each pattern, and used a bunch of different fabrics to create the scrappy look.

 

 

There was only one problem. When I laid out all of my completed blocks, I realized this was going to be a very small quilt, almost a wall hanging.

 

I searched and searched for more of the copper brown fabric, but it was a much older piece that was no longer available. I had to pivot my plans.

 

 

I found a beautiful cream color fabric with fall leaves on it. I thought it would compliment the copper brown well, and decided to create a checkerboard pattern with the two different colors. Once again, I cut out more leaves and mixed everything up to create the scrapping look.

 

 

Once all of the blocks were done, I had to come up with a plan to make the mix up happen. Rather than laying it all out, I decided to sew them together randomly into pairs and then matched the two’s together to get four’s. After that I laid them out on the floor to finish it up.

 

 

It mostly worked, but I did end up in a pickle when, no matter how I moved them around, there was always two of the same leaf butted up together. Oh well, sometimes random can be matching too. 

 

 

The top was all together, but it felt like it needed a little bit something more. I found this beautiful purple hand-dyed style fabric that was perfect for tying everything together without being too overbearing. It’s a nice, soft color that is a perfect wrapping around of the leaves.

 

 

I struggled with a backing. The first was a fabric I had a lot of and wanted to use up, but after pinning it all together, I decided it was too bold with yellows, and I wanted something more subtle. I took it all apart, and found this amazing blue fabric in my stash with small fall leaves and acorns in fall colors. It was just the type of look I wanted so I re-pinned the quilt and got to work.

 

 

 I wanted a wind-blown look in the quilt. Using a copper brown thread, I created a circle/waves look in a random pattern. For the border, I went with a stretched meander to look like wood bark of a tree. Finally, I used the cream colored fabric from the blocks to complete with quilts binding. I don’t usually use a light fabric for binding, but in this case I think it worked well.

 

 

This was a fun finish. It was a great way to finish off my quest from a couple years ago to have more fall themed quilts. 

 

Spicy Black Bean Mash

 

Being so close to the border, we have Mexican food at our house a lot! We love Mexican flavors and seasonings, and it smells amazing when cooking.

 

 

Having a bean mash with dinner, whether it be black beans or pinto, tastes amazing and adds a bit of fiber and protein to the plate. The one problem with authentic Mexican food is that typically you’d spend the day letting the beans simmer and become soft slowly. Sometimes you just don’t have that kind of time and need to speed up the process.

 

 

This recipe it great for when I’m in a pinch at dinner and am looking for a tasty side. I can whip this together in about 20 minutes! That’s right, the canned beans allow you to skip the process of cooking and softening the beans and you can get right to the yummy part. These bold flavors and amazing spices will make up for the beans in a can.

 

 

I also like to put this together for a quicky lunch that’s full of yummy protein and fiber. Just spread it inside a tortilla with some lettuce, avocado, tomatoes and whatever else you like to slip into your personalized burrito.

 

 

Spicy Black Bean Mash

 

 

 

1 can (14.5 oz) Black Beans, drained and rinsed

½ medium onion, chopped

1 medium jalapeño, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbs EVOO

1 c vegetable stock

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

½ salt, more if needed

 

In a saucepot, warm your EVOO on medium heat. Add your onion and jalapeño to the saucepot when it’s heated. Let your onion soften and become translucent, maybe a couple of minutes. Add the garlic and allow it to cook for another minute. Now add the beans and half of the vegetable stock. Bring the bean mix to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer.

Let it simmer for about 5 minutes with a lid on the pot. Remove the lid and use an immersion blender to mash the bean mix. Add the remaining stock if it’s too thick. Don’t completely puree the mix; leave some peppers, onions, and beans for texture. Finally, add the seasonings, including more salt if needed. Mix together and serve as a side or inside a tortilla wrapped into a burrito.