Making Loveys

I've been in a blanket mood recently.  I wanted to try something I've seen online, but was a little nervous about trying it full size.  Solution?  Loveys!

A lovey (or blankie) is a small blanket perfect for babies and toddlers to sleep with, cuddle, drag around and refuse to let go in time for kindergarten.  I made these with cotton fabric on one side with minky on the other, all surrounded by a contrasting ruffle.

They were easy to make.  Decide on the size of lovey you want to make.  There is no uniform size for a lovey.  Mine are 18" x 21".  I wanted the lovey to fit a number of purposes - a doll or infant blanket, a small pet blanket or (mostly) a lovey to love.  I cut the two middle pieces 18 1/2" x 15" - one in cotton and one in minky.  

I wanted my ruffles to be about 2" wide finished, so I cut the contrasting fabric in two strips, each 5" wide x 36" long.  Those measurements assume 1/2" seams and 4" extra length for the ruffle.  

 

I hate taking pictures while I'm sewing, so while I describe the (easy) process, I'll intersperse the beautiful pictures taken by my friend Kate Eschbach (of Kate Eschbach Photography).

I began with the fun part - the ruffles.  I am estranged from my ruffler attachment and I did attempt a reconciliation for this project, but it just was not to be.  That left me with the old fashioned way.  First, sew the ends of the two strips together to form one long strip.  Fold in half and iron.

Using the longest stitch on your machine, sew long raw edges together with a 1/2" or less seam, leaving extra length of thread hanging after you cut it.  I would not recommend trying to ruffle the entire length at once - your thread will break (several times).  I only did about 12" or less at a time because I'm a ruffle weenie.  I also would go back after each section and sew the ruffles down with a normal length stitch instead of waiting until I ruffled the whole thing.  That doesn't leave a lot of room to adjust before you sew it to the main pieces, but as I said, I'm a ruffle weenie.

Once the long nightmare ruffle is done, take the 3 pieces - cotton rectangle, minky rectangle and long ruffle and make a sandwich lining up the edges - cotton rectangle, right side facing DOWN; ruffle with raw edge matching raw edges of the rectangles in the middle; and on the bottom, the minty with right side facing UP.  Sew a 1/2" (or deeper) seam, catching all three.  Sew all the way around the blanket. Be generous in gathering ruffles at the corners so you don't have to go tight around them.  Leave the last 4-5" on the side open so you can turn it inside out.

Turn the blanket inside out and hand-sew the remaining opening closed.  After I turned the blanket right side out, I went back and removes some of the visible extra threads on the finished product from the places where I initially sewed the ruffles.

And there you have it - easy, right?  (If this looks a little different than the other pictures, this is a second lovey I made.)  You can find both of these lovies for sale in my Etsy store, Pretty Pretty Cindy

You can't have too many loveys.

Try It Tuesday - Butter-Flavored Brickle Drizzles

Recently, my daughter-who-no-longer-wants-to-be-mentioned-by-name brought home an old cookbook, "365 Favorite Brand Name Cookie Recipes."  In the spirit of autumn, we chose recipe #95, Butter-Flavored Brickle Drizzles.  It wasn't clear when this cookbook was written, but I would guess the 1980s.  There's no gluten-free, fat-free, "healthy" ingredients involved here.  I am writing the recipe exactly as it appears in the book, including references to things like "shortening"

Ingredients:

1 BUTTER FLAVOR CRISCO Stick or
1 cup BUTTER FLAVOR CRISCO all-vegetable shortening (this was the brand name part)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups quick-cooking oats uncooked
1 cup almond brickle chips (Heath Bar chips)

Drizzle:  1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheet with shortening

Combine shortening, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large bowl.  Stir until well blended and creamy.  Stir in condensed milk and vanilla.  Mix well.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl.  Stir into creamed mixture and stir in oats.

Shape dough into 1" balls.  Press tops into brickle chips.  Place, brickle side up on cookie sheet, 2" apart

Bake for 9-10 minutes until set but not brownd.  Remove to wire rack and cool.

For drizzle, place chocolate chips in resealable ziploc bag.  Microwave at medium (50%).  Knead bag after 1 minute.  Repeat until smooth.  (You can also do this by dipping the bag into hot water until the chocolate melts).  Cut tip of plastic bag and squeeze out chocolate in drizzles on the cookies.

These are really tasty cookies.  They are thin and crunchy and the combination of oatmeal and brickle chips reminds me of cold autumn days with the sweetness of pralines.  We didn't get to the drizzle, but they were good without them too.

A crunchy treat on an autumn kinda day.

cindy

I've Been Booed! Free Printables

Over the weekend I noticed something on our front porch.  It wasn't a mail package, but a cute Halloween box full of Halloween goodies!  Attached to the box was a small sign saying "You've Been Booed!"  Inside the box was lots of candy, Halloween stuff (eyeball salt and pepper shakers, a solar dancing pumpkin, a growing zombie, cookie cutters, a kitchen towel - you get the idea).  I wish I could say I had a picture of the box, but my kids (and me) tore it apart looking for all the goodies.  How fun!

Turns out, this is the idea of Tricia at Nola Mommy from 2011.  It's a fun way to get to know your neighbors - even if it is a bit anonymously - and a fun activity for your kids who are either too young to trick or treat or can't in the neighborhood.  This is like the reverse trick or treat!  Here is the original "You've Been Booed" sign along with the complete instructions and free printables from Nola Mommy:

Instructions on How to Boo your Neighbor by Tricia L.

We couldn't wait to put our own "boo baskets" together for two of our neighbors.  It wasn't very expensive - we used some cool metal pails we've had for a while for containers and then added little items from the Dollar Store and Target.  It was fun to find ring pop eyeballs and bloody vampire teeth.  The dish towels from Target are a cute addition too!  Here's what our finished products look like, all ready for "booing":

Don't these pumpkins look like little waiters?

I really love this idea, but I can't take credit for starting it in my neighborhood.  Some nice anonymous neighbor did that!  These would be great for a lot of holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day.  The possibilities are endless and you can never get too much community going on, especially when you live in an area where neighbors don't tend to know each other.

Don't forget to check out the full directions at Nola Mommy and happy booing!

cindy