A cold February, but Jeri helped us all feel a bit warmer with our tropical themed quilt meeting this month. Thanks for hosting and thank you to Robyn for helping with food!
Show and Tell
Caren finished her Pizza Box Christmas quilt. She hand quilted it.
Jeanie made these two tumbler quilts for her great grandtwins. She used the Accuquilt to cut it all out.
Nancy F. made this fun quilt for her granddaughter and it's made of flannel.
Jeri made this flower quilt for her granddaughter using a pattern she got from Jean.
Jeri also made this yoyo pillows using the yoyo's we received last year from Susan.
This is Jeri's dresden quilt that was made using blocks from her husband's cousin's grandma. The material is at least 50 years old and all of it is handpieced.
Close up of the fabrics
Jeri made this Hunter's Star using her batik scraps and then she demonstrated an easy way to make Hunter's Star.
DEMO
Cut 6 1/2" white squares and add 3" contrasting fabric around each side. Then cut 6 1/2" squares from the contrasting fabric and add 3" white borders around them.
Cut each resulting square in half diagonally.
From each diagonal piece, cut a strip 2 1/2" away from the center or long side of the triangles. Then sew two of those strips together matching contrasting colors together as shown above.
Then either cut 9 1/2" squares from both the color fabric and the white fabric, and cut it diagonally...or cut a long strip of both fabrics 6 1/2" wide, then using a ruler like the one marked below or your cutting mat, cut out triangles from the long strip turning the ruler as you go. Add a white triangle to the side that has the white center piece and add a color fabric triangle to the side that has colored fabric in the center (as shown above). This will make one square. Place 4 squares together to make a larger square, turning each square so that it will make the Hunter Star design. Jeri's quilt was 7 of the smaller squares across by 9 squares down. She estimates that the amount of white fabric she needed was about 5 yards.
2nd DEMO
Jeri showed us a way to make a more interesting binding. Cut two sets of strips for your binding-the first one is 1 3/4" wide and the second is 1 1/4" wide. Sew them together then fold in half creating something that looks like piping. Attach to your quilt as you would any other binding but the effect is a two tone binding.
LUNCH
Coconut Layer Cake
2 ¾ c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 ¾ c. sugar
1 c. butter, room temperature
1 c. canned sweetened cream of coconut (buy a 15 oz can of Coco Lepez – save the rest for the frosting)
4 large eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. buttermilk
¾ - 1 c. raspberry jam
2 – 2 ½ c. sweetened shredded coconut (you may want to toast ½ c. of this to use on the very top)
Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut three circles of wax paper to fit the bottom of three 9” diameter cake pans. Put wax paper in bottom of pans then butter and flour pans.
Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt in a large bowl until stiff but not dry. Set aside.
Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt then set aside. In a different bowl, beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in cream of coconut then beat in egg yolks and vanilla. On low speed, beat in flour mixture and then buttermilk, each just until blended. Fold beaten egg whites into batter.
Divide batter between prepared bans. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 23-28 min. Cool about 10 minutes then run a knife around pan sides and turn cake layers onto racks to cool completely, removing wax paper.
Place one cake layer on cake plate. Spread thin layer of frosting over cake layer . Spread ½ the jam over frosting. Top with second cake, thin layer of frosting and the rest of the jam. Top with third cake layer then spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle coconut over cake, gently pressing into sides to adhere. (This can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours before serving.)
Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
6 oz. cream cheese
¼ c. butter
3 ½ c. powdered sugar
½ c. canned sweetened cream of coconut (leftover from cake recipe)
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Beat in cream of coconut and vanilla, then add sugar, 1 c. at a time and beat until fluffy.
Hawaiian Haystacks
Rice on the right is a Rice Medley from Winco. It even has lentils with it.
