Here is the recipe for those delicious brownies Ilene brought to quilt group in April!

Blonde Brownies with Dark Roots

from Ilene

2 c. brown sugar

2/3 c. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

½ c. coconut

1 c. chopped pecans

1 c. chocolate chips

6 oz. cream cheese (cut in small chunks)

Mix together brown sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients.  Stir in coconut, nuts, choco. chips.  Cut cream cheese into small chunks (about the size of small marble) and carefully fold into dough - - don’t try to mix it in. . . .leave  in chunks.  Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.  (Test with a toothpick- - -it may take a few minutes longer depending on your oven)

March 2012 projects

March was a great month for inspiration! 

Donna shared her quilt top from our mystery block project. We love seeing the results of past exchanges and challenges!

This quilt is made from house blocks we all made for Ilene for her birthday month last year. The tree blocks are paper-pieced. She says this will probably be a table quilt. The simple row of houses on the back makes it just as cute as the top!

Des finished this great modified bento box quilt.

She also brought this cute boy baby quilt made with the cute Ziggy Baby quilt pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew.

Julie made a fun bag from charm squares. She used fusible Peltex on the bottom for stiffness. 

Heidi makes no-sew fleece blankets as thank you gifts for children's teachers. Even little ones can help tie the edges.

Tiffany made this cowboy baby blanket as a gift. She used clip art she found online to make the silhouettes and stitched them to the background fabric with clear thread. 

Darlene used scraps of fabric and old marbles to make necklaces

  Some good tutorials to make these necklaces:
Bead and Knot Fabric Necklace from Skip to my Lou
Fabric Necklace from Amy Butler Designs

This green and black quilt is also from Darlene.

Darlene brought an adorable pinwheel baby quilt top. She used prairie points sewed into the border to create a pretty, touchable border that frames the pinwheels perfectly.

The pinwheels in Darlene's country quilt is made my adding a half-square triangle set to the corner of a large square as you would make a snowball block. 

Denise shared the quilt she made from the block she chose for her birthday month. Shirley did the quilting and Denise added scrappy binding to finish it off. 

Rosemary loved the quilt from March/April 2011 issue of Love of Quilting and was inspired to create a similar quilt.

She used hand-embroidered blocks in place of the center panel and     used bright spring colors for tulip borders. Gorgeous!!!

Sharing: disappearing four patch block

In March, Donna showed us how to make a disappearing four patch block at our quilt meeting.

The first step is to sew four squares of fabric together in a square.

Then cut the square apart by making cuts on each side of the seams at least 1/2 inch from the seams.

Then rearrange the pieces as you like and sew the pieces together to form the final block.

It's a really easy process to create a block that looks like it took a long time to make!

Here is another step-by-step picture tutorial to make this block from Sew Wonderful.