Beginner's Quilting

Hi everybody! Thanks for visiting the Inspiration Cafe this week.
 My name is Heather from Beating Hearth and I am the contributor who's in charge of inspiring you all to sew. I pretty much do it all, from quilting to crochet to embroidery to pillow cases and clothes. So, hopefully I can inspire you a bit to try one of the stitching arts and get crafty with your bad self.

My Crew

I am the sole non-redhead in the bunch. Yes, you can cry for me. Today I am going to try and get all you folks who are non-committal (and with good reason as getting equipped to quilt can be spendy!!) about quilting, to make a quilt. Come on, I don't want you to fully commit and get married to quilting or anything, but maybe just go on a blind date with quilting. Just see if maybe it's something you might be a bit more interested in. Quilting is quite handsome (or beautiful), and fun, and smart. Maybe a little different from what you've done before, but once you quilt, you'll never go back. 

This is what I want you to make...at least it's the beginning of something I want you to make. These little beauties go by many different names, Hexies, hexagons, Grandmother's Garden, English Paper Piecing...but the great thing about them is you don't need much to make them. They're quick and easy to make and darn cute!  I am going to show you all the supplies you need and give you all the tips needed to create a beautiful and simple to make quilt.  

Please click here to continue reading...

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xxx

Heather

Banana Apple Mini Muffins

Hi Everyone...

Welcome to my first post for Inspiration Cafe!
I'm so excited to be a part of this 
talented group of bloggers!  

I'm Mary from Sweet Little Bluebird ~ 

I'm a wife and mom to two sweet girls. 

Blogging is a new hobby of mine.  

I blog about fun things I stumble 

across in life and online.  

  

{You can learn more about me here.}  

Grab a cup of joe and let's get started!

  Today I'm sharing a yummy muffin recipe that can be made 

with or without eggs.  I have a little one with an egg allergy. 

I'm always searching for healthy and yummy recipes the whole family can enjoy.

This recipe is an adaptation from 

these strawberry banana muffins pictured below.  

I found the great recipe several weeks ago:

Banana Strawberry Muffins Recipe - EgglessCooking.com.  

Egglesscooking.com adapted the recipe from - JoyOfBaking.com.

Click the picture below to view my post for this yummy recipe:

I adapted the Strawberry Banana Muffin Recipe by using granny smith apples

instead of strawberries and adding a little more cinnamon.  

I also made mini muffins this time - perfect size!

These were a HUGE hit in our home!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup Melted Butter

1/2 cup Plain Yogurt (or 2 eggs)

1 cup Overripe Mashed Bananas (approx 2 large bananas)
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

1 cup chopped Granny Smith Apples

2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

3/4 cup  Light Brown Sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line muffin tin with paper liners and spray it lightly with non stick cooking spray.  I didn't have liners so I just sprayed the muffin tin.
2. In a small saucepan or microwave, melt the butter and set it aside until it cools down to room temperature.
3. In another bowl, mix yogurt, mashed bananas and vanilla extract.  Once the butter is cool, add it to this mixture.
4. In another large bowl, mix all dry ingredients {flour, brown sugar, baking soda and powder, cinnamon and salt}.  After they are mixed well, add the apples.   Make sure the apples are coated well.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not over-mix the batter or else the muffins can become dense.
6. Fill each muffin cup with the batter (*see photo) - Recipe makes about 26 mini muffins. 
7. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. 
8. Place muffins on a wire rack to cool.   
9.  Enjoy!

*I used a Pampered Chef medium size scooper,  

it holds the perfect amount for the mini muffins.

For these muffins, you overfill them - shown in the photo above.

Yummy served warm or cold!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Thanks so much for stopping by 

Inspiration Cafe!

Cheers! 

Mary

Beach Inspired Bracelet

Hello Everyone and welcome to our very first Inspiration Cafe post.. So exciting!!!

So grab your coffee and lets get started. 

 

Today I'm going to show you how I made this beachy bracelet. 

Its really easy and of course the sky is your limit with projects like this.

Recently I discovered I actually liked memory wire after years of avoiding it for some reason. So I'm loving creating all kinds of looks with it. And I have been inspired, quite a lot by my environment, last month I created a Winter inspired bracelet and this week the beach has been calling....

The image I had of the beach is one of my favourites (and its my blog header too). Look at the rich colours, the sand and the greenish hue of the sea. It threatened a storm that day and there was a yellow tinge to everything.

What you need: 

beads of varying sizes, shapes and colours

charms for your theme - I used shells and starfish

jump rings to attach the charms to the bracelet

memory wire cut to your desired length - mine wraps around my wrist 5 times
I bought all my supplies from Spotlight.

Using a pair of long nosed pliers bend one end of the wire to form a loop. 

Then thread your beads and charms on, and end off again with another loop.

 So simple!

However, if you're anything like me, you will re-thread your beads over and over until you're happy with the look...

 Then you throw your family into the car for a trip to the beach and a photo shoot....

 I think this is by far my favourite creation yet. At least when I wear it this winter it will remind me of the beach and put some cheer into our cold dark days.

 

 I hope you enjoyed our first post and that you feel inspired to create this week.

Let us know if you make any of our creations - we would love to pop round for a visit to your blogs.

We will see you again next week, Mary from Sweet Little Bluebird will be sharing a yummy recipe with us all.

Don't forget to leave some comment love...

Take care

xxx