Spiced Oatmeal Cookies.

We all have that trusty cookie recipe that we all pull out when we need something sweet. For my one sister its chocolate chip, for me I like oatmeal raisin cookies. Oh, and it has to be that certain texture... crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside. (p.s. the best cookie sheet for this is a flat aluminum cookie sheet... bakes them perfectly!)
I found this very nice Spiced Oatmeal Cookies Recipe from the Taste of Home website. This is a great site if you are looking for really yummy, time tested, recipes. I have copied the recipe here in case the link may not work or one day they decide to take it off. I have also added my "additions" to the recipe. :)

 Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (they use shortening)
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

• In a bowl, cream butter (or shortening) and brown sugar. Add vanilla, eggs and milk; mix well. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; add to the creamed mixture.Stir in the raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto lightly greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until done. Yield: 4 dozen.

Link to the original recipe: Spiced Oatmeal Cookies

We all have that trusty cookie recipe that we all pull out when we need something sweet. For my one sister its chocolate chip, for me I like oatmeal raisin cookies. Oh, and it has to be that certain texture... crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside. (p.s. the best cookie sheet for this is a flat aluminum cookie sheet... bakes them perfectly!)
I found this very nice Spiced Oatmeal Cookies Recipe from the Taste of Home website. This is a great site if you are looking for really yummy, time tested, recipes. I have copied the recipe here in case the link may not work or one day they decide to take it off. I have also added my "additions" to the recipe. :)

 Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (they use shortening)
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

• In a bowl, cream butter (or shortening) and brown sugar. Add vanilla, eggs and milk; mix well. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; add to the creamed mixture.Stir in the raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto lightly greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until done. Yield: 4 dozen.

Link to the original recipe: Spiced Oatmeal Cookies

Personalize Your Sewing Project.

One of the things I love to do is customize an order for someone. Weather it be an initial or the full name, its fun when you can call an item your own. Today I finished another personalized item. The customer asked for the name to be spelled out in the clouds of smoke from the tractor.

Now a lot of people ask me if I have a special machine that does my "embroidery." And the answer is, not really. Yes, I have a machine with a few bells and whistles... but not a big fancy embroidery one (and you don't really need a big fancy machine to do stuff like this). The example above shows a good example of my lettering. The "John Deere" logo is a programed setting in my machine. However, the letters used to spell "Elijah" is done with the simple zig zag stitch setting with the stitch length set at 0.4. For this particular bag I used a pencil and drew on the fabric where I wanted the letters. Now in case you don't have great penmanship here is a trick I found online that I modified for a sewing  machine. 

First find a good word/document program on your computer... type out the name or word that you'd like on your crafty creation. Find the font and size you want and print it out. 

 

Next, pin it to your fabric in the spot you'd like and start sewing. Go slowly.

When your done it should look like this. You now have to remove the paper. Start ripping... it should come off pretty easily.

 

 Use some tweezers or a seam ripper to get the small pieces out... like the middle of the "O" and "E."

And this is what it will look like when its finished. Hope this was a helpful tutorial. you can also use this technique for hand sewn embroidery. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to leave a comment below. 

                                                  Happy Sewing!

One of the things I love to do is customize an order for someone. Weather it be an initial or the full name, its fun when you can call an item your own. Today I finished another personalized item. The customer asked for the name to be spelled out in the clouds of smoke from the tractor.

Now a lot of people ask me if I have a special machine that does my "embroidery." And the answer is, not really. Yes, I have a machine with a few bells and whistles... but not a big fancy embroidery one (and you don't really need a big fancy machine to do stuff like this). The example above shows a good example of my lettering. The "John Deere" logo is a programed setting in my machine. However, the letters used to spell "Elijah" is done with the simple zig zag stitch setting with the stitch length set at 0.4. For this particular bag I used a pencil and drew on the fabric where I wanted the letters. Now in case you don't have great penmanship here is a trick I found online that I modified for a sewing  machine. 

First find a good word/document program on your computer... type out the name or word that you'd like on your crafty creation. Find the font and size you want and print it out. 

 

Next, pin it to your fabric in the spot you'd like and start sewing. Go slowly.

When your done it should look like this. You now have to remove the paper. Start ripping... it should come off pretty easily.

 

 Use some tweezers or a seam ripper to get the small pieces out... like the middle of the "O" and "E."

And this is what it will look like when its finished. Hope this was a helpful tutorial. you can also use this technique for hand sewn embroidery. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to leave a comment below. 

                                                  Happy Sewing!