Copycat Cranberry Bliss Bars

My oh my, I love Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bars. They usually only stock them around Christmas time. So sad.  This Maggie Mack Makes version is just in time for Valentine's Day. Poor me, I must have sampled four or five versions of these bar cookies just for you! 

The one that was easiest and closest to the real thing was the recipe I found on the Recipe Girl blog site, however, I did change it a bit to suit my taste. Only used a little over one cup brown sugar and it was just right. 

Just right click the recipe and "save image as" to your computer, then print from there. So yummy! This recipe freezes well, too.

So worth making!

Enjoy! Maggie

Valentine's Day Gifts - Just 'Cause

Oh, I still love Valentine's Day! 

Last year I made Valentine's Day gifts for nine of my local girlfriends.

Inside each small gift bag was a hand poured vanilla scented goat's milk soap, face mask, and a purse-sized pill container inside an organza bag.

It was so much fun choosing the fabric for each mask to match the personality of each friend. Nothing much, but fun to share with them. I was hoping that we would not be wearing masks this year but COVID had other plans.

Hugs, Maggie

Tea Cozy for Mother's Day

Here is a fun idea. A darling knit tea cozy with crochet roses and leaves which would be a prefect gift for Mother's Day.

Hint: be sure to make the roses removable especially if you choose to make a white tea cozy as I did.

I used this pattern for the tea cozy base:

Ravelry: Tea Cozy pattern by Cheryl Fisher

It was very easy to knit and was finished in no time.

Here is a link to a video to make crochet roses.

How to Crochet a Rose: Beginner Friendly Tutorial. Free Crochet Pattern - Bing video

Craft Room Update - Storage Bins Galore

My craft room is also my guest room, so it serves dual duty. Keeping projects corralled with small objects organized and easy to find has always been a challenge. Walmart storage bins to the rescue! Twelve bins later...

Now, two years later it still looks pretty awesome.

These bins are still available on-line, but unfortunately they are so much more expensive than the $3.99 I paid for them back in 2019. However, they may be less in the store. My closets already had the shelves when this house was purchased which allowed me to skip that step.

Christmas in July - Christmas Tree Napkin Tutorial

Would you like to learn how to make these beautiful cloth Christmas Tree napkins? I've been working on a new tutorial on how to make them including the pattern!

Here is a closeup of the green stripped one:

And a closeup of the newest one with different fabric front and back (and folded the opposite direction - just make sure the set you make is all folded the same way) Also this one is folded a little looser with the edges not completely matching.

Unfolded.

Let's make the pattern!

You will need:
16" Pizza pan or a 16" Plate
Ruler
Scissors
Pen or Sharpie Marker
Freezer Paper 

Here is a list of the dimensions:

16" or a little less, across

10" deep

Tree Trunk -

2 1/4" at the top 

2" at the bottom 

1 1/4" long

Use the pizza pan to make the round portion of the pattern on the freezer paper. Love freezer paper patterns! If I had made the pattern 8" high, it would be exactly 16" wide, but since I wanted a larger napkin at 10" wide (finished 9 1/2"), it was slightly less. Three inches from the straight edge on one side, make the tree trunk (mine is 2 1/4" at the top, 2" at the bottom, and 1 1/4" long - you can make the trunk a custom size if you like). Then cut the pattern from the paper and mark the portion to leave open when you turn the napkin. I made mine 2 1/2" from edge at the same side as the tree trunk, about 2 1/2" long.  I made several copies of the pattern to iron on the fabric, to make sure that the layout would be correct before cutting. No pins are required when you use the freezer paper and iron to the fabric. And the good news is you can use the pattern over and over!

You will need one yard of 45" fabric to make four napkins with the same fabric on both sides, more is needed for stripped fabric or fabric with an obvious one way pattern. I recommend using 100% cotton fabric. If making napkins with different fabric on each side, then one yard of each will make eight napkins. Save time by arranging fabric right sides together before pressing the patterns to the fabric. 

Press the patterns to the fabric then cut them out.

Now sew around each using a quarter inch seam allowance leaving an opening to turn.

Notice how the seams are sewn at the corners - completely across to the edge. Clip at the top of the tree trunks as shown above.

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Press seams to the darkest fabric pressing the corners as shown below. 

For crisp corners fold as above and turn. Press again right side out.

Valentine's Day

How I Love Valentine's Day!

Do you love it, too, or is it just another day? It is odd because I'm not really all that fond of heart motifs, for example: on a shirt or jewelry. But I still love Valentine's Day. No idea why....

Today's post is a roundup of old Valentine ideas.

Heart shaped cinnamon rolls - the complete post here. Yum-o!

Next is this fluffy easy to make Valentine Wreath, made with coffee filters! The complete tutorial is here. This is the third year I've displayed these, outside no less, and they still look great.

Just a quick book heart...so sweet! It only takes thirty pages to make this.  Link to the original post here. Or directly to the tutorial here.

Be sure to check out the Sweetheart Tatted Heart post with a FREE pattern to make it here.

More soon...
XOXO

Sweetheart Tatted Heart

Needle Tatted Hearts for Valentine's Day!

Love these little tatted hearts, and I hope you do, too. They are so easy...it only takes a couple of hours to make each one. 

Made some simple coasters with a felt base and a heart that had not been stiffened.

This is the proto-type - in the final version I've changed the middle of the heart to 4-4 (originally 8-8).

Here are all the supplies that you need to make the hearts. It makes this craft very affordable. I got my needle sizer and tatting needles through Amazon. The Red Heart crochet thread (#10) at Walmart, also available on Amazon. The Stiffy was purchased from Joann's. You will need scissors and a paintbrush which you might already have as I did...the Silpat from my kitchen, but waxed paper or freezer paper would work just as well. The crochet needle I only used when learning to tat. Magnifying glasses help you see those tiny stitches!

Update 4/22/2022, the pattern has been corrected. 

To save the pattern, just right click on the picture and download to your computer, from there you can print it.
There are several YouTube posts that will show you how to tat. This is my favorite one: Needle Tatting Basics by RustiKate

Happy Tatting!

A Link to a Free Printable for Christmas and a Free Printable from Maggie Mack Makes

The first thing I do for Christmas is change some of my pictures to Christmas themed pictures or use old Christmas cards. Here are a few ideas.

The printable above is available to download from the Graphics Fairy using this link: Swedish Santa from Graphics Fairy it is one of the Victorian Santa's on this link. I printed it out on card stock then...

Using the glitter glue, I highlighted just his beard.

It is very subtle but I really like it.

Next is this winter birdhouse that you can download the picture at the end of this post.

Again I printed the picture out on card stock and then I painted matte Mod Podge in the area that I wanted to glitter. While the Mod Podge was still wet I sprinkled a generous amount of iridescent glitter on it and I let it dry. 

A few years ago after an unusual snowfall in our area, I went out to the yard and took this picture of my snow covered birdhouse. I removed most of the background using photoshop. Here is the downloadable .jpg picture, 300DPI, for your own use (please), just right click on the picture and choose "Save picture as" to save to your computer or jump drive.

Hugs!

Potato Soup for St. Pat's Day

I haven't made Potato Soup in years, but for St. Patrick's Day I thought that I would give it a try. It turned out amazingly good. When I was a kid my mom used to make potato soup and we would have it with lots of saltine crackers in it (crushed of course). Her soup was basic potato, milk, celery, onions, and a little butter. She never thickened it or mashed the potatoes and she used a lot of celery. I loved it! My taste is a little different now that I'm no longer seven so here is how I made my new version. I think the carrots make the soup extra good.

St. Pat's Day Potato Soup

2 T butter (use more if you like)
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
Sauté in large sauce pan until tender but not browned. Add in:
1 14.5 oz. can low sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
1 chicken bullion cube
4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed in bite size cubes
Bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Use the back of a spoon to mash some of the potatoes, but not all.
Add:
1/2 cup Half and Half
3 T mashed potato flakes or granules
3 T Neufchatel Cheese or Cream Cheese
Stir until the cheese melts and the soup thickens
(Optional) Stir in: 
1 medium russet potato, baked and cut into small cubes, with or without skin
Serve while HOT! Don't burn your tongue :)
You can leave out the cheese and mashed potato flakes if you like a thin soup.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Falling Leaves Pillow Cover Tutorial

Let's make a pillow and pillow cover, this one for Fall. Don't you just love those colorful silk leaves? I found some two years ago at the dollar store and bought two packages (50 leaves per package). I've used them to decorate - sticking them in wreaths and such. Time to try something different. Introducing the Falling Leaves Pillow.

First I decided on the size pillow I wanted - mine was finished size twenty by ten. Eleven inches by twenty-one inches, including half inch seam allowance, using my handy dandy pattern made from freezer paper.  I love this stuff. Make the pattern, put the plastic side down on your material, iron it with your iron set to the temperature appropriate for the fabric. No pins needed, you just cut around the pattern then pull it off. 

And you can use the pattern again and again! How neat is that? For the pillow form cut two front pieces from neutral fabric, I used an old sheet. Sew around the edges using a half inch seam except for a four inch opening. Stuff it with fiberfill or the inside of an old pillow and then sew it shut. No one but you will see this so don't worry about stains or finishing the edge.

Now cut the front and two backs (11 inches by 12 inches) out of the fabric you have chosen for the pillow cover. How did I decide how to place the silk leaves? I threw them on the floor! (smile)

Then used a section of that for placement on the front fabric piece. Using basting spray I placed the leaves how I wanted or you can just pin them in place before sewing. 

Using my sewing machine, I zig-zaged around each. You could also sew around each leaf using a straight stitch.

Hem one side of each of the two back pieces along the short edge of the fabric. Press the edge a scant quarter of an inch, fold it over again, press again and then stitch.

Finish the cover using french seams. Put wrong sides together and pin for the first seam. From the picture below you can see how the back pieces come together with the hem in the middle of the cover.

Stitch a small seam using your presser foot window (slot where the needle goes through the foot) as a guide. Stitch straight off the fabric with your stitches. At each corner you should have stitching that makes a little square. 

For crisp corners fold as below and turn entire cover to the wrong side. Press seams and then stitch all the way around again a little wider than the existing seam.

Turn using the crisp corner technique.

You are done! I added a little hand embroidery for the stems. By the way the pillow shown below has been washed in cold water twice, the first time by hand and the second in the machine on delicate cycle. I have a dog and the pillow cover is off white...need I say more?

More pillow covers and ideas to come!