Goofin' Off With a Sweet Mystery Revealed

Well, the mystery quilt has been finished for a few days now. I've been waiting for an opportunity to hop on here and update the blog. I will give you a forewarning, however, there is a minor cake mix rant at the end...with a solution I found.

Also, I just wanted to slip in here that I was honored when I was asked to be blogger of the week over at the Blogger of the Week blog. I've met a lot of great new friends there. A new blogger is featured every week. If you're interested in making new blogging friends, this is a great place to start.

Clue #4 left me with these blocks joined together:

Clue #4 Revealed

And Clue #5 joined these pieces together:

Clue #5 Revealed

And the final finish after Clue #6:

Clue #6 - Mystery Solved

The name of the mystery was "Which Way". I can see where the name came from with the arrows point each way in the center. However, the top feels incomplete as is. It really needs a border. I think the white would wash it out, and I don't have enough of the pink left to do a border. I'll have to go through my stash to see what would look good.

But the month isn't over yet. And I still have a hankering for sweets. So I went through my stash remembering these fabrics I bought a couple of years ago and decided to see if I could slip in one more quilt finish before month end. 

Sweet Holiday Fabrics with Cakes and Gingerbread Houses, Red Floral Tonal, and Light Brown Waffle Cone Print

It seems Project Linus will be inheriting some pretty sweet quilts in the near future.  And I've made a dent in my stash at the same time. It's a win/win situation for sure.

I also got a little stitching in this week. I've been working on a few pieces from the August 2017 edition of Cross Stitch Crazy magazine from the patterns titled "Frozen Fun".

My First "Frozen Fun" - Just Needs Back Stitch

Second Piece from "Frozen Fun"

I wasn't able to complete the back stitch of the first piece as I didn't have the recommended color for the pattern. I'll need to get out and pick that up this weekend. 

Now for a slight cake mix rant.  I have, for the past few years, noticed my cakes were coming out smaller and flatter. I assumed that it was something that I was doing. After all, I am not a master baker like some of my friends and family. And then I ran across someone saying they had noticed that the amount of cake mix included in a box had shrunk by 3 ounces...from 18.25 ounces to 15.25 ounces. 

Cake Mix Now Only Contains 15.25 ounces of Cake Mix

What in the world was Betty Crocker thinking?  My 9" x 13" pan has not shrunk. My 9" rounds have not shrunk. The recipes in my Cake Mix Magic cookbook have not changed. How could they possibly think it's okay to change the amount? I'd rather pay a little more than to not have enough cake mix.

Am I the only one who didn't know this had happened?  

After some Googling on the internet, I was able to find what appears to be a common "fix" to the solution. Really, you're just adding your own ingredients to the mix to make it fit your pans or work in your recipes. But here it is:  

I'll give the three-ounce cake upsizer a try in the next few days and let you know how it went for me. 

If you've had the same issue and have come up with a good fix, feel free to let me know in the comments.  

Here is wishing all my blogging friends a sweet weekend!

Linking Up With:
Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?
Finished Or Not Friday
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Goofin' Off With a Sweet Mystery Start

I’m up bright and early this morning for my mystery quilt. The clues should be starting to come in at any time now. In case you don’t know what a mystery quilt is, it’s a quilt where you have no idea what it’s going to look like when you’re finished...it's a mystery. 

The fabric requirements are given out ahead of time, so you can be sure you have enough of your fabrics. I wrote about my fabric choices way back in July here. I chose the sweet treats fabric to be my main focus fabric. These sweet designs sure do make me hungry.  Hmm…maybe I’ll have to go make some cookies.  

Fabric Choice for Mystery Quilt - From Stash

Close Up of the Focus Fabric...Very Sweet

A couple of weeks ago, the cutting instructions for the mystery were posted online.  I have gone ahead and cut out the fabrics as indicated. Now I just have to wait as patiently as I can for the first clue to come out...any time now...

Mystery Quilt Pieces All Cut Out - What Will It Look Like?

Each clue will give further instructions on how to sew all the pieces together that you cut out. Clues are given out and pre-determined intervals. For this particular mystery, all clues will be given out today. Yippee! You’ll have to come back next week to see how my quilt is coming along. 

Since I have been patiently waiting for the clues to come out, I went ahead and finished another small section of my Mickey and Pirate Friends stitching.  I have decided I’m at a good point to set it aside and am going to do a couple of smaller stitching projects…inspired by the “sweet” fabric I’m using for the mystery quilt. 

Mickey and Pirate Friends - as of 08/12/2017

And since I didn’t quite have all the threads I need to get very far on the stitching yesterday, I decided to make some cookies to tide me over. They are key lime yogurt cookies…very moist and cake-like with just a hint of key lime. The recipe is one that I created that was based off of a lemon cookie recipe I've had for almost 30 years.  Here is the recipe:  

Ingredients

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup key lime yogurt

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.  

Grease cookie sheets or cover them with baking parchment to keep cookies from sticking. 

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.  

Beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer until well creamed...approximately 30 seconds. Add sugars and continue beating until fluffy.  Add egg, vanilla, and yogurt and beat well.  Add dry ingredients to the beaten mixture and beat until well combined.  

Drop the cookie dough from a spoon onto a cookie sheet...space approximately 2 inches apart. 

Bake in 375-degree oven for approximately 8 to 10 minutes.  

Remove and cool on a wire rack.  These usually make 30 to 36 cookies for me.   

***Mr. Goofin' Off is not a huge lemon or key lime fan, so I finished these off with a little buttercream frosting. You could just as easily sprinkle them with powdered sugar...or use a glaze made from powdered sugar, milk, and maybe a little key lime juice (Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice is a favorite in the bigger family) if you're a key lime fan.***

Goofy Admiring the Sweets On The Table

As you can see, Goofy stole a plate for himself and sat down at the table to eat them. I just noticed how well they match the fabric for the mystery. I guess if he drops some frosting on the fabric, it won't be too noticeable.

Hope your weekend is as sweet as mine!

Linking Up With:
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Made By You Monday
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Goofin' Off With a Mystery...or Possibly Two

Do you like a good mystery?  I love a good mystery...however, I'm not so good at things where the end result is a mystery.  I have never participated in a mystery quilt before because I don't like working on something when I don't know what the final quilt will look like. I've had a couple of mystery quilt opportunities come up recently and am taking the plunge as they both really piqued my interest. Both mysteries are currently in the choosing fabrics stage. I'll be asking for your help on that a little further down.

As for progress pictures on Captain America, I've got the first set of borders attached now. Just the last set of borders after this, and the flimsy will be complete.

Captain America Quilt with First Set of Side Borders

Captain America Quilt Complete First Set of Borders Attached

I only got to do about 200 stitches in to my Pirate Mickey stitching project since my last update. But any progress is still progress...at least that's what I always tell myself.

Mickey and Pirate Friends as of 07/06/2017

As I mentioned earlier, I am going to be participating in at least one and possibly two mystery quilts this summer. The first mystery quilt is being offered on the QTMysteryQuilts Yahoo group. Fabric requirements came out on July 3rd along with cutting instructions.The finished quilt will make a great size for a Project Linus quilt.

Below are the fabric choices that I've pulled from my stash for this first mystery. I noticed afterwards that each of the fabric choices I pulled have a summer or travel theme to them. Apparently, I am getting the itch for some travel. 

Option 1:  The main focus fabric you may recognize as the Cars fabric I ordered a couple of weeks ago. The white will be the background with the black as the accent and the dark gray with silver circles the border fabric. Aside from the Cars fabric, the other fabrics are all left over from Captain America. 

Option 1 - Cars Theme

Option 2:  A sweets and baked goods theme.  The focus fabric has lots of tasty sweets on it and has me drooling just looking at it. The white will be the background with the brown as the accent and pink as the border.

Option 2 - Sweets Theme

Of course, this fabric reminds me of all the fun sweet treats you can find at Disney.  When we were there last March, I took a picture of some of the fun sweets we found at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Elephant Caramel Apple - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Monkey Caramel Apple - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Hippo Marshmallow Pops - Disney's Animal Kingdom

This is what Mr. Goofin' Off decided to get for his mid-morning snack. Everything else looked almost too sweet that early in the day.

Mr. Goofin' Off with His Spotted Leopard Mickey Cookie - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Sorry that I got sidetracked there for a moment. Sweets will do that to me.

Option 3:  The last option I have chosen is fabric I've had in my stash for years.  It's from a line of fabrics by Teresa Kogut. The focus fabric will be the bears all dressed up to enjoy their vacations. The white will be the background fabric. The blue (which is a bit darker than it appears in the picture) will be the accent fabric.  The vacation accessories fabric (cameras, swim shorts, etc.) will be the border fabric.

Option 3 - Vacationing Bears

From what I understand a larger print will be just fine and recommended for the focus fabric, so all of these options should be good options for the quilt.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Do you have a favorite fabric option you'd like to see come to life in the mystery?  I've got a few weeks to get the pieces cut out before the actual mystery begins.  

The second mystery I will keep a mystery a bit longer. I'll pull some options for it later in the month. 

As always, thanks for dropping by. Feel free to leave comments or send me a message.  Mr. Goofin' Off and I love to hear from you!

Linking up with:
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