The Splendid Sampler Gallery and Peanut Butter Cookies

I'm the only one sharing Splendid Sampler photos this week, so I've added the recipe for yummy peanut butter cookies to the end of this post. 

The Gallery

In spite of the new pattern and working on my second purse, I actually managed to keep up this week! Three new blocks have joined my collection. One of them was even a bonus block. 

 

Block 13, "Scrap Stars", is one of my very favorites so far. Once again I had to face those itty-bitty pieces that plague me. I did cheat a tiny bit and used paper foundation piecing for the flying geese to get my points precise. I managed the rest of it the old-fasioned way. the combined techniques worked well for me. 

I loved Pat Sloan's bonus block! It's simple and elegant. With no tiny triangles to make, the piecing was quick and  easy. The designers have thoughtfully balanced the tricky blocks with quick and easy ones.

"Flying High", block 14 appeared in my inbox Thursday morning. The birds are beautiful, but they almost did me in. I was determined to applique these three silhouettes by hand. I've never been successful with hand applique, but everyone says that it only takes practice. I ruined the first three birds with needle turn applique. I'm not a quitter, and I wasn't about to give up so easily. I got out the freezer paper. This is supposed to be surefire. 

Forty-five minutes later another three birds hit the trash. By now half the morning had gone by, six birds were headed for the landfill, and one 7" square of background fabric was beyond repair. I gave up. I got out the fusible web and whipped those babies onto a background in no time.  Thank you, my trusty machine blanket stitch.You never let me down.

 

After all of that I went upstairs and baked a batch of peanut butter cookies. I ate two cookies while they were still warm. They were delicious, and I'd earned them.

Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1 1/4 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

  

Method

1 Cream the butter for 2 minutes. Add the sugars, cream for 2 more minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and egg. Mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into the sugar butter mixture.

2 Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

peanut-butter-cookie-2.jpg peanut-butter-cookie-3.jpg

3 Preheat oven to 375°F. Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. 

*4. Bake until light brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for a minute; transfer to rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

For chewier cookies, bake at 300°F for 15 minutes.

*Note: After 10 minutes my cookies were still slightly uncooked in the middle. I gave them the full 15 minutes, and they were perfect.