Dump Cake

Yes, DUMP CAKE! Not the most attractive name for one of the best desserts I have ever had! I have a friend who cannot have some types of dessert due to a food allergy so when she came by my house with this little gem I just HAD to have the recipe. I was so shocked at how EASY it is to make.

Here we go.

For this recipe I use:

1 box of cake mix (I have white pictured but we have used yellow before)

2 sticks of butter (I only had one at home so I had to use some softened stuff we had for spreading) use BUTTER not margarine.

1 can of pie filling ... not the small one...(I used cherry for this one but blueberry is great too.)

1 can crushed pineapple... once again not the small can...

Whipped topping

and a 9in x 13in pan

Preheat the oven to 325*

The prep is so very easy. Open the can of pineapple and DUMP it into the pan.

Open the pie filling and spoon it into the pan on top of the pineapple.

Spread the DRY cake mix on top of the pie topping and pineapple. I use a fork and scoop it out and kind of shake it out over the top of the mixture. Then I even it out by gently tapping the cake mix with the fork.

So my picture of this next step isn't pretty. I needed 2 cubes of butter but alas this will have to do. So I cut the cube into thin squares. When I have enough butter I place these squares end to end and cover the top of the cake mix with butter.

 Bake in the oven you preheated to 325* for an hour.

YUM right? So very easy and when you taste it you will thank me :) It's sweet and rich so small servings are advised. Top with whipped topping and enjoy! Leave a comment if you tried this and let me know how it worked for you.

Easy Strip Quilt Part 5 Trimming and Binding

I have to be honest... this is the part of quilting I HATE. Just not my favorite thing to do. But it has to be done so I do it. :)

After you tie the quilt and are ready to bind it you are almost done!

Lay the quilt out on a flat surface. I use my floor in the family room because its the cleanest and its not carpeted.

You will want to cut off the excess batting and backing.

I use my cutting mat I used to cut the strips. I also use the ruler and rotary blade. I place the mat under the quilt and line the ruler up with the edge of the quilt top. Ideally the quilt is square but that doesn't always happen. The goal is to not have to cut too much off of the quilt top to make it square. Trim up all 4 sides.

Pretty right? Sometimes I wish this was the finished product :)

So here is the binding. I only needed one package for this quilt but I usually buy two just in case there is a mistake or the quilt is a little larger than what is in one package of binding.

You will notice that the binding is not folded even. This is a good thing. The wider side should be on the back of the quilt. It helps when you are sewing the binding on to make sure it stays on the back of the quilt. This stuff is slippery and moves all over the place.

So I measure the binding usually with a measuring tape but I couldn't find one so I used the quilt and a ruler. Just cut the pieces a little longer than the edge of the quilt to allow for the seams. Cut an individual strip for each side of the quilt. Each side will measure a tad different than the others so using one side for all 4 cuts will make it so you either have too much binding for one side or not enough for another.

Here's the technical part. We are going to bind this quilt with diagonal corners. So open up your binding on one end.

Mark it with the ruler and pen. Here I used the ruler I had used to cut the fabric. It has an angle on it. I line the fold in the binding up with the 45* angle. This creates a triangle once the markings are made.

Here's how it will look after you mark it.

Take the end of the next piece of binding for the quilt. Make sure if you mark the right end of the strip of binding that you pair it up for the bottom edge of the next piece of binding to the right of the quilt.

Make sure when you match up the binding you match the wide part of the binding together and the more narrow parts together. You don't want to have the wide side with the narrow side or you will end up with a strip of binding on backwards.

Now you pin it. I use 3 or more pins. Like I said this stuff is silky and moves like crazy! Repeat for all 4 corners. Then take it to the sewing machine. When you move to the next corner though make sure that the binding isn't twisted up cause you will have to take out seams and re-sew it if it is.

I line up the markings with the center of the foot of my sewing machine. Then I sew over it a few times to make sure the seam holds nice and tight.

This is what it should look like when you are done sewing it.

Then I trim off the excess leaving just a little so you don't cut the seam.

Then you can turn the right side out and see your pretty corner. Repeat this step for all 4 corners.

I laid out my binding "frame" on the quilt top so you could see how it works.

Now is for the "fun" part. We need to tuck the quilt into the binding. You will want to get the edge of the quilt all the way into the binding where it touches the fold. It may not stay this way though but its a great place to aim for.

I pinned every seam but you can pin more or fewer spots depending on your comfort level.

Now we sew. This is hard for me because I like to line things up with the inside edge of the foot of my sewing machine but that causes too much bulk to pull through the small opening so I have to do things backward and line it up with the outer edge of the foot. Now just sew around the whole quilt. You can do a straight stitch or zig-zag. Really any stitch you prefer.

Once its all done you will have completed your quilt.

Good Job! I love quilting. I actually make a few quilts a year. I make them custom and sell them. It's a wonderful craft that I really enjoy. Lots of time and love put into these things but it makes me feel like I am doing something great. 

If you have any questions please comment and I will try to clarify. I hope you enjoyed these quilting posts. It has been really fun doing them. Thanks for reading!!!

Easy Strip Quilt Part 4 Tack and Tie

The next part of quilting is the most "back breaking" and "thumb bruising" part. Tacking and tying.

It's not hard just takes a lot of time. Looks great in the end though.

So here is my quilting frame. My husband and father made this for me when I was pregnant with my oldest and was making him a quilt. It took up the whole front room in our two bedroom condo. I was on bed rest tying this quilt. (shame on me I know) My husband and mom were helping me though. I'd tie one or two squares and lay down. Needless to say that quilt took FOREVER to tie.

The frame is made of 4 4in x 4in posts with these metal supports on them (I have no idea what they are called but if you need a close up let me know) The bottoms are supported by 1in x 1in pieces of wood (4 for each post) Then I use 2in x 4in pieces of wood to tack the quilt to.

I use my quilt top to measure the frame. I have two sets of planks for quilting. One for smaller quilts and the other for the huge quilts I make. So I tack in the corners of the top so I can position all of the posts and planks in just the right spots so everything fits.

Once I am happy with the size of the frame I secure all four corners with clamps.

Then I take the top off of the frame and start setting up the quilt for tying. First things first we put the backing on. I try and make this pretty taught (tight and firm without over stretching the fabric). I don't push the quilting tacks in all of the way during this process because they will be coming out again in just a minute. Make sure that the backing is right side facing DOWN. If you have it facing up you will be tying it wrong and the wrong side will be the back of the quilt. You don't want to have to untie everything and redo it.

No gathers or bubbles.

Then I just lay the batting on the quilt backing.

The final step of tacking the quilt is to put the top on. Here is where I make sure everything looks pretty. I tack in every seam. This keeps the seams from pulling and separating when everything else is getting pulled tight. I start in one corner and work around. Make sure when you are pulling everything tight you are pulling all three layers and checking the underneath side often to see if it is staying taught or if it's coming loose somewhere. As I mentioned before the tacks that are holding the back on would come out. Here is where this happens. As I work my way around if there is a tack in the backing I remove it and use it to tack the quilt top. I have kept the backing tacked separate but nothing makes me more upset than taking a quilt off the rack after it is all tied and having a tack fall on the inside of the quilt because I tacked things separately. It's not always easy to get it back out.

Now on to tying. Not hard to do at all. I have a quilting needle that I use. I have used other types of needles and the quilting needles work best for me. They do have sharp tips though so be careful. It hurts like a sun-of-a-gun when you stab yourself. I do it often.

Ok so how I tie my quilts...

I like to go diagonally. I go the same direction as the colors do. As you can see below I am starting in a pink butterfly square. You will start going from the top through to the bottom.

Pull all of the yarn that is on your needle through except for a few inches. Leave this loose so you can make your first tie.

Then you will come up from underneath the quilt in the adjoining square diagonally. (see what I mean by the point? OUCH)

Then you will pull the yarn through so that it is flush with the back of the quilt. Check the bottom of the quilt frequently as the yarn tends to knot up and create problems.

Now with this first not you will tie a square not. Just over and under and over and under.

To make it easy on myself and make things go faster I don't cut the yarn just yet. I just move to the next square that needs to be tied. This is how it looks once you have brought the yarn down through the quilt and back up.

It's pretty easy to make the knots this way too. Here's how I do it. If I have the yarn at the bottom like this... I bring the needle down through the yarn that goes across from the previous square. Be sure that the needle goes over the yarn loop like you see here and not behind it otherwise you will just wind the yarn up instead of beginning the knot.

Then just pull everything tight. Not too tight though. You don't want to gather the quilt.

Then you will nee to finish the knot. This step is opposite of the one you just did. Loop of yarn is on top and needle comes from the bottom. It doesn't matter if you start with the loop on the top or the bottom. It only matters that with each knot you have one step of the knot that comes from the top and one that comes from the bottom. You are making a square knot here too.

Finished knot.

Just keep going until you run out of yarn or squares. **helpful hint. Don't try to cut enough yarn to do the whole quilt at once. Using multiple strands is OK. Actually preferred. The longer strands of yarn separate as they are pulled through the quilt a bunch of times and this causes them to knot more frequently on the underneath side of the quilt. Plus it takes forever to pull that much yarn though the quilt.**

When you are done with a strand or the whole quilt, whichever you'd like, go ahead and cut the yarn in between the squares. I try to cut the center as much as possible.

Sometimes I can get help from my husband to tie quilts. He's amazing and has long arms so I don't have to roll up the quilts as often.

Ok so that's it. Just tie the quilt and remove it from the rack. Its easier to pull the tacks out by lifting all three layers of fabric and popping them out of the frame. Don't be too over zealous doing this cause those darn tacks sure can fly and no one wants to accidentally find one walking around barefoot.

A couple more tips. I put tape on the end of my yarn to help thread it through the needle and then just cut the tape off the end before I start tying. For larger quilts you can roll the quilt while it is tacked to the frame. Just take the clamps off of one of the sides where the plank is on top of the others and roll it slowly and make sure to keep it tight. Replace the clamps (most likely you will be clamping on part of the quilt now. As long as the clamps are clean this shouldn't cause an issue.) If you need to see how this is done please comment and I should be able to add photos from another quilt I will be doing shortly.

The last step for the quilt will be here. Have fun!