Small Window Quilt

 

 

This is a covering for a window in the front door of my son's rental home.  He was using a plastic grocery bag to cover up the window, so I told him I would make a little quilt.   I couldn't think of anything "manly" looking and so ended up using some old jeans and plaid clothing, along with this Scripture fabric I found at Walmart.  I forgot to measure the finished quilt, but it is approximately 13X13 inches.  This was literally "sewing by the seat of the pants"!  Ha! 

 

Ticker Tape Placemat

This is my Ticker Tape placemat inspired by Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.   It has actually just been used as a mat to place my iron on when I am working at my large sewing table, never even been washed yet, though it is over a year old.

I used the legs of worn out blue jeans and sewed three pieces together to make the top for it, so it truly is a scrappy top.   I intend to make more in the future.  Thanks, Amanda Jean!  I never would have thought of using tiny scraps in this fashion.

Tapioca Pudding

I LOVE tapioca pudding, but gave it up when I could no longer eat dairy. Then early this year I found a great tapioca recipe by Alton Brown that I could modify AND the best part about it was that it was cooked in a slow cooker with practically NO effort on my part.

So here is my modified recipe.


Soak one-half cup tapioca pearls in two cups of water for several hours or overnight.
Drain any excess water.

Into a 2 quart slow cooker, add: tapioca, one and one-third cup hemp milk and a pinch of salt. Cook on LOW for 2 hours, stirring once or twice.  Serve warm or chilled.

Batik Diamonds Lap Quilt

I love this quilt! I made it from a kit for my friend Chris, who watched over my son for two summers of internships during college when he was far from home... AND even hosted my husband and I when we had to come fix the SUV that broke down on my son's drive out there the second summer.

I thought she deserved something special for her wonderful hospitality and kindness.

It is backed with Cuddle Bubble because I love the softness of it and I wanted it to be a really warm quilt.

Summer Purse

Recently finished making this colorful, small, lightweight purse from some of my favorite batiks. Love it! The pattern is called Lily Pocket Purse from LazyGirlDesigns. This is the front view.









It has a small outside pocket that is just perfect for keys.



















I attached the handle on the outside, as handles tend to wear out faster than the body of the purse itself. So I can change out the handle if needed, without tearing apart the purse.


I think I will make at least one more.

Buckwheat Cereal

As my bio says, I am gluten intolerant...double-gene gluten intolerant in fact. And based on that, the dietician told me I might as well consider myself as having Celiac disease. So I gave up all the gluten grains and dairy foods over four years ago. It didn't help my skin all that much. At the beginning of 2011, I finally decided to try eliminating ALL grains, as advised by Loren Cordain, PhD., author of "The Paleo Diet". He advises this for anyone suffering from any of the 200+ autoimmune diseases...and it has seemed to help.

When I want something grain-like, I cook buckwheat, which is not "wheat" and is not even a grain. It is a fruit.

I buy whole organic white buckwheat and grind it in a blender so it cooks faster. To cook it, boil one cup of water, then add one third cup buckwheat and cook til thickened,... only a couple of minutes. I add vegan margarine, local honey and occasionally, Lydia's Organics sprouted cinnamon cereal for crunch, (which is mostly seeds, but does contain a small amount of quinoa). Satisfies my simple carb cravings wonderfully!

If you would like to know more about "The Paleo Diet", go to http://thepaleodiet.com

Ouch!

I fell HARD on my knees today, and it wasn't in prayer. In fact, I did a face plant on hard flagstone and cement.

Two days ago I ran out of honey. And since honey is my sweetener of choice, I made a trip to my local honey company in the next town down the highway. And since I was in that town, I also had to visit my favorite quilting store. I bought a fat quarter of a gorgeous rainbow batik with a leaf print on it. Over the last two days I decided I needed some yardage of this beautiful fabric, so I braved the 60+mph westerly headwinds buffeting my vehicle to go back to the store.

I usually park in back of the store because it is easier to find a space and walk down the gravel driveway to the back door, but I had just the slightest concern that the store might not be open on Memorial Day, so I parked in front of the store, actually one store down from the entrance to the quilt fabric shop.

As I walked toward the shop, I had my eye on the storefront, looking for the OPEN sign,...and completely missed the step from the curbside sidewalk level to the store level sidewalk. In other words, it is a two tiered sidewalk, with alternating step area and garden spaces every so many feet going down the block. It was like a trip wire. I just went down before I knew what hit me. Came down so hard on my left knee, that I couldn't immediately move, from the pain. I did a survey of the damage. Two knuckles were skinned, my upper lip had barely touched the sidewalk and my knee hurt like hell, but I didn't think anything was broken.

Two ladies walking into the same store witnessed the whole thing and came to my aid. The store owner brought me a bag of ice for my knee and wet paper towels for my knuckles, while I sat in a wooden chair just inside the entrance. Fortunately, I had brought the fat quarter of the fabric I wanted with me, so I asked the store owner to find it for me and cut the yardage.

Unbelievably, a lady who was in the store while I was being ministered to, walked out the door and fell down the step, kind of...she mainly stumbled but managed to stay on her feet. She came back in the store to tell everyone!

As I was writing this, I realized how lucky I was not to have broken teeth, or busted open my lip, broken a bone, etc., etc. Thank you, GOD!

The Royal Wedding

Like a couple billion people, I watched Will and Kate marry today and wish them many happy years together. Loved every minute of it. Kate's Dress was exquisite and loved Pippa's dress. Carol Middleton's dress and coat was so elegant. The Queen looked lovely in her daffodil yellow outfit and I pray I can have skin THAT smooth at eighty-five!

I had never heard the term fascinator for a hat before, but the name fits. There were a few that were fascinatingly hideous. And a few awful dresses, worn by the same hideous hat wearers. I won't mention names, I'm sure you know who they are.

The entire ceremony was romantic and beautiful. Will and Kate seemed so happy.

I laughed when the Happy Couple was driving from the Palace in the Aston Martin. I'm sure each of my three sons, in the same position, would have said, "Honey, look, the bobbies have cleared out the people. Let's do some donuts around Queen Victoria's fountain while we have the chance!"

You think I'm kidding?

Anyway, it was a beautiful, wonderful wedding that I don't think I'll see the likes of again in my lifetime. Many thanks to all the hard working people who made it all happen so flawlessly for the world to enjoy.

Pansy Garden

Our lamp post garden is the easiest garden I have because

A.) it is always planted in annuals and
B.) it is relatively small and
C.) I don't have to work around any tree roots or shrubbery

In past years I have tried zinnias because I love them and they are such a great long lasting cut flower, but they are warm weather plants that grow best from seed after the last frost...and even if I do buy them already in pots, they take so long to get established that it is late summer before I see a profusion of flowers.

So I went with a cool weather annual this year. The pretty pansy.

I didn't get all the leaves raked up last Fall and decided to use as many as I could to "compost" under the pansies as I planted them. Get two things done at once...leaf cleanup and planting.



One garden planted... and now on to the perennials.

Apron Appreciation

My mother learned to sew when I was in fourth grade. Back then, it was cheaper to make your own clothes, so she made dresses, mostly for herself, but sometimes for her daughters. One of the first projects I remember her doing was matching mother and daughter dresses for herself and the three of us girls. Sleeveless A-line dresses with a ruffle along the bottom, in a beautiful white fabric with large red daisies on it.

Here is a piece of the leftover daisy fabric, which I found recently. I absolutely love it! Always did. I wish Mom had saved the dresses, but they are long since gone.














When I was in sixth grade she offered me sewing lessons given by a local department store. I was good at it and liked it, though by high school I rather resented being expected to make any new clothes I wanted. I was envious of girls whose Mom's made them lots of pretty clothes. But, honestly, with five kids in my family by then, I knew that was beyond my mom's capabilities. In any case, I got enough practice at it that by high school I was able to take a basic pattern and make some creative changes to it. Like the time I copied a dress worn by Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl". LOL

For decades I did not value or appreciate my sewing skills, even though in my early twenties, I was able to make my wedding dress from a beautiful Vogue pattern. It had a gorgeous French lace and hand glued pearls. (I couldn't find anything I liked off the rack.) I thought sewing skills were pretty mundane... "traditional women's work", but I've come to appreciate the talent and skill required. Mostly, I like the creative aspect of it and the uniqueness of whatever I've made because I almost never follow a pattern or directions exactly as they are presented. I haven't made my own clothes for decades, though I do have a few special pieces waiting to be made now. I gravitated to more artistic sewing...quilts and such.

I inherited all of my mom's fabric, most of it scraps, because she pretty much bought a pattern and fabric and made it, before she bought anything else. But there was a pretty little flower patterned fabric (three and half yards) that she bought and never got around to making whatever she had planned for it.

I decided to make matching aprons for my sisters and I from it. Two of my mom's skills and favorite things to do were baking and sewing, so this seems like an appropriate way to honor of her and put the fabric to good use. Here is the first one.




P.S. I just realized, as I was reminiscing about that first dress I made in sewing class that it was made from a daisy fabric also! Tiny white daisies on a turquoise background. How funny!

The Vintage Kitchen Apron

I bought a book with patterns for vintage style aprons a year and a half ago, but couldn't find any fabric that I was crazy about for an apron, until a couple months ago. That's when I found this lovely flower seed packet design on a 100% cotton at a local quilt fabric shop. Instantly, I knew it was just perfect for an apron.




A view of the back...




I will make a few more with this pattern. As the book suggests, one can have aprons for every occasion and holiday!

Quilt Show

I visited a quilt show today where the featured artist was Linda Hibbert. She is a wonderfully talented quilter and quilt designer. The detail in her quilts is amazing! The flowers are all paper pieced. (The quilt was hung around an inside corner, so it was a little difficult to get a photo.)








A close up of the daisy.













What I love most about her quilts is the fabulous quilting.












The purple pansy and the red poppy.

A Pillowcase Dress

Today, I was privileged to participate in a Girl Scout troop project making a dress from a pillowcase for a girl in Uganda. This troop partnered with the Dress a Girl Around the World organization and enlists the help of volunteers from churches and the community. My church donated the space to work and asked for volunteers. That's how I got involved. It is a wonderful program...giving dresses to orphan girls who may be wearing rags because that is all they have. The dresses are very simple to make...it just takes a pillowcase, some bias tape for the arm holes and some ribbon to tie the dress at the shoulder tops. Cute little dolls are made to put in the pockets of the dresses, also.

I brought home some donated fabric to make some more dresses.

You can read more about the organization and how you can help at this website.

http://www.dressagirlaroundtheworld.com/

You will never look at a pillowcase in the same way again!

African Tote Bag/Purse

I loved these fabrics the first moment I saw them. They came in a kit to make this purse and I had to have it. The sample purse in the store had matching "pictures" on both ends of the purse, meaning you had to use two panels for one purse, and then have a bunch of leftover "pictures". I changed the pockets on the outside of the purse in order to use all the pictures on a panel of fabric. I also wanted different sizes of pockets on the outside.




One of those pockets was wider than the given measurements for the "ends" of the purse, so that meant making a wider bottom. That ended up changing the measurements for the inside lining pockets too, AFTER I had already sewn them. It turned out to be a happy mistake though, as I then had four skinny slots on the inside corners that are perfect for storing pens in the purse. No hunting for them.

Here is the back of the purse.


Anyway, I just love how it turned out...I am so organized with all these pockets. And this is my favorite thing on the purse...the chicken button.

My Lucky Day

Yesterday, I went to my local quilt shop's anniversary sale. They offer some great deals at their sale and to make it even more fun, they have "cake walks" through out the day, where prizes are given away. Quilt designs are printed on paper and taped to the floor. Music is played and when the caller hollers "Stop!" you step on the nearest "quilt". Since I shopped for two and a half hours, I participated in several and won two prizes, this little fabric wallet and a Primary Colors fat quarters fabric roll of 14 fabrics Woohoo!.

Strange Conversation

I wanted to find out how the Calculus final went for Number Three Son this morning...so I called him after I picked up today's mail.

Me: You got some money in the mail, your tax refund.

Number Three Son: Cool! (pause) Whoa...I have to go 'cause I might fall off a cliff. (click)

Me to Myself: I guess "now" is not a good time to ask about the Calculus final. (And what are you DOING? You're afraid of heights!)

Lemon Zesties Cookies

If you like lemon, you will LOVE these cookies with their intense flavor. They are gluten-free of course...this is my modified version of a recipe from "Bake Deliciously" Gluten and Dairy Free Baking by Jean Duane



Lemon Zesties



Wet Ingredients



1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup agave nectar

4 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. liquid lecithin

1 tsp lemon oil



Dry Ingredients



1 cup whole grain sorghum flour

1/2 cup whole grain amaranth or rice flour

4 TBS arrowroot powder

2 TBS lemon zest

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

Optional: Sprinkle tops of cookies with turbinado raw cane suger before baking.



Mix wet ingredients in small mixing bowl by hand, making sure the mixture is well combined. Add dry ingredients.

Drop one teaspoon of dough per cookie onto parchment paper. Leave room for cookies to spread. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 9 to 12 minutes, til edges of cookies are just barely browned. Let cookies cool for a few minutes after removing from oven before removing from the parchment so they won't crumble.

Delicious served with fruit.

"What's this word mean?"

As a child, if you asked your mom or dad, or teacher, "What's this word mean?", they likely said, "Go look it up in the dictionary."

And no kid who asked that question EVER wanted to take the time to do that. Otherwise, they wouldn't have asked in the first place, right? They were impatient to know, so they could get their homework done. Or understand the sentence they just read in whatever they were reading. Probably a good book. Maybe one by Madeleine L'Engle. She never wrote "down" to kids.

I'm pretty sure Ms L'Engle never used the "most looked up word" on Dictionary.com this year. The "most looked up word" on Dictionary.com was actually not even in my Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. Are you ready for it?


It is cal·li·pyg·i·an (kāl'ə-pĭj'ē-ən), an adjective meaning having beautifully proportioned buttocks.
Seriously, I'm not kidding. What teacher would put this word on the weekly vocabulary list? And how does a person use this word in a sentence?
I wonder if that guy is attracted to callipygian women?
I joined a gym so I could become a callipygian woman.

It sounds like a nationality, doesn't it? Or a body of water

[From Greek kallipugos : kalli-, beautiful (from kallos, beauty) + pugē, buttocks.]
Word Origin & Historycallipygian
"of, pertaining to, or having beautiful buttocks," 1800, from Gk. kallipygos, name of a statue of Aphrodite, from kalli-, combining form of kallos "beauty" + pyge "rump, buttocks." Sir Thomas Browne (1646) refers to "Callipygæ and women largely composed behinde."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper


Just out of curiosity, I used the reverse dictionary and looked up every other body part I could think of to see if there was a special term for a "well shaped _______". There is not. Only the buttocks have the special privilege to have a word for their perfection.

Making Fabric Covered Boxes

The shoe boxes with flip lids that my sons' shoes come in make great storage boxes. I decided to buy some cheap fabric to cover them and make them suitable for use somewhere other than a closet. I chose a patterned fabric that came in many colors because I'm all about color coding and I wanted them to be coordinated. It's much quicker than reading a label, though I'll probably put some kind of temporary labels on them.

After an attempt to fit the fabric around an intact box, I realized the project would go faster and look more professional if I took the box apart, so that it would lie flat and I could make a pattern for it. These boxes don't use glue at all; they fit together using only slots.

First, I traced around the box on some paper that had been used as filler in a parcel we received. I cut out the paper pattern and pinned it on the fabric, then cut out the fabric.

Then I used double sided tape to attach the fabric to the shoebox. Pull the edges tight for a nice smooth look. I tried to have a generous half inch of fabric on the inside edges, so as not to be short somewhere. You can always trim off the extra. Here is the box about halfway completed.

After you've taped all the edges, reassemble the box. I am very pleased with how my first two turned out. Now I have turquise, purple, blue and pink to do.

Green Christmas

I found some pretty fabrics today that I thought would be great for wrapping Christmas presents. No sewing needed.

I bought a yard and a quarter of each of the three fabrics. Just cut on the lengthwise fold line down the middle of the fabric and get two wrapping pieces. Each piece will cover a normal size clothing box. Perhaps leave one or two of them uncut to cover large boxes.

Wrap around the box until you've used all the fabric. If it wraps around three times...who cares. And two of the three are black backgrounds, so the recipient can't see through. Tape, and put a ribbon around it!

No wrapping paper to gather up on Christmas morning and no waste going to the landfill. Just fold it up and put in your wrapping paper box til next year. My family will love this.