quilt along- week 1

Week 1 for the quilt-a-long is choosing and preparing the fabric (found here @ I have to say)

Here's what was needed:

For the quilt top: 1/3 yard pieces of 10 different prints (for the rectangles)3-1/3 yards total
2 yards of a solid/neutral fabric (for the squares)
For the binding: One yard of a coordinating print
For the backing: Three yards of a coordinating print
For the batting: Two yards of 90" wide Warm and Natural batting

Here are my fabrics. I did what she recommended, I started with one colorful fabric that I loved (the flowered one- fifth from the left) and started matching from there. She also suggests just grabbing fabrics and narrowing down later. I grabbed 15. I took a few swatches from home because I really wanted to use up at least one or two pieces that I already had. The paisley mustard (number four from the left) and the green flowers in the middle are ones I already had. I chose unbleached muslin for the neutral that she asked for. The blue one that is 6th from the left will also be the binding. I'm getting a little nervous that I'm going to make this all crooked and messed up. This week was easy, lets see what next week holds.


So the assignment for week one is to select the fabric, wash and iron it. Check. So far, so good. next week is cutting... we'll see how that goes.

sushi- cheater style

One of my friends asked me last fall if I knew how to make sushi. I said "No, but I'll figure it out." I got a book at the library, but it was for the serious sushi chef type. This clearly does not apply to me. It did have some nice pictures. I talked to some other people and learned a little bit more.

I had a little extra money in the grocery envelope this month (not sure how that happened) and I decided to buy all the goodies and start testing it out. For the first try, I bought a kit. It included the wrappers and rice. You just added the veges and meat. Lou and I made up a bunch with crab meat and avocado.

The little wrappers were pre-cut. You just cooked the rice and started filling them up. Roll and trim the excess and you're all done.

They aren't the prettiest sushi I've ever seen, but they were yummy. Lou ate them almost as fast as I made them!

Here's what the kit looked like. I have the ingredients bought to make more sushi, not using a kit/cheater style. Hubby travels again this week so I think that will be the time. He agrees with Bee that they are disss-kusting!

puddle jumping

It rained and rained and rained.

When you have rain boots and a rain coat it's OK.


Especially after you've been trapped inside the house all day.

If you jump enough, the water turns to 'chocolate water.'

Then your pants get wet. Nobody likes that.

New pants, new socks and an umbrella fix that unhappy situation.

Back to the chocolate water.

Wet again. No worries this time- Mama can fix it. I love you messy boy.

Parfaits for my Loves

My Loves love parfaits, and since I love my Loves, I make them parfaits. Who am I kidding, I love parfaits too. It's a treat, but we do love them.

Cherry parfait. Or- Parkays, as Lou calls them:

Cherry Parfaits
1 pkg vanilla pudding
1 c sour cream
1 c milk

-mix together pudding, sour cream, milk
1 can cherry pie filling
1 tub whip cream

-layer pudding, cherries, whip topping -repeat

Chocolate banana parfaits
1 c milk
1 c sour cream
1 pkg chocolate pudding
-mix together pudding, sour cream, milk

bananas

cool whip

-layer pudding, bananas, whip topping -repeat

(I usually add shaved chocolate to the top, if I have it on hand)

valentines day shirt

I haven't been able to read a crochet or knitting pattern in the past. I could only do simple things, squares and rectangles. There have been cute things that I wanted to make and while I could do the stitches and could make something if someone walked me through it, I couldn't read a pattern. When I saw this crochet heart garland from Skip to My Lou, I got motivated. (The original heart pattern is from Suzies Stuff). I googled 'how to read a crochet pattern", and found this crochet basics page. I just flipped back and forth between the two and figured it out. 17 hearts later and I didn't even need the pattern. I did make the garland, but it's not hung up yet. I'll post a picture then.

I was trying to think of other things to use the hearts for and thought about making one out of wool and felting it. It could be a decoration on a felted wool bag. I'm going to be felting some things this weekend, so I'll write about that soon too.

Then I though about putting it on a shirt. The hearts stitch up in just a few minutes and are really sweet. I chose a red shirt from Bee's drawer and using a regular thread and needle, I hand stitched it on. To get it to stay put while sewing, I started in the middle with a few stitches and then went around the outside edge.


I tried three different yarns until I got one that was a good weight to work well on this shirt. The first two were too chunky.

Bee seems happy with it too.
Here's the pattern for the heart (from the above mentioned sources):

Round 1
Chain 4. Make all of the next stitches in the first chain. 3 trc, 3 dc, chain 1, 1 trc, chain 1, 3 dc, 3 trc, chain 2 slip stitch
Round 2
Chain 3, in first trc make sc and hdc, in next stitch 3 hdc, in next stitch 2 hdc, sc in next four stitches, chain 1 (then) dc in (the same) trc (then) chain 1, sc in next four stitches, 2 hdc in next stitch, 3 hdc in next stitch, hdc and sc in next stitch, chain 3 and slip stitch in center
Round 3
Chain 3 , sc in top of chain 3 from previous row , sc in each stitch all the way around (until chain 3 from previous row). At beginning of chain 3 from previous row chain three and slip stitch in center of heart. Pull the loop to the back and fasten off.

focaccia and ruining dinner method #29

Just so you don't think that everything I make is great, here is a pan, previous and very recently on fire sitting outside of my house covered in flour. Organic whole wheat flour. I should have grabbed the cheap stuff for very fluffy baking. How to ruin dinner method #29.

I was making some corn meal crusted chicken and had the pan warming up. When I went to pour in some olive oil, the whole thing lit up. The pan was on fire. I remembered that you weren't supposed to use water, but rather flour to put it out. Water would have been easy since I had a sink full of dish water. It was suddenly extremely smokey and because there are about 30 plastic shopping bags stuffed in my stove exhaust fan, I was unable to work on the smoke. Hubby happened to be in the kitchen with me and opened the back door. The fire was high and the pan was so hot. I set it down outside and grabbed a jar of flour. The next thing I knew, the fire was out and I had emptied almost the entire jar of some organic whole wheat flour that I splurged on.

The pan cleaned up ok, but the patio is pretty stained. I thought the snow would have taken care of it, but it's snowed and melted, and it's still there.

I started the chicken in a new pan and all was well. I had the flour out because I was making some focaccia to go with the chicken. I don't make it often, but when I do, we wonder why I don't make it more often. It's so tasty and can easily be doctored up just the way you want.

Foccacia
2 ¼ yeast
1 c warm water
-dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the following
2 ¾ c flour
1 t salt
1 t sugar
Knead and let rise 1 hour. Knead again and roll out about 3/4 inch - 1 inch thick. dimple with your knuckles. Let rise 20 minutes. Dimple again. Top however you want. A drizzle of olive oil and herbs and parm are nice. Tomatoes or other thinly sliced vegetables and other cheeses work too.
----topping
2 T olive oil
1 t garlic powder
1 t oregano
1 t thyme
½ t basil
1 t rosemary
2 T parm cheese

Bake 425° 15 min

Focaccias are all over grocery store bakeries right now. They offer a wide array of seasonings, herbs and toppings. What are your favorite toppings?

What to make with it Wednesdays

Carole, at Sew Cute, has started a new (hopefully weekly) feature called What to make with it Wednesdays." You can link up and share something that you need a little crafty inspiration with. Then others, with fresh crafty minds can give you some much needed direction. I need to take some pictures for next week, but I linked up an old request for inspiration. Remember the car interior leather stuff my dad sent? It's still sitting in a tub in my sewing room.

Carole shared these window she snagged from someone replacing their windows.

If you have some ideas for the windows, my car interior leather, or need some ideas of your own for a project you are stumped with, head on over to Sew Cute.

fortune cookies and egg drop soup

Oh man, I love Chinese food. oh man.

Like most other foods that I love, I've tried to come up with an at-home version. You won't mistake this egg drop soup for some from the all you can eat buffet, but we do enjoy this healthier version. It's simple and makes a good last minute meal.

Egg drop soup
chicken broth or stock
egg whites
salt to taste
flour or corn starch
green onions (if you like that, yuck)
- bring stock to boil. Add some flour or cornstarch to thicken soup. I use my immersion blender to really get it mixed well. Beat egg whites in a bowl. Bring soup back to a boil. Slowly pour the eggs into the soup while using a fork to whip the soup. This breaks the egg up into the wispy white stuff you find in egg drop soup. Experiment with how fast you stir to break up the egg so you have some thicker pieces and some thin little wisps. The eggs cook in just a few seconds, so it ready to serve right away, although I usually let it boil another minute. I'm pretty sure that they add yellow coloring in restaurants, we don't bother.



I never knew you could make your own fortune cookie, so when I saw directions for it, the kids and I got right on it. The recipes and great directions come from Alpha Mom. They were shared there by my new friends (although they don't know that we're such good friends) at skip to my Lou.

The kitchen staff was thrilled to have a fun project to work on.

They even included printable fortunes. I think this is what we'll make for Bee to pass out at school on valentines day.

They were pretty tasty too! Mine never got as hard and crispy as it sounds like they should have. I did seal them up at some point. I'll have to try again.