Presents for the lil' boys

Mateo's baby quilt

I finally finished the mitered quilt.  This is my first true quilt where I followed a particular design.  I've made crazy quilts before, but I found this was actually easier/faster because it was basically a series of blocks that I sewed together.  When I first saw this design in a book, I had no reason to make a baby quilt, aside from just "for the fun of it."  But then I saw the perfect fabric, and it just so happens that my coworker was expecting a baby any day and it hit me.  I'd make her a baby gift.  Well I began cutting it out Monday, November 21st and coincidentally, Baby Mateo was born the next day, Tuesday, November 22nd. 

The quilt turned out lovely, and I ended up using some cotton batting so it's not only soft for baby, but  a little more eco friendly too.  I tied off the centers with some yarn that I happened to have that luckily matched pretty closely to the colors.  An excellent benefit of having a multi-colored motif.  The only problem is that I am going to have a hard time giving this one away!  I want to snuggle with my blankie on this cold December night!

I mostly finished (depends if I want to make 3 more name tags to include "aunt," "uncle" and "cousin") Charles mailman set for his Christmas present.  I will explain how it was created in a future post, but want to show of tonight's hard work.  I was so involved in these projects that I kind of forgot about eating.  Peanut M&Ms got me through the evening. . . but now that it's almost midnight I think that I'll just head to bed.  Have to go to my real job in the morn.

Mail bag, hat, and sample postcards & envelope

Thanksgiving and quilt block update

For Thanksgiving I brought this platter of goodies:

To the left are homemade wheat thin crackers. To the right are sugar cookies.  I used my mini fall themed cookie cutters.  There are 3 versions of leaves, an acorn, pumpkin and apple shapes.  These are way too fun and I felt very "Martha Stewart" cutting these out and arranging them on the plate.  The filling is actually cooked pumpkin pie filling!

And here's an update on the quilt I'm making:

I included a sample of what the backing will look like.  According to the directions I'm supposed to use flannel.  I didn't realize that when I bought the fabric, so I will have to hold off in putting it together until I buy some batting to put between the layers.  The inspiration for this blanket came from this one yard fabric book:

Stay tuned for future updates on my mitered receiving blanket!

Projects for this week

So I went to a sewing club on Thursday and this was my contribution:

They are place cards for a Christmas table setting.  Simple to do -- I just free hand cut out tree shapes from scraps of fabric, ironed on some fusible interfacing for extra stiffness and then sewed them on in a zig zag pattern with the machine.  Hand sewed on some buttons -- and if you look closely there are free form sewn halos around the buttons.  Address labels on some winter themed scrap book paper pulls it all together.  From start to finish I probably did this in a half an hour.

Mitered quilt blocks

From a sewing book that lists projects that only take a yard of fabric, I found a cute recieving blanket project that involves turning striped fabric into square blocks.  This is the first time I've attempted an actual pattern based quilt.  The couple of throw quilt's I've made before have always been the use up the scraps crazy quilts.  This is a mitered block quilt.   See all the triangles?  Now they are squares.  I was attracted to all the geometric shapes when I saw this project.  There is something very satisfying about turning lines into squares.  All those crisp edges. . . just don't look too closely, cuz they aren't perfect.  But as long as you don't take out the magnifying glass, it's starting to look impressive.  I can't believe how much I got done in one afternoon/evening.  I didn't even start until 4:00 p.m.!

These crisp lines are such a turn on!

Beautiful day out

It's a beautiful day out and it's Labor Day weekend.  I  spent part of it sewing, and then hanging out with a friend.  In honor of this day  of rest I'm posting a version of the song, Canticle of the Sun.  This was one of the songs that we sang in church today and I felt that it really summed up not only the day but how I feel about our world.  Enjoy!

New kitchen gadgets

Just a quick post about some new kitchen gadgets I got on Tuesday while I was killing some time during a split shift at work. The kitchen product store, Habitat is on the other side of town in an area that I rarely find myself.  So when I found myself with 2 hours to kill, I headed over there to see what they had.  I've been wanting to get a funnel for quite awhile, but am picky and wanted a metal one.  I've been trying to cut out plastic in kitchenware as well as concerns about BPA and other  phyleates leaching into food, specially when heated so have been out of a full sized strainer for almost a year.  At first I was scrounging thrift stores in hopes of finding good quality second hand stuff.  But metal colianders and funnels weren't to be found (granted I didn't search monthly every single shop in town), but I  have a feeling that these are items that people hang on to!  So I finally decided I would purchase them new, and hoped a kitchen store would have some awesome choices. 

I was a little surprised on how small the Habitat's selection was, as half of the store seemed focused more on kitchen related decor, but there was a corner of the store where I found a bunch of fun gizmos.  Discovered they make cake donut pans, which rather excites me.  Perhaps if they ever have a sale . . .  But for the day I walked out with this snazzy strainer, which made me want to go cook some spaghetti right away, a cool funnel that even had a little strainer that you can take in or out, and a  "magic" lid.  This lid is mostly silicone (a glass based product rather than plastic) with some metal support ribbing that using suction, will seal in moisture and freshness in what ever kind of bowl you choose (as long as the edge of the bowl is smooth and clean -- food particles would break the seal).  At the price I found it at I will only be able to afford just one of these extravagances (specially since I found similar product by a different company on a enviro website) but I feel it was worth the money to have  one on hand so I make store food in my lidless glass and metal bowls.

As an aside I appreciated the store packaging -- was a large white plain paper bag with twisted paper handles.  Perfect to be reused as a gift bag.

Stack of books

As  I was checking out yet a couple more books tonight at work, it occurred to me that a lot could be learned of my current interests from the list of books that I have currently checked out.  I realized after I downloaded this picture that I took, that I left out 2 other craft books that were scattered in a different area of the room than normal.  So these can be clumped into a couple broad areas of interest or sorted out into many other categories (subject headings in library speak).  In what ways would you organize these?
Here's the list in no particular order:

• The new low-maintenance garden: How to have a beautiful, productive garden and the time to enjoy it by Valerie Easton
• Organic beauty: look and feel gorgeous the natural way by Josephine Fairley
• Absolute Beauty: radiant skin and inner harmony through the ancient secrets of Ayurveda by Pratima Raichur
• How to start making money with your crafts by Kathryn Caputo
• The complete book of Ayurvedic home remedies by Vasant Lad.
• Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath
• Self-promotion for the creative person by Lee Silber
• Preserve it edited by Lynda Brown
• Heat Wave by Richard Castle (the lone fiction book in the group, and yes the book featured in the television series Castle)
• Retro Mania!: 60 hip handmade cards, scrapbook pages, gifts and more! by Judi Watanabe et. al.
• Complete guide to container gardening by Better Homes and Gardens
• Edible: a celebration of local foods by Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian
• Nourishing traditions: the cookbook that challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictocrats by Sally Fallon (an interlibrary loan book)

The books that I left out of the photo:

• Sew pretty Christmas homestyle by Sew Pretty (checked out for it's patterns in the back)
• The new handmade: simple sewing for the contemporary style by Cassie Barden

Expect me to refer to these in future posts.  Some of these are better than others.  For instance Nourishing Traditions is massive and I'll never read it all. I wasn't impressed by the Organic Beauty, specially not after browsing through Absolute Beauty.  The complete home remedies Aryuvedic book would probably be good for a serious practitioner; I got it mainly out of curiosity when grabbing the Absolute Beauty one.  The 2.0 book I haven't actually looked at yet.  According to book reviews it's not very helpful unless you buy the book so you can get the password for the online quiz. . .  

So enjoy the list.  If I was nice, considerate blogger tonight, I would link all these titles to Amazon for you.  But being as it's 11:00 pm. and I really should head to bed now, I will just assume that if a title strikes your fancy you know how to head over to Amazon or Barnes and Noble website and search the reviews for these books. 

Looking at this list of mostly hardcover and some relatively new books I should really add up the prices and see what kind of savings I'm storing up from using my local library.  Of course, I highly doubt I would currently have half as many of these books if I wasn't working there every day.  :)

From this to that: Sourdough Mozzerella Sticks

The sourdough started I created from thin air.  ;)

Many moons ago I created some sourdough started from scratch because I had an itching to make that Friendship Bread where you stick in flavored puddings.  My mom had made some when I was a kid (reciving starter from a friend/relative who had passed on this chain of food).  Having no one with starter that I new of I was excited to be successful in starting my own.  Well, that bread didn't turn out so well; it didn't rise enough.  I blame my cheapo bread pans more than the failed recipe.  (Which in fact I believe that the 2nd loaf of that batch is still in my freezer -- waiting for me to do something with it.) Discouraged, I put my extra start in the freezer until the day I had the urge to try again.

That day came again several weeks ago when I decided to take the plunge into exploring real foods.  I haven't been 100% in changing my eating habits.  It is hard when I have never cared for wheat breads in the past.  I have been absent from recording my eating habits, because I've still caved into the convenience of eating out during my lunch breaks. 

But I am reporting my excitement now it what may be the best pizza I've had in a very long time.  And get this, the basis of this yummy goodness is my wheat sourdough pizza crust. Therefore from this:

I  made this:

I didn't have any jarred, purchased pizza sauce in the house, since I'm trying to move away from processes foods with high fructose corn syrup, so I made my own from some home made canned tomato juice my mom had given me (also many moons ago).  Topped with Italian sausage and cheese, this gooey goodness is making me hungry for a slice even as I finished it off last night. 

But I was able to enjoy another round of the crust.  How?  Well I felt that my mound of pizza dough was more than would fit on my pizza pan.  I didn't want a super thick crust that would have a hard time baking so I left out maybe a quarter of that dough with the abstract idea of making something else with it . . .perhaps buns.

Then yesterday as  I was rearranging my fridge in order to use up some leftovers, I saw my glass dish of mozzarella.  Bread dough and mozzarella. . .perfect combo to make cheese sticks!

Simple to make if dough is already made! 

 

Slice some cheese and roll up!

Roll to press into shape so holds together.

Admittedly they look a little odd on the pan. . . .wheat flour.

Maybe a little much cheese, as they exploded with melty-ness!

Bread sticks a side dish to my salad!