Finally!

It feels like I have been working on this thing forever! 

Really, it has only been about four months or so since I started it, but it has probably been at least three since I made much progress on it. And since it was supposed to be finished for Wyatt's birthday at the beginning of February I've felt pretty guilty about letting it sit in a pile in my sewing room. 

I doubt you remember, but Wyatt was quite specific about how he wanted his quilt to look. I'm pleased to say that he is thrilled with it and as soon as I gave it to him, he started running around the house with it draped over his shoulders like a superhero cape. I'd call it a win. 

He wanted a red back that was "soft" just like Carson's, so I had to use that annoying chenille/minky kind of stuff again. It feels so good, but to me is a total pain. On Carson's quillow, I just turned and top stitched, then tied it every so often. I decided to attempt a little quilting on Wyatt's. In the end, I like how Wyatt's turned out a little better. 

I kept the quilting very simple and just did a long wavy line down each of the colored strips. It actually quilted better than I expected, but no matter what I did to my tension or what size needle I tried, the red backing kept coming through the quilting stitches. I'm hoping once it gets washed and dried it won't be so noticeable. Here is a close up:

I wanted to try and get some pictures of this yesterday, but it was really windy outside so I waited for this morning hoping it would be a bit calmer. Then I remembered that my kids tore down my clothesline last week pretending to be sloths, so I asked Wyatt to get in a chair and hold it up for me. 

He insisted on wearing the cowboy hat he made in preschool yesterday. He was still a little short and his arms got tired after the first picture, so I think he'll only be on duty for baby quilts for a while. He loves it and I don't have to see it glaring at me from my sewing cabinet anymore, so I'm pleased!

Adventures in Egg Dying

As a kid, we always used the little tablets of PAAS to dye our Easter eggs. Didn't everybody? Well this year I decided to try the kool-aid method that I've seen floating around the web. Seemed simple enough, just mix one packet of Kool-Aid with 2/3 of a cup of water and bathe your eggs for awhile. Apparently the drink mix has enough citric acid in it that you don't need to use vinegar to set the colors.

We let them sit in the dye for about an hour, but when we took them out, most were covered in slime. I have no idea what happened, but they were kinda gross. 

See that gunk on the egg? This was one of the milder cases. Some were totally covered, others just a little. Weird. 

 

Some of the colors came out pretty, but the grape one looks a little disturbing. The kids didn't seem to mind, though. We don't drink kool-aid in our house, so they were completely intrigued, and kept putting their fingers in to try it.  I think we'll take a different approach next year...

Random Thursday

Well, it is a good thing my husband had to go back to work tonight. Maybe I can finally get some things done around here! The last couple of days have been fun but not so great on my productivity. 

Tuesday, Wyatt had to go get his vaccinations updated for kindergarten(!) registration. He was so excited about it, even though he knew he would be getting shots. Afterwards, we thought we would take the boys on a train ride. They are moderately obsessed with trains and about once a week or so, Wyatt will sigh and tell us that he has never, never ridden a train before. The Indiana Railway Museum is about 2 hours from our house and it just happened that they had a ride on Tuesday. We were sure the kids were going to love our surprise. The verdict...completely underwhelmed. 

The ride was supposed to be about 40 minutes to a stopping point, then a short break and the return trip back to the museum. I think the only time they even acted excited was the first time the whistle blew. Oh, and when they brought around the popcorn. It didn't help much that on the return trip our engine broke down and we had to wait about 45 minutes until the replacement came. An extra 45 minutes sitting still on an un-airconditioned train on a hot day was almost more than Max could take. But thankfully we made it. And honestly, the adults around us were more whiny than all the kids on the train. 

Can't you just feel the excitement?

But I do believe the bright spot so far in Wyatt's week was today's Kindergarten Round-Up. That kid is so excited about going to school! I really hope the enthusiasm lasts for a while. 

And finally, for your viewing pleasure...

The Marker Eater

...

Gosh, I didn't realize it had been almost a week since I posted last! 

My husband has an odd work schedule so he is on a stretch of several days off and it seems that we are never home during this part of the rotation. Usually it is because we are going out of town somewhere, but this time has just been running errands and other boring things like that. Mostly getting things ready for farming. And a lot of time in the car means almost no time at the sewing machine...

But, I have gotten a few things done. Well, maybe not done, but at least started. Here are the blocks I have decided on for next month's do.Good Stitches...

We'll be using Elizabeth's Radiant Ring tutorial, which is the same as the Rolling Stone blocks I was working on earlier. After looking back at the two blocks I made with the various solid color backgrounds I decided that I really don't like them, so instead we'll be doing those same colors (orange, yellow, green, aqua) on a white background. I'm leaving it up to the other bee members to decide how they'll do their color placement. 

I also started making some fabric bowls using Nova's new Fabric Nesting Bowls pattern. 

This is obviously early on in their construction as they just look like placemats right now, but I'll be adding handles to them and hope to use them as the kids' Easter baskets. I've only gotten started on two as I ran out of interfacing and fusible fleece, so if I don't get to the store for more, at least the older two will have them. I don't think Max will care...

And look what fabric goodness came in the mail this week:

The beautiful Jennifer from Knotted Thread had a fun giveaway for her birthday last weekend, and I was the lucky winner of this beautiful FQ set of Hello, Pilgrim in the blue colorway. I can't wait to figure out something fun to do with this. Though I am wondering if it is a sign or something that I keep winning blue fabrics...

Homemade Catalina Dressing

Hi Kids! 

So, I was really hoping to have a pretty block to show you this morning, but that isn't going to happen. First, because it isn't morning around here anymore, and second my block didn't work. It is really pretty, though all the important points are going to get cut off if I trim it to the 12.5" that it should be. I'm hoping to get a quick nap in after I finish this post, so maybe after that my frustration will have eased and it won't hurt me so much to rip it all up. 

So instead of the block, how about some salad dressing? Anyone? 

I always have the best of intentions about making homemade salad dressing since it has to be so much better for you than the stuff from the store. But, I always forget until about 5 minutes before supper when I'm setting the table. So I hang my head in shame and get out the Hidden Valley Ranch instead. 

The other day during lunch I was glancing through my shelves of cookbooks looking for something to read when I remembered this gem:

I'm pretty sure I ordered it from a garden seed company a few years ago, but here is a link to it on Amazon. The recipes are organized by type of vegetable which are in chronological order based on when they are harvested. So basically the first recipes are for asparagus and peas since those are pretty much the first things harvested out of the garden. There are also interesting interviews with gardeners and growing tips for each vegetable. I haven't made too many things out of it yet, but I hope to use it more in the coming months when our garden starts producing again. 

In the chapter devoted to salad greens, I found several interesting recipes for dressings, but the one we made the other night was her Catalina dressing which was fabulous. I only very slightly modified the recipe, so I'll give you the original and add my modifications.

Catalina Dressing

source: Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman

1/2 cup ketchup

1/3 cup water

3 TB red wine vinegar

2 TB olive oil

2 TB finely chopped onion

2 TB sugar

2 garlic cloves, minced 

salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Serve at once or store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. 

Yields 1 1/4 cups

**The only thing I changed was to only use 1 clove of garlic instead of two. I really like garlic, but I thought one was plenty. And, I didn't process it in the blender because I'm lazy. I just put it in a mason jar and shook it up. Much easier to clean.

*Of course I am linking up to Tuesdays at the Table with my friend Debbie*

DS Plus Quilt

I actually finished this quilt about a week ago, but hadn't gotten around to taking any pictures of it. Not that the ones I'll show you today are exceptional or anything, but it's better than nothing, right?

I used prints from (I think) three of the Denyse Schmidt lines for JoAnn's on the front and just made a simple pieced back using a few of the same prints. 

For the quilting, I just did wavy lines along the horizontal seams, much like what Holly shows in this tutorial. After quite a bit of deliberation I used Kona Chartreuse for the binding. At first it seems a little bright, but it is actually a really good match for the green in several of the prints. 

These two hooligans kept jumping in my pictures and demanding that I take one of them, so here you go...

In other news...

I'm officially halfway there. The first 20 weeks has flown by and I'm sure the next 20 will too. In about 4 weeks we will find out what this baby is, though my money is on another boy. 

I spent all morning making a shirt for myself that I was really excited about. It is awful, but at least I was smart enough this time to use fabric I didn't care about.  I think I am going to attempt to draft a pattern for myself from a very simple maternity top that I have had forever. Or not. Maybe I should just stick with quilting. 

And did you see the fabulous tutorial that Elizabeth did this morning? I had decided last night to go ahead with the Rolling Stones blocks, but perhaps with color placement more like the quilt from Red Pepper Quilts that I linked to, on a white or light grey background. Now I can just direct everyone to Don't Call Me Betsy when it is time to make the blocks. How cool is that timing?

Indecision

So, I spent a lot of time sewing this weekend. 

Do I have anything worthwhile to show for it? Not really.

My month as the "quilter" for our circle of do. Good Stitches is coming up (not until May, but I want to be ready as that is a pretty busy time around here) and I have been trying to decide what exactly to ask everyone to make. I have all kinds of inspirational quilts pinned, but the things I've been coming up with just aren't doing it for me.

From the top...I've seen many modern/liberated cross quilts going around that I really like (here, here, and here)  and I think this would be an easy one for the group. If I go this route, our colors would be orange, aqua, grey, and navy. I definitely think this is one of those blocks that you need to see several of together before it really starts looking good.

The middle row...I've also been seeing some fun string quilts lately, so I came up with this block, and was going to use orange, yellow, green, and aqua as the colors. I'm not so sure about this one, either. I kind of like it, but I think it might be better if the blocks had all the colors, not just one. Or if they were smaller...

Bottom row...I love this block that Penny made for her Farmer's Wife quilt. It is called the Single Wedding Star, but after doing a bit of research I found out that it is also called the Rolling Stone block. Amanda Jean just used it in a quilt and there is another similar example by Rita from Red Pepper Quilts here. My plan was to still go with the orange, yellow, green, aqua color scheme, using solids as the background, but that might be a bit too colorful. Since everyone in this bee uses their stash, I didn't want to name a specific solid color for us to use, though I am tempted to try white as I really love how Rita's quilt looks.

So yes, indecision is the name of the game around here this weekend. That, and frustration. Any words of wisdom?