Monday, August 31, 2015

Tee Shirt Quilt

I'm working on a tee shirt quilt. This is the first time I've been asked to make one. This one is for a guy who plays softball with a senior league. A box of shirts arrived last week and I dug right into them. Most of them were white with emblems of various sizes.

I have to admit that I found this task a bit daunting until I found this tutorial over at Happy Quilting: http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/2013/08/t-shirt-memory-quilt-tutorial-and.html

I love the way she simply kept adding scraps of fabrics and then squaring as she went. I'm finding this technique works really well for such odd sized pieces of tee shirts.

I have two cats so I can't leave the pieces on the floor. I'm using masking tape to attach them to a large wall in my sewing room. I like that I can get a good look at how things are coming along and I can move things around.


(BTW - that lower corner is completely changed. I wasn't loving those prints/colors there...but you've got to start somewhere).

Making a quilt for an older man is tricky because I don't want the finished product to be too juvenile. Plus, I'm limited as to the fabrics I can use because I don't want it to look to feminine. I'm using a lot of plaids with some other misc. fabric scraps mixed in. I'm also throwing in some hand embroidery where I can..


I'll keep plugging away and hopefully finish with the blocks shortly. I'm planning to machine quit it using the "quilt as you go" method on each block. Then, I'll hand sew the blocks together. After that, I'll add a boarder. Baseballs in each corner and bats along each edges I think...unless I change my mind.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

The County Fair!

There are so many things I love about summer time. Homemade ice cream, warm weather, not having to bundle up to go outside, summer fruits...and of course the fair!

The county fair is a yearly excuse to eat all of the junk food I can take in. I also enjoy seeing what creative people have been up to in the "home arts" exhibits. There was an amazing display of quilts..
 

How I missed getting a picture of the quilt that won the grand prize is beyond me. Too much excitement I guess. It was a beautiful appliqued floral design. I've decided that I'm going to enter a quilt next year. Maybe I'll win a ribbon!?!

Look at this adorable goat wool rug..!


And then there's the livestock. So many gorgeous animals to look at. Plus, it's fun to talk with the young 4-H kids there about their animals. They're so sweet and friendly...and they can teach you a lot!

With the day beginning to wind down the goats were able to socialize amongst themselves. I think they're checking in with each other about how the day went...


Ahh...we have a winner!!


This sweet baby calf was hungry, but luckily her mamma was right there with her..


I don't know what I enjoy more...the greasy fried snacks, the fiber arts or the animals. Luckily I don't have to choose.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Vintage Crochet Baby Socks...

I picked up this pair of vintage baby socks around two years ago. I had know idea what I was going to do with them, but I knew I needed to have them for a future project.

I finally decided on an applique design with tiny little hexies on the second sock. Now all I need to do is come up with a way to frame them..




Thursday, July 30, 2015

Repurpose an Old Drawer into a Puppet Theater for the Kids!

I had a few spare minutes today so I popped into a vintage/junk shop that I frequent in Healdsburg, CA. I spotted this adorable puppet theater that had been made from a drawer. Isn't it cute??



I'm going to start keeping my eye out for an old drawer so I can make one for the little kids when they come to visit. This would be simple to make. All you'd need to do is cut out the window, paint it and add a curtain to the inside. The curtain is just gathered onto a piece of wire and hung in the upper inside of the drawer. Adorable!!

Sunday, July 26, 2015

A Happy Sewing Basket!

About a year ago I found a sad, old sewing basket at Goodwill. I wish I had taken a "before" picture, but I didn't. I can tell you with absolute certainty that this basket is MUCH happier now!



It's got lots of fabric strawberry pincushions to perk it up now, along with a sweet little bird with beaded wings..





Black Tomatoes?


Have you ever seen black tomatoes?? Well, yesterday I did. My husband and I took a drive out to the coast and along the way we decided to stop in Guerneville for lunch. While we were walking to the restaurant I spotted this tomato plant growing in someone's yard. There were a few other tomato plants keeping it company, but one stood out. I've never seen anything like it!




I wonder how they taste...

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Treehorn Books in Santa Rosa, CA


Are you a book lover? I certainly am!

Treehorn Books in Santa Rosa, CA is one of my favorite book stores. It's a book lovers paradise with isles of books stacked to the ceiling. Most of them are used, which I think makes it even better. 

While there today I snapped a couple of pictures of some of the vintage books that they had on the shelves..



I exercised extreme self-discipline today and didn't buy anything. Although I'm all about supporting local small businesses, I'm also trying hard to stick to my monthly budget. So alas, no books today for me. I hope you had a nice weekend!

Thursday, July 9, 2015

A Wild Hare...

This sweet bunny was just sitting in the driveway this morning. I was headed up to a client's home in Healdsburg CA. I turned into the drive and there were two rabbits, but one of them ran into the olive grove. This one lingered long enough for me to take it's picture.


I love those ears!!

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Vintage Figurine Tassels

A while back I found some cute figurines at a vintage store that I frequent in Healdsburg, CA.
I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but I knew I had to get them while the getting was good!! About a year later, they've been transformed into these cute tassels!

A sweet, little Christmas Angel:





And Marie Antoinette and her pal Louis XVI:




I used a very small drill bit designed for ceramic to drill indentations into the back of Louis and Marie's heads. It made just enough of space for me to embed the string tie with some E6000 glue. I was able to drill all the way through the Christmas angels head, so I threaded the tie in though the opening at the bottom of the figurine. The drilling was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I made the tassels out of small strips of cotton fabrics which were then rolled together into a piece of masking tape. I stuffed them into the bottom of the figurines and glued them into place.

I just love how they turned out!

Sunday, June 14, 2015

This Morning's Walk


I try to get some type of exercise in each day. It can be a real challenge to find the time! I managed to get a three mile walk in this morning. I know it's not a marathon, but I felt so much better for having made the effort. 

Here are some pictures I took along the route. Enjoying summer's bounty!

An old barn..


A bunch of cone flowers and a little bee!


Look at the gorgeous pink and yellow beauty here...


And a lovely yellow rose..


It was a great way to start the day. :)

Boredom Busting Back in the Day and A Vintage Cookbook Journal

When you were young did you learn to cook using one of these?


I did! When we were kids, we used to have to keep ourselves entertained (life was hard before the Internet!). We kept ourselves busy by teaching ourselves how to cook, sew and make things. Remember Pac-o-Fun? I'm pretty sure it was the first craft magazine ever published. My Grandma bought be a subscription and I was beyond excited with I saw it in the mailbox after school. My best friend Cheryl and I would make everything in it and then we'd wait anxiously for the next issue.

We also used to embroider on EVERYTHING! We'd buy our DMC floss for $0.10 at Woolworth's along with those giant books filled with iron-on transfers at Woolworth's. Then, we'd get stitching! Nothing was safe. Nothing was sacred. Chambray shirts (hello '70's!), jeans and pillow cases. Any fabric that was found lying around was fair game. I had the old Coats and Clark book of embroidery stitches from 1964 (another gift from my Granny). I don't know whatever happened to it, but one day I'm going to buy another on E-bay. Just for old time sake.

Anyway... back to boredom busting back in the day. My best friend Cheryl and I made just about every cake and candy recipe in this book. Some turned out pretty good, while others were a complete failure. One time we made a cake that came out of the over hard as a rock. Not to be deterred from creating our own entertainment, we took the hard cake outside and tossed it back and fourth like a Frisbee until we tossed it so high that it ended up on the roof of the garage. Where it remained throughout the entire winter. Rain and all! We were in awe of that "cake" and it's staying power, but at the same time we were baffled as to what had gone wrong when we made it. The problem might have had something to do with the fact that we didn't always follow the directions. We'd just leave an ingredient out if we didn't have it. Our logic was if you only need 1/4 tsp of something (ie: cream of tartar or baking soda), then how important can that ingredient be? I'm happy to say that my cooking skills have improved since then! But that's how you learn. :)

Anyway, getting back to the cookbook...I found one exactly like the one I used to use at a vintage store not long ago. It was missing some of it's pages, but I figured that I might be able to make it into a journal of some kind. Here's what I came up with:


I wanted to maintain the shapes of the pots and pans on the cover because they are a huge part of the charm of these old books for me. I decided to change them out with some scraps of vintage table cloths that I had in my fabric stash. The lids are topped with old, rhinestone buttons. I also happened to have some interesting vintage game cards that referenced foods, so I thought this would be a cute way to incorporate them into a project.

I used vintage tablecloth scraps throughout the book. Here's how it turned out:
 


The "Bread" page:

The "Cake" page:


"Long long ago when chickens had teeth...once upon a time..."


This is the back of the chicken page:


And more pages...

Old millinery flowers and bridal netting:


I'm including blank Kraft paper pages and vintage ledger pages for notes or recipes:



"Soup is the song of the hearth...and the home"



Wish page...

I lined the inside of the book with vintage red poppy gift wrap. I love how it all came together! :)



Thursday, June 11, 2015

Easy Pasta with Bacon, Onion and Tomato

I'd like to share this simple, delicious pasta recipe that I came up with one evening when I was in a rush to make dinner. It's so easy and only requires a couple of ingredients. It's budget friendly too! Perfect for when you "have more month than money"...which happens a lot around here.


The only ingredients are bacon, onion, canned tomatoes and pasta. That's it! I also added in a little black pepper and some garlic power. That was all it needed. I love to cook with bacon! It's a great way to add a lot of flavor while using very little meat.


It's super easy to throw together. All you need to do is dice the bacon and onion. Drain a can of tomatoes and reserve the juice.

Then, saute the bacon until it's crisp and has rendered it's fat. Add the diced onion and continue to saute:


Tip: Bacon is easy to dice if it's partially frozen. There are only two of us here, so when I buy bacon I wrap six slices together in plastic wrap and then bag all of the bundles in a plastic freezer bag and freeze it. This way, when I need a few strips of bacon, I just pull a six slice bundle from the freezer to use.

Add tomatoes and some of the juice. Then season with black pepper and garlic powder:


Add the cooked (al dente) pasta to the sauce:


Let the pasta simmer in the sauce for a minute or two so that it absorbs some of the flavor of the sauce. Then plate:


I topped the pasta with a bit of Parmesan cheese and gobbled it up!

Double or triple the recipe as needed. I make a small amount because it's just me and my husband.

Pasta with Bacon, Onion and Tomato

* 5 or 6 Bacon Slices 
* 1/2 Yellow Onion (or use whatever type of onion you have on hand)
* 1/2 Pound Pasta (I used Spaghetti)
* 1 28oz Can Diced Tomatoes
* 1/8 tsp Black Pepper
* 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
* Parmesan Cheese (if desired)

1. Dice the bacon into small pieces (about 1/4 inch).
2. Dice onion into small pieces.
3. Drain the canned tomatoes - Reserve the liquid.
4. Begin heating water to boil pasta in a pot large enough to hold your pasta.
5. Saute the bacon in a large saute pan until it begins to crisp and it renders it's fat, approximately 4-5 minutes. Add the diced onion and continue to saute until the onion cooks, about another 3-4 minutes.
6. Add the drained tomatoes, 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the reserved juice (depending upon how much liquid you want in the sauce), the black pepper and the garlic powder. Combine and let simmer on very low heat.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta until it's al dente. Once cooked, drain the pasta and add it to the saute pan and combine it with the sauce. Let it sit (on low heat) for a minute or two so that it absorbs some of the sauce.

Plate and serve! Top with Parmesan cheese if you'd like.

Enjoy!




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