7 Photo Saturday: 3.25 - 3.31

3.25 "Breakfast" 

3.26 "Key"

3.27 "Your Name"

3.28 "Trash"

3.29 "Feet"

3.30 "Toy"

He loves chasing my measuring tape. I'm not sure why that's so much more fun than any of his toys... Also, yes, my rug is covered in bits of thread and terry cloth. Now that I've seen how much more those show up in photos, I'll be getting out my vacuum and lint roller.

3.31 "Where You Relax"

So, the question is, did I learn enough more about using the camera to make this worth keeping up? As for the answer... I don't know. Some of the days/themes were fun, but I rarely felt like I had the time to work out the picture I really wanted - nor did I have the knowledge to make the camera do what I wanted. Maybe I should ask my husband to work with me, since he knows how to use the camera...

7 Photo Saturday: 3.18 - 3.24

Alright, I think I've got the camera back to settings I understand - I should have thought to ask the friend who borrowed it to set things back. Looking at the settings, I think he was doing stop motion night photography... It's not back how it was yet, but it's at least working for me again!

3.18 "Corner of Your Home"

3.19 "Funny"

 This was left in the last house I lived in by some previous tenant. It wasn't the only thing left behind, but it was one of the only things worth keeping - no thanks to old clothes or old photos.  

3.20 "Before/After" 

3.21 "Delicious"

2.33 "Kitchen Sink"

3.23 "Moon"

3.24 "Animal"

"Welcome Baby" Package

We live a few hours drive from most of our close friends. It's hard being so far away, and every new life event - engagement, marriage, new house, new pet, new baby - only reinforces that we're too far away to drop by to say congrats or to see if there's anything we can do to help.

Since I live too far out to drop by with an offer of dog walking, baby sitting, house cleaning, laundry service, or a home cooked meal, I try to put all my best wishes and hopes into one rather major package that I like to call a "Welcome Baby" package. So far it's usually been a quilt, a couple bibs, some books, a few outfits, and a toy or two. Listed out, it seems like a lot of stuff, but I would rather be near enough to offer support.

I more or less wander the clearance areas of my local stores and pick up anything that is too great a deal or too cute to leave. My one defense? I try to pick a theme and stick to it. So, even if it's adorable, and on sale, if it doesn't fit the theme, I leave it there.

Most of the "Farm" Welcome Package

This time last year I was finishing up the Farm theme package for our nephew. My favorite parts? The quilt and the books. I love books and can spend hours picking favorites to give. Almost everyone gets "The Story of Ferdinand" - one of my absolute favorite books - whether it fits the theme or not.

Over the last few months, I've been working on gathering a few welcome items for Baby C and parents. I've been having a blast, but trying to hold off until I know whether Baby C is a boy or a girl - at least when it comes to clothing, because Dad C is not totally comfortable with a son wearing pink/purple.

Mom C has been collecting a specific animal for most of her life, so of course it has to be featured prominently. Dad C has some specific animals, and a specific country, that are important to him. Trying to mix these important elements has led to an Animal/Jungle kind of theme, and so far I've stuck mainly to greens and browns in terms of colors. I expect an influx in colors, especially purple, if Baby C turns out to be a girl, and probably some more blue if Baby C is a boy.

I can't share much yet, but here's a sneak peek of what I've got going on so far:

Bibs, wipes, a few outfits, and the Wonky Stacked Coin

I know I'll be adding some more books, but I'm also debating about a homemade plush and a winter weight quilt (the wonky stacked coin is very light weight). Of course there will be some more clothes, and probably a few toys.

It seems unfair for everything in the package to be for the new baby, but I never know what to add in for the new parents. Any ideas?

Shelf Revisit

I haven't done anything with this shelf since I hung it on the wall in February. The color at the time seemed a little yellow for me, but I wanted to live with it for a while before putting any more work into it.

The color hasn't grown on me.

Today I wound up with an unexpected free morning, and I thought I'd try changing it up a little. None of the paints I had on hand worked any better on my wall, so I decided to try something a little different. An old jar of Mod Podge (opened by my husband since it was Mod Podged closed!), some sheets of paper from an old book (already falling apart) and a paint brush. Oh, and a bread bag to protect the kitchen counter top.

It took a while to get the hang of laying the pieces of paper just right - the corners took a bit more work than I'd expected.

 Replace the sunflower fabric:

And put it back on the wall.

 Oh, and replace the perfume, of course:

It looks so much better. The natural cream color of the book pages compliments the brown bottles, their tags, and the cream of two of the other wall hangings. And the little bit of nerdiness makes me smile every time I look up, which is a great improvement over reminding me of John Deere. This time, I think it's a keeper.

Spring-ing

I think most of this happened in the last three days. 

There's nothing like a glimpse of life after all that brown/grey of winter.

Pinterest Challenge: Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Spoiler Alert: It's still a challenge, even if I lose. Badly.

My husband is a huge fan of gnocchi. Every time it's on the menu, whether at home or a restaurant, I know he's going to get it and love it. That said, I've never been ambitious enough to try to make it from scratch. I'm more the buy it in a bag, boil it, serve it with homemade brown butter sage sauce, call it good enough kind of cook.

Until I saw this recipe for Sweet Potato Gnocchi featured on Design Sponge. Now that sounds impossible to find in my grocery worth the effort.

Reading the comments gave me the idea that I'd be okay using the flour I had on hand rather than searching the flours called for in the recipe. So, armed with two baked sweet potatoes, some flour, and a lot of excitement, I got to work.

Adding flour to mashed sweet potatoes

My first batch

It's not unusual for my husband to help out in the kitchen. Actually, to be fair to him, he might cook more often than I do. He certainly does more dishes than I do. But this time he was very involved. "Do you need help?" "Can I take pictures for your blog?" "Can I take pictures for our photo album?" "Should I be cutting the onion yet?"

Beginning of the sauce. Cooking the last of the gnocchi.

The cooked piece we pulled out and ate immediately seemed pretty flavorful, fairly good, if a little wetter than I expected. Not soggy, just a bit slimy on the outside.

I threw them in with the sauce, thinking I could use the heat of the pan to crisp up the outside a little.

Attempting to incorporate the sauce and gnocchi. 

But something was horribly wrong.

I don't know what.

My best guess? One of the ingredients in the sauce was past its prime.

My husband's description? I'll stick to the sanitized comment of: "the worst thing we've ever made," and let you imagine the description of the actual flavor. Let's just say we wound up going out for Mexican food.

Internet, you win this round. Big time.

Quilt Coordinating Terry Cloth Back Bib

Since I have a few scraps left from making my Wonky Stacked Coin quilt, I thought it would be nice to make a coordinating terry cloth backed bib.

I sewed together three of the best coordinating (and my personal favorite) fabrics from the remaining scraps and attached them to my terry cloth cut out. Once I'd sewed them together, turned it right side out, and top stitched it, I added a top stitch on either side of my seams to ensure the top is firmly attached and my seams will hold through multiple washings and wearings.

It's backed with a pistachio green - barely visible around the edges and in the mirror. (Yes, I take most of these pictures on my bathroom counter top. It's the best lighting I've got at 2:00 a.m. this time of day.)

This breaks my rule of avoiding white or light backgrounds when working on things for a small child but I can't help it this time. I think these three fabrics are just perfect together. In fact, if this one didn't match the quilt so well, I'd be very tempted to keep it for my someday child.

I have just enough remaining of each of these fabrics to make one more bib or another equally small project.



This is still waiting on closures. I'm planning on making three or four bibs to go to this baby and I'll likely hold off on any closures until I can do all four at once.

7 Photo Saturday: 3.18 - 3.24

Will have to wait.

My camera went to the Grand Canyon with a friend, so I've been relying on my phone this week. It's worked to get a few photos, but either I haven't remembered the photo a day challenge or the photos haven't turned out due to lighting/setting problems. I should get the real camera back tomorrow and I'll either crank them out on Sunday/Monday (if I don't work) or I'll do two pictures a day throughout the week (if I do have work). I'm not sure I've gained any skill with the camera yet, but I've missed having it at hand.

New Capris

This is the story of my new capris:

• Notice three or four tiny holes* in current jeans - while at work. 
• Borrow a car. 
• Drive to the store. 
• Try on every pair of jeans, capris, and shorts within a four size range. 
• Decide against spending $50 on the single pair of shorts that fit. 
• Purchase the only pair of jeans that fit around the waist - despite being 3 inches too short - for a bargain $12
• Bring them home. 
• Try them on again. Decide the high water look isn't working. 
• Pull out a pair of last year's worn out capris and the sharpest shears in the house. 
• Lay the capris on top of the jeans. 
• Cut the jeans to about 2 inches longer than the capris. 
• Figure if this doesn't work, they can be shorts. 
• Turn the raw edge up 1/2 inch. 
• Remove the cat from the measuring tape. 
• Remove the cat from the new jeans. 
• Turn one leg up an additional inch. 
• Remove the cat from the measuring tape. 
• Turn the other leg up an additional inch. 
• Try on new capris. 
• Put them in the wash. 
• Hope they don't shrink too much in the drier. 
• Wear them to band practice the next day. 
• Take a terrible phone picture. 

* Not the kind of holes I can ignore. Do they sell jeans with reinforced thighs? 

Pansy Patch

Nothing like jumping into the deep end without really looking, right?

I'm a very beginner level quilter. But that doesn't stop me from taking on projects way beyond beginner level.

A few months ago my husband and I were walking through JoAnn Fabrics. He suggested I take a look at some of the quilting magazines. I figured it couldn't hurt. I was wrong.

I fell in love with a quilt. Not only that, but I was certain it would make the perfect gift. I ignored the fact that it was smaller pieces than I've ever attempted to sew. I've done a couple log cabin blocks before, but I've never done any complicated piecing or triangle work.

So, I bought the magazine, brought it home, and attempted a practice block.

I suppose it could have been worse.

Ouch.

Worse? That took me nearly 5 hours.

A few months later, I tried again. This time, armed with a rotary cutter, some better measuring tools, and a bit more knowledge.

It's better. Especially if you ignore the dual pink petals where I ran out of the right pink fabric. Most of my petal seams lined up this time, and two of the four green leaf diamonds turned out pretty close to square. I thought this one was close enough for a quick turn so I could practice that other thing I've never done before: hand quilting. In over my head? Why do you ask?

It's better, but still not the quality I want to give.

I mentioned my frustrations to a relative who quilts. In a matter of minutes she whipped this up:

Her square's back is prettier than either of my pansy fronts.

A few weeks later, she told me she had another version and a few tips.

In theory, I'm still working on it. In reality, I haven't had the hours in a row to dedicate to it, so maybe it'll be a Christmas gift. Or a Christmas 2015 gift.

I'm not giving up on it, but I am feeling a little beaten by it I just wanted to concentrate on some things more my skill level first. Also, I got distracted by another project. One I hope to talk about in a few days.

Almost Successful Pumpkin Brownies

Did you know you can make cookies or muffins with only a can of pumpkin and a box of cake mix? I didn't, until Pinterest taught me this wicked trick. Since then, chocolate chip pumpkin cookies have become my go-to treat.

This morning I was craving something sweet, but I didn't have a box of cake mix. I did have brownie mix. So I thought I'd get a little experimental.

I like my brownies a little spicy, so in addition to the cinnamon, I added chili powder, ginger, and nutmeg.

No measuring, I just throw it in until it smells good.

Then add the can of pumpkin (about 15 oz) and stir until well combined.

 And then, because it seemed a little unfinished, a handful of chocolate chips.

 Mix again, then pour into a baking pan.

Looks good enough to eat already - at least to me!

Pop it in the oven according to the directions on the back of the brownie mix.

Now is when I hit my first bump in the road. After 15 minutes, it wasn't anywhere near done. After 30, the edges were done, but the center was still a little soft. At this point, I gave up and pulled it out.

The edges were delicious. The pumpkin flavor came through, as did the cinnamon and chili. The center was a little gooey. That didn't diminish the flavor, but even knowing there isn't any egg in the brownie, it was still difficult to eat that texture.

Lesson learned? Next time I'll try it in a muffin tin or as drop cookies instead.

Wonky Stacked Coin: Bound

After flying through making the front and back for the Wonky Stacked Coin quilt, I took a long break to look for binding. Even once I found the right fabric, it took me a while to start on it. Part of that is because I procrastinate, part of that is because I fall in love with my current work and I'm convinced each step will ruin it. I'm working on that.

After pulling up some bias tape tutorials from my bookmarks bar, I jumped into a bias tape adventure inspired by this tutorial. A little math (the diameter of the quilt to be bound) convinced me I wanted to make a more than the yield of a fat quarter, so I started with a rectangle of fabric about 23 by 48.

When it came to pinning together my parallelogram so the lines matched up, I must have walked back to the office to check the instructions five times in ten minutes. I could not get my head wrapped around what I was supposed to do. But it is exactly as it sounds - pin the lines together. The trick is that you are pinning them to create a spiral with your lines.

Pinning the parallelogram might have taken a little extra time, but once pinned and stitched, the bias tape comes to life quickly. Almost before I knew it I had more bias tape than I knew what to do with! I wrapped it around a free picture frame for easier transportation and went to get my quilt.

Pinned it to the top and stitched it on, one side at a time to allow room for mitered corners.

Turning the binding around the side of the quilt and attaching it on the reverse side was a little more difficult. I wish I'd gone a little larger than 2 inches for the bias tape width - I could have used a little bit more on the corners. Eventually I got it pinned and sewed down. I had hoped to be sewing on the quilt top on one side of the quilt and on the binding on the other, so I used variant color brown thread (my quilting thread) on one side and variant color green thread on the other.

Things didn't stay quite as square as they should have, so I do have a few spots where the brown thread wandered into the bias. While these areas are noticeable, they all occurred on the back of the quilt, so I'm not terribly concerned by them.

Of course I wish it was perfect. I'm tempted to pick out the truly obvious browns on the binding, but I'm not sure how I would truly fix it without removing the binding and starting over. For the moment, I'm going to live with it and see how I feel in a few days.

Now that it's probably done, I can't believe I put this off for so long. Making my own bias tape wasn't as difficult as I'd feared, and even with the wandering brown thread, this method of attaching the binding yielded much smoother results than the previous method I've used.

There's really only one more step - washing it. This is the most worrisome step of all. There are so many ways this could fall apart in the wash. But if it's going to fall apart, I'd rather it do it on me than the recipients. Plus I like to think I can get some of the cat hair out if I wash it.

My camera is currently headed to the Grand Canyon with a friend, so it'll be a week before I can get any better pictures of the quilt as a whole - but there's no rush. Even though it's my third finish (I'm still working on squeezing the giant star through my machine), I probably won't reveal this quilt in whole until after I've given it to the parents-to-be.

Sneak Peek: Wonky Stacked Coin Quilt

Fresh off my finish of my Agent N's sheep in the hills quilt I started a stacked coin style quilt for a special recipient - one who wasn't yet any more than a wistful thought in the minds of two of my dear friends.

I had a blast picking out fabric. Actually, that part might be more fun than the actual quilting most of the time.

The initial fabric choices.

I completed the top and back in a few days (all those straight lines were a breeze after the curves on the hill quilt). In fact, it was basted, quilted, and sitting in a drawer in my dresser the last time these dear friends were at my house.

It sat in that dresser drawer for months while I looked for the perfect binding - which I hadn't thought to look for when I was picking out fabrics.

I finally found a fabric that I hope will be the perfect finishing touch for this slightly wonky stacked coin:

Bright green stripe binding-to-be?

And now that the future recipient is more than thoughts and wishes, I've got the motivation I needed to get back to work. It's past time to wash the binding fabric, attempt to make my own bias tape for the first time, and bind the quilt!

My Second Quilt

My second quilt (and the most time consuming yet) was for my godson, "Agent N."

Those three blobs are sheep, I promise. 

The idea I had in my head was a bit grander than my abilities and I was forced to make some compromises. While things didn't turn out quite how I'd hoped, I got to use some really great fabric in this one. One benefit of all those curves? I got quite a few scraps large enough to use in other projects, namely, the ticker tape quilt I'm working towards.

I got a little ambitious on the quilting for this one as well. It's just about impossible to see against the star sky fabric, but I attempted some quilted stars.

The stars are a little easier to see on the simple, brown backing:

The stars weren't too hard to do - once I got used to the shape - and I think they added a little extra something. My attempt at clouds (yes, that blob with a line through it is supposed to be a cloud) were not quite so successful.

This one was slightly smaller, and easier to give away, than my first quilt but no less special. I don't think I'll take on something quite like this again any time soon, but there's a special sense of accomplishment in creating something straight out of my imagination.