Doodling

When my Christmas trip plans fell apart, I went right out and bought some new fabric to play with. What can I say - it doesn't take much to turn gas money into fabric money at this house! 

Rather than going wintery or Christmasy, I grabbed a layer cake of Noteworthy - and could hardly wait to cut into it!

I didn't really have a plan - though I did have a photo for inspiration. I really just cut off a certain amount of two corners, then re-attached them as best I could. There must be more of a trick to it than that, because despite using a template, a cutting board, and a ruler I still wound up with some unintended wonk to my blocks!

I wish I'd been a bit more cautious in picking what fabric went where, and I wish I'd stuck to my initial plan of avoiding the most text heavy pieces. They don't look bad, but they aren't quite as cute when cut up! But to get the size I wanted, I really needed to use each of the blocks that came in the layer cake - something I didn't learn until I was nearly finished. That made squeezing the text heaviest blocks in a bit more of a challenge, but I think it all worked out.

It didn't take me long to stack and whack the pieces, nor to piece the top. And for once I managed to keep each block in the position I planned for it! I think that's a new record.

I don't have good pictures yet - these short, short days don't offer much opportunity for taking photos, but I'm hoping to get some better light tomorrow.

Busy!

I've been busy around here...

Finishing up a quilt or two...

And finally emptying my sewing trash basket...

And burning a lot of candles...

It's been fun - but I haven't got a lot to show for the effort yet!

Clearly Not Working Today...

A rare occasion to wear nail polish and my real wedding ring.

I've got to take them both off tomorrow when I return to the real world and hop right back into the kind of job that allows neither painted nails nor precious rings, but today I'm going to celebrate and enjoy having a day of my hands looking how I want instead of how work dictates!

It's Christmas Eve

Around here, Christmas Eve usually means dinner, presents, and maybe a holiday movie...

Which it was. And a lovely evening too. I'd thought to come back to the computer and write up a sort of get-out-of-the-humbug-playlist. Then I logged in to my facebook account.

Now my heart is breaking.

A young man I've known all my life and his sisters lost their father tonight.

I knew that man, and I know there are hundreds - maybe thousands - of people who will be impacted by his loss.

But my heart breaks most for my friend and his siblings, who have already lost too much.

Please, amid all your holiday celebrations, take a moment to love each other - because the chance to do so may not come again. And please, take a moment to send thoughts and prayers out for this family - and the too many other families - who are facing a holiday with one less face gathered at the table.

Progress

Improvised Jungle Blocks

Yet to Do: trim excess batting; choose, make, and attach binding; wash

Pansy Patch Project

No recent progress.
Yet to Do: finish piecing tops together, make back, baste, quilt, bind

Happily Ever After Quilt

No recent progress
Yet to Do: baste, quilt, bind, wash, and give away.

Random Camping Blocks: 

Yet to Do: make a back, baste, quilt, bind, wash

Denim Quilt: 

I should stop listing this until I've collected enough denim to actually start stitching the top together. Still just collecting denim.

Pink/Yellow Quilt

No recent progress.
Yet to Do: complete back, baste, quilt, bind, wash

Doodles

Nothing like starting another project instead of finishing the ones on my plate... But when my holiday plans fell through, I took some of the gas money I'd been saving up and hit my new favorite fabric store. I didn't buy the pattern for this, and I think I'm going to regret it. It seems so simple, but I'm worried I'm missing something...

Waiting to Start:

• Teddy Bear Blanket II
• Curtains for kitchen windows 
• 2012 Cross Stitch portrait 
• Mini quilt - book
• Holiday projects? 
• Prairie point garland? 
• 
  

Pinterest Challenge: Meatloaf

Back in our early dating years, I occasionally would attempt to make meat loaf for my husband. As for whether or not I was successful, you'd have to ask him. I mean, it was meat. And it was usually loaf-like, but it wasn't exactly good.

It's actually been more than three years since my last attempt. Which tells you either that I'm not sure what meat loaf should taste like, I really don't like it, or I'm not very good at making it.

Still, my husband orders it just about every chance he gets, so when I found a recipe on Pinterest for making meat loaf with stuffing mix I pinned it for him and figured I'd eventually get around to making it.

Since stuffing was on sale after Thanksgiving, I figured this would be a good time.

I mixed all the ingredients (all four) together and pressed the mixture into a loaf pan.  I had my husband handle the mixing and putting in the loaf pan (I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to touching raw meat). Then we let it bake.

If there's a way to take a photo of meat and have it look at all appetizing, I need to learn it. I know these photos do not do the food justice. 

It was a bit crumbly, not much like a loaf, but the flavor actually was fairly good. My husband requested I make it again this week, and actually, I don't think I'll mind. Although, I might just have him do it all.


**

I guess it's a sign that it's a good recipe when we've made it three more times since I started this post? Either that or I'm really disorganized. Your call.

On the second two attempts, we went with:

1 lb ground beef
1 box stuffing
2 eggs
1/2 cup water

The results were much better, and less likely to fall apart.

Alright, so it's still not a great photo (and no, I don't eat on my cutting board), but it tasted much better.

And the fact that my husband makes it with out any help or prompting, is a bonus.

He's actually the better cook, he just doesn't like to cook alone because I'm so picky! 

More Machine Quilting

It's been ages since I've done anything with the Jungle Blocks Quilt, but between the upcoming end of 2012 and the beginning of Christmas movie season, it's a great time to work on some machine quilting.

One movie to size the batting out of two fairly large leftover pieces and to baste the layers together...

One movie for the quilting and unpinning...

And here we are:

It's a little challenging to see the quilting against the busier fabrics of the front - but I went with mostly straight lines. The distance between the lines is fairly random, although I started out with a more measured plan. Measured lines just weren't looking quite right with the wonky blocks, so I let them get a bit more random.

Although I'd intended to make something a little more special out of my two remaining coordinating fat quarters for the back, let's face it, it just wasn't happening. I went a bit simpler and pulled some orange/white dot fabric from my stash instead.

It's much easier to see the quilting against the simplicity of the back. I tried to rotate the quilt, so I didn't get too many lines stitched in one direction together - which I hoped would keep the back from pulling too much. There's obviously a little pulling, but I'm hopeful that will relax a bit once the quilt is washed.

Now to come up with some binding. I'd been intending to use a soft orange - but now that I went orange on the back, I've got to come up with a different plan. Between the mainly brown front and the mainly orange back, I'm beginning to think about blues, aquas, or greens. My stash is low on yellow, but that's another option. I have a feeling finding binding is going to mean another trip to the fabric store.

And as much as I want the excuse for another trip to the fabric store, I also may hold off on the binding until I have a recipient for this one. As much as I love it, it's going to be for someone else and I might want to save that last bit of worry for when I know who to be thinking of while I do it.

My Day of 12

I've been wanting to try my hand at one of those photo-throughout-my-day things since before I started blogging. So with today being 12/12/12, I thought I'd join in the fun and try to take a photo throughout my day as near to 12 after the hour as possible.

Turns out:

1) My life is pretty boring
2) I do a lot of things in poor lighting
3) I am not good at remembering to do this.

But, what fun is a challenge if I never reveal the results, right?

Ready? Okay!

3:12 a.m. - editing photos for our 2012 photo book

10:12 a.m. - wake up! 

11:12 a.m. - pop over to see my parents

12:12 p.m. - Mom and Dad's tree

1:12 p.m. - working on the photo book again 

2:12 p.m. - attempting to find a backdrop 

3:12 p.m. - bird watching

5:12 p.m. - I didn't want another photo of the computer. This is my husband, watching over my shoulder.

6:12 p.m.  - pie rush double date at VI 

7:12 p.m. - I should figure out what to do with these...

...

9:12 pm - beginning the attempt

10:12 p.m. - almost done with the attempt

11:12 p.m. - writing this post actually... 

Life is pretty dull around here when I have the day off from work and am too worried about breaking down to take the car out on errands (I realized I am not quite finished with my shopping for Christmas gifts).

Actually, it'd look dull anyway - even if it wasn't. Most of my fun is either impossible to share (inside jokes, card games, or music) or relates to something at work (which I try to either not talk about or be very vague over for client privacy reasons). So... yeah, minus all the working bits that would probably only have been cardboard boxes, this is probably a fairly realistic representation of my day.

Well... I'm usually not up until 3:30, nor do I usually get to sleep in until 10 and wake up because I want to (despite all appearances, today Momo actually waited for me to stir before he came poking to see if I would feed him yet). Usually it's more like 1:30 or 2:30 on the staying up part, and 7 or 8 on the getting up part.

As interesting as that was, I think I'll hold off on any more photo challenges like that until I've got a bit more interesting parts to my day... but now you know I guess.

Oh, and the experiment? I'm utterly in love with this little jam jar quilt block I saw Pinterest (where else?), so I thought I'd give a shot at trying to figure it out with out directions. I'd say I need to think it through a bit more (or keep looking for the directions), but it wasn't a total failure:

I actually think I'll hang it next to my computer - where the sticky notes usually hang out. At least for the winter when it can brighten my day a little.

2012 Holiday Digs

I dug out the winter decoration bin over the weekend and got to some decorating.

I'm still on the search for the tree I want. I was beginning to think it's the kind of thing that exists only in my mind - until I saw one last night at the hardware store. Unfortunately, it wasn't for sale (it was only a display for selling things) but at least I know it exists!

But, until I get my hands on the right kind of tree, I've got to be a bit more creative.

This is pretty much the center of our holiday decorations this year. Once upon a time - before my husband and I were engaged - we walked past a free desk outside someone's house. The desk was already split into two parts - one set of drawers, and one set of drawers with the top still attached. So we carried it the four blocks home, into the garage, and straight onto a tarp for painting. With the addition of two little legs and some cream colored paint, the part with the top went on to become a desk (usually called "Momo's Desk" and used either for a sleeping cat or any time I need to use the old Singer sewing machine). The smaller piece got a bold paint, some new handles, but has always been sitting around waiting for a top to be found for it.

I'm still looking for a top, but for the holidays, this cutting board is working fairly well.

On top of the cutting board sits a few ornaments (mostly serving as cat deterrent) and our major Christmas decoration.

With the exception of that large red bag, all the presents we have to give away fit inside the two drawers. Which keeps them out of sight, out of reach of most of the cat hair, and the little jingle bells on the handles keep us honest when it comes to snooping.

Sure, it doesn't give me a way to display our ornaments, but it's simple, fun, free, and I like keeping the bags and temptation out of sight. Whether I find a tree or not, I think I might continue to use this idea of drawers as a base.

It's Beginning to Look a Bit like Christmas...

Last year I was the person running out to get last minute things the night before Christmas. And the year before I was doing last moment shopping Christmas morning. And - well, you see the pattern.

So this year I started thinking about Christmas in July/August.

I held off on decorating until after Thanksgiving - of course - but this year I was earlier than usual in swapping from 'fall' to Christmas/winter-y decor. The stockings are hung (by the laundry machine with care, because that's where the empty coat hooks are), and the tiny tree we got in our college days has made an appearance:

But anything else has been slow to appear - partly because I'm still searching for the kind of tree I want. I have a fairly good idea what I'm after, but I've yet to find it in a size I want (I'm looking for between 22" and 36") for a price I'm willing to pay (sorry $120 version, and $75 version). I'm about to the point of breaking out a welder and trying to make my own. Or seeing if I can bribe my father into giving it a go.

Without a tree, I have to get a bit more creative about putting up lights and ornaments, so those items are still waiting on their reveal. I can do what I've done in the past - but I'm really hoping to have a tree so I can finally break out the ornaments we purchased our last two Christmases (first two as married people) instead of leaving them tissue wrapped for another year.

That said, I got a little bored over the weekend and whipped up something to add to the decor around here.

Starting with some greens and a brown dot from my rather large scrap pile (I love those brown dots, purchased for Baby C's Stacked Coin quilt. I don't know what I'll do when I run out), then adding a fat quarter of cream that came with my used sewing machine, and a little aqua binding left over from Half Square Quilt and ending up with this:

I suppose in the barest technical sense it's a tiny quilt. I went through the usual process, though the quilting a very minimal stitch around each tree block.

And yes, I realized after I put it all together that I should have put a little more thought into the placement of my trees. When I said that to my husband, he pointed out they were light, medium, dark. I had meant solid, stripes, patterns. Whoops!

It didn't turn out quite how I'd intended - and I lost two trees along the way due to sloppy stitching on my part - but it adds a bit more festiveness to the kitchen, and it's kind of nice to have a home made holiday decoration. It's my first one - well, first since the days of hot gluing candy canes during school art classes... So it seems about time for me to turn some of my crafty inclinations, and my scrap piles, toward home made decorations again.

Angel Food Apple Cake

I've enjoyed the angel food cake + fruit cakes I've made in the past - so when I saw someone try it with apple pie filling, I knew this was going to happen. The sooner the better.

It's the same as ever: 1 box angel food cake mix, 1 can of pie filling.

Because the apple slices were so larger, I debated putting the apples through the food processor first. Ultimately, I was too lazy. The larger pieces were a bit tricky to mix with the cake mix, but nothing too complicated.

Slight golden color to the exterior...

White and fluffy - around slices of baked apple - in the interior.

As for the taste? I liked it, more than the berry versions I've done in the past. It was certainly the right flavor for Thanksgiving season. I did still wish I'd chopped the apples into smaller pieces though. My husband wanted to know if it was a different brand of cake mix than usual (no) because he thought the contrast between the tart/cinnamon of the apple and the sweet of the cake was too great.

So, one fan, one on the fence.

But the biggest problem came the next day when I went back for another slice. There was no slicing involved. The left over cake was beyond moist, beyond damp, and can only be described as wet. I hadn't anticipated it needing any more overnight care than the other versions, so I had only covered it (as I have with all the others) and left it on the counter top. Disappointingly, it was beyond saving.

I thought the flavor was good, and it's still just about the easiest thing to make, so I think I'll try it again. But with smaller apple pieces. And I'll try to use more than two slices on the first day, just in case I haven't figured out how to keep it overnight.

99% Finished Quilted Bag

Stitching on the handle was not easy. If I ever make another bag like this, I am certainly going to try attaching the handles earlier - after the panel is quilted, but before the side panels are attached. Stitching it on after the bag took on a more dimensional shape required a bit of trickery in turning the bag partly inside out and squeezing it through the machine.

Here's a shot of the floral inside - taken during the process of attaching the handles:

If you look carefully, you can see a single line of stitching running across the handle near the binding. This - along with a line of stitching along the edge of the handle pieces all the way along the outside - is enough to hold the handle in place, but not enough to risk putting anything with much weight in the bag.

Once the handles were attached, I turned the line of stitching near the binding into a rectangle - stitching several times across each needed line - then fitted an X across the rectangle. Again, with several layers of stitching. I did the same across the center of the base, concentrating mostly where the strap fabric overlapped. I hope that holds it. I really don't want to stitch this down again.

So what's with the 99% finished thing? My plan is to add one more piece to give just a bit more structure to the base - probably a piece of wood or plastic just to give a bit more support in the base.

There's room for my sewing machine - and room for a little more too.

I think this is going to make taking the machine along on trips a little easier. Sure, I'll need something a little sturdier if I should ever happen to fly with the machine (not a plan) or take a ride in a carpool (more likely, but still not exactly a plan). So it's not a forever fix, but I think it'll do nicely for now. And even if it doesn't, I still had a blast with it - and I can at least carry my other tools and the baby quilt I'm working on at the moment in it - which makes it a win win win in my book!

Coming Together

I think I'm just about finished with my quilted bag - and I've still been grinning away with every step.

I did end up making bias tape for the binding to cover the raw outer edges of the bag.

I went with my usual machine stitch application (stitching on then folding over), which meant feeding the bag through twice. I worried it would be difficult, but compared to attaching the side panels (pink) to the edges (brown), it was actually fairly straight forward and only very slightly more difficult than putting binding on a quilt.

I remembered to take a slightly better picture of the kind of quilting I applied to the side panels.

 

Even though it doesn't show much of the whole, I love this picture of the details - both the binding on the outer edges and the clean fold on the side panel, and a little bit of the diamond-ish quilting from the aqua floral side. Okay, it also shows the continuing battle with bobbin tension (I met with a Janome expert who found a little problem with the machine, but said that overall my particular machine is probably just a little finicky and needs a slightly higher tension setting than standard. Sigh.)

After the binding was added, I had a fairly finished bag, ready for handles. I have a feeling this is going to be the most difficult part.

I debated adding the handles after the quilting but before much else. That might have made adding the binding a little more challenging, so I didn't. I may yet regret that...