Tangerine & Turquoise

I'm moving

2009-12-29T23:15:00.002-06:00

I have a new blog address: http://www.tangerineandturquoise.com/!

Please update your bookmarks and readers, as I won’t be posting here anymore.

For my Christmas gift, Will secretively set everything up for me. I wasn’t planning on having a new blog this quickly, so I am thrilled with my present. I can cross one item off my list now.

I’m still fiddling with everything and making some changes and additions. Once I had my pretty new blog, I wanted to start using it as soon as possible instead of waiting for it to be perfect. There are so many more options on Wordpress, and it’s been a little overwhelming trying to figure all of them out. The only bad thing is that I’ve lost all of my Typepad Connect comments. Supposedly they are working on a way to export them, but that was back in May so I’m not holding my breath. When/if there is a solution, I’ll export them.

So, come visit my new site and tell me what you think! I think I have a pretty great husband.

R.E.L.A.X.

2009-12-28T14:34:00.001-06:00

It is 2:18pm and I am still in my pjs. This is the first day since school got out that I was able to do nothing. I had no food to make, nothing to sew or assemble, nothing to wrap, and no one we had to visit. We stayed at home, and while the kids played in the bug house and drew with their new art materials, I got to play with the Christmas present Will made for me. It’s been a lot of fun, but I still have some learning to do. I’m hoping it will be ready soon, because I am very very excited.

I just realized there is leftover Beef Wellington in the fridge. I think I’m off the hook for dinner. Sweet! Off to do more of nothing…

Yesterday, the Day Before and Today

2009-12-26T21:57:00.006-06:00

They were all lovely.

A few seemingly quiet moments. With two houses full of family and kids, they weren't. But we all had a good time, and I loved watching my children enjoy everything so much. Now for some rest...

More Teacher Gifts

2009-12-16T20:29:00.005-06:00

A few days ago, I realized this is the last week of school before Winter Break. That meant I had to figure out teacher gifts and sew them up quickly. I decided to sew something small and fun I had wanted to make for a while, Erin's coffee cozy. It also looked easy and fast, which I needed since each of my children have two teachers. Erin's final presentation ends up being a paper to-go cup with the cozy on the outside and a gift card to a local coffee place on the inside. Add a tag, and the gift is complete.

I wanted to make patchwork cozies, so I chose scrap fabrics for a warm colorway and a cool colorway. I mixed quilter's cotton, with home decor weight and linen. I had a lot of long strips for the warm colorway, so I was able to cut out two exteriors from the same piece which saved me a little time. I chose high loft cotton batting for the inside, which I actually wouldn't recommend. I figured it might be nicer if the cozies had some extra padding and insulation, but the high loft batting made the cozy harder to turn, the points rounded, and overall it was a little too bulky. Whenever I try to use some of my leftover high loft batting, it usually doesn't turn out well.

The piecing for the exteriors took the longest, but Erin is right as she wrote today - this project is fast. The pattern and instructions are easy and easy to follow. I printed the cozy page on cardstock to make a sturdier template. By the end of last evening, I had 4 completed coffee cozies and I even had time to sew the buttons on. Agnes's teachers received theirs today and they loved them. I'm pretty sure Ely's teachers will feel the same tomorrow. I always wish I could do a little more for them, because they do so much for my children, but at least I can give them something pretty and functional, and also let them get a special treat or two for themselves. I hope they enjoy their vacation, because on January 5th I'm sure I'll be more than ready for school to begin again.

Decorate

2009-12-14T18:37:00.005-06:00

Remember when I was trying to figure out what to do with my big bag of fabric selvedges and thread waste? Well this weekend, I realized it would be perfect stuffing for Stephanie's soft trees. I've been meaning to make some for 3 years now - ever since I saw the wonderful trees made for the window at Purl Patchwork - but the trees always get pushed aside for gift sewing. The kids and I spent Saturday morning at home in pjs, and while they played, I got to sew. I managed to get 3 little trees done before lunchtime, and I have plans for some larger ones. This pattern is great for using up all sorts of odds and ends - fabric scraps, random buttons, almost done spools of thread, small pieces of ribbon or lace, and I found that my fabric waste made the perfect stuffing since the trees look cutest when they are slightly lumpy. I did stuff the tree tops with regular cotton stuffing in order to get the tips filled out, but used then the fabric and thread waste for the rest, with a layer of lentils at the very bottom. The kids thought they were wonderful, and I love how you can make these trees out of virtually anything.

Now to figure out how to make french knots! I have trees I want to decorate.

Food Gifts, Part 2

2009-12-13T14:45:00.003-06:00

So what happens when someone or a family has a nut allergy and I can't make my famous spiced nuts? I make my second favorite food gift, maple popcorn. The recipe is vegan and nut free, so it is great for people with allergies or with specific food restrictions. Though if you desire, you can always add nuts to it (my friend Paige - who is the source of this recipe - likes to add buttered almonds).

I first had maple popcorn at the end-of-the-season CSA potluck picnic. In the food tent was a large brown grocery bag with maple popcorn written on it, full of yummy looking popcorn. I put a large handful on my plate, alongside my other food choices, and brought it back to our picnic blanket. I think I only ate one or two pieces, because Ely devoured the whole pile in less than a minute. I had to go back for more (and probably for more again). Next year at the same picnic, we arrived at the same time as my friend Paige, and I saw she was carrying a large brown grocery bag with maple popcorn written on the front. "Did you bring that last year?" I asked. She replied that she did, and that maple popcorn is one of her family's favorite treats and something she often brings to potlucks or parties. Needless to say, I procured the recipe from her and it has become a favorite of ours too. When dinner is skimpy or a letdown, maple popcorn is a must. Trader Joe's has very large, inexpensive glass bottles of maple syrup and there is always one in our fridge.

Maple Popcorn

I've found that 6 Tbsp of popcorn kernels will fit nicely in a 6 quart lidded saucepan. This is the perfect amount for an afternoon or evening treat. To make larger quantities, double or triple this recipe and pop your kernels in a large, lidded stockpot. The recipe below is light on the maple syrup - if you want every piece of popcorn coated, then increase the maple syrup to 1/2 cup or more.

-6 Tbsp popcorn kernels (buy small amounts frequently because popcorn dries out quickly and won't pop as nicely, I've also found that the cheap grocery store brand is usually tastier and pops better than anything organic or in the bulk bins)

-3 tsp canola oil (or whatever vegetable oil you like to use)

-1/3 c. maple syrup (I use grade B, but whatever you like best will work)

-1-2 Tbsp of water

-ground sea salt to taste

-optional toasted nuts like peanuts, almonds, pecans, etc.

Pop your popcorn in a heavy, lidded saucepan or stockpot on the stove over medium heat, shaking the pan frequently. Dump the finished popcorn into a brown paper bag and season to taste with sea salt. If you want nuts in your maple popcorn, add them to the paper bag with the popcorn. In a small heavy, lidded saucepan, bring the maple syrup and water to a boil. The syrup needs to reach soft ball stage, so either use a candy thermometer or keep checking to see when a tiny drop of syrup forms a ball in a glass of water. The syrup heats slowly at first, then progresses rapidly at the end so keep your eye on it. If the mixture gets too hot and reaches hard ball stage, the popcorn won't turn out quite right. When the syrup is candied, drizzle over the popcorn in the bag, close the top and shake vigorously to mix everything together. Let cool before eating or storing. For gifts, package up in bags or tins.

Food Gifts, Part 1

2009-11-30T13:51:00.007-06:00

It's that time of year again. Yesterday, I spent part of the afternoon compiling my various gift wish and gifts given lists on my computer from last year's and from the random notes in the blank book I carry in my purse. I really try to keep everything simple and handmade (by me or someone else), but I do like to give a little something to neighbors, friends, and of course the many teachers in my children's lives.

This is when I turn to food gifts, and my absolute favorite treat to make and give are spiced pecans. Everyone always raves about them, and I've given out the recipe at least a hundred times. They aren't a dessert, so you don't have to worry about the guilt associated with cookies or fudge, and they will keep for a while in a sealed container (though not in my house, as Will wrecks havoc on the spiced pecan stash). They are good to eat by themselves, and I always have a bowl of them at any party I throw. One of my favorite salads is spinach with apples or pears, thinly sliced red onions, goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette topped with spiced pecans.

Ely's school has their Winter fundraiser on Saturday and we are having our business's 3rd anniversary party that evening. This morning I made 6 lbs (24 cups) of spiced pecans for the two events, and it only took me 45 minutes. For the baked goods area or for friends, I package one cup amounts in labeled cellophane bags tied with ribbon.

If you buy big bags of pecans (like at Costco) or nuts in bulk, you can easily double or quadruple the recipe below. I've found that 8 cups of nuts (a 2 lb bag) will fit on one half sheet pan.

Spiced Pecans

Adapted from Southern Table by Frank Stitt; makes 4 cups

-4 c. pecan halves

-1.5 tsp kosher salt

-pinch of freshly ground pepper

-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

-1 Tbsp dark brown sugar (if you only have light like I seem to, add a tiny bit of molasses)

-1 Tbsp freshly chopped rosemary leaves (do not substitute dried or leave out)

-1 Tbsp melted butter (if you need these to be vegan, you can just add extra olive oil)

-2 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 350. Place pecans on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl. When pecans are done, add to bowl and toss together until thoroughly coated. Return pecans to baking sheet and bake for 2-3 more minutes until toasted and fragrant. Watch carefully, because the pecans can burn in a matter of seconds.

33

2009-11-24T07:00:00.005-06:00

Ah, symmetry. I normally have a problem with remembering how old I am, but I think this year will be different with such an easy number. As it's almost the end of the year, I just happened to be reviewing January's list. Not much got accomplished, but I can cross off at least one thing in every category, so I'm happy and it's time to move on.

So here is my new list. These are things just for me, things to do before I turn 34 and can no longer remember my age again:

1. plant bulbs for Spring

2. make a rain barrel

3. dig out the tent (or more likely borrow a larger one) and go camping with the family and dog

4. really practice practice practice free motion quilting on my machine

5. quilt a quilt using free motion

6. make spring rolls

7. learn a cook a few other tasty ethnic dishes

8. spend the weekend away with Will - I'm thinking either Birmingham or Louisville

9. sew a skirt and a dress for me

10. wear more skirts

11. find the (almost) perfect pair of boots and ballet flats so #9 will happen

12. learn to use my gocco

13. make an Alabama Chanin bloomers skirt

14. write more, especially my children's birth stories before I forget all the details

15. work on finishing off all the film in my refrigerator

16. find a photo lab that still prints contact sheets, not just scans negatives for a digital print

17. build a stone/gravel patio in our backyard for a firepit

18. invite friends over to enjoy #17

19. find a local organic/no spray place for u-pick berries or fruit

20. buy an sx-70

21. weed out my closet and repair, dye or recontruct anything that is still good but not quite right

22. move my blog to wordpress

23. zumba every week

24. bake more bread

25. institute homemade pizza night on Fridays for real

26. paint a magnetic chalkboard in the kitchen

27. get fancy drinks at Patterson House

28. rescue my old files off of the 2.25 discs

29. get a jade plant and an orchid and keep them alive

30. eat hot chicken at Prince's 'cause it's been way too long

31. find or have made the perfect menorah

32. sew the family Christmas stockings

33. and finally... I will paint the hallway

My Kitchen is Yellow

2009-11-21T20:35:00.003-06:00

After three days of painting, the kitchen is done and the gray is g o n e. No more feeling depressed and blah during the Winter, while I'm stirring something on the stove. Luckily, I started this repainting project about 7 weeks ago, because it took me that long to paint swatches, prime over those swatches, paint more swatches, then finally decide on a color. I originally thought blue because I love blue, but that didn't look right. Green wasn't the right choice either, and though I was briefly tempted by white, I knew I wanted color. It finally dawned on me to use yellow, specifically the shade of the interior of our old house. That house had more windows and better facing ones, but that color yellow was definitely part of the reason there was so much pretty light.

I've been devoted to zero/low VOC paints for almost 5 years now, when we moved into this house, and needed to repaint some rooms immediately (can you say Pepto Bismal pink bathroom?). I was 7 months pregnant, so paint was a big worry for me but the low VOC paint made it a breeze. There are so many more options now in a variety of price ranges than 5 years ago, when stores often had to special order the zero VOC bases. I decided to use Benjamin Moore's Aura, because it is known for its super durability and easy-to-wipe-clean surfaces, all important for a kitchen. I'm not sure I would use this paint again, as it was very thick and dries almost immediately, forcing you to paint as fast as you can while simultaneously preventing you from blending your old strokes with your new ones. The second coat was easier than the first and the final surface does look great, but I'll probably stick to what I've used in the past like Ben or Sherwin Williams' Harmony or maybe I'll finally try out the Mythic paint a local nursery/brewing supply store carries. But first, I got to decide on a shade of red for the dining room.

I hope it isn't too early to force paperwhites for the holidays. We're hosting our third anniversary party in a couple of weeks, so besides painting I'm planning menus and trying to get the house looking nice and pretty. My reward for finishing the kitchen was going to Target to buy a big glass vase, so I could start my paperwhite bulbs. Unfortunately, I ran out of stones. Maybe I can raid my mother-in-law's house tomorrow? - she loves to collect rocks and a handful wouldn't even put a dent in her collection.

Booklog: November 2009

2009-11-11T07:00:00.003-06:00

The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
It's not Bel Canto, and the story and characters are somewhat implausible, but I enjoyed this Ann Patchett book just the same. I like seeing how her writing progresses from her earlier books to her later ones.

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
My first Vowell book, and definitely not my last. Funny and educational is a winning combination.

Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child by Noel Riley Fitch
This is what a great biography is all about - a collection of small details you shouldn't care about or find interesting, but you do because Fitch was able to put them all in one place and create a marvelous tale about a woman named Julia. Though I could hardly stand to read about all the years after Paul got sick, because he and Julia were wonderful together, and it was just too sad to read about him leaving her life mentally then physically.

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee
McNamee can't quite pull off for Alice what Fitch did for Julia, but I loved reading about the early years of Alice Water's life and the beginnings of Chez Panisse. I dined there 5 years ago, and the actual experience and food surpassed everything I had heard about the restaurant. It was fun to find out more about how that night of olives, local salad, quail, and raspberry souffle came to be.

Julia Child by Laura Shapiro
The Rachael Ray version of Julia's life.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Half a fascinating and horrifying account of a young Hmong girl with epilepsy living in California, and half a history and description of the Hmong people. I could not put the odd chapters down, but found the even ones a little boring and drawn out.

As a Friend by Forrest Gander
A lovely, lovely, small book. Beautiful writing that only a poet could achieve.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
I had to take a break with this after I got 1/3 of the way through. I read his Shadow of the Wind for my bookclub a couple of years ago and we all loved it. This new book was supposed to be better, but it wasn't. Not even close.

The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller
I read Lost in the Forest by Miller 3 years ago and I'm not sure why it took me so long to get back to her. Not quite as good as that one, but still an entertaining, late Summer read.

Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman
Waldman has gotten a lot of criticism in the past for some of her essays (one in particular about loving her husband more than her children), but I found myself saying, "oh yes," many many more times than I said, "oh no." While this book is filled with funny and sweet moments, there is one profoundly heartbreaking moment. I closed this book feeling thankful Waldman wrote with such honesty about her motherhood.

The (Very Late) End of the Garden Notes

2009-11-10T21:39:00.003-06:00

It's now mid-November, and I originally started this post at the beginning of October when I remembered I never wrote my garden notes for September. I'm trying to catch up with everything unfinished, so here it is:

By mid-September, we were mentally done with the garden. There was still okra and some tomatoes, but the blight finally got to my vines and everything started to look crispy. I figured the squirrels and birds can get what is left.

Originally I thought I would have planted some winter vegetables for the Fall like brussels sprouts and chard. I didn't realize that my little plot would be completely full, and nothing would be done early enough to plant for the Fall/Winter. Next year, I'm going to make sure there is some empty space for all those delicious green things that come up after it gets cold.

Our goal for next year is to till a much larger plot, and have more room and rows to reach our vegetables. Nothing was more frustrating that being unable to reach half of the stuff, because it was so dense and just plain inaccessible from the outside. I can't decide what I should do with the little plot we made this year - I'm thinking of either planting garlic or asparagus, or maybe rhubarb. I need to refer to some of books to see how asparagus and garlic do together, because maybe I'll just plant both. Though I might be too late for any of those now.

The other thing I am going to do soon is start covering the ground to make some more beds the easy way and plant bulbs. I'm not letting another Spring go by wishing for more flowers than the few tulips I get that grow inside a bush. My mother-in-law is gathering seeds from all her dead flowers right now, and she is saving some of everything for me! There is a wonderful book I discovered a few years ago called The Way We Garden Now by Katherine Whiteside. It is full of easy projects to improve your yard no matter if your yard is an acre (or more) of lawn, less than a quarter acre, a brick patio behind a condo, or a balcony in the city. The instructions are simple to follow and the whole book is filled with whimsical watercolors by Peter Gergely. If I even get to a handful of Katherine's projects in the coming year, my outside life will lovelier, yummier, and more colorful than this year.

Reorganizing

2009-11-09T14:04:00.005-06:00

My sewing area has been a disaster for far too long (as in months and months and months). It's not much fun to sew wedged in a tiny corner of your sewing table by a mountain of fabric and other sewing accoutrements. With holiday sewing fast approaching and a bunch of unlistened-to This American Life podcasts, I decided to tackle the big project I'd been avoiding.

While I haven't bought much fabric in the past year, I have accumulated more and more small pieces of fabric. I think is is because I've begun quite a few quilt tops on a whim, all of which are still in progress. What used to be mostly fat quarters or half yards, is now a huge pile of pieces too big for the scrap box but too small to be folded neatly on a shelf. I decided I need to scrap (ha!) my current scrap system - one plastic bin for warm colors and one for cool colors stored on the shelf next to my sewing machine - and expand my definition of scrap. I cleared out most of the plastic filing drawers I use to store materials and current projects, which gave me three small drawers and one large drawer to work with. The large drawer is now for large scraps, and the three smaller drawers are for small warm scraps, small cool scraps, and tiny and irregular scraps. Most of the tiny scraps are just about useless, but I hate to throw them away and I know there are some nifty ideas like this one for using up tiny scraps which I'll probably attempt in the future. Even though I am usually not this way, I decided to label the drawers with the label maker we use at the office. Now that my scraps are reorganized and labeled, and the filing drawers are under my sewing table away from the little hands which like to open them up and dump them onto the floor, I feel like I have gotten somewhere with this reorganization project.

The last thing I don't really know what to do with is my paper bag filled with thread waste, and selvedges, and any kind of scrap that is just two narrow to sew into patchwork. It seems like I could stuff something with all this waste, but I'm afraid a pillow or softie or whatever I made would end up really lumpy. So tell me, do you hold on to this stuff? What do you do with it? Am I a crazy, frugal woman for holding onto it? Should I just chuck it into the nearest trash can?

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:26:00.003-05:00

Says the Jedi and the Elephant. Hope you had a great evening full of tricks and treats. We sure did.

More on the homemade parts of the costumes later.

Hello

2009-10-23T16:23:00.003-05:00

I'm here. Between sickness (me), Fall Break (Agnes), and more sickness (Ely), I've been otherwise occupied this week.

I have learned that sewing from Oliver + S patterns is a delight. My second garment ever, and first real dress for Agnes, is almost done. Hopefully I can do a little hand sewing tonight while watching Aliens. Yes, Aliens.

Be back soon, hopefully tomorrow. I haven't forgotten about my giveaway.

Good Things

2009-10-16T09:20:00.003-05:00

The week is almost done, and it's been a good one:

-Our company was named one of the Best of Nashville by the local, weekly publication. Starting your own business is one of the hardest things we've ever done, and it feels good to know you are doing something well and that other people are noticing. Kudos to all our great employees who helped make this happen as much as Will did.

-Three baby-free workdays, as Agnes started mother's day out this week. She is having a blast, and I get to use my entire brain while in the office.

-My parents buying us our Christmas gift now. Almost 8 years ago, two nights before my wedding, this unknown group wowed me and my friends at my favorite small place to hear music, and now Will and I get to see them on New Year's Eve at my favorite large place to hear music. Plus a night of free babysitting.

-My annoying stomach illness is gone and this cold seems to be on it's way out.

-I get to buy some fabric today to make Ely's Halloween costume. Plus, I figured out that part of the costume can be made from the Oliver + S Bedtime Story Pajamas, so I got to buy that pattern as well. I have a feeling the latest issue of Stitch will also jump into my cart today.

-Upcoming Sunday dinner with friends

-Picking out our free pumpkin at Whole Foods after school today

-Friends coming into town next week for their first visit back since they moved in May, and the early Halloween party we are having for all the kids.

-Nicer weather on the horizon after a cold and rainy week

Also a reminder - if you are interested in my Alabama Stitch Book inspired moleskine journal, leave a comment under this post. I haven't looked at the comments yet, and probably won't until Saturday morning but time is running out. Have a good weekend!

Where the Writing Takes Me

2009-10-12T17:02:00.000-05:00

One year ago today, I began this blog. I had wanted to start a blog for more than a year before, as a place where I could keep track of what I made through words and photographs. I'm not a very good documentarian and most of what I make, I make with the intention of giving it to someone else. My kids are going to be very disappointed when they look at their baby books and ask "Is this it?" Every diary or journal I've started has ended after a few pages. I did spend months of my life photographing myself as I slept, but that project has been long abandoned. I've enjoyed knowing that last October I spent a whole Saturday sewing coasters, and it's been easy for me to locate my favorite gin mojito recipe when I've misplaced the scrap of paper mine is written on at home. But, the best part of this has been experiencing where the writing has taken me.

Even though I thought this blog would be heavy on craft and cooking, all sorts of other things have crept in here. I might sit down during naptime (like right now), or at night once the little people in the house are asleep, with the intention of writing about the baby quilt I just finished after a year in the making. But then - somehow - the post becomes about the Tashlich service I went to a few days earlier, and the paper prayer I grabbed from my husband's hand and slipped into my purse before he could recycle it. I know I intended to just write another post in a world of posts about the making of a quilt, but somewhere in the process of me typing, my mind suddenly realized that the story of me making a quilt was so obviously tied to other experiences and thoughts in my life. That is the magic of writing about something. That is the magic of watercoloring over the lines of a white crayon drawing on a white sheet of paper. All those connections were always there, I just couldn't see them before.

If you've been along for any part of this journey and indulged me over the past year, then I thank you. My husband loves to tells me I'm a good writer and I usually respond by rolling my eyes, but I admit I do enjoy it. One of my favorite discoveries this year was realizing how much I like the process of hand sewing. I doubt I would have picked up this book and started stitching if I hadn't seen it and the resulting fabulous projects on many of my daily blog reads. While I was supposed to use my moleskine journal with the hand stenciled and stitched jersey cover myself, I'd rather send it out into the world for someone else to enjoy. If you are interested in this journal, leave me a comment by the end of Friday and I'll draw a name.

Looking forward to year #2.

On A Roll

2009-09-24T13:10:00.001-05:00

When my son was born, he got a quilt I made. The only reason I was able to give Ely this gift was because right before I found out I was pregnant with him, I took a beginning quilt class where I made and completed a crib size quilt. I originally made the smallest size so that I would be sure to finish it by the time the 6 week class was over, but then it seemed like serendipity that I chose to make a quilt for a baby when I was going to have one of my own. At the end of 2007, I was 7 months pregnant with #2 and had already decided this baby was not going to get a Momma-made quilt. I had no time and was tired from being pregnant, working 30 hours a week, and taking care of the family. But then the Purl Bee posted a new project designed by Molly for a zig zag quilt and I fell in love. The design was great, the fabrics were great, and the quilt was in my colors. Since I didn't know the sex of my baby, the zig zag quilt was the perfect non-boring, gender neutral quilt (though Molly does talk about how you can choose other color combinations.) So, I started a quilt for the baby with 2 months to go.

I replaced a few of the fabric choices with ones I already had, but I did order 2-D zoo by Alexander Henry since that fabric seemed to make the quilt. I remember when it arrived - it was even lovely and softer than I thought it would be. The piecing of the quilt was easy. The quilting was easy too, though by now my baby - a girl! - was 6 months old. I machine sewed the binding on the front, then procrastinated on hand sewing it to the back. At Christmastime, I got my sister-in-law to give me a lesson on blind stitching and I finished the quilt with a few weeks to go until Agnes's first birthday. I meant to put a label on it and give it to her as my gift, but I never did. Now more than 6 months later and feeling invigorated by finishing Jesse's quilt, I pulled Agnes's quilt out and quickly made a label using a kona cotton square that was already cut out and a micron pen. One episode of The Office, and the label was sewn on and the quilt was done!

It feels good to finish two big projects in the same week.

A small note about comments - If you leave me a comment, I'm going to reply under it. It makes a lot of sense to do it that way with Typepad nested comments, and I'm not so good about replying to emails. Thanks!

Dogs and Frogs

2009-09-22T12:45:00.014-05:00

I started this quilt for a special baby in the womb more than a year ago. My plan was to give it to him or her soon after the birth, so I could sew a personalized label on the back with the baby's name and birth date. Well the baby was born - a sweet boy named Jesse! - and the quilt was finished within a few weeks of his birth, except for hand sewing the last couple of inches of the binding. And so it sat for a year. Clearly I have a procrastination problem, especially where hand sewing is involved. I always think I hate hand sewing, but once I start I remember that I actually enjoy it. How could someone who loves to make things a la the Alabama Stitch Book hate hand sewing?

This past Sunday was the annual Tashlich service at my church. Tashlich is the Jewish ritual usually performed on Rosh Hashanah of the casting away (often by throwing breadcrumbs into a moving body of water) and examination of your sins of the past year. It makes a lot of sense to me to do this at this time. Fall always feels like a beginning, because a new year of school has started, and the lush green Summer starts to fade as the trees and plants end their growing cycle and start preparing for the next. While I usually make a bunch of resolutions on New Year's day, I've been participating in Tashlich for a few years now* and it seems a much more meaningful way to reflect and change than writing down exercise 3-5 times a week or cook more vegetables for dinner on a piece of paper. As I thought about Jesse's quilt and hand sewing, I remembered a line from the Tashlich prayer: Let us cast away the sin of stubbornness, so that we will neither persist in foolish habits nor fail to acknowledge our will to change. A foolish habit indeed. I have pinned the prayer to the bulletin board above the computer and near my sewing area, where I keep not only my inspirations but the things I want to remember. But even though baby Jesse did not receive this quilt, I still think one year old Jesse will enjoy it.

Now, a few details about the quilt. Jesse's parents love dogs and the dad also has a bizarre passion for frogs, so I couldn't think of better fabric to use for this quilt than animal prints by Heather Ross. I kept the front simple with 8 inch squares paired with a cream border. I decided to piece the binding which was fun and something I will do again in the future, since I really liked how it created a subtle border with little pops of color. I like to make the back of my quilts reference the front but almost be a new quilt, so I chose brighter colors along with a strip of rejected squares from the front. I knew I wanted the turquoise fabric somewhere in this quilt, because it is from a bolt I bought at one of our auctions and Jesse's dad works with us. For the label, I used the method in Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts which I love and first used for this quilt along with a micron pen. The quilting is just a simple grid I've seen a lot of other quilters use, and I like how it creates a frame in each of the squares. I was hoping to get some better photographs but it's been raining here for nearly two weeks, so inside on the bed was the best I could do. In retrospect, I should have put a sheet on first, but I didn't realize how bad the mattress cover looked until after the gift was given at Jesse's first birthday party and I finally had a moment to sit down and upload all the photos I took that day. Another foolish act, but probably not a sin.

*Even though I'm half Jewish, we never celebrated Rosh Hashanah in my home growing up. It wasn't until I started attending a Unitarian Universalist church which uses rituals and sources from many religions, did I learn about Tashlich.

(Not So) Patiently Waiting

2009-09-16T20:45:00.001-05:00

Have you seen this? (Be sure to click on the preview on the right side of the page.)

I am beyond excited now. I wanted a dress and I wanted the lotus stencil, and both are in the book, sometimes even together! I have a feeling my birthday and holidays list will be comprised solely of organic cotton jersey yardage.

September Ramblings

2009-09-15T13:55:00.005-05:00

School has started and my calendar is quickly filling up. I'm packing lunches and making pb&j, but there isn't much making in the rest of my life. I was made an aunt though(!), which means I'd better return to my sewing machine soon to finish up some secret projects. I'm back at work in the mornings with my 19 month old assistant, and we are busy busy busy. I guess the economy has finally picked up? It's nice to feel like we aren't flatlining anymore. We finally got ripe brandywine tomatoes from the garden, and they are amazing. I've noticed several new fruits on the plant and I'm hoping they will ripen before everything peters out. It's a good thing the family never gets tired of okra because we are still getting plenty. I went back to washing my hair with baking soda, and can't figure out why I ever stopped? We are still walking in the evenings after dinner, but every night it is a little darker when we set out than the night before. Summer is definitely starting to fade.

So far, it's been a month of nice changes.

Garden Notes, End of August

2009-08-29T17:00:00.002-05:00

-It's more fun to throw rotten tomatoes at the wall than into the compost bin.

-Planting basil right next to the tomatoes is a very bad idea. They won't get enough sun and die, and by the time you have a lot of ripe tomatoes all the basil will be gone.

-Late blight hasn't hit my garden (yet), but some of my tomatoes have an unknown disease, especially the Brandywine and Mule Team ones.

-Ignoring the okra for 2 days leads to 10 inch long pods or pods with a 2 inch diameter. It's okay because they still taste good.

-We all agree that eating fried okra every night is not a bad thing.

-Sun helps make tomatoes sweet, and a weird, wet, cold Summer means none of my huge red ripe tomatoes are sweet. The Hawaiian Currants are sublime though.

-Cutting the Hawaiian Currants off the vine is better than pulling them. They tend to split easily, then get moldy before you can eat all of them.

-It's impossible to convince an 18 month old not to pick the green tomatoes.

-By late Summer, the squash have mildew and the zinnias have rust.

-Even with a small garden, sharing the harvest with friends and family is necessary.

-With a small garden, it is hard to do a second planting for Fall, especially if nothing is dead yet, leaving you with no empty space for the dreamed about chard and beets.

-The unknown volunteer winter squash are still unknown. Prolific but unknown.

Gift for a New Mom

2009-08-27T07:00:00.003-05:00

My sister-in-law just turned 30. Meg is also expecting her first child any day now.

When Ely was born, I was thankful for his relatively easy birth and that it went exactly as we had hoped it would. Don't get me wrong, it was hard hard hard work work work! Pushing was the most frustrating, uncomfortable, and exasperating thing I had ever done, and when it took much longer than it should have I was sure he was never going to crown. But, I was able to sleep during contractions for the first half of labor, had an active stage that was only about 2 hours long, and when the midwife arrived at our house, she found me completely dilated at 10 cm. During the previous weeks, we had been worried about what my already-almost-at-the-high-cut-off-line blood pressure might do during labor, especially if it was a long and drawn out one. When Ely came quickly, it was as if our prayers were answered.

Learning to breastfeed knocked me off my feet though. I thought it would be easy and natural. I was prepared - I had read lot of books, learned about breastfeeding in our Bradley childbirth classes, attended several La Leche League meetings while pregnant, been breastfed myself when it wasn't the popular thing to do, made sure there were no bottles or formula in the house, and had an extremely supportive husband. Instead of joy, I had over a month of pain, severely cracked and bleeding nipples, plugged ducts, and mastitis. At one point I just knew I had thrush because there had to be some reason why it hurt so much. Nursing made natural childbirth seem easy, and everyday I wished I could birth my son again instead of having to feed him. My saving grace was the maximum dosage of advil and the lactation consultant who came to my house 3 different times (though by the end she was just there to cheer me on as I was doing everything right). My other saving grace was the entire Sex and the City series on dvd, because I had entertainment during those hundreds of hours I spent sitting on the sofa feeding my baby then holding him once he fell asleep. There was no way I was going to move once he was asleep. Not only did I watch every episode, I watched every episode again with the commentary turned on. Yes, I was hardcore.

It can be really hard being a new mom. There can be physical pain, emotional pain, boredom, loss of independence to get used to, and, of course, lack of sleep. Anything to make a new mom's life easier is always appreciated. I remember all the food that came to our house after Agnes was born. The day may have been long and hard, but at least we could sit down at the table every evening as a new family of four and eat a delicious meal someone had made for us out of love and friendship. Our next door neighbor even brought everything over hot and ready to dish onto plates exactly at 6pm.

For my sister-in-law's birthday gift, I wanted to give her a little something that would make her new life easier. I remembered cloth.paper.string's weighted bookmark, and loved the idea of being able to hold a book open without using your hands. I'm sure if I had one four summers ago, I would have added some reading time to all my tube time. I used some neutral linen for the front, light green canvas for the back, and embroidered my sister-in-law's initial on the front in darker green floss (green is her favorite color!). I measured an average size book and decided to make my finished bookmark 9x3 inches. Once it was stuffed with the lentils I found in my pantry, I was unsure if it would be sturdy enough to hold open a book, but I tested it with a newish hardback book and it did with no trouble at all. I also made Meg a nursing bracelet of green opal beads threaded onto elastic thread to help keep track of which side the baby last nursed on. The bracelet slips easily from one wrist to the other. When the baby starts a new nursing session, you simply go to the side the bracelet is on, then move the bracelet to the other wrist. I meant to make one for myself before Agnes was born, but when babies unexpectedly arrive early at 37 weeks, a lot of your plans fall by the wayside.

So, all Meg needs now is her new baby boy. And maybe a season or two of SATC.

A Productive Day

2009-08-26T13:25:00.002-05:00

Waking up to a sick baby, meant all the fun things I had planned outside the house had to be postponed to later in the week.

While kids made a lot of noise, I got stuff done:

-emptied the counters of tomatoes by making oven roasted tomato sauce

-made Molly's macaroons while I waited for the sauce to finish

-worked in the garden which meant I restocked the counters with tomatoes

-cooked a lot of our okra into bhindi masala for dinner

-weeded my recipe binder while looking for the bhindi masala recipe

-vacuumed the floors (still need to mop though)

-worked on the piles of laundry filling the floor of the laundry room (I'd love to get rid of recycling today too - it's obvious we haven't recycled in weeks)

Booklog: August 2009

2009-08-14T13:31:00.001-05:00

I'm reading Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman. It was one of the books we discussed reading later this year or early next for my bookclub, but we thought someone should read it first just to make sure it was worthwhile. Ayelet has a website, and she has the coolest thing on it - a list of all the books she's read in the past few months with brief comments. Her booklog goes back to 2001, and I thought it would be a nice record for me and maybe provide some suggestions for other people. I know that I am always looking for new books to read.

Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus with Alan Jolis
Yunus is a genius. So much of what he said about poverty and solutions for poverty were proven in other books I read over the Summer. Some parts of this book were too in depth and others parts didn't quite go deep enough.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Greg Mortenson is a great guy, but the book is just okay. I think a different journalist, or a writer like John McPhee, would have written a book with fewer weak areas.

Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout
Strout can really tell a story and her language pulls you in and keep you turning the page, even when you don't care very much for the characters. This is probably the weakest of her three published books.

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme
The best book I read all Summer, no all year, no in all the past few years. The voice is so perfectly Julia and her story is fascinating.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Why did it take me so long to read Gladwell? He blew my mind, and I'm totally rethinking school for my children. His other two books are at the top of my must read list.

Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl
Another hilarious and engrossing book by Reichl. It's more of a novella, and took me only two evenings to finish. I'm glad I learned more about her mother, who is also in her first two memoirs (maybe the third as well?). I'm eagerly awaiting Reichl's fifth book.

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh
In Freakonomics, the chapter on Venkatesh, "Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?", is one of the best. I enjoyed GLFAG, and he disproves a lot of stereotypes people have about living in the projects. A lot of what Venkatesh says, is the basis for the success Muhammad Yunus's Grameen Bank.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Ariely loves to come up with questions about the world find out the answers, like "Will it hurt less to pull a bandage off slowly or quickly?" (ans: quickly) or "Are people more likely to steal unattended food or cash in a communal refrigerator?" (ans: food). A lot of what you think should be true is not, and Ariely keeps you wanting to know more and more about his studies.

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
Strout's first book. I love her writing and I enjoyed getting to know the characters of Amy and Isabelle. Just when I thought the book would remain in a scary and creepy place, Strout takes it in a different direction.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Sad and scary, especially if you know of anyone with early onset Alzheimer's. More of a beach read than good literature, but Genova does know how to keep you turning the pages.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
There are some wonderful short stories in here, and some not quite as good ones. The not quite as good ones seem to be all the early ones, from the publication info on the copyright page. I loved the different ways she used the character of Olive Kitteridge to link all the stories together and Strout is a marvelous writer.

The Kid by Dan Savage
If I ever adopt, I'm doing an open adoption.

Service Included by Phoebe Damrosch
The inside world of Per Se is fascinating. I'd love to eat here or at The French Laundry someday.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and the next 5 in the series by Alexander McCall Smith
The first book is the best, but the others are good car books and it doesn't matter if my 4 year old is paying attention or not. In fact, he loves it when a snake is mentioned or someone gets into a car accident.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison
I wish Morrison had made this book longer. I didn't want the story and beautiful writing to end as quickly as it did.

The Commitment by Dan Savage
Dan Savage is so funny. I annoyed my husband so much while reading this book. The story of the Dan, Terry and D.J. family holds up to the writing.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Liked it, but I didn't end up on the Toole train. By the end, I was just ready for the whole thing to be over and for the characters to go away. Far away. Toole was a genius with the dialogue.

A New Tote: Part 2

2009-07-31T19:38:00.002-05:00

Done! Two days of waiting at home for air conditioning repair gave me some extra time to fiddle with and sew on the binding and straps.

First, can I say that I love love love the Echino fabric? I used it before when I made a pillow for the newly finished den, but I had forgotten how wonderful the fabric is. It is a 50/50 linen cotton blend; the linen makes it soft but durable and the cotton holds the warp and weft together so it doesn't shift like most linen fabrics. It is a dream to cut and sew with.

I woke up on Tuesday and realized that I had enough exterior fabric (the Echino) if I pieced the bias strips for the straps. I wasn't thrilled about putting a seam line through the middle of the straps, but I figured it wouldn't show much, as it would only be on one side. Piecing also allowed me to use what I had, which saved me money and shipping time.

Since the extra gathers made the peak distance on my bag shorter than the instructions, I knew I needed to reduce the length of the binding. From measuring the pattern piece, it looked like the binding was 2 inches longer than the peak distance. I made mine 3 inches longer just to be safe, and that turned out to be wise since my binding ended up being only 1/4 inch too long. The distance between the peaks on my bag was 9.5 inches, and the resulting binding measured 12.25 inches.

I received a comment on my blog from Limabean + 4, and she said she also gathered her bag more but felt the pattern's strap length was too long with the gathered bag. I cut my straps the same length as the pattern, and checked them by pining everything in place before sewing. I was happy with where the bag fell while on my shoulders, so I left the strap length alone.
The main problem I had with my straps is that they got very bulky at the side seams of the bag. My sewing machine had trouble sewing through the layers and there wasn't quite enough room for all the fabric to pass under the foot. This was all my fault since I used decor weight fabrics for both sides of the straps. While it didn't matter for the bag body, it did make a difference on the straps. Next time, I'll either use a lightweight fabric for the interior of the handles, or still use decor weight but make the interior strip shorter than the exterior, so there aren't as many layers where the ends of the straps meet up. I ended up trimming off about 1/4 inch of the lining fabric from both ends to reduce the number of layers - everything came together nicely and I had no trouble moving the bag under the presser foot.

From other blogs and the flickr group, I knew some people had trouble understanding how to sew on the straps. It took me a couple of reads - I was a little confused at first - but I followed them and found the instructions to be right on. I wish Heather also included measurements for any square or rectangular pattern pieces, as I'd rather use my ruler and rotary blade to cut them out, instead of tracing the pattern, cutting out the pattern pieces, chalking the outline, then cutting out the fabric. There is a lot less room for error by me using the ruler and rotary blade.

I adore this bag. I love the fabrics I chose, and the look of the bag. It may not completely replace the black tote, but I know I'm going to use it a lot and I see myself making more, especially as gifts. I'm also glad I finally made a bag with a curved top and bias strips for the handles, because I've been intimidated by that technique and Alicia's Tanglewood Bag kit and pattern have been sitting untouched on the shelf in my sewing nook for far too long.

Life Without a Serger

2009-07-31T11:32:00.003-05:00

I do not own a serger. When I made these bags, I finished the inside edges with a "fake serge" stitch on my Janome 6125 QC sewing machine. I've been asked by another Janome user exactly what this stitch is and how I do it. The specifics below will apply only to my machine, but I'll try to be general too so you can apply it to your machine.

I found out about the "fake serge" in my sewing machine's manual under the utility stitches section. It wasn't called that and didn't say that the stitch could be used in place of a serger, but the description sounded promising as it was to "finish a raw edge of the fabric to prevent fraying." My machine came with an overcasting foot (foot c), which looks a lot like a 1/4 inch foot with the metal guide at one end but with wires running through the middle. There are two stitches that use this foot, overcast (which is just the zig zag stitch #3 using the overcasting foot) and overedge (stitch #19 which you only use with the overcasting foot). Both allow you to finish raw edges, but the overedge also seams so it probably acts more like a serger. I prefer the overcast because you can adjust the width and length slightly, though I prefer the shorter length to the longer one, as you end up with stitches closer together and less fabric showing. The overedge stitch, which looks a lot like a blanket stitch, has a fixed width and length. When you use the overcast foot, be sure the stitch width is wider than the wires, otherwise your needle will hit those wires and either bend, break or damage the foot. I've found that both of these stitches work and look better on two layers of fabric than a single layer, so sew your seam first then overcast or overedge.

It is good to read (or reread) you manual from time to time, and to experiment with feet and stitches on scraps of fabric. Even though I use the same stitch and foot 98% of the time, sometimes those fancy stitches and weird looking feet are be useful. And label those fabric scraps! I have a whole pile next to my machine with the stitch number, foot name, stitch width, and length. Whenever I need to decide how a zig zag stitch should look, I pull out the scraps, find the perfect one, and plug the numbers into my machine.

Garden Notes, End of July

2009-07-30T13:21:00.000-05:00

It's been 3 months since our plants went into the ground, and we've been able to harvest tomatoes for about 2 weeks now and okra for maybe 3 weeks. This has been the strangest July. Usually it is beastly hot (upper 90s or even 100) and the last two summers have seen us in a severe drought by this time, but this year we get rain at least 2-3 times a week and the temps have been in the 70s and 80s for almost a month. I am definitely not complaining! All the rain has kept everything growing so well, and it's been nice to see green instead of brown.

Both Will and I regret not planting more okra, as each plant has about one pod ready to pick at a time. This has made it hard for us to cook the okra immediately, and we've been letting the pods collect in the fridge for a few days to give us a larger serving. Our favorite way to prepare the pods is to cut them crosswise about 1/2 inch thick, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a handful of cornmeal, then saute them in a skillet with a little olive oil until they are golden brown. This is my mother-in-law's "fried okra" and it is delicious. I think the super fresh pods make it even tastier than usual, and I've noticed that the okra from our garden are completely slime-free. Roasting, grilling, sauteing, or frying okra usually gets rid of any sliminess, but our pods have been different than what I've had before, even the fresh okra I've gotten from our CSA or the organic farmer's market. We try to pick the okra small, about 3 inches in length, but even when we accidentally let them get past that point, they have still been very tender. We planted a second batch of seeds about 4-6 weeks after the first, so we are hoping our production increases soon so we are able to blanch and freeze some.

The tomatoes have all come from the same plant, the Hawaiian Currant. All of our other plants (the heirlooms and the volunteers) have lots of green fruit, and we are not-so-patiently waiting for them. The currant tomatoes are grape sized and so tasty and sweet. The plant literally has thousands of fruit ripening, and it's been a chore to stay on top of them. We've picked some at the dark orange stage instead of leaving them to reach the red stage, and the orange tomatoes have been just as good as the slightly more ripe, red ones. A bunch of these get eaten in the garden, but mostly I've been putting them in a bowl with some tiny balls of fresh mozzarella cheese and drizzling them with tiny bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, then scattering basil chiffon over everything. I would be happy if this was my entire lunch or dinner. The only negative thing about this tomato plant is that it is huge! It grew the fastest, and quickly got bigger than all the other varieties of tomato. Now it is growing on top of everything else in the garden, so there are Hawaiian Currant branches on all sides, and I'm afraid it is choking out the other tomatoes and okra. Next year, this plant will get a wide birth.

We've also been getting a few yellow pear tomatoes from the plant at the office. They are coming in a few at a time, so I haven't eaten enough to report on them yet.

A few other thoughts at the end of July:

- we definitely planted too many things in our little garden plot; when the plants are tiny, it is hard to realize how big they are going to get; next year the plot will have to get much bigger to match our eagerness

-all of the tomato plants need to be planted further apart; while I read that 18 inches is permissible, 2+ feet would have been much better for us

-okra gets huge and the leaves get huge! we needed the maximum spacing specified on the seed packet; Will actually tells me he pretty much ignored the specified spacing altogether so that might be part of the problem

- the Florida weave tomato trellis method has worked great; you must stay on top of it, but it wasn't hard for us to do that since our plot was small; the only negative I see with this method is that the plants become very dense which makes picking the tomatoes in the interior of the plant harder; I think spacing the tomatoes further apart next year will also help with this problem

I'm curious what my end of August report will say. With a garden, so much happens in four weeks.

Ely and Julia

2009-07-29T22:31:00.001-05:00

My four year old son is obsessed with Julia Child. It's all my fault, really.

While I wouldn't call myself a huge Julia fan, I do like her. A lot. When I lived in Alabama, I picked up a remaindered copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking for $2 at the place where we liked to buy new but slightly damaged books. In Austin, before I had kids, I would spend the morning shopping at Central Market and the afternoon cooking coq au vin and the special mushrooms and onions Julia says you must serve with the dish. After my mother recalled how my brother and I loved the French hamburgers she used to make us from MTAFC, I tried them myself and quickly found a new family favorite. Nowadays, I'm happy if I only spend 30 minutes a few times a week making dinner for us, as it's not too much fun with the baby hanging on your legs, and the four year old chasing the dog in circles around you, as you try not to get yourself or anyone else burned by the hot stove.

One of the best food nights is Sunday, as we usually go to my parents' house for dinner. They always cook a feast with cheese and wine beforehand, to keep us coming back with their grandchildren, and to give them leftovers to eat for the week. A few weeks ago, I was perusing my parents' bookshelves while eating grilled figs drizzled with honey and cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto and drinking our favorite prosecco when I spotted My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme. I didn't realize my parents (actually my Dad I think) owned this book. I seemed to recall that several of my friends had read it and loved it. I also knew the upcoming movie Julia and Julie was based on Julia Child's memoir as well as Julie Powell's book and blog of the same title, both of which I had already read a few years ago. I quickly put My Life in France in my bag to bring home.

I finished the book in four days. It was that good. My Life in France is the type of book you hate to finish because you worry there aren't any other books out there as good as this one, but you also can't put it down because the voice is so perfect and you have to know what happens next in the story. I knew a little of Julia's life before I started, but I hadn't realized all the hard work and determination and luck and support by her husband that made her life and love of cooking possible.

Of course she talks about her tv series, The French Chef. I can remember watching it as reruns on PBS as a kid, but I don't think I'd seen her cook in 15 or 20 years. I checked Netflix and sure enough there are two series of The French Chef on dvd. My local library had the first, so I requested it immediately. I know I mentioned before that my son and I like play games after his rest time is over but while the baby is still sleeping, but once The French Chef dvds were at our house, we started watching Julia make onion soup gratinee, roasted chicken on a spit, tarte tatin, french fries, and many many other dishes. Ely was entranced. He loved to watch her show off Big Bertha, a 45 pound lobster covered in seaweed she has on "The Lobster Show", that takes a good 45 minutes to cook. He began to tell me the difference between a roaster chicken and a fryer, or what Julia uses to make sausage casing (lamb intestines). He would wake up in the morning and ask for Julia. He would want to watch Julia after lunchtime, and of course once he was up after rest time. If I let him watch Julia while I was trying to get dinner together, I had one less kiddo (possibly two) in the kitchen. I finally had to put my foot down at more than two episodes per day, and a few tears were shed when the dvds had to go back to the library.

What I realized myself, is that so many of her dishes aren't the complicated, all day affairs I thought they were, that most of her bases and sauces are made from simple, easy-to-memorize formulas, and while Julia knows all the traditional methods she would rather - just like most people - beat her eggs whites with an electric mixer than by hand in a copper bowl. While I don't see myself making tripes a la mode or pate de campagne any time soon - if ever! - I definitely want to make a cheese souffle, and sandwich bread, and a spinach tart, and mousse au chocolat, and I haven't even finished watching the second series yet. When I make these dishes, I know I'll have a special four year old sous-chef helping me out. I guess I'd better start sewing him an apron.

A New Tote: Part 1

2009-07-27T10:45:00.000-05:00

I had to throw away my favorite tote bag last week. It was over 10 years old, black, and I used it for everything in the last decade - a school bag, a briefcase/satchel for interviews, a teacher's bag, a camera bag, a purse, a knitting bag, an airplane carry-on bag, a snack bag for car travel and lastly a diaper bag. It was sturdy and roomy with a flat bottom, and had a zippered pocket so I could have a place for valuables if I didn't want to carry a separate bag. Finally the coating on the outside just disintegrated, and there was nothing that could be done except give it a final resting place.

I decided to use my new Echino bird on line fabric to make the Everything Tote from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing. I had seen some cute Echino ones in the flickr group, and when I suddenly needed a new tote bag, this project jumped to the top of my sewing list. I wasn't sure I could every replace the beloved black tote bag, but I figured a cute Echino one would help.

I think most people know that there is a mistake in the materials list, and you need 1 yard of both an exterior and interior fabric. Since the Echino print is directional and I didn't want upside down birds, I had to cut out 2 individual pieces for the outside, adding 1/2 inch to the bottom of each for a seam allowance. Heather uses 3/8 inch seam allowances for the sides of the bag, but it made me feel better to have a slightly larger and hopefully stronger seam allowance for the bottom. If your print is not directional, you fold your fabric in half, and place the lower edge of the pattern piece on the fold which becomes the bottom of the bag. On Saturday, I went to the last day of my local fabric store's sale and came away with a gray and blue polka dot print from Denyse Schmidt's Country Fair line for my interior fabric. After 3 weeks of 50% off, the store was picked clean but I was happy with what I ended up with. Heather calls for a lightweight fabric for the lining, but I figured a decor weight fabric should work just well even though the bag would be slightly heavier and bulkier. I was also hoping the decor weight interior would allow me to cram more stuff into the bag.

Making the body of the tote bag was pretty straightforward. I saw another mistake in the instructions when they called for using a 3/8 inch edgestitch to attach the pocket to the lining. This didn't make any sense, as you've turned the edges of the fabric for the pocket over 1/4 inch to the wrong side and a line of stitching 3/8 inch would not catch the edge of the fabric and also usually when you make pockets, you sew right along the edge to attach them. I figured the measurement should be 1/8 inch and changed it on the instructions and drawing in the book with a sharpie. I knew my fat blackberry would never fit into the skinny side of the pocket you create by sewing a line straight down 1/3 of the way from the side, so I moved it over by a couple of inches. Close to bedtime, I started making the gathers between the points and found another mistake when I realized the distance from point to point was already 12 inches which is the measurement Heather says to arrive at once you create your gathers. I measured the pattern piece, and sure enough the distance from point to point was just slightly over 12 inches. I looked at a couple of photos of completed totes (again found in the flickr group) and saw that most bags had gathers, so I made mine until I thought it looked good and found the points were now 9.5 inches apart. I did the same on the other side. By this point it was bedtime, so the straps had to wait until morning.

Today, I woke up, fed the kids, got them playing with legos (please Agnes, don't swallow any!), and laid out my fabric to cut the straps. They are cut on the bias as the bag edges are curved which means you need more fabric than if the straps were cut on grain. The straps from the interior fabric worked out just fine as I had 1/2 yard remaining. Remember how I had to cut out 2 different pieces for the exterior? Well, I didn't have enough fabric remaining to cut out the straps on the bias. In retrospect, I should have laid out the pattern pieces for the exterior at opposite corners of my big piece of fabric, because I could have fit the straps diagonally between them. But, I didn't. From now on, I will always lay out all the pattern pieces at once in case I have to rearrange to get them to fit. I know the local fabric store has no more of this fabric left (I looked on Saturday), so now I have to order more from somewhere online to finish this bag.

Stay tuned.

A Dress Tale

2009-07-12T20:30:00.001-05:00

The story is always the same...once I have some new fabric, I want to sew.

I thought the Far Far Away unicorns would make a cute dress for Agnes using the smocked sundress pattern from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. The pattern is simple and easy to follow, and Heather has great illustrations in her book for almost ever step. Heather was also on The Martha Stewart Show in May, and she showed Martha how to make the sundress. The 13 minute segment is available for viewing, so I with the additional visual instructions, I figured this project would go smoothly.*

The Far Far Away fabric was a little difficult to true up and cut to size. I don't know if it is me, or if the patterns on most fabrics are printed slightly off, but I found the unicorns were not even close to being perpendicular to the selvedges. I ignored this problem, since I didn't want to waste any of my precious unicorns. The linen-cotton double gauze also likes to shift and unravel much more than quilter's cotton.

The dress came together easily. At one point my bobbin loaded with elastic thread acted up, so I had to sew over one of my smocking rows. I originally started to rip out the row, but the double gauze did not like me removing stitches, and I figured it would be better just to sew over the row than to tear the delicate fabric. I also had to ziz zag the interior seam where the back of the dress comes together twice, as the single row of stitches ripped through the fabric slightly. I think this is a problem with the double gauze fabric and not with the pattern, but I was glad I chose cotton thread to sew with instead of poly as the ripping would have been worse.

For the straps, I made my own folded bias tape. I've tried those bias tape makers, but they always make me swear and I've never been able to figure out how wide my fabric should be to achieve the desired tape width. I use my own bias tape all the time, especially for bag straps and apron ties. While pressing the bottom hem of the sundress, I realized my dressmaker's tape was the perfect width for the straps at 5/8th of an inch. I multiplied this by 4 (the basic formula for making your own folded bias tape), and found I needed to cut my strips 2.5 inches wide. With my iron, I pressed each strip in half to mark a center line with a crease. Then I unfolded the strip and folded each long edge to that center line, pressing in place with my iron. Once both sides were done, I folded the whole strip in half (this is easy since on one side you have your creased line and on the other you have the "line" created by the two edges meeting) and pressed with the iron again. On one end of each strip, I tucked the short edge inside before the last fold for a clean edge. To finish off the strips and close the open side, I topstitched along both long edges 1/8th inch. For bag straps, I'll offen do several lines 1/8 inch apart as this makes the bias tape much sturdier.

Placing the straps evenly and edge stitching the top was a little fiddly, especially since the double gauze does not like to keep a crisp edge. I think next time, I'm going to sew the top hem before I do the smocked rows, then just sew the straps to the inside of the dress which wouldn't look too different. I suppose I could also cut open the stitching in four places, insert the straps, then sew over the line again securing the straps in place. Heather actually has you make the top hem before doing the smocking on her adult version of this sundress, the Mendocino Sundress.

Soon after I finished the dress, Agnes woke up from her nap and started clapping when she saw it laying on my bed. She wore it over to her grandparents' house, and enjoyed showing off her new dress to Papa, Grandmaman, Uncle Josh, and Mu cat. The green colorway was the only color my local fabric store had, but it looks so perfect on Agnes and I'm happy now I didn't end up with the magenta. The only thing this outfit needs is a matching diaper cover, and I think the Ruby's Bloomers pattern from Weekend Sewing will be perfect. Though, I'm going to try it first with other fabric to check the sizing before I use my last precious scant half yard of unicorns.

*I actually started another smocked sundress a few months ago, using a vintage floral tablecloth from my collection. This particular tablecloth has several large holes, so I was happy to repurpose it. Once the smocking was done, I realized this dress was going to be much too long for Agnes's current height. Since I didn't want to lose any of the pattern from the tablecloth, it seemed to be a better idea to set the dress aside until she is older than to trim the fabric down.

The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

2009-07-06T18:45:00.000-05:00

This year, that would be July 6, the first day of my local fabric store's 50% off, two week long, Summer sale. I like to show up to the sale on the first day 15 or 20 minutes before the store opens, because often they let people in early and I've found if you wait until later in the day, the fabric you want is already gone. Last year, I (stupidly) forgot my list of Anna Maria's Drawing Room fabric for her Birdcage on a Chain quilt and I decided to come back in the afternoon to purchase everything instead of the few yards I could remember by sight. Of course by then, several of the fabrics were gone and I could only get a handful of the ones I needed. Natalie Chanin visited the fabric store in May, and was impressed with all the trims and buttons.

This past weekend was all about plans being thwarted. On Saturday evening, we were supposed to go to the local minor league baseball game and fireworks. I had babysitters (aka grandparents) lined up for the girl, because 16 month olds and stadiums do not mix. About 15 minutes before we needed to leave, the rain started and didn't let up until the morning. It hadn't rained here in over a week but had to start the evening of the 4th. And last night, we decided to go to the latin jazz concert and have a picnic supper on the grounds of the plantation beforehand. A couple of hours before the concert, a huge storm blew in and the torrents didn't stop until later in the evening. I was thankful no tickets for either event were purchased ahead of time.

Today, instead of being at the fabric store at 9:45am, I was on the way to the doctor's office for well visits for the kids. What rotten scheduling! I was so tempted to try and reschedule the visits, but I didn't want to put them off for another month, especially when I need to send updated vax forms into school soon. I managed to make it to the store a little after 11am (though toting two children to the fabric store is usually not my idea of fun), and the fabric I wanted was still around. The minimum cut for the sale price is one yard, so I picked up a yard of Far Far Away unicorns and an Echino bird print. Textile Fabric just started carrying Liberty Tania Lawn, and I really really wanted a yard of it, but even on sale it will cost me around $27 so I decided against the purchase.

We'll see how strong my willpower is next week...

Busy and Growing

2009-07-01T13:21:00.005-05:00

I keep meaning to make it over here, but life is in the way. The kids and I have been having fun together, and my only real Summer challenge is keeping Ely quiet enough so Agnes can nap as long as she wants. Between learning to walk, cutting 4 new teeth, and growing, Agnes wants (and I believe needs!) to sleep for three hours every afternoon. It's been too hot to go outside much after mid-morning, so once Ely's rest time is over, he and I play lots of board games on my bed until Agnes wakes up. I think my favorite game right now is Go Fish. Candy Land is kind of dumb, the matching game gets a little boring, and Ely doesn't quite get the bingo game yet.

Besides the baby growing, our garden has taken off. The last photo I took of the garden was only 10 days before this one and everything has tripled in size:

We have loads of green Hawaiian Currant tomatoes on the vine, and our Black Zebras, Mule Team, and Brandywines are starting to fruit from the flowers. We also have some unknowns - volunteers from our compost - and are hoping to be able to identify them at some point. Currently the biggest of the unknown tomatoes look like long, skinny teardrops. A pear? A Roma? The squash/pumpkin patch grows in feet everyday, and so many of the vines have green or yellowish fruit. They were also volunteers from the compost we have no idea what they are exactly. So far, we think the largest ones are either pumpkins or acorn squash. And the okra are starting! I haven't seen any flowers blooming yet, but I've found a few on the ground and seen the new okra forming, which look just like penises on a fat baby boy.

July is usually beastly hot around here, but I'm hoping once the homegrown tomatoes ripen, they will be so good that I'll forget all about the heat and humidity.

Sewing Machine Meme

2009-06-08T12:32:00.007-05:00

These have been fun to read, so I thought I'd do my machine.

What brand and model do you have?
I have a Janome 6125 Quilter's Companion. I believe Janome still makes the QC series, but I have no idea if my model is still available.

How long have you had it?
I purchased it in the Spring of 2004, so it's 5 years old now. Wow.

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?
I really don't remember, though I know I have the receipt around here somewhere. I think it was in the $600 range. I wanted my first sewing machine to be one I would never outgrow, so I spent a little more than I originally intended to buy a better machine.

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?
Since this is my only sewing machine, I've used it for all my sewing projects - quilts, clothes, bags and pillows. Originally I wanted to learn to sew so I could make quilts, which is why I got a machine geared towards quilters.

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?
It really depends. I'm not sewing a lot right now, because my sewing table is a mess and I'm home with my children more since it's the Summer. I've used it a lot over the past 5 years with no issues. I've used it as little as an hour a week up to 5-6 hours a day when I'm trying to crank something out.

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?
I've liked this sewing machine a lot. I may love it, but as I've never sewed with another machine it is hard for me to definitively say that. I bought a Janome because my husband's aunt swears by them. She's been sewing for almost her entire life, has owned every brand of machine, and says Janomes are the best. My mother-in-law made my sister-in-law's wedding dress on a Janome Gem, and my sister-in-law makes lot of quilts and home decor projects with her Gem.

What features does your machine have that work well for you?
Like I said, I wanted to get a machine I would never outgrow. I like having so many stitches, though I mostly use the straight, stitch, zig-zag stitch, and the stitch I refer to as the fake serging stitch. It is electric (but not computerized), so the ease of use is great. It came with a lot of feet, including a walking and darning foot which I need for quilting; the feed dogs drop easily which is necessary for free motion quilting. I like the drop in bobbin case, the built-in needle threader, and built-in thread cutter a lot.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?
Not really. My bobbin winder won't wind the bobbins completely full, but that started after I took my machine to be cleaned last year, so I think it is the fault of the repair place not the machine. Next time I need my machine cleaned or repaired, I'm going somewhere else. I would love to have a knee lift, and wish when I let up on the foot pedal the needle would stop in place instead of going up or down one more time. A wider throat area would be nice, because it's hard to maneuver larger quilts on the machine when quilting.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!
Can't think of anything!

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?
Sure. It's been great, and is easy to use with a lot of great features for all types of sewing.

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?
-All metal parts, as plastic parts will wear down.

-Features that make sewing fun and easy like an automatic button hole, zig-zag and other special stitches

-Needle up/down option - My needle stays in the down position almost all the time when I'm sewing
-Repair place that specializes in your machine that is fairly close to where you live

-Electric and mechanical vs computerized - computerized machines are great, but if the computer part breaks the repair is going to be a lot of $$$

-Don't pay for extra features you don't need - I have no desire to do machine embroidery so I would never need a fancier and more expensive machine with that feature

Do you have a dream machine?
I haven't thought about this a lot, but I kind of wish I had the Bernina Aurora with the BSR. I've never gotten good enough at free motion quilting to use it on an actual quilt, so I think the BSR would help me with this problem. I probably just need to practice more instead of blaming my machine! I plan on having my Janome for a long time, and hope I'm still using it when my children are my age.

Summer and the Garden

2009-06-07T13:39:00.011-05:00

In the South, it looks and feels like Summer long before June 21. School gets out before Memorial Day and usually the pools are already open by then. I was trying to decide when I should change my mindset from Spring to Summer, and I decided I would when the temperature reaches 90 degrees. Well, that happened this week. It's Summer.

We planted our first vegetable garden in May. I've always grown herbs - basil and lemon verbena, and now mint, are necessities for me, but I've never had the desire to grow other edibles. For the past three years, I've been part of a CSA which I loved. I was a vegetarian for a long time and I try to avoid toxic stuff in my life for health reasons, so local organic produce is very important to me. Picking up a weekly share of fruit and vegetables changed the way I shopped, cooked, and ate. I realized I love kale and beets, and that the later strawberries and cantaloupes are sweeter than the earlier ones. However, I needed a break this year. I've been sort of overwhelmed lately, and didn't want to add another layer to that mix. I'm sad on Wednesdays when I don't go to pick up my box, but I'm happy not to be throwing rotting vegetables into the compost before we had a chance to eat them. Even though it takes a little more effort, it has been nice to go to the various farmer's markets around town, which is something I never needed to do in addition to my weekly share. It's also been nice supporting many local organic farms this year, instead of primarily just one.

Because someone else isn't growing all of our food, Will and I wanted to grow some ourselves. We decided to be wise and start small this year. We dug up a 4'x7' plot (small enough to reach everything from the edges because you are not supposed to walk on your garden as it compacts the soil), and planted 4 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and basil I got from a local, pesticide-free nursery and two different kinds of okra from seed. I also planted a pear tomato and some basil in front of the office. Basil loves that awful soil and ends up being the size of a large bush by mid-Summer, and I hope the tomato will do just as well. I wanted to make raised beds* for the garden, but we decided not to invest much money in the project this year and didn't have the time to come up with scrap material. We took our compost and spread a thick layer on top of the garden (even though we've never had a garden we've been composting for years to keep organic matter out of the garbage and landfill). Within a few days, we had some unknown sprouts come up out of the compost. We watched them get larger, and realized most of them were tiny mimosa trees. That tree was cut down four years ago, but somehow it still attempts to reproduce all over our yard. A few sprouts were pumpkins, and we left those alone with new dreams of homegrown pumpkin pies and jack-o-lanterns. Soon these pumpkins took over the garden and started to choke out the tomatoes and okra. We also realized they were most likely summer squash or zucchini (which no one really likes very much) instead of the desired pumpkins. We decided to keep the plants and move them to a special new squash-only area near the garden. Apparently, you can't move squash. Squash plants are prone to root disturbance, and need to be left where originally planted from seed. We, of course, found this out only after we replanted when the leaves immediately went limp and stayed that way for days. We gave the plants lots of water, and after a week they seem to have recovered from the shock and growing again in their new home.

(an auctioneer's garden - notice the T posts?)

Every night, the five of us (the dog must come too), go outside and check on the garden's progress. We pull up weeds, and look for new blooms on the tomato plants. Sometimes, we add a new row of twine to the Florida weave that supports the tomatoes. When most of the okra area remained bare, we put new seeds in the ground then hoped and watched for new dark green sprouts. When a cutworm severed my black zebra tomato plant at its base, I put the stalk in water to root and replanted it once the roots seemed long enough. Somehow new leaves grew out of the root end of the severed plant, so now we have two black zebras growing. I planted sunflowers and zinnias at the corners to help keep bad critters away. Taking care of the garden quickly become a lovely Spring and Summer ritual for the family, and we're already talking about next year's tilling, all the new plots we want, an asparagus patch, and brussels sprouts and blueberries and corn. I think the days of small are numbered.

*I attended a workshop on organic gardening in 2006, and I learned raised beds produce the healthiest plants and those plants yield a bigger harvest. Weeds are less and your soil quality is much better because you have more control over the growing environment. Besides the workshop, I relied on these resources for our little garden: Great Garden Companions by Sally Jean Cunningham and The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch. Great Garden Companions taught me how to lay out my garden, and gave me the idea of adding flowers on the edges. I love the ideas behind companion gardening and would like to do more with this next year. The Garden Primer taught us how to plant all our tomato plants, herbs, and various seeds, and I think one reason all our plants are doing well is that they got a great start because of this book.

The Last Day of May

2009-05-31T06:56:00.004-05:00

Ely,

Four years ago this morning, you were born. You were supposed to have a June birthday, but you chose May 31, the same birthday as your great-grandfather (my grandpa, my Mom's dad) who celebrates 85 today. Following Jewish tradition, we named you after one of your other great-grandfathers (my grandpa, my Dad's dad), and it has been wonderful to watch you become your own person guided by a special name.

Not only was your birth day a surprise, but your birth was too. You showed me that I was the strongest person in the world, and I used that gift so much in the weeks afterward figuring out how to feed you, how make you grow, and how to take care of you. Despite the beginning, it has been easy to be your mother, even if everyone thought the woman with the long dark hair was only the nanny to the little boy with the curly, golden blond hair in her care. You looking so much like your father was yet another surprise, since we assumed you would get my dark hair and eyes. I can't imagine your face looking any other way.

You are loving and stubborn and shy and fearless. You love your little sister so much, and I remember the day after she was born how you wanted to stay home from preschool to watch her get her diapers changed and drink her mama milk. She has continued to be a joy and delight to you, and before she was born I never imagined how each of you would light up when you see the other's face. You love your parents, your sister, your dog, your grandparents, your great grandfather, your aunts and uncles, your great aunts and great uncles, and your first cousins once removed fiercely. I know you will love your cousin and second cousin just as much when you get meet them in person, hopefully later this year. Nothing makes me happier than hearing you say "Momma, I love you."

You are an outdoors kid. When you were a baby, I would take you walks at the lake and you would look up at all the leaves in the sky and smile and laugh. You love to plant, water, and pull up weeds. This year, working outside has been fun because I've been able to do it with you. The main reason we planted a vegetable garden is that we knew you would enjoy starting it, and caring for it, and watching it grow and we've been able to enjoy all of those things so much too because you have been a part of it.

Yesterday, we celebrated your birthday with lots of friends by playing in the dirt at the new "nature playground" and eating dirt and worm cupcakes. I love to watch you play, and run around, and just be. You are so very much my Ely.

A Chance to Catch Up?

2009-05-26T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well, preschool is over for Ely. He'll go to the Summer session for one week in June and one week in July, but other than that he is home full time with me. I'm rather excited about this, because I missed him a lot this year. I spent a ton of time with Agnes, and I'm grateful I could devote so many hours of my day solely to her in her first year. But, I dearly missed doing all the stuff we used to do every week - storytime, playground time, puppet shows, playdates, and going to the Y - with Ely.

The last day of school ended with an evening picnic. I brought my family's most favorite sandwich - brie, apple, and basil on a baguette - as our food contribution and I almost missed out on getting one. Of course, it isn't truly the end of the school year without worrying about teacher gifts.

I decided (sort of at the last minute) to make tote bags from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts for the two classroom teachers. I had the exteriors already pieced and sewn from good intentions last year, so all I had to do was make the straps and interiors. Of course I love to make something quick and simple much harder, so I decided to embroider each teacher's name on the outside of the bag. I was supposed to finish the bags up Wednesday evening, but instead spent those hours with my needle and floss and had to play hooky from work the next day to finish. I hope my husband (aka the boss) doesn't read this blog...

When I make tote bags, I like to use canvas or linen or a decor weight fabric for either the interior, the exterior, or both. I chose quilting cotton for the exterior because I wanted bright colors and big patterns, and had a lovely matching brown linen in the stash for the interior. Now, I've used linen for bags many times before, but I had the most difficult time with this linen. No matter how many times I trued up my piece, the folded line was not straight and the cut edges seemed to turn wavy as soon as I lifted the ruler. I decided to ignore it, and figured it wouldn't matter too much if the inside was a little wonky. It baffled me, and I wonder if it was because the linen was a looser weave than some of the other stuff I've used in the past?

The tote bags turned out lovely. I only made one change to the pattern, and that was to topstitch an additional line 1/8 of an inch from the top edge. The 1/4 inch line didn't feel secure enough for me, and I had visions of the handles ripping out.

So, I'm hoping to be able to blog a little more over the Summer. I'm not sure if this is going to happen since I'm home with the kids just about full-time, but I'll be home more so that is a good start. One of the first tasks is to finish my Alabama Chanin post about the trunk show from over two weeks ago! Another overdue post is to show you what I made and what I received for DQS6.

I also just decided to join this quilt a-long. I've loved this quilt by Melanie ever since I first saw it (actually I love every quilt Melanie makes), and I'm trying to make all the fabric odds and ends go away so my sewing nook will be a little neater.

Mint Patch, Part 2

2009-05-24T21:23:00.010-05:00

There is another very important reason why we have a mint patch - mojitos. I can't think of a better drink for a warm evening.

We make ours with gin, as my husband will not do rum. Now that I've made them with gin for several years, the rum ones taste a little funny to me. I won't turn one down though.

I've tried several recipes, and the two below are my favorites. The first one - a regular mojito recipe where I simply replaced the rum with gin - is great because you don't have to prep anything ahead of time, as long as you have superfine sugar (also called castor sugar). I can find castor sugar locally at Whole Foods or Fresh Market, though any gourmet kitchenware/food store should carry it.

The second recipe is a recent discovery in Frank Stitt's new cookbook, Bottega Favorita. I was thrilled to see a mojito made with gin - he calls it a Southside - in the Cin Cin! and Cheers! chapter. When we lived in Alabama, we drove the hour to Birmingham as often as we could to eat at one of Frank Stitt's restaurants, Chez Fonfon. He owns three others, and I've eaten at Highlands Grill (we received a gift certificate here as a wedding present and it was the best present ever!) and the cafe side of Bottega. Not only does Frank Stitt make wonderful food at all four restaurants, he uses local Alabama and Georgia food purveyors and has done so for a long time. The Southside is delicious, but you do need to have simple syrup which is, of course, simple to make but needs to be cool before you use it.

Gin Mojito

serves 2

- 3 oz. fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)

- 2 Tbsp. superfine/castor sugar

- 6 sprigs of fresh mint

- 3 oz. gin

- seltzer or water to taste

1. In a small pitcher, combine lime juice, sugar, and mint. Stir and muddle the mixture until the sugar has dissolved.

2. Add the gin and stir until combined.

3. Fill glasses with crushed ice. If you want, you can run a wedge of lime around the rim and dip each glass into granulated sugar.

4. Pour cocktail (you may strain if you'd like) into the glasses and top with seltzer or water to taste. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Southside

adapted from Bottega Favorita by Frank Stitt; serves 2

- 4 lime wedges

- 2 oz. simple syrup (recipe follows)

- 2 oz. fresh lime juice

- 4 mint sprigs

- 3 oz. gin

- splash of club soda or water

1. Squeeze the lime wedges into a small pitcher or cocktail shaker, then drop the wedges in.

2. Add the simple syrup, additional lime juice, mint, and muddle with a spoon or muddler to bruise the mint and extract the oils from the mint and lime peel.

3. Add the gin and stir to combine.

4. Fill two glasses halfway with crushed ice; pour the cocktail evenly between the two.

5. Add a splash of club soda or water to taste.

Simple Syrup

The recipe for simple syrup is very basic - add equal parts sugar and water and heat on the stove until sugar is dissolved and mixture has thickened slightly. You can store extra in a tightly sealed jar in the fridge for several weeks, or if you have a tiny saucepan, you can reduce this recipe. If I find I'm not using my syrup up fast enough with mojitos, I make lemonade or limeade as a special treat.

- 2 c. sugar (I use natural cane which makes the syrup an amber color, but works and tastes just the same)

- 2 c. water

1. Combine sugar and water in a small heavy saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.

2. Simmer for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.

I think I'm going to make some gin mojitos this afternoon for our impromptu Memorial Day grill fest.

Mint Patch, Part 1

2009-05-24T15:25:00.007-05:00

At the beginning of last Summer, my husband got a few sprigs of mint with roots from his mother and planted them so we'd have our own mint patch. Since mint grows very enthusiastically (to put it mildly), We chose an ugly and unused long strip of grass between our ugly driveway and even uglier backyard fence. My husband is a true Southerner - he was born in the South, grew up in the South, and comes from many generations on both sides of Southern born and bred people. While I often call myself a Southerner, it's only because my parents moved here right before I was born. My husband's favorite beverage is fruit tea, also frequently known as tea punch. There are a few food and beverages unique to the part of the South we live in - one is hot chicken, the other is meat and 3, and the last one is tea punch. While you may find these three in other parts of the South, you don't find them with the same frequency and intensity as you do here. I am a huge fan of all three, but while I only eat hot chicken at Prince's and meat and 3s at Arnold's, I will make fruit tea at home.

Most people associate sweet tea with the South, but I have never been a fan. It is just way too sweet. I like my tea, both iced and hot, nice and strong. I might like sweet tea better if it was just a little sweet, instead of the all too common sickening sweet. I feel the same way about lemonade; tart is much preferable to sweet. There is only one place I know of where I like sweet tea, and that is Interstate Bar-B-Q in Memphis, where they serve a wonderful peach sweet tea I've never seen anywhere else.

Fruit tea is basically ice tea with fruit juice added to it. There are so many variations of fruit tea. Some recipes use pineapple juice besides orange juice and lemonade. Other recipes call for the addition of mint while the tea is steeping, or extra sugar. My mother in law likes to add Mountain Dew to hers. I'm sure there are many other secret ingredients I don't know about. When I moved to Alabama almost ten years ago (the real South, I thought, as opposed to the South I grew up in), I was determined to figure out how to make fruit tea.

This is what I came up with:

Fruit Tea

I like fruit tea strong and if I have mint, then I absolutely want to add it, as it adds another lovely, nuanced flavor to the brew. I think the juice makes it sweet enough on it's own, but if you are a sweet tea fan then you may want to add extra sugar. You can also play with the proportions of juice to tea.

- 6-8 black tea bags

- 4-5 mint sprigs

- half of a 12 oz. container of frozen oj concentrate (I buy mine at Trader Joe's because there is no added sugar or high fructose corn syrup; your Whole Foods or natural foods store might carry a similar product but mine doesn't for some unknown reason - don't let me get started here...)

- half of a 12 oz. container of frozen lemonade concentrate (again I buy mine at Whole Foods to avoid HFCS)

1. Boil 8 cups of water in a tea kettle.

2. In a large pyrex or stainless steel bowl, add the mint and 6-8 tea bags. I usually tie or clip the tea bags together, so they don't fall into the bowl and are easier to remove later.

3. Once the water is boiling, add it to the bowl. Let the tea steep for the recommended time.

4. When the tea is ready, remove the bags and the mint. Stir in the oj and lemonade concentrates. Since you only use half of a container, you have enough leftover to make another batch in a few days. I find that fruit tea disappears quickly in my house.

5. Chill in the refrigerator, then pour into a pitcher.

6. Serve over ice and with a mint sprig.

I learned a neat trick at the Savannah Tea Room for making any tea decaffeinated. The caffeine in the tea leaves is released in the first minute of brewing. If you want to decaffeinate any tea, discard the water after a minute of steeping, then add new hot water. The resulting tea will be decaffeinated. I use this trick a lot since I don't like to have caffeine after my much needed one cup of coffee in the morning, and I also like to avoid any chemical process that decaffeinates tea or coffee.

A Peek

2009-05-08T20:54:00.006-05:00

The Auction Quilt

2009-05-06T20:14:00.008-05:00

The auction for Ely's preschool was over a week ago, but I didn't have a chance to write about the quilt before I jetted off to Chicago. There are 3 classrooms at Ely's school, and the classroom projects for the auction are a big deal. Each classroom paints a large canvas with the art teacher, but the room parents are responsible for coming up with the idea and implementing the other project. I'm not a room parent, but I'm "creative" which means I get roped into helping with anything that needs some artistic oversight. I actually didn't mind helping at all. Right after college, I taught elementary school art and when I lived in Texas, I taught adult knitting classes. Some days I really miss being in some sort of classroom and watching children (and adults) explore the world through art.

The auction always benefits the school's scholarship fund, but this year the auction also raised money for the upcoming playground renovation. Instead of the classroom projects being a free-for-all, we were told they needed to have an outdoors theme. Somehow we came up with the idea of a picnic, and decided to put together a family picnic kit. We got a wicker picnic basket with plates and silverware, and bought games, bubbles, kites, an insect cage, and other fun outside activities. To house the diversions, the children decorated the outside of a sturdy canvas bag with a bug and flower scene using their fingerprints and a little inspiration from Ed Emberley. And because sometimes picnics have to happen indoors, the children decorated a cookie jar the same way, so the indoor picnic could have some special treats too. I volunteered to sew some napkins and a picnic quilt, because it can't be a picnic without a quilt.

I based my quilt off of Erin's picnic blanket, though I made my squares a little bigger and I left off the rock pockets. I was going to make a rectangular quilt, but once I laid out 16 squares I thought it looked plenty big to fit a family. I kept the colors non gender specific, which was a good excuse for me to use a lot of orange. I was able to pull a few appropriate polka dot prints out of my stash, and added some solids, small prints, and other polka dot-like fabrics to create the top. Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt and Anna Maria Horner all had some wonderful fabrics that worked so well together in the top. The quilt top was easy enough to assemble, and the back was just two pieces of the same sky blue kona cotton solid. I decided to quilt in the ditch to give the quilt a little more stability and durability, since the quilt was going to live at someone else's house, and I didn't want to worry about it disintegrating in the wash. I tied the centers of the squares with orange embroidery floss. The quilting part drove me batty. For some reason, I'm having a lot of trouble lately with my fabric shifting as I quilt. I don't know if I'm not stretching the backing tight enough, or not using enough safety pins, or if it is something with my machine but it made the quilting part very slow and frustrating. It took me twice as long to quilt the whole thing as I thought it would take me. I used my favorite Denyse Schmidt orange print for the binding (it was also one of the few fabrics I had enough yardage of) and sewed it on using a large zig zag stitch. I thought the decorative stitch was a nice detail, but on the back side the edges lifted up too much, so you could see the line of thread where I attached the binding on in the first place. That bugged me enough to sew all the way around the quilt edge again with a straight stitch to keep the binding edge tacked down on the back.

Of course I still wasn't finished once the binding was complete. We had decided the quilt needed to be personalized by the children some way, and the easiest way to do that was to make a label for the back. Using a Micron pen, the teachers and each child wrote their name on the label. There were a few reluctant children, so we had them draw a small picture and we wrote their name by their picture. At the very top, I wrote the name of the school, classroom, year, and city and wrote made by my name at the very bottom. As you can imagine, this label ended up on the large side. By time twenty-two 3, 4, and 5 year olds wrote their names, the label was 10x12 inches. I was able to cut a small amount off, but I decided to add an orange border to finish off the label and separate it from the backing as I used the same fabric for both. I was a little worried about how well the label was going to adhere to the backing, and I wished I had sewn it on before quilting or had even pieced it into the backing. Then, I came across a great method for making and attaching a label in Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. Joelle uses a lightweight fusible interfacing sewn on top of the label with the fusible side facing the label's right side. Once you've sewn all around the label/interfacing, cut a small hole in the interfacing, trim the corners off and turn the whole thing right side out. Next, punch out the corners, center the label, press with an iron, and you have a patch that is completely adhered to the quilt! You still have to tack down the edges with a blindstitch, but I felt so much better knowing the center was attached too. I thought this was a great way for making labels, and I know I'm going to use this same method again in the future.

As for the napkins, I more or less used Heather Ross's napkin pattern in Weekend Sewing with a zig zag stitch around the edges to sew the opening closed (I liked how the zig zag stitch also matched the zig zag on the quilt binding). By the time I finished the quilt, I wanted to forget about the napkins, but I already had most of the squares cut as they were rejects from the quilt top so I plugged along and finished them the night before the auction.

When the whole project was put together - basket, canvas bag, cookie jar, napkins, and quilt - it looked fantastic! Each little part made the whole picnic set colorful and whimsical and personal. I liked how we included so much of the children in our project, from their fingerprints to their sweet signatures in their own handwriting. The picnic set brought a lot of money, and a special little girl is now the owner of my quilt and all the other picnic items.

Now that I've had a couple of weeks to recover, I might even be talked into making a quilt again for the class auction project next year. Just remind me to start in January.

It's Good to Get Away

2009-05-05T19:49:00.004-05:00

I spent the weekend in Chicago with 17 girl friends and 2 babies. We've been friends for over 8 years since we met (thanks to this woman) online while planning our weddings. Many of us have met in real life, but this was the first large gathering of our group. None of us could figure out why it took us 8 years to have a get together. We stayed in three condos right on Lake Michigan and spent the weekend hanging out, talking, laughing, eating, drinking, taking photos, missing the friends who couldn't be there, throwing a blessingway for our two pregnant friends, nursing babies, pumping breastmilk, reading trashy magazines with a little walking thrown in just so we wouldn't feel like complete sloths. Not much sleeping happened and we were amazed no one peed in their pants with the high level of laughing, as just about all of us have one or more children.

The get together came at the right time for me. I so needed to get away from my life. I was able to relax, and read, and not worry about taking care of anyone but myself. I flew home on Sunday with my patience replenished and on a happy high from the wonderful weekend. I was ready to be with my family and return to being a mom. This was the first night I'd spent away from my family since August 2007, and even on that trip I wasn't entirely alone since I was pregnant with Agnes. It's hard for me to leave my children when they are babies, and it's not something I can really think about until their second year.

The weekend was a good reminder for me that I need me time. I usually get Saturday mornings to myself, but I think every once in a while I need more than a few hours a week to reset my buttons. Since another get together isn't going to happen for 18 months, I'm going to need to come up with some other ideas for escaping. What do you do?

7

2009-04-20T20:43:00.004-05:00

Seven years today. Ten years in July. It seems so long ago, but it has gone by all too quickly.

I Don't Think So

2009-04-16T12:04:00.002-05:00

Not even close...

This and That

2009-04-10T13:15:00.005-05:00

I spent all of my free time today (aka naptime) refreshing the National Weather Service warnings and looking out the windows for funnel clouds. Not fun. The baby was asleep in her room, and there was NO WAY IN HELL I was waking her up to huddle in the hallway unless the funnel cloud was right here. Luckily, I saw nothing and now the sun is shining as if severe weather never even came through here today.

So I haven't been here for a while. I wish I had a notepad inside my head. I've written blog posts while walking at the lake, nursing the baby to sleep, cooking, sewing, watching movies, but I can't seem to write one while I'm sitting down in front of the computer. Spring is here and I'm photographing flowers and trees and grass everyday. The newness of all this green isn't old yet. Come July when it's 100 degrees outside and everything is an overgrown jungle, I'll wish for cold and brown again. We've been doing some yard work and I still want to plant a small vegetable and herb garden. I want to do raised beds, but I need to find a simple, quick, and cheap method but I keep having to return my library books before I've had a chance to read them. I also want to get rain barrels and set them up to help water this soon-to-be garden. Will wants to plant grapevines and I'd like a blackberry cane and blueberry bushes. After spending the last few months indoors, it's nice to be outside with the sun and vitamin D. Ely loves to help garden (he spent a good 30 minutes telling me the proper way to dig up dandelions because apparently I was doing it all wrong - you must use the big shovel not the small spade and listen for the pop sound) and Agnes loves to roam around in the grass picking the same dandelions and tasting them with her lips or hiding them in holes. I'm not going to talk about those holes because I've spent several years pretending not to see them.

As for sewing, I've been working on my own auction quilt. It's part of a larger classroom project, so I didn't go overboard. I based in on Erin's picnic blanket, but besides the ties I did some quilting in the ditch for stability and will put a machine sewn binding on it. I've been having some frustrations quilting lately and I'm not sure what is going on. It put me in a very bad mood last Saturday. I'll probably write up more in a later post, and maybe someone will have some ideas for me because I'm at the end of my rope, sewing perfectionist that I am.

Oh, my camera broke yesterday while I was at the zoo. One moment it was working just fine and then the next moment it locked up, had an error message, and wouldn't shoot anymore pictures. The same thing happened a couple of years ago, so it was sent off to Nikon today. Luckily I can borrow a camera from the office until mine is returned, otherwise I would have to quit my 365 project, which I'm woefully behind updating as it is. Some days I'm tired of taking pictures and looking for something new, but the idea of not being able to take a picture made me very sad.

Well, I'm off to buy matzoh and make a special dessert for tonight. Every year, I like to eat matzoh and remind myself that I'm half Jewish even if I haven't kept Passover in over 20 years. I hope to have some naturally dyed eggs and a finished picnic quilt by the end of the weekend. And, because it's hard to post without a photo I'll end with the special fruit salad my mother-in-law made for Easter dinner last year. I have no idea if it will make a repeat appearance on Sunday.

Joy

2009-03-18T18:59:00.006-05:00

getting to sleep in late (uh to 8am) because it's Spring Break
having the most beautiful day outside that was just like that fabulous March of '97 day in Austin when I fell in love with the city (and with all the fresh oj and chips and salsa I consumed)
the baby finally feeling better after 5 days of sickness
the Heather Ross blog tour
finding out that an Alabama Chanin workshop is coming to my city in May (but wishing I had some extra money so I could attend)
getting the haircut that should have happened over a month ago
eating paletas (I had tangerine; Ely had chocolate strawberry)
playing at the park for hours, though it didn't feel that long, and having fun with the school friends who were also there
watching my son take off on his balance bike
watching my daughter swing and slide with complete joy on her face
being the first person to check out the first copy of Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life from the library
the husband coming home late so I can start reading A Homemade Life right away (well as soon as the kids are asleep)
eating reuben sandwiches for dinner with leftover chocolate chip cookie tart for dessert

Mission: Impossible

2009-03-16T13:18:00.009-05:00

My almost-4 year old son's room is, more often than not, a disaster. He has a big open floor space for playing and takes advantage of it. We've successfully resisted accumulating lots of toys over the years, but he loves legos and puzzles so his floor is often carpeted in little plastic cubes and amorphous cardboard shapes. He has shelves and 10 or so labeled bins for all the different types of toys (legos, puzzles, sound, wood, vehicles, etc), but nothing ever seems to get back into its original place. Ely also attends a Montessori preschool and he must put away his work (what they call their activity) before he can get a new work out. Yet somehow, that practice has never translated to home. Ely also loves books, which his Dad and I are thrilled about because we love books too. In fact, we put a moratorium on book buying 4 years ago because we were out of space, and also needed to remove that line item from our budget. For any holiday/special occasion that involves presents, Ely receives books as gifts and he also gets one book every month from Dolly Parton (I love Dolly and love her even more now.) So on top of the lego/puzzle carpet is a usually a secondary layer of books.

In order to combat this mess, I've been meaning to sew (oh for only about 6 months now ) some cloth bags in which to store his puzzles. Puzzles come in their own boxes, but in my house those boxes are usually destroyed then added to the recycling bin. Recently, I saw Betz's tutorial and then saw how Blair used the tutorial to make her daughter some bags for her treasures. Heather Ross also has a pattern for drawstring bags in her new book, Weekend Sewing, but I don't have a copy of the book yet. On Saturday and Sunday, I has some kid-free time and a clean sewing table so I started on my own drawstring bags.

The bags were so simple to make. Even though I'm a slow sewer, I had 5 made by the end of naptime on Sunday. I used the 13X18 inch size from the tutorial for the larger bags, then raided my remnant stash for the smaller bags. Because these were "boy" bags, I was able to finish off some favorite fabric (Alexander Henry's 2-D Zoo) as well as some blue fabric I've never been very fond of. Betz used a serger to contain the inside raw edges of her bags. I don't have a serger, but a zig zag stitch with my Janome's overlock foot made a lovely serged-like edge. That was probably my favorite part of the whole project, because I learned how to do something new with my sewing machine. Or maybe it was the post-naptime clean room, with puzzles contained in pretty drawstring bags and put away in their labeled bin. I couldn't get Ely to use all of the drawstring bags for puzzles. He promptly filled one up with "sleep friends" (aka small stuffed animals), so he could easily take them with him in the car in case his baby sister fell asleep on the way to their grandparents' house.

Is it March yet?

2009-03-03T20:38:00.003-06:00

Why, yes! It is! I guess that means I can finally abandon the "February Funk" post that has been sitting on my computer, half written, for over 2 weeks now. February was just not my month, but that doesn't matter anymore because it's over. I have a good feeling about this month, and will be back tomorrow with a post all about March 4th.

Also - I'm not officially participating in green week, but this photo would fit perfectly! (Ignore the fact that I was outside taking pictures of snow).

Sweet Agnes

2009-02-14T09:49:00.003-06:00

Agnes, today you are 1. It's hard to imagine it was a year ago this very minute that I called the midwife and told her to come quickly because I was - for sure - having a baby today. What we all thought was a stomach bug at 37 weeks, was in fact early labor. In a little more than an hour, you were born with the midwife arriving 3 minutes later to find you and me cuddling in the bathtub. Your Daddy and I were amazed when we looked at you and saw you were a girl. I thought it was my fate to be the sole girl in a house full of boys, but I was thrilled to be able to use the name Agnes Adeliza in memory of your Daddy's dear Great Aunt Lois Adeliza Lyne. Daddy, big brother Ely and Blue dog love you just as much as I do. I remember the day after you were born, Ely did not want to go to mother's day out because he wanted to stay home with us and watch you drink your mommy milk and have your diapers changed. You are the recipient of many kisses and now give us back kisses (bites) on our cheeks.

Agnes, it is such a joy that I will always be able to celebrate Valentine's Day with your birthday, reminding me of how much I love our sweet family and how you were the perfect unexpected addition to it. And Daddy sure lucked out, because he now thinks he's off the hook for Valentine's Day for good.

My Reward

2009-01-31T19:28:00.004-06:00

This morning Will took the kids to his parents' house, and they ended up staying there for most of the day. I organized, vacuumed, mopped, and did laundry. When they weren't home by 2pm, I decided I could stop and do something fun. A few weeks ago, I bought some fabric I adore - Erin Michael's Lush - to make pillows for two chairs in our newly finished den. I'm hosting my book group on Monday, and my plan for this weekend is to try and whip up some pillows. My book group witnessed our den renovations that took two years, and while the room isn't quite finished I'd love to have as many finishing touches done. Pillows are easy, though I had never sewn any before today. I used a pillow with a pocket back sewn by my mom as my prototype, and made sure I reinforced all the corners. I sewed the last stitches as I heard the door open and voices call out "We're home!" If I'm lucky, I'll get that second one sewn tomorrow.

Nashvegas Snow Day

2009-01-28T12:56:00.005-06:00

I woke up to freezing rain and an email from Ely's school saying it was closed for a snow day. A snow day for rain doesn't impress me, but strangely enough within 10 minutes huge sticky flakes were pouring from the sky and actually starting to pile up on the wet grass. We seem to be having more and more preemptive snow days here ever since a couple of years ago the weather got really bad around 10 am and quite a few students were stranded at school late into the night because the buses couldn't go out and their parents couldn't make it to school. The heavy snowfall was a good sign for a real snow day, and it was nice to have a morning where I didn't have to rush everyone out the door, even if the first task of the day was to drag two kids to work with me for the am catalog review. By the the catalog review was done and the Polar Express was watched, the snow was gone and the rain had stopped. Unless it gets colder and the rain starts again, I think the winter weather is over for today.

It's not a real snow day without baking cookies or making hot chocolate in a warm kitchen. I've made several batches of homemade hot chocolate lately (basically heat up some milk or cream with a chopped up dark chocolate bar, add a pinch of salt and enough honey or sugar to make it slightly sweet, then let it cook until it thickens), so I think cookies are the better option. One of my favorite chefs, Martha Phelps Stamps, who owns and cooks at Martha's at the Plantation included a recipe for snickerdoodles in her food column in today's local newspaper. Snickerdoodles aren't my favorite cookie in the world, but I do like them a lot and they are easy to make. Will loves them and Ely loves anything that is even remotely sweet, so the boys will be happy. And since it is a recipe of Martha's, I know the cookies will be delicious. As soon as my two sticks of butter are soft and the kids are awake, we'll get started rolling our little balls of dough in cinnamon sugar.

And maybe, just maybe we'll get a chance later on to roll little balls of snow.

Cross Another One Off

2009-01-23T18:54:00.004-06:00

Last night, I finished my over-the-arm-pincushion from the (where else) Alabama Stitch Book. Since ASB projects use needles and thread I don't use for regular sewing, I thought it would be nice to have a special caddy to store my notions. I mostly sew at night while watching movies, so the pincushion is perfect for my perch on the sofa. Plus when I'm done for the evening, I can easily put all of my supplies away, pick up the pincushion, and store it on the mantle away from little, curious hands. For this project, I used some of my yardage of the organic cotton jersey. It feels so wonderful. The pincushion is supple and heavy in my hands. I'm pleased with the colors of the cotton jersey I chose, and I want to order more of it. Or at least a color card to tide me over.

Next up - a table runner.

A Good Day

2009-01-20T22:28:00.007-06:00

It's nice to end a really good day with a movie and some hand stitching. Champagne and coffee bean ice cream makes it even better.

Sewing Can Change Your Life

2009-01-17T09:20:00.007-06:00

Color week about did me in. It wasn't that hard, but with the 365 project I'm doing this year it made for a lot of images to look for and photograph each day. From now on, I think I'll limit myself to only one photography project at a time.

I live in a 1950s ranch house. You know the type - brick house, 2 car garage, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, and a living room. Boring, but the yard is flat, everything is on one level, and all of the floors are hardwood. Some time ago, a former resident turned the garage into a step down den with small laundry room. Two residents ago added a master bedroom suite onto one end of the house. The house is much larger now than when it was built and much longer too. A strange space was created during the master suite addition - a tiny L-shaped room with a brick wall along one side (the former outside wall) and a built in shelf where a window used to be. The people we bought the house from used this space as a home office, and we figured we'd do the same. For a long time, this space housed unpacked boxes, my unused darkroom and photography equipment, and our ironing board. At the beginning of 2008, we finally cleared out the room and relocated our office/sewing room from one of the bedrooms. The baby-was-coming-soon-and-the-rooms-needed-to-be-shifted project was in full effect. The perfect shade of lavender was chosen and the walls and trim were painted. Somehow we figured out how to arrange two tables (one for the computer and one for my sewing machine) and a bookcase in the small space, and still leave enough floor space for 2 people to work and 2 kids to play all at the same time. I quickly took over the bookcase and built in shelves with my sewing and craft materials and books. A bulletin board and art were hung on the walls, and the room looked pretty good.

However, there was one ugly spot in the room - the circuit breaker box for the master suite. We could have painted it, but they never end up nice with paint chipping off at the hinges and handle. The people we bought the house from had hidden the breaker box behind an armoire which looked great, but to access the box you had to move a large and heavy piece of furniture. Not so good in an emergency. There was always the option of hanging a piece of art over the box, but the art never hangs flat against the wall and my behind the scenes museum experience would not allow such an atrocity. When flipping through Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing, I realized I should sew a fabric wall organizer, and hang it over the breaker box. The ugly box would be hidden but remain easily accessible, and the wall organizer would be a great addition by the computer.
Will came up with the idea of putting button holes in the top section, and using the screws in the top of the breaker box to secure the fabric organizer to the wall. Lotta has a tube at the top of hers and uses a wooden dowel to hang it. I left the open tube, so I could use an alternative hanging system if the wall organizer was relocated. Besides the addition of the button holes, I adjusted the overall size slightly so the breaker box would be entirely covered. This was a simple sewing project, but did require hemming a lot of small pieces, then lining up and pinning the pockets on the large background fabric piece. It tuned out great, and the only thing I wish I had done differently was to put a heavier interfacing in the top tube as the edges of the caddy tend to curve outwards when the pockets are filled with paper, pens and other accoutrements. Sewing the pockets on through both layers of fabric would prevent the pull as well, but then the back side would not be seamless.
The day I hung up the caddy, I was so happy that I knew how to sew. A few years ago, this perfect and easy solution could not have happened.

Stripes and Plaid

2009-01-16T16:32:00.003-06:00

Stripes were a cinch. We love stripes in this house. I didn't even bother to look for plaid.

Pink

2009-01-15T17:15:00.004-06:00

It was coooooold today and will be even colder tomorrow. I realized a lot of my winter wear is pink.

Yellow

2009-01-14T14:55:00.003-06:00

Yellow has never been my favorite color, but I found snatches of it in many places today - baby toys, a favorite painting, and salt and pepper shakers from Italy.

Purple

2009-01-13T16:33:00.002-06:00

Okay, this was harder. Luckily there was a purple house next to where I ate lunch today.

Blue

2009-01-12T20:48:00.003-06:00

I'm not official, but I saw it's color week this week. Monday is blue, an easy color for me since I love blue and have lots of it around me.

All Clean

2009-01-10T17:39:00.006-06:00

I finally cleaned up my sewing corner today. I should have done this about 3 months ago.

Now, to tackle that unfinished sewing projects pile...

Notes on a Corset

2009-01-09T12:36:00.005-06:00

I just finished my first garment from the Alabama Stitch Book. And when I say "just finished", I mean 30 minutes ago. I spent the 30 minutes between then and now trying it on, trying to photograph myself wearing the shirt without the aid of my tripod, and trying to fuss with the photos on the computer so they looked a little better.

I picked out the deconstructed t-shirt as my first garment, mostly so I could check the sizing of the corset pattern before I attempted a labor intensive corset with an all over reverse applique. Through the Alabama Stitch Book Project flickr group, I had read that many found the corset to be a little low cut but the sizing chart in the book seemed correct. I measured myself and the medium seemed to be the size that would fit me the best. The low cut-ness worried me, since I sport a pair of nursing boobs, and gave me more reasons to make the deconstructed t-shirt. One of the shirts Will gave me last weekend was his t-shirt from his middle school band - Koma - days and it seemed perfect for this project as shirts with graphics make more interesting deconstructed t-shirts. The shirt, unfortunately, is a cotton-poly blend, but I decided it wouldn't matter for the test pattern.

This shirt, for me, was just as fun to hand sew as the journals and took about two movies to finish. The medium size is correct for me, but the shirt is low cut. I'm going to alter the pattern and add 1-2 inches to the neckline before I sew another one. I really dig seeing the construction on the outside through the exposed seams and knots. I chose a grey thread which shows off the construction more than if I had chosen red. If I had wanted to emphasize the graphic more and the seams less, I would have chosen red.

A few general thoughts as I work though this book and it's patterns:

- I've found that most of the patterns won't fit on a shirt smaller than a man's large or x-large. I couldn't fit all of the corset back pattern pieces on the large shirt of Will's, and I had to take some liberty with the grain direction to get the corset front pieces to fit. I had to use another shirt (Will's old bright yellow boy scout troop shirt) for the corset back middle piece. The same was true when I tried to cut out the pieces for the over-the-arm pincushion. I decided to order some yardage of the Southern grown, spun, knit, and dyed organic cotton jersey from the Alabama Chanin store for the projects that require a long piece running in the same direction as the fabric's grain. The organic cotton jersey did cost less than the cotton jersey I found at my good local fabric store and with 25 beautiful colors, I didn't need much incentive to place an order.

- you are better off giving away any Old Navy maternity t-shirts than using them for an Alabama Stitch Book project. I imagine the same is probably true for all Old Navy t-shirts. Enough said.

- Florence, AL is only 2 hours from me. I am so at the next Alabama Chanin factory sample sale. Even if I can't afford anything, at least I could check out (molest) the beautiful clothes and textiles.

Now I have a pattern to re-cut. I've been dying to deconstruct Will's prized Virgen de Guadalupe shirt he got at the swap meet in Mexico, ever since he added it to my pile saying, "it's cool, but it's way too big and I never wear it."

Gift Tags

2009-01-05T13:55:00.000-06:00

Ten years ago when I started giving hand knit gifts, I bought a big box of manila tags from a big box office supply store. I would tie a tag to every knit item, with "Hand Knit by Jennie" written on one side and yarn make up and washing instructions on the other. Now that I don't knit much anymore due to lovely pregnancy and baby hauling induced tendonitis, I wanted to do something with all the blank tags I had left. I decided to glue on some of my favorite fabric scraps and edge them with a brightly colored zig zag stitch. This turned out to be a great way to use up those small scraps you can't bear to get rid of and to finish off a spool or bobbin of thread. These tags could still be used for knit items, but they are also great as gift tags or tags for sewn items. Quite a few ended up on this year's Christmas gifts. A simple, easy way to transform something plain into something fun. Just remember that sewing on paper dulls your sewing needle quickly. Plan on making a bunch of these tags at one time, or else set the needle aside and label it "for paper" so you can reuse the same one when you are ready to make more tags.

To Accomplish

2009-01-01T09:20:00.008-06:00

I usually write my list of what I'd like to accomplish in the new year sometime in the first week of the year. Last year I had pages and pages of stuff I wanted to finish in the before the baby arrived; most of it didn't happen since Agnes was a little more than 3 weeks early but a lot of it did happen by the end of 2008 including create a blog. This year I am keeping the lists simple. Maybe some of last year's list will get done too.

House
-paint hallway, dining room, and bedroom in that order

-get non-working doors fixed and install doors for guest bedroom closet

-get chimney evaluated

-get crawlspace evaluated

-re-screen back door

Yard
-plant an oak tree for Agnes

-plant fruit and nut trees

-plant some some berry canes

-create a small square foot garden

-make and set up rain barrels

-prune prune prune before it gets warm

Photography

-do one photo a day (a 365) with the digital camera

-process one roll of film a week until they are done

-shoot at least one roll of film a month

-read my camera and flash manuals

-take a digital photo and/or photoshop class at the community college

Sewing/Crafting
-finish all 2008 (and beyond) unfinished projects, especially quilts

-sew some garments for myself

-sew some garments for Agnes

-use my gocco

-sew Christmas stockings for the whole family

-open an etsy store

Blog

-make a banner

-spiff it up

Me
-get my eyes checked as I probably need new glasses

-go to bed earlier

-be kinder

-be more generous

-waste less and reuse more

I think that is all doable. Now I'm off to process the very first of 365 daily photos.

A New Book

2008-12-31T09:06:00.008-06:00

For my birthday last month, I got the Alabama Stitch Book. I love love love this book. First of all, you can make the projects inside without buying any new fabric since they use old cotton jersey t-shirts. "Upcycle" is a catch word I've been seeing more and more this year, and all these projects are upcycled. What is better than taking something ugly or stained or ill fitting and making it into something beautiful? Will has way too many t-shirts, so I've been happy to clean out his drawers. I have a few t-shirts which are either too big, don't look good, or have holes so they've gone to the Alabama Stitch Project pile too. Natalie Chanin, the author, suggests starting with the bandana, but my t-shirts weren't quite wide enough so I began with the journal cover. I made patchwork covered Moleskine journals from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts for Christmas gifts this year, and thought the leftover boring brown journals would be the perfect thing for which to make a stitched and reverse appliqued journal cover. The second thing I love about this book, is that you don't need to be perfect. If your stitches aren't all the same length or a line of straight stitching isn't quite straight, it doesn't matter. Natalie also gives you the option of leaving your knots on the outside as a decorative effect. All these imperfections add to the Alabama Chanin look. I loved sitting on the sofa for the past two nights watching movies, sewing the outlines of my petal shapes, then clipping out the insides. When I sewed the last stitch on my journal cover, I was sad because I loved working on this project so much. I need to buy some more colors of carpet/buttonhole thread today since my hands want to get busy again.

2008 was a good year. Agnes was born, and we all love her more than I thought was possible. McLemore Auction Company had a lot of success and the path is continuing into 2009. Will is being recognized professionally and has some new exciting opportunities coming up. Ely started a Montessori school which he adores and thrives in. Listening to the US elect Obama was a moment I can't even attempt to describe. As for me, birthing a baby, becoming a mother again, and watching my children grow and change were all very special. But the unexpected I will take with me into the new year is a deepened joy of working with my hands. The world of craft blogs has motivated and inspired me to make, to sew, to embroider and to create.

I'm looking forward to filling up my new stitched journal with the details of 2009.

Post Christmas Cookies

2008-12-30T21:59:00.003-06:00

This is what happens when you never find the time to bake and decorate the sugar cookie dough you made.

They tasted just as good after the holiday, we had the freedom to use some of our non Christmas and Hannukah cookie cutters, and we had an activity to do this week of winter vacation.

The Day After or How I Missed Seeing Nicole Kidman in Person Because I am Tired

2008-12-26T21:32:00.012-06:00

I should be working on some gifts thatdidn'tquiteneedtobefinishedbeforeChristmas, but I don't have the energy. Instead I'm contemplating eating another cookie or cleaning up some of the toys strewn around or working gifts for next year, like Amy's cross stitch. Christmas is exhausting. I think this is because I'm a parent with a child who now understands what the holiday and Santa Claus are all about. Before, I could be a slacker. But this year, illusions for two children had to be kept it. Ely is determined that Santa will come again tomorrow night or the night after, and he is going to be so disappointed again tomorrow when the tree is bare underneath and the stockings are still empty. If he knew his mother wouldn't survive two nights of Santa, he might be a little more understanding.

This morning I went shopping in search of some clothes that are stylish and fit me. At home I have some clothes that fit, many clothes that don't fit, some clothes that are stylish but have stains of unknown origin, and many clothes that are way out of style. Having a baby and nursing impacts the amount of your wardrobe you can wear in a bad way. I need the guts to get rid of all the nice clothes I have from 5-9 years ago, because I think I will never wear them again. Maybe in the New Year. Mom told me the mall opened at 8am. I was there at 9am.

My sister in law is in town with her boyfriend, so they did a big tour of Nashville. We met them at Carnton Plantation in Franklin. Carnton was near the Battle of Franklin in the Civil War and turned into a hospital. Several generals died at the house and thousands of men died in the battle. A confederate cemetery sits next to the house. When I first visited the plantation as a girl, there was nothing but fields all around it. Now, there is a country club butted up to the property, and a subdivision (Hearth at Carnton) you have to drive through to reach the drive for the house. There are still beautiful fields in front of the house, and although it was cloudy and a little windy the warmer weather made it pleasant to walk around the grounds and revisit a place I hadn't been to in a long time.

Ely wouldn't let me take his picture:
Agnes didn't mind:

Afterwards we went to another historic house, The Carter House, in downtown Franklin. I was tired and cold and Agnes was cold, so we stayed in the car and I read a few more pages of 2666. When Will came back to the car, he said "Guess who we saw?" and I said "Nicole Kidman." Apparently I guessed right, and she and Keith Urban were on a tour of the house. My mother-in-law saw them a few days ago as well. In the whole scheme of things Roberto Bolano is probably better everyday than a celeb sighting. When Will and Ely ran into Nicole Kidman, Ely was dancing around doing the potty dance and holding his crotch (he refused to go at the last place). Nicole looked right him! She was either thinking "This is what I have to look forward to" or "Get that boy to a bathroom."

So, tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will try and make the 1.5 batches of cookie dough I have in the fridge into post-Christmas cookies. Tomorrow, I will try to put the new socks away and fold the tissue paper. And tomorrow, I will try to sew the rest of this year's gifts. Though I might still work on a cross stitch for next year.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T20:54:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful day.
Hope you did too!

Our stockings are hung...

2008-12-24T23:37:00.002-06:00

and our candles are lit!

Happy Christmas Eve and 4th day of Hanukkah.

Now, I'm going to bed.

I used to want to take picture.

2008-12-17T20:38:00.005-06:00

It's funny how things change. I used to be obsessed with photography. OBSESSED. I looked at every magazine and book I could get my hands on. I went to galleries and museums looking for photographs. If I was in an antique store, I would walk by all the glass cases hoping to find a tintype or a daguerreotype. I waited each week for the photo-eye newsletter to tell me about the new books being published. If I traveled to another city, I searched out photography shows at galleries or museums. I would drive to Atlanta the last weekend of a show at the High Museum. I drove to New Haven the last weekend of the MFA show. I spent all day in Chelsea and ended up with a hurt foot due to all that walking. I wanted to be a Fine Art Photographer more than anything else.

But then I got sick and didn't know it for a long time. And I was lonely being by myself all the time. I might have been lonely and depressed because I was sick, but it seemed like a lot of it had to do with photography. I got sick of hauling around heavy equipment and having to load and reload film all the time. And then I moved and lost my darkroom. And then I was pregnant, and didn't want to be around chemicals. And then I was nursing and didn't want to be around chemicals. And then I was pregnant again and still nursing, and I no longer wanted anything to do with chemicals. And the prices of everything went up up up. I have so much film in the fridge waiting to be processed, waiting for me to think we finally have enough money to pay the mortgage, the bills, and develop film. And now we have the digital SLR which is fun and easy. Nothing about my film cameras was easy. I no longer want to be a Fine Art Photographer and that is okay. I've known for a while that is in my old life, the life I left when I chose to be well and be happy. Photographer may still be on my tax return as profession but it probably shouldn't be.

Yet, I still have a strong desire to make. But making to me now is about taking something like fabric or yarn and turning it into something useful or pretty or both. Making doesn't seem to be very related to capturing. The more I spend my time with my hands making, the more I want to spend all my time with my hands making.

I still love to take photographs when the urge hits, though the urge comes to me not very often. There have been some afternoons in the past few months where I saw a tree I wanted to photograph the same way it looked in my eyes or I saw my children playing together and laughing and knew I wanted something that captured their smiles and crinkled eyes and expressed laughing and joy without needed any sound. I know I need to dig out those rolls from deep freeze and see if anything comes to life. I have a feeling I will see a lot I don't remember, and since time passes so much faster now I need something to bring those past moments back to me. I think 2009 needs to be the year of bringing photography back to me. Somehow, somewhere it will be on my resolution list. Stay tuned...

I always forget...

2008-12-09T14:09:00.012-06:00

how busy the end of the year is!

November has three birthdays and Thanksgiving. December has one birthday, school holidays, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. Add that to the normal work, family, school, church, and meeting stuff just means we are plain busy. I've tried to simplify the holidays over the years to counteract the busy-ness. We stay at home - now easy since we live in the same city as our parents. We no longer send cards or have a party. We have minimal decorations and only inside the house. Hanukkah is about lighting candles and latkes. Gifts are pared down. I have always liked to give handmade gifts, which means time spent sewing, knitting, or cooking but not shopping. I use recycled wrappings. We get a real tree, but only the week before Christmas and keep it up for two weeks. We do bake but only one or two special treats like decorated sugar cookies. I'm trying to make family-centered traditions Ely and Agnes will remember fondly.

Last year, Will and I started a new family tradition - Christmas Eve Eve dinner. My mother grew up in a family with Swedish and German roots, so they did most of their celebrating and gift opening on Christmas Eve (though she remembers how much she hated traditional Swedish dinner). We still follow that tradition and cook a special meal and open presents with my family on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is spent opening presents and eating with Will's family at his parents' house. Will used to have Christmas Eve supper at his great-aunts' house. Aunt Ruth and Aunt Lois would always buy corned beef and rye bread from Schwartz's Deli for sandwiches. He remembers the meals fondly, and we thought it would be nice to have a similar dinner for our families at our house. Christmas Eve and Day are already spoken for, so we decided Christmas Eve Eve would be the night for our Reuben dinner. I've added potato-leek soup to the menu , we now buy our corned beef and rye bread at Goldie's Deli (the successor to Schwartz's), and the evening usually ends in a rowdy game of Mexican train domino's. It's a nice way to spend more time with our families in a fun, but low key way.My parents are gave us new carpet as our holiday gift this year, and it was installed last week. It's hard to believe three years passed while we "renovated" our den, but it is done (well 90% done) and we can use and live in part of our house again. Ely and Agnes spent many hours romping around the new room, and playing peekaboo around and end table. They had so much fun, I had to capture their smiles in a photograph. Looks like I also captured two sweet matching faces. I'm looking forward to lots more fun and memories in the new room.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-11-24T07:00:00.002-06:00

The ghosts of birthdays past.

Happy 32 to me! Today is going to be a great day - Ely's special day at school is this morning and Will promised to take me to lunch. Maybe there will even be more surprises.

A Lesson

2008-11-22T12:14:00.002-06:00

Or alternate title: Why You Should Always Prewash Any Washable Fabric.

The first quilt class I signed up for was cancelled. I was so disapointed - all my fabric and supplies were bought, I had a brand new sewing machine, and I was itching to make something. I had enough fat quarters to make at least 2 quilts, if not more, so I decided I could make a simple quilt on my own, and still have enough leftovers for the rescheduled class the following month. My friend, Maya, and I had seen a quilt pattern in a book made up of big squares with sashing of rectangles and little squares. The grid pattern looked easy enough for me to attempt on my own. I decided on how large I wanted the big squares to be, how wide I wanted the sashing to be, and added seam allowances of 1/2 inch to each side to get the measurements for the cut pieces.

We had just gotten satellite tv with tivo and I was hooked on quilting shows. From watching the shows, I knew about cutting the pieces, pinning them, and sewing them together. I also knew I needed to decide if I was going to prewash all my fabrics, or not wash them at all. I was eager to cut into my fabric and decided not to wash any of them. Fast forward a few months...all my pieces were cut and most of them were sewn together into rows. We were moving so I packed up the unfinished quilt top to finish once we were settled in the new house. I had a new baby, but he took naps so I could sneak in some sewing time. I even had a sewing table where I could leave my machine set up, as our office room had a built in desk for the computer. I finished the quilt top, and it looked great. The small squares in the sashing allowed all of the pieces to line up easily. I decided to wash to quilt top as I now was in the camp of pre washing all fabrics before sewing. As I pressed the newly washed quilt top, I noticed some squares seemed as it they hadn't shrunk at all - the batiks. Batiks are washed many times during the dying process and have little shrinkage. All of my quilting cottons had shrunk. It hadn't occured to me that some of the fabrics in the quilt would shrink and some wouldn't. This was going to be an impossible quilt to machine quilt since the fabric won't lie flat. I don't want wrinkles caught in my quilting lines! Why didn't I wait until the whole quilt was done to wash it?!? I love the crinkly quilt look of antique quilts and would have loved the results no matter the shrinkage. I was disgusted with myself and folded the top and put it away to deal with at a later point.

That later point turned out to be today. I pulled the top out and decided I should cut the rows apart, remove the batik prints, recut them, then sew the whole thing together again. Once I identified all of the batik squares - at least one and sometimes up to three in every row - I was less eager to rip so many of the seams in my quilt apart. All of that time and thread would be wasted, and I was less excited about redoing the entire quilt. Suddenly, another solution came to me - I could hand tie the quilt. The extra fabric wouldn't matter so much if it was tied and the ties would work really well with the design of this quilt top. I've always wanted to hand tie a quilt and now I had a good reason. Now, to find the perfect color of embroidery floss...

An Afternoon with Anna Maria

2008-11-21T12:06:00.001-06:00

The fabric designer and author Anna Maria Horner lives in my neck of the woods. I've been hoping to run into her at the local fabric store we frequent.

Alas, I've never seen her there until this weekend. Textile Fabric hosted a book signing for Anna Maria, so I was able to get an inscribed and autographed copy of Seams to Me and gush to Anna Maria about how much I love her fabric.

Her aesthetic of bright colors and bold patterns fits my aesthetic perfectly. The birdcage on a chain quilt is at the top of my-projects-to-sew list...I just need to finish collecting all of the fabric. Anna Maria was wearing the cutest yellow and orange fabric cuff bracelet, and I was thrilled to find the instructions in her book later that evening. She is also pregnant with #6! I don't know how she mothers 5 children, designs so many fabric lines (her newest line of quilting cottons comes out in early 2009), sews, writes a book, photographs, and keeps a blog.

Clearly if she can do all that, I can find a little more time to sew.

Somebody...

2008-11-16T21:15:00.002-06:00

...please motivate me to hand sew two quilt bindings! Why do I procrastinate so much on hand sewing?

Blue

2008-11-04T11:19:00.003-06:00

I want today to be over already. I'm tired. Will is sick. I think Agnes is getting sick again. Ely was sick over the weekend. And I'm tired. I am dying to know the results of the election. I voted early on October 15, the first day of early voting, since I was worried about the lines and the wait with a baby in tow. It wasn't quite as exciting as voting on Election Day, but my heart pounded just the same as I submitted my ballot. I'm going to try and get a nap in today, because I don't want to quit tonight until it's over. I have hope Tennessee might extend its gubernatorial voting patterns to the presidential elections today.

Sunday Afternoon

2008-11-03T06:44:00.006-06:00

With the time change and the earlier start to our day, we had some unexpected free time Sunday afternoon. We went outside to enjoy the mid-70 degree weather, the backyard, and my neighbor's beautiful maple tree. The cold weather will be here for good soon enough.

Ely played ball with Blue.

Agnes rolled around on the blanket and chewed on toys.

I got a chance to flip through my recent stack of craft and cookbooks from the library.

It was a good afternoon.

November Birthdays

2008-11-02T12:36:00.006-06:00

November is a busy month for fetes in my family. My Dad's birthday is this week, my Mom's is the week after, and mine is the week after that. Plus with Thanksgiving, it means we have a lot of celebrations and big dinners in November.

The only problem with all these November birthdays is coming up with enough gift ideas for November and December. We don't exchange Hannukah gifts anymore, but between birthdays and Christmas I still need several good ideas.

One of my favorite birthday gifts, is to bake a special homemade birthday cake. I bake only from scratch. I like knowing everything that goes into the food I make for my family, and I can easily avoid transfats and HFCS this way. We may have fewer baked goods in our lives, but they are much tastier and better for us. I've found it only takes about 5-10 more minutes to bake most things from scratch and the extra time is worth it.

My long time favorite birthday cake is the Chocolate Buttercream Cake from Ina Garten's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. If you own the book, this cake is the one pictured on the back cover. It's a delicious chocolate layer cake with chocolate buttercream icing. Once you make a really good buttercream like this one, all other icings fall flat (even buttercream using powdered sugar). Ina's chocolate buttercream calls for raw egg whites, which I have used in the past, but now I like to use powdered egg whites, especially if young children are eating the cake. Powdered egg whites are also a lot easier, neater, and cheaper to use.

The cake can be a little time consuming, but it's easy to make the cake one day and the icing the next. You can even make the cake several weeks in advance, and freeze the two layers in the freezer. The cake also doesn't have to be a cake. I turned them into cupcakes for Ely's 3rd Birthday party this year. To make them fun for children (and adults), I added sprinkles and a plastic dinosaur on top:

There was not a single one left over.

All Hallows Eve

2008-11-01T10:51:00.013-05:00

This morning we all woke up with stomach aches. Too much chocolate for all the trick-or-treaters, and too much wine for the adults giving out the candy.

Ely was a cowboy. My mother-in-law made his costume, and took a blue ribbon at her county fair this summer. I made Ely's trick-or-treat tote bag last year. I was in Old Navy in late October and saw some Halloween bags for $3. They were very cute and very cheap, but were made of plastic and I try hard not to buy any plastic or spend money on items my family doesn't need for survival. I realized I could make him a simple bag, as I'd recently taken a sewing class at the local art school and learned the basic "formula" for a tote bag. I already had black kona cotton and orange and black cotton thread in my stash, so all I needed was 1/2 yard of orange kona cotton which I could purchase for less than $3 and maybe would even be enough for two bags.

Tote bags are simple - basic rectangles and straight sewing, with homemade bias tape handles. Depending on how you want the bag to look, the handles can be sewn on before assembly, or at the very end. I wanted a simple bag, so I sewed them on before I sewed the exterior to the interior. I added a fun pumpkin applique to the outside, using wonder under and black fabric scraps. I cut out the facial features, ironed them in place, and edgestitched around them to permanently secure them to the bag. I unintentionally used a dull exacto knife to cut out the eyes, nose, and mouth so the pieces have frayed more than I'd like. Black thread for the edge and topstitching finishes off the bag. The best part about making your own bag is that it can be any size. Personally, I don't think young children need a lot of candy, so I made Ely's bag on the smaller side. A smaller bag is also easier for a young child to carry on his own. Agnes didn't need a bag this year, but I'll make her one next year. I'll probably embroider her name on the outside of her, and add Ely's name to his to prevent any confusion.

This tired lion is looking forward to some rest on All Souls' Day, and trick-or-treating with the big kids in 2009.

Where It All Began...

2008-10-16T14:16:00.012-05:00

This is the first quilt I made. And the only quilt I've finished. (However, I'm watching lots of Dexter this weekend and hand sewing the binding on my gift baby quilt, so I will have another finished quilt to show soon. Promise.) I wanted to revisit this quilt, which I made in 2004, because it is the first project I made in the orange and blue color scheme I've become so fond of. Will's aunt talked me into quilting a year or so after she talked my sister-in-law Meg into quilting, and I decided an introduction to quiltmaking class at the local quilt store would be the best way to learn how to sew and quilt. I chose to make the smallest size quilt option, so I could get my blocks made and pieced in the first two weeks of the class. I was in Spain for one of those two weeks, so I knew the smaller the better for me. Once the quilt top was pieced, the teacher helped us pick border fabrics based on the fabrics and colors we liked best. I told her I liked an aqua floral print and an orange floral print in my quilt top best, so she steered me to the orange batik I used for the wide border and the aqua and green print I used for the thin border. My friend Maya made me enter the quilt in the Austin Quilt Guild show which meant instead of my usual procrastination, I had to quilt it, bind it, and make a sleeve for it in a couple of weeks to meet the deadline for the show. The day after the show ended I found out I was pregnant, so this crib sized quilt quickly became the quilt for the baby. When we moved back to Nashville and into our new house, I chose paint and linens for the baby's room around the quilt.

This was Ely's room for almost 3 years and now it's Agnes's room. She will have her own special quilt one day, but for now Ely's quilt still hangs on her wall. Every time I rock and nurse her to sleep in the rocking chair, I get to look at the quilt that started my love of sewing and of tangerine and turquoise.

Splendid Shortbread Tart

2008-10-15T13:59:00.007-05:00

It's no secret I'm a huge fan of The Splendid Table and Lynne Rossetto Kasper. The weekly podcast of The Splendid Table is my constant companion on my walks, and I've been known to cook meals for dinner that night I heard about on the show or stop at the liquor store on the way home to buy a recommended bottle or box of wine. Long before I knew about her radio show, my family and I loved her cookbook, The Italian Country Table. Many of Lynne's recipes are staples in the Wolff households, especially her chocolate torte. Lynne's most recent cookbook written with Sally Swift - How to Eat Supper - came out in the Spring and I've been dying to read it ever since. I'm not allowed to buy books*, so I was thrilled to spot it in my library's inventory last week.

I flipped through the book over the weekend, and immediately saw what I wanted to cook first, the rustic jam shortbread tart. I avoid sugar while pregnant, so I've been enjoying my post pregnancy sugar binge for the last 8 months and love easy desserts whose ingredients I have in my pantry or refrigerator. The shortbread tart fit this category. In my first attempt on Sunday, I left out the almonds and lemon zest since I only had walnuts in the freezer and non-organic lemons on the counter. The tart, which I topped with raspberry jam, was very good, though I overbaked it trying to get the jam to the bubbly stage. I also only have a 10 inch tart pan instead of a 9 inch, and the extra room made the crust a little thin. Today, I made the tart again with almonds, lemon zest, and wild blueberry jam and adapted the ingredient amounts for a larger pan. I usually don't have dessert with lunch, but I did today. So did Will, who probably didn't realize how lucky he was this morning when he ran out of time to pack his lunch.

*In Spring of 2005, Will and I decided we would only get books from the library and not buy any no matter how cheap we found them used. We did this to cut down on unnecessary spending and to limit the number of books in our house. It's worked well, and put us in the mindset of buying books is wrong. We are allowed to buy something we can't get at the library or something we can't live without, but we've gone from buying several books a month to buying only several a year.

Coasters Pretty Darn Quick

2008-10-12T14:12:00.005-05:00

While Will was at the hockey game last evening and I was movie-less at home, I decided to make some coasters (fun) instead of hand sewing the back of the binding for the baby quilt I just finished (not so much fun). I noticed my glass of water by the computer was dripping all over table, and realized we have no good coasters in the house. I saw these this week, and knew I wanted to try the quilted coasters from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts for myself soon. I pulled out some fun, colorful fabrics from my fabric stash (uh make that pile at the moment). I spent an hour ironing, cutting out the materials for 5 coasters, and sewing, finishing two of them before I called it quits for the night. They turned out fairly well, though I'm not sure mine are nice enough to make more for gifts. I find it next to impossible to sew anything into a perfect square, so mine are a little wonky which makes the quilting wonky. I was also missing high loft batting which I substituted with a double layer of low loft, so using the correct batting may make them a little thicker and sturdier. And I realized this morning, I never put a quilting needle in my machine before I started quilting - oh well! It's always nice to try things out on yourself first and for that the tables in my house will be thankful.

(It's a cloudy afternoon and I have no tripod at home, so this is the best I can do. I thought I would like the pink quilted one on the left the best, but it turned out to be my least favorite. Notice the orange and blue quilt in the background? That is the gift in my reoccurring color scheme I need to finish.)