Strawberry Jam!

I was excited to can my first batch of strawberry jam last weekend.  I’ve never canned jam before and I couldn’t help think it was going to be a big flop, but it’s really good!  The jars all sealed and I feel quite satisfied looking at them.  

 

I bought the strawberries at the farmer’s market and they were so fragrant and delicious. 

 

 

The jam would have been even better on homemade bread, but there wasn’t enough hours in the weekend for this full time working girl.  Maybe I’ll try the bread next weekend!

The roses are blooming!

Hi There!

Gosh, it’s been a while since I’ve posted!  It’s been busy with the end of the school year events and various things going on.  I have gotten in some craftiness, though…

 

 

 

 

I finally realized my goal of learning how to knit socks!  Not nearly the difficult project I thought they’d be.  The yarn is On Line Supersocke. 

 

 

 

This is my second pair.  I used this free pattern that I stumbled across while web surfing – really cute little socks and easy for a beginner.  I’m in love with the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock yarn – it feels so good and the colors are vibrant!! 

 The first pair was knit on two circular needles and the second on double points, as per their respective patterns.  I prefer the circular needle method. 

 

And here’s a pic of the finished Good Folks quilt.  I had it long arm quilted by Upper Loft Quilting and it turned out so nice.  Beautiful long arm quilting comes at a high price, though!  Yikes!    

 

 

This is my next quilt in the works…

 

 

I’m calling it the picnic quilt as I want to use it for such this summer.  I was inspired by this awesome quilt and used her tutorial to create the blocks.   Boy, she is one productive lady – go check out her fabulous projects!   I made my foundations 8.5 inches, so the blocks will finish at 16 inches.  It will utilize mostly scraps, but the Amy Karol Fat Quarter Bundle I purchased from Sew Mama Sew is in there, too.  More progress shots soon! 

Like French Fries…

 

 

I know they really aren’t nutritious, high quality food but I can’t stop!  My son had the first book and I picked it up late one night over the long weekend – mistake!  I was tired the next morning.  This vampire love story series is geared toward teenagers and yes, I am a forty-something, mostly responsible working mom (the afore mentioned French fry problem, excessive fabric shopping, etc.), but I’m hooked!  I plowed through the first three books and am impatiently waiting for the final one to arrive from Amazon (I regret choosing the super saver shipping option!).

Doing this weekend…

Some painting…

 

 

The color turned out a little more saturated than I expected but I like it.  A good thing, because it was a lot of work.  I forgot what a pain painting a room full of stuff is!  

 

I’ve also finished the hand quilting on my doll quilt for DQS6.  

 

 

I had ordered a little tool to helped me plan a scalloped edge along the top and bottom borders but haven’t had a chance to play with it yet.  If that doesn’t work out I’ll just bind the straight edges and I think it would still be my favorite of all the doll quilts that I’ve made so far.  I really hope my partner likes it.  

Happy Easter tomorrow!

Burg’s Potato Salad…

One of my new favorite books is A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. I wasn’t familiar with her blog Orangette prior to purchasing this book, but I am definitely a reader now. The book is about moments in her life experience and recipes intertwined with those memories. This is the first recipe in the book, Burg’s Potato Salad.

 

 

 

I think I used a bit more than the 1 ¾ pounds of potatoes specified, otherwise no modifications.

As I was preparing the ingredients, I thought of my own potato salad history – which mostly surrounds my mother-in-law (whom we call Grandma). She always made potato salad for our family gatherings. She used one of those big Tupperware bowls (yellow) and filled it to the top. Her potatoes were cut into small, neat cubes and the dressing was a mixture of mustard, sugar, mayonnaise, and vinegar – sweet and tangy. Her potato salad is quite different from Burg’s, which is white and creamy with a mild dill flavor. Though Burg’s salad is very good, it probably would not go over well at gathering with my husband’s side of the family. It’s just too much of a departure from Grandma’s. When I think about classic Grandma dishes other than the potato salad, I think of corn pudding, apple goodie, cinnamon rolls, double crunchers – the list goes on. The family would not take well to change with any of these items.

I thought of what Grandma’s reaction would be to this potato salad – she’d probably shout “what in the hell is that?!!” Grandma swore a lot. She was not one for subtlety. She had a loud voice, a hearty laugh, and lots of opinions – a big personality. We lost her in February of 2008 and miss her so much. I’ll keep trying to get Grandma’s right (she didn’t use a recipe) to bring for our next gathering. I don’t think anyone is ready for a new potato salad yet.

DQS6 – in progress

I had a sketch for something with birds, but I wasn’t happy with my appliqué shapes, so on to plan B…

 

 

The block pattern (enlarged to a 14 inch block) is from Affairs of the Heart, the quilt that started my whole quilting story. When I saw it, I was hooked. I had some sewing experience and a love of handmade, but had never really thought about making a quilt until then. I was mesmerized by that quilt’s beauty and tiny stitches. And so the obsession with fabrics and making/dreaming about quilts began. That was maybe 3 – 4 years ago (I’ve acquired a bit of fabric since then!).  The love of this pattern came to me at a difficult time in my life.  I was wounded and troubled yet drawn to learning this new skill and doing so helped me through – it was divine intervention, I think.    

 

 

This time around my partner left the quilt style up to me and didn’t state a dislike for batiks, so I dug into my stash of colorful fabrics that look like swiss cheese – lots of little bits cut from here and there to get the right shades.    

These are some of my Affairs of the heart blocks…

 

 

I don’t know if I will ever finish it and really don’t care that much if I do. That quilt is about the process and I just enjoy coming back to it from time to time. Digging through a box of beautiful colors and slow, tiny stitches is meditative – good for my soul.

Doll Quilt Swap 6!!

I was going to sit out… but changed my mind and at the last minute signed up.  I’m glad I did.  I have my partner info and the creative juices are flowing!   I think I’ll do something with hand appliqué this time - I haven’t used that technique lately and do really enjoy it.  I’ve been sketching and dreaming – I’m thinking birds, leaves, aqua, pink, and Spring (yay Spring!!).  Hopefully my partner will be okay with that – he/she didn’t have any preferences. 

On another note – the Good Folks quilt below is at the long arm quilter.  It’s a generous queen size so I decided to shell out the money for a professional instead of trying to wrangle it on my own.  I chose an all over feather pattern  -  can’t wait to get it back!!    

 

 

Good Folks…

I had been looking forward to the new fabric line by Anna Maria Horner, so when I got an e-mail from Pink Chalk Fabrics that they had gotten it in, I immediately ordered a collection of fat quarters in both colorways.   My order arrived so quickly with a lovely presentation – the experience I’ve had every time I’ve placed an order there.   

Here’s a peak at what it is becoming:

 

 

It will be a quilt for our bed – I wanted something cheerful for Spring.    It’s folded in to quarters here – the top would be finished, but I want to add another border to make it a bit larger and had to order additional fabric for that.  The pattern is Turning Twenty, a very simple fat quarter project that I thought would show off these beautiful prints.  I made one of my very first quilts with this pattern.

 

 

It’s in fabrics/colors that I would never choose now, but I think it’s my husband’s favorite thing that I’ve ever made.  He claimed it as his as soon as I had the binding on and it’s been getting daily use here on our couch ever since. 

 Happy Tuesday!   

Another weekend at the rock show…

We spent the weekend in Lincoln.  DS1 had a speech tournament and then his rock band played at a music store Saturday night. 

 

 That’s me there at the concert wearing the Mail Sack that I recently made.  I’m someone who likes bring it all along in the case opportunity strikes and I can read a little, knit a little, or write out a couple of bills so I was attracted to this large bag.  The pattern was very detailed and I really like the look of the finished bag. 

 

 

After carrying it around all weekend, though, I found (unfortunately) that when loaded up with my stuff it feels a bit awkward to carry.  I think I may just be too short for a bag of this style.  I still like it but will probably just use it to tote library books, etc., and not as a purse – which is probably its intended use anyway.    

 

 

We got to shop a little while out of town and I found a cute yarn store.  I enjoyed petting and squeezing the fiber goodness until hubby drug me out of there.   I couldn’t resist a couple hanks of Manos silk blend – so beautiful (a knitted cowl maybe?).