Craft-A-Little

A couple of close ups so you can see my quilting-

The back-

I am LOVING how it is turning out.   I will only be a little sad that it will be too warm to snuggle up under it to watch a movie.  Oh well.  It will wait until fall I am sure! 

I had to ground myself from quilting tonight.  I had some work that I needed to get done (still not done yet!) before a 9 am meeting tomorrow.  I usually get into work between 630 and 645, so I do have some time in the morning and I am almost  done. 

Something else that is rather exciting to talk about is my fruit and veggie shares!  Here is what I got today…

MORE strawberries (LOVE THEM), 4 heads of lettuce, white radishes (what the heck do I do with these??), asparagus, snow peas, shelling peas (LOVE these), scallions, and more beet greens.  Also, 1 dozen fresh from the chicken eggs.  I still have 2 left from last week.  Good thing that I have bananas and they are ready to be turned into banana bread!

Here are all of my blueberries (well, minus the 3 pints that we have eaten since Friday!)

Did I mention that Little Helper liked the peas too?

pictures to come tomorrow…

I completed my free motion quilting of my red barn quilt along quilt!  It looks good- not perfect- but I like it.  I wanted to leave you with at least one picture, but we still don’t really have lamps in the living roomo and any picture that I take just won’t do anything justice.  So you will have to wait.  But really, all you are waiting for is a picutre of some crooked and uneven free motion quilting. 

Goodnight!!

irritation:  I was driving down the highway on my way to pick up my blueberries for my fruit CSA this afternoon.  I am still not quite used to the speed limit being 70 mph (we only moved up here a month ago) so sometimes my speed will fall in the 60-65 range.  Today, it fell down to about 62 (SORRY!).  I was in the left lane- but still passing people.  A motorcycle was behind me and decided to swerve over across 2 lanes of traffic and back to get in front of me.  While he was doing this ridiculousness, I realized that my speed had fallen and accelerated back up to 70.  He cuts me off to get in front of me and then hits his breaks.  Yes, a guy on a motorcycle CUT ME OFF and hit is BRAKES right in front of me while I was driving 70 mph.  Pretty sure he had a death wish.  Lucky him, I didn’t hit him.  I had Little Helper in the car with me and if ANYTHING had happened to her and he hadn’t been killed in the accident, well, I would have finished the job.

embarrassment:  After picking up my blueberries, Little Helper and I thought we would get a late lunch (for me- she ate before we left) and do a little shopping.  We stopped at Potbelly Sandwich Works in the Shoppes at Arbor Lakes.  I ordered my roast beef on wheat and Oreo milk shake.  Little Helper wanted a drink of water while we waited.  We opened a bottle of water for her to take a (tiny) drink.  I told them I wanted lettuce, tomato, and mayo on my sandwich.  I got to the register.  I realized I didn’t have my wallet.  Potbelly comped my lunch.  Thanks Potbelly. 

irritation and embarrassment:  After embarrassing myself at Potbelly, Little Helper and I walked over to Williams-Sonoma.  I have a couple of Non-stick All-Clad pans that are no longer non-stick.  I wanted to see if they had an recommendations on how to clean them.  Or I wanted to see if I could trade them in for new ones on a warranty.  Here is the conversation that transpired…

lady:  what do you cook in them?

me:  well, I have 2.  One cooks eggs almost exclusively, the other- a variety of things- pancakes, chicken- stuff like that.

lady: is there a build up in your pan?

me: no.  Well, at least nothing visible.

lady- well, do put anything in the pan when you cook to promote non stickiness.

me:  (starting to think that there is a definite right and wrong answer here) well, it depends what I am cooking, sometimes I do. 

lady- well, what do you use (in a tone that makes me KNOW there is a wrong answer)

me- (as i am chasing Little Helper AWAY from the wine glasses)  well, I don’t know- I use Pam some. 

lady- oh, well that is your problem.  it is a silicone* based product that builds up a film on your pans.  I’ll bet if you look at your pan there is a build up on the surface.  Call All-Clad and see what they recommend to clean them.  Since it isn’t a manufacturing defect, it is unlikely that it is covered under the warranty. 

OTHER CUSTOMER:  oh yes, you shouldn’t use Pam.  I bought this spray thing that WS carries and I use olive oil.  And you should never use Pam on you baking dishes.

Lady: yes, we sell item A and item B.  You should use those instead.  olive oil and this other thing we sell are so much better for you than Pam. 

me: ok, thanks.  (to Little Helper) Ok, let’s get out of this store with all of this breakable stuff.  Say Bye!

little Helper:  Bye bye!

So, as I was driving home and thinking about this.  I ALMOST NEVER use Pam.  the only time I started using Pam was after the egg pan stopped being nonstick.  I almost ALWAYS use olive oil and occasionally vegetable oil  I also sometimes use butter.  But, I seriously do not use Pam all that often.  I will admit that I use it to spray my baking dishes before I put cakes or brownies in them.  But I have seen build up on my baking dishes from just using oil. 

*Update:  I looked at the ingredient deck for Pam- there is no silicone.  It is oil, lecithin (which is an emulsifier found in soy and eggs- they use soy lecithin in the Pam- totally natural igredient) and rosemeary extract and propellant.  So this lady thinks that the FDA is approving silicone to go INTO food?  what a crazy.  Now I kind of want to go back and tell this lady how wrong she is.  UGH!

amusement:  As I was driving home from all of this, I got stuck in some traffic on a 2 lane road.  I like to leave a few car lengths between me and the car in front of me so that I don’t have to stop every time every car in the line slams on their brakes.  So, there were probably 6 car lengths between me and the car in front of me.  I got passed by 2 cars who NEEDED to be up right behind the car in front of me.  It makes me chuckle. 

ok…sorry for the long wordy post.  I am going to start quilting my quilt later tonight or tomorrow morning.  I will get some pictures up of that.  Oh- and I have gotten some pretty awesome mail lately that I need to share pictures of.  Something for you all to look forward too!

I was travelling for work last week and didn’t get a chance to choose a fabric for the back of my quilt.  I did a little internet searching in my hotel in the evenings, but didn’t feel comfortable choosing fabric without having my quilt top nearby.  When I got home, I chose a fabric (Sprout from Erin McMorris’ Wildwood line) but no one had it in stores near me.  Well- the few stores that I sort of looked at didn’t have enough.  One place had 3 yards and I needed 5.  So that left me to the internet.  I ordered from uberstitch and they shipped SO QUICKLY!! 

Have I mentioned how much I like ordering from Etsy- I love how these independent shops package things they ship to me!  It’s like I got a present!

I ordered on Saturday and my fabric arrived yesterday- perfect timing!  Today I assembled the back!  I originally was only going to do one stripe of my front fabrics.  But I apparently can’t count and I didn’t measure the pink correctly.  Even though I did measure more than once before I cut.  But then I had enough of the strips and my husband suggested doing 2 stripes, so it turned into 2 stripes.  I do like how it looks quite a bit! 

Tomorrow I will have to start basting it for weekend quilting!!

My other stuff is that my first shipment of my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) vegetables arrived this week!  If anyone is wondering what a CSA is, I will tell you.  It is basically buying a membership to a local farm and then each week I go to a pick up spot (it is about 5 min from my house) and I pick up a box of fruits and veggies (mostly veggies) that were grown at the farm.   I am also getting a dozen eggs delivered each week.  Anyway, here is what I got-

What did I find in my box, you ask?  Spinach, Radishes, asparagus, beet greens, radishes, rhubarb, shelling peas- did I mention radishes?

I washed the rhubarb, spinach, and beet greens before I put them away.  The strawberries, asparagus, and shelling peas have to wait until I am eating them.  I have had some strawberries- delicious!!

Question to all of you- what do you do with radishes?  I have a couple of ideas- sandwiches and salads- but I am not really sure of what else to do?  And how long can I keep them? 

I am excited to eat my fresh local veggies.  Unfortunately, I didn’t plan my food very well for this week, so I have only eaten strawberries so far!!  Don’t worry- I will get it together.  Tomorrow I am having asparagus or shelling peas- I haven’t decided yet.  And Saturday I want to make a brisket on the grill.  We will have the other then.  And a quinoa salad with radishes, black olives, feta cheese, and some lemon juice.  But I am pretty sure that will only use about 3 of my 1 million radishes. 

ok…off to bed.  goodnight all!

I ordered the backing fabric for my Old Red Barn Co. quilt along quilt this weekend, so I couldn’t really do anything on that.  I hope that fabric gets here in by Wednesday so that I can get that done next weekend!  Anyway, I needed something else to work on and since I was behind on my blocks for the quilt that I am making with my cousin, I decided that this weekend was a perfect weekend to catch up. 

We have a book of 12 in block patterns that we started with.  My first 2 blocks (I guess there is only 1 block in that post- I will get a picture of my 2nd) were patterns from the book.  But after reading all these blogs online, I really wanted to try some new techniques.  I found them to be so fun and so freeing!!

The first one that I did, I followed paper piecing instructions on Film in the Fridge and I LOVE how they turned out!  I think that after I finish this quilt and my quilt along quilt, I am going to have to do a whole quilt like this.  I really think that I would love it!  I kept the one on the left and sent the one on the right to my cousin.

After doing the paper piecing, I wasn’t ready for patterns.  I liked being free and wasn’t ready to give up that freedom!  So, more inspiration from Ashley at Film in the Fridge lead to these:

Again, I kept the one on the left and sent the one on the right to Lorrin.  I hadn’t looked at Ashley’s quilt in a while and I see that I did a lot more wonky lines in there than she did.  One thing that I really like that Ashley did that I didn’t do a lot of are little pieces of other fabrics that interrupt continuous lines of another fabric.  A full quilt like this is on my list too.  But as you know, I already have a quilt list.  I hope to have a stack of quilts in my living room before winter hits.     Plus the few that I want to give away…  I had better get busy!

We have been lucky enough to acquire a new piece of furniture this weekend.  It is a small chair for Little Helper.

Apparently, this chair is worth $3000.  No, I am not kidding.  It is the most valuable piece of furniture in our house, and I can’t even sit on it!  My husband’s Grandparents are moving out of their house and into assisted living facilities.  Well, I guess they have already moved.  So that leaves Will’s mom and 2 aunts cleaning out their (large and VERY full ) house.  Will’s grandma saved EVERTYTHING and they were (are) pretty well off, so there is a lot of stuff.  We stopped by last Thursday evening on our way to dinner with the family and saw all of the stuff that they have been cleaning out.  There was an entire (VERY LARGE) closet FULL of silver.  Real silver.  Like flatware, serving platters, pitchers, and various other items made out of silver.  I have nothing that is silver.  Well, I have things that are the color silver- like my kitchen faucet.  But I am renting, so that isn’t even mine. 

Anyway, when we stopped by we saw this little chair in one of the rooms.  And A LOVES little chairs.  Everywhere we go, if there is a little chair, she finds it.  And she gets so mad when we have to leave them.  So she was so excited when Grandma brought the little chair over yesterday.  She has been sitting on it almost nonstop since then. 

OK- so I know you are all wondering, what makes it so valuable.  Well, Will spent a little time looking up the history online today.  It is an Eames chair that was made in a single production in 1947-48.  Only 5000 or so were made at the time.   They didn’t do very well, so they didn’t do another production of them.  That is what makes it valuable to the collectors.  We just like that Grandma Abby played with it and Will remembers playing with it as a child too. 

So, I have been neglecting my knitting a bit.  I travelled for work last week and I tried to bring some knitting with me, but I had some pattern transport issues.  So I didn’t get very far.  Anyway, Ali over at Skeins Her Way is having a summer knitting goals setting contest.  I like the idea of setting goals- that gives me something to target! 

So- here is my list!

1. Knit a pair of socks (For me!!).
2. Learn to cable knit.
3. Knit a sweater for Little Helper
4. Start to knit a sweater for Little Helper.  I have chosen one- it is cable (hence #2 on my list!) and hooded.  It is a pattern in  a Debbie Bliss Book that I have sitting around.  This one doesn’t need to be completed until January or so. 
5. Knit 2 pair of slippers for my friend’s housewarming gift. 

When I started my list, it was only 3 things.  Then I added the last 2.  And now I (almost) feel overwhelmed!  I just don’t think that we should show my list to Will (husband).  He is upstairs doing our budget right now.  I don’t know that he needs all of the all of the details on how much money I want to spend on hobbies.  Especially when you consider the other projects that I have lined up-

1. Finish doll quilt
2. Finish my first quilt
3. Quilt that I am making with my cousin
4. Dress for Little Helper
5. Shirt and shorts for Little Helper
6. Quilt for friend’s housewarming gift

And anything else that comes up!!  Ok- I have to go and finish folding laundry so that I can do some fun crafts!  All of this talking about my projects is getting me excited and motivated!

As I mentioned earlier, I joined the Old Red Barn Co. quilt along.   And I believe the last time I showed pictures of what I was up to, I had 10 fabrics and they were sitting in nice folded stacks looking  just as they did when they came in the mail.  Well, not anymore!

I am lucky that my weekend starts early.  I only work Mon- Wed, so I have 4 days of a weekend to catch up from having NOT STARTED my quilt as of Wednesday morning.  My mom and little brother (he is 12- I am 31- he is the “pleasant surprise” of my family.) were arriving on Wednesday night and they are staying until Monday morning. 

While I was waiting for them on Wednesday…I ironed all of my fabrics.

And then I cut out my strips.

Now, my mom is an experienced quilter.  So when she got here, I showed her my stack of strips and told her that we had to assemble a quilt top before the end of the weekend. 

We started on Thursday morning.  My mom, my little brother, and me.  We started by organizing into groups of 6.  It was fun to have help.

Then, my mom pinned the strips together and handed them to me so I could sew them.  She did a great job at keeping them organized into the right groups in the right order for each group.  This took Thursday night and Friday. 

Friday night we laid out all of the blocks and decided what order they were going to go in.  My mom took those into stacks and pinned them for me this morning and I sewed them.  Then, I put it together and my quilt top is done!!

Here it is outside- my husband is holding it up for the picture.  Maybe I should call him my IT guy/husband/quilt stand.

I am so excited that I am completely caught up!  And, in addition to getting this quilt top assembled, we have made 2 loaves of banana bread, creme brulee, a cherry coffee cake, and 2 batches of bagels AND my daughter has not been neglected.  We have been to swimming lessons and to the playground a couple of times.  Will (husband), Tyler (brother) and I all also went to a movie tonight!  And my kitchen is clean. 

My mom should visit more often. 

First I want to say thank you to everyone who entered!  I also want to thank everyone who took a minute to visit lemonade crafts.  She really like having some visitors!

So now lets get down to business.  I am sure that everyone wants to know who won!  I printed out sheets with the names of everyone who comment and then “let” my IT guy/husband pick one out of the basket.  And he chose…

Stephanie of MooBear Designs!

Well, then I decided that it wasn’t fair that I didn’t get to pick a winner too.   So I picked…

Deb D!

Right after I complete this post, I will be contacting both Stephanie and Deb D requesting mailing addresses. 

In an effort to keep the fabrics a surprise until they get them in the mail, I am going to wait to post the actual prize until they have received them!

One hour and 26 minutes left to enter! 

I will draw the winner tomorrw night!  Just want to let you know that my IT guy/husband is going to be doing something to my website tomorrow night to fix it so it works better (it keeps breaking on me!).  He says that you may not be able to find my blog for a day or so.  If i am not up, just come back on Wednesday!  I will be back!