Let's Make Baby Quilts! {10/31/14}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Do YOU have Extra Sensory Perception?

The boys found this at an estate sale last year and I just couldn't say no. Because I'd never seen anything like it and just look at those graphics!

It seems to be complete. Or did when we bought it. I've fished a few cards out from under the couch cushions over the months.

And just in case I was worried that my boys might be experimenting with real psychic abilities...

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer, Coastal Charm, Thrifty Life Thursday

{Yarn Along} He doesn't look quite evil enough....

The pattern is Monkey With Miniature Cymbals from Knitmare on Elm Street: 20 Projects that Go Bump in the Night by Hannah Simpson. He's been on my to-knit list for months, one of those projects I'll get around to when I've got the time and am in the right mood. I've chosen yarn from the stash, changed my mind, chosen different yarns...and then with Halloween week just around the corner, I grabbed what I had and cast on.

I wish I'd taken a picture of the disjointed legs and arms and ears and cymbals. It was hard to believe that this was going to come together into anything at all.

This is the first time I've used safety eyes in a stuffed animal. I thought they'd be complicated, but they really aren't, not even wrestling the little post through both layers of knit fabric. I'd planned on using black buttons, because I'm cheap and this is a "from stash" project, but I was at Joann's anyway to buy muslin and  decided to see what they had. I'll be using these again, if only because there are four more pairs left in the package.

While I was cleaning out the sewing room, I unearthed my copy of Skeleton Crew. I've got vivid memories of bring a copy home from the library just after it came out, and reading The Mist in the back of my Dad's car while he was in buying a new prop for the boat. This time around, I only took  time to reread The Monkey and Gramma, but those got me in the mood to reread the rest.

I also read A Haunting Is Brewing: A Haunted Home Renovation and a Witchcraft Mystery Novella. It's a fun, atmospheric Halloween novella that brings together the characters from the Witchcraft and Haunted Home Renovation mystery series. Life-sized dolls coming to life in the attic of the dollmaker's old house? Of course I was going to read that one!

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. For more finishes, check out Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, Make it Monday and Inspired Friday.

I Counted

I counted all of the bow ties and figured out that I was a hundred short. Then I found a few more that I'd pieced as leaders and enders and not put away with their friends, and I cut fabric and pieced a few more, and found a few more.

If my math is right -- and that's a big IF -- I need to cut and sew 31 more blocks. But I won't really believe that I have enough until the quilt top is assembled.

I can do this! I'm so glad Jo motivated me to pull these out and set a deadline.

The Art of Eating Through the Zombie Apocalypse {excerpt & giveaway}

When the folks at BenBella Books invited me to participate in their blog hop for The Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocalypse: A Cookbook and Culinary Survival Guide and share an excerpt with my readers, you just know that I jumped at the chance.

This is a FUN book!  More than three hundred pages of zombies and food preservation and preparation tips....and gardening and composting and fermenting and hunting tips, along with other titles that the author recommends if you want to learn more about a subject.  I've been carrying this book around the house for days, at the same time trying to keep it out of sight because once my oldest boy sees this one, he's going to snag it. Not a bad thing, since there's a lot of information in here that will be useful with or without a zombie apocalypse.
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Eating Out of Your Cupboard

Alas, it’s been days since the initial outbreak started, and those damn zombies are still picking at what’s left of the living hors d’oeuvre platter beyond the four walls of your safe and well-fortified domicile. Plus, the power has been out for a while now—all the fresh food is long gone save for some onion, garlic, and a couple of sad potatoes.
Welcome to carb country. Unless you have a locavore’s personal stash of preserved or canned summer bounty, chances are you’re going to be surviving on a lot of starchy fare until it’s safe to go outside again.
As you will see in the following pages, there is quite a lot that can be done with the common North American pantry staples like flour, dried pastas, rice, canned proteins, beans, vegetables, and fruits. These recipes are simple and easy to prepare (some of them ludicrously so), and focus on very simple ingredients that most people keep kicking around in the cupboard—meaning there is lots of room to add or amend based on your own pantry stash.

No-Knead to Panic Bread

1 x 1 ½ -lb. loaf, or enough for 2–3 Hungry Survivors

It’s another day of being completely consumed by the rise of the undead, so why not soothe your troubled soul with the rise of a dead easy and absolutely delicious bread?
Bless Jim Lahey’s hopefully-still-living soul for developing this recipe. You may know Lahey, owner of New York’s Sullivan Street Bakery, for the no-knead bread revolution he kicked off via food journalist and author Mark Bittman in the early aughts— it took the home-cooking scene by storm and spread almost as quickly as an undead plague. His approach makes use of a long rising time and a very wet dough where gluten molecules are mobile and free to align themselves naturally (rather than relying on kneading). Translation: it takes a while, but requires no bread-making skill or specialized knowledge and virtually zero work.
The versatility of bread goes without saying. It makes a mean companion to Mental Fruit Lentil Soup (page 86), but can be schmeared, topped, dipped, or sandwichized in any number of ways—raid your cupboard and experiment.
This recipe is adapted from “No-Knead Bread” in Jim Lahey’s My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method, an excellent book to have on hand for a variety of zpoc-friendly no-knead breads.

Requires:
1 small bowl
1 large mixing bowl
1 mixing spoon
Plastic wrap
2 clean cotton kitchen towels or other clean breathable cloths
1 large, heavy pot or other oven-proof vessel, with lid

Heat Source:
Indirect, Ammo Can Oven or other Oven Hack (page 44)

Time:
5 minutes prep
14–20 hours mostly unattended rising time
45 minutes baking time
30 minutes cooling time

Ingredients:
¼ tsp. active dry yeast
1 ¾ c. plus 2 tbsp. warm water
Pinch of sugar
3 c. all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1 ¼ tsp. salt

Method:
1. Proof the yeast by mixing it with 2 tablespoons of warm water (not hot!) and a pinch of sugar in a small bowl—it is ready to use when the top is foamy, about 5 minutes.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl until blended. Add water and any wet flavorings (like honey) and mix until well combined. Your dough will be wet and sticky.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap if available (you can write the time down on the plastic with a marker), and one of the kitchen towels and pop it in a now nearly useless microwave or other dark spot to rest at least 12 hours, preferably 18 hours. The dough is ready for the next stage when the surface is bubbly.
4. Lightly sprinkle a work surface with flour and fold your dough out onto it. If using any add-ins (see Variations), sprinkle them on top of the dough now. Sprinkle the dough with a small amount of flour, then fold it over on itself two times. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 15 minutes.
5. Cover a kitchen towel with a generous amount of flour. Dust your hands with flour, and sprinkle just enough flour on the dough to prevent it from sticking to you, then shape it quickly into a ball. An imperfect zombies-are-breaking-down-my-defenses ball is just fine.
6. Place your ball seam side down onto the prepared cloth and generously dust the top with more flour. Cover the ball with a second towel and let rest for 2 hours.
7. Half an hour before the 2-hour mark of the second rise, set up your Ammo Can Oven for 450°F (see Judging Temperature, page 47), then place the oven-proof dish with the lid inside to preheat.
8. After the two-hour rise is complete, carefully remove the hot pot or other vessel from the Ammo Can Oven and, after removing the lid, plop your ball of dough into it, seam side up.
9. Bake, with the lid on, for 30 minutes. Remove the lid carefully, then bake another 15–30 minutes until nicely browned. Let cool for about 30 minutes before eating.

Variations:
• 2 tbsp. honey (added at beginning with water), 1 tbsp. of fennel seeds, ½ c. of raisins, and cornmeal for dusting
• 1 small potato (peeled, diced, sautéed until browned), ½ small onion (minced and sautéed until soft), and ½ tsp. dried dill
• ½ c. olives, preferably jarred but canned work too
• 1 medium apple (peeled and diced), 1 tsp. cinnamon combined with 1 tbsp. sugar

Giveaway 

The publisher has offered to send a copy to one of my readers (US or Canada addresses only, please.) To enter, just leave a comment on this post before midnight on Halloween. 

F, G, H....K

I was going to make my Little Letters blocks in order, but I jumped ahead because K is one of the ones I was fussing over. 

That gives me nine blocks out of twenty-six. I think that's farther than I got on the first incarnation of the alphabet sampler quilt! I used the postage stamp squares as leaders and enders, so I made some progress on that one too.

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times.

Not Knitting at the Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday was our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. The kids and I leave the house early so we can get there shortly after they open (because otherwise cars are backed up onto the highway waiting for parking) and stay until they're all exhausted. Because if I'm going to splurge on wristbands for the activities, I'm going to let those boys (and their sister) do as many slides and mazes and runs down the zipline as their little hearts desire.

It makes for a loooong day, but it's only once a year.

The weather was gorgeous and the crowds weren't too bad this year. I only made one mistake -- putting my knitting back on the couch instead of putting it in my purse just in case. Because while the kids were doing their thing, I spent hours sitting on damp hay bales. They two youngest are old enough that they don't need me to go through the lines with them, and they'd rather do the mazes alone. So I leave them at the entrance and wait at the exit, then sit there while they do another trip or three through the Realm of Darkness.

I should have brought my sock. You can only people watch for so long, and you can do that while knitting ribbing. Why did I convince myself that it would be bad mommying to bring it along? I knit at karate and speech therapy and everywhere else....

Would you knit at the pumpkin patch?

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 17 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 58 3/4 yards
Net Added for 2014: 41 1/4 yards

I'm not counting the seven or so yards that Teenage Daughter used for her Halloween costume, but it's out of the stash. It was meant for quilts, so it did get counted on the way in, but that was last year.

Yarn Used this Week:  0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 6575 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 4210 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2365 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Carving Pumpkin Cookies

Once upon a time, I could make chocolate cookies and barely check the recipe on the bag of the bag to make sure I mad my measurements right. Having kids seems to have eliminated that ability. Either they sucked the remembered recipes from my brain, or going so long without doing it made me forget.

Now days, fresh baked cookies are a once-in-a-blue-moon thing that require special circumstances. Like these cookie cutters that I found on the clearance shelf at a big box store last November.

Teenage Daughter was looking for marked down T-shirts and the boys were trying to talk me into anything with blood or teeth when I saw these. If it's not clear from the picture, that's a pumpkin with different mouths and eyes and noses.

There was no UPC code, no label, no trace of what it was or might have cost. I was debating how much time I could spend in line at customer service trying to buy them when there was no way to tell what they actually were....the woman at the checkout line scanned one of the boys cookies-in-a-spooky-tin an extra time and said that was good enough.

I need a different sugar cookie recipe next time, one that won't make the faces spread and the eyes and mouths close into winks and smirks. And I need to make a much bigger batch because the boys saw what I was doing and wanted to cut their own faces. (That sounds a bit wrong when I re-read it....they wanted to design their own faces....on the pumpkins. That's better!)

I'm also thinking these would make good quilting templates for something like my Pumpkin Carving quilt. I did  some Googling and it looks like these are the Nordic Ware Jack-O-Lantern Cookie Cutter Set.

New Vintage Lace - Knits Inspired by the Past

I didn't squeal when I picked up New Vintage Lace: Knits Inspired By the Past at the library, but that's only because I saw the title on the spine, tucked it into my book bag, and didn't take a good look at the book until we got home. Then I squealed a bit. 

I love knitting shawls and finding patterns that are different from what I've seen before always makes me happy, especially when I can use yarn that's already in my stash.

These shawls are based on old doilies and there's a section in the back giving advice on how to convert patterns from your own collection into shawls.

I own plenty of books of shawl patterns, but this is one I want to add to my collection.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {10/24/14}

While I've been up to my ears in life, the rest of you have been making some great quilts. 

Look at this star quilt that Dee Dee made... 

And Julie's hearts...

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

that strange scraping sound...

Look what I found at St. Vincent's: 

We don't own a record player, so I don't look at the records, but this was sitting over in housewares where someone else had abandoned it. I had the 45 RPM storybook version when I was little and it gave me chills. It was that strange scraping sound as the stone door slid open and the goblins grabbed Bilbo and the dwarves. (I found a video of the one I had on Youtube and immediately had a little boy at my side watching. Records that go along with books are a hard concept to explain to a modern eight-year-old, even one who's grown up on old time radio shows and Grandma's antique mall!)

And Gollum. In my mind, this is always going to be what Gollum looks like.

It shows how different I was as a child from my own children. When the Lord of the Rings movies came out I was thoroughly convinced that they were too dark and scary for my children's little eyes. I was wrong. They love the movies.

I don't know quite what I'm going to do with this, but I knew I'd regret leaving it behind.

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer, Coastal Charm, Thrifty Life Thursday

And Another Pair...

I'm not even asking myself why at this point. 

Over the past week, I've been reading the Hope Street Church mysteries by Ellery Adams. In the first book, The Path of the Crooked, Cooper Lee is invited to the church by one of her clients, Brooke Hughes. When she arrives that Sunday morning, she learns that Brooke has been murdered and Brooke's husband has been arrested for the crime. Unable to believe that the man Brooke described in such glowing terms when they met could have committed the crime, Cooper joins the bible study group and the murder investigation.

When I started reading, I wasn't quite sure what I was in for. There are a couple of passages in the first book that scream "Christian Fiction!" as Cooper finds out what it's like to shop for a Bible and why the church uses Power Point.  Other than that, these are really well-written books with fully developed  characters who happen to attend a weekly bible study. The reader learns a bit about the Bible and, in the scenes where Cooper is working, about repairing office machines.

The Way of the Wicked, the second book in the series, the bible study group volunteers for Door-2-Door, a group that delivers meals to shut-ins. When two clients are found dead, Cooper and her friends investigate. Again, it's a satisfying mystery with some interesting twists and turns.

I read the first two books back-to-back and plan on starting the third as soon as I finish with some library books that are going to be due soon.

These are updated versions of books that were originally published under slightly different titles by St. Martin's Press. The author makes that clear in all of the marketing materials and in the introductions to each book.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.


Disclosure -- the publisher provided me with ARCs

My Bonnie Challenge Quilts

I won't be doing the latest Quiltville mystery, but I'm sure I'll love the finished quilt and wind up buying whatever book the pattern is reprinted in -- that happens every time!

Jo from Jo's Country Junction has challenged the rest of us to finish up some of our Bonnie Hunter WIPs before the challenge starts. That works for me even if I'm not planning on doing the mystery. I've been dying to get back to my lozenges.  

The last time I counted bow ties, I only needed another hundred and sixteen. I've made a handful since then, but have no idea how many. Guess that means it's time to do another count, as much as I dread the idea. Counting pieces just isn't fun.

It feels good to be sorting and cutting fabric again! I'll see which quilt I wind up making more progress on.

A Halloween Finish

Look what I finished this week! 

This little Mill Hill beaded cross-stitch kit is one of my oldest UFOs. I found the real oldest UFO a while back and it'll get its own post eventually, but this one was old enough to be ashamed of.

Or not. At the time, I absolutely couldn't finish this project. I didn't give up or get bored, I backed myself into a corner with some mistakes in my counting and stitch placement and didn't know how to get back out.  The best options were packing it in the bottom of a sewing basket or throwing it away.

This is how it looked when I pulled it out of the sewing room earlier this month --



This was a bandwagon I probably shouldn't have jumped on, but these designs are adorable and some of the stitchers I'd met online were talking about how quick and fun these kits were... So when I saw them in the local shop, I splurged and bought two. I think I gave the other one away after getting myself into so much trouble with this one.

Ten years later, I was looking at it through different eyes. The money was long since spent, I wasn't going to beat myself up over counting mistakes I'd made that long ago. I grabbed the chart, figured out where the pumpkins should have been, and started stitching them without the beads or fancy details. About halfway through that process, I kept looking at the bats and concincing myself that I should bead the rest of the vines, even if I wasn't going to do the pumpkins.

Would you believe that the beads, which sat in a little glass dish on top of my computer cabinet at the old house, were still sitting on the high shelf in that same dish? It took me about two seconds to decide that I wasn't going to sort through them and figure out which shade of green was which.

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I wedged the pumpkins in where they would fit, added the vines I had enough thread for, decided to skip the rest of the flowers, and I'm calling it good. It's not the way the designer intended, but I think it's good enough to hang on the wall. Not bad for something I considered a lost cause.

Those Mill Hill kits have gotten even  cuter over the years. I caught myself drooling over their new magazine ads before I remembered how much of a project this one was. I know more about stitching now than I did then, and I'm sure I could pull it off better the second time around. I'm just not sure that I want to.

For more finishes, check out Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.

Which quilts are they sleeping under?

Jo is doing another one of her What's on Your Bed? linky parties, so I took a peek into the kids' rooms.

 Teenage Daughter has been sleeping under my Bento Box (when did I give her permission to use that one?) and a log cabin that she made and long-arm quilted herself.

Quinn, much to my shock, has been sleeping under his Scrappy Trip Around the World. The one I made for him just before he decided that green was no longer his favorite color.

Heath has Simple Pleasures and Madder Snowballs. (Again, when did I say those were fair game?) and a quilt that my mom made for one of this brothers.

And Leif has my Blue Bargello and Fun With Bricks.

If you're keeping track, that means that only one of my kids is sleeping under the quilt I made him. Which is why I rarely make quilts specifically for one kid anymore. I figure that they'll latch onto the ones that they do like.

Still Playing Hide and Seek

This week, I think I'm winning. I found the completed blocks for Alex's low-volume postage stamp quilt, and the rest of the brown fabric I need for Chocolate Covered Cherries. Not that I think I've found all of the brown in my stash, but I've found and cut enough to make the quilt. 

It doesn't make for a great picture, but it's progress!

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

So, how do I count this one?

I've been watching Value Village for embroidery floss, thinking that if I find a bag with the sort of colors I'm after it might make sense. At the current price of floss, I'm not sure I want to raid my cross-stitching projects and hope I can replace it later. There's also the fact that not all stores carry all colors. It would be just my luck to use up the one shade I can't easily replace.

I didn't find any floss, but I was intrigued by this --

No, it's not designer pre-cuts. That was obvious through the bag. What it is is a dismantled sample book. The fabric is 100% cotton, a little heavier than most quilting fabric....and just look at those pretty stripes!

I'm thinking there's a wonderful tote bag or utility quilt in here somewhere.

I'm counting it as a yard because I'm not going to measure each piece and tally it up that way.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 17 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 1 yards
Added Year to Date: 58 3/4 yards
Net Added for 2014: 41 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  700 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 6575 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 4210 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2365 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.