Shout Out to the Husband

Papa has been really busy building custom-fit radiator covers for our upstairs radiators and I'm exceedingly proud of the result. A pharmacist by training, he loves himself a good home project.

Deep Breath for Sea Baby

Sigh. I completed the baby quilt for baby 2 (as we refer to baby on the way) and submitted it to the Make Baby Stuff quilt contest. Yikes! So, if you want to, you can go here and say nice things about it.


I'm a little nervous because I've never entered a contest, really for anything before, and the competition is extremely stiff. There are some amazing quilts there. Plus, I struggled to take a good photo. Either way, I really like the quilt itself. I used freezer paper stencil to put 6 pairs of sea creatures onto the front of it. My hope was to create a kind of game of trying to find the sets, so they are scattered all over. Do kids play games with quilts, who knows? It's worth a shot.
Here is one of the crabs.

And one of the whales. All the images are from dafont.com.

This is the quilt back. I had a little more fun with it than usual.

Swappy Swap!

I'm happy to report that I actually finished the Bend-The-Rules Easy Lap Quilt for the swap, sent it to Paige my swap mate, and it has hopefully already arrived!

It was so much fun to create it and I'm in love with the pattern and the free-form design piece of it really appeals to me. In all, I'm happy with the quilt but a bit of the binding didn't really work for me and I'm not sure why. I hope my swap mate isn't too disappointed. I added the owl at the end, for fun, using the scraps and some interfacing. It's just hand-sewn to the quilt and so might be a bit fragile in the wash, etc. But, hopefully, it's a little surprise.

Sometimes I think it's true.

Inspired in part (I must admit) by Halloween but also largely by my attempt to begin a full-scale bat education program in my house I freezer stencilled this top and added the text with iron-on letters. The top is new, from American Apparel. This bat, I'm proud to say I actually drew myself with lots of dafont.com inspiration but still.

Now I just gotta get this top on before the 31st!

Hmm, I'm thinking...

A browse around Chickpea Sewing Studio has seriously piqued my interest in the idea of a birthing quilt. I love her idea of having something made specifically for the purposes of the birth process, not just a quilt for the baby after it arrives.

I've been amazingly blessed by having two groups of friends and family that pulled together baby quilts for my first son, which we treasure to no end and I always make my own for the little bundle. But the birthing quilt seems like a nice something for me to grip in the crisp reality of labor.

We are planning a natural birth in the hospital like last time, (a compromise because I'm skittish about home but our local hospital has low,low rates of natural, non-medicated births) with the same amazing doula (not a compromise, she's incredible), who did manage to turn the delivery room into a relaxing and ambient room most of the time. (My favorite part about her website is the Christopher Robin quote, "You're braver than you believe. Stronger than you seem. And, smarter than you think." Right, mamas?)

I think a birthing quilt could serve an interesting and unique role before, during, and after. Truly something there from home. Maybe with fabric scraps from the baby's quilt, maybe scraps gathered from friends and loved ones? I'm thinking something like this zig-zag quilt from A Quilt is Nice. Has anyone else done anything like this? I'd be curious about what was most appreciated "in the moment" or, in my case the "many,many moments that turn in many, many hours".

Lazy Stencilling

This just keeps getting better! These baby outfits are a complete cheater project. The dots and hearts were made using hole punches, how lazy is that! The crab and octopus were the cut-outs from freezer paper stencils I made for decorating the baby quilt that is (slowly) coming along. In all, I didn't have to even get out the exacto knife for any of these! Also, since I'm reusing old onesies, I didn't even need to buy any new supplies. Talk about whipping something up.

The semi-gender neutral outfits are for our baby-in-waiting and the girlie hearts are for my coworker and his wife, whose baby girl is due in December! Someday I will actually run out of people to stencil for and that will be a sad day.

























In other fun stencilling news, I found this idea from This Mama Makes Stuff for using soft scrub bleach to stencil colored outfits. Brilliant!

When it Rains it Pours

Anna Marie Horner has finished her book and her publisher is holding a contest with an amazing giveaway...sewing machine, book, thread...it's the Sew Like a Pro Sweepstakes. Plus, you can register everyday until mid-November.

Handmade Holidays!

I just (tentatively) took Etsy's handmade pledge. My sister did it last year and it's been looming on my mind. The pledge states that I will make or buy handmade for my holiday gifts and encourage others to give/make handmade for me. The first part I can do (mostly...hard to handmake for men besides my husband, right?) but not sure I'm going to be hounding people to give handmade to me.

So, here is the list so far...
- Easy lap quilts for both of my grandma's given in a handmade tote bag.
- Some fun, special things that I can't discuss for my sister
- BTR's tea cozy for my mother-in-law
- Quilt for the baby-to-be
- Fabric farmhouse for the toddler
- And, that leaves men (gotta think on this one) and my mom...I'm sure I'll come up with something for friends, that's always easy.

But, I'd better get crackin'.

Pickles and Ice Cream

Well, not exactly. It's been spicy sesame peanut noodles, cheesy risotto, banana bread, soups galore and lots of beets (oh god, lovely beets, I can't get enough!). Yes, it's undeniable, I'm pregnant. It all means, of course, there are baby quilts to finish and more clothes to stencil as we wait for early April and anticipate a family of four.

Being Watched

The cat is monitoring my progress on the Bend-The-Rules lap quilt for my swap partner and is not pleased with my performance thus far. I got wonderful fabric from my Minnesotan swap mate, a great mix of traditional and fresh designs. I hope I can do it justice.

Gotta Pass it on.

I'm obsessed with how easy and satisfying (and low maintenance) freezer paper stencilling is so I'm posting a quick and basic tutorial. Here goes:



1. Find a nice picture without any 'islands'--that is floating white space like the eye in this picture, which I just ignored in the final design. I took this design from dafont.com but if you were actually artistically inclined this would be easy for you.

2. Use an exacto knife on a self-healing mat to cut out the design on your freezer paper. Cut shiny side down. I usually trace the design onto the freezer paper with a pen first but I've also drawn directly onto it when doing the design myself. For this one, I wanted two different sizes of the same design so I just enlarged one more than the other.
3. Iron the cut-out design onto the fabric you want to stencil onto. On about a medium heat. You can check it to see that it has secured. I usually separate the t-shirt layers so that I'm ironing (and painting) on only the side I want paint to show up on.
4. Using a sponge brush and fabric-friendly stencil paint to dab over the stencil. Because the image is ironed in place, you will not have to worry about paint leaking where you don't want it, unless you add water to your paint or something silly.
5. Let the paint dry for 24 hours or more (check your stencil paint directions, really, for anything after this point.). Remove the freezer paper at this point.

6. Iron, with a piece of cotton fabric in between your iron and the painted image, with a dry iron on a high heat (or whatever your paint instructions say to do). Iron both sides of the painted image this way. Also, don't do what I did once, which was to iron both the front and the back of the top in one ironing 'sandwich'. It leaves a yellowish mark on the back of the t-shirt. Iron just the side of the image that you want your image on. This is why I'm using a mini-ironing board in this image.

7. Let it cool for a good while and then wash in cold water and dry on low heat. After this point, you should wash it on medium hot not hot-hot and dry on low, if possible. At the same time, some of these that my sister made I've given a serious baby-tough treatment and they did great.

8. Viola! A custom-embellished top.

People are good

A wonderful surprise arrived in the mail yesterday. All 50 of the fat quarters from the vintage sheet swap. I was elated. They are so beautiful and I can't wait to find a project that uses some of them.
Here are a few of my favorites. This reminds me of a some kind of Swedish peasant blouse, it's amazing and I'm so impressed that someone was willing to enter it into the swap rather than hold onto it.
I'm also in love with this one. The picture doesn't do it justice at all. It's gorgeous oranges, blues and browns with such a virbant color scheme contrasting with a delicate flower pattern. I can already tell it's going to hard to decide when to use it, it is so special.
I really do have to thank Beth for encouraging me to enter and Crafty Little Beana for hosting. It might have been my mood or the transition to fall but it just struck me as such a hopeful and beautiful experience. That perfect strangers gather fabric that has already been loved and they have enough faith to ship it out in hopes of some surprises coming their way. To have such wonderful fabric arrive just emphasized the care that people took. To top it off, Gail included handmade pins as a thank you. Feels like one big collective crafter hug. Yes, indeed, people are good.

More Yummies: Chili and Sweet Potato Corn Bread

This comfort food recipe is from my friend Emily who doesn't have her own blog. There is nothing like chili and cornbread when the cold wind starts to blow. I love the sound of these recipes as well...7 jalapenos and 10 cloves of garlic. This chili will keep you healthy and happy. And, the sweet potato cornbread is already making my hungry, for real.

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Chili
So this is not the world's most exciting chili, but it's so easy and spicy and perfect. I eat it with fritos if I'm too lazy to make my sweet potato cornbread. The one warning is that it makes like a really big batch, so I usually chop it in half.

1 cup chili powder
3 lbs ground beef or turkey
2 T olive oil
10 cloves of garlic, minced
7 jalepenos, minced
1/2 t salt
1 28-oz can plum tomatoes
1T red wine vinegar
6 cups water
6 cups cooked beans (i used canned chili beans or split black/red/ pinto beans)

Toast chili powder and any other desired spices in a skillet 1-2 minutes. Don't burn! But if you do, apparently nutmeg will take away a little of the burn taste. Set aside. Brown meat with 1 T olive oil. Drain off fat. Add remaining olive oil, onions, garlic, pepeprs and salt. Cool until vegetables are softened, about 6-8 minutes. Remove to a large pot and stir in toasted spices. Cook for a few minutes over medium-high heat. Add tomatoes with juice, vinegar water and beans. Simmer until sauce is reduced, about 1 to 1.5 hours.So good. Gets really spicy, so watch how many seeds you put in.

Sweet Potato Corn Bread from Epicurious
So this is going to be the comfort food that accompanies my comfort food. It's so good. I make it for Thanksgiving every year.

1 1/4 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 1/3 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Pierce sweet potatoes in several places. Microwave on high until tender, turning once, about 12 minutes. Cut open and cool. Mash enough potatoes to yield 1 cup packed (reserve remaining potatoes for another use). Place 1 cup mashed potatoes in large bowl. Whisk in eggs and buttermilk.
Blend cornmeal and next 6 ingredients in processor. Add butter and blend until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add to egg mixture. Stir just until blended. Transfer to prepared pan.
Bake corn bread until deep golden on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. (Can be made ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature up to 2 days or freeze up to 2 weeks. Thaw at room temperature.)