chickenfoot

last nite was a good sewing nite! i was able to finish my little doll quilt that i was working on for myself. its funny but it is almost the exact same dimensions as my quilt from sarah.  in fact they look too cute together. i just dont know how to display them. i dont think i want to put them in shadow boxes, but i know i dont want to hang them from a dowel. what to do????? i emailed lisa to ask if she knew what others in the swap were doing. i am figuring on having at least 4 or 5 of these, so i need to take that into account.

i was able to finish up some more of the headbands for my niece's trip, too. i figure i will keep any she doesnt like. i cant remember where i got my pattern from, but here is one from heather bailey. i think i may have to try a couple of these too! they are so simple to make and you can never have enough headbands, right???  well i did a little search and found the pattern i used. while i was looking for this one i came across a cute idea to make it reversible by using two different coordinating fabrics, duh, why didnt i think of that?? pattern here

last but not least, a drink recipe....

Peach Iced Tea Recipe Courtesy of Gourmet Magazine

3 orange pekoe tea bags 4 cups cold water 5 (5-ounce) cans peach nectar (about 3 1/3 cups), chilled 1/4 cup chilled simple syrup or to taste Simple syrup: 1 1/3 cups sugar 1 1/4 cups water Peach slices for garnish Place tea bags in a quart-size glass measure or heatproof bowl. In a saucepan bring water just to a boil and pour over tea bags. Steep tea 5 minutes and strain through a sieve into a heatproof pitcher. Cool tea and chill, covered, until cold, about 1 hour. Stir in nectar and syrup. Serve tea over ice in tall glasses and garnish with peach slices and basil sprigs. To make simple syrup: In a saucepan bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring, and boil until sugar is completely dissolved. Let syrup cool and chill, covered. Syrup may be made 2 weeks ahead and chilled, covered.

my doll quilt arrived!

i got it i got it!! all the way from australia! the lovely sarah london made this for me!

this is soooo me! the colors, the style. i am just so happy. i was so pleased to know she went thru the trouble of trying to make this something i would love, and i do. thank you so much sarah! oh and she sent along some oh so pretty buttons too, in lovely shades of green and pink. teehee i feel all giggly!

i am so ready for the next doll quilt swap!

my niece is supposed to be flying in from denver this coming weekend as a last visit before leaving for bosnia for the summer. she is going thru a program at her graduate school. she will be teaching college and high school age kids english. how exciting, ey??? i am so looking forward to her visit, she is one of my favorite people to spend time with. so in preparation for her visit i went to the fil's to pick some rhubarb. the niece LOVES rhubarb crisp.

and to be honest, i do too!!  right away when we got home i washed and cut it up, and popped it into the freezer. i was surprised that i got two baggies full with 5 cups each. so maybe i need to make a crisp and a strawberry rhubarb pie!!! yum! i figured i would continue with the rhubarb theme and give you a drink recipe...

Rhubarb Punch

Ingredients:

4 C. cut up rhubarb
1/2 C. sugar
2 C. water
1 (6 Oz.) Can frozen lemonade
1 (12 Oz.) Can 7-Up or white soda

Procedure:

Cook until rhubarb is mushy. Strain. Add frozen lemonade. When ready to serve add the 7-Up or soda. Note: Rhubarb base can be made up during rhubarb season and frozen for use with lemonade and 7-Up later. 

happy hump day!

here it is wednesday already! goodness where does the time go? well i think my quilt came today, but our lovely (insert sarcasm here) postwoman just left one of those annoying little pink notes, even tho we were here. so i have to go pick it up at the po tomorrow. but i am excited to know that it is near!!

i found a yummy looking recipe today and i thought i would add it for my niece rachel. she loves rhubarb (well who doesnt?) and this looked too good not to share. this one is courtesy of marthas little food mag.

Rhubarb Raspberry Compote

Prep:

15 minutes

Total:

25 minutes

This compote is great on its own, or you can serve it with ice cream or toast.

Ingredients

Serves 8

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 pounds fresh (or thawed frozen) rhubarb
• 9 ounces fresh (or thawed frozen) raspberries

Directions

1. In a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat, bring 1/2 cup water, 1 cup sugar, and 1 1/2 pounds fresh (or thawed frozen) rhubarb, sliced into 1-inch-thick pieces, to a simmer. Cook until the rhubarb is tender and starting to fall apart, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Fold in 9 ounces fresh (or thawed frozen) raspberries. Let stand until the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes. Serve, drizzled with heavy cream, if desired.

i just may need to visit the fil to get some. he has a lovely large patch of rhubarb, just waiting to be plundered. it is such a quiet day today. daughter went to a friends house to bake sweets for her youth group meeting tonight. so its just me and the bird here. quiet. i decided to wash the blankets and make the beds summer ready, since it has been so nice out the past few nites.

yes that is my laundry on the bed... and hehe the hubby's boxers! ooh i didnt realize. i guess its a good thing he doesnt read my blog. do your husbands or boyfriends read yours? my hubby doesnt even know what a blog is...oh well.

i think i need to make some pillows for the bed, dont you?? it looks kind of like a vast turquoise wasteland.the floral fabric in the foreground is a pillowcase i made last year. i like making my own pillowcases. when my daughter was little i use to make them all the time.they use to be great gifts for those enormous body pillows, as the selection for those was pretty slim. and it seemed every teen had to have one!

well its about time for another drink recipe...

Sunrise Punch Recipe courtesy Food Network Kitchens

1 quart fresh orange juice 32 ounces canned or fresh pineapple juice 2 cups coconut milk 1 liter seltzer water 1 pineapple, peeled cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen 1 pint of strawberries, hulled and frozen 1 orange sliced thin 4 cups light rum, optional To a large punch bowl, add orange juice, pineapple juice, coconut milk and seltzer. Mix well. Place frozen pineapple chunks and strawberries in the punch to keep it cold. Float the orange slices on top of the punch for garnish. If desired, add rum. its kind of funny, two of the recipes i have posted were for breakfast drinks and they both mentioned adding booze in!!! what have i been missing????

drinks: day two

another gorgeous day! cant have a lovely day without a new drink to try out....

Strawberry Lemon Crush Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2002

1/2 cup super fine sugar 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice 1/2 cup water 1 cup stemmed and halved strawberries 1 cup unflavored sparkling water or soda water Cracked ice Fresh mint sprigs, garnish In a 2 cup measuring cup, combine the sugar, lemon juice, and water and stir to dissolve the sugar. In the bender, combine the strawberries and sweetened water. Puree on high speed until smooth. Add the sparkling water and pulse to incorporate. Taste and add more sugar if desired, and pulse to incorporate. Place cracked ice in 2 tall Collins glasses. Pour the strawberry crush over the ice, garnish with mint sprigs, and serve.

i had to do the happy dance today. why you ask? because i actually got

this!!! yea, i was so afraid that they wouldnt send it. i thought they would say that it was already sold, but they didnt and it wasnt! i am so so happy. now to figure out what to make first!! thanks to everyone that helped me try to find this gem.

wip

i know i said that i wanted to do a quilt in strips of the same fabric. i do want to try that, but i want to look for the perfect fabric for that. meanwhile, i started a strip quilt, but in pinks. i grabbed as many pink fabrics as i could get my hands on from my cupboard. i just randomly cut diferent widths of fabric about 14" long. i want to have the quilt end up about 12"x18". i just used what pink fabrics i had. i am afraid i am not too good with this color thing in quilting. so i dont know if the fabrics go together or not. i have two fabrics set aside as maybes for the backing fabric. but im not sure. one is the pale floral above the cherry fabric and the other is the cherry fabric.  i was kind of thinking it would be neat to have a diagonal stripe on the binding.....i dont know. maybe i need to go to the fabric store!

drinks with little umbrellas

oh today is such a beautiful day. the weather is just gorgeous. i have nothing planned so i will try to get some sewing in. i have a wonderful idea for a new little quilt.  it is a take on a swimsuit i saw here. its a bunch of thin strips of the same color fabric all in a row with a colored topstitching.not sure how it will look but i love the idea.

since the weather is so nice i figured i would give you a recipe for a lovely little drink to sip while sitting on your porch enjoying the sunset....

pomegranate breakfast soda

16 ounces pomegranate juice 16 ounces sparkling water 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice 1 tablespoon superfine sugar Mix the ingredients together in a pitcher and serve over ice. yum! i need to run out and get some pomegranate juice! this recipe was courtesy of the food networks newsletter. i love getting food newsletters, dont you? while i was looking at this drink i found a bunch of other good ones so i think i will try a week of drinks posts! oooh i need to go buy some little drinks umbrellas! did  i ever post a pic of my little duckie? i dont think i did...well here she is,  with her mum she is an adaption to the pattern found in  this japanese book. not including her feet she is about 1 1/2" tall. i think she is a 50% reduction in the pattern. i also didnt use the foot pattern, but fashioned some of my own out of chenille stems. i like the look better. i was planning on making some and putting them in my etsy, but i dont know..... i have to pick up the daughter and drive her to her next activity, but i am hoping to get started on my quilt idea when i get back!!

wow thats a lot of books

boy i took a ton of pix today. i still am not sure if i got all my books in there. and i realized i am missing one of my favorites, petit a petit. not sure where it got to. it took longer than i thought to upload them and take the pix in the first place, what with dragging all the books in arm loads out to the porch. so i think i will do this over a couple days. i will try to get the isbn's in there as soon as i can. i also want to pick out some of my favorites and post more pix of the insides to let you know why i love them so much. i will be posting more inside pix of some of my favorite vintage crafting books too. it kind of scared me to see how many books i have. i mean i know i have a lot of books, but you just dont have a clue until you actually lift and move them all!!

i was so excited that this book finally came out, i have been waiting for months. i still am in the process of looking thru it, so more on that later. but the one that i really love is this ....

i just love the whole concept of living more simply(even tho i dont always embrace it!) this book is filled with such great ideas and inspiration.  it really is a life book, it has everything from patterns to recipes to gardening advice. i cant say enough about this book.

a girlfriend of mine gave me a sewing machine for my niece(can you believe she didnt want it anymore?). she didnt want anything in return, what a sweetie, eh? she is such a great friend and super de duper talented. she does balloons. i dont know how else to say it. she is a marvel, and she is available for your party or event! hehe, but seriously you can find her here. i mean check out that awesome car!!! well since she didnt want anything in return i thought i would make something for her. she is a lady that likes to live lightly on the earth, so i wasnt sure what i should do, then i figured since she gave me a sewing machine i should sew something up for her. so i am trying to whip up a cute apron with some cowgirl fabric i have. if i manage to get it done i will post a pic.

well my partner in the doll quilt swap got the quilt i made this weekend! i was so worried that it would get lost

and never be heard from again, but it arrived! my swap partner was

maritza of sotosofties. i was a little worried when i found out who i had, as i am so impressed with all her softies. she is such a talented person. well, lets see, for my quilt i hand appliqued the squares onto a linen blend fabric, then hand quilted around each square. i finished it off with hand sewing the seam binding on. i had never done hand quilting before so i was nervous as to whether maritza would be pleased. i didnt want someone to be disappointed. :( it was quite soothing to sit in front of the tube with a favorite mystery series on whilst i stitched away. i will definately be doing this again. and i cant wait until the next swap. what fun!!i do wish the dimensions could have been a wee bit smaller tho, say 8x12ish. i would love to attempt a more detailed quilt, but with that size i dont think i could get it done. now i just have to wait patiently to get mine.....

but before i end this, go check out lisa to get the latest news on the swap, here

i was just checking out martha and ran across this cute little tute, here. and have you seen these? i think my favorite is the pig. and these are just the sweetest baby kimonos.  and what with summer coming, i may need to make one or two of these in beach friendly fabrics, beach bag. this is such a great idea, i wish i would have thought of it, beach towel with pockets. who can resist a buckwheat pillow? i have been wanting to make myself a smaller sized pillow to sleep on, and i think this may be the ticket. check here for supplies. im thinking i might make one if some lovely linen.

i actually went shopping for clothes for ME tonight. i dont buy clothes too often what with a teenage girl in the house, but i saw an ad and i had an hour and a half to myself so i ran to the mall.  i was surprised by what i was able to get. i have been needing some new shirts for awhile.  it seems i just wear the same clothes year after year, much to the aforementioned teenagers embarrassment. i must say tho, i think i am boring, as i look at the clothes i got. 

out of 7 tops, only two have patterns. but i did get a wild spring coat.(just so you dont think i spent a small fortune, the shirts were all $8 and $10 apiece. cant go wrong there!!!

my plan for this weekend is to get all my japanese craft books, sewing books and cookbooks photographed for my blog. i have been sadly remiss in posting them regularly. i have gotten some really great old crafting books after seeing them mentioned online. i also want to take a couple of my favorite books and take extra pix of the insides so you can have a better idea of whats in them.

ball of pooh

i recently got a great japanese craft book that i saw on another blog. after seeing some of the adorable things to make in it, i had to have it so i could make my very own dung beetle and ball of pooh. the book included a head, which i did make, but i didnt like the way it looked so i didnt attach it. i think he turned out rather sweet, done you? hehe

the book actually included patterns for five different sizes of pooh balls, so you could show a progression of the beetles work, but i only made the one pooh ball.

well i finished my doll quilt for the swap. i surprised myself by finishing it ahead of schedule (ok so it was hours, but who's counting?) i do hope my swap partner likes it. i will write more about it after i know she has rec'd it, which should be any time now.

i kept seeing these in blogland and decided i had to make one too. it is a rug with an old towel as the backing. i am having a hard time leaving it on the floor in the kitchen tho. i live with a couple of messy people that like to spill, so i am fearful that it will get wrecked right away. so i may be moving it to a place that gets less traffic. if was fun and didnt take too long to make. i just cut some rectangles and squares and then quilted the front to an old bright pink towel i had. i did cut it down a bit first, as it had a decorative edge.  then i sewed the binding on with a machine and then hand stitched the other side by hand. i have never like the color red, but lately i find i cant get enough of it.

of course i had to put in a pic of the latest cake i made. my favorite, yellow with chocolate frosting. it lived but a short life.....

i made these bracelets this past week, nothing fancy, just some beads and  that stretchy stuff. lately i am liking this stuff better than using clasps.  the two mahjong tile bracelets are from kits i got at joanns on clearance. i think i paid about 4 or 5 dollars for them. the other beads i got at hobby lobby. they have a whole range of stones in four different sizes. i need to go back and get some more as the step daughter saw mine and now wants one of her own! 

i know i have been missing in action, but its been a long week! so i thought i would start this off with something really yummy...

Maple Cream Coffee Treat

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup maple-flavored syrup
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup chopped pecans
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sifted confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup flaked coconut (optional)
2 (10 ounce) cans refrigerated flaky biscuits

Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl, stirring well. Spread mixture
in an ungreased 13 x 9-inch pan.

Combine cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons butter
in a small mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed of an electric mixer
until blended. Stir in coconut, if desired.

Separate biscuit dough into 20 pieces. Roll each biscuit on a lightly
floured surface to a 4-inch circle. Spread about 1 tablespoon cream
cheese mixture evenly on biscuit, and roll up jellyroll fashion.
Place in prepared pan, seam side down, in two rows. Bake at 350
degrees F on lowest rack in oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden
brown. Cool in pan 3 minutes.

Turn biscuits out onto a serving platter.

Makes 20 pastries.

i was able to finish my doll swap quilt on time and mail it out on monday. oops, be back