The Quilt I Built

January showers bring January flowers...at least in South Carolina!

The camellia trees are in their element, absolutely dripping with flowers.  The smaller shrubs will be coming into flower in the next month, and we're about due for Lenten Roses, too.  I can't wait! 

Tabitha loves a rainy day.

I went outside with my camera last week despite the drizzle, and it seems that it was 'fowl' weather, indeed!  A flock of turkeys was feeding in the side yard.  I startled a big heron at the pond's edge, and also a few ducks...

...and "our" goz!  A group of ten...the original eight plus the two parents.  I expect that the flock will separate soon.

They're already acting a little testy, constantly chasing each other around aggressively.

Breeding season begins in February, and then...babies!!!

Part of my master organization plan is to do some things that I've been meaning to do for years but never took the time to do.  Last week I scheduled in time to make some household products with essential oils.  I made a general household cleaner, window cleaning spray, conditioner, shave gel, and a shower spray for the tiles. 

The real winners are the general cleaner and the window cleaner.  I have always cleaned with either vinegar or bleach.  I added some water, essential oils, and dish soap to the vinegar.  It doesn't clean any better than just plain vinegar, but it sure smells good!  The window cleaner (with vinegar and witch hazel) works and smells great.  The conditioner (basically water, apple cider vinegar, and essential oils) was kind of a bust.  I've used vinegar on my hair for a long time, and the essential oils added to the vinegar/water mixture are all but overwhelmed by the vinegar smell. And the shave gel...sigh.  I know you can get a bottle of aloe vera at the dollar store for a buck, but I read that the stabilizers and thickening agents used there weren't great for your body.  I ordered cold-pressed organic aloe vera gel ($12) and, with olive oil and essential oils, made the most expensive shave gel ever.  It makes my skin soft but it's runny, so it's hard to shave with.  I think I'll go back to the spray stuff after this. 

I tried a new recipe this week, since I had some leftover pumpkin puree.  I have a great pumpkin bread recipe, but I was intrigued by a recipe that uses raw honey instead of sugar, and Greek yogurt instead of oil/butter (I left out the optional millet).  I didn't expect much, but whoa! 

It was just as good as my regular pumpkin bread recipe.  The regular recipe is 400 calories a slice, and this is just 200 calories a slice.  I highly, highly recommend it! 

This was a great week for finishing projects.  I finished my crewel work, sewing anemone flowers onto some blue linen fabric, and made it into a pillow.

I'm pretty pleased with it and ready to move on to the next crewel project!

I also...drum roll...finished my quilt!!

It was a great milestone for me, finishing this quilt.  I'd always had a desire to learn how to quilt, but I didn't even know how to sew.  I had to take local classes, and online classes, and watch Youtube videos, and make a LOT of mistakes (I didn't even understand what seam allowance was on my first practice quilt!).  I had to learn that a quilt isn't sewn in a day.  It's a process.  I had to snatch 15 and 30 minutes when I could.  I had to recognize that a quilt will never be perfect.  There will always be wonky seams and squares that don't match up as they should.  I'm a perfectionist and it's hard for me to continue working on what I consider to be a flawed product.  But many flawed products helped me to end up with a pretty pleasing first quilt!  

It took me a while to sew the binding (edge fabric) on.  I used clear nylon thread so that the sewing won't show through.  It's very soft, very cozy, and just the right size for cuddling on the couch!  Now if only we could get some cooler weather here so I can actually use it! 

Cookies With Eyes & Monsters, Oh My!

Happy Halloween!  This past week I made my usual batch of spooky treats.  I was originally going to decorate cookies, but I saw a cute idea on Pinterest and went with it.  Monsters with eye stalks!

Cake balls (I had to do homemade because of poor planning...this is MUCH easier with store-bought cake mix and frosting) with tiny cake blobs atop pretzel sticks.  Covered in candy melts and festooned with candy eyeballs.

It took forever to do and they weren't very tidy, but I thought they were pretty cute.

I always have to make brains.

I also made vanilla cupcakes with bat sprinkles...

...and double-chocolate chunk cookies with candy eyeball embellishments.

Needless to say, Todd and I have been in sugar comas for days and I'm actually looking forward to my no-sugar kick this week!  Well, sort of.

I've been doing a lot of sewing these past few weeks too.  First, a successful project!  I had some leftover fabric from another project and decided to make a little quilted pillow for a friend's little girl.  I made some half-square triangles and sewed together the pillow face.  Then, I drew a grid on the top with a water-soluble pen...

...and carefully stitched over the lines (with some batting behind), creating the puffed, quilted look.

I bought some navy blue fabric and made an envelope back.  All stitched together, I love it!  Kids' fabric is SO cute.

Now for the not-so-successful project!  I had some fat quarters that were at least a decade old and so I decided the different blue plaids might look nice in a double Irish chain quilt.

I spent hours washing, ironing, and carefully cutting out my 2 1/2 inch strips, as well as the larger pieces.  But after I'd sewn a few together, I noticed that they were all up to 1/2" short.

Undaunted, I pushed all the fabric to the side and spent ANOTHER evening washing, ironing, and cutting new fabric for the quilt.  But these strips and squares were still too short.  I measured my 1/4" sewing foot and discovered that it was 1/4" plus 4 threads.  Add that up over several pieces and there's your deficit.  Who would've thought?  I decided to forgo the pattern and just make a small checkered quilt.  I quickly discovered, though, that my 2 1/2" strips were not all 2 1/2" wide.

I'm terrible at wielding my big 6" x 24" ruler for cutting these strips.  I was delighted to discover an actual 2 1/2" ruler just for them!  I added it to my rapidly growing stash of quilting rulers.  I think I'm up to 9 or 10.  Who would've thought that I'd ever have (or need) so many?

It's still in the mid- to upper 80s here but the leaves are still steadily changing color.

I picked a few sections of that bright Virginia Creeper from our front yard and put it in a vase.  It brings some beautiful fall color into the sun porch!

While many of the flowers are actively going to seed right now...

...I'm still able to cull regular clippings from the yard.

The side camellia is blooming nicely.  I love having it just outside one of the dining room windows.

The flowers are too delicate for bouquets, but I still enjoy looking at it every time I walk past.

Have a great week!

Padding, Pillows, and Plenty of Pudding

Before our current cold snap, I was able to get out in the yard and get some much-needed work done...under careful supervision, of course.

My sister brought over a big load of rich, healthy compost, which I'll till into our poor soil soon to add some much-needed nutrients.

Everything seemed to come to life at once. My autumn sedums look like miniature lettuce heads. They'll make a beautiful display in September.

I found another nice natural groundcover. This is persian speedwell...tiny blue flowers that spread in bright patches in our yard.

Blue is such a lovely color in the garden!

The columbines are making great headway. I expect to see stalks within two weeks.

Not to be outdone, the lilacs are showing bright green leaves all over. I simply can't wait until they bloom! I have the most beautiful bouquets in nearly every room in the house.

I found evidence of past life...some insect spent some time here in the fall!

Best of all, though, I found evidence of future life: the ground under our big pine tree is littered with tiny bits of fuzz, which the birds nesting above have dropped from their nests.

Lots of activity inside, too. Single flowers make beautiful displays in egg cups, assisted by a few pebbles within to help the stems stay upright.

Besides flowers, I've been thinking of more ways to bring some bright color into the house. I recently bought this pillow at IKEA for, I believe, around $10. I wanted to buy more, especially the blue plaid counterpart, but that could get expensive pretty quickly. How hard could it be to make my own? As it turns out, making a pillow is incredibly easy.

I found a man's button-up shirt at a thrift store that I thought would work nicely. Cost: .75.

I found an ugly old pillow that the cats had been kicking around on the front porch. Origin: unknown. Cost: free.

I placed the pillow on top of the spread-out shirt...

...and cut out around the pillow, making sure to leave a wide margin on all sides. I should've left a wider margin, but that was easily solved by removing the cover from the brown pillow to make it a better fit.

Then, I turned the shirt inside-out and simply stitched around the edges, making a nice, even square. I did this by hand, which took less than an hour. If you use a sewing machine, this would take mere minutes.

After your pillowcase is sewn, unbutton the shirt and turn it right side-out. Slip in the stuffing (or the pillow you're covering) and button the shirt up again.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's a pillowcase!

Or, if you prefer the flip side:

I'm really pleased with this less-than-$1 DIY project. The two pillows are complementary, I think, and make a good pair. I'm envisioning a whole stack of beautiful plaid pillows. All I need is a thrift store shirt!

I can't wait to go back!

My knitting needles have been clacking along, albeit slowly. I haven't had too much time to work on my cardigan, and certainly a sock yarn-weight cardigan takes much longer to knit than one knit with the typical DK- or worsted-weight yarn. I'm pleased with the way it's turning out, although I'm still a bit nervous about the modifications I'm making: lengthening the body, raising the neckline, and lengthening the sleeves, not to mention the size and gauge guesses. I will make it work somehow! I think it will be a perfect cool-weather cardigan.

Of course, I've been very busy in the kitchen as well. We just finished off the last of the coconut cream cupcakes, and my homemade butterscotch pudding with carmelized bananas and homemade whipped cream only lasted 2 days. But I did have time for another sweetie...any excuse to use my new tart pans!

From-Scratch Chocolate Pudding Tarts
Adapted from food.com
Serves 4

Pudding
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
4 - 6 tablespoons butter, melted

To make the crust, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and then carefully press into your pie or tart pan. Bake for 5 - 7 minutes.

For the pudding, mix all ingredients but the milk and vanilla together, and then add milk. Whisk until fully combined, and then microwave uncovered for 3 minutes.

Stir.

Then you'll continue to microwave in one minute increments, stirring after each minute. You'll notice after 4 or 5 rounds that a thick brown "skin" covers more and more of the pudding's surface each time. I usually stop once there's just a small bit of light brown remaining in the center.

Mix in the vanilla, and you're done! Note: if you like a sweeter pudding, add 1/3 cup sugar instead of 1/4 cup sugar. I just prefer the "darker" taste of a less-sweet pudding.

Spoon the thickened pudding onto the graham cracker crust and refrigerate.

YUM! These cool in a few hours and are ready to eat. They're absolutely delicious. I've been making the homemade pudding for years - I'll never go back to the powdered stuff! - but this is the first time I thought to pair it with a graham cracker crust.

It's a good match.

You'll notice that I don't have a photo of the tart out of the pan and ready to eat...a certain someone likes these a little too much, I think! They didn't last long enough to photograph. That's all right...it's quick and easy to make more!

I hope you'll give them a try. Have a great week!