knucklehead

I’ve been busy.  Over the last month I’ve finished piecing R’s Knucklehead quilt.  Today I look for an envelope to send it off to my mom for her to work on the quilting process.  I’m so in love with how it turned out.  I really enjoyed creating the letters.  I was worried that it would be hard to read but I think it’s ok and turned out just right.  The blanket was intended to go to daycare w/ R for a napping blanket.  I think it’ll still go there with him but I’ll miss looking at it.

I’ll also miss working on it.  I only have one block left on my collaboration with Mom quilt and that leaves me high and dry in quilting.  I started R’s halloween costume and my deadline was moved up a bit so I need to finish that up.  I also thought I’d spend some time working on refurbishing my cedar trunk and crocheting my afghan.  But I’m already missing working on a quilt.  Not sure how long I’ll be able to put off working on something new.

rolling in the deep

I’m not much of a music person, I listen to whats on the radio or what C puts on and most of the time that works fine with me.  C sent me a link to this video a few months ago and I watched it over and over while I worked.  Completely just rocking out.  This is the first album I’ve bought in over 5 years.  This is now my fave song to blast in the car with the windows down and belt out the lyrics without caring who hears and what they think.  It makes me happy.

the bugs are itching

I have all kinds of bugs itching me and they aren’t the little black ones you think I’m talking about.  In fact it’s been cool here, really cool, so most of the bugs are gone or going away.  But my red wine bug is waking up, I’m craving a nice zinfandel, and perhaps a syrah.  The cool weather has also got me thinking about camping or at least having a campfire.  R is too young for camping but I like to remember the cool morning waking up in a tent and I look forward to this in the future.  I have a combo bug of really wanting to finish my two quilting projects or at least get them to the point of basting.  That is my goal before I start two other projects that are itching to get going.  One is Ryker’s halloween costume.  There’s a deadline for that one so I’m really being to think about it.  The other is a Christmas project w/ some fun Christmas fabric I found.  A recent email from N in Germany reminded me that I wanted to learn to knit cables and I would like to knit R a winter hat.  Not sure that’ll get done but the itch is there.

Finally I have the bug to cook.  Two weekends ago in Chicago at Mom’s we canned up her huge harvest of tomatoes.  We just canned them whole so that they can be used for sauce or soup or chili or whatever.  We also pickled her harvest of green beans.  That’s what’s in the two photographs.  With the very cool weather this week I’ve given up hope that my many tomatoes will turn red.  So I’ve picked them green and plan to make more green tomato chutney.  It’s quite good so not all is lost.  With the few tomatoes that did turn red I made a tomato sauce that I used with spaghetti the other day.  It was fabulous.  Also we discovered that our pear trees did marvelous this summer.  Nice big pears with very few blemishes.  I’m not sure if its b/c we pruned this summer or what.  Wednesday I picked a ton of pears, gave some to the neighbors and still have pounds of pears left.  I’m hoping to make some pear sauce similar to apple sauce.  I want to make some pear jam.  Maybe candy up some pears.  Pear bread to freeze for later.  Or I could do a pie.  I have a lot of pears but in reality not a ton of time.  We’ll see how much gets done and how good it is.  These pears aren’t really flavorful, but they are very crisp, so they need help with the sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla to make them taste good.
That’s my plan for the next few days and over a week or so.  We’re keeping busy and have lots of fall plans.  I’m happy fall is here, I feel my bones relaxing in the cool weather with the smell of leaves in the air. 

another inprogress

This is the other project I’ve been working on lately.  It’s 90% hand pieced but when I went home last weekend I used mom’s sewing machine to put the big pieces together.  I’m not quite done with the piecing yet.  I plan to add another line with wording.  But the last couple nights I’ve spent working on blocks for Mom and mine’s quilt.  I have two new blocks in progress for that.  Anyway when this quilt is finished it will go w/ R to day care for his napping blanket. 

Later today we head back up to Chicago.  C and I and friends are spending a night in the city and then headed to the Bears game on Sunday.  I’m bringing my holga in hopes for some inspiration.  Either way though it should be a really good time. 

quilt update

We spent a lot of time discussing quilts, fabric, plans, ideas, and layouts for hexes this weekend.  It was great!  Mom snapped some pics with her fancy iphone b/c I’m lazy about my camera.  Thought I’d show some progress reports. 

Mom’s kinda kicking my butt on block progress but if you put all the blocks together we’re over half way done.  We decide to add two more rows before calling it done.  So we each will make 5 more blocks.  I have lots of ideas but am not really sure where to start.  We’re both really happy with how balanced it looks when all put together.  And you can definitely tell our different styles and yet they seem to work.  Can you tell which blocks I made?  For one of Mom’s last blocks she decided to write the date.  Turned out really cool. 

whats been cooking and not cooking

Two weeks ago I went on a cooking binge.  I made up some pickles, my first batch ever.  I couldn’t find pickling (kirby) pickles so I just used the english seedless kind from the grocery store.  I also found it difficult to locate dill seed in Peoria grocery stores.  I really love these pickles.  They are very tart and vinegary, which I normally wouldn’t like or love.  But these are nice b/c I have to nibble them, which makes them a lovely treat.  Next time I’ll make them with more garlic and maybe some more spice.  I also pickled green beans.  Number 12 on my 31 list is to make pickles and pickle something other than a cucumber.  So I pickled some green beans following Food in Jar’s recipe.  They need to sit for two weeks while the flavors cure so I haven’t tried these yet.  I’m kinda excited to.  I’ve read that you can put them on hotdogs instead of real pickles to make yourself feel fancy.  I was also thinking they might be good in a salad with some blue cheese. 

I was on a major roll this day.  I made green tomato chutney.  I’d had tomato chutney at a restaurant on a burger and thought it was amazing.  Sweet and tomatoy and chunky and lovely.  I had a ton of green tomatoes so I picked them and whipped up this chutney also from Food in Jars.  It’s super yummy.  Sweet with a bit of heat from the red pepper flakes.  So far I’ve enjoyed this on turkey sandwiches, but I plan to slather it on some pork chops and on my burger the next time I make them. 
Finally the small brown bottles are home made vanilla extract.  I’m hoping to use some of these as Christmas gifts this year.  It was super easy to make and kinda fun.  I’ve used it in several things and have had great results.

So that’s whats cooking in my kitchen.  Not much has been cooking with photography.  But we’ve been super busy being responsible this month.  Meeting with the banks, and insurance companies to set up accounts and funds and what not.  Pretty soon I hope to be able to say that I’ve completed number 8 on my 31 list.  I do have a holga project that M and I are going to do together.  I’m also going to spend a night in Chicago again in a couple weeks.  So there are holga opportunities coming up.
I have been quilting a lot!  Got a ton of piecing done on both quilts I’m working on.  Spent last night at the quilt shop taking free mini classes and buying fabric for finishing. 
R is learning to walk.  He’s a speed demon while pushing his toy and the last few weeks he is becoming more and more stable on two feet.  He can walk across the room on occasion.  On other occasions I think he’s learning to run before he learns to walk. 

back to red film pics

* Those are my sunglasses in the top part of the pic.  I intended to try and shoot through them but I like this effect.
* Project updates are as follows
      ~ Afghan: block numbers 5 and 6 are finished just need borders then I’ll take an update photo
      ~ Knitting: in the spring I started a block about 12 inches square.  I made a stripe effect with knits and purls and I love the way it feels.  I finally googled how to cast off and finished the block.  Last night I casted on with larger needles and a bright turquoise blue yarn to do the same stripe pattern.  It feels good to touch so we’ll see what comes out of it.
      ~ Quilting: I made another block for Mom and I’s collaboration.  It’s a Greek Cross.  I did math to figure out what sizes to cut and followed a the pattern.  This is big for me!
                  Don’t think I’d mentioned it on here before but while at the quilt store a few weeks back buying fabric for the collaboration quilt, I fell in love with some more batiks.  That section is really trouble for me.  Especially when they put bundles together of colors that compliment each other.  Then it’s not just one fabric I fall in love with it’s the whole package and it’s enough to make a blanket from.  So I come home with more projects.  Here’s a pic of what I have accomplished with it.  I actually snapped this a week ago, so I have about double the amount done now.  All hand sewn and starting to feel good about my triangle work.  It’s going to be a blanket.  At first I was thinking a baby blanket, now I’m not sure who it’ll go to.  But I do want to personalize it with wording.  If I end up keeping it, I may end up quilting “knucklehead” on it.  But we’ll wait and see how it goes.

* I’ve been cooking over the last few weeks.  Made some corn and zucchini salsa, zucchini bread, sun dried tomato and goat cheese pasta, jambalaya, and peach cake.
* Still not much happening for new photos.  I think its going to take me loading up a camera and forcing myself out there to shoot some pics.

back to blue slim

I snapped this pic back in June when we went to Chicago for the Toast.  It’s multiple sculpture piece in Grant Park.  It’s probably one of my favorite sculpture pieces that I’ve seen in the city.  Lots of reading, quilting, cooking, and birthday celebrating going on this week.  I’m making plans w/ M to construct a photography project/challenge.  Life’s been busy and good.

31 things to do before I turn 31

Today’s my birthday and I’ve left my 20ies behind and joined the 30ies club.  It’s hard to believe I’m 30, I don’t feel any different.  Although I do notice that I don’t shop at the same stores I did 5 years ago.  My tastes have changed and I’m glad for that.  I don’t want to feel like a 25 year old.  I want to be me at 30.  Me at 30 has a purple feather in her hair.  I haven’t lost all the baby weight but haven’t been too stressed out about it.  I’ve been learning to quilt and really loving that.  I’ve also been crocheting my afghan that I’ve worked on for the past year.  And I want to put more time into knitting, although that is 3rd in line and doesn’t get touched very often.  At 30 I’m struggling with where I am and where I want to be career wise.  I hope I figure that out in the next decade.  I’m also struggling with finding time to keep my blog active and alive, I would miss an online presence if it were to slip away.  I love my family and love that we’re growing together everyday.  I have a great gathering of friends that I’m very excited to get to see this Friday.
Last year I made a list of 30 things to do before I turned 30.  I did pretty well with it.  I accomplished or at least made a dent in 26 of the 30 items.  I sorta really enjoyed this list.  It made me sit down and think of a list of reasonable things I want to accomplish.  And during the year I found the list inspiring me to get things done or do things I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t had the reason.  So I sat down again and came up with 31 things to do for the next year.  (for some reason it was way harder to come up with 31 things than 30 things)  So here’s the new list for the next year.

1. Continue to tweet a happy thought a day
2. Read 10 books
3. Bake a yeast bread from scratch
4. Finish crocheting the blocks for my afghan, goal is 1 block a month
5. Create a garment, either sewing or knitting or whatev
6. Work out 2-3x per week is the goal and totally doable
7. Yoga everyday for one month
8. Figure out our investments and feel happy with them
9. Fix up our kitchen
10. Learn my sewing machine
11. Make some dietary changes ~ drink at least 8 glasses of water per day and stick with this
12. Pickle some vegetables.  I want to make pickles and then pickle another veggie to see what the hub bub’s about
13. Quit swearing.  by far the hardest thing on my list.
14. Make some more jam, two kinds for gifts.
15. See a show at the Civic Center
16. Meets friends out for dinner once a month
17. Organize my bookmarks and bloglist
18. Take a trip with my hubby sans R
19. Polyurethane projects: buffet table, railing, dining room table, Adirondack chairs
20. Make a prettier pie
21. Complete a photo challenge
22. Complete a quilt
23. Try different coffee drinks other than my norm
24. Plant next years garden with melons
25. Strip and refinish my cedar chest
26. Spend an afternoon at a coffee shop reading
27. Try something new with the holga
28. Tweak and update the website
29. Take another class
30. Create a Dear Photograph
31. Watch a movie marathon featuring Mila Jovovich w/ C

#12 bake a pie from scratch

I baked this pie back in June.  Anything pastry scares me in the kitchen, especially if it involves a rolling pin.  But that’s why baking a pie made the list.  I choose to do a classic apple pie b/c I had apples in the fridge.  And I went with a very simple flour and shortening and cold water recipe for the crust.  I don’t have a food processor so I had to cut the shortening into the flour using a pastry knife, basically I went about this the old fashioned/hard way.  I’ve heard pie crust is way easier if you use updated methods.  Anyway the crust dough seemed really dry and didn’t hold together well.  I did manage to piece it together to form a bottom and top crust.  It’s not the prettiest pie in the world.  Looks aside, it tasted very good and didn’t last very long in the house.  I put this back on the list to try again next year.  I want next years pie to be prettier.