Recipes and Resources

When I first started this blog, I intended to share recipes. So far it looks like I have shared one cookie recipe. Twice. Since our friends and family consider me to be a pretty good cook, and my husband never goes hungry, you would think I would be posting recipes regularly.

I have been known to make 3 or 4 pans of lasagna at a time in Winter. My honey loves him some meaty lasagna! Therefore, I will start with a recommendation of a healthy pasta dish I recently made.

I am going to tell you how fabulous F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. and easy this recipe is. All the work was in the prep for cooking. It took about half an hour to do that, working by myself and with some distractions. Cooking time was 15 minutes. You will feel like you are in the best Italian restaurant when you sit down to eat. Seriously.

My only criticism of it is the surprise at the end of the recipe calling for Basil Pesto, which I didn't have on hand. I really should read through the whole recipe instead of assuming all the ingredients are up front. Not a good time to have to run to the store.

I plan to try this without the sausage and asparagus next time I make it just because I want to see how it goes with artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes (instead of the grape tomatoes) and maybe a few black olives tossed in. I also think this will be a perfect meal to make when our family from California is here later this month.

This is a balanced meal in itself, but who has Italian without some garlic bread and salad, right?

If you are looking for great recipe ideas, you could do like I do: sign up from the free email newsletters that most product manufacturers offer. Kraft, Betty Crocker, Land O Lakes, Campbells, etc. Whatever floats your boat.

I also get regular (daily) email recipes from Allrecipes.com, Real Simple magazine and a few others. Then there are the posts on Facebook and blogs I follow. Martha Stewart's Everyday Food blog, the Pioneer Woman Cooks, and the above cookandbemerry.com which I found thru Pioneer Woman.

Who needs to buy cookbooks anymore. It is foodie heaven on the internet for free every day!

As Julia would have said, Bon Appetit!

The Train Set and Toy Story

I try to do a decent job of boy-themed play with my grandson. Not having a daddy around to show him this stuff, I try to fill the gap when Papa is busy with other things.

You know those wooden train sets with Thomas the Tank Engine - and the generic versions of them? Sort of like this one.   We have about a million pieces: trains, bridges, mountain, etc that we set up and take down often with Tyler, our grandson. For a just-turned-two year old, he's getting good at connecting the track pieces. His train set can take up the whole floor of his play room, just so you can imagine. The train table never gets used for our elaborate constructions. It is way too small. It has been converted to Handy Manny's hangout and Tyler's desk, but that is another story.

Anyway, I have obviously seen too many Toy Story movies, and he hasn't yet. I still think Sid and his mutant toys are creepy - way too much for a child to watch. So Tyler did not get it when I was having fun with him this past Saturday. I set the pig from his farm set on the tracks and said he was Evil Dr. Porkchop. *blank look followed by eyebrows going down in the middle*  Then I got his blue plastic dinosaur and made "Rex" jump up and down on the bridge, saying he wanted to eat Dr. Porkchop and made roaring noises.  *frowning now*

Tyler got up, took the blue dinosaur, put him in the Time Out chair and wagged his finger at me. "No more dinosaurs for you!"

So, I guess we will be sticking to arranging the tracks in different configurations and seeing if Thomas can make the descending curve without crashing from now on. Or until Tyler wants to play more creatively. His choice!

The Day After Easter

Well, Easter is over. Are you still full? I know the kids are probably still sugared up. My grandson got to have 2 Easter egg hunts. He didn't want them to end. He was running around the front yard yesterday morning, shouting "Keep Looking, Nana!"

I LOVE this cartoon. My grampa loves it too, because he used to eat the ears off my aunt's chocolate Easter bunny every year before she would get it.

Our little family get-together included an Angus ribeye roast, potatoes, carrots, beets and Hummingbird cake. I made the cake. Everyone said that it was delicious, but they have never felt so full. It is a wonderful alternative to the traditional chocolate or vanilla cakes, but very dense, so make thin slices, or don't have dinner first, whichever you prefer.  The cake was for a week late celebration of my Grampa's 89th birthday. Tyler's solo of "Happy Burtday, Papa Don..." was great. Then we sang the "you look like a monkey" version, and Tyler was having fits of giggles. It was too cute.

I finished my Spring Top for the Sewalong! Pillow and Maxfield's Gypsy Bandana border stripe fabric in lime green. Very comfy. Didn't take too long to make. (Simplicity 5684 - a discontinued pattern.)

Enjoy the rest of April! May is so close and I am on one hand looking forward to the end of pollen everywhere, but on the other hand, not looking forward to another Hurricane Season.

Current Projects

Things I am working on: a variation of Minick and Simpson's "Chippewa Nine Patch" as seen in this post from their blog. I am making this from leftover Double Delight blocks, which I had originally started making in greens, but changed my mind after I had made a LOT of them. I think they pair up nicely with this Marie Osmond print and I'll have a nice Christmas lap size quilt when I am done. Also, I am about to launch my first tshirt quilt project. I took a class at JoAnn's last year, so wish me luck on the queen size for my sister in law.

I have been dabbling in the Dresden plate area too. Always wanted to make them, and finally bought a ruler. I made 5 inch blades with jelly roll scraps (Cherish Nature) and they look nice, I think. I don't know that I will make a whole quilt full. I am thinking maybe they will be in a row in a top border of whatever I make with the Cherish Nature Fat Quarter bundle I have.  (Below the dresdens are some possible pinwheels from the Chippewa Nine Patch trimmings - more likely to become a sawtooth border.)

Cleaned up my sewing project storage a bit. I had lost a needle book a friend made, so I took everything apart, hoping maybe it had fallen behind these stacked cubes. Having my upcoming projects neatly stacked and in full view helps me stay focused and inspired. How about you? I won't embarrass myself with a picture of the 5 large totes and closet full of other stash and UFOs. Let's just say my husband opened that closet last week and said something about not ever needing to buy fabric again. Yeah, like that's ever going to happen!

See that stack of Fig Tree fabrics on the top left? Yum! I have been taking my time, finding deals and slowly have acquired enough to make "Summer Rental" from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.

And finally, even though I am a few weeks early for Kids Sewing Week, I couldn't help making the bucket hat  from this tutorial out of the Laurie Wisbrun giraffe print. It matches his pants and is reversible to a solid teal. Next time I will make a much wider brim, but it fits his head perfectly! You try getting a fidgety 2 year old to be still for pictures. It was either this one, or the picture of the inside of his nose after I said "honey, look up!"

And finally, since it is almost Easter, I will share a picture of a little ham with you all, and wish you a wonderful holiday weekend! 

Happy Easter everyone! May you have the gift of friends and family to celebrate with!

God Bless!

Kids Clothing Week Challenge 2011

I am going to participate in the Kids Clothing Week Challenge. Are you? I may not be able to keep to the one hour a day part, due to full time job and full time 2 year old grandson, but I will try.

Does Spring make you want to sew clothes, like it does me?

They may not count, but I am already ahead on sewing for Tyler with these. Not to worry, though. I have fire truck print pants, a giraffe print hat, and many more to come, so this will be fun! FYI: I use a toddler costume pants pattern for these elastic waist pants, and quilter's cotton prints. Each pair take less than half an hour.

Join in! You can find the information here: http://www.elsiemarley.com/kids-clothes-week-spring-2011.html

You can be as fancy or simple as you want. It can be a back pack, a crayon caddy, an appliqued tshirt, pillowcase dress, hooded towel, whatever, as long as it is for a child. And if it is for charity, even better!

And if you don't have kids to sew for, but are in the mood to make yourself a new top, check this out: http://www.made-by-rae.com/2011/04/its-time-for-spring-top-sewalong.html 

The quilt on my bed

I think we all know why we quilt when something we've made makes us smile - every time we see it. That's how it is with the quilt currently on my bed. Even though it is early Spring, I have bright, lively summer jewel colors brightening my room.

I have yet to make myself a Christmas bed quilt, so the Autumn (Leaving California) quilt is on my bed for much too long,and by the time the New Year comes around, I am ready for a change.

Remember this post?  I was trying to figure out what to do for backing and I never followed up here when I finished the quilt! I ended up using the allover print from the same line and the last two pieces from the panel for the backing. Solid black binding.

This quilt makes me smile every time. The colors are so vivid it is happiness all over. The guitar playing mermaids floating around the border seem to be ready to lull me to sleep.

Just to refresh your memory, Key West Crush is it's name.I made this variation on Bonnie Hunter's "Orange Crush" mystery quilt. It took more than 2 years to make it because half way through I banished it to a box out of frustration. So, when I unboxed it, I was ready and focused to put it together. It just happens that I had pre-ordered an In the Beginning fabric line called Oceanica, and there was EXACTLY enough of the stripe to border the quilt top with the panel pieces as corners! It still amazes me. I literally had one inch of stripe left!

Have you seen "What's On Your Bed?" in other blogs? I'd like to know what is on your bed, if you'd like to share!

Spring Sewing

Here's what I've been up to. Have you seen this Beach Bum Hoodie, as featured on Sew, Mama, Sew's blog? I bought the pattern and made it in Groovy Guitar print fabric from Michael Miller. If you make this, just keep in mind, they are not kidding when they say the hood is enormous. You might want to scale it down and make the neck opening bigger. That is my plan for the next time I make it, and there will be a next time!

It is lined with a stripe I bought a year or two ago from Connecting Threads, and the colors are spot-on perfect together!All the fabrics were bought from Hawthorne Threads. I love their selection of cool kids prints and all the latest cool fabrics, and you won't believe how fast your order will arrive!

Notice the Laurie Wisbrun giraffe print (Giraffes in Earth) pants? This is the outfit he picked out, because Nana made them recently, and he tells all his friends at the preschool "my nana made it for me!"

Just so you know, I am not getting paid to endorse these shops or items. I just love the quality of the fabrics, the good advice and ideas from the blog, and the shops listed. Connecting Threads fabrics are all made in the USA, did you know that? Very rare, sadly, to get any fabric made in America anymore.

I've also been in the mood to make pillowcases. They are so easy! I used the basic Million Pillowcase Challenge pattern and two one yard pieces from my stash, and VOILA! in half an hour, there were two coordinating cases for Tyler's bed!

That is a Joann's print of tropical fish, paired with a Jane Sassaman starburst orange and yellow print (the name escapes me.) I swear I'll be making pillowcases for my bed and for gifts a lot more often.

Other projects I have completed or are near finished: The Ginger Belle top is done. The Postage Stamp Quilt Along top is done (I added a border) and the Hokey Pokey rows are finished and ready to become the gigantic California King top. I'll be lugging that stack to the longarm quilter this weekend, along with the jelly roll twin size top I made last year - my own pattern. Hopefully I will have some pics to share by the end of April! And a tutorial maybe.