Food and Swaps

I am catching up on blog posts, so bear with me. This will be a quick one.

I made this tote for the Sew Sew Modern 6 swap.


This is what I'm tentatively working on for the Mug Rug Revival swap.


This is the Valentine's Day Feast I made for my fiance, mom, and cousin: Crown rack of lamb with roasted veggies.


I also made this from an episode (Frontier Fiesta) of the Pioneer Woman show: Tequila lime chicken, refried black beans, and cheesy rice casserole. We loved the chicken and black beans, but the rice was slightly boring. I would rather just make my great grandma's Mexican rice.

Rainbows Galore

I have recently finished sending off goodies for three swaps, so I wanted to share them.

First off my bag for the Secret Tote Bag Swap. For this round, everyone is making 241 totes. I came up with two drastically different sides so that my partner could have more options.


And this is the finished product. I used linen for the background and the sewing dictionary print for the pockets.


For the August edition of Super Swaps, we were to make either a zippered pouch or fabric basket. I opted for the fabric basket, but might also whip up a small pouch to add in. I had fun adding the FMQ. On the left there is an orange strip and on the right there is a stripe of purple. I used crosshatch for the handles.


Then we have the mug rug I made for Mug Rug Revival. This was my original fabric pull. I couldn't decide on the violet, but after I posted this, my partner commented that she liked the dragonfly violet, so I went with that one!


I ended up using English Paper Piecing half hexagons and equilateral triangles because my sewing machine was in the shop at the time.


I used linen for the background and decided to add accent stitching with embroidery thread.


I forgot to take a picture before mailing it off, but this is the picture my partner posted when she received the mug rug. She loved it, which is such a relief because we were supposed to make something summery and I wasn't sure if rainbow pinwheels would be summer-y to anyone but myself. Photo by Lisa Garber.

WIP Wednesday

Apparently I am trying so hard to relax after submitting my grades that I am rebelling against sewing because not much got worked on this week. I have been staying busy with a ton of non-sewing projects. Here is the nearly completed mug rug for Mug Rug Revival.


Here is the exterior of the bag I'm making for Super Swaps. Now to bust a move and finish the interior and add some straps. I want this and the mug rug to be in the mail over the next day or so.


This is the progress I have made on my May LFoY goal: A barn chicken-coop quilt for my hens that will now be hung on the fence near the coop. I have finished the design and now just need to seal and hang it. I used spray enamel and it came out horribly so I'm going to add brush-on polycrylic and hope that it can adhere or else I'm sanding it all off and starting again.


Speaking of my little ladies (I can no longer call them girls, but they aren't quite women yet), here they are being utterly confused by their first experience with rain. We had to put them in their house when the rain started because they didn't know how to stay dry.


Oh my gosh, aren't these just the cutest hens in the world?? From left to right: Polyodontosaurus (Polly for short), Eglentine (Eggy for short), & Bullroarer (BR to my boyfriend, Bea Arthur to me).

Maybe I should explain the names. Bullroarer has hilarious feathers growing out of her legs, feet, and toes which reminded me of a hobbit. She has always been the biggest hen, so that seemed like a good fit even though the actual hobbit named Bullroarer was a male.

Then we were trying to find another hobbity name for the one on the left. We had already been calling her "Polly" though since she has an extra toe (genetic trail of extra toes is called polydactyly) but there were no hobbit names that started with "Polly" so naturally we started searching through dinosaur genera and found Polyodontosaurus grandis, a small, bird-like dinosaur. Perfect!

Then we come to the middle hen. Eglantine was another distant hobbit name, but it also happens to be the name of Angela Lansbury's character in Bedknobs & Broomsticks aka my favorite movie ever. Doesn't she even look a little like Angela Lansbury?? It can also be shortened to "Eggy" which is kind of the best chicken name ever. I'm always singing this song to her though my rendition is a little less dancey.


Oh yeah! Back to projects! I'm also refinishing my sewing chair. This has been my chair since I was about 6 years old, which means it had all kinds of stickers, nail polish, and strange carvings on the surface. I have sanded and primed it, now I'm just trying to add enough coats of this dark grey so that it stops looking blue.


Then we come to cooking! All recipes we used are linked. My boyfriend, cousin, and I successfully made a souffle following a Julia Child recipe. Check out the puffiness!


This was a makeshift breakfast my boyfriend and I put together. The kale and potatoes were leftover from other meals, so we just scrambled eggs with corned beef. Omnomnom!


Then we have salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, and roasted cabbage. The salisbury steak and mashed potatoes were incredible, but the cabbage wasn't, which is bizarre because I absolutely LOVE cabbage. I think I would have liked it more cut smaller because this was difficult to eat. I also might have preferred the taste of the cabbage raw with the same marinade, which I altered and used sesame oil instead of olive oil because sesame oil and cabbage reminds me of Japan.

Spring Break: Part Two

Here goes another attempt at a brief blog post. I finished and mailed my March contribution to the Mug Rug Revival swap. I went a little out of my comfort zone with the asymmetry, but I don't think it would look as fun any other way.

I drafted up the pattern to use for the block because I wanted to make sure all the corners were extra crisp. Here are links to the patterns I came up with in a few sizes, all free of course. 

Paper piecing pattern for 9" block.

Paper piecing pattern for 10" block.

Paper piecing pattern for 12" block.

Then it was laundry day and somehow the third load was forgotten. I could either sleep on a pillow without a pillowcase, wait until the dryer was done to sleep, or make a pillowcase. I decided to race my sewing machine against the dryer. I won by a landslide. Here is my squirrely new pillowcase.


See? Squirrely!


I also made another hot pad for my boyfriend's aunt in an effort to slowly replace her worn out ones. I used reverse applique for the circle and then regular applique for the rays.


She loves mushrooms so I had to use this for the back! Side note: This might be my best stipple everrrrr!


Oh! We decided to make a baked bloomin' onion (recipe over here) and it turned out delish.


Then one day I decided it was a tote bag sort of day so I made this one for my friend Connie...


And this one for my bff Nurget (Melissa)...


And this one for myself. I couldn't decide which locally grown fabric I liked more, so I made it into a two-face sort of bag. Half the lining and exterior is one fabric, the other half is the other. Aren't the lambs and chickens adorable?!


Speaking of chicks, here are my chickens on their 5 week birthday. We celebrated by giving them a big bowl of red cabbage. They mostly just carried pieces around in their mouths while frantically running away trying to hide it from everyone else who was obviously trying to steal that one piece instead of getting their own from the bowl.


My boyfriend and I also made it up to the San Antonio Gem and Mineral Show. He picked up this gorgeous and huge piece of tiger iron. He got a great deal on it because it is just cut, and not actually polished (I put water on it to show the chatoyancy).  Side note, the locally grown tote bag was strong enough to carry this and all of our other purchases around the show!


We both prefer rough rocks, so the smooth side will be the side facing down. How can you not love the rough side? I mean, this is what this rock looked like when it was dug up. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! Anyways, we decided it should live on the coffee table, but didn't want it to scuff the table...


...So I made it a teeny tiny quilt to lie on. I tried to model the FMQ after the striation in the rock itself. I toyed with actually making the lines the same color as the stripes in the rock, but the fabric was black to match the coffee table so I decided against that.


Here is a better shot of the FMQ.


And here is the lovely rock in its cozy new home. Taaadaaaa!

Spring Break: Part One

I am so thrilled to have a break from teaching for a week! My car is in the shop, so I am stuck at home and have been working hard to maximize my time, which would explain the project riddled, photo-heavy post. I'm going to try and be brief. It would also explain why I'm done with both of my LYoF goals for the month: My Pantone challenge quilt and my STBS tote bag. Both are in this post.

I finished the front of my Pantone challenge quilt. Here is a close-up fabric shot to see the Radiant Orchid-ness. Mmm, shot cotton.


Here is a shot of the whole front. If I have time to quilt it, great, but at least as a front, it is enterable. The top is 48" by 48". Once it is quilted, I am planning on binding it in that green color between the leaves.


I made my first Spoonflower fabric! Woot! You can find it here. It is a 19" x 24" map of Middle Earth. I have uploaded several different orientations and sizes, if you are interested.


I got the panels made and quilted for this round of Secret Tote Bag Swap.


I even finished the tote bag and made it to the post office to get it in the mail before my car went into the shop.


The boyfriend and I made some blueberry cornmeal pancakes. The cornmeal pancake might have been my favorite pancake ever! Recipe is here, but we didn't coat the blueberries in sugar.


I started on my mug rug for the March Mug Rub Revival Swap. I made up a paper pieced pattern for the block and will hopefully release it soon.


We also made a key lime pie and topped it with tequila lime whipped cream. (Recipes here and here)


We also made some spinach, caramelized onion, & mushroom grilled cheeses. I might whip up a recipe post for these.


Then the chickens were 27 days old and I caught a photo of two of them mid-flight.


We also made some Guinness stew and it was amaaaazing. Recipe here.


Then there were the dulce de leche stuffed cupcakes...


That turned into salted caramel cupcakes! Recipe post for these is in the works.


Then the chicks turned 4 weeks old. Here they are looking huge and waiting patiently while we clean their cage.


And here they are in their new cage with a perch! One little lady is even testing the perch out.


And we grew some broccoli.


Pfffew. I'm exhausted. Have you also been busy? If so, what are you working on?