oops...

Wow, I've been absent from the internets for a while... oops! Part of that is I haven't had too much that I've felt needed to be posted since very little craftiness has been happening. Of course cooking has been, with just a little bit of experimentation, but nothing so spectacular I felt it needed to be shared... until now! This past weekend we had a baby shower to celebrate the anticipated arrival in March of a friend's second daughter. I made the cake and it was a huge hit! I didn't get any photos of it, but a friend did, so as soon as I get one from her I'll post it up here. It was a basic chocolate cake (using KAF's chocolate cake recipe) with a raspberry curd filling and whipped cream icing. It was delish! I don't think there was a single crumb left on the cake stand! I even got asked to make cupcakes in the same combination for an upcoming birthday party... I may need to actually go into business for myself!

I think I also made a really yummy chicken dish with brussel sprouts a while ago I meant to post about, but now I don't remember exactly what it was :-( It probably started with bacon and I know I used a little cinnamon, which I think may now be my favorite spice to use in pretty much everything! I plan on making tourtiere, a traditional French-Canadian (with its roots in old France) pork pie, this weekend for dinner and a second for a friend who had a baby recently. I'll try to remember to take pictures and post about it! I haven't had any in a long time, and I remember it being absolutely delicious, so I hope this recipe (yet another KAF!) measures up...

As far as crafty stuff goes, I have had one card swap (with another tomorrow) and some basic card-making. I also helped a friend make a new bag for his tent, which was supposed to be an test of his newly-acquired sewing machine, but we found a couple of big flaws that need to be fixed. Not being able to wind your own bobbins is just annoying and getting stuck in reverse makes even straight stitching difficult! Sadly, I haven't done any quilting since my last post, meaning I did not finish my Project Modern quilt, or the strippy quilt I've been working on for a while now... it's a little frustrating! I need to spend some time cleaning up in my craft room so I can actually work in there and leave projects out. I think that as I put away Christmas decorations I'll be able to get a lot of the random stuff cleaned up in there, too. I really want to finish that quilt! And now I have another, at least crib-sized, quilt to make for the Guild! We have an all-solid challenge going courtesy of Robert Kaufman. The company gave us charm packs to use! I may also try to get to the second Project Modern challenge (a monochromatic quilt!) if I feel I have the time and creative energy to do so... I love the idea of a quilt in just one color, so even if I can't have it done by the end of March it may become on of my projects.

Ok, this turned into a rather long post! Happy New Year (rather late)!

A little progress

I started sewing strips together for my Project Modern quilt! I'm hoping it will come together pretty quickly and not get slowed down too much by other projects I have in the works. I've also got some big baking plans coming up, including an apple challah bread and chocolate croissants... both will be a first for me and I'm a little nervous about the croissants. It's just a long process. I think I might make a test batch this weekend to make sure I know what I'm doing before I make them to bring to share with friends. I know they'll get eaten up in our house! And there are always the friends and neighbors who are willing guinea pigs... I just need to find the chocolate sticks locally... off on a chocolate treasure hunt!

Progress, of sorts...

So I haven't made any progress on my Project Modern quilt, but... I made an entire baby quilt in around 24 hours! Here are some pictures of its creation...

The top, no borders...

Top and bottom borders added...

Borders done!

Sandwiched, pinned and ready to be quilted!

Half-way finished with the quilting...

Done!

The plain back...

I used three flannel prints for the top with solid blue and pale yellow for the border and back. This was very much something of an improvisational quilt, I just started cutting strips of fabric, then started sewing them into bigger strips, then pieced those together! I really liked how it turned out, I even teared up a little when I gave it away... but I know it will be used! I still have a little of all the fabrics, so maybe I'll use them in something for Two when I get the time...

I've been doing a decent amount of creative cooking and baking, too! Last two Fridays ago (has it really been that long since I posted?) I made a couple of 9" deep dish pizzas topped with tomatoes, lots of cheese, sweet Italian sausages, peppers and onions. I actually thought to take pictures! Here they are...

The pizzas!

Nice, deep dish with layers! (And a very happy Two in the background)

And I also decided pretty much on a whim to try out the chocolate stout cake recipe from King Arthur Flour. That was pretty good, too! Rich and heavy, but yummy! No pictures of that, but I made it! This last Friday I made thin crust pizzas again, they're so good! Saturday night I tried out Emeril's recipe for pierogis that turned out pretty well. The recipe didn't halve well, so I just made a lot of them and froze a bunch to save for another night. I also tried out KAF's bacon cheddar scones Sunday morning. The recipe called for chives, too, but I didn't have any on hand, so I just left them out. I just made a half recipe of mini scones and they were pretty great! So a lot of baking going on here! And some temporary insanity with quilting! Hopefully I'll have more progress to post, soon!

Some progress...

I actually spent some time with my fabric and rotary cutter yesterday! I got the little guy down for his nap (in my bed... sigh...) and heard pleas coming from my crafting room. So I set up my laptop with Glee, heated up the iron, and starting cutting strips for my Project Modern quilt. I think I'm going to be able to use some strip piecing to speed up the process. I'll take some pictures of all my lovely strips at some point, since plain black and white strips are so interesting... I also set up a new stash storage in the closet that I think will work really well. I got a hanging shoe shelf thing from Target, and it's the perfect size for fat quarters! Now my (still pretty small) stash has moved from its sad little box into the closet where they can breathe and yet be protected!

And... I got a picture of the cute little bag I made for Two's friend! She has been loving it. That makes me so happy! I so love making things that people can use and enjoy!

As you can see, it's definitely handmade, but the quirks are part of what make these things great, right? I had hoped to make it reversible, but that just wasn't in the cards... it's about the size of a small kid's backpack, and it ended up with just the one strap. She wears it across her body, carrying her things around with her. So cute!

I haven't done much interesting baking or cooking in the last couple of days, either. I found a whole bunch of new recipes I really want to try over at King Arthur Flour. They have a very reasonable pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) recipe, and those are a favorite in our house! Tomorrow night will be my first attempt at making deep-dish pizza, using their Chicago-style recipe. All the reviews are great, so we'll see how the guys like it!

Monday night I was able to go up to downtown LA with my friends Melissa and Kelly and met up with all the lovely people of the LA Modern Quilt Guild! It was so awesome! My first meeting just happened to be the one year anniversary for the guild, the first in the country! I'm going to have to go every month now, there was just so much inspiration in the room. And I won a great door prize! A circle cutter and slotted cutting guide. Not bad for a first meeting... and now I have no excuse to not try circles! One may end up on the back of one of the now two quilts in progress... I'm hoping to get them both done soon! The black and white one has to be finished before the end of November, and I'd like to be able to send the other off for a Christmas present. And there are, of course, other little things I'd like to get done... it would be so awesome if I could just spend all day up in my crafting room as my job! Maybe someday...

Sigh...

So I still haven't gotten to do much crafting, but I have been able to do some cooking. I haven't even talked about the fantastic pizza crust recipe I tried out! I had found the recipe a while ago, and finally decided to try it, and I think it will now be a Friday night tradition. The King Arthur Flour pizza crust recipe really is fantastic! I love King Arthur flour, especially since they are fully employee-owned and from Vermont! They have excellent recipes, various products, and, of course, flours! But back to the pizza! The recipe suggests letting the dough rest in the refrigerator for a few hours, which I did, and I used a preheated pizza stone in the oven with the crust on a sheet of parchment paper to let it go into and out of the oven easily. I got two nicely thin and crispy crusts out of the recipe, the second of which I froze as dough. They also give tips on freezing a pre-baked crust, but the ball of dough just fit better! It turned out great, too, though! So after I pre-baked the first crust, I took it back out, spread out some roasted red pepper tomato sauce (yes, from a jar), covered it with an Italian blend of cheeses, then covered it with some mild Italian sausage broken up into bits, peppers and almost-caramelized onions I had cooked down earlier. It was so delicious! The second crust I topped with cheese, sausage, genoa salami, fresh mozzarella and a little more cheese. The boys loved it!

Last night, I made a "Tess Creation" that turned out really well! I had frozen ravioli (one package of mushroom medley, one of butternut squash) to cook, and didn't think that tomato sauce was necessarily the best topping. So I melted some butter in a skillet over really low heat, added some chopped garlic with a little salt and let it soften, then some walnuts so they could toast a little. Lastly I added some frozen petite peas, let them heat up, then poured it all into the food processor to make the sauce. I pulsed it until it was almost smooth, adding a little olive oil, but still had some texture. I mixed with the drained ravioli and served. I forgot to add the parmesan cheese, I had, but it was still fantastic! Dex's two friends who came over both really liked it, and one even said it was the best vegetarian meal he'd had! I didn't really mean for it to be vegetarian, it's just how it turned out. I bet some prosciutto would be delicious with it, too... hmm... this is definitely a creation that is sticking in the repertoire and will be tried with variations... yum! Oh, and I made apple crisp last night, too! One of my favorite fall desserts! The recipe my mother has always used is my favorite, of course. It doesn't have any oats in the topping, just flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, little bit of salt and lots of butter... it's sooooooo good! I made two pans, the second of which is being baked to bring along to my first Modern Quilt Guild meeting! I'm really excited for that, too! I may even try to finish up that quilt top to bring along... we'll see!

Catch-up!

I haven't gotten too much crafting, or baking, or interesting cooking, or much else done in the past few days. I did create that little backpack (turned into more of a shoulder/messenger bag) and wish I could share it, but I forgot to take a picture of it before I wrapped it up and gave it to the little birthday girl. She loves it, so I must have done something right! I may have to start taking orders from some of my friends, too! That could be a lot of fun, I just don't think I have time to take on too much else. I've been trying to catch up with housework on top of taking care of the little guy and everyone, but with our two really ridiculously hot days (I'm talking over 100 outside, 91 downstairs inside, no A/C hot), I fell even more behind and now have to play catch-up with the chores. Yuck. But, I need to get things back in order and just have maintenance chores so I can get started cutting and piecing my Project Modern quilt in addition to finishing the strippy quilt. I think it's going to need a name. That will probably just have to wait until it's done, and it has less of a deadline than my laundry basket does... yes, my inspiration for the first Project Modern challenge is my laundry basket. The basic design isn't likely to change any more, but I may play with the orientation and coloring of it. Right now it's going to be more or less completely black and white. And I'm kinda liking that. I'm also toying with the idea of doing a little piecing on the back. I've been falling in love with a lot of quilt backs with just one small pieced area, so I may include, that, too. Just have no idea how or what! Maybe mostly black with one asymmetrical white stripe? Hmm..... first, chores!

New goodies!

So, Two has a birthday party to go to on Saturday for one of his "friends". She's turning two. I decided yesterday that it'd be really nice to make her something, like a little backpack. It has now become, in my mind, a quilted, reversible backpack with buttons. In my mind, it's adorable. So of course, I didn't have the fabric in my stash to make it, so I needed to run out to the store. This, of course, is potentially dangerous for the bank account. So I made myself a list. Two fabrics for the backpack, two fabrics to make a quilted, reversible trick-or-treating bag for Two (I've never made or worked with pre-quilted fabrics, so I thought that would be a better first project), four buttons for the backpack, binding to hide the seams in both projects, and possibly some fabric to make myself an apron. One apron really isn't enough. I mean, what I am supposed to do when it needs to be washed? So that was my list. And I walked out with pretty much only that. And thread. And pipe cleaners. Oh, and an accent fabric for the apron. So not too bad, right? These are the fabrics I chose...

Aren't they great? Obviously the jack-o-lanterns and harlequin print are for the trick-or-treat bag. The cherries (with a button) and polka dots are for the backpack, and that awesome coffee print is the main fabric for the apron with the dots as an accent. I'm thinking a couple of pockets, the neck straps and a waistband if I got enough of it.

When I got home and got Two to take his nap, I started to get all set up to pre-quilt his Halloween fabric. Then I discovered I did not have any empty bobbins (this possibility had crossed my mind while in the store...) or bobbins with black thread. If I was just sewing, not an issue, but this is supposed to be reversible! So, I had a little stall in my plan. I guess I need another bobbin or two... because of course I need one for the red thread for the backpack, too! I guess we have to go back tomorrow... just for empty bobbins!!!