Trip to Cleveland

Yesterday we headed over to Cleveland for the Quilt Show at Lake Farmpark. I was really looking forward to it and wasn't disappointed. There were beautiful quilts in all sizes and patterns, some I didn't personally care for but I still appreciated the workmanship put into them. I even saw the floral quilt I already talked about making myself, however the fact that I saw the exact same thing I wanted to make, bothered me. The pattern for it was not even in the magazine but they were offering a kit. I tend to think this was a kit because of the material that was used. I think if you're going to make a quilt that's been in a magazine then vary it enough so you can call it your own. That's one of the reasons I don't send recipes in to places because very few of them are what I would call original. At least the work going into the quilt would be hers, unless she had someone else quilt it, so I give her credit for that. Yesterday was also one of the vendor days so we got a chance to look at their stuff, too. We watched one demonstration for a rapid fire hunter's star quilt using a template made especially for this design. It was fascinating but at $24.95 I thought it was too much to pay for just one pattern that I probably would make only once, if at all. The one thing that disappointed me about the day was not finding anything good at Marc's. We picked up a few things but I noticed their prices have gone up just like every other place. Not finding a Goodwill was another downer for the day, but I'm not complaining.

Leftovers

I recent article in the paper got me thinking about leftovers and specifically how I've handled that over the years. When the kids were young I was always worried there would not be enough food so I did the food for the masses thing and if I didn't feel like cooking one night, then we raided the fridge for dinner. When we got Peaches and then Pumpkin, once again I was not worried about making too much because we could always give it to the dogs. We changed things a little with Pumpkin when we found out she had some sort of allergy and usually gave her regular dog food. As the kids started leaving, I found myself watching the amount of food I prepared. Some things lend itself better to reheating, thanks to the microwave, and others just sit in there until it's time to clean out the fridge. Now that there's just the husband and I, I really enjoy the toaster oven so serving size is already determined for me. One thing I always make more of is my chicken tenders. I know I can use them in salads and they're just as good the second time around. I still repurpose some foods such as sloppy joes. I usually have a tube of biscuits in the fridge so I make little pockets with the meat inside. I'm not sure why but that tastes so good. Unfortunately, none of this holds true for the cabin. I tend to put stuff in the freezer thinking it'll be a good, easy dinner for the next visit but we usually go out to eat. We are well stocked up with tv dinners that are available for anyone else that's down there - just so you know. I did pick up something that worked well for us the last time we were down. At Sharp Shopper we bought these frozen, fully-cooked hamburg patties that are microwaveable. Just a minute on each side and they're ready to eat and they were only $1.99 for 6 patties. So anymore when I shop I'm always trying to think serving size so we aren't saddled with all those leftovers.

So Much Stuff

I've been seeing articles in the paper about how people reuse things and I realize I've been doing this forever. I think I've even written a blog about it before. At least when I save stuff I do have a purpose for it somewhere down the line. Take for instance the jeans and old flannel sheets that I made into my rag quilt. One of my next projects will be another quilt using floral prints. Years ago my sister-in-law picked up some of those free books at Padden's with wallpaper and upholstery prints in them and gave them to me. I used the paper for girl scouts and preschool but held on to the fabric knowing someday I would use it. Well, I finally have an idea for it - the floral quilt. As far as yarn goes, I'm not sure how or why I accumulated this much yarn but I hope most of it was on sale. I often think of Aunt Rita and what was going on in her mind with all the stuff she had. I know she was probably an impulse buyer and when she started a new project she bought a bunch of stuff and then got tired of it or moved on to the next project hence all the stuff. She was fairly organized with those bins of hers though, as I saw with all the rosary bead stuff in one. Maybe she just forgot what she had intended to do with all that stuff or else she would have given it away as she did with many things. One thing I was amazed at is how she knew about new crafts and ways to do things especially being kind of isolated at home. I wouldn't know about most of these things if it weren't for the internet. Let's just hope my mind stays good, at least until I finish up some of these projects.

Trip Around the World

Sorry about that, didn't realize one misplaced finger could do that much damage. This isn't about a trip but a quilt pattern. As I was looking at my rag quilt, I noticed the pattern I made on the back of of it that I had described before as other patterns. It turns out that it was the trip around the world pattern or a variation of. The traditional pattern is a concentric diamond shape pattern with each row a different fabric. My pattern starts in the middle with white but you can definitely see the diamond pattern if you step back. Every row isn't different which is why I didn't realize it at first. When I began my quilting I knew there were several patterns that I liked and wanted to incorporate them in my projects. This pattern was one of them. I even cut a magazine article out that showed the directions for a quilt and even one done in a crocheted pattern. I was beginning to wonder how I could get all my favorites accomplished with only so many beds to cover. Now I realize that there's two sides to every quilt and a little planning and I can get all my favorites in.

Trip

Pan Pizza Dough Recipe

Last night I made a pan pizza in my cast iron skillet with a recipe I found online. The recipe was different from my other one in that it included a little baking powder, garlic powder and onion powder. I thought it was worth a try even though my husband doesn't like pan pizza. I think the reason he doesn't like it is because they spray the crust rim with butter-flavored Pam. The secret to this crust was the fair amount of oil that's put in the pan with the dough as it rises. While making the dough I realized it was way too soft, almost like a stiff batter. I had to add more flour just to make it workable. I only used half the recipe in the oiled skillet knowing it would raise, and raise it did. It was almost up to the top when I figured I better get this baby going. The dough was still very soft and as I put sauce on it I could see it sink a little. The crust cooked up very nicely, just like pizza hut but it was still too much crust for me and I didn't taste any of the spices I had put in. It came out of the skillet really well and had that nice crunch on the bottom. I think if I make it again I will use my other recipe in the cast iron skillet and see how that turns out. At least I got this out of my system and learned a couple of things about pizza making.

Denim Blues Rag Quilt

I think I'll name my quilts that I make since that seems to be the thing to do. I'm basically done with my Denim Blues Rag Quilt except for washing and drying it which is pretty big but I'll talk about that later. This is a quilt in the making for years and years with saving jeans that we've all worn out over the years. As soon as they were ready to be thrown out, for whatever reason, I started cutting my squares. I used other parts of them too such as the back pockets for purses (Allison , her friends and Girl Scouts got those) and even the inseams that I used to make braided barrettes. None of them went to waste however I wish now that I had saved some of those back pockets for a quilt. Anyway, I also saved old flannel sheets to be used in the quilt too. This project only took about a week since mostly everything was already cut. I went through my stash of material looking for more that would fray easily, which is crucial to the quilt. The only thing I had to buy was a little more flannel because once I started laying out the squares, I realized that some of the thinner pieces would be too flimsy without more. What you do for this quilt is lay the squares wrong sides together and you sew the seams so they'll be on the outside. One side is a typical 9-patch with flannel, denim and a contrasting square in the center (also where the seams are showing) and then the other is just a design I made with alot of different patterns. I sewed each horizontal row, then all together and finished it off with a row of stitching all around the outside. The next step is clipping all those seams to facilitate fraying (hence those special scissors I bought) and then washing and drying so it will fray. The seams should then be like a tight fringe along all the seams on one side. It's a very country sort of quilt and I thought it was the next logical step for me. There's no actual quilting but it does involve piecing and I needed the extra practice. You really can't mess up this quilt unless you don't put wrong sides together. I think it'll look and feel great in the loft at the cabin.