The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Today was my daughters scheduled day for her community inclusion outing with her provider, which is great for my little pill as she gets to see and do fun things without old stick in the mud "mom". And it provides me a few hours of time where I can have quiet time to work on projects or just do simply nothing! One day I actually lay down for a few hours and read and napped!!

Well this morning the Kid was sick, she was really quite bummed as she knew her trip to the Pumpkin Patch was not going to happen as planned.. hopefully she will be feeling better on Thursday and make it out there, she has plans on getting 2 small sugar pumpkins for carving on Halloween eve, and then we will turn them into something good to eat the day after Halloween. Like pie or Pumpkin custards. So instead of getting some jewelry done, I have been heating soup and doing other "mom" things that we all do to comfort kids who are feeling under the weather. I also took a picture of some luscious figs that we got from our nice neighbors tree that hangs over the fence between our properties. This year the figs have been very beautiful and there seem to be more of them, I adore figs in baking quick breads. I made some really delicious Green Tomato Bread about a week ago and put some cooked and finely chopped figs in. The tiny fig seeds give a nice little crunch to this scrumptious moist dense cake. Here is a picture of probably the last of the figs for this year. I will cook, chop and freeze them to add to breads or cookies later. The fabric the plate of figs is sitting on is a UFO that I am working on, a string quilt top that is about half done... (I had a boo boo with it the other day and had to fix it so it was at hand to stand in for a background for the figs)

I also heated the last of the soup I made a few days ago and it is so true that a soup gets better the next day, the flavors have a chance to meld and marry. Split the last with the kid when I convinced her to eat a little. Then I put a big pot of water and frozen chicken carcasses on to make some homemade stock, to make another big batch of this.

Ummm! I have to admit that cooking is not my major forte in life, though I do consider myself a good and proficient cook, I just don't really enjoy it as much as some. But I LOVE making soup and stews. I once made an odd ball soup from Lettuce and other salad leftovers that my brother said was one of the best soups he had ever had. :) High praise as he is a very good cook and makes a chili, and Barbecue that are incredible. Well now on to other things that need attending to.. I keep hoping to get back to my workbench and get a few more items made and listed in the Etsy shop. http://www.atabbycatarts.etsy.com/ But today is snuggling with the Kid, reading stories to her, eating soup and listening to Bluegrass on the XM Radio what can be better then that. :)

Finished Whacky Squares Pillow

Whoooo Hooo! I got my first real "Quilted" project done, I learned allot with this, and now I feel very confident to go on to the next project which will be one of my new Great Nephews baby quilts.

The pillow is made of free hand rotary cut angled strings and pieced in a string block method, I used knit fabric which worked out but I can see where it would have been much easier to use woven fabrics... but I do have lots of knits and even though it can be tricky I am going to use some of what I have and make some awesome functional and pretty quilts. I had joined a really great quilting group on Yahoo Groups and I love it! Wonderful people and really good information. I am in this strange juxtaposition of working with metal and then working with fabrics... my hands are so worn and rough from callus and using my files and such that I can snag and have fabric scraps hanging from my fingers.. lol.. lots of hand lotion for me I guess.

Whacky Square Quilt Block

Well, I just completed my first "String" Quilt block, this is not the first quilting project I have done. I have made several baby quilts before, about 18 years ago, for a couple of my nephews.. but they were appliqued and not pieced quilts, so I am off on a new endeavour for the "new" crop of offspring in my family.. This block I will put with 3 more as a Pillow top as it is a learning piece.. a Scrappy type, I used old knit medium weight polo shirts for the strings. I cut free hand long angles and then machine stitched to a backing and put 4 little blocks together, I choose the ugliest shirts I had, and I actually Like the way it came out! I was pleased that without pinning I managed to make the points meet exactly in the center.. When I get the other three made and made up I will post it... String quilting and Scrap quilts made from old clothing are a Great way to recycle and re purpose items and keep them OUT of our landfills. We need to make small changes in our rampant consumerism in this country and live every day like it is Earth Day.

Happy Day "After" Earthday!

I tried to get a post up last night but I had just to many irons in the fire,, so in Honor of Earth day I am going to make it Earth Week and post for a few days on how there are some good things that we all can do for our HOME Planet Earth.

Yesterday I got a bunny up my fanny, and went through a big "catch all" laundry basket that sits in a place of comfort on top of my dryer, I was looking for any reusable fabrics to recycle into a few baby quilts for 2 new Nephews and a 4 year old niece, and I found to my delight 3 forgotten Tee Shirts that have probably been in that basket for years. Heavy duty and relatively stain free,,, I was gazing at them thinking they would not be very good choices for quilts but... ahhhh somewhere in the back of my mind I seemed to have read something about making reusable grocery bags from tee shirts... What better way of spending Earth Day then making something that is good for the environment! And then the Search began, found lots of links via Google on the subject, which led me to Martha Stewart.com and there was a Tute and a video of how to turn a Tee shirt into a nifty Grocery tote,,, I rousted my lazy ol' sewing machine from it's slumber and had to "re learn" how to thread and bobbin the thing... yeah it's been awhile since I used it... insert chagrined embarrassed sheepish look. I used to love to sew ... fairly simple things but I have been feeling this urge to get back to some fiber arts and do something with fabric... as if I didn't have enough on my agenda... Anyway I whipped up 3 bags in less then 2 hours.. and it would have taken me allot less if I had not had to tinker with getting used to the machine ... simple and these will be truly useful! Hubs was really impressed as he is the one that does the shopping and is always hating bringing home those awful plastic bags... ahhh Domestic bliss.

Quick tute here... turn tee, inside out.. sew across bottom... smooth and cut off arms, leaving the seam on the soon to be bag for added strength.. I left a small bit of fabric and turned a small hem to make a more finished look, but not actually needed.. smooth neck line flat and without wrinkles.. place a 9in plate of bowl centered around neck line and mark with pencil, cut out .. in effect you have removed the knitted collar, I then used a zig zag stitch and went around the edge about 1/2 inch in, maybe this is not needed either, but I feel this may allow adequate stretch but not over stretch.. Turn right side out and you have a very sturdy washable reusable item that will do a small bit in your effort to be Green.

I had a great time making them and the viddy you can find on Martha Stewart's website, find the search and put in reusable grocery bags from tee shirts.

Happy Day "After" Earth Day...