Grandma's quilt

My grandmother made me several quilts, one of them I am even cuddled up with as I type.  My favorite as a kid was, no surprise, my baby quilt.  I think she made all of her grandkids a similar one and probably the great grand kids she was around for.  With my step sister having a new baby, and her coming into the family too late for her own blanket, I thought it might be a good idea to make baby Kay one.  

The finished blanket has another layer of pink around the edges.  The difference between this one and mine was that mine was not flannal, had 6 boxes instead of 3 rectangles, and had nursery rhymes instead of animals embroidered.  Hope she likes it!

 

A day of baking

I used to HATE baking.  I hated the time involved and loathed the clean up. When I made cookies, I would try to make half batches so I didn't have to have two oven shifts.  A few years ago my mom bought me a pasta maker and I didn't have the heart to tell her I would NEVER want to make my own pasta.  But things change...and although I still hate the clean up I have a wonderful husband who does most of the work as long as he gets to eat the product!   So I planned a completely homemade and unhealthy menu for an at home date night: red pepper pasta with alfredo sauce and breadsticks. 

                                 

I have made whole wheat pasta once before, but it was really thick and I didn't love it. This time I wanted a jalapeno flavor or something with a kick to go with a creamy alfredo, but it was hard to find flavored pasta recipes on Google! I did find some websites.  I ended up adapting a red pepper pasta recipe I found by adding a steamed jalapeno to the pureed pepper. The hubby liked it, but I have yet to hear a critique from the friends I sent home a bag with.  I will be more comfortable making my own recipies for flavoring from now on!

My very first niece was born in March of this year. I was lucky enough to meet her on a trip home in June, but with me living 3,400 some miles away I am going to miss out on SO much. After her birth, the first event I missed was her baptism in July. I am not religous, but wanted to make sure she knew I was there for her, or will at least realize it when she is older. I decided on a non religous and most importanly handmade gift.

The letters are sewn into the pink, and the two end triangles with the cross fabric are temporarily attached so the bunting can be used for more than just her party.   I got to try out my new machine's skills by using sewing the date into the felt heart.  My work isn't super neat yet, but it is a start.

I bought all this fabric for this little tiny gift and had a lot loft over. So I made a small stuffed elephant out of the striped fabric to send also.  I decided to go back to the fabric store and get a bit more stripe fabric so I could make a baby quilt.  Now I have only a few scraps left.

  This is my first patchwork quilt. I tried a disappearing nine square and machine quilted the two layers.  I didn't use any batting on this quilt; since it doesn't have a planned recipient I didn't want to spend too much money on it. 

I created this blog to document my projects and my progress.  I bought a new sewing machine and have a million projects I want to try, but I am still learning how everything works.  I am teaching myself, with the help of my mother-in-law on the phone, how to preserve food by dehydrating, canning, and freezing. I am having a DIY wedding celebration next year where I am trying to use only recycled or rented materials (and hoping for local food).  One might see posts about my husband fixing up his camper van or our weekends camping...I will see where this all ends up!