More Lake Sewing

Whenever we get together, we bring enough materials and ideas to keep us busy until rapture and of course never have enough time.  We coordinate all this over the phone and even though we discuss it, it is still always a bit of a surprise when we see the project idea in person.  We'd messed around with the quilting technique to make those pencil rolls and thought we'd try making a quilted batting filled table runner out of scraps.  I had all these holiday greenery leftovers and a gorgeous cut of evergreen fabric for backing and decided at the last minute to not use batting and use just the two fabric layers.  Here is the end result and I am just loving it!

I loved it so much that I had to make a Halloween one when I got home!  I had these prints that look like vintage woodblock prints.  Again I just used the two layers of fabric with no interfacing or batting.  Very simple and quick project.  I spent way more time cutting the strips (4x13 inches) than I did piecing and seaming it.  Now I am mentally taking fabric inventory for other combinations I could make.  I also have remaining scraps and backing from both projects and I'm thinking about making a shorter version for my dining table.  I'm imagining a runner maybe wider and shorter than this runner but longer than a placemat to place in the center of the table.  Hmmmm.....

Here it is on the downstairs TV stand.  I was so excited to put up my fall decorations last weekend but I held off on my Halloween door decorations and purple/orange lights for the window--what would the neighbors think?!  We don't spend a lot of time downstairs lately because it is easier to confine and contain The Boy in the upstairs living room.  Downstairs is just wide open and he'd be all over the place and into everything.  You'll notice the decorations downstairs are quite spartan.  Upstairs they are placed and hung high up where he can't get to them!

And of course I couldn't resist making a pair of festive pillow cases for our bed!  I love holiday embellishment and this is just the beginning of the seasonal holidays!  Weeeeeeeee!  Dave mentioned that Marek could take one of these out trick or treating in a few years which I think is so weird!  Kids here trick or treat with pillowcases for a sack which I'd never seen before moving up here.

Once again, this is from the tried and true Magic Pillowcase Tutorial.  I absolutely love this pattern and use it and share it all the time. 

Garden and Naptime Productivity

I had a bunch of zucchinis to use up and burned through one of them frying it seasoned with Kusina Gold.  It was delightful.  I saw Lidia Bastianich make these on her show and they're so easy and tasty.  You cut your zucchinis into thin slices, season with salt and pepper (or in this case with Kusina Gold), dredge them in flour, dip them in beaten egg and then fry them in oil til golden and tender.  While I was at it, I picked and fried two large green tomatoes.  Num num!

Whenever I go back to Iowa for our Girlfriend Get-Togethers, I always pick up more Kusina Gold Greek Seasoning whether I need it or not.  This is made by a Mason City-an and I rave about it all the time and for good reason.  It is DEE-licious!  If you like Cavender's Greek Seasoning (and I do), you will LOVE this.  I had Brenda pick some up for me because before I sat down to write this, I didn't realize she now has internet sales which is AWESOME!  If she could just get a spot in HyVee, that would be perfect!

Our garden has been slow to produce much of anything.  We've had a few cucumbers and the zucchinis are picking up but the tomatoes are not ripening in any hurry.  Dave's parents sent home this clothes basket full of fruit which was processed into quarts and quarts of sauce and marinara. 

We took another parcel of tomatoes from them this weekend and I canned salsa.  This little gadget is worth it's weight in gold and I spent the afternoon stripping with my curtains wide open.  I used this little tool to strip all the leaves off the cilantro.  I'm fussy and used to pick the leaves off before chopping because I don't like stems in my dish.  This thing cut the time in half and I was left with a pile of stems and a lovely floofy pile of cilantro leaves.  It reminds me of a diz for gathering combed wool for spinning.  I wonder if I could use it for that purpose?  Hmmmm....

I love the bright fresh colors of both the salsa and my kitchen tools!  I am also happy to report that I didn't wreck my flat top stove.  I vividly remember our childhood babysitter telling me that you could not use a canner on a flat top stove or it would shatter.  Granted this was in the late 90's and flat tops were still relatively new.  The stove manual said it was OK and I'd discussed this with my mother and sister in law as well as a few friends from work who'd never had issues, but I still held my breath with each pitcher of water added to the canner.

I wanted to share this little tidbit.  This was my favorite thing from the State Fair this year and we are totally going to do it next summer.  There was a living exhibit of Straw Bale Gardening and it bowled me over!  You can plant earlier, you can't over-water it and yet it retains moisture, there is not as much bending and hardly any weeding!  It was amazing and I'm sold!  They had a wire frame arch set up at the fair and it was tall enough that you could walk through it.  I wish I'd known about this in the spring.  Think of the produce we'll have next year!

As usual, this post was brought to you by...NAPS!  Thank goodness for naps!  Here is my first born Lopi and my second born boy watching Dave mow the lawn.  I love these two so very much!

Weekend At the Lake

We are entering fall!  This is always such a welcome and exciting time of year because I just plain get tired of sweating.  I have so many winter items I want to knit but I am still stuck on this black hole of a project that I started when we went to Las Vegas this spring!  It looks like a stole or wide scarf because of the lace ribbing but will in fact be a sleeveless shell that I won't even get to wear until next year.  The length is lost during blocking when it is pinned out to the required width.  I am loving that The Boy is on whole milk because I can sneak some into my teacup!  This was the first cup I'd had in months because the only hot beverage I drink in the heat of summer is coffee.

The Boy and I trekked down to Iowa last weekend to have a Crafty Fun Weekend with my two dear friends at "the lake".  I will admit I was a little nervous traveling solo with him but it went smoothly and we had a great time.  This lovely and homey set up is where we laid our heads for two nights.

I say we laid our heads there because that is about all we did at the camper, besides also eating fabulous meals together.  We always eat really well at our reunions!  We spent almost all our waking hours in the air conditioned Craft Coop sewing and were very productive.  Melissa's daughter was our informal photographer on this trip!

She was also quite the little Mother helping and keeping The Boy occupied.  Here they are in the upper bunk of the camper playing together.  I can remember when she was Marek's age.  Time flies!

One of my favorite projects from the weekend was this fabric pencil roll.  That is the African fabric I bought at Heddy's in Las Vegas and the ribbon was left over from our wedding flowers.

Serenity always enjoys little jobs like sorting zippers or what not and she was eager to put the pencils in the roll.

It will be a little while before he can use it but I made this one for The Boy and it holds chubby crayons.  This one is also finished with wedding ribbon.

Here is Serenity completing another vital job with Marek in the baby jail.  The Craft Coop had this curtained off area they normally use for massages but it was perfect to set up the playpen.  I was a rotten mother and brought my tablet with downloaded Muppet videos for him to watch and he occupied himself and interacted with Serenity.  He actually napped during his afternoon nap time and slept at his bedtime while we burned the midnight oil at the sewing machines.

I couldn't have done it without Melissa and Brenda and especially Serenity.  We had a great time with each other and enjoyed quality sewing time and the weather was perfect.  I can't remember the last time I got to sit down and get something done in the sewing room.  Here is my little roadtrip buddy standing up in his car seat!