Just sharing a sew along/quilt along that excites me!!

As a budding quilter and sewer in general, I am constantly reading about techniques and patterns to try out. I don't have the confidence to try much of it out on my own though. :( So, when I heard about the We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler project over at Sewn by Leila, my eyes lit up. I'm definitely all in! It's really nice to tackle a project with a group of people that are ready to support you (or suffer with you, as the case may be, LOL!), and it's a cool feeling when you are able to support others with your skillful knowledge and advice.


So, check it out and join in!

We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler

OMG I'm so sick. :( :( :( Worst timing EVER.

This was me last Saturday (well, one of them is me, lol) promoting the musical Scrooge: The Stingiest Man in Town at the city Christmas parade. I felt great.

Today? Not so much. The show opens TO-MOR-ROW. TOMORROW! And I am sick. SICK!! NO!!!! Why?!?! There's so much to be done, and I feel like ass. My head hurts, my nose is pouring snot, my throat is sore and swollen, my whole body aches, and we open TOMORROW!!!

I haven't painted my nails in 2 weeks (Lincoln Park After Dark Suede), and I just removed that chipped polish last night and filed my nails for the first time in a month yesterday. I have only sewed the things I needed for the show (6 gold bags with ribbon draw strings and a hack job of a petticoat for Miss M's costume--yes, she's in the show too!-- where I just cut the tulle and lining out of an old flower girl dress of hers, trimmed it and sewed some elastic to the waist). I have barely gotten dinner on the table this week. It's all I can do to do my hair and make up for the dress rehearsals.

This is just bad bad timing. Le sigh. Pity me.

Quilt Along Progress

Here are a couple shots of my quilt along progress (That Girl ... That Quilt Along)



Here is the mountain of scraps rendered from wonkifying my blocks.


Here are a couple of blocks laid out to show the wonky effect. It's pretty subtle, but gives the simple layout a little more interest.

Now I just need to sew the blocks into rows and the rows into the finished quilt top! The QAL layout is for 5 blocks by 8 blocks, but I'm not crazy about the long and narrow look. So, instead, I think I'll do 6x6.

That Girl ... That Quilt Along progress ...

So, week one was pick fabric.

Check!

Week 2 was cut the fabric.

Check!

And now we're on week 3, assembling the blocks. Here is my progress so far.

That is 80 strips sewn to 40 squares and 80 seams pressed. OY! I need a taller ironing board! Bending over it is killing my back, and I have 240 more strips to piece and press!!!

I'm a complainer, but in reality I am really enjoying myself. I'm new to sewing, and getting better and better with each cut and each seam, and more confident. I can't wait to see the finished result and ship it off to my friend's little boy!!

Oh, and here's the sewing machine I use, just for fun.

I suck at blogging ... here's what I've been up to.

Sooo ... why do I save all this stuff up and post a bunch and then disappear for weeks again, rinse repeat? I dunno. I'm so particular I guess that it takes me what I feel is TOO LONG to put a post together. I need to work on being short and sweet, LOL!


Let's see ... we had some vacation ... well, the kids did. I worked the whole time I was kid free while the kids were with their Nan and Titi at Yogi Bear Campground. Didn't do a DAMN thing. *pout* At least I was there for the watermelon eating contest!

Mr. Cool and Collected

Mr. I Wouldn't Smile Nice for a Pic for Mom to Save My Life ...
Seriously, this is the best I could do ... tried to catch him off guard, otherwise, got goofy faces, LOL!

The Divine Miss M and her summer hair troubles ... LOL!
Camping happens.

We had a plague of sorts ...

This is a cicada fresh out of its skin hanging RIGHT on the top of my front door. The wings were almost fluorescent (dude, I spelled that right on the first try! WIN!) green. That's Funky Colors in Bourbon St ...

A turtle was rescued:

Gives Box Turtle new meaning, eh?? Hahahaaaa!

He's CLEARLY pissed, but has no idea how lucky he is. If the neighbor girl, aka THE DEVIL, had found this critter first, she would have taken care of it to death. Instead, it just had to endure about 8 hours in my Amazon box and then I took it a mile down the road to the creek (where it prob came from, and shoulda freakin STAYED! Damn turtle and his damn wandering ...) when Mr. Raz got home with the car.



I've been on a crafting kick. I'm determined to finish Miss M's blanket. She's been salivating over the thought of a massive blankie for a full year ... yeah, I started it THAT long ago.

It's coming along. :)

My drive for sustainable living on the CHEAP has found me reclaiming fabrics around the house for use with later projects. I tore up my kids' baby bedding (kept the quilts intact, ripped up bumpers and sheets and crib skirts), then I went on a scavenger hunt to find the sewing machine I got for xmas 8 years ago. No really. It was a scavenger hunt. Someone switched it from it's original box on me. >:( NOT cool. Anyway, this is my first official thing I sewed ever:

It's a sandwich bag!

For ... silly bands??? (do YOU have sandwiches at the ready on your desk JIC there's a photo op? Thought not ... ;) )

Looks pretty good, right? Look closer ...

Whoopsie!

There's nothing in the rules that says velcro has to be affixed completely ... right??

Orrr that you have to stick to the edges ... (OPI Green-Wich Village btw)

You know, straight lines are ... soooo overrated.

Look, it looks GREAT in the first pic, k? Stop laughing at me!!

Some good cooking has been happening around here.

I made Lemon Curd A La Rachael Ray . Be sure to read my review on the recipe page! This shit is GOOOOOOOD, y'all. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. For real. My fav thing to eat it on so far has been ritz crackers. OMG, yum.

Last night I had a craving for something I never ever liked when I actually lived in the south ... Homemade biscuits with sausage gravy. I'm not a biscuit person for the most part, but these were a HUGE hit. Fluffy Biscuits on AllRecipes.com I did a modified drop biscuit at the advice of my mom. I HATE rolling out doughs. It ALWAYS ends in disaster for me, so I avoid it at all times. So, I WAS going to just drop dipper fulls onto the parchment and let the biscuits assume whatever shape they wanted to, but mom said to use less liquid than the recipe called for and liberally flour my hands and shape the biscuits the same way you shape a hamburger patty. It worked nicely (thanks mom!). I should have taken a pic, but I didn't. Anyway, if you like tender biscuits with a mild flavor, these are excellent. As for the sausage gravy, well, I don't need no stinkin' recipe for that! But you might, so here's what I did:

Sausage Gravy by raz

1lb roll sausage
3 or 4 tb all purpose flour
Milk, 2-3 c
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage in large skillet (I like to use my cast iron) until nice and browned. When it's nice and done, remove the sausage from the pan and get rid of all but 3 or 4 tb of the grease.

Lower heat to medium and dump 3 or 4 tb flour in. Wisk it like hell. You want a paste that isn't wet enough to slide around in the pan, but isn't so dry that it can't be worked with the wisk. Add more flour if necessary. You are making a roux ... the point of a white roux is to cook the flour as LONG as possible without it turning brown. If it's bubbling hard, cut the heat back further. Try to get at least 3 full minutes of cook time, but if it starts turning brown, pour the milk in QUICK!

Start by pouring 2c milk in. Wisk the hell out of it until it comes to a full boil (you may need to crank the heat a bit, but no higher than med-hi, K?), this is as thick as this mixture will ever get. It will probably be too thick for gravy, which is fine. Just add more milk until you get your desired thickness. If you put too much milk in, you're pretty much screwed to a life of runny gravy, so go slow ... 1/2 c at a time. :)

Add salt and pepper to taste then add sausage back in. Serve over split biscuits! Mmmm ... Looks like a pile of vomit, but tastes like 500 pounds. Hoooo-boy! That's how we do!


Nail polish: Of course I've been doing my nails, but not taking a whole lot of pics. I'm wearing OPI Green-wich Village right now, and I love it. I have a bit of an experiment going on ... I'll post about that soon. I've also worn BB Couture Sex on the Beach (a blog giveaway prize!!! SQUEE!), which was INCREDIBLE, but my pictures SUCKED, so I want to swatch it again ... what's that? You want to see it anyway? Ok ... just one. I want to do this right so Kim from Overall Beauty will like me, LOL! No one likes someone who takes shitty pics, right? ;)

See?? I told you, bad pics. BAAAAD pics. Does it help to know that this was after 7 days of wear though?

The end!