Sewing Museum Stuff

The lovely Beth over at Love Laugh Quilt is hosting a Sewing Museum link party. It's fun to see everyone's antique and vintage sewing machines and notions. These old wooden spools have always fascinated me. Did you ever use an empty spool to blow soap bubbles when you were a kid? Dish soap, water and a thread spool makes a fine bubble set. Just make sure you don't bring the bubbly end to your mouth. Memories.

I wrote about finding my old Singer 201-2 in 2012 and I found all kinds of treasures in the cabinet. I named the machine Linda because that was one of the popular girl names in 1948 when she was made. She also has a deep throat and Linda Lovelace starred in that cult classic movie. Maybe we'll just go with the popular name correlation. Ha.

A couple of oldies hanging out on my bookshelves. I should toss that pink marking powder. It would make a total mess if it ever came open. Love the zipper in it's own storage compartment. It's a Coats & Clark's "Trouble-Free" zipper. And guaranteed for life. Not bad for 40 cents.

An old Durkee's mayo jar filled with old buttons. There are some neat ones in there. I've been meaning to go through them and find another container, but I kind of like the old mayo jar.

More old buttons. You can see my reflection in one of the buttons.

See me? Or my hands, camera, and blue shirt.

At least I wasn't this guy! I wonder if his tea kettle ever sold on eBay? I purposely left this photo small. ;) Gee whiz, this post has gone PG-13 real quickly.

Old metal zippers and rick rack are fun notions. You can still buy rick rack, but not for eight cents a pack. Or at Penney's. I wish the department stores did still carry fabric. I can kind of remember Belk Lindsey having a small fabric/craft department.

Speaking of vintage things, the bow tie quilt is all quilted. Most of the fabrics are older vintage prints I've collected over the years. I had a few minutes to sew the binding on today, so it's almost done.

Linking to Love Laugh Quilt and Skip to My Lou. Go visit them and find some fun reads. You didn't need to do laundry anyway.

Sunday Stash #75

I love Kale chips. These Vampire Killer chips from Brad's Raw Foods are so good. I could eat the entire container in one sitting. I bought some of their chips too, but I haven't tried them yet. They look like they need good cheese.

Found a sale on some cute Christmas prints. Santa's Workshop by Riley Black Designs. I want to make a Christmas quilt for the my cousin's little kids. One won't be born until November, so even if I miss this Christmas, they can cuddle with it next Christmas. I'm such a goal setter. Ha.

More sale fabric. I've filled up a few other shopping carts with fabric, but eventually came to my senses. It seems like there are a bunch of sales out there now. I should turn off the internet.

Oh boy, these Crispy Green Beans with Tomato Basil Catsup were tasty. I enlisted a crew to bread them while I goofed off with the barbecue grill. They said they wanted to help. I suggest flouring them before the egg and Panko crumbs. The flour made everything stick better.

I enjoyed this post about a mom collaborating with her 4-year-old daughter. Their collaborative drawings are amazing.

Spending my stormy Sunday afternoon quilting this little bow tie quilt. Gah, I hate the quilting part. I spray basted and pinned, so it should go okay. I found a neat Wonder Bread-esque polka dot vintage fabric for the back. The only thing about older fabrics is that they're only 36" wide. I had just enough to piece a backing.

Imagine a Title Here

Giada was making these Italian Turkey Meatballs, so I thought I'd give them a try. They were really good. The addition of spicy turkey sausage gives them some zing. The tomato sauce is yummy too. The recipe makes a ton, so I froze half for another day.

Alejandrina brought me some lemon grass, so I made chicken stock. It smelled wonderful cooking. Lemon-y chicken, veggies, and herbs. They should make that a candle scent. I divided it into portions to use and freeze.

I remembered to label the containers. Check out those vintage Tupperware labels. I bet they're older than my kids. Usually I just write on blue painter's tape if I remember to label. I found some beef barley soup in the deep freeze. No label. It's really good soup, so I hope it's not too old. It didn't kill me. ;) I'm pretty good about cleaning the freezers out.

We've been eating simple meals. Baked hot wings, veggies, and blue cheese dip. College Boy's favorite meal. One of mine too!

Cubans and black bean soup. Think I added enough garnishes to my soup? Another family favorite although only three of us eat beans. College Boy has been bean free for decades. I blame his buddy in daycare who bad mouthed beans. I'd love to find that kid and see if he consumes beans and peas now. Bet he does.

One night I grilled romaine lettuce hearts and topped them with a warm bacon and red onion dressing and crumbled Gorgonzola cheese.

I had all intention of sewing a bit this week, but got carried away by other things. I did get a gigantic (90" x 90") backing pieced together. I found the drunkard's path blocks somewhere along the way and used some of my big hunks of batik fabrics.

Here's the front which has been patiently waiting since March to get a backing. It's the Easy Street Mystery from Quiltville. Adding borders wasn't working so well, so I left them off. I'll send this off to the quilter soon.

Just Tuesday

My stitch and flip quilt top is done. I might or might not add solid white borders with a few accent triangles floating within them. I'm still debating.

A few close ups. That scissors skull print is getting down to small scrap sizes.

Look, it matches the porch furniture.

Bow tie pasta with peanut pesto, fresh tomato, and melty mozzarella pearls. The basil outside is growing like a weed. The jalapeno and habanero peppers are bountiful too. We've eaten so many jalapeno poppers this summer. The rain has helped everything grow. I put fertilizer down last week, so I'm eager to see what that does. I'd love to try tomatoes, but I'm sure I'd kill them in no time. Is there a variety that anyone can grow? Especially a serial plant killer like me?

You know how much I love nature. This grasshopper made a big bang when he landed on my studio window. The background is a bokeh, not a dirty window. Yeah, let's go with that. This big boy was about four inches long. Aaack, stay outside. And tell those dang dragonflies and wasps to quit dive bombing me.

Quickie Halloween block for the guild's BOM Lotto.

I played hooky from work yesterday and spent the day sewing with my guild buddies. After quite a bit unsewing, I finished this bow tie quilt top. It took me most of the day. Work is kind of slow, so I should be able to get more sewing in this week.

Sunday Stash #74

I haven't done a Sunday Stash post since mid July. Bet you thought I'd given up buying fabric. Yeah, I'm laughing too. I've been collecting Halloween fabric for a while. Loved this clothesline print. The selvage was especially cute. Little Jack-o-Lantern selvage registration circles.

This panel was on sale and had the cutest illustrations. I think a Halloween quilt is in order. If I start now, it should be ready by next Halloween. In  the meantime, I need a Halloween themed block for our guild's BOM.

More sale stuff I couldn't resist.

Rene' brought me a cute little Ghastlies print. I'd never heard of the Ghastlies, but aren't the illustrations fun?

The chubby cheeked baby is one of my favorites. Love the grey floral pattern on the woman's dress too.

Sometimes I am influenced to purchase by the selvage. Shocker, right? Although, it's pretty hard to resist polka dot, plaid, and gingham cats. They all look surprised to be here.

Peanuts and colorful selvage circles. Look at Snoopy laughing his fool head off. Poor Linus and his Great Pumpkin.

French fries. Self explanatory. I'd like mine with Buffalo wing sauce and blue cheese crumbles, please. You know you want some. Here's the recipe I used. The fries are baked so they're practically health food.

And who doesn't love free fabric? I scored these goodies at our guild meeting.

Hello Tuesday! Or is it Monday?

This fabric bin was fun and easy to make. I'm going to fill it with baby supplies and give it as a gift. I made the medium size and it's pretty large. I'm trying to remember helpful baby implements, but my memory doesn't go back that far. Maybe I'll just put some diapers in there. I remember those being expensive.

The holiday weekend was an eat fest. No surprise, right? I made a vat of my ma's potato salad. I laced it with green olives and cayenne pepper so no one else would eat it. Ha! Just kidding, I shared.

Finished sewing my hexagons together. I'm going to press and trim them and add some borders to make a larger quilt. I found some matching solids in my stash that will work perfectly.

During a baking mood, I made this grilled nectarine and caramel crostata. The original recipe used peaches, but I only had ripe nectarines. Everyone was too full to eat any, so I have no idea if it's any good. I'll let ya know.

The weekend did have a few sticky moments. The snake joined us on the pool deck one afternoon, we had to replace the garbage disposal yesterday, I blackened an entire loaf of garlic bread Saturday night, and we tried to grill during a bad lightening storm (twice). Other than that, it was a relaxing and fun weekend. We had lots of fun company and ate 24/7. I was so happy sad to see everyone take off this morning. You know what I mean. ;)

Linking up with Skip to My Lou for Made by you Monday because I can't figure out what day it is.