Super Mom – No Cape!

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, when Dave was tracing out the patterns from each sheet (his hands are steadier at that kind of thing than mine are,) he put all the really small ones from each of the large pattern pages onto a single 8.5X11 sheet of paper.  These ones are from Workbasket Pattern Sheet 83.

This sheet of small embroidery patterns is available as a pdf to download here.

********We interrupt your regularly scheduled program

to bring you this

Quilting Service Announcement.********

********The Exeter, Ontario area is to be avoided at all costs!********

********Current conditions pose grave risk to your wallets not to mention your waistlines!********

********Repeat, avoid area at all costs!********

********Details continue below.********

This report brought to you by Super Mom – No Cape!:

After many years in business, Linda Bartlett, owner of Quilts and Calicos located at 392 Main Street S, Exeter, Ontario has decided to retire. All stock is being sold at greatly reduced prices until the shop closes June 29th.

Earlier in the month when I stopped in, all fabrics and thread and quilt kits, patterns and books were on sale 60% off.  I had taken this photo of my purchases at the time and had planned to blog about it but never got around to it.

When I stopped in again today to pick up some fusible web to work on the kits pictured above, I realized that I simply had to warn my fellow quilters and sewists of the incredible danger they could encounter should they venture into the area unaware.

All remaining fabric is now 75% off.  Thread and kits are still 60% off.  Books have been reduced to $5 each.  And all patterns are selling for only $2 each!!!!

As you can clearly see, damage was sustained to a certain bank account resulting in many very early Christmas purchases.

And then as if the incredible deals on fabric and thread, kits and patterns at Quilts and Calicos aren’t dangerous enough… directly across the street from the quilt shop is another shop selling one of the most tempting substances known to women, especially those experiencing PMS or Peri-menopausal symptoms.   Said shop goes by the name of Sugar and Spice Chocolates and they carry a decadently, delicious selection of locally made chocolate, chocolate truffles and fudge .

Your purchases will be provided in plain white paper bags should you find it necessary to conceal them from the rest of the family!  The bags even come printed with this “Recipe for Sugar & Spice Chocolates Soup.”

 ********This warning remains in effect until after the end of June when the danger will have passed.********

Back at the end of May, an e-mail friend, upon learning that we were staying with our son in London, asked me if I had been to Hyggeligt Fabrics yet? Well, I hadn’t even heard of Hyggeligt Fabrics.

But my friend mentioned that they had all sorts of Liberty of London and Kaffe Fabrics and added that it wouldn’t be safe for her to be in London right now because if she was, she might end up camping out at the store as she loves Liberty fabrics.

Now you just know that I had to go check things out.

The lady in the shop that day said they had returned the previous day from a huge quilt show and were still getting things sorted back where they belong. Even so, the shelves were filled with a gorgeous selection of fabric.  (Be sure to check out the link above for their on-line store.)

While browsing, I had a good visit with the shop lady; learning in the process that they have a room in the back of the shop set up with tables/work stations that they rent out for the day to anyone who wants to come work on a quilt or other sewing project. What a cool idea!

Oh I could have spent soooooooo much money there. But I restrained myself admirably. I only bought this one yard of fabric and small craft kit (that was on sale half price.)

Isn’t that poppy fabric beautiful! I haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to make with it yet, but I’m thinking it would be great to use to sew one of those Infinity Scarves. And the Santa kit… well, what can I say, he was just too cute to leave behind, especially at half price.

Since then, I’ve been busy working on a few different embroidery projects. I’ve been enjoying the hand work but I’ve also been missing machine sewing so today I decided to make up that little Santa as it looked like it would be quick and easy.

Easy yes. Quick not so much. Do you ever find that a project you think will only take a couple of hours to complete ends up taking several more?

I opened the kit just before noon and finally completed the last stitch just before 6 pm.  Let me explain.

First some unpicking happened because I hadn’t read the directions thoroughly.

Then, when I was stuffing one of the legs, part of the seam had frayed and it opened when I tried stuffing it. The leg had to be unstuffed, turned wrong side out, re-sewn, turn back right side out and restuffed.

Note to self: if I make another kit like this, trim the seam allowance to a 1/4”  rather than the 1/8” called for.

But other than that, it was a fun project to do and the instructions (had I read them more thoroughly the first time) were great.

I even learned a new method for turning long, skinny pieces like the arms. The kit included a straw and a wooden stick. You put the straw inside the piece you want to turn. Then using the wooden stick, you push the fabric inside the straw until its right side out.

I also used the wooden stick to help push the stuffing into places that the hemostat wouldn’t fit.

It turned out so cute that I’m having trouble deciding whether to keep it or gift it come Christmas time.

If I do decide to gift the Santa… I’ll be sure to slip a little something into his sack as an extra surprize!

I’m just in time to add this post to the Finish It Up Friday link party hosted each week over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Note:  The Santa Kit is from a Canadian company called Happy Sew Lucky based in North Vancouver, B.C.   You can find their website with a list of retailers here.

This post has been added to the following link parties:

Sew Darn Crafty Link Party #119

Made by You Monday

It’s asparagus season here in Ontario and I came up with this salad quite by accident. We had stopped into a Longos when we were last in Toronto as they seem to be the only place in Canada where I can find the mint tea blend that I like.

We knew that we’d be getting back to London fairly close to supper time and I wanted some quick things to put supper together with.  There was a citrus asparagus with feta dish in the take and bake section of the deli. They were charging dearly for it, but we all love asparagus so I bought a small container to go with the rest of things we were picking up.

While I was getting supper ready, I took a quick bite of the asparagus and decided not to bother heating it but to serve it raw.

Dave thought it needed something extra so he poured a little balsamic dressing on his portion and we all decided we like it even better that way. We also decided that it needed more feta cheese, as well.

They had asparagus on sale this week so it was time to make our own version.  With just three ingredients, I almost hesitate to even call this a recipe but here it is any way.

Recipe for Spring Fresh Asparagus Salad

(Served three adults as a side dish with no leftovers!)

Young Asparagus Stalks (Approximately half a pound.. I bought a large bunch and saved half for another meal)

Feta cheese (crumbled)

1 to 2 tbsp of balsamic vinaigrette dressing

Rinse the asparagus thoroughly in cold water. Break off the ends of the asparagus and cut into bite sized pieces.

Toss in a bowl with feta cheese and balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Cover and place in the fridge while you are preparing the rest of your meal.

Serve and enjoy!

In case you’re wondering… the pork chops have been topped with a generous spoonful of unsweetened apple sauce as I love the flavour combination of apple and pork.

Edited to add in response to a reader’s question:  The asparagus are served raw.  No need to cook them first.  Just rinse them thoroughly with cold water (to remove any dirt or sand) and chop them into bite sized pieces for the salad.

This post has been added to the following link parties:

Real Family Fun *18

DIY Linky

Sew Darn Crafty Link Party #119

Made by You Monday

This sweet embroidery pattern was designed to be made into a table runner.   You would begin by tracing out one of the center motifs and add a corner and continue around until you had four center motifs and four corners traced.  If you wanted a larger table runner or a more rectangular runner, you would simple extend the two parallel lines on each side.

The Pansy Runner and Corner pattern is available as a pdf to download here.

This post has been added to the following link parties:

Sew Darn Crafty Link Party #119

One evening last week, just as our son walked into the apartment he smelled the air and said it smelled like cinnamon rolls. I hadn’t been baking but right then I decided to make cinnamon rolls as it had been well over a year and a half since I’d made any.

Now usually, in the past, I’ve always made cinnamon rolls at the same time I’m baking bread and I simply take some of that dough to make the rolls. This time, as I only wanted to make one small batch, I went searching for a recipe.

I found and pinned this one for Overnight Cinnamon Rolls and then continued searching. In the end though, I chose to give the pinned recipe a try.

We had them for breakfast yesterday morning. And they turned out just as good as she described on her blog. The rolls themselves were chewy and moist (some cinnamon rolls can be very dry) and some of the cinnamon/sugar mixture had melted to the bottom of the pan giving the rolls a nice caramel bottom.

As you can see, I didn’t add the cream cheese topping. But I did brush them with butter after removing them from the oven to keep the tops soft and give them a bit of gloss.

One recipe made that 9″X13” glass pan full plus two 8” cake pans of rolls for a total of 18 rolls. I baked the rolls in the cake pans at the recommended temperature for 20 minutes. They came out a bit browner than the ones pictures above so when I put the glass pan in the oven I turned the temperature down to 325 and they came out that nice golden brown. I checked them at 15 minutes then again at 20 minutes and then left them in for a couple more minutes. So I would recommend setting your timer for 15 minutes and then checking them every few minutes after that until you know what’s the best time and temperature for your particular oven.

Now that I’ve made the recipe as written, I’m going to try replacing half of the all purpose flour with whole grain flour. That should add a nice nutty flavour to the rolls. I’m also going to try adjusting the recipe to make an even smaller batch that would be the perfect size for two (or perhaps two plus company for brunch.)

This post has been added to the following link parties:

Sew Darn Crafty Link Party Week #118

Back in November 2008, I posted an inexpensive Christmas gift idea using my homemade dried bean soup mix and gifting it in a mason jar with a cross stitched topper. I also suggested providing a recipe for making the Bean Soup.

A little over a month ago, a visitor left a comment on that post asking for the recipe as she couldn’t read the label on the jar in the photo. I e-mailed her back at the time and put on my to-do list to also write a post providing the recipe.

We’ve had a couple of cool, rainy days this week so it was the perfect time for soup making.  We’re staying with our son while we wait for the next contract to start so I needed to make a trip to the bulk food store.

To make the dried bean soup mix you’ll need equal amounts of the following:

Pinto Beans, Dark Red Kidney Beans, Small Lima Beans, Great Northern Beans, Black Beans and Garbanzo Beans.

I bought all of these at Bulk Barn except the Lima beans. They didn’t have any of the small Lima beans at Bulk Barn (or anywhere else for that matter.) I ended up buying a bag of the smallest Lima beans I could find at one the local grocery stores.

One and a half cups of each yielded 2 quart jars filled right to the top plus 1/2 c extra.

Recipe for Homemade Bean Soup

Place 2 cups of the dried beans into a large bowl, add enough water so that they are covered by at least 2 inches of water and soak overnight. The next morning, drain the soaked beans and place them in a large 8 quart stock pot. Add one coarsely chopped onion, 3 to 4 stalks of chopped celery and 1 large can diced tomatoes. Add water until the pot is almost full.

I usually like to add a ham bone (leftover from baking a ham) which I remove before serving but since I didn’t have one, I made do without. As with most of my homemade soup recipes, I use what I have available.

Place the pot on the stove with the burner set to high and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low and allow the soup to simmer for several hours until the beans are tender. The beans will absorbs quite a bit of liquid and some will cook off, so you may find that you need to add more water later in the day. Don’t add too much though as you don’t want to dilute the wonderful flavours that will have developed during the cooking process.

About 15 minutes before you’re ready to serve the soup, add 4 to 5 carrots, sliced. When the carrots are tender, the soup is ready to eat.

Ladle into bowls and enjoy!

This recipe makes approximately 8 to 10 large bowls of soup.

Please note: The carrots in the last step aren’t strictly necessary but my mother always added carrots to her bean soup and for me, it just wouldn’t be bean soup without them.

This post has been added to the following link parties:

Sew Darn Crafty Link Party Week #118

DIY Linky

When Dave was tracing out the patterns from each sheet (his hands are steadier at that kind of thing than mine are,) he put all the really small ones from each of the large pattern pages onto a single 8.5X11 sheet of paper.  These ones are from Workbasket Pattern Sheet 82.

This sheet of small embroidery patterns is available as a pdf to download here.

This post has been added to the following link parties:

Sew Darn Crafty Link Party Week #118

You know those annoying (and sometimes impossible to read) word verification boxes we have to fill out when we try to comment on certain blogs or when signing into certain services?   Well after viewing this video, I no longer find them quite so annoying knowing that by struggling to figure them out, I am helping to digitize books.

And also thanks to watching that video, I’ve signed up at duolingo.com to learn French!

I passed through level one fairly quickly but now I’m working on level 2 and it’s proving more challenging.  :O)

Wouldn’t these look beautiful embroidered onto a set of pillowcases or as the center panel of a small cushion!

The pattern for the Large Swans is available as a pdf to download here.

This post has been added to the following link parties:

Sew Darn Crafty Link Party Week #117