Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful meal with their families, or friends.
I have to admit I'm a little disappointed that its not snowy and cold today. I had images in my head of my first white holidays. I won't be on the east coast for Christmas since I'm going home, so I was hoping for a snowy Turkey Day... oh well, as I've heard before, we'll soon have plenty of snow and I'll be sick sick sick of it. Yeah yeah, bring it on!
Here's an old post from my other blog about the mascot of this food-filled day, the turkey =)
Enjoy~

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving Pies and Rolls

Well it's not quilts, but tis the season for baking! My other favorite past time besides quilting is cooking. (I'm a regular Holly Homemaker at 21).
I have the good fortune to live near King Arthur Flour's Baking Education Center. I try to sneak away from my law school classes to get some baking in. I figure even though it takes time away from studying and the courses are pricey, it's worth the education while I'm so close, and besides, cooking is as cathartic as sewing is for me.
Today's class was called Thanksgiving Take-away Pies & Rolls. We made pie crust from scratch, which I had never attempted before, then filled it with pear and cranberry filling, and topped it with an almond streusel. Mmmmm!
Our rolls were delicious Tender Chive Crescents. They where choc-full of butter and sour cream. Not a low-cal roll. As the instructor said, Thanksgiving is not about counting calories! I tasted one of them, and they're delicious. The pie and the rest of the rolls will be coming with me to Thanksgiving dinner at my law school's Dean of Student's home. Those of us who couldn't fly home for the extremely short holiday were invited into her home for the meal so we could spend it with friends. I am excited to be contributing a pie and I hope I'll have enough rolls to share!

Friday, November 20, 2009

NLQG Bingo Block

For my next quilt guild meeting we were supposed to make bingo blocks to play quilt bingo. After the game the blocks will be sewn together to make a community quilt to go to someone in need. Fun huh?

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Flannels?

Since putting a question out there worked so well for me with zippers, I thought I'd ask if anyone knows a really good store (with a website to order from) that sells a wide variety of flannel fabrics? I've been to some incredible quilt shops, but I'm never that impressed with the selection of flannel fabrics to choose from. I would love to order some good flannels to make some blankets for the long winter ahead.

Friday, November 13, 2009

My First Zippered Pouch!

I made a little coin purse today based on the pattern from twelve22. Thanks for the responses to my request for zipper tutorials. It took maybe 15 minutes, was super easy, and turned out adorable except for the small detail that I guessed wrong on which way my directional fabric should face- my peace signs are upside down - oh well, I still think its a successful first zipper attempt!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

How to Put a Zipper into a Bag?

Hi all, has anyone come across, or be willing to write, a good tutorial on how to make a bag with a zipper in the top? I've been making a lot of bags lately, and I would love to take them to the next step with a zipper, but I don't know how.

Help?

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

New Purse and Wallet

It seems like in graduate school all I have time to make are small projects that can be completed in a day. Today I decided it was time for a new small purse with a matching wallet. I experimented with using thin cardboard (cereal box) for stiffness since I didn't have interfacing. Poor choice in retrospect, slightly too stiff. But still, it did the job this time around.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Practice Pillowcase

Last night I made a pillowcase pattern I found to see how easy it would be as a Christmas gift idea. I just used some fabrics that were given to me to use for practicing on. I think it turned out pretty good, and I was surprised at how much fabric it needed.