A new sewing club project

 Hello, everyone.

It's good to be back at home. 

Today was the monthly Sewing Club meeting. We made a project bag: something to carry works-in-process around in.

The top, with the binding in process. This was the second attempt at binding, the first was a poor choice of color and so what had been done with it was removed at home after the meeting, to be replaced with this cheery yellow bee print.

The bottom edge, showing where the end of the binding strip is.

This was sewn with mitered corners, which is always a good look if the materials will work with it. (That was one of the reasons why I removed the partially sewn binding in the other fabric--the other print was not well suited to being a binding.)

The bag has a see-through front which allows the lining and the quilting to make a statement. The foam stabilizer is very stable, so I didn't do tons of quilting on it.

The vinyl, the fat quarter of bee print for the lining, and the zipper were new. The remainder (yellow prints and the gray intricate squares) was from stash.

Tennessee wildlife sighting

 Hello, everyone.  I'm on the road visiting family. 

While outside in their yard (garden for European readers) I turned over a log and saw a creature that is new to me.

This is a slug with the most amazing leopard spots. I had seen one crawling in the evening but had no camera. This one stayed still for me to take a photo in the daytime. (Probably it was sleeping!) 

I thought slugs only came in dull solid gray. The spotted ones are something different! 

More posts after getting home, I think. It's very active around here with creatures and children. 😄 

Sewing club

 Hello, everyone.

I really love going to Sewing Club. We meet at our local quilting shop. We all put our heads together and pick out projects, and often the projects are things I would not have thought of before we talked them over. I learn a lot from my fellow members of the club.

This month our project was the Folded Star Trivet or Potholders. Below, the one from class on the top and a second one on the bottom.

This is a pattern from Plum Easy patterns. It uses up a fair amount of scraps from the stash, and a template that becomes part of the project.

I recommend using a fresh sharp (not universal) needle for this one.

Tortilla de Gambas y Hongos

 Hello, everyone.

Yesterday we indulged ourselves:

The tortilla on a plate before cutting. 

A cut serving: 1/4 of the whole.

I used about 2/3 cup of peeled, deveined, raw shrimp. About 5 large red radishes, sliced, salted and drained for a few minutes. About 6 Baby bella mushrooms, sliced. Salt of course and some onion powder. And 5 large AA eggs.

Did it in the medium sized skillet, cooked at about the same setting as for scrambled eggs or omelets,  covered the pan for a few minutes just before the flip.

The flip went perfectly! And shortly after that the proper color was on the bottom--that had been the top--and it went onto the serving plate. 

Sprinkled with some parsley leaves for pretty, as there was some on hand.

This is a low carb version of the wonderful Spanish tortillas de patata we ate while on the pilgrimages. The radish slices substitute very nicely for the potato slices.

We finished it off as our dinner, counting the vegetables in the tortilla as our veg dish and the shrimp and eggs as our protein dish. Yum.

 

Paint

 Hello, everyone.

As happens from time to time, Ye Olde Homestead sprang a leak in the roof a little while back. The leak propagated to a ceiling below it and messed up the plasterboard.

We fixed the roof, of course, and the very amazing gentleman did tape and float work on the ceiling afterwards. We discovered that we had handed him the wrong paint can to do the final coat, so we decided to re-do the paint ourselves.

We put a little more thought into it this time. (Y'all will note the variety of paint chips taped to the ceiling.)

Then we picked another wrong shade! Sigh.

After that dried, we were looking at the various options and decided to mix the two shades half and half and try that. Success!

And that's what we've been up to lately.

If I get any of the Projects Half-Done finished, I will put them up on the blog soon. 

Pony beads and Grandma Camp

 Hello, everyone.

These two weeks have been very busy with DGD and DGS visiting every day. 

There is a large stash of pony beads in the house, and we had some fun with them. DGS put them onto pipe cleaners. I had found some projects online and printed them out. He wondered about making a pumpkin, but it turned out to be in peyote stitch, and I couldn't figure it out at first. Later I found instructions in a video. 

He had lost interest by then, so I decided to see what could be done with straight lines. (Think of Ladder Stitch here.) And then tried my hand at making a rocket ship pattern, as the rocket keychain pictured in the Hobby Lobby pony bead ideas folder wasn't actually available at their web site.

The rocket ship, woven with crochet thread. I don't really have the correct cord to weave these beads  with, the crochet string is too soft and thin. And any yarn in the house is certainly going to be too soft.

The pumpkin at the top looks like it will be too floppy. I turned the page over and tried again on one without a nose, which looks less floppy, but am looking for the kind of string that Mr. Bennett uses in his Turbobeads videos. That is stiffer and will hold shape better. 

Another low-carb breakfast

 Hello, everyone.

Another in the series of low-carb meals: eggs with a sort-of curry vegetable mix. (Or, maybe, eggs with almost-ratatouille vegetables?)

The vegetables are zuchini and tomatoes--no eggplant, no onion--cooked in extra virgin olive oil. Seasoned with italian herb mix and some curry powder and salt. Eggs cooked in the pan after the vegetables with (I think) more extra virgin olive oil for the pan.

It was good.