PATTERNS and some other photos

Let's call this a catch-up post. :-) I'm busy baking chocolate chip cookies for the guys on my sailor's ship who have to work on Thanksgiving, so this might be a disjointed while I move cookie sheets in & out of the oven!

Faye asked recently about how to create boiled wool. I started with some very heavyweight 100% wool jersey, and ran it through a cycle of hot-washer-hot-dryer about three times. I know some people zigzag the edges first, but I didn't, so I did get some distortion. However, I started with 3 yards and I was only making a size 7 jacket, so it was OK.

Next, here are a few patterns I purchased recently. Now I need to get over the sore throat, and find some time to sew them up. (I'm actually not a super dedicated seamstress, sewing while super sick... this is more of a "wow I don't feel great" sore throat so the quilting projects were good to keep my mind off it.)

Vogue 1156.... I love this one. Need to make a muslin soon!



And a really cute little dress that I may or may not ever get to, but which I love looking at anyway. If I didn't go to work in sneakers and jeans everyday, this is what I'd wear.



And finally, some finished photos of the Thanksgiving table runner I made:





I used the "snowflake" stitch from my Viking to quilt the lines.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful meal today! I spent the day mostly in the kitchen, but almost all the cooking was done and just waiting to be rewarmed 2 hours before our meal, so I snuck off to my sewing machine. I'd made cherry pie last night, and pumpkin pie early this morning. At 10 AM I started really cooking- we had praline topped sweet potatoes, red bliss mashers from Tom Douglas's Seattle Kitchen cookbook (I love love love Tom Douglas so that cookbook is literally in pieces now), acorn squash, butternut squash with wild rice (my own recipe), home made applesauce, parmesan and rosemary biscotti, biscuits, stuffing with cherries, apples and pears and mushrooms, and of course a huge turkey. My mom contributed carrots, green beans, and cranberry sauce. I don't believe I'll need to eat for days now. This is actually the 10th Thanksgiving dinner I've cooked... I love doing it every year, and the menu is usually pretty much the same, but it's fun.

So this is what I made in my little sewing break. I'd gotten a really nice poly jersey (since sold out, sadly) in my Gorgeous Fabrics order, and I was dying to make yet another BWOF 11-2008-103. This is my third iteration of this pattern, and I still love it. I could easily see making a few more with 3/4 length sleeves. This one goes nicely with jeans and with my black sateen trousers, so it should get a lot of wear.


My niece Ana also got to test out her new polar fleece smock today. This is another pattern from the most recent Patrones Ninos magazine. I love the super bright stripes on the fleece-a bit loud, but it makes a nice bright smock and hides food well. I bound the neckline with navy foldover elastic, then the sleeves and bottom hem are sewn with a twin needle. This version was just a wearable muslin-hence the wild fabric- to see how it fits. Like every Ninos pattern so far, of course, it fits very nicely. I have some nice velour that I'll use to make up a good version for her. Here she is modeling it- there's a funny fold in that photo, but I think it's because she'd been racing around in her walker for a while before I took the picture.


The butternut squash and wild rice we had for our dinner was something I sort of invented, based on a zucchini and rice casserole we eat a lot. Here's the recipe, such as it is:

* Cook 1 cup of wild rice with red rice according to the package directions
* Roast a butternut squash until it's soft. Ours came from my grandma's farm, and it was sooo sweet. Yum!
* When the squash is soft, peel it and put the soft fruit into a casserole dish. Mix in a bit of olive oil.
* Add the cooked rice
* Add some dried cranberries, and a bit of nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and ginger. Mix.
* It can wait at this stage until you're ready to eat. Cook in the oven or microwave until it's warm through. The best way to test that is to insert a knife into the center, then pull it out and feel if it's hot.

And one last picture... Ana and Tom tucked into their playpen while we ate. They had started out at the table and got a bit fussy. I love how they're happy to sit and watch from a distance. Silly kids.