A Summer Solstice Quilt

At my daughter's amazing Waldorf Inspired school, The Seaside Playgarden www.seasidecommunityschools.org the children receive school symbols at the beginning of the year. These symbols are used instead of the child's name on all of the child's stuff (art, cubby, socks....). The day my daughter received her symbol, the snail, I set out to find fabric with snails on it. I was so happy when I found Happier by Deena Rutter for Riley BlakeIt had all of my favorites: snails, trees, butterflies, ladybugs..... I ordered a jelly roll and set out to make my first REAL quilt. I looked at books, the internet, blogs... and well, came up with my own design!

The front is the jelly roll pieces cut into random sizes and then sewn together. I had so many firsts with this project! First time I made my own binding, first time I sewed my own binding on by hand, first time quilting anything this large! I am so happy with the outcome! The quilting is simple, wonky, random, lovely, lines! It was easy and it gives it the perfect feel!  I am ready to tackle my next quilt. I think this time I am going to follow someone else's pattern! Another first :)

My First Baby Quilt

A sweet friend of mine recently had baby #4, a little boy. I figured it was the perfect excuse to buy some fabric! I have been obsessing, recently, with all things quilting! I made my first quilt last year. It was just a large square patchwork with no actual quilting. I just tied it with thread. I have been working on piecing together quilt #2 for a few months now. Quilt #2 is a twin size quilt so it is rather large and since I am not capable of truly following a pattern, I am winging it! The pattern in my own design. (I do not recommend winging your second quilt). Anyway, a baby quilt seemed like a nice, quick, learning project!

Blueberry Picking and Pie Making

Yesterday we went to a pick your own blueberry farm! They opened at 7:30 am and by the time we got there at 9:30, they had already had 200 lbs of blueberries picked! The blueberry bushes were not bushes at all but trees! They were easily 6-10 feet tall and 20 years old. I have never been blueberry picking before, but we came prepared with buckets to put our loot in. After looking around the house and analyzing all sorts of types of containers, I decided on the plastic easter buckets we had in the garage. Upon arriving at the farm, I realize our buckets were perfect! The owners of the farm suggest we tie the buckets around our waists so we would have both hands free for picking. One hand is needed to hold down the tall branches and the other hand is needed to remove the berries.

Well after an hour of picking, we left with 4 lbs of berries, not a whole lot but good enough. I froze most of them to use later. Blueberries freeze so easily and well, there is just no reason not to. We go through LOTS of blueberries between muffins and smoothies and just eating as a frozen treat in the summer. I really wanted to make some blueberry jam but we are going to need lots more blueberries to do that.

I left just enough blueberries out of the freezer for one of our favorite pies, a perfect dessert for Father's Day! I will worn you, I like a THICK graham cracker crust! And I promise to work on taking more step by step pictures :) This is a great recipe for little hands to help create! My kids love mushing the graham crackers into the pie pan and who doesn't love mushing blueberries!

Yummy Double Blueberry Pie

Crust
1 1/2 C Graham Cracker Crumbs
1/3 C Sugar
6 Tbs butter, melted

Cream Cheese Filling
1- 8oz block of cream cheese, room temp
2 Tbs Milk
1 tsp Vanilla
1/4 C. Powdered Sugar

Blueberry Filling
2 C Blueberries (frozen blueberries are great for this part)
1 Tbs Lemon Juice
1/4 C Water
2 Tbs Corn Starch
1/2 C Sugar

Topping
2 C Fresh Blueberries (Not frozen)

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix crumbs, butter and sugar in a bowl and press in a 9in pie pan. Cook for 8 min. Remove from oven and cool.

In a saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, and lemon juice until smooth. Mash 2 cup blueberries (if frozen just cook them and then mash them as they cook.) Stir in  blueberries and sugar and cook on medium heat. Bring to a boil. Cooking and stirring until thick. Remove from heat and cool.

In a separate bowl mix softened cream cheese, milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar with an electric beater until creamy.

Spread cream cheese mixture in the bottom of the cooled crust then top with the cooled blueberry sauce and finally top with the remaining 2 cups of blueberries. Refrigerate until set about 3 hrs.
Serves 8.

ENJOY!

4th of July Craft

I love Pintrest! I am truly addicted! I get so much inspiration from there. 

I saw this bunting the other day from www.thelongthread.com

and I thought it would be a great craft to do with the kids. One of the best things about this project was we just used what we had a round the house! 

First the fabric: I have a pile of old white work shirts from my husband, so we used those. First we cut out a piece of cardboard that was 5 1/2 in by 7 1/2in then we traced that onto the white shirts with a disappearing ink pen. My 6 yr old then cut the rectangles with pinking shears. She loved this job, especially since she got to use Mommy's scissors!

Second the stamps: I knew we didn't have any big star stamps but I was hoping to find something! Nope so we went around the house and looked for star shaped things we could use as a stamp. I found a wooden star cut out which we glued to a cork and some potatoes and a star shaped cookie cutter. I cut the potato in half (all we had were little new potatoes) and then used the cookie cutter to cut out a star. We actually need up with 2 different stamps. One was the star and the other was a circle with a star removed. 

Third the paint and set up: We used indoor - outdoor paint since I knew I wanted to hang this up outside. Make sure you put something underneath the fabric because the paint bleeds through. I originally had the kids use the foam brushes to put the paint on the stamps but then it became easier to just rub the stamp in the paint without any brushes.

Finally the sewing: After the flags were dry we (kids on my lap) sewed the flags onto some twine (it is just what we had). Rope, or bias tape would work just fine. I just folded the flags over the twine and sewed right through the twine so they wouldn't slip around. If you don't like to sew you can use fabric glue!

                         

And TA DA!

I am pretty pleased with the final product! I love sitting at the kitchen table and looking out the window into the garden and getting to see our pretty bunting! 

I am...

Welcome! I have been contemplating this blog thing for a long time and I have finally decided to start. It has always been a question of time, and well, only time will tell.

I am....
- a creator
- a crafter
- a maker
- a mother
- a wife
- a baker
- a sewer
- a crocheter
- a quilter
- a foodie
- a grower
- a dreamer
- a daughter
- a friend
- a canner

- I am so many things, some I know and some I have yet to discover

In the words of Albert Einstein, "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."

In this space I will share with you the things I create. Sometimes it will be from the kitchen, sometimes it will be from my sewing machine or hooks. Sometimes it will be the things I create with the kids and sometimes it will be the things I create in the last hours of the day, all alone. All things will have one thing in common. They will be created with love. All things I create will carry a piece of me with them as they journey to their next life.