Camping & Outdoor Cooking

We just got back from our first camping trip in a long time. Several weeks ago we upgraded our 4 person tent, (that really doesn't sleep four comfortably) to a Cabela's 8-man Getaway cabin tent. We have so much more space now! Room for all four of us and our dog.

We had some pretty rainy weather earlier in the weekend so waited until Sunday afternoon to head out to the camp ground. We drove around and around and around trying to find a good spot...  The park was pretty crowded since it was a holiday weekend. Somehow we ended up with the perfect spot; a large area with a lot of privacy, shade and plenty of room for our tent, campfire and picnic table... and as an added bonus this particular area wasn't muddy!

We had fun playing a little corn hole and hanging out around the campfire, but the most fun part was the cooking and the eating! I have been planning our meals since we bought the tent. We started out with a yummy chip dip: a block of cream cheese spread on the bottom of a foil pan, then a can of chili followed by a handful of cheese and a few green onions. We set this right on top of the grate over the fire for 8-10 minutes. Yummy!

Next up was dinner. We grilled a few brats and roasted some hotdogs. We paired that with grilled sweet potato packets. I sliced a few thin-skinned sweet potatoes and put them in the middle of a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Next I put a few pats of butter on top then sprinkled it with some dark brown sugar and cinnamon. Folded up the packet and placed it right on top of the campfire grill for 20-25 minutes... Delicious! We did the same thing with apples, sliced them up, placed them in the foil and topped them with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. These didn't cook quite as long, only about 15 minutes. 

We ended the night with s'mores and popcorn.

After a realllllyyyyy loooooonnnnnggggg night of listening to wild turkeys, coyotes and someone's generator and trying to keep my nose warm and still be able to breathe, we were ready for breakfast and especially coffee. Our campfire coffee was a total fail and much needed after a sleepless, cold night. I would love hear how you make your coffee while camping. We really need some advice on that. We did enjoy cinnamon rolls cooked on a stick and an egg, hash-brown and cheese casserole cooked on the fire. 

We had a fabulous time and are looking forward to getting out to camp/eat again! What are some of your favorite campfire recipes?

This Is Me...

So, as I get back into this blogging thing I thought it would be a good time to tell you a little bit about me. Don't worry, I won't hit you with it all at once, we will ease into it.

My most important role is that of "Mom". I have the privilege of parenting two teen daughters. It isn't easy, but it is an amazing blessing to walk with these two girls through life. I share parenting duties with my husband of 23 years. We met my sophomore year of college and have been together ever since.

I couldn't mention our family without including our sweet Golden Retriever, Sammie. We just celebrated her 10th birthday! Doesn't everyone celebrate their dog's birthday?

During the day (and some nights and weekends) I have the pleasure of serving the community in which I live as a Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent. I deliver research based programming in the areas of financial management, health and food safety. It is always interesting.

In what little free time I have, besides quilting I enjoy cooking, gardening, reading, walking, and spending time with my family and friends. Stay tuned for the sewing edition of This Is Me...

Balance

Balance... I eat a somewhat balanced diet, keep my checkbook balanced, and can even balance on my right foot for a pretty long time. But I am continually working on a work/life balance. A balance of work and play. A balance of loving my people, weather it is spending time with them or washing their underwear, or spending an evening on the deck hashing out life with a friend over margaritas. Pair that with the 40+ hour work week that demands most of my time and a lot of my energy and it is really hard to find the time to do the things that make my heart sing, like quilting. But when I do find the time, or make the time I should say, to spend with needle and thread I feel balanced, even if the dishes are piling up in the sink and we are eating cereal for dinner. Time spent in my sewing room is time well spent. It makes those long work weeks easier to handle, and somehow I have more patience to deal with those I love. 

Some days, weeks, months, balance is easier than others. Sometimes it is easy to fit in a few minutes here and an hour there in the sewing room all while attending my kids activities and keeping my house clean enough. Other times all I ever feel like I am doing is going to work and washing dirty laundry.

I am working on balance. Every day it is an effort of conscious living. What are my priorities? What is most important right now? What can I let go? What can I delegate? What am I really hung up on that I don't need to be? Where can I carve out some time just for me (and stick with it?)

And sometimes balance is putting things into perspective; the hours I spend each week on meal preparation really is loving my family. My job, although time consuming and sometimes exhausting makes a difference in the lives of others. Spending time in my sewing room helps me to better deal with everything else that comes my way. So, I am learning to make time for me, and my Bernina a priority.

Getting Things Done

Oh how I love starting a project! Deciding on a pattern, perusing fabric choices, putting stitches in those first few blocks, I love it all! And then... just like that, everything comes to a screeching halt... and then I start another new project. I am a rock-star at project starts, but when it comes to project finishes I really, really stink. This year, I decided I needed to do something about that. I started by making a list. This is page 1 of I will not tell you how many, plus I am pretty sure there are more UFO's to be found in my sewing studio that did not make the list yet. (And notice I have crossed two things off already... WooHoo!!!)

After making the list, I chose 6 projects that I really wanted to focus on. I am only letting myself work on those 6 projects, well, except for a couple of block-a-week projects I have going on. Why six? I don't know, but I do know I get bored easily working on one project at a time. Six projects gives me enough variety I can take a break from one thing and work on something else for a bit. While focusing on a few projects, all at various stages of completion I can get a lot more accomplished but still stay interested. So far I have two finishes from my list! Take a look...

This was an Easter table runner I started years ago... not colors I would pick now, but I finished it right before Easter and it looks cute on my coffee table. Pattern is from the Ginger Cookie Company.

This project isn't quite as old. I started this a couple of years ago as a part of a quilt-along put on by American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I backed it with flannel and used wool batting. It will be cozy next winter, but until then I will probably be putting it away as it is getting hot here in Kansas!

I am itching to start something new but I want to get at least five UFO projects crossed off my list before I start something different! We will see how my self-control holds out. If you have any tips, ideas etc. for getting projects finished I would love to hear them.

Join a Challenge!

If you have never joined a quilt challenge you are missing out! Recently I have joined two quilt challenges that have really helped me to step out of my comfort zone and develop my skills. It started when I saw a block-a-week challenge started by A Needle Pulling Thread Quilt Shop on my Instagram feed. In that challenge we are making a Flock of Geese block every single week in 2017. This is a 6-inch block (not normally a size I would choose to work on) and has really challenged me to sew more accurately, I plan to write more on that later. I haven't been able to sew a block every week but some weeks I sew ahead, so as of now I am caught up on this challenge!

So, feeling successful with the above challenge I thought I may as well join one more! The Moda Blockheads challenge  is also a block-a-week challenge, each week there is a different 6 inch block to stitch. Boy, this one has challenged my skills and my patience... but, I am learning so much! Look at all of the pieces in this block!

I would have NEVER decided to stitch something this little with so many pieces on my own. I actually didn't think I could do it!

I highly encourage you to join some sort of a quilting challenge, whether it is through social media, your local quilt shop, or guild. Stepping out of your comfort zone; working on different projects or with different colors than your normal choices will help you to grow.

Happy Stitching!

Collaboration

I am almost finished with a project my teen-age daughter and I have been collaborating on. It started a few years ago when she saw a picture in the Pottery Barn catalog of a quilt that she loved. I told her, "We can make that!" She picked out all of the fabrics, her choices were a little different than in the catalog. We did a lot of measuring to make it the exact size she wanted for her bed. I am ashamed to say we have had the center part of it made for a very long time! There is something about sewing borders on quilts that I don't like but with a lot of nagging on her part (it was warranted) I got the borders on sometime over my Christmas break. Right before we went on vacation last week I was FINALLY able to finish the quilting. I do enjoy hand-sewing binding so have been working on that the past few days while watching the Olympics.

I like to add a little dimension to my quilts when I can. This turquoise strip adds a nice pop of color to the quilt. 

After I stitched the white border on to the quilt body I basted the folded, turquoise strip to the the edge of the white border fabric. I then stitched the black polk-a-dot border as usual to the white border.

Back Home... Refreshed and Motivated

We are back home from a week in the mountains. Look at this gorgeous view we were able to enjoy from our cabin! When I made the cabin reservation I had only a vague idea as to it's location. We had no idea we had a 35 minute drive up the mountain. A large part of the drive was up a very  narrow, bumpy, steep road. I am pretty sure if we knew about the road conditions ahead of time we would have never decided to stay there. But... look what we would have missed out on. It makes me wonder what other things I have missed out on in my life because I was afraid of the drive.

Let this be a reminder to live life to the fullest, to step through fear, and enjoy the journey.

Blessings-

Susan

Under My Needle

I can't work on just one project at a time! Anyone else out there like that? I have to have several things going at once. I am sure it is not the most productive way to use my sewing time but that is how I enjoy doing things. So... here is a peak at a few of the projects under my needle the past few weeks.

First up is Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt. My friend Nan asked if I would be interested in sewing along with her on this project. I jumped at the chance. It has been great to keep in contact with her while working on the same project. It has also been wonderful motivation to be sewing along with her. I am waaaayyyyy behind on this project. I just finished clue #3, and clue #6 was introduced late last night. I also felt overwhelmed keeping up so decided to make 1/2 the amount blocks. It has made this quilt-of-many-pieces seem manageable.

 Next up is a small project I finished yesterday. This is a small zipper pouch made from This and That Patterns and Moda's Gooseberry fabric. I love how it turned out and it went together pretty quick! I am going to be doing more travel this year with my new job and plan to use this to hold my various electronic chargers.

After starting Bonnie Hunter's Mystery I have become obsessed with her patterns. This one is called Wild & Goosey. The blocks finish 3 inches and are paper-pieced. I love how this is using up even my tiniest scraps that I hate to throw away. This will probably end up being a table runner or small wall-hanging.

That is all for now... I am off to do a little more sewing and some not-fun but necessary things like laundry. What are you working on? I would love to know!

Hand-work

I haven't used my sewing machine lately. Actually my machine went with me to a class about a month ago and I haven't unpacked it yet. :( I have however been doing a lot of hand-work and I am having so much fun with it!

This is a small table-topper I started about 10 years ago. I am very slowly getting it hand-quilted. I am getting close to getting it finished. It is all hand-appliqued so I feel like it needs the hand-quilting.

This is the real distraction from other sewing, and lets face it a distraction from house cleaning, laundry etc. I can't quit working on these hexies! I am using all of my Kansas Troubles scraps. If you don't have a small portable project you need one. I work on this project during my lunch break, in the car, between my daughter's basketball games, while watching TV, and while sitting on the deck soaking up this glorious fall weather.

Soup Season

I love this time of year! The changing leaves, the cooler weather, even the sunlight is more beautiful in the fall. I also really love serving soup for supper! My family's most requested soup lately is this one...  Corn Chowder. I wish I could take better pictures, but trust me, it does taste much better than it looks in this pic... and really, it looks much better in person than it does in this picture.

OK and now the details so you can make it at home for your family.

Corn Chowder

1/2 cup butter

3 small potatoes, diced

2 celery ribs, diced

1/2 of a red or yellow pepper, diced

1/2 of a small onion, diced

1/4 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup water

1 chicken bouillon cube

16 oz. frozen corn

4 cups milk

Saute the first five ingredients until tender, about 7-8 minutes. Mix in the flour, salt and pepper. Next, add the water and bouillon cube. Stir until thick then add the corn and milk until hot. If you like a thinner soup then add more liquid. ENJOY!!!! This feeds the four of us with no leftovers.

Sunflower Fields

We went for a drive today to Grinter Farms NE of Lawrence to check out this beautiful sunflower field. Sunflowers are our state flower. Did you know sunflower blooms face the sun and follow it throughout the day?

 We were able to get a few decent pictures with humans before we started dripping with sweat. It is HOT here this week!

According to the Grinter Farm Facebook page the sunflowers will be out for optimal blooming for about 2 weeks starting this weekend.

Definitely worth the drive if you like sunflowers or want a beautiful backdrop for pictures.

Stich Fix 2

I just received my 2nd Stitch Fix! Haven't heard of Stitch Fix? It is a personal styling service that hand selects clothing and accessories just for you and delivers them to your door.


You can choose to get your "fix" as often as you like. There is a $20 styling fee that goes towards your purchase, if you decide to buy all 5 items you receive a 25% discount. Interested??? Check out their web-site and if you decide to order please use my referral link: https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/5503565

 Originally I signed up to receive my Fixes quarterly but I loved my last shipment so much I decided to go for it again this month. I really do need to replace much of my work clothes as most of them are from when I worked at Eddie Bauer 8 plus years ago.

So, I asked for easy care work clothes. This time a little more casual than last. I got a quick picture before I unfolded everything! I was loving the orchid and navy print on the top. 

First up a cute knit wrap dress. Loved the fabric, loved the print and it is very comfortable! Also, the perfect length for school.

Market & Spruce Ohara Dress

 Next, probably the dressiest item in the box. Not sure if I will wear it to work but I will wear it. Looks good with my favorite black cardigan, and a perfect back drop for some of the fun necklaces I have been collecting.

Pixley Clarice Multi Stripe Knit Dress

 Look how the stripes meet on the side to make a diamond pattern. I love the details of this dress! Notice the different patterns made by the directional stripes.

This necklace is very different than other jewelery I own. I love that about Stitch Fix, makes me try things I wouldn't normally.

Zad Delmar Pointed Fringe Necklace

I was not sure about this shirt when I first opened the package, it has a lot going on. The shirt has grown on me. It is very cute under my denim jacket or black cardigan and I love it with my new necklace (see above).

Market & Spruce Brentwood Jersey Stripe Tiered Top

 Last up is this navy top with gold buttons. My stylist noticed I had it pinned on my Pinterest board so sent it in this month's Fix.

Skies are Blue Haldis Roll-Tab Henley Blouse

There you have it, my 2nd Stitch Fix. I ended up keeping everything again. I am keeping a Pinterest board with all of the Fixes I receive here if you are interested in browsing. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Cucumbers coming out of my ears....

HELP!!!!! My cucumbers are producing more than they ever have. The deer have even been helping themselves to the plant tops but there are still plenty to go around. Below is a recipe for my family's favorite cucumber salad. I don't really make anything else with cucumbers,  I would love for you to share some of your favorite cucumber recipes.

Cucumbers In Cream

1 cup sour cream

1 cup Miracle Whip

3 tablespoons sugar

6 tablespoons vinegar

3-4 cucumbers, sliced

About 1/2 of an onion, sliced

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix dressing ingredients together and fold in slices of cucumbers and onions.

Sewing Studio Happenings

I thought it might be fun to show you what I am working on in my sewing studio. I am trying to make some headway on a few projects as I go back to work on Friday and won't have as much time to spend in here.

First up is progress on the folded star tutorial. The more I work on this the more my mind thinks about all of the other folded stars I want to make. Oh how I wish I had more time! Wouldn't they make the cutest Christmas tree ornaments?

Because I can't quit thinking like a teacher, even though it is summer break,  I am working on beginning quilt making curriculum. Lots of fun ideas in my head on this. I have started to put it all together with fabric, next up is getting it down on paper.

One last customer quilt to finish up before I go back to school! Hopefully time to at least load one of my own.

And I can't quit looking at this stack of newly acquired fabric sitting right by my sewing machine.

OK I am off to get some of this stuff accomplished! What are you working on?

Happy Saturday Night... Enjoy a Fabulous Mojito...You Are Welcome

 

  I have never been a fan of mojitos. Until... I went to Mexico this summer. While there I had the most delicious, minty-limey sweet beverage. When I got home I got to work on recreating it and this is what I came up with.

It started with a trip to the local nursery where I found a mint plant called mojito mint. The tag said it was Cuban. I immediately planted it in my garden where it took off in no time. I would think you could use whatever mint you have available at your local grocery store or in your garden. Note- if you plant your own mint plant it closer to your house than I did and preferably in a planter as mint has a tendency to grow out of control. I have a long trek out to the garden every time I have a craving for a mojito.

Next step it to make a mint flavored simple syrup. Make a big batch, it will keep in the fridge for awhile. Start with equal amounts sugar and water. I used 2 cups of each. Bring the sugar water mixture to a boil on the stove over a medium-high heat. Once boiling take off the heat and add a large handful of mint. Don't worry about taking the leaves off the stems. Let the mint steep in the sugar mixture about 10 minutes.

Once finished steeping skim the mint out of the sugar mixture and discard.  I store the simple syrup in a quart sized jar in my fridge. I know the picture below looks deceptively like something else but the sugar mixture takes on a yellow-green color from the mint plant. 

Now that you have your simple syrup made you are ready to make your mojito.

Start by adding 3 or 4 mint leaves to your glass and mash them with the back of your spoon. Next add 1.5 ounces of each: lime juice (bottled is fine), rum and your mint-infused simple syrup.  Give everything in your glass a big mix. Add a heaping cup of crushed ice then top your glass off with about 1 cup of Sprite. (I have also used Mountain Dew and it was good too!) Mix again and enjoy!

The simple syrup is also delicious in iced tea!

Folded Star Potholder

I recently bought this folded star potholder at a garage sale for a quarter.  It reminded me of one we had growing up that was made by my grandma. After looking at it for awhile I thought I could make one! I deconstructed this and made my own.

Love how it turned out and it was so much fun to make!!!!! It was all made by hand except for the binding. I can not wait to make more of these...  I would love some ideas on how else to use a folded star in a project. Please leave comments/links below.

Stay tuned for a tutorial... I am trying to step things up around here.

Christmas in July

Another favorite project this summer is this Christmas tree skirt.

Can you tell I like using the 10 degree ruler? I am really happy with how this turned out! I have spent the past few days thinking of cooler seasons as it is HOT in Kansas.

Pattern is from the book Quilts Without Corners by Cheryl Phillips (I made the Speedy Spiral Tree Skirt without the prairie points on page 20)

Fabric is Holly's Tree Farm by Sweetwater for Moda

P.S. I am not being paid to endorse Phillips Fiber Arts patterns, I just really love them!

Snappy Splendor Table Runner Take 2

I had so much fun making my first Snappy Splendor table runner I wanted to make a second one! (I even have plans for a 3rd) I used my stash of 4th of July fabrics for one side and autumn colors on the other.

I love how you can have two totally different looks with one project!

If you have never tried a double-sided binding you should give it a try! Works great for a reversible project like this one and it goes together pretty easily.

Pattern is Snappy Splendor Tablerunner by Cheryl Phillips of Phillips Fiber Art. This is a quilt-as-you-go project that uses a 10 degree Wedge Tool. I would highly recommend this pattern- fabulous easy to follow directions! I taught a class on this project at my friend Amy's shop, Overbrook Quilt Connection, contact her for a pattern and ruler if you are so inclined and let her know I sent you. :)

Stitch Fix #1

Have you ever heard of Stitch Fix? It is a personal styling service that hand selects clothing and accessories just for you and delivers them to your door. I just received my first shipment and I am in love!!!!

You can choose to get your "fix" as often as you like. There is a $20 styling fee that goes towards your purchase, if you decide to buy all 5 items you receive a 25% discount. Interested??? Check out their web-site and if you decide to order please use my referral link: https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/5503565

 I told my stylist I was looking for a few "dressier" items to wear to work. I was very happy with everything Lisa picked out. Below you will see what was in my box.

Leota Amandine Printed Dress

Kut From The Kloth Mollee Draped Dress

41Hawthorn Filbert 3/4 Sleeve Popover Blouse

Tart Shaina Printed Maxi Dress and Romolo Bib Necklace

I am looking forward to being a little more dressed up when I go back to work this year. Can't wait to get my next shipment!