I have been on a cooking and baking jag lately. My daughter brought home a box of Falafel mix to try out.
We mixed up the dough and let it rest a little bit in the refrigerator.
They we scooped out little balls of the mix and fried them.
And this is how they turned out. They were super yummy!! Now I want to try to make some from scratch. I just have to find garbanzo beans that are not in a can!
A dishcloth from the Monthly Dishcloth Yahoo Group!
I really like handmade dishcloths. This was made from sugar n cream cotton yarn without the band on it. It’s already being used!
If this blanket, the Mighty Rainbow Blanket, doesn’t qualify as a slooooow stitch, I don’t know what does!! It doesn’t help that my daughter wanted it to fit her twin bed so we had to double it in length.
It’s almost there! I am on the dark green and have four colors left – light green, yellow, orange and red. When I started this blanket, I thought it would be sooo easy. It’s all just garter stitch and I spend a LOT of time waiting for kids at lessons, practices and games. Well…it got big and heavy quickly and was not conducive to sitting in the bleachers anywhere. It is also quite a boring thing to knit. Yes, I can knit while I watch TV or talk or something else, but it’s really not interesting. My daughter loves it so I will continue on and finish – hopefully before she goes off to college!
I am linking up with Kathy’s Slow Stitch Sunday. Take a look over there to see what others are doing.
I’ve been playing around with starters this year. I started both a sourdough and a friendship bread starter at the same time. With the sourdough starter, I’m baking every couple of days. The friendship bread starter is ready every 10 days. I used the starter recipe and all other recipes from the Friendship Bread Kitchen website. So far every recipe has been a success! I’ve made…
Pancakes…
Snookerdoodles, and …
A chocolate bread. The bread was a little dry so next time I will add a bit more oil. Now the starter will rest and grow for another 10 days!
I was finally able to take pictures of the scarves that I wove for the family for Christmas gifts!
Plaid for the 18yo…
Evenweave with variegated yarn and a stripe for the 23 yo and her boyfriend…
A different plaid for the 20yo…
Plaid for the 17yo…
Plaid for the 13yo. I love that purple is his favorite color!
And one more plaid for my hubby. These are my first plaid weavings and I really enjoyed them. I think I want to play around with tartan next time.
Kathy over at Sewing Etc. hosts this HQAL (Hand Quilt A-Long) and I enjoy it so much. She has asked us to tell a little about our project. I am working on a Grandmother’s Flower Garden. I chose this pattern because I have wanted to make one for a very long time. I discovered Kathy’s HQAL and decided that this was the perfect time to start and use it as my HQAL project. I had bookmarked several pages of ideas This one is the one that gave me the idea to embroider all the way around the edges of the hexagons, this one I really like the layout of, and I like this idea for embroidering on the individual hexis. I bought a book of miniature flower embroidery patterns at a garage sale to use as a reference. Right now, though, I am just making the hexis and sewing them together. I’m sure I’ll do something in the middle of the yellow hexi for each of the flowers – I’m not sure what I will do. I go back and forth between something super simple (a flower outline) and something more complicated (sort of like this one – a little flower garden on each one). I have time to figure it out! I work on this project most nights (after dinner and clean up) while my husband and I watch our shows. I did not work on it every night – I have been tired lately and have been going to bed a little earlier than usual. Also, for a bit I had lost my stitching mojo for this. I’m not sure why that happens, but I have it back for now! Without further ado, this is the flower I worked on for this three week update.
I have a few of these flower now and some of them are even connected together with a green row of hexis. I stopped connecting them when I started making the pieced hexis. I am enjoying the pieced ones immensely, but I want to intersperse them with the ones that are not pieced so I am waiting to get more flowers done to see how I want to lay them out in the quilt. Please take a look at the other stitchers participating in this HQAL, they are a very talented group!
This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.
Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan, Nanette, Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen
I am also liking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitch Sunday. This is definitely a slow stitch project. I really enjoy slow projects that take time to complete. I like working on something day by day and seeing it grow. I find it relaxing to stitch on and old “friend”. That’s not to say I don’t like a super quick project now and then as well!
The end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 was super busy in a good way. Everyone was home and under one roof and I was loving every minute of it! In the last year or two, we have been participating in 5K fun runs as a family. The latest was a Santa Run. When you register you can purchase a Santa suit to run the race in. Of course we didn’t do that!!
I went to JoAnns, and with the help of one of my daughters picked this fun dog santa fabric. I made 4 skirts, 4 pairs of shorts and 3 scrunchies (my hair is too short for a scrunchie!) to run the race in.
It turned out that my oldest son had to work, but the rest of us ran the race. I just realized that I am not in this before picture!
Here we are just before the start of the race. During the race it was pouring!! We were all soaked through, but we had sooo much fun!
And we got this cute little medal at the end! Just for finishing!
I read the Sourdough by Robin Sloan a couple of months ago and was intrigued and inspired to try to make a starter. With the holidays coming up though I thought I would wait until New Year to get it going.
I started out purchasing these two crocks as I wanted to make an Amish Friendship Bread starter as well.
This was my sourdough starter a few days in. EDITTED TO ADD RECIPE LINK: the King Arthur Sourdough Started Recipe is what I am using.
The first thing I tried when the starter was ready was bread. It was super easy to make – you just mix the starter with a few things and leave it on the counter. The bread tastes fantastic!! EDITED TO ADD RECIPE: This one is also from the King Arthur website. It’s the Rustic Sourdough Bread.
The next thing I wanted to try were waffles. This requires an “overnight sponge” which is also easy and save a huge amount of time in the morning because there is nothing to mix up. It’s ready when you are and you can just spoon the batter into the waffle maker. Another success!! EDITED TO ADD RECIPE: Sourdough Waffles or Pancakes.
The last thing I have made so far with the starter is homemade pizza crust. Every Friday (this is from last Friday) we have pizza and watch a movie as a family. Everyone had so much fun gathered around the table making their crusts and then loading them with the things they wanted, that there has been a request to have homemade pizza every Friday instead of store bought. EDITED TO ADD RECIPE: Sourdough Pizza Crust.
The only thing I have had to really stay on top of is planning. If I want to have bread at dinner, I need to start dough rising early afternoon. If we want to have waffles, I need to prepare the overnight sponge the night before. Really though, it’s so much fun!! I have yet to hear my starter sing like in the book, but when the kitchen is quiet I can hear the bubbles popping. Such a success!
I’m at it again!! I had more plastic bags from bread, TP, and other things that I have been saving. 
Here it is! This one is different from the others that I have done as this one has a rectangular base. I like this much more as it is easier to pack.
It looks on the smaller side, but it actually holds quite a bit.
I liked it so much I started a new one!!
Linking up with Hookin on Hump Day over at Petals to Picots!
I love using up scraps and Kate of Tall Tales from Chiconia hosts a monthly Scrap Happy Day so that we can share a project we are working on that is made from scraps. I’m sharing my ticker tape quilt (Crazy Mom Quilts). This is where I was last time,
- Est. 2014 -
Connie's Creations 