Made From Scratch

I finished reading this book the other day and am now able to give a review.

This book arrived on April 1 (one day earlier than the estimated delivery date) and I immediately loved it. But it was for a very superficial reason. the pages are all irregular, like they had been hand cut and then sewn in. I have to say that I'm a sucker for the "handmade" look and I immediately fell hard for this one so it may have colored my opinion, but I don't think so.

The book is arranged by chapters, with each chapter including first the author's experience and then a small amount of factual information based on the chapter topic. For instance, chapter 1: Chickens first tells the author's story of how she came to start her own flock of chickens and then gives some very basic information about chickens and how to start a generic flock of your own. The other chapters deal with gardening, beekeeping, cooking, collecting, sewing and knitting, and other topics that lead to enjoying a "handmade" lifestyle.

I actually enjoyed reading this book. The author was both candid about and entertaining at the same time. She was also able to share enough generic information to allow the reader to determine if he or she wants to continue learning about how to live the more "handmade" lifestyle. There's also information in the chapter called Research, Son for those wanting more information after reading this book.

I think that this book has to appeal to everyone who reads it simply because anyone who reads it is obviously interested in living making things and living a "simpler" lifestyle. (Was that sentence a run-on?) I mean, the author is really preaching to the choir. But even if you're not going full scale and purchasing a homestead in rural Idaho, there is something in this book for everyone, even if you're living in a city subdivision like me. For example, many city-dwellers can keep bees or start a garden and anyone, no matter where you live, can teach themselves to play an instrument or sew and knit. All of these topics are covered in this book in an honest and engaging manner. So, if you're like me and just have to take on another hobby or have to try to make everything from scratch, this is a hands-down, no-brainer. Buy it or check it out at your local library and you will not be disappointed.

Latest Girl Date

I may have mentioned before that my days can get busy. With five kids, a husband, a house, homeschooling, and a myriad of hobbies, I can fill up a calendar pretty fast. One of those "calendar-filling" things that I do is to take each of my girls on a date. For them it's every four weeks, but for me it's one day each week where I take one of the girls out to do something that they like. Lately that's been shopping, but then again, that shouldn't be a surprise.

Yesterday was my date with Lou, who is my second daughter. She wanted to go to a garden center for her date and so that's what we did. Unfortunately we got there just before they were about to close, so Lou didn't have time to pick out and purchase what she wanted (a rose bush), but we were able to talk to some knowledgeable salespeople and get some great ideas. (We're going back there this weekend)

But while we wait to return to that garden center, we stopped by Home Depot and bought some strawberry plants. I think that we've both caught the spring gardening bug and just wanted to get started so here are our first strawberry plants.



We also started some lavender seeds. I really hope that they take. Keep your fingers crossed for me because I'm a brown thumb.

Thanks De

I'm waaayyy late in getting around to this but I do want to make sure to thank you. I'm really feeling my way around with this whole blog thing so your award is deeply felt!

Look at What I Ordered

Guess what I'm going to be doing this spring?

I'd been eyeing these books for a while and finally took the plunge today. Both books have rave reviews on Amazon, so I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll enjoy them.

Craft Book Makeover

Recently, I bought a few crafting books. I'd been looking forward to getting these books for a while and they did not disappoint. I love the pictures, the instructions seem easy enough, and there are a lot of projects in each of the books that I really think that I can make.

BUT . . .

Yes, there is a but.

Have you ever tried making things in craft books when the book refuses to stay open?!? All four of the books that I've purchased are soft bound, which does not make it easy to use when you're actually trying to make the projects in the book. So I've found an alternative, thanks to my local office supply store. I took three of them in to have the spines removed and to have a spiral binding put in. It worked perfectly. My books stay open flat so that I can read my directions as well as for copying the patterns inside. The guy who worked on my books did an excellent job and I didn't lose any words or pictures from having the binding removed. All in all, it was definitely worth the extra $5 per book.



So, here's just a tip for any crafty types. If your craft book is soft-bound and you actually plan on using it. Take it in to your local office supply or copier and have them remove the spine and spiral bind it for you. You will love it!

"Misunderestimated"

I totally misunderestimated how much thread it would take to complete this quilt.
I totally misunderestimated how much time it would take to complete this quilt.
I totally misunderestimated how much fun it would be to complete this quilt.
And finally. . .
I totally misunderestimated how beautiful this quilt would be!

I really do love this quilt. The girls (and the boy) all love it too. I would definitely make this one again. The directions were clear and the process is so simple that it would be a great beginner project. I'm even thinking of having the girls make one for themselves although it would definitely have to be a summer project.

I did learn a few things. First, make sure to buy a TON of thread. Okay, not really a ton but definitely buy at least three jumbo spools of thread. You may be able to use two if you use Coats and Clark (I think that their jumbo spools have more yardage) but I use Gutermann thread and I definitely needed three jumbo spools.

I also learned that the special rotary cutter for chenille is totally unnecessary. It was easier to just use my shears to cut through the layers to make the chenille. I am saving the chenille rotary cutter for paper crafts though.



So, I can proudly say that I've sewn 17 yards of fabric this year because that's how much fabric it took to make this. By the way, I decided to name it "February meets March". The two fabrics look like I must have bought them sometime between Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day and I did make it in the month of February so there you go - "February meets March".

No Idle Hands Here

Yeah, I know it's been a while - longer than I intended but I have actually been busy.

Life with teens, pre-teens, and a preschooler is crazy busy and crazy fun all rolled together and this has really put a damper on my crafting life (ha ha). Seriously though, I'm having a ball. I'm having an individual date night with each of my girls on Tuesdays, taking a financial course on Mondays, my regular date with "the man of my dreams" on Sundays and somehow I'm sneaking in a little "crafty goodness".

So here's a little update. After I finished cleaning out my sewing room, I decided to work on some UFOs (UnFinished Objects) that were cluttering up the place. The first one that I've decided to tackle is the "Ragtime Hearts" quilt. This quilt was designed by Liz Porter and featured in the Fons' and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine, January/February 2006 issue. I'd bought the fabric for this quilt back in 2006 - a whopping 16 yards - and it was taking up a lot of space. Plus, I really wanted to make this quilt up. So I decided to finally get down to business.

It's actually a fairly simple process - cutting squares of fabric, layering those squares, adding an opposing colored heart on top of those squares, sewing parallel, diagonal lines across each square, making cuts between the lines to chenille the blocks, and finally sewing the blocks together. After all that you wash and dry the quilt and whola!, you've got yourself a quilt!

Okay, if you followed that then you are already a quilter or have secret powers of understanding. Here are some of the squares and hearts waiting to be put together. These are only half of the blocks required for the quilt. The other half will be in opposing colors.



I did manage to get the other half of my blocks with heart sewn although I'm not sure if the diagonal lines will show up in the photo. These blocks are ready to be "chenilled" (I know that I just made up a word), but I want to wait until the others are done and then do them all together.



It takes 35 of these blocks to complete this quilt, which will be 5x7 feet when I'm through. My hope is to have it done by Valentine's Day but I think that it probably won't happen so I'm giving myself until March. That is a more realistic, and still challenging, goal.

I've also been working on the socks that I started a few weeks ago. I finished the first one this week.



I really should just go ahead and knock the second one out, but I'm going to wait until I make more headway on this quilt first. You know how it is when you're on a roll.