Bit Part

I was watching "It's All About Me" last night. It's a Billy Crystal movie. Guess who had a "bit" part on the movie? SEAN CONNERY!!! When Sean Connery walks on stage, there's no such thing as a BIT part. OH MY...I'm still fanning myself. Sigh...

Sewing Tool Caddy Tutorial

On occasion, on the HGTV quilting forum, we have Friday night PJ parties. I think this is the second year (could be the third). Whoever has a project that others want to learn how to do...she is the teacher. In 2009, I was involved in a swap on the HGTV quilting forum - All I Want For Christmas. We shopped and created for 10 months, then mailed to our intended recipient. Jackie/Wenonah, sent me several neat things, including this...
Look closely at the red and white thingy on the left. It is a sewing tool caddy...a sleeve with pockets slipped over an acrylic photo frame! When I attended the Houston's quilter's retreat in August (when the tree limb totaled my 4-Runner), I took my caddy along. Several, "I want one of those" later...it was decided that this would make a great project for the HGTV quilter's forum Friday Night PJ Party. After contacting Wenonah, she gave us permission to create a tutorial and have the party! Jill/WillQuiltForChocolate and I worked on a sample. We took tons of photos! WQFC put it all together and e-mailed it to me. I fine tuned it and hosted the party a couple of weeks ago. And here it is for you!


You need one FQ or three prints from your stash.
And a free standing frame – acrylic or metal. Can be found at dollar stores and Wal-Mart for about $1

Cut fabric pieces as follows:
Main fabric (cubes): 6" x 15"
Deep pocket (stripes): 6 1/2" x 14"
Little pocket (solid): 6 1/2" x 8 1/4"

Fold the two short rectangles in half width-wise and give 'em a press. Then mark the centers. On darker fabrics, I use a sliver of soap.
Lay your unfolded piece (my block fabric) down on your work surface. Top it with your large folded piece (my stripes). Put the small folded piece behind it (orange). Not like the photo. Line up all those short raw edges matching centers. Stitch in 1/4" seam.
Pull the short piece out, press up and over the large pocket. When you press it up, it will look like this...raw seam inside and covered up.

Flip it over. Do you notice how the pockets are just a bit wider? Trim them at an angle from the seam up. You want it even at the bottom seamed edge and wider at the top of the pocket. The pocket needs some fullness or all you'll be able to get in there is a ruler.
After trimming, turn it over. With your favorite marking tool draw the center line through the pockets and enough of the main fabric to center the pockets. Then draw another line each side of the center - halfway between the center and edge of the fabric.

I don't have a photo of this, but if you want the back pocket to be just two large pockets, pull the pockets to one side and stitch the two outside marked lines through the pockets only...not the back. Clear? Then flip the pockets back up over the base fabric.

Otherwise...Sew the center seam through all layers to the top of the back pocket.
Line up the raw edges and stitch each of those with a scant 1/4" seam.
Then stitch the lines on either side of the center line.
On the end opposite the pockets, either finish the edge by serging or zig-zagging or fold up ¼” twice and ‘shirt-tail’ hem it. Now, fold in half right sides together and stitch the side seams with a ¼” seam – no larger.

In this photo, one hem is serged (on the left) and the other turned up and stitched "shirt-tail." Whatever seam finish you want to do on the end opposite the pockets.
Turn it. Poke your corners. Slip over your frame. If it's too large, you can turn it inside out and reseam. Someone mentioned that their 'sleeve' was a tight fit. Taking into account that the frames could be thicker or thinner from different manufacturers, you might want to measure the width and thickness of your frame and add possibly another "ooch" to the width of your fabrics.

Now what could be simpler and more useful? An 8 x 10" caddy? Of course! It should be fairly easy for you to do the math and make a larger caddy.

How Hard Can It Be?

...To check the spelling of the name on the order form with the spelling of the name on the stamp?

After a 2-3 week wait, my notary stamp FINALLY arrived. I took it out of the mailing envelope and stamped my stamper.

I looked at the impression. Blinked. Looked again.

When I was in high school, for a while I replaced the "y" in my name with an "i". Once I even dropped the "ry" on the end and signed my papers, "Sher"... Get it? :-) But never ever did I spell my name "Sherrie". So I looked at the shipping label. It's spelled, "Sherry". eyeroll

Tomorrow I'm calling the company and tell them to please send a replacement immediately! And if they want this one back, they need to send postage!!

Aieeee

Gumbo night! I made gumbo Monday night. It was delicious! We had again tonight. I'll take the last bowl of leftovers with me to work tomorrow along with some homemade cornbread. Uuummmm-um. So good! Makes a possum hug a hound! :-)

My cornbread recipe has to be somewhere on this blog, but I didn't label it. So here goes:

Set out a stick of butter before starting.

Buttermilk Cornbread

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose or unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup oil
1 egg

Set oven on 425 degrees. Put a dab of bacon grease in each section of your cornbread pan(s). I use a cornstick pan and a 'scone' pan. Both cast iron of course! Set both pans in the oven.

In a medium size mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
In a 2 cup measuring cup, combine all liquid ingredients in order given. You can measure directly into the cup. Just remember to add the egg last. Beat with a fork or small whisk.
Pour buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients. Stir well. If it seems dry, add a bit more buttermilk.

For the cornstick pan (bacon grease should not only be melted, but HOT so that the batter sizzles as you spoon it in), spoon enough batter into the compartments, spreading a bit. Pop this in the oven. Divide the remaining batter evenly in the scone pan. The cornsticks are going to take about 12-14 minutes. The wedges take about 18 minutes.

Slice your favorite piece of cornbread and slather with that softened butter!

You can tell from the size of the wedges why I also bake a pan of cornsticks. If my memory serves me correctly from when I baked cornsticks on Sunday morning for when we had our 5-Sunday dinners at church, this recipe makes somewhere between 4-6 pans of cornsticks.

You can also make this by pouring the entire bowl of batter in a greased and heated cast iron skillet. Or in a 9 x 12" baking pan - but I don't know why you'd use a baking pan when you have perfectly good cast iron. You DO have cast iron don't you? If not, go to thrift stores, second hand stores, some junk/collectible/antique stores. Look for American made. Some of that imported stuff is 'pert near' impossible to season correctly.

Gumbo recipe (with photos) here:
http://keepyouinstitches.blogspot.com/search/label/gumbo

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

Oh what a beautiful baby! Isabel - four days old - with Grandpa... With Granny... Colt 2 months, 4 days with Grandpa...With Granny...Cousins...

Welcome to My World

Thursday, January 20
Isabel
2:49 p.m.
7 pounds 15 ouncesProud parents are Sam's daughter, Brook, and her husband, Cody. Grandpa is rather proud himself!

We go see them tomorrow!!

There's Got to be a Morning After

After the snow that is...
These photos were made Tuesday morning after the snow on Sunday and Monday. I LOVE this one!

Steel Cut Oats

Back when I was in the health food store and purchased the gluten free bread mix for Judy, I also purchased a box of Steel Cut Oats for me. Carol told me about the oats. Told me how she prepared them. You bring them to a boil, remove from the stove, cover, and put in the refrigerator over night. I swear she told me that she even likes it cold. Ummm...I don't think so. The next morning you take the oats out of the refrigerator and heat in the microwave (with butter and sugar) then pour in a good glug of milk.

I've prepared single servings a time or two. The other night, I boiled 4 cups of water and poured in 1 cup of oats. I thought that would be good for breakfast on workday mornings. Will NOT do that again! What they call four servings is more like 5 or 6 for me. I got Sam to try them today. When I asked him...he said that the little ...well...wait a minute.

Steel cut oats (also called pinhead oats, Irish oats, coarse cut oats) are whole grain groats (the center part of the oat kernel). They are...well...cut in pieces, of course. And they resemble fat grains of rice. Unlike rolled oats which are the groats smashed flat then steamed and lightly toasted.

I like it. Instead of just wallowing oatmeal around in my mouth and swallowing...there's actually something to chew before swallowing. Back to Sam...

First thing, he was put off by reheating leftover oatmeal. I told him that these were different...that they were not the glutinous glob of regular leftover oatmeal. When he looked at the oats fresh out of the refrigerator he asked, "This is not a glutinous glob?"

"Not like rolled oats," I answered with a smile. Since I had already eaten my breakfast, I skipped off to the shower while he was eating his. Later I asked him how he'd liked the steel cut oats.

"Not bad," he said. "But when I first bit into one of those little bulbs...well...it was kind of like eating fish eggs."

Can I tell you that that was the end of the conversation? I don't know if I can eat another bowl of steel cut oats without thinking about fish eggs!!! eyeroll

Almost Messed Up!

I started out to work an hour late only to discover that 95% or better of my route to work was clear! No ice or snow on much of it. Just a couple of spots where the trees hang over the road shading it and on the tops of the hills.

After work, I went to Mama's to visit with her...changed her sheets and brought her mail in...twice. eyeroll When I first got there, I walked out to the mailbox (rural mail carrier) and got her mail. Changed sheets. Visited. Got up to sweep the snow off her steps and porch edge. She asked me to get her mail.

I thought, "OH NO!" But I smile and say, "Mama, I already have. You even looked at
it."

She smiled sweetly because she knew what I was thinking. "That was yesterday's mail. She (mail carrier) ran again just a few minutes ago."

LOL So I got today's mail too.

Then I headed home...the back way...the back way that still had quite a bit of snow on it...the snow that partially melted today and was in the process of refreezing. I thought about turning around, but nah...I am getting to be an old hand at driving in this stuff. After all, I made it to town and back yesterday without winding up in the ditch. So I'm driving along, over the railroad track, through the woods, around the curve...Almost home free. Then...the hill had ice on it. I started up and almost at the top...spun out. Slowly, reverse downhill a bit. Try forward again. Spin. Reverse again...and I'm thinking STOOPID. Backed about halfway down very carefully and proud of myself for steering into the direction I was sliding like you're supposed to instead of the instinct to turn the wheel the other direction. (Remember, I'm in reverse, people.) Finally got purchase in forward and got over the hill. Whew! Made it home safe and sound. Don't think I'll go the back way again until...oh...about August! ;o)

Tonight we have a hard freeze predicted...about 17 degrees. THAT is cold!

Exercise and diet program...that went out the window when the full time job came in the door. I gained just 2 or 3 pounds during the holidays and need to get that off. I'm going to have to really watch the calories. I've thought about the one Sweating to the Oldies VHS that I own...but it almost ruined so many good old songs for me. I still should get it out and just exercise here at home...I can do as I've done before...watch it with the sound turned off.

Hmmm....Wonder why Sean Connery never did an exercise video. Sigh.

It Snowed!

How about a quick dunk in the pool? :-)