Farmer's Market Mid May

Hey! I bet you thought I forgot about you? Nah. But in these gorgeous late spring days that feel like summer, I find that I just can't stay inside. Of course, that means when I do come in, I have a ton of inside work to get done. You know the drill.

I thought I'd mention a couple of projects this morning before I run off to today's list of stuff to accomplish. First is my swanky new sandbox for Buttercup. It's not quite finished since I still have to put on the corner seats, but yesterday was so beautiful that it seemed a shame not to set it up.

This project can be found at Bob Villa's website. It's super simple to knock together and for my very first woodworking project, I'm quite pleased.

Buttercup likes it too.

The second project that I can share today is a local food thing. Now, I support the slow food/locavore movements and love the idea of eating foods in season when they are at their best, but I'm not ready (nor will I ever be) to give up my coffee, chocolate, spice rack, olive oil, lemons, and all those other things that don't grow here in Maine. Still, by eating even one meal a week (or parts of several meals), from local sources, I feel like participating. I enjoy the How Many Meals Will These Local Ingredients Make? game. Easier in the summer when there's a lot of variety. Harder right now in the early part of our growing season.

The Portland Farmer's Market is one of the top 10 in the country according to Travel & Leasure and this year, I'm making it the first stop in my grocery shopping each week. It's tricky, however, to make a menu for the week when you have no idea what you're going to find at the market. I took some notes last Saturday and I'm posting both a list of available products and things to do with them. My goal is to do this every few weeks, as produce changes, so that next year, I know what to expect.

TOTAL SIDEBAR NOTE: Forbes ran an interesting article on the Myth of the Locavore. While the points made are valid, it still doesn't change the fact that food picked yesterday afternoon and sold this morning at the Farmer's Market tastes amazing and that it's pretty cool to talk to the people who grow what you're going to eat. Plus, eating local helps keep food production in your "neighborhood".

Farmer's Market Products - May 15, 2010

• Chicken
• Beef
• Pork
• Goat
• Mutton
• Eggs
• Cheeses
• Yogurt
• Honey
• Rhubarb
• Fiddleheads
• Parsnip
• Greens (Spinach, Arugula, Lettuce)
• Scallions
• Tomatoes
• Garlic

What to do with this list
This is not even close to a complete list of ideas for what to do with these ingredients, but it is a list of some of the things I made this week. Also, for convenience I've included links to recipes so you can get an idea of what I did, but these are not necessarily the recipes I used.

• Roasted garlic (which has a ton of uses. Everything from spread it on bread to add it to sauces and mashed veg)
• Hamburgers with feta and spinach, Parsnip fries
• Rhubarb crumble
• Rhubarb leather (without the Kool-Aide)
  
• Salad of mixed greens, tempura fiddleheads, sliced hardboiled egg, and spicy peanut sauce
• Roast chicken
• Roast chicken salad
• Chicken stock
• Spanikopita (spinach and feta pastry)
• Fritatta
  

Slacking? Only from the ol' Blog

Howdie! Weather's gorgeous here, garden is in the works and projects abound! Rather than excuses, let me show you what I've been up to:

Buttercup's Spring Poncho (AKA The Easter Bonnet Equivalent)
based on this free poncho design from Lion Brand
(minus the hood, substitute fringe for crochet edges since I still can't crochet)

My shiny new Slouchy Tuque from Knitty done in Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande.
This is really a slick (and totally free) pattern and I wouldn't mind making another.

Slouchy tuque from the side. Soooo soft and cuddly.

Now, if you'll pardon me, the weather is just about right for firing up the grill and making some pizza followed promptly by a lovely walk. I'll catch up with you guys later!

Also finally made a list of all the projects in their various stages of completion thanks to Karin's Super-duper Project Plan List. Until I get some of this stuff under control I will continue the chant of "I won't start one until two are done!" Thanks K, Knitty and Lion!

Spring Pillows: The Bird Pillow Tutorial

I really like these bird pillows from Pottery Barn. Unfortunately, the price tag is a little out of my comfort zone. Time to put my newly acquired applique skills to good use. Hopefully, the following tutorial will make sense, but I'll be happy to answer questions or elaborate on any of the steps that are a little too vague.

Tools and Bits for 1 Pillow

• A pillow blank - mine was 12"x12" but you can scale the design to whatever size you like. It doesn't even have to be square.
• fabric for the pillow cover based on the size of your pillow insert (see below)
  
• double sided fusible web
• colorful scrap fabric
• thread
• yarn
• sewing machine
• iron
• fabric scissors, pencil, pins, needles, and (if you sew anything like me) a seam ripper.

What You Do
Cut out your pillow case pieces. I like the rather elegant simplicity of envelope covers. There are many people out there who have done a much better job than I can of explaining how to make this style of pillow case. Apartment Therapy has an easy to follow set of instructions for how to do this. When you get to the part about sewing on the doily (that would be step 2), we're going to do some applique instead.

Click on the plant and bird templates and print them. (For the record, I drew these freehand, inspired by the PB design. I hereby turn them loose on the creative world). If you're working with a 12"x12" pillow, printing the designs so they fill an 8.5"x11" piece of paper works out just great. You may need to scale the images larger or smaller, depending on your needs. I'm going to assume you know how to do this, but if not, let me know.

Trace the pattern for the plant on the web side of your fusible web (I used Steam-a-seam sticky back fusible web from Jo-ann's). Go ahead and roughly trim around the design. You can use these pieces in a minute to create the contrasting leaf colors.

Peel the paper off the sticky side of the web and place it onto the wrong side of your main plant fabric. Cut the fabric and the web following the traced pattern lines. You'll easily be able to see the pencil lines when you're working with light colored fabric, but I had trouble seeing them on dark fabric. A Sharpie or a white fabric pencil might come in handy here.

Place your plant piece web side down onto your pillowcase cover and follow the directions for heat-setting the design. Pretty simple, no? You're going to do this same process for the lighter green inside the leaves, and for all the parts of the bird. It actually goes pretty quick.

This is a fun project because you choose whatever fabrics are available to you to create the piece. You can also add as many or as few details as you like. Don't feel that you have to do all the layers and details if you don't want to. For example, in the finished pillow, I used the buttonhole stitch on my sewing machine to do the brown stems and the white lines in the tail and wings. You could choose to applique these pieces with interesting fabrics. You could decide to keep it simple and not bother with this at all. Do what works best for you.

When all your appliques are fused in place, you need to stitch them down to make sure that edges don't get caught and peal off. I learned this trick from the lovely and talented Rana who makes the most amazing quilts with incredible machine embroidery. Her machine has a decorative stitch that looks like a T. My machine has a stitch that looks like a T. Basically, you're looking for a setting that will outline your shape and periodically throw a stitch onto the applique to hold it in place. Clear as mud? Excellent. Perhaps pictures will help.

Here is the front and back of my pillowcase. I've gone around all the applique pieces, including the various layers, with this decorative stitch. If your machine doesn't do "funny" stitches, I'm willing to bet that a zig-zag or even straight stitch will work just fine for our purpose. Start by going around all the outside pieces first and work your way in. This way, your stitches layer if they should overlap. Feel free to change the color of your thread to match the piece you are outlining. I used green, yellow and two shades of blue on my piece. Your thread can match exactly or not match at all. The PB pillows use a white thread for tracing the birds. That looks pretty sharp too.

Once all the pieces were stitched down, I used the buttonhole stitch to create the lines in the tail and the stems. Depending on how your attention span runs, you can get very creative here or you can keep it simple and be done with it. If you chose to applique these pieces, you might skip this step entirely.

Finally, I took some red yarn and did a series of french knots to make berries. At some point, I'll dig out some black yarn to give the bird an eye using the same technique. Don't want to try the french knot? Dig out some red beads and sew them on instead.

When you are satisfied with your design, finish sewing your pillowcase together and stuff it with your pillow insert. Voila! Easy pillow revamp for spring! Got questions? Please leave them in the comments so others can benefit. If you make one of these, I'd love to see it!

New pillows for spring

I love these bird pillows from The Barn. I also like the style of these covers. I'm less fond of the $70 price tag for two of them.

$70? For two pillows? Really?

So I whipped these up yesterday using pillows already on my couch and scrap fabric. While I get to work on the tutorial for the bird pillow, you get started on your very own denim pillow.

There are already some great tutorials for making envelope pillow covers. This one from Majestic Blog does a great job of explaining and has lots of photos. I used the same basic concept for my long pillow, adding buttons for decoration and to help keep it closed. Husband put holes in a pair of nearly new jeans that were beyond my ability to repair. I'm glad I found a use for all that leftover denim.

Tune in tomorrow for the bird pillow tutorial. It's slightly more involved than the denim, but not by much.

Practice Quilts for Dolls

In the continuing spirit of my current quilting obsession, I stitched up these doll size quilts. Not only does this use up those scraps of fabric that I just can't part with, but I get to try out some new blocks and techniques and I'm ahead by two on this year's gifts. That never happens.

It's March? What?

How is it possible that it's already March? Time flies when you're having a good time. With one notable exception involving a falling girl, lots of blood, and a fat lip, February was a good time.

There have been tons of projects completed, for which I have promised photos and tutorials. Yeah, it's still on my list but as friends and family will tell you, The List is the length of a bible by now.

Today, I'll share a quick project since the pattern came from Martha. For the Superbowl, I made myself a Steelers hat. Yes, I'm aware that the Steelers didn't make the Superbowl this year, but they would have if a certain Alge Crumpler hadn't injured our Troy in the first game of the season. Stupid Alge Crumpler.

Anyway, I had these baby socks that no longer fit Buttercup. They had little Steeler's logos on them, so I disassembled the socks, grabbed some scrap fleece from Christmas projects, and made myself this nifty Steelers hat. I followed Martha's instructions for the Jester style hat, but instead of pompoms at the ends, I went for longish tassles. I'm ready for September 9! Bring on the 2010 football season!

Ok, that sounds a little strange to me too, but it helps when you have a player you like to watch (have you seen Troy play?) and an understanding of the game. I know more about football now than I ever thought possible. Scary.

I've got posts. No, really!

Well, I have some cool posts a-comin' but I've been so swamped with finishing projects and social engagements of late that I'm out of time before I have a chance to start. Many of you are nodding your heads right now and know exactly what I mean. That's good because I'm apt to get confused and may need directions later.

Babbling aside, I figured I'd take a moment to share a project that is done but for some hand sewing and minor embroidery embellishments. It's a quilt for my dear friend Tim who's currently in Iraq. The quilt is titled "Ellis River Trail" and is inspired by one of his favorite places to hike in the White Mountains. Came out pretty good for a first quilt, even if I do say so myself.

The back is a total rip-off from a design I saw over on Film In The Fridge. The very loud front needed a subtle back. I hope he likes it. There is enough leftover blue fabric to create another quilt. I'm thinking something with a Mariner's Compass and a South Pacific theme. Possibly with a back done in some configuration of Heather Ross Mendocino fabrics.

Addendum: I really do need to give a heaping helping of credit to Rana who helped me finish off the whole business. Check out some of her award winning quilts on her blog.