Friday, April 23, 2010

Overreach much?

Here's a list of my current craft projects:

SEWING/QUILTING:
-T-shirt quilt: Believe it or not, the reason I started sewing. Years ago I heard of people making quilts out of the screen prints, iron-ons, etc, on all those t-shirts from high school, college, runs, bike rides, and I thought, Of COURSE that's what I should do! I immediately cut the front (and sometimes back) designs out of the tshirts that I didn't want to wear any more and turned the remaining fabric into rags. Now I'm quilting on a 15-patch top. Shirts include those from a Yellowstone trip when I was 11, horseback camp when I was 12, a mission trip to Mississippi with my youth group the summer I graduated from high school, and a couple bike rides from the last 10 years. Oddly, I realized after I had assembled the top, I didn't include any college tees, even though I collected a good dozen in my four years.

Unfortunately, my machine started acting all wonky a little while after I started using the "free-motion" foot for the quilting and I think I'll have to take it in to have it looked at. In the meantime, I'm piecing the next quilt with no problem.

-Dinosaur quilt: It's a "crazy nine-patch" with about 6 dinosaur prints and three other coordinating "solid" prints. It's meant for Arthur, who just moved into a twin bed from his toddler bed. This one I just started when quilting on the t-quilt got to be too much. I've cut out the 12x12 pieces necessary to start my first few blocks and hope to start cutting soon.

-Dying: Yesterday I started dying some pieces of IKEA curtain fabric cut from some too-long curtains that came with our new house. They are muslin-like, and my first attempt at eggplant turned out beautifully! This will surely be cheaper than buying new quilting fabric. And didn't quilting start out as a form of recycling?

-Sun shirt: I realized recently that I need a flowy, light-colored shirt for covering up when it's warm and sunny (those days will come soon, right?). I tried one on at Patagonia called "Sun Shelter" but it just wasn't flowy. I don't want a fitted blouse when I'm sweating in the sun! I haven't *really* started this project, but I have cut out some of the pattern pieces and ordered the fabric.

KNITTING:

Believe it or not, I only have one knitting project in progress: A tank made from corn yarn. I am trying to decide from among three other patterns for my next one...

SCRAPBOOKING:

I am so, so behind on scrapbooking. Right now I'm working on a surprise gift for someone that I need to finish in the next month or so. I've started working on Australia. And I've been doing a bit of the day-to-day stuff of the boys growing and having fun in the meantime.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Gluten-free baking

I now have roughly 18 different kinds of gluten-free flour in my pantry. If you don't believe me, check out the baking aisle next time you're at Whole Foods. (After reading a magazine called Living Without, purchased at WF, natch, I realize I now need coconut flour, too.

I bought a book recently called Allergy Free Desserts. I made the lemon bars, and those were decent. But the Cherry Bars were so 0ff-the-hook-amazing I feel like I got my money's worth on just that one recipe. The second batch is almost gone, and even my hubby thinks they're great.

Then there's The Cravings Place, which does great brownies and customizable quickbread/muffin mix. I may have to start ordering it in bulk...