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‘Books and Magazines’ Category

  1. Ava and Emma’s Quilts

    April 3, 2012 by Daniora

    I would like to apologize for the color quality on the images in this post. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I took these pictures.

    Companion quilts

    Ava and Emma are sisters and two of the most precious little girls on the planet. When I decided to make quilts for them, I wanted to make two that would go together and that would reflect their playful attitudes. Ava is two (almost three!) and Emma is still pretty new, so I wanted to make something kid friendly, but not something they would grow out of in a couple of years. The Moda “Amelia” line was absolutely perfect. Since I wanted the quilts to go together, I chose a pattern from another of my favorite jelly roll books, Two from One Jelly Roll Quilts. I wound up using the same pattern for both quilts, but I swapped out the dominant color; one pink, one blueish purple.

    Emma's Quilt

    Ava's quilt

     

    Each quilt is made up of a series of nine patch blocks, some with borders, some without, alternating with special blocks designed to make it look like the blocks are overlapping. I was able to make all the nine patch blocks for both quilts at the same time.  Then I made all the other blocks and assembled the quilt tops. My biggest complaint with any of the Lintott jelly roll patterns is that their borders are never big enough. I opted to put a thin black border and a wider colored border to match the dominant color in the quilt. I love the way the black really makes the patterns in the other fabrics pop.

    These are also the first two quilts that I’ve quilted using the longarm machine. My favorite local quilt shop, Bits and Pieces, does machine rentals. You can bring in your quilt and use their machines to quilt it. The fantastic thing is that they have the computer driven machines that you only have to program and it does most of the work for you. This is so fantastic and definitely on the top of my wishlist for when I have way more money and space than I do now. Both quilts have a solid pink backing (cute backing fabric is so hard to find), so I wanted to pick different quilting patterns for each. One has a star pattern and the other has an adorable loopy daisy pattern.

    A loopy daisy pattern I used for one of the quilts.

    I also tried a new binding technique for these quilts. I’m terrible at hand sewing and I don’t trust my stitches to stand up to the kind of wear that I hope these quilts will get. As a result, I’ve been machine sewing all my bindings. The thing is, until these, I’ve been doing it all wrong. I had been sewing the binding to the front, turning it, and then blind sewing it to the back. I always wound up with uneven binding on the back, which I would then hide with a decorative stitch. A little poking around online and I discovered that the way better plan is to stitch the binding to the back of the quilt, fold it to the front and then sew. I did still use a decorative stitch and a variegated thread to make everything just a little cuter.

    Binding stitch with variegated thread.

    I loved making these quilts and I hope my little girlfriends enjoy them for years to come.

    Category Books and Magazines, Crafts, Quilting, Sewing | Tags: ,,, | 1 Comment

  2. Carrot Cake Jam

    July 26, 2011 by Daniora

    Carrot Cake Jam

    I recently picked up a special issue from Better Homes and Gardens all about canning. It has tons of recipes for jams, preserves, and pickles. Every group of fruits and vegetables are represented, and there are even two full pages of recipes for dealing with your surplus zucchini. The issue will be available until August 9th, so I recommend picking up a copy.

    The first recipe I tried out of this new resource was for carrot cake jam. They recommend serving it on toast with a bit of cream cheese (since real carrot cake generally has cream cheese frosting). I’ve been having it on crackers, and it’s fantastic. I will say one thing about it; it’s extremely sweet. This is a jam to be used sparingly, not slathered heavily on your morning English muffin.

    Because this recipe has a pretty high yield, I wound up getting myself an actual canning pot. It can process up to eight half pint jars at a time. The one problem with this is that our kitchen is currently plagued by a particularly small stove. As a result, the canning pot and the dutch oven I use to cook the jam do not fit on the burners at the same time. This made sterilizing and warming the jars while keeping the jam hot a tricky feat. I also happened to pick a 90° day to test out this new recipe. Between the bubbling jam and the steaming canning pot, it was not a comfortable experience. However, the end result was totally worth it.

    I think the one flaw in this attempt at jam making was that I didn’t cook it quite long enough. In spite of having fantastic instructions on how to check to see if the jam is done, I completely ignored them and went purely on the cooking times given in the recipe. As a result, the jam isn’t quite as firm as it is supposed to be.This is also the first jam I’ve made using pectin, so I wasn’t entirely sure how precisely I had to adhere to the cooking times. Next time I’ll be sure to check how gelled it is before putting it in the jars.

    The recipe yields seven half pint jars, so I’ve been handing jars out to my friends and family. They have been universally well received. I’m looking forward to using it as the jam for a batch of thumbprint cookies.

    Category Books and Magazines, Food and Cooking | Tags: ,, | No Comments

  3. Introducing The Nerdly Home!

    April 5, 2011 by Daniora

    The Nerdly HomeI adore Martha Stewart.  She is the antithesis of the “30 minute meal” crowd.  If it’s not difficult or time consuming, she doesn’t bother with it.  She would never even dream of buying something she could make herself.  Ignoring her staff of hundreds and the insider trading incident, she is the personification of the stereotypical 1950s housewife.  Always put together with a home cooked meal on the table and some sort of handicraft in progress.

    I am a big fan of the recent movement to get back towards local and unprocessed goods.  I lovebuying things from local crafters and tradespeople or making them myself. I prefer to get my produce from local farms. If I have time to make things from scratch rather than buying a more processed version ready made, I will.

    I am also a huge nerd.  I play video games, I use the computer, and I love the latest gadgets.  I’m not afraid of technology and all the things it can help me do. The internet is one of the greatest resources we have available these days.  It’s so easy to find other people who are interested in the same things we are and doing the things we’d like to learn to do.  With technology advancing so rapidly, a lot of the old ways of doing things are being lost.  By the same token, it’s this technology that is connecting people who want to preserve these ways and making it easier than ever for anyone to learn almost anything.

    With this blog, I intend to meld all three of these interests.  It’s all about using the resources available in this digital age to recapture some of the “lost” arts of “homemaking”. There are a ton of topics I’m excited about covering.  I’m getting into canning my own food, I’ve got tons of ideas for geeky decorating, and I’ve got a book on beekeeping waiting for my attention.

    Let me stop for a brief minute here to say that this is not a blog geared towards women.  Not in the slightest.  Just because once upon a time this sort of thing was considered women’s work doesn’t mean it still is.  I think in nerd culture more than anywhere else the lines between old gender stereotypes have been wiped out.  I’m hoping everyone will be able to enjoy the information and projects I’ll be writing about.

    So, welcome.  I hope you enjoy your stay.  Follow @NerdlyHome on twitter for updates on blog posts and links to cool stuff. You can also follow me directly at @Daniora to see what I’m up doing on a daily basis.

    Category Books and Magazines | Tags: | 1 Comment