When the Fork ran away with the Spoon and the Knife!

Recently I was at a children's consignment sale at a local church because I believe in recycling and reuse, especially for children's toys that they grow tired of so quickly. My mom and I were wandering around the toys and book tables when we found this adorable, soft activity book. These are great, quiet toys to pack for traveling, so I picked it up for all of 50 cents. All the pieces were there except the fork, knife, and spoon for the place setting page. I figured I could fix that for 50 cents, so last night while watching one of my favorite classic movies (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) I started forging my felt silverware. Once I was done with the knife I held it up to show my husband who promptly said "I don't think knives are good for kids." Granted, he didn't have his glasses on, but once I explained that they were made out of felt between giggles, we were both laughing.

Felt silverware directions

Materials:
Wool felt scraps
Warm and Natural batting
Thread and needle
Scissors
Pattern (see link)
Sharpie

1. Cut out 2 of everything (including batting)
2. Trim batting so that there is a 1/8" allowance between the felt and batting.
3. Sandwich the batting pieces between the front and back of each silverware piece and pin.
4. Blanket Stitch around each piece. You could sew these on the machine too, whatever is easier.
5. Add embellishments with a Sharpie permanent marker.

Fall Recipe Idea: Swedish Meatballs

Every once in awhile I see a recipe and think "Wow, that would be good," but it never seems to happen before a trip to the grocery store. Today it did for once, so the hubby and I had an excellent afternoon of college football followed by delicious "Almost Famous Swedish Meatballs" from Food Network magazine. Now, the magazine described these delicious balls of yummyness as a copycat recipe from the IKEA store. I honestly can't remember the last time I had IKEA Swedish meatballs, so I'll have to take their word that they are similar. What I do know is that they are delicious.

Since they passed my test, I leave you with the following comments
1. If you have people coming over and you don't want to spend a ton of money on meat  (it adds up!), give the Swedish meatballs a try.
2. If you enjoy meatballs in general...make them. We tossed extras in spaghetti sauce the next day and they were great.
3. If you want to snack on food, say, during a football game, try the meatballs as they are very appetizer-y.
4. If you don't want to spend all day in the kitchen for "comfort food," these were quick and easy (I skipped the refrigeration step in the recipe).
5. I'm not sure if it helped, but I will divulge that I ate the aforementioned meatballs with my "Dragon" silverware from IKEA.

Big Finish: Habitat Fabric Challenge Pillow Cover #1

A few months ago my Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild joined a challenge sponsored by FreeSpirit fabrics to promote the Habitat line designed by Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll.  I decided to toss my needle and thread into the ring and received a complimentary package of Habitat fabric.  For my first quilting challenge, I was more comfortable working on a small-scale project, so I turned to Oh Fransson's Chopped Vegetables patterns for pillow covers.  I separated some of the darker prints, added an eggplant purple solid from my stash, and picked up a grey zipper for the closure on the back side.  Now that I've finished this first pillow cover, I'm more motivated to make a coordinating one, pairing the lighter Habitat prints with a grey solid.  Stay tuned...

**For the record, this is only my second attempt at a zipper, so I'm pretty amazed at how well it turned out.  For anyone who thinks I don't give myself enough credit for what I make, trust that I'm oh-so-proud of my zipper.

Sweet Reader

As an editor, I basically read all day.  A hefty percentage of that reading is not always particularly fun or interesting to me personally, so I always have a stack of books and magazines at the ready to read for pleasure when I can.  That's why this mini-quilt in the book Pretty Little Mini Quilts caught my eye.



Some projects turn into a personal challenge, and this is definitely one of those.  The book had instructions but no pattern, so I struggled to try and make my version resemble the one in the book.  (Who would have thought something no bigger than 8x10 inches could cause so much frustration!)  In the end, I think I like mine better, especially the book cover and sliver of pages peeking out along the top edge.  I'm considering hanging it in my work cube to remind me that there's fun reading in my future.

Super Scarves

 

Football fan or not, if you live in Indianapolis as I do, you can't help but be aware that the city is hosting Super Bowl XLVI in 2012. Soon after the City of Indianapolis won its bid to host the big game, I heard about the Super Scarves program. The goal is to outfit over 8,000 volunteers and hospitality employees with hand-knit or crochet scarves in Colts blue & white. The current count is up to 8,432 scarves! I told my mom about the project and she thought it would be a fun break from all the sock knitting she does for orphanages. And after she finished her scarf, I decided I might as well make one too, not only because I've called Indy "home" for 9 years now but also because she had plenty of blue and white yarn left over (score for me!).



My mom made up her own cable pattern -- I think it looks a little like an ocean wave running down the center. It took a lot of steam blocking to get this one to lay flat, but I think it looks fab.



And here's my scarf, made with a free pattern called Hash Marks from Verdigris Knits, a fellow knitter and pattern designer in Indianapolis. She dove right into the Super Scarves project and has posted numerous free patterns using two colors of yarn in really interesting ways. I was afraid I'd have to settle for a boring two-color stripe -- I'm so happy I found something much more interesting.

More Kanoko Baby Pants

I recently gave this set of Kanoko baby pants and matching floursack hat to an expectant friend. I think I'm getting pretty good at these pants, after knitting them in blue and purple. There's a rosy pink pair on my knitting needles right now.



The hat is so easy that I've already made three or four in different colors and sizes. It's a quick and easy project to use up some of the leftover cotton blend yarn from the pants. What I like most about the hat (other than the little ears) is that it's knit in the round and closed up with a 3-needle bind-off, which means no need to sew up a seam and you get a really clean finished look. The pattern is from Baby Beanies by Amanda Keeys.

Houndstooth Crib Sheet in Grey & White

My friend is expecting Baby #2 later this month, and lucky for her my repertoire of handmade baby gifts has grown since Baby #1. The baby's room is grey & yellow, and when I saw this grey & white houndstooth fabric I just had to try my hand at a crib sheet for the little one.



My mom and my aunt vouched for this tutorial, so I dove in. With a few modifications (added width and a cleaner approach to the casing for the elastic) and phone calls to my mom for help, I ended up with a very cool houndstooth crib sheet. Here it is in a tidy little package ready for gifting.