Show & Tell Friday--Pumpkin Doll

Here we are again--another Show & Tell Friday hosted by Kelli , so don't forget to pop over and check out the other Show & Tells.

My sister is eagerly awaiting my Show & Tell Friday as I sit here and type and she's several states away, so here ya go Rhonda. This is my favorite pumpkin doll and since fall is just around the corner I thought I'd have her sit for her picture, posed next to a pumpkin from our garden. Isn't she cute and see how nicely she sits with a great big smile! Very photogenic! LOL! An online friend--Bridget White made her for me several years ago and I just love her. She sits out year round, so I can enjoy her--she pouts if I put try to box her up with the other decorations. I'm not sure that you can see it, but she's sitting on a pumpkin table runner made for me by my good friend Trudy Stubbs. I can't wait to pull out all the other fall decor!
As of today only 23 more days til the official start of Fall! Yippee! I had so wanted pumpkins in our garden this year and the husband insisted--NO Pumpkins! Well guess what--I have pumpkins and I didn't plant them--they came up volunteer from last year--or as I prefer to think of it--my Fairy God Mother planted them for me. They're sprouting up right in between the squash plants and trailing off on their merry way with a trail of little round pumpkins dangling from the vines just waiting to turn a brilliant fall orange! I hope to have my front porch and steps covered in pumpkins! Next year I'm planting giant pumpkins and jadite green pumpkins--can't wait to see those!

Tutorial: How To Sew In A Gusset

I've had many people ask how to sew in a gusset, so today I will show you how I do it. It's very simple to do, so let's get started................

How do we get this into that?
First open up the area that the gusset will be going into and match one end of the gusset to the seam.
Now pin the gusset all the way around from seam to seam or point to point, lining the points up with the seams at either end. Use as many or as few pins as you are comfortable with.
We will be begin sewing at one end at the center of this point, which will be the center of the seam.
Here I've folded the fabric away, so you can see what I'm talking about. The pink stitch on the blue you see there is the center starting point.
Ok, here we go stitching along our first edge. I like to use the edge of my presser foot for my seam guide, which is roughly a 1/4 inch. Don't forget to pull out the pins as you go. Stitching over a pin can cause broken needles and even worse if you hit one just right it can throw the timing of your machine off and then you won't be able to sew and off to the repair shop you will go--guess how I know!
Here we are stitching merrily along on our way to the first finish line!...........
Stitch all the way to the point--where the scissors are pointing--this will be in the middle of the seam, just like at the beginning.
Just another view of where we're heading. What it looks like underneath that fabric............
And we're there! Take one or two backstitches.............
...and pull the piece out from the machine. Clip your threads.............
Put the gusset back under the machine--starting at the end you just sewed to and begin again just like you did on the other side. The scissors are pointing to where we will begin..........
La, la, la, la, la, la here we go, stitching away.....isn't it easy! I told you it would be!
Almost home! See the stitching where we started. Keep going.........
And we're there! Backstitch once or twice, pull the gusset out from the machine and clip your threads.
There now wasn't that easy! You're ready to clip the edges, so it will lay nicely once you turn it right side out. Well done! You get an A!
When making a gusset on a bird or something similar I do not like to leave my stuffing opening in the gusset area. I prefer to cut a slit underneath a wing or some other such place, but that is personal preference and you may find a totally different way that works for you and that's the way you should do it. There aren't too many rules. Just find what fits and works best for you and do it that way. Now go and stitch up a whole flock of birds and Happy Stitching!

My little chickadee bird pattern is available in E Pattern form HERE

New Folk Bird Chickadee Pattern

Folk Bird Chickadee Mama & Baby Birdy E Pattern



I had a few requests for my little chickadees to be put into a pattern and so here they are. Little calico mama & baby chickadees. I have them in E Pattern for 7.00. They can be purchased thru me hazelruthe@yahoo.com ( or hazelruthe2@ida.net for direct Paypal ordering) or you may purchase them thru Pattern Mart --the E Patterns are instantly downloaded--it's a very cool thing! These little birdies do have gussets--that's what helps give them their chubby look. I will be doing a tutorial on how to sew a gusset--its' so simple!, so keep watching over the next few days. I'm sure you'll need an entire flock! :)

Veggie Swap Pincushion

No, it's not a purple pear--it's an eggplant! Really it is. I made this for a pincushion veggie swap we did over at the yahoo group Crazy About Pincushions . I was determined to make an eggplant, but didn't realize what a challenge it would be. I think the next one I'm going to make the top part wider. I used purple and green velvet and then embellished it with some feather stitching and beads. And speaking of eggplant I thought I'd post my favorite recipe for the veggie. It's so good and tastes a bit like thanksgiving stuffing!

Eggplant Casserole

2 lb eggplant, peeled & cubed
1 qt bread crumbs
½ cup evaporated milk
1 medium onion, chopped
8 oz cheddar cheese, grated
2 Tblsp butter
3 eggs, beaten
½ tsp powdered sage
1 Tblsp salt
Salt & pepper

Soak peeled & cubed eggplant in salt water overnight. Steam 30 min. Soak crumbs in milk and mix with eggplant. Add eggs & seasonings. Mix well by hand. Put in a casserole dish and top with grated cheese. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Crowns & Tiaras

It's finally here! I finally got a copy of Crowns & Tiaras by Kerri Judd and Danyel Montecinos and I love, love, love it! You must get a copy, you really, really must! There are 34 fabulous crowns & tiaras with beautiful color photos and instructions with supply lists!

Now whod'a thunk you could make a crown as elegant as this out of chicken wire and....well you'll have to buy the book to find out the rest. Pam Garrison is of course the queen on the front cover and there are 9 awesome contributing artists! Buy the book. You won't be dissapointed!

This is one of my favorites by Anna Corba Very whimsical and elegant..........

..and then this one by my all time favorite Nicol Sayre Absolutely gorgeous and so creative!

Wouldn't these be wonderful gifts for friends, sisters & mothers for birthdays, mother's day or just because or even for a collection of our own! We are all queens and princesses, so wear your crowns proudly!

Tagged--For the Name Game

I've been tagged for the Middle Name Game by Suzanne . I've also tagged 7 others, so if you've been tagged here is what you do.........

Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My middle name is...........

L-Loves to create!

Y-Yes! Of course I love chocolate!

N-Now you know I love to go antiquing, thrifting and to quilt shops!

N-No I do not like housework---it cuts into my fun time!

Ok, here are the fellow bloggers I have tagged...................

Kathi , Laura , Cassi, Terri , Em , Tammy and Susan .

Oops! I goofed--I tagged 7 instead of 4--one for each letter in my name--see what happens when you read the directions--only once! LOL !

Show and Tell Friday 8-24-07

Time for another Show and Tell Friday hosted by Kelli at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ so make sure to stop by and visit all the Show and Tell Fridays.

I thought I'd share two of my many favorite things in my sewing room--I think everything in that room is my favorite! These sit on a big mantle shelf--one of my favorites--given to me by my brother several years ago and boy can it hold a lot!

The little red sewing machine is my first ever sewing machine that I've had since I was 5 yrs old. It's battery operated and I do remember sitting and sewing with it--not so many years ago (only about 41) . It's survived a house fire and numerous cross country moves and it now has a special spot to sit and be admired.

The picture above it was made several years ago by my friend Kathi R of Out on a Whim Studio-- http://www.outonawhimstudio.blogspot.com/ -- and it has been one of very favorite pieces and always is a focal point in my sewing room.
If you look real close I'm sure you can see a nice layer of dust on the shelf too--but we won't discuss that! Ok off to see what everyone has shared for Show and Tell Friday!

Civil War Pincushions

I thought I'd let you take a peek at a swap that I'm sending to a friend--she's out of town, so she should receive them before she sees this. We had a pincushion/sewie swap on the P&R board and this is what I made her---a square pincushion with strawberries on top--stuffed with raw lambs wool, a little sewing ditty bag with pockets--I made up a little story about these being buried during the civil war and being found again and tucked it into the bag-- and that litte roll pincushion that actually hangs. I've seen these little roll pincushions--well photos of them--not in real life, but they've all been new ones, so I'm not sure about their history or the reason that they hang, but I like them. I hope she likes them too and if you happen to run into Deb--don't tell her!

Double Rainbow

Friday evening we had a nice little rain complete with lightening and thunder--I love a good thunder storm! We had run out to the grocery store and when I came out people were standing at the doors pointing upwards and sure enough they were looking at a big full beautiful rainbow--a double rainbow! As soon as we got home I dashed in and grabbed my camera and went outside to snap some pics. If you look closely you can see the outter double rainbow. This one lasted for quite sometime and I was happy to actually get a good picture of it.

Quilt Guild Sewing Room Tour

This past week I finally made it to our local quilt guild meeting for the first time and just in the nick of time! They were holding a Sewing Room tour today! There were 8 sewing rooms on the tour--4 of which I made it to and 2 of which I took photos of.

This first one was my overall favorite! It's hard to tell, but she had a huge space and all organized into stations. This first picture is the area where she did her sewing, had her design wall and part of her stash. There was also a wonderful walk in closet with even more fabric and goodies--you'll just have to imagine that part.

The design wall is made from the poly styrofoam stuff you can get at home building stores and then she capped off the ends with some metal piece--made for capping off stuff--very technical I know. Then she covered it with muslin. This beautiful quilt she said she had started over 20 years ago and is a hand applique using the bias method.

A nice little corner to work in with her light box and yes the lady with the dog is the lucky owner of this beautiful sewing studio. Her name is Dee.

Another view of this part of her studio and part of her stash.

Now we are out in the larger area of her studio. A beautiful antique sewing machine where she stores her many quilting rulers. This pretty little cabinet is where she stores some of her bolts of fabric. What a nifty idea! A view of her sitting area for hand stitching and you can see just a bit there in front of the chair to the left is where she has a quilt frame set up with a Grandmother's Flower Garden on it.
The walls in her studio are a beautiful robin's egg blue--not the gray or lavendar that is showing up.

What a neat cutting table. There are leaves that fold up on both ends and each of those drawers are neatly stuffed with fat quarters!

This gorgeous sewing room was complete with a fireplace! What a wonderful place to sit and sew on a cold snowy winter day. And what a perfect place for the tv--it's not taking up valuable shelf space.

At each home we signed their guest log and there was a paper pieced pattern of a different little house waiting at each one, which made a nice little treasure to take home--especially since I like little house blocks.

I also learned a neat tip from one gal--she had rolls of paper on a heavy dowel hanging from her ceiling and she said it was Sani Paper--like what you find on the beds in a doctors office. It can be purchased cheaply she said, from medical supply stores and she said it was great for tracing paper and that it was her favorite paper to use of paper piecing. This same lady also used a file holder/sorter much like this one....

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=307697&Ntt=plastic%20sorter&uniqueSearchFlag=true&An=text

to hold her sewing rulers and she had some quite large rulers that sat in it and it's much cheaper than most of the quilting ruler holders.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into the Sewing Room Tour as much as I did. I think it would make a great tour idea for any quilt guild and I can't wait til next year--I'm going to go to all of them!

Show And Tell Friday--Folk Art Pins

Make sure to visit http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ to visit all the Show and Tell Fridays.

This week I decided to share my collection of handmade folk art pins. I've collected pins for many years and yes I do wear them. I have pins for most all the holidays--especially Christmas pins which I've tried to buy myself a new one every year since I was in high school, pins that are just fun, pins that are musical and my little gathering of folk art pins which I just love! The pins here are of wood (snowman & flag), wool applique (gold heart), clay (angel), punchneedle (raggedy annie) and the Santa is even on a domino. Each were made by special friends and usually tucked into a swap or sometimes just sent as a little surprise.........

....these are cloth (heart and liberty angel), wool (bee) and rughooked (sheep)--that one I made and it took me 2 hours to hook that little thing. Needless to say I don't do much hooking.
Make sure to visit http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ to enjoy all the Show and Tell Fridays.

I'm off to the museum today and will hopefully have pictures to share later. Happy Friday Everyone!

Attack of the Zucchini!

The following picture could be disturbing to those who are offened by....zucchini! I hadn't been out to the garden in only 2 days and this is what happened! I won't let it go that long again that's for sure. A garden is like men and children--they must be watched at all times or they go wild. This morning I picked. 26 cucumbers, 21 yellow crookneck squash, at least 24 zucchini and 4 peppers --it takes up most of the table!

The husband came home at lunch and just grinned--I sent him back to work with a big box of produce with instructions not to bring any of it back home. If this keeps up I'm going to make a visit to the mall parking lot and grace every unlocked car with squash!

This is the garden spot responsible for this turn out. There are only 3 zucchini plants and 2 yellow crookneck plants and somehow between them they've sprouted a watermelon that is trailing everywhere with big ol' melons growing amongst the squashes. The cucumbers have stayed to themselves--who knows what you'd get when you cross a cucumber and a squash. Now if we can just get our bushel of green tomatoes to turn red I might open a produce stand. And to think the husband wanted to plant our pasture in corn. I told him next year he could and we'll set up a drive thru farmer's market. LOL!

I found a new zucchini bread recipe that I just love--however you can only eat so much of that too, and so I thought I'd share it. If you've been overrun with zucchini give this recipe a try. It's delicious!


Zucchini Orange Nut Bread

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup oil
2/3 cup orange juice-fresh squeezed ( I used 2 oranges for this recipe)
2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Glaze (optional) (I didn't use the glaze)
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour bottoms only of two 8x4 or 9x5 loaf pans.
In large bowl, beat eggs until thick and lemon-coloured; gradually beat in sugar.
Add oil, orange juice and zucchini.
Stir in remaining bread ingredients; mix well.
Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake at 350F degrees for 45-55 minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes.
Remove from pans; cool slightly on a rack.
In small bowl, blend glaze ingredients; spread over warm loaves.
Cool completely on wire rack.
Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator.

If you don't hear from me in a day or two please send someone to search for me in the garden!

My First Punchneedle Piece Finished!

Finished my first ever punchneedle and while it turned out ok, I did learn a lot as I went. Brend Gervais of http://www.countrystitchesonline.com/ helped me a lot and I could see improvement as I went, so hopefully the next one won't have all those pushed out loops. Other than that little loopy problem all went well and I really enjoyed it. It didn't take long to do either and I would punch for a few minutes here and there. Now all I have to do is figure out how I want to finish it. I have a new design that I drew up this time and as soon as I find the time I'll start punching again. Be sure to check out Brenda's beautiful patterns!

Beautiful Cards I Won!

Look at these gorgeous notecards I won from Suzanne at Painter of the Past (Peartree Primitives) http://peartreeprimitives.blogspot.com/ .................



They are notecards Suzanne makes from her early style paintings. She has a wonderful talent and does amazing work, so don't forget to check out her beautiful blog. Now there's no way I'm going to be using these for little notes or letters--nope they are going to be framed and hung on my walls, so I can enjoy them everyday! Thank you Suzanne! I love them!

What I Did Today--Saturday Aug 11

Have you ever had square ice cream before? It's a bit of a fun treat here. We drove about 40 miles up the road to Star Valley, Idaho--that's where you find square ice cream--at the Rainey Creek Store................

I ordered a double scoop of Huckleberry Cream and boy was it good!

Then after we enjoyed our double scoops of square ice cream we drove back toward home--past these purple mountain majesties and amber waves of grain (wheat or barley that has just been harvested)--see they really do exist and no I didn't color the photos.........

Then as we got nearer to this antiques place we had passed earlier our 8 yro daughter begged her daddy to please stop and we did. They had lots of wonderful treasures, but I was good and only brought home a teeny tiny one...............

.....this cool little china prism. I have no idea how old it is or what it hung on, but I like it and will find something to do with it. Anyone have any suggestions?

And now I'm off for a Saturday night pizza buffet--yippee no cooking tonight!