Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I've been working on these little knitted stars these past weeks as therapy following my carpal tunnel surgery. They are an interesting and fun knit :) They can be made in as little as two hours. Perfect for Miss Instant Gratification here. I am planning on hanging a few on my tree and for gift giving as well. I have 2 cones of this sequined yarn that I got as samples eons ago.  The star measures about 4" across. I also made a few extras and they are available for sale in my Etsy shop, Sweet Prudence .

The Fruits of Fall! Yummy Stuffed Pumpkin

I was introduced to stuffed pumpkin by my husband's French Canadian family. Their traditional version is stuffed with ground pork and potatoes. It has always been a harbinger of Autumn and I wanted to keep the tradition alive but a bit healthier! Serve with a crusty bread and pickled beets and follow it up with baked apples for the perfect Autumn meal.

My autumn display 

Veggie Stuffed Pumpkin

Serves 5

Serving size: 1 ½ cups

1 Medium Sugar Pumpkin

1 box Near East Rosemary and Olive Oil Quinoa blend

1 15 ½ oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 15 ½ oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

1 cup tomato, deseeded and chopped

1 small onion, diced

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare quinoa mix as directed on package. Combine with remainder of ingredients in a large oven safe bowl.

Remove top of pumpkin and remove seeds. Reserve for roasting, if desired. (see below)

Stuff pumpkin with quinoa mixture. Replace top. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours or until pumpkin is easy to pierce with a fork.

Bake any remaining stuffing in the oven safe bowl for about ½ hour.

To serve: Scoop out stuffing and pumpkin flesh. Serve with a crusty artisan bread and pickled beets.

Extra stuffing can be served as a side dish with another meal or combined with any leftover pumpkin.

To roast seeds: place in single layer on lightly greased cookie sheet (or spray sheet with cooking oil spray). Sprinkle liberally with sea salt.  Roast at 350 degrees, stirring every few minutes until golden. Enjoy!

Sporty No Slip Headband Tutorial

This tutorial will help you make your own version of those popular, but pricey sporty no-slip headbands. Now you can have exactly the color and print you want in under an hour for under $5 per headband!

NOTE: You can experiment with the width of the ribbons - just be sure they are the same width and cut your interfacing 1/8 inch narrower. You can experiment with the fabrication for the "fashion" ribbon but the velvet is the key to non- slip awesomeness so be sure to use that for the "inner" ribbon. I got my ribbons from MJ Trimming I found a great selection and my order was shipped super quick! (I have no affiliation with them - I am just a very satisfied customer)

Materials

1/2 yard 7/8 inch wide printed grosgrain ribbon
1/2 yard 7/8 inch wide velvet ribbon
1/8 yard 1/4 inch wide braided elastic in a coordinating color
scrap of heavy weight fusible interfacing

Cutting
Cut grosgrain and velvet ribbons to measure
16 1/2 inches. Cut fusible interfacing at 3/4 inch wide by 15 1/2 inches long.
Cut elastic to measure 5 1/2 inches

Sewing
Step 1: Center and fuse interfacing to the wrong side of the grosgrain ribbon (if using a solid color, fuse to one side of the ribbon)

Step 2: Press ends of grosgrain and velvet ribbons under 1/2 inch.

Step 3: Place ribbons wrong sides together and pin, encasing raw edges. Sandwich and center the ends of elastic as shown in the photo below. Edgestitch all edges of the headband.

There you are, an easy peasy custom headband that will NOT slip off your head during your workout!
Enjoy!

The Jelly Roll Quilt - continued...

<sigh> The Jelly Roll isn't looking much more appealing. I cut it in thirds and resewed it in an attempt to distribute the vales a bit more evenly.  So now what to do? Is it a total wadder? Do I add a couple of borders and throw it on the bed anyway? My organic, by the seat of my pants design method sometimes results in some pretty nice projects - not this time I am afraid. And so - to something far more successful - my tomatoes! This was a fine year for tomatoes here along the Pike. Not so much for cucumbers and Jelly Roll quilts.

Gratuitous Tomato pics

The Jelly Roll Quilt - in progress!

A few months ago, I cut several 3" strips from my stash fabric intending to make a quilt I saw in a magazine. The technique involved cutting triangles from the strips and sewing them into pinwheels. I made one block. What a snoozefest! I could not imagine making enough for the full size quilt! But of course, I had already cut enough strips for the quilt - what to do? They languished in my sewing room, mocking me whenever I entered. Enter the Jelly Roll Quilt.

For those of you not familiar, the Jelly Roll Quilt is a current quilting rage and many Youtube videos are dedicated to the process so I won't elaborate here. They made from one of those handy pre-cut strip rolls found in quilt shops. The premise of the quilt is really quite simple, and it sounded perfect for using up the myriad 3" strips I'd cut for the scrapped scrappy pinwheel project.

So I started sewing and ended up with a loooooong 3" strip!  It took less than an hour to sew them all together in random order. (See the result - left) Then I started sewing them back to themselves.

Repeated the process until I ended up with this top. Hmmmm - the darker value strips are all concentrated on one end. I had not thought of that as I was stitching happily away! What to do?? I'm thinking I might cut the top in thirds and swap one of the pieces around to try to make the values more even, if you know what I mean!

Quilt As You Go Potholders

I am a lazy crafter. There, I've admitted it. I do not like projects that are time consuming and nit-picky. I've done them but I don't like them. I like instant gratification and if that makes me a shallow or frivolous crafter then so be it. I accept it. I'll share these types of projects here. For nit-picky, time-consuming things you will have to go elsewhere. I'll miss you, but I'll understand. No judgements here.

Quilt As You Go Potholders

These Quilt As You Go potholders are the perfect project. They are quick, there is minimal finishing and best of all - you can do it all on the machine. Yes! No hand sewing.

So here's a little tutorial so you can make your own.

Materials ( to make one potholder)
Strips of 100% cotton fabric - one each of four or five different prints NOTE: I used 3" wide x width of fabric strips. You can use strips that are wider or narrower but you will need more or fewer depending.
9" square of thick 100% cotton or wool batting (synthetics will melt - ouchy!)
11" square of 100% cotton fabric for backing
One 2 ½" x width of fabric strip for binding

To make the job easier you will need a rotary cutter, acrylic ruler, cutting mat and sewing machine


Start by layering the batting atop the wrong side of the backing square.

Lay a strip of fabric right side up over the top left corner of the batting square. Be sure the strip covers the corner of the batting square completely.

Lay another strip over the first, right sides together. Take care to align the raw edges. Pin if necessary and stitch a scant ¼" seam.

Flip the top strip over and finger press. Trim the strip. Repeat this process until the batting square is covered. This is important! DO NOT TRIM the strip until it is flipped over and you have checked to be sure it covers the batting square!

Neaten up the edges with the rotary cutter and ruler.If desired, baste around the edge of the potholder.

Prepare the binding strip by pressing the long raw edges in to the center of the strip. Starting at one corner, secure the folded strip with a few stitches. Continue to stitch the folded strip for about 3". Loop back to the corner and sewthe binding to all sides of the potholder by stitching the binding along the inside edge of the fold. To finish, fold the binding to the back of the potholder. Pin or baste. From the front, stitch in the ditch taking care to catch the binding on the back of the potholder.



The finished product