Do you have trouble with buttons? I do. I really like them and frequently think they would be just the thing to add some texture and an interesting shape to a lot of things. But then when I get out the button tin (just go on ebay and buy one they come already assembled courtesy of someone else's sweet grandma) then I start thinking: is this too kitschy? is it going to look unbearably Shabby Chic? This is a problem I have.

This is a little project that I had some fun with for Thad's birthday. He needed a water bottle for his new work/fitness situation so when I saw these stainless steel bottles on Angry Chicken I knew they would be perfect: Thad has a thing for metal. But I was worried about how hot or cold liquids would feel in a stainless steel container so I decided to do a little protective sleeve thing to fancy it up, also to make a water bottle more exciting as a birthday present.



I've been buying silkscreened patches on etsy to use for little decorations and this is one of those, it looks dragonish and of course I had to add my two cents by writing "love" on it. I did manage to refrain from using my girly handwriting and I'm sure Thad is thankful for that.

It's funny how things work. When I was 13 years old I took a quilting class with my mom, neither of us had ever quilted before but it sounded neat and was something my great grandmother had done so my mom had some sentimental attachment. I made an 18" square that took me about six months (maybe a year!), and vowed never to handquilt again because six months for one square did not seem like a good deal to me. Fast forward to now: by way of embroidery I've started using a running stitch to decorate my quilted items because I love the texture: this running stitch is also known as hand quilting.

Inspiration today:

1. This beautiful and comfortable looking home on designsponge.

2. A couple last pictures of summer at the beach.

3. Love the Alexander Henry print quilt in this new book.

4. I hope this is about my new house, wherever it may be:

Continuing my love affair with the wonderful world of embroidery, I've been embroidering a few sets of pillowcases, many of which are destined to be gifts. This handwork has been very comforting to me because it is so portable and there are very few decisions to be made if you are following a pattern like this. My one big rule with these sets is that I must work both pillowcases at the same time so I don't end up dreading the second pillowcases (knitters see also second sock syndrome).

This one will be for us and is a blend of Sublime Stitching and Aunt Martha's patterns. It's mate has a unicorn in place of the birds and etc. Guess which one Thad wants to use?

My move was pretty disruptive but we are starting to settle into apartment living now so I can show you what I've been up to, trying to keep sane. These are a couple of sets of booties that I've been fiddling with using Heather Bailey's pattern. These are for a little Christmas project I've been thinking about which is where my love of pure wool in August comes from.

Both pairs are made from thrifted all wool or lambswool sweaters that go in the washing machine on hot. I also got a pair of lime green (!) Calvin Klein jeans that are turning into cute cotton versions.

I asked Joel how he answers the charge that because food like his is more expensive, it is inherently elitist. “I don’t accept the premise,” he replied. “First off, those weren’t any ‘elitists’ you met on the farm this morning. We sell to all kinds of people. Second, whenever I hear people say clean food is expensive, I tell them it’s actually the cheapest food you can buy. That always gets their attention. Then I explain that, with our food, all of the costs are figured into the price. Society is not bearing the cost of water pollution, of antibiotic resistance, of food-borne illnesses, of crop subsidies, of subsidized oil and water—of all the hidden costs to the environment and the taxpayer that make cheap food seem cheap. No thinking person will tell you they don’t care about all that. I tell them the choice is simple: You can buy honestly priced food or you can buy irresponsibly priced food.”

from Michael Pollan, of course

This weekend's menu (the first chance I've had to cook in over a month!):

mojitos
chocolate zucchini cupcakes, talk about delicious!
Zelda's Pizza
summer fruit from the farmer's market - peaches, heirloom melons
mushrooms over polenta, the mushroom part based on this method criminis work just fine

Hello! I am moving this weekend so I plan to have a little more to say in about a week. Since we are moving and incurring the attendant stress, cocktails have developed a position of extreme importance in my daily routine.

I finally came up with a very easy way to make mojitos. It takes some prep but then you can make mojitos any time in only a couple minutes. I'm sorry that we are moving now that I've developed my method since it works better if you have your own mint growing on the premises. Here are the prep steps:

1. Get a bunch of limes and juice them. We have a citrus juicer attachment for my mixer so whenever limes go on sale I buy like 30-50 of them and then freeze the juice in ice cube trays. I make Thaddy help with the juicing.

2. Make simple syrup. Just dissolve a cup of sugar in a cup of water and keep it in a pour container in the fridge. We use one of those bottles people keep for olive oil with the pour spout on top. This is actually super easy to do in the microwave but they never tell you that.

Then whenever we want to have mojitos I just mash up a couple of the lime ice cubes with the mint then add the simple syrup, rum, ice, and fill up with soda water. The lime juice does not freeze super solid so they are easy to mash up with a fork right out of the freezer.

Also, this makes it easy to make a bunch of mojitos for a party. Just put the lime, mint, syrup, and rum in a big pitcher in the same ratio that tastes good for one glass. Then people can fill up glasses with ice and use about half the mix with about half soda water.

Here is the ratio I use for one mojito: 1.5 lime cubes (this is variable because it depends on your ice cube try, mine makes smallish cubes), about 10 mint leaves, 1 oz. simple syrup, 1.5 oz rum (shot glass). Add ice and about an equal amount of club soda.

Happy mojito summer!

Along similar lines, check out this Basil Lemonade on Orangette.

Edited to add: since the move, I've been making this same cocktail with the lemon basil combination instead of lime and mint. It's also very delicious and just as refreshing. Lemons are easier to juice so this is easier to put together when you are exhausted from moving a bunch of boxes.

I love this system for organizing recipes in a moleskine, featured at Delicious Days. I'm a fan of the handwritten cookbook, but my current blank book is quickly getting difficult to search now that several pages have been completed. This way is still very personal but organized.

These are some hand dyed pieces of cotton lawn drying in the backyard. They are so soft and ethereal in person. This may not be our backyard for much longer so I wanted to capture a little bit of it to take with us.

This is a pillow top I put together with some scraps one evening when I needed a little inspiration. This is about to be part of a larger whole, I am putting together a collection of handmade things incorporating my handdyed fabrics and embroidery.

Baby Jayne Cobb Dietzen, adopted 5/25/2007. He is the best little kitten and we feel so lucky to have him as part of our family.

This is the complete gift set I made for my sister-in-law who is having a girl. I used Angry Chicken's instructions to make matching onesies to go with the quilt. These were super easy with the fancy stitch on my new machine. I am inordinantly proud of the whole set.

I used more of my pink hand dyed fabric for this one. This time I divided up the cut squares into a light pile and a dark pile to make two different colored stripes that look like they are actually different fabrics. It's a pretty cool effect that I will use again on future projects, maybe to get an ombre type effect.

Here's a shot that shows the embroidery and the Beatrix Potter fabric I used for the back, the pink toile is also Beatrix Potter. I'm not usually one for licensed character fabric, but this stuff is adorable.

Click here for a rather dubious shot of the whole finished quilt and here for a closeup of the squirrel appliqued onesie which features a Fussy Cut. Hee, that's really what it's called when you cut out a certain part of the fabric design on purpose.

Actually all of this photography is terrible but I wanted to make sure I had some pictures before this is gone forever at the shower tomorrow.

Here are two quilts I've been working on for my two sisters-in-law who are both pregnant. I hope they like them, neither of them have been exposed that much to my quilting.

Did you know that Ann Patchett writes on the Gourmet blog? When worlds collide! If you haven't read every single one of her books, go to the library right now. I'll wait.

via Smitten Kitchen, my current food blog crush

Plenty of celebrating this weekend, but no pictures. Thaddy got a new job and we celebrated with a bottle of champagne we'd been saving for over a year and indian food. We also got to meet a friend's new three day old baby and help fix up a nursery for another baby on the way. I sandwiched the embroidered quilt and finished most of the quilting. Above all, we ate plenty of in-season strawberries with whipped cream.

Here are two kitties playing on the results of a big dye party I had recently with the lovely Charrmer. I did two more of these big pieces and then a few small, one yard, pieces as well.

and

I think this blue and green one looks like a contour map.

This red one is the best of the small pieces, the other two turned out like just nice blue tonal pieces that I'm sure I'll use, but nothing special. I can't believe it but I bought 25 yards of the fabric I've been using to dye on and it is all gone now. No idea how that could've happened.

Here's another picture of my adventures in the wonderful world of embroidery! Since I still haven't gotten the iron-on patterns I ordered, I drew these birds based on images of Ms. Hart's patterns that appeared in Adorn. My college contour drawing came right back.

Last night I discovered the wonderful world of embroidery. I am embroidering decorations on the quilt top from my last post. So far just words and hearts but I ordered some of these so whenever they come we will see even more exciting embroidery.