July Goal!

Finally, I feel like I can join "A Lovely Year of Finishes" with Melissa and Shanna! I have four table runners/toppers that I started in June, but I really need to finish them by July 20 (or maybe a few days afterwards!). 

My usual wedding present for friends/family is a patchwork Christmas Tree Skirt - the pictures above show a few that I've made, including the one I made for myself (it's so fun to see the skirts in use!). This tradition started because it has always been Mom's go-to-gift. Plus, most of my friends don't have a lot of holiday decorations to start their new life with, so a tree skirt helps them get started in that department!

Well, the friend who is getting married on this month knows how to sew (I helped re-introduce her to this amazing hobby last year), and I think she would have more fun making her own tree skirt. Thus, she gets table toppers/runners instead (still holiday inspired, of course!).

I pulled fabric and I started planning. You can see my scratchings above. Grizz's engineering paper is perfect for quilt planning - it's just glorified graph paper, but it makes me feel official :) The plans originally included embroidered borders, but having never embroidered words before, I decided that trying one new thing (hand-quilting) was enough for this project's deadline!

I kept my fabric choices limited to my stash. Other than the Christmas Fabric (Dear Mr. Claus by Moda), all fabrics are either JoAnns or thrift store purchases. Thankfully I kept some holiday fabrics when I sent most of my stash home with my parents when they visited after Peanut was born. Why did I send fabric home? We have tentative plans of moving back to SD this fall!! Whoop whoop! 

Anyways, enough chatter... the details:

St. Patrick's Day.
Reverse Applique (first time skill!).
Hand Quilted with Embroidery Floss.
Left to do? Binding.

Easter/Spring.
Easy Patchwork.
Hand-quilting started with DMC Floss.
Overcame some early cutting/measuring difficulties.
Left to do? Finish quilting and attach binding.

Fourth Of July
Wonky Star (first time try!).
Left to do? Take out the safety pins and re-baste it... I experimented and tried to pin-baste it without taping down the back fabric - yikes! Since then, Grizz has bought me more masking tape and I can try again! I'm still deciding if I want to hand-quilt this one or machine quilt it... I also need to cut the scrappy binding and attach it!

Christmas.
Neighbor (Bride-to-Be) loved this fabric, so I cut into my fat-quarter bundle just for her :)
Machine-Appliqued the Santa and gift tags.
Left to Do? Baste, Quilt (Embroidery Floss) and Bind.



So, I have a lot left to do, but I have three weeks of nap time and daddy-time-with-Peanut to do it! Wish me luck :)

Also linking up with Fabric Tuesday and WIP Wednesday...

Fire-King and a Dishtowel

 Remember that day trip up to Glacier we took when my parents visited? Well, we had to go through a few small towns on the way, and yes, there's an antique store in one of them :) I had already stopped there once, but I resisted buying anything. The only reason I like antique stores is because I grew up walking around them with my mom, grandma and my aunt. Ever since, I'm drawn to them. SO, if I get a chance to go to a store with any one of those ladies (mom, grandma, aunt, AND now my mother-in-law too!), you know I'll go for it. Thus, Mom and I got to walk through the store while the boys went down the street to some outdoors/gift store/thing. It was so fun!

 

 We were of course looking for anything in the patterns Mom collects (American Fostoria and Pink Adam Depression Glass) or for things that I'm starting to collect... like etched glassware for my "holiday" table setting. I have started to veer away from my pattern-based-collections background (each lady had their specific patterns that they sought after). Instead, I'm looking for usable treasures and/or things that I love. For instance, at one point I called the Depression Glass pattern of "Miss America" MY pattern. I've changed my mind... I still like that pattern the most, but I also love green depression glass of any pattern. In simple terms, my collections are no longer pattern specific :)

 

 This little refridgerator dish (sadly, without lid) was something that caught my eye at the store. It's Blue Sapphire by Fire King by Anchor Hocking. I think I remember Grandma having a similar piece :)

One, I love Fire King (I'm on the look-out for a Jadite mixing bowl and batter pitcher).
Two, it reminds me of Grandma.
And three, it's usable... Grizz already stated that it would be a great butter dish, and I've already used it for a quick chips and salsa snack :)

 

I also grabbed this fun blue and yellow dishtowel. I loved the birdies and the flowers.

 

 

Now, to figure out it's crafty end :)  I have a few ideas already!

Lefse, Lefse, Lefse

Hmmmm.... the Holidays just wouldn't be the same without the smell of lefse freshly off the griddle. Thankfully, for my bridal showers, I received almost everything needed to make it ourselves!

I grew up with eating it at every Thanksgiving and Christmas - regardless of which side of that family we were with. Eventually, Mom and Dad started making it at home instead of leaving it to the older generation or the host for that year. I remember sitting around, watching Mom mix it up and roll it out while Dad took over the flipping duties. Eventually, I started doing my part by jumping in whenever one of them needed a break. The taste of warm, homemade lefse beats any holiday cookie or sweet. *Sigh*

Well, I've been blessed with a husband who also appreciates the Norwegian tradition of mashing up potatoes, adding some evaporated milk, butter and flour, rolling it out and cooking it. He grew up with the church ladies making it. We've also made it at his parents' house while being snowed in a few Christmases ago. (It helps he's almost mostly Norwegian too...)

Now we live 900 miles away from our families and it's time to start continuing the tradition. We made our first batch last weekend, and surprisingly it tastes really good - definitely not Grandma good - but definitely Mom/Dad good :D I was so proud of us! Of course, we battled the usual stickiness and the worries about if the griddle was too hot or not hot enough, etc... but YUM!

Our next door neighbor is mostly German, so she had never heard of lefse! If you've ever tried to explain what lefse is to a non-Scandinavian, you can imagine her confusion after we tried explaining it. For about a week before we made it, Grizz and I would say something about what we needed to buy for it or we'd try to explain one of the processes, so it was only fitting that she be a part of our first Montana-lefse experience to help her understand the whole lefse making process. After watching us roll out a few pieces, she jumped right in! She approved :) It may be a no-no, but in exchange of teaching her part of our heritage, we've agreed to use our griddle to make crepes sometime...