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March 1st, 2010 | by Jessie |
Here’s the story:
My friend Tara is a great girl. I love her lots. She has always admired my quilts. I don’t say that in a braggy way, like, “Hey everyone, look at my awesome quilts! I’m so awesome!” Not quite like that. She just has always been so sweet about my crazy hobby and appreciates the work that I put into them. So much so that she’s often said (whiny voice), “When am I going to get a quilt?” To which I would respond, “Just give me a reason.”
You see, Tara got married before I started quilting and as of this post date, is childless. And those are two of the most common reasons I make quilts: to celebrate a marriage or a baby.
Lo and behold, Tara is now great with child. Coincidence? I think not.
Tara’s little boy is due at the end of April and last weekend I was invited to her baby shower.
I knew what had to be done.
The problem was this: I had my sewing machine here at the house but nothing else. All of my fabric that I’ve accumulated over the years and my various notions were in storage. I had to come to terms with departing with them when we decided to sell our house.
For weeks, I fooled myself into thinking I’d just buy her something else and make her baby a quilt when we moved into a new house.
Then last Monday rolled around, 6 days before the shower. It was now or never.
So early the next morning, I took Jude and Jace to the quilt shop in town and picked out new fabric for the quilt; our mutual friend Ali helped me with the color scheme – Tara is decorating the nursery with primary colors. After a short trip to our storage unit to get a few essentials, I got busy.
I knew the quilt had to be a fairly simple design; I didn’t have a lot of time. Mix in three – nearly four – house showings*, oh yeah, and three boys, and by 1:30 am Saturday morning, I had this:
*Friday as I was working feverishly to finish the quilt, a realtor called and asked if she could show the house that evening, so I put all my sewing stuff away, cleaned so that it looked like no one lives here, and hauled the kids off to the in-laws’ house. The realtor called my cell phone during the time they were supposed to be here to tell me they couldn’t make it. Big-time FAIL.
February 10th, 2010 | by Prairie Princess |
 This may come as a surprise to you but this recipe contains no peanut butter OR chocolate. I know, I know it’s an injustice and totally out of my comfort zone. But in the spirit of trying to get healthy and lose a few Reese’s induced pounds I’m trying some new things. One of those is getting up at 5:00 a.m. to do Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga. WHHHHAAAAT? If you know me at all you know that exercise is a dirty word in my vocabulary and that I detest it. But I have to admit that I’m kinda digging this yoga stuff, shhh don’t tell I have a reputation to uphold. Also gone are my misconceived notions that yoga is all about relaxing and sitting cross legged, palms up chanting “Hmmmmmmm” which was it’s whole selling point for me by the way. Turns out you really do break a sweat and work those muscles, who knew?!? My very favorite part of the yoga workout? The last 2 minutes of cooldown where you get to lay on your back, palms up, and relax. I LIVE for those 2 minutes, it’s the only thing that gets me thru the first 32 minutes. The other thing I’m attempting is eating healthier. I’m kinda copying the Weight Watchers philosophy, without paying any fees or going to meetings hence my own special name….. Waist Watchers. I’m nothing if not a creative copycat. So while on my quest for “Waist Watchers” recipes I came across this one and it was quickly declared the biggest loser, a winner at our dinner table. And it’s easy which is good considering after my yoga work outs, lifting the pound of meat out of the fridge is about all I can muster with my muscles aflame and all.
How about a little less talk and a little more action? Here goes…
Waist Watchers Taco Soup (adapted from the Weight Watchers Taco Soup Recipe found on our friend the internet)
1 lb. extra lean ground beef or turkey (I found some extra lean turkey sausage that worked great!)
1 large onion, diced
2 cans chili beans (I switched it up and used one can chili beans and one can dark red kidney beans because I’m a trendsetter)
1 can zesty chili beans (ex: Mrs. Grimes Chili Beans in Sauce (Hot) or you can use medium or whatever your heat tolerance is)
1 can black beans, drained
1 can corn, undrained
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 ½ c. water
1 4.5 oz can chopped green chiles
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 pkg ranch dressing mix
Brown meat and onion, drain. The original recipe says to add remaining ingredients to drained meat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. But I, being a lover of the crockpot decided to convert this to a crockpot recipe, and instead browned the meat and onion, drained, and then dumped EVERYTHING into the crockpot and put it on low all day and it was perfect. Top w/ shredded cheese and perhaps a dollop of sour cream, reduced fat of course.
And since you’re eating such a healthy soup for dinner how about indulging a little with my secret cornbread recipe? And now you see how my twisted little mind works and also explains why I can’t seem to lose any weight! But hey this cornbread, THIS cornbread is worth the splurge.
Chilly Night Cornbread
1 box Jiffy yellow cake mix
1 box Jiffy corn bread mix
2 eggs
½ c. cold water
1/3 c. milk
Preheat oven to 350. Basically you’re following the directions to each mix and combining them but instead of being a lazy blogger I’ll walk you through it. Add cake mix, cornbread mix, eggs, water, and milk to a mixing bowl. Stir until well blended. Grease a 9×13 baking dish, pour mixture in. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until the top is nice and golden but not too brownish. Do the toothpick test, if it comes out clean it’s done. Serve warm w/ Waist Watchers Taco Soup and don’t feel the least bit guilty about it since the soup is so darn healthy. Add a little butter and honey to your cornbread if you really want to live on the edge. Now go do some yoga to work it off, have frozen vegetables handy for post work out muscle relief.
Happy waist watching!!!!
February 2nd, 2010 | by Jessie |
by Cousin Sarah
Hello there friends, family and fans of NGCO!
I’m Sarah, Josh and Jessie’s cousin.
Jessie asked me awhile ago if I wouldn’t mind sharing some baby food recipes and tips with you all and I said sure! I love making baby food. I like knowing exactly what is going into my little guy’s mouth and how it was made.
Let me start by saying, I reference this website for almost everything: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
I usually have a day that I designate as "Baby Food Makin’ Day" cuz, I’m not gonna lie, it makes a huge mess of your kitchen… or at least I do… it could definitely be just me.
I make large batches of whatever fruits and veggies I can find at the stores here and then freeze them in ice cube trays or glass jars.
The last time I made baby food I did oatmeal, squash, sweet potato, green beans and broccoli. I’m sharing two things today: Oatmeal and squash. They’re both pretty easy and standard, but they’re faves of my little guy, Ziggy (aka Isaac).
Oatmeal.
I’m a big fan of keeping things natural, so I make my own cereals in order to keep away from everything that is added to fortify commercial cereals. I do oatmeal, brown rice and barley. The day I took photos I was doing oatmeal, but the other grains can be substituted and prepared in the same way.
I use the desired quantities on the oatmeal container.
First, I start a proper amount of water heating to a rapid boil.
While that’s going, I grind the oats in my food processor (you can also use a coffee grinder) into a fine powder.*This oat powder can also be used to substitute flour in many baby baked good recipes if you like to stay away from bleached and wheat flour.
Next, I get my whisk out.
Once the water is at a rapid boil, I add the oat powder.
The key to avoid clumping is to whisk whisk whisk!
Cook for the suggested amount of time.
When done cooking, you can stir in a bit of extra water to thin it out if desired.
I let the oatmeal cool for a minute, but not too long or it gets thick and hard to work with, before dividing it up into labeled jars or ice cube trays.
You can also make oatmeal as you normally would, and then process it after it’s done cooking, but I find that it’s much smoother this way.
Finally, I date and freeze the jars. Or, if I use trays, I freeze them until the cubes are good and hard (usually at least two hours) and then I break them out and put them into a labeled and dated plastic bag and store in the freezer.
Then, I just take out a cube or two and thaw as needed and add to fruits or vegetables!
Squash.
Acorn squash works the best as far as freezing goes, it retains it’s texture the best. My 9-month old would eat squash all day, every day if I let him. LOVES it!
First, wash the outside of your squash.
The hardest part to me is cutting the bugger in half, length-wise. I start on the bottom with a heavy-duty knife and go through the stem last.
Remove that sticker, of course.
And then scoop out the seeds and guts with a spoon (I save the seeds to roast later… yummy!).
Then, place the halves, skin up/meat down in a baking dish and add an inch or two of water.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. I usually check after a half hour. When the skin starts to pucker and your finger leaves an indentation when pressed on it, it’s ready.
Let cool for a few minutes and then scoop the meat out into a blender or food processor.
Puree, and if needed, add a little water until desired consistency.
Divide into dated and labeled glass jars or ice cube trays and freeze.
Cubes will take at least two hours to freeze entirely. (If you take them out too soon and put them in baggies, they’ll stick together. Not fun.)
Break cubes from trays and place in labeled plastic baggies.
Hint: If you’re having a hard time getting the puree from the trays, put a bit of hot water in a baking dish and let the bottom of the trays soak in it for just a minute to loosen them.
Then remove from freezer and use as needed.
The thing I like about cubes, is you can start out with just one or two when baby first starts on solids, and increase as you go along (my guy was up to four, until he just recently decided he was too cool to be spoon fed purees anymore, now I’m experimenting with making him finger foods).
Also, I like to combine say a cube of oatmeal with a cube of squash and a cube of green beans… they make it easy to make different food concoctions.
Anyway, there you have it! (I was going to include an "after" shot of my kitchen, but it was just too embarrassing). ☺
January 9th, 2010 | by Jessie |
Hey, kids! Do you remember this quilt? To catch up on this project, check out the intro and Block A.
Today we’ll be tackling Block B. Here she is:
This block consists of three different units:
  
So, the first black square should be cut at 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”. That’s the easy one. There is one black square in every Block B, that means you’ll need 8 since there are 8 of Block B in this quilt.
Now, the black & white half-square triangles (HST) – this will be a repeat from the instructions given for Block A, since they are the exact same unit:
Scrappy look: (finished unit size) 3 + 7/8” (constant) = 3 7/8”. I cut 3 7/8” squares of each fabric (in the example above it would be black & white fabrics) and then cut each of the squares in half diagonally from corner to corner. Then all you would need to do is sew together two triangles (one white and one black) along the diagonal (bias) using a 1/4” seam, press it to the darker fabric and you will end up with a 3 1/2” HST unit.
Two fabrics only: If using only two fabrics, I would have made my HST units according to these directions I posted some time ago: making half-square triangles. Because this method will crank out 8 HST units at a time, it is faster and more accurate than the “add a 7/8 inch” method.
You will need four black & white HST units for each Block B times 8 blocks in quilt = 32 needed.
Lastly, the green & white unit:
Scrappy look: cut a green rectangle 3 1/2” x 2” and a white rectangle 3 1/2” x 2”. Sew the two patches of fabric together along the long sides using a 1/4” seam. Press toward the green fabric.
Two fabrics only: from fabric yardage, cut a 2” strip selvedge to selvedge of each the green and white fabrics. Along the long edges, sew the strips together right-sides facing using a 1/4” seam. Open the strip set pressing toward the green fabric. Sub-cut the strip set into 3 1/2” widths, which will yield 3 1/2” squares.
There are four of these units needed for each Block B, which means you’ll need a total of 32 for the entire quilt.
Lay out the units to make the block, sew the units into rows, and then sew the rows together to complete the block. Repeat the process for the other 7 Block B blocks.
Once all Block A blocks and Block B blocks are completed, assemble the quilt top as shown above. Use this tutorial for help: sewing together a quilt top.
December 30th, 2009 | by Jessie |
My favorite Christmas gift this year wasn’t even for me. Emily made my boys blocks for Christmas. They are amazing. Heirloom amazing.
First of all, what a neat package! A clear paint bucket personalized with our last name initial on the lid.
And a heart on the flip side of the lid. The bottom of the bucket it says Christmas ‘09, but I forgot to get a picture of that, dang it.
So, on 5 sides of all of the wooden blocks – which she and my Grandpa Bob cut – she has painted letters and numbers.
And on the sixth side, there is a special picture that she painted, which doubles as a puzzle:
This is so cool. She painted three little boys in the landscape: one in the boat, one in the hot air balloon and one in a window of a building. Speaking of the buildings, the yellow shape in front of the buildings is meant to look like an iPhone (one of their favorite “toys”). See the silhouettes that are on The Beatles Help! album? For their love of The Beatles.
So special, so beautiful, the colors, the letter and number fonts… perfect!
And for one last hidden message. The last two rows flipped over say…
Love Aunt Em.
I feel sorry for you guys who don’t have Emily as a sister.
December 30th, 2009 | by Jessie |
I’m posting this entry here under the Arts & Crafts section, although it really could have gone under any of the areas of Nothing Gets Crossed Out.
I wanted to share with you one of the gifts my sister Emily gave my husband Josh. It’s partially homemade.
Hilarious!
That’s my husband on the cover. As a strapping young lad of 17 years. Emily had somehow acquired a photo of Josh pictured his junior year of high school after his track team won the conference meet. She photoshopped the American flag and brilliant blue sky in the background.
Did you know that Josh was a track star?
Big time.
He ran sprints, but his major claim to fame was the high jump event.
His junior year, he actually got 2nd place at the state tournament by jumping a height of…
wait for it…
6’ 2”.
That wasn’t his highest jump, however; he also cleared 6’ 4” in his high school career. Just a little tidbit in the history of Josh.
Another fact about Josh? He hates inspirational sports movies. It’s true.
Rudy? Nah.
Remember the Titans? Nope.
The Blind Side? Would never see it.
Insert any inspirational sports story ever told here and he wouldn’t like it. Too cliché. You knew he was kind of a snob, right?
That’s why this is so funny. See the caption?
Emily was thorough… just take a look at the back:
And inside the case was a whole ‘nother gift.
A six-month subscription to Netflix!
We signed up Sunday night and have already received, watched and returned our first movie! Pretty slick!
I’ll be featuring another gift from Emily here in Arts & Crafts tomorrow. Stay tuned! It’s a humdinger.
December 29th, 2009 | by Jessie |
And the winners are…
1. Jillisa
2. Momma Denise
3. Lois VanDusseldorp
Congrats, ladies! Since I happen to know that Momma Denise also received the Food & Family subscription at Christmastime, I’m guessing she will want to gift this subscription to someone else.
Thank you everyone for participating!
December 28th, 2009 | by Jessie |
I have a lot of things to share with you here in the Arts & Crafts section of the blog over the next couple of days, but today, I wanted to share a recipe with you and give away a late Christmas/early New Year’s gift to three of you. See the end of the post for details.
One of the gifts I received this Christmas was a subscription to food & family magazine from my sister. I’ll just tell you this right now, in the interest of full disclosure: she (my sister Emily) works on the magazine as a designer. I knew Emily was an awesome designer, what I didn’t know was how great the food & family publication is! She gave me the latest issue in addition to the subscription and I’ve “devoured” it. Mer mer mer. I hadn’t previously seen any issues of the mag before.
I found it packed full of tasty-looking recipes that I could totally see myself making. Real, everyday-type recipes in addition to some special occasion ones, kitchen tips and great ideas for meals-on-a-budget, too.
I was so impressed with the magazine that I’m giving a one-year subscription to three of you.
But, wait! That’s not all! I’m going to first share a “real” everyday, easy recipe with you – this one isn’t from the magazine, but it’s one I often make; the whole family loves it.
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Tostado Casserole
1 lb. ground beef
taco seasoning packet
15 oz. can tomato sauce
bag of Fritos or other corn chips
16 oz. can refried beans
*optional* Southwest corn mix (canned)
cheddar cheese
Here’s what you do:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground beef in a skillet and drain off the fat. To the ground beef add 2/3 cup of the tomato sauce (save the rest!) and the taco seasoning and stir.
Crunch up the whole bag of Fritos. Measure two cups of the crushed chips. Reserve the 2 cups and spread the remaining chips evenly in the bottom of a 9” x 9” baking dish.
Layer the beef mixture on top of the chips in the 9 x 9 pan.
In the skillet where the beef browning had taken place, empty the can of refried beans and add to it the rest of the can of tomato sauce, stir until smooth. If you’re feeling saucy, here’s where you can opt for the southwest-style canned corn (contains black beans, onion, peppers), just mix it in with the refried beans and tomato sauce. Layer this mixture over the ground beef.
Add a layer of cheese – how much is up to you, then spread the reserved 2 cups of Fritos on top.
Bake for 30 minutes or until heated throughout. Serve.
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Back to the give-away:
All you need to do to be eligible to win is comment to this post, telling me who cooks for you. It’s you, isn’t it? Does it happen to be your spouse? Your mom? Your kids? Dude at Burger King? Do you share the task with anyone or is it totally, cruelly and unfairly one-sided? Even if you happen to already have the subscription or (gasp!) don’t want it, please still enter, we can send it to a friend of yours who would enjoy it.
Comments must be made by 12:00 noon CST tomorrow, December 29th. I’ll pick three of your comments randomly and email you for details.
*I have not received any compensation for pos mens made here and the give-away sponsored my me.*
December 21st, 2009 | by Jessie |
Simple and stylish… with swirly quilting. And did I mention reversible?!
I’m on a roll… I have bought no new fabric or batting for the last five quilts I’ve made. I’m using the materials I’ve accumulated in the last five years of quilting and having fun doing it.
December 9th, 2009 | by Jessie |
 At the time I made this quilt, I posted instructions on how to make a snowball block and how to sew a quilt top together, but I also photographed the process I go through to make appliqué letters.
After finishing the letters on the aprons, I thought it would be a good time to post a li’l tutorial on appliqué.
So here we go!
The first thing I do is decide what letter or word(s) will go onto the project.
Next, I open up Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 (actually, I have version 7, but either would make a great Christmas gift) to sample fonts. Or you could use Microsoft Word or any other word-processing program for this. I type the letter or word out and sample a number of fonts to find the right look I’m after.
When I find the right font, I will adjust the size of the letter or letters until they are a good “actual size” for the project. Keep in mind when making adjustments or choosing a font, that you want the letters to be thick enough to stitch around. If a letter is too skinny, it’ll be very difficult to stitch around both edges. You want a meaty letter. Use the bold command if needed.
At this point, you should have the letter(s) how you want ‘em on the screen. The next VERY IMPORTANT thing to do is use the “flip” or “mirror image” tool within your editor to reverse the letters. In Elements, go to the ‘Image’ menu, then ‘Rotate’ and then ‘Flip Horizontal’.
Next, if you’re lucky enough not to have your printer destroyed by toddlers, go ahead and print out the letter(s). And since I don’t fall into that category, I’ll show you my green approach.
You will need fusible web product. I like this one:
It’s called Heat N Bond Lite and it’s available in any quilt shop or craft supply store. I usually buy a section off the roll at my local quilt shop, but as you can see from the image link, it’s also sold in prepackaged sizes. Heat N Bond Lite and other similar products are paper backed adhesives.
So, here’s what I do next.
I take the Heat N Bond Lite and paper-side-up, place it over my laptop screen. I bend my screen almost all the way back, I just think it’s easier to trace that way. Then I trace around each letter. I used a pen here, but you could use a pencil or a Sharpie. It doesn’t matter too much as long as the ink doesn’t transfer onto the iron’s surface, then you could have problems.
Then I cut the letters from the rest of the fusible web. I traced the letters in a cluster and placed them somewhat close together to save more fusible web for future projects. Just make sure none of the letters touch and leave space when you trim, too.
Now, if you have enough fabric, you may just fuse this cutout directly to the reverse side of your fabric. I used what little scraps of fabric I had left, so I could not. This is what I was working with:
See? Not quite big enough, so I had to cut the letters apart.
This picture shows that each letter will fit on the scraps of fabric. But…
when it comes time to fuse it to the fabric, make sure you iron it to the back side of the fabric, like shown here. Follow the package directions to know which iron setting to use and how much time is needed to adhere the fusible to the fabric, all brands are a little bit different.
Continue to fuse all letters to the fabric. After fusing, let them set for awhile so they cool off.
The next step is cutting out the shape on the line. I like using a pair of small and sharp embroidery scissors for this task. It makes my life easier.
Here are all the letters cut out and ready to be fused onto the quilt top. But first, you might want to play around with the placement of the letters on your quilt top or other project. Quilters love saying “audition” and you should to. Go ahead, audition different letter placements until you find the perfect layout.
When you have the appliqué arranged how you want, it’s time to peel off the paper backing and fuse the it onto the quilt top (or other project). Again, follow the fusible product’s instructions for proper iron setting and time requirements.
The final step is to stitch the appliqué shapes into place. Luckily for you, I wrote a tutorial on this awhile back! =) Start at step #4 of those directions.
Here’s a closer look at the appliqué stitches, I matched the thread to the fabric.
Now go forth and appliqué! It’s a great way to personalize a gift!
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