Wow time flies. I must apologize--- it has been so very long. No excuses, just quite busy creating, filling orders, and life in general!! Here is my newest pattern. LCC Large Ornie, Santa Door Greeter! He is about 19" tall when finished. I include very easy detailed instructions and drawings. His eyes are handpainted and you trace them onto your fabric and follow the easy painting instructions step by step. You can even use permanent markers instead of paint for the eyes. I made him from plush felt and Debbie Mumm Christmas fabric. I will have the PDF pattern available very soon. I put the red hatted Santa on Ebay and he sold right away too. Until next time.... I hope it is sooner than this last time in between writing.

Homemade Dill Pickles

Well almost 2 months have gone by since I was last here. We helped our daughter move into a new house, had a few dental appointments, and came down with the flu that kept me in bed for about a week. It really kicked my butt this time. I usually get sick once every few years so I guess I was due. Also I have been busy taking turns tending the garden of veggies with my husband. Not doing as well as I hoped this year. It's the desert, we usually have a hard time growing things. A friend has not though and gave us some cucumbers, beans, peppers, carrots and onions. His garden is amazing for the desert! I need to ask his secret. So anyway when you have an abundant supply of cucumbers you make pickles! That is what my husband and I did this afternoon. Our house is a no vinegar zone so we made naturally fermented pickles. They won't be ready to eat  for about 6 weeks. Very easy recipe to follow though.
Here's the recipe I followed

Here are 2 cucumbers that I have left, the biggest two I had were 19" long! 

And here they are in their brine ready to set in a cool dark place for awhile. This was really fun. Never made pickles before. I figured If I can can other vegetables and make jam I can do pickles.

New Motorcycle Seat and Painting Walls

This week I helped my son recover his motorcycle seat. He took them apart and traced the pieces onto the new fabric and I sewed them together. I did have him sew a couple of the easy hem pieces so he could say he sewed them too! Turned out really good. We still need to make a small bag for the handle bar area. He did the white walls himself too. Looks totally different than when his Dad owned it. When he sees it he says wow looks like a whole new bike!
Tomorrow we are painting the dining room and living room walls. I absolutely HATE painting walls unless I'm painting a mural. It's so tedious. But I will be glad to get it over and done. I've been bugging my husband for 2 years to help me paint them. I have all the drapes, curtains, and valances made and hung up. I finished those a couple weeks ago. Very pleased at how they all turned out. I will take a picture after the painting is done.

Carnitas for dinner tonight

Here is a great recipe for making Pork Carnitas.  I'm not a big fan of Mexican food so I eat my Carnitas plain on the plate with a vegetable and potatoes on the side and maybe some bread. My dear Husband goes all out with the corn tortillas and some Pico De Gio and some guacamole. 
 Click Here    for the link to the original recipe. But here it is posted from the blog.

 



Carnitas (adapted from Diana Kennedy)
Ingredients:
3 pounds of pork butt, with plenty of fat
1 cup of orange juice
3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of salt

Method:
1. Cut pork into strips (three inches by one inch), add to a large pot with the liquids and salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered on low for 2 hours. Do not touch the meat.
2. After two hours, turn heat up to medium high, and continue to cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the pork fat has rendered (about 45 minutes). Stir a few times, to keep pork from sticking to bottom of pan.
3. When pork has browned on both sides, it’s ready (there will be liquid fat in the pan). Serve either cubed or shredded (pork will be tender enough that just touching it will cause it to fall apart).
Goes very well with a green salsas such as Ninfa's green sauce or this tomatillo salsa or this salsa verde with avocados and tomatillos.
Serves 4-6
Notes: The key to this recipe is that the meat has fat, so don't trim it! If there's not enough fat on the meat the recipe will turn out too dry.

Newest Pattern/Instruction/Tutorial

I've been busy since my last post. I am actually making a few things for myself. Very unusual, but I figured it was about time. 
Here is my latest creation. I decided it was time to take the mystery out of making continuous bias quilt binding and bias tape once and for all. I looked at instructions in books for years and they just never made sense to me. After  quite a long time of trying again and again it finally clicked and I decided to make step by step instructions along with step by step color photos. I think my instructions are very easy to understand. Available in PDF form here at  My Craftsy Page

I made a new ironing board cover. I will post that tutorial one of these days.
  I also made new cushions for my rocking chair. Very over due!

And I made some football baby shoes. Available in all kinds of fabrics. Will sell for for about $18 a pair. If anyone is interested just drop us a note and we can discuss fabrics.

 Now I am making new drapes(with pleats, drives me nuts that the stores call a curtain with a pocket that slides on a rod a drapery) for the dining room and I have 2 small windows and a door window to make matching curtains as well. To finish it off I have 2 valances I will be making, 1 to go over the draperies and 1 to go over the kitchen window. That's the latest from around here. I need to take a break from sewing and make some more bread.

Happy New Year and Baking Bread

Happy New Year to all !!
One of my favorite things to do is make bread. All kinds of bread. I've baked homemade bread since I was a teenager. Back then I used a lot of arm muscle to mix this stuff by hand. So happy to have a stand mixer with dough hooks now. Here is a loaf of white bread baked New Years Eve. Nothing better  than the scent of fresh baked bread my husband experienced when he walked in the door at 2am. We shared our New years kiss and some hot slices of bread slathered in butter! The next morning I made hamburger buns. After that soft pretzel nuggets. They were excellent. The extras are stored in the freezer. Just pop them in the toaster oven and they taste like they were just made. Let me know if anyone is interested in any of these recipes. I don't have time right now or I'd have posted them too. I hope to get myself a bit more organized so I can post more on here, so back to work for me. Until next time......