letter embroidering

embroidering is easy!

write your letters out in pencil.

chose your string. they usually look like either of these at the craft store.

does anyone else still have one of these from making friendship bracelets in grade school?

cut off a length and pull 2 strains off. thread your needle and put a knot on the end.

start at the beginning.

make your stitches about 1/8" long.

come up from the back. 1/8" stitch.

come back down and fill in the gap.

come front again in the same hole.

1/8" stitch again

finish a line and start again

sometimes the thread might get snagged up on itself in the back. watch out for this. it will mess up the front when it comes untangled later.

all done. front.

back.

TIP: make sure you don't pull too tight or leave your stitches too loose. you want your thread to lay flat against the fabric without puckering.

amish puzzle ball!

I've been meaning to do this one for a while. I made a couple for christmas gifts (which is why the fabric keeps changing :p) so you got a tute!

This is probably the most involved tute I've done so far.

The basic instructions are 1.) make the little footballs 2.) stuff 'em. 3.) tie them together.

The little footballs are what take so long. let's get started with them.

Here's the pattern. It doesn't have to be the same size. This is probably the smallest one I've made so far. It just needs to be the same general shape.

Cut the pieces diagonally out of the fabric.

You need 3 pieces for each of 12 footballs. 36 pieces total.

Take 2 of each group of 3. Sew them together. Leave a 1/4" space and back stitch on either end.

Chaining them all together takes less time and saves thread.

Cut them apart. Pin one side up. This will keep it out of the way when you are sewing the third football piece on.

Lay the 3rd piece on and sew down. Leave 1/4" and backstitch on both ends.

Chain them together.

Pin together the 2 sides that you've already sewn.

Sew the 3rd size together. Leave 1/4" and backstitch on either end. Also, leave a space in the middle. backstitch on either side of the gap.

Chain them together.

Clip them apart. Snip either end. Make sure you don't clip your stitches.

Turn them inside out. push the corners out with your finger. Stuff!

I used recycled stuffing from a black pillow. It got black fuzzies all over my pink footballs!

Try not to loose any.

Whip stitch the holes closed. You can do this on the machine but it came out sloppy when I tried to. It took a lot longer to hand sew them.

Footballs! Now the fun part. Assembly!

With a big needle and about 8 inches of yarn, start tying them together. Push the needle through the 2 bottom sides.

Tie 4 together to start.

Tie them with a square knot. I did 2 square knots on top of each other just to make sure.

Tie 3 to the first 4.

And 3 more to them.

Tie on 2 more and attach it to the other side. You will make a ring with 8 flappers.

Tie the flappy pieces together and you are done!

dill pickles!

this is the cheater's way of making pickles. there is no processing involved. we all think they taste MUCH better than pickles that were processed in the canner.

also, there is NO special equipment! :)

this is the book i got the recipe from. there are a bunch of good ones in here. also, for every recipe it has 4 copies of it to tear out and give to your friends.

page 16
ingredients:
3lbs - 4" cucumbers (i'm using regular ones from the grocery store, slices up)
1/2 cup - salt (as per my note to myself, i'm using less salt)
4 1/2 cups - water
1 1/2 cups - white vingegar
1/2 tsp - mustard seeds
4 heads - fresh dill (i'm using 1/2 tsp dried for each jar)
4 cloves garlic (i'm using 2 cloves of canned garlic per jar)

it says that it makes 4 pints. this recipe made 5 for me and there was enough brine left for a 6th.

get your ingredients and assistants together.

prep your jars. put them in water until it starts to simmer, then turn the stove off until you need the jars.

do the same with the lids. don't forget to put them in the pan up, down, up, down, so they don't stick together.

wash and slice your cucumbers. i washed them with soapy water to get as much of the waxy gunk off as i could. then slice off the ends. i cut them between 1/4 and 3/8 of an inch thick. we like thick pickles though. you can cut them how ever you want. i ended up cutting some in spears too.

i started by only cutting half because i didn't want to waste any cucumber that i didn't need. i cut them as i needed them to pack later.

you can use your food processor with the slicing plate for this too. they turn out way too thin for us though.

a mandolin would be good for this also because you can adjust widths. but the knife worked just find for me.

make the brine:
bring the water, vinegar, salt and mustard seeds to a boil until the salt dissolves.

take the jars out of the hot water and put the dill and garlic in each jar.

pack the jars with cucumber. now, when i say pack, i mean PACK. get as many in there as you can. just make sure you leave 1/2" to the top of the jar. try not to touch the rim of the jar.

wipe off the rim. center the hot lids on top. screw bands down to finger tip tight. turn upside down until cool.

i don't know why they tell you to turn them upside down. but i do know that i forgot to this time and only 2 of the jars sealed.

any of your jars that don't seal should be kept in the fridge.

they should be ready in a few days. ours will probably be all eaten before then. :P

brocolli and cheddar soup for colleen!

i don't have any pics yet but i will update with some next time i make it.

ingredients:
1 stick butter
2/3 c flour
1 onion
1qt 1/2&1/2
1 qt stock (i use chicken, but use what you like)
3 lg carrots
2 heads of broccoli
16 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese block (pre-shredded doesn't melt the same and is yucky)
1/2 tsp nutmeg


4 basic steps:
1.) make a roux
2.) mix the stock and 1/2&1/2
3.) cook the veggies
4.) blend


- chop the onion, in a small pan sweat the onion with about a 1tbsp of butter
- while the onion is cooking, make the roux (turn the stove on LOW and leave it there until the soup is ready.)
- melt the rest of the butter in a big soup pot. when the butter is melted, stir in the flour.
- pour in the stock and 1/2&1/2. stir
- set your timer for 20 minutes, stir once in a while
- while you are waiting, peel and shred the carrots and chop the broccoli
- when the timer goes off, dump in the cooked onion, shredded carrots and chopped broccoli, stir
- set your timer for another 20 minutes
- while you are waiting this time, shred the cheese.
- when the timer goes off, use your immersion blender and chop up the veggies.
- then mix in the cheese slowly so it has time to melt. (if you blend after you put the cheese in, your blender could get gunky.)
- stir in the nutmeg (ew. nutmeg? yes. trust me.)

this recipe makes enough for about 10 servings. we eat half and freeze half. the frozen half is poured into a 12 cup and a 6 cup muffin tin. i put the muffin tins in the freezer over night and in the morning i pop them out and put them in a ziplock.

churning butter

ok, making homemade butter is the easiest project i've posted about yet. really. easiest project.

3 steps:
1.) churn
2.) strain
3.) wash

ok, step 1:

you need heavy whipping cream and a mixer. some people will tell you to leave the cream out over night. but, eh, i don't bother.

pour the cream in the mixer.

turn it on. start slowly and gradually turn it up as high as it will go with out splashing all over.

it will be a little frothy to start.

see?

then it gets thicker...

and thicker.

then it starts getting a little chunky looking.

then a lot chunky looking.

then it starts to separate. you can see a little milk in the bottom of the bowl.

then you have butter! (and buttermilk.)

exciting!

step 2: straining

fish out the big chunks of butter.

and put them in a strainer.

pour the rest through the strainer into a bowl.

straining...

now the messy part. squeeeeeeze the butter. more milk will come out. pour the milk into the milk bowl. then squeeze more out. there is a lot in there.



step 3: washing

put the butter into a bowl of ice water (or really cold water) and squish it around. this gets even more milk out.

there you have it. butter and butter milk. easy, right?

1qt of heavy cream will make 2 c. butter and 2 c. buttermilk.

quarter your butter and wrap it in wax paper. i froze 3 and put 1 in the fridge.

you can use the buttermilk to make pancakes. the recipe i use is:

2c. buttermilk
2c. whole milk
2tbsp baking soda
3 c flour
3tbsp melted butter

mix the milks together. whisk in the baking soda. stir in the flour. stir in the melted butter.