Freezer Jam

It is strawberry season over here. And that means starwberry jam. Or freezer jam.

Step 1: Go to your local farm and pick strawberries.

Step 2: Revel in the freshness of sweet new strawberries that you picked yourself.

Step 3: Wash and mash the strawberries.


Step 4: Gently pulse the strawberrries until you have two cups. Mix two cups of mashed pureed strawberries with 4 cups of sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Step 5: Get a box of Sure-Jell.

Step 6: Mix the Sure-Jell with 3/4 cup water in a sauce pan until it boils. When its ready mix the Sure-Jell with the strawberries and sugar. Mix it really well.

Step 7: Pour it into glass jars or tupperware. Leave room at the top for expansion. Let sit for 24 hours on your counter. Put 1 in the fridge for immiediate use and put the rest in the freezer. Or give some away.

Step 8: Enjoy

WIP

We have a saying in the quilting word - Work in Progress or WIP. This is one of my WIP's. I have it all cut out and laid out on the guest bed in my sewing room. And here it will stay until I begin to sew it together.

I like to lay my quilts out and then leave them laid out. This way I can get a sense for the color scheme or the layout. When I walk by a WIP I can see how it looks in different light, when I am tired, or when I am rushing by. Sometimes I change something but most of the time I just leave it the way I first laid it out.

This quilt will be for my niece. She picked out the fabric from my stash. I actually had a different pattern in mind but I didn't realize that I had cut it out wrong until I was done. I don't think she will mind.

The problem with WIP's that are laid out like this is that you really can't work on anything else until there done. I have no where else to cut things. I have no where else to put things. And I have no where else for any guests to sleep. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the intended guest!

Labels

I love labels and things with my name on them. Especially the name of my blog. I saw a great tutorial at Sew Take a Hike about making your own labels from Fabric Sheets. Here is my first attempt. I realized only too late that I was going to be sewing over the label but no matter. It still came out cute. Almost looks like I meant to do it.

I had never worked with fabric sheets before. But now that I have they are really easy to use.

I now have plenty of labels for all my upcoming projects.

Fairy Quilt

I belong to a quilting forum. One of the members was giving away some scraps of fabric that had the sweetest pictures of fairies and castles. I used some of them to make this quilt which I am going to donate to the Quilts for Kids project.

Using my new sewing machine I bound the quilt with this tiny vine pattern. I just love the way this came out. It is so sweet and fit the girly theme so well.

Here is my stippling. While I was quilting this quilt my hands just started making loop patterns. And then hearts started to appear. And it looked really good. So I kept doing it. The results were pretty nice.

Here is a close up of the castle in the clouds.

Here are the teeny tiny baby fairies. I hope this quilt makes a little girl very happy. One of my boys actually asked if he could keep it (but I won't say who).

Missouri Star Quil Co.

I found the most amazing web site. It is a store, blog, and tutorial heaven all rolled into one. The Missouri Star Quilt Co. is (as the name says) a store in Missouri. They sell fabric, and notions, and all that good stuff. They have an amazing daily deal which usually involves something I want but don't need. Shipping is just $5 bucks. But the best part is the tutorials. I have learned some of the most amazing techniques from this site. My mom and I spent tons of time checking out all their amazing projects. Even the boys sat down to watch. Here is a list of the ones I plan to get to:

Tube Quilt

Summer in the Park

Stack and Whack

You can check them out here.

Paper Piecing

I have always wanted to try paper piecing. I first tried these hearts. They were super easy to make. I plan to turn them into a pillow or table runner. I love how clean and neat they look.

This tiny house was not as much fun. I decided that paper piecing small items is not fun. It took me an entire night to make this tiny 4" square. This goes to a pattern that requires 7 of these tiny houses. That is not going to happen. I guess that is why it is a good idea to try out new patterns before you commit to them.

Cricut Butterflies

When I got my Cricut I had heard you could cut fabric using it. But I couldn't get it to work. I finally figured it out. You need to use Heat and Bond Ultrahold and lots of blue painters tape. So I spent an entire night using my Cricut to cut out these fabric butterflies. I then ironed them to a piece of fabric and put them in this frame. This was just a prelude to what inspired this project - this amazing, gorgeous butterfly baby quilt. I don't know when but I am going to make this quit. By the way the adorable Holly Hobby doll in the picture was made by mom when I was a little girl. Every single stitch of her was hand done. And she is still as cute as a button.