This is so good, I just couldn't keep it to myself!
1 bunch cilantro chopped
1/2 head purple cabbage chopped
1/4 head green cabbage chopped
1/4 to 1/3 purple onion, diced
1 jalepeno pepper chopped
1/2 C. mayo
2 T. sugar
2 T. vinegar
Sa Limon powder (I found it at Walmart) and pepper to taste
Enjoy!
~Penny
Thank-you everyone who voted for my a little help from my friends quilt tutorial during the SMS scrapbuster contest. I was one of the lucky three winners and this is the fabric I ordered with my gift certificate. Thank-you Sew Mama Sew!!
~Penny
Isn't this the cutest fabric EVER??? I recently swapped someone for it and she warned me it had some spots on it. I didn't care. I wanted it!! When I got it home, I washed it in my laundry detergent that will seriously take anything out. Except rust. Darn.
Until I found out that there is a way to get it out. Using something most people have laying around, and a little sunshine. Today, we are going to learn how to get rust stains (and even those diffuse yellow stains that distinguish a lot of older fabrics) out of our precious fabrics!
ringalingaling!! class.has.started.
This is what you will need:
And this is what you do.
(if you look closely near the side edge, you can see the rust. The fabric was covered like that with rust)
I did this twice to my rust riddled fabric and the stains are mostly gone. I'm kind of picky though, so if the sun is out today, I'll do it once more.
Tada, no more rust to speak of!
Have a great, rust-free weekend!!
~Penny
(photo courtesy of Stephanie at Loft Creations)
and check out the latest feature on Flea Market Fancy Freaks! Make sure you continue to check that site in the next week or two, I have a giveaway brewing you reeeeeeeeeally don't want to miss!!
and PLEASE sign the call out post petition! We are soooooo close to 1000 signatures, come on!! We can do it!!
~Penny
for the pillow talk swap.
Made with linen, moda 1974, moda authentic, and a vintage chenille bedspread.
Have a great Monday!!
~Penny
When V started her Sis Boom Pow! block gather group a month or so ago, I jumped at the chance to help make the blocks for the projects. The only request she had was to use only the fabrics she sent (which was great with me, because I LOVE J. Paganelli fabrics!! especially mary trellis, and the dance with me hexagons, and the claire blocks, and, and) and to hopefully do some sort of applique.
I've been wanting to try applique and had bought a few books about it 6 months or so ago, so I was excited to try it out.
I am so happy with how both blocks came out
I've documented my process here, here and here on the sis boom pow! blog if you'd like to know more!
~Penny
And here it is, quilted, bound, and currently in use by L-man.
A BIG thank-you to the women who participated in this swap with me, Sheree, Jacquie, Thimbleanna, Anna, Stacey, Lolly, Jenn, and Emily. It warms my heart to look at this quilt and see bits of fabric from each of you! Thank-you, each of you for being so generous with your scraps and the time it took to send scraps to the other women in the group. You each have a special place in my heart for sure!
Ahem.
Ok, for the quilting, I free motion quilted everyone's names diagonally across the tops and bottoms of the color diamonds with little flowers in between.
and then through the middle of each block, I free motion quilted lines with little loopdy doo's every once in a while.
the back
For the binding, I used authentic by moda. I thought it went well with the theme of quilting the names, and it looks great with the backing!
Thank-you everyone for your sweet comments and encouragement while I worked on this project, they kept me going!
~Penny
Yep, you guessed it, the machine is fixed, the string quilt is done, and I'm one happy camper (I love that fabric by the way, LOL!)
And just for fun, would you look at my cat??? He carries his rubber duck around like a dog with a ball. I caught him yesterday laying here (in the sink???) eyeing the duck. He cracks me up!!
So yeah. The shop owner was right. It was the thread I was using!! It was coats and clark trilobal poly embroidery thread (sorry coats, but you won't be gracing my machine again!, at least not the trilobal poly). It was pulling super hard through the upper tension discs for some reason, causing my needle to bend and hit the stitch plate and eventually the needle would break, then my machine would get out of time when the needle hit repeatedly. It was amazing the difference between the way Isacord pulls through the discs compared to the coats and clark. Anyway, she found some Isacord in her shop that matched the coats perfectly, and then GAVE it to me after she had spent 2 1/2 hours looking at and tweeking my machine at no charge. BUT THEN, she pulled a fast one on me. She set the Bernina 830 up with the bsr foot and had me sit down for a spell. Ahhhh, heaven!! I texted L-man right then and there and told him my 730 was fixed. There was just one problem. That I NEED an 830. He texted me back (IMMEDIATELY), this: "LOL"!! I think that meant I was supposed to walk AWAAAAAY from the 830. Which I did. But man does that machine rock!!
Here's a sneeky peek of the string quilt, washed and crinkly. I'm going to do a special post about it later though, there's so much to tell about this quilt!
Now, for those of you who stuck around and read all that, here's a bonus. I'm having a "horay! my machine is fixed" giveaway!
just leave a comment telling me which you'd prefer:
the die cut pile:
which includes some die cuts of fabric flowers and the eiffel tower, and die cuts of some handmade paper I made a few years back besides the shown adapters and cutting pads for the sidekick and original sizzix machine
OR:
the fabric pile
which includes a fq of wee play, monkey'n around, and a few small swatches of heather ross pink dream bikes, lobsters and coke travelers
Please remember to tell me which you'd prefer in your comment and I'll leave the comments open till Wednesday evening, good luck!
~Penny
p.s. International entries are welcomed!
I'm almost done quilting my string quilt. But after 6 broken needles, countless thread breakages, and some skipped stitches, I decided something was wrong. Duh. I'm a little dense sometimes. Or maybe I just get in get-er-done mode and just trudge through no matter how many limbs I lose along the way.
I took my machine in and they said it was fixed. I brought it home and sewed 3 inches, and broke another needle. Um, yeah. I don't think it's fixed. So now the shop thinks its something I'm doing. Ok, I'm open. Whatever it takes to get the problem fixed, right? So I'm going in for a personal "watch over my shoulder to see what the heck "I'm doing" to break so many needles and all the other problems I'm having" with the shop owner tomorrow morning. I'm kind of thinking though, they're gonna find it's a problem with the timing on my machine. Just a wild and crazy guess!
So in the meantime, Houston, I have a problem.
I was happily stacking away, oblivious, until I turned around and took a second look. Seriously, it wouldn't look this way if my machine wasn't broken. Ok, maybe it would.
Have a great weekend!
~Penny
I've had several requests and questions on how I put the "a little help from my friends" string quilt together, so I decided to make up a quick tutorial on it for everyone.
(click on the photo to see the larger view on flickr)
This is a shot of the quilt top you will end up with. It consists of 80 blocks total, 8 across and 10 down, 48X60.
First, cut your scraps into strips, making random widths and sort by color. I used 9 colors. Yellow, red, orange, pink, brown, black, blue, purple, and green. If you want to use different colors, just substitute your color choices instead of what I used. (I cut up way too much fabric and have a ton left, but if you don't cut enough, you can always cut more.)
Second, cut 80 pieces of printer paper to 6.5 inch squares. (A scrap booking tool that comes in very handy for this is the fiskars 12 inch portable paper trimmer.)
Next, cut 80 1.5 inch wide strips of a solid kona cotton (I used white) 10 inches long.
Following the handwritten :) sketch I drew here:
start making your string blocks (they are numbered) and colored.
To do this, first pin down the white fabric down the center of the paper block diagonally
and then lay your fabric strips down on each side to figure out your placement.
Now, starting in the center, with the scrap strip next to the white strip on one side, sew your scrap strip on to the side of the center strip of white with a 1/4 inch seam (using a small stitch length like 1.5 or so instead of the normal 3. this will help to tear the paper off when you are done). Make sure you have the right sides of the fabric facing each other.
Then press the strips open. (if you do this after sewing each strip on, your block will be much nicer!)
Continue sewing each strip onto the previous one until that side of the paper is completely covered.
Then repeat with the other side.
Once you have all your strips sewn and have pressed the last strip open (I used 4-5 strips on each side generally), turn your block over and use the paper as a guide to trim away the excess fabric.
As you make all your blocks according to the color in the sketch, it may be helpful to number them on the back for easier placement later. (especially if you have an attack cat that likes to take them and play with them!)
Once all your blocks are made and trimmed, start tearing the paper off the backs of the blocks by folding the paper back onto the seams and tearing it like you are tearing a check out of your checkbook.
Now, take a light starch and iron each block to reduce stretching as you sew.
Last, I sewed the rows of blocks together and then sewed the rows together to make the quilt top. You could also do the same thing by sewing the column blocks together first, then sewing the columns together. The choice is yours!
Tada, your quilt top is done!!
One last thing, I have submitted this to the sew mama sew! scrap busters contest.
I've seen the other entries and there are some really fabulous scrap projects that have been entered, go take a look!
~Penny
p.s. I keep meaning to tell you all if you have a scrappy project you've made, feel free to join our scraps to treasure group on flickr and post pics of your projects!
finish this weekend. Here's a sneek peek of the back of the "a little help from my friends" quilt.
UPDATE:
here's the complete back
I pieced some of my favorite scraps from the scraps to treasure swap together to make wonky strips by color. I love how it's turning out! I'm really drawn to gray right now, so I chose this gray bonnie blue basics I had in my stash for the background.
In other news, I was so surprised to find this:
in my mailbox this week from Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. She used some of her scraps to make this pillow cover and sent it to me! I love, love, love it Jacquie! Thank-you!
Hope you have a weekend like no other!
~Penny
p.s. I'm now getting email notification of comments again, yay!!
Random bit #1: I haven't been getting email notifications of comments on my blog for the last week (is anyone else having this problem with typepad??), so if you've left a comment, I'm not receiving your email contact info, so I won't be able to email you. If you've left a question in your comment, I'm sorry, but unless you leave your email in your comment until typepad gets this fixed, I'm going to have to answer your questions in the comment section.
Random bit #2: I have the top to my scraps to treasure quilt done! I have chosen the binding and have an idea for the back I'm working on. The plan is to have it completed by next weekend. We'll see.
Random bit #3: More fabric swapping has been going on this last week. I cannot help myself! For those of you interested, here's the link to the group. There are a few rules, if you're interested.
Random bit #4: I need to get back into the blogging mojo. Really bad.
Hope you're having a great weekend!
~Penny
I feel satisfied to have made a dish towel out of some woven cotton in my stash. Now I need to make one for "tomorrow" and "yesterday".
For those that didn't notice, I've been away. I recently joined a swap group on flickr and I feel like I was in a fabric swapping frenzy the last couple of weeks. I've had so much fun. Now I can completely understand why people like flickr so much. It's all about the groups you join. Crazy fun.
I hope you all are doing good, I really do miss you and will check up on you soon!
~Penny
p.s. I just finished tomorrow's towel and I'll be listing them in etsy as a set!
