I discovered this very fun fabric piecing technique several months ago called Stack-n-Whack. Basically, you pick a fabric with an interesting print, cut a thin wedge out of it, then find the places in the fabric where the design repeats and cut identical wedges from each place. You then sew all the wedges together into a circle, and the end result looks like something you'd see through a kaleidoscope — a bit hard to explain, but that's why I have photos (and a very talented model, who evidently never wears pants) to show what I mean.

I made two circles, one for each mom; Jack's mom and my mom both have birthdays in June, so they often get similar presents. I showed each of them her circle and told them I could put it on anything they wanted, like a pillow, a wall-hanging, even a tote bag, and they both picked wall-hangings. Then, my first trimester hit. I didn't sew for a few months. When I did start sewing again, I was nesting, and I had never made a wall-hanging before so I was sort of procrastinating while I thought about the logistics and sewed it in my head first... anyway, I didn't finish them until recently. Thankfully, we have forgiving, patient mothers. The first one pictured was cut from a floral blue-and-white print, and it's for my mom, who has a blue-and-white plate collection hanging on her dining room wall. You can see where this fits right into that, because the finished circle really does look a lot like a Wedgwood dish.

One of the things I love about making a Stack-n-Whack circle is that you can't picture exactly how it's going to look when you're cutting the wedges, so the end result can be a bit of a surprise. This second one was definitely a surprise to me, in a wonderful way. The original fabric, which I grabbed on impulse from a clearance rack several years ago, is a little funky, with a print that I like to describe as Radioactive Irises. There's a LOT of very busy color, everything from periwinkle to magenta to lime green. The resulting circle is just amazing, though — and what's even more amazing to me is that I could make a completely different circle, same color palette but totally different design, just by cutting the wedge out of a different spot on the fabric. And, since the fabric looks fairly mutilated after having wedges cut out of it every few inches, the only real use I can see for the leftovers is making more Stack-n-Whack circles.

Jack's mom picked the light turquoise color that appears in the center of her circle for the background of her wall-hanging. I found a fabric that fades from a dark to a light version of the same turquoise, and I think it looks pretty cool the way it fades toward the bottom of the wall-hanging.

I told both of them, and I'll tell you, don't look too closely at the craftsmanship here, because the circles are by no means flawless, and the borders of the wall-hangings are kind of bumpy and... well, let's just say they're obviously handmade. By an amateur. I'm glad they'll be on a wall. Still, I had a great time with these, and I definitely look at printed fabrics nowadays with an eye on how they'd look in a Stack-n-Whack circle.

FYI, more info is available on Bethany Reynolds' webpage, and a lot of quilting and fabric shops offer classes that teach how to do this if you're feeling totally lost. You do need a really precise wedge to use as a pattern for cutting, which you can either buy (for about $10) or make yourself, if you have heavy-duty plastic and mad geometry skillz.

Labels: craftiness, photography

• posted by erica 11/22/2009 08:45:00 PM
•  5 comments

I made this little wreath yesterday, thanks to my friend Tara, who got a bunch of freebies and gave them out at an ornament painting party.


At that party, Kent painted a Christmas tree ornament with a few blobs of green, blue, and orange, and he got one blob onto a star ornament before he decided he wanted to play with his friend's drum instead. After helping him wash his hands, I asked him if I could finish painting the star he had started, and he said yes as he waved me off and ran over to the toy he had been eyeing. It was a joint effort, and I left his orange blob (in the middle) intact so his contribution wouldn't be obscured.

Peppermint ice cream with candy cane bits and chocolate chunks is hardening in the freezer. We had some after dinner tonight, and it's pretty awesomely Christmasy, though the next time I make it, I'll add more candy canes.

I'm working on the last of the gift organizing for Jack's side of the family, since we're seeing them at Thanksgiving and usually exchange presents then. We might need to listen to some holiday tunes tomorrow so that we can wrap everything — I feel uncomfortable wrapping Christmas gifts when there's no music playing.

We've seen several families recently who observe a really cool tradition of getting their kids an ornament each year that represents their year in some way, so for this past year, I was considering either something with Elmo, or a drum. Kent is very big into drums (refer to the above anecdote about ornament painting). I started poking around online for a drum ornament, and I found this one that has Elmo AND a drum. Holy moly. I don't think I'm going to get it, but it's pretty funny.

The Christmas playlist on my iPod came out for the first time tonight while I was doing some sewing. I enjoy the whole playlist, but one of my very favorite songs is The Drifters' version of "White Christmas". I just love the way it bounces along in its '50s doo-wop way, and the falsetto coupled with that cool walking bass makes me smile every time. There are so many bad interpretations of Christmas music out there, especially of "White Christmas" (yes, Joanna and Mom, I'm thinking of Tammy Wynette), that it makes me appreciate this creative arrangement even more.

The Christmas/winter books came out this week, so we've enjoyed revisiting our seasonal favorites, particularly Stranger in the Woods and Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear!. Another tradition I've started is getting Kent (and in future years, "the boys") a new holiday or winter book that he gets to open on Christmas Eve, so the list of candidates is being winnowed down to the top contenders, and I'll be making a decision soon. Stay tuned.

Kent is just starting to understand some things about Christmas this year: he's learning about Christmas trees, wreaths, angels, and giving gifts to people we love, and we're trying to give him a very cursory knowledge of Baby Jesus that he can build on in future years. We're not really pushing Santa Claus, for what it's worth. I'm hoping to keep his focus partly on the cookies and shiny objects but mostly on the warmth of the season, though that's a little hard for someone who doesn't do a lot of abstract thinking yet. It's so neat to share the holiday with him in different ways each year as he gets older and understands more and more of what it's about, because I get totally stoked about Christmas and need someone else in the house who's excited, too. Jack pretends to be a scrooge, and I let him, but I want someone in my corner.

Labels: holidays, Kent, kitchen adventures, photography, what to read

• posted by erica 11/21/2009 01:22:00 PM
•  3 comments

The ravioli madness continued about an hour after dinner with dessert ravioli. I was going to make it with nutella until I realized that we had no nutella. Dang. I put a dollop of peanut butter and a few chocolate chips in the middle of each one, which was a fine substitute. Deep fried, then dusted powdered sugar on top... ridiculous, you say? Yes. We're teaching Kent about how things like lollipops, cupcakes, and carousel rides are "sometimes treats" so that he'll understand we don't do them all the time. This is most DEFINITELY a sometimes treat, but such a good one.

Labels: kitchen adventures, photography

• posted by erica 11/15/2009 08:14:00 PM
•  3 comments

It turns out that this fall's pumpkin theme hasn't been so much every Friday as semi-regularly sometime over the weekend, with one or two weeks seeing no pumpkin activity whatsoever. Still, it's fun to use so much pumpkin and search around for new recipes. I baked another batch of muffins last weekend, making 12 muffins without chocolate chips and a mini loaf with chocolate chips for a friend's birthday. The muffins disappear quickly around here, I tell ya.

This weekend, I browsed FN's collection of pumpkin recipes, and I found a couple I was eager to try. The first ended up being part of tonight's dinner: Mario's Pumpkin Lune with Butter and Sage. (FYI: lune = moons = ravioli.) Some of the pumpkin recipes are a little vague on how much pumpkin you should use; this one, for instance, says to roast a small/one-pound pumpkin, so I just guessed that that would be about equivalent to 1.5 cups of pumpkin puree. Rather than making my own pasta dough, I used refrigerated egg roll wrappers, and I was able to get nine 2-inch circles out of each square. I mixed up the filling and tasted it, and the balsamic vinegar seemed to overpower everything else, so I started to get a little disappointed that maybe I wasn't going to like it at all. A little balsamic goes a LONG way on my taste buds. I added a little honey and some sage to the pumpkin mixture, and even though it still tasted odd, I hoped for the best and assembled the ravioli. Rather than using all butter for the sage sauce, I used half butter and half olive oil, and it was very well balanced with the fresh sage. I was really pleased that the balsamic vinegar mellowed once everything mingled together in cooking, and I ended up liking it quite a bit. I ended up with a lot of extra filling because I made a small recipe of ravioli, so the rest of the filling is now in the freezer for some future dinner engagement.

At the point when I was mixing up the filling and started to worry that I was going to hate the finished product, I asked Jack to go to the store to get some ricotta so I could also make some more traditional ravioli. I filled them with ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, and a bit of pesto, then decided I'd deep fry them (hey, why not?) and we could dip them in tomato sauce. I used a lot of pans and other preparatory dishes for the meal, but it was worth it. Kent really loved the fried cheese ravioli, though he wouldn't try the pumpkin stuff — that was okay, because he's normally really good about trying a bite of new things if we encourage him, and I didn't want to push it tonight.

The other pumpkin recipe I want to try soon is this Pumpkin Mousse, which sounds like a lighter, mellower cousin of pumpkin pie. And it looks so lovely in those wine glasses.

Surfing the Food Network website without first seeing the recipes on TV is somewhat new to me, but I'm trying to embrace it, because we're about to take the big step of dropping down to limited cable (channels 1-22) and getting Netflix. Netflix has a lot of full seasons of TV shows that I want to see, but I'm a little sad when I think about not being able to watch the Food Network or The Daily Show. And Jack won't have ESPN. So many Daily Show clips end up on YouTube, and we don't watch as much of those other stations as we used to anyway, so I think it won't be as huge of a lifestyle change as it would be for some families. At least we'll still have PBS and all the big networks (ABC, CBS, etc.), where most of our favorite shows are anyway. Hopefully we'll grow a little, and we'll have so much easier access to indie films and other obscure things. Plus, we'll save money, which is the main reason we're doing it. Sigh. Saving money is hard.

Labels: kitchen adventures, what to watch

• posted by erica 11/15/2009 06:48:00 PM
•  1 comments

Jack has been showing Kent a lot of YouTube videos about trains, planes, tractors, and other such manly things, and lately they've gotten on a kick of watching paper airplane videos (including this one, which is really cool!). Last week, I suggested that they might want to actually make paper airplanes instead of just watching videos about them, so Jack gave Kent an important lesson in constructing a good plane. I learned a few things too, mostly why my airplanes never worked well when I was a kid. It was partly the planes I made, and partly user error; apparently, I threw them too fast. Who knew that was important? Obviously someone failed me long ago. I feel cheated. All those years I could have been like the cool kids who knew how to make *and* throw a paper airplane... oh well. Disappointment builds character, right?


Here's a video of the two of them making planes at Kent's kitchen table. You can see how Kent is really starting to imitate carefully what he sees us doing. (Most of the way through, when he gets frustrated, he says, "K can't make one!" for those who can't make out his unique manner of speaking.)


And here's a video of the planes in flight in the backyard (Kent eventually got some help folding one). I took several movies, but this one managed to capture the most funny moments.



Unrelated, but still post-worthy, is the fact that Kent has continued to wear his Halloween glasses with much frequency. Yes, I think it's high time we started collecting things for a dress-up box like I mentioned earlier.

Labels: husband things, Kent, photography, video

• posted by erica 11/13/2009 09:28:00 PM
•  2 comments

Kent decided yesterday that his bin of blocks and toys was a good place to sit and read a book.



Another felt friend appeared in our house this morning. They're a happy pair.

Labels: craftiness, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 11/09/2009 11:17:00 AM
•  4 comments

I found this amazingly cute little book and was lucky enough to get it as a gift this summer: it's called Baby Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo, and it's full of adorable little sewing and embroidery projects for babies and kids. All the animals in the designs have wonderfully simple faces and details.

For my first project from the book, I settled on the felt finger puppets. There are ten animals in all, and I started with the tiger. I photocopied the patterns onto cardstock to make patterns I could cut out and reuse, I delved into my stack of felt, and I started cutting out this adorable little guy and putting him together.

Kent was very excited that I was making a tiger, though I'll admit that I sort of want to keep it myself and wear it on my finger constantly. Since it's felt and the little arms and ears are just one piece thick, I made sure Kent knew not to pull on them. He, like I, mostly likes to carry it around on his finger and admire it. For the record, this puppet also makes a lovely chapstick cozy. That's where it slept last night.

More animals to come include the penguin for sure, probably the pig, and whatever else I feel like making. It's a relaxing little project, and I'm excited for Anilia to join in the fun at Thanksgiving; I've already invited her to make some finger puppets with me if our children will allow us to put them down for any length of time.

Labels: craftiness, photography, what to read

• posted by erica 11/08/2009 08:08:00 AM
•  2 comments