Sarah's cashmere

Remember my young Mom friend Anne and her twins? Here they are, enjoying a pancake supper with their vintage table linens...



Anne, of course, is passing along her love of thrift store shopping to her children. And young Sarah has discovered cashmere!! Don't you love it??

But, of course, they don't actually USE cashmere to make clothes for children (at least, not here in Iowa. Another reason to live in the heartland, eh?)

Hey -- Nooo problem. Sarah is going to CUT CASHMERE DOWN TO SIZE...



She decided to use a favorite shirt as a pattern...


YOU GO GIRL!! Be sure to send us a picture of you, modeling your new creation...

Magic "I'm Not 80" Pants

I often write about my cousin Linda...and awhile back, I posted a picture of Linda's recycled denim PURSE. Well, her Mom -- my Aunt Adda -- was inspired to make her own pair of recycled blue jeans...Doesn't she look fabulous??


Of course, I had to take her picture (for this blog) -- and she walked around the corner, with a big smile on her face, and said, "When I wear these jeans, I'm not 80". No kidding. She looks AWESOME, don't you think?

Here's a close-up shot of the embroidery she cut off a child's pair of jeans to sew onto her own jeans...



But -- my FAVORITE DETAIL....are you ready?? HERE IT IS...


I think the placement of that star tells the whole story!

THANKS, Aunt Adda, for playing my recycled jeans game!!

NOW -- GET BUSY PEOPLE -- Friday, February 26 -- is the BIG DAY AT EXPO. Wear your recycled blue jeans and -- maybe you'll EVEN WIN A PRIZE!!

Project Runway

Project Runway is BACK...and it's amazing! They're giving us our Michael Kors -- and our Nina Garcia!! THEY ARE IN NEW YORK CITY -- HOME AT LAST...

I tuned in the last two weeks, DE-lighted to have my Heidi & Tim coming into the living room...


Last season, I tried to blog about every episode -- I can hardly remember when I had THAT KIND OF TIME!! LOL...With the Puyallup Sewing & Stitchery Expo just one month away....I can't commit to that.

But I could not resisst commenting on the "potato sack" challenge (episode #2). A GREAT CHALLENGE. I LOVED IT. The quality of the outfits was simply amazing. I would have given the win to the first outfit in the collage. But they picked the black one...which was also a strong contender.

So, okay, there could be some reasonable discussion about which outfit was actually the BEST outfit. True enough.

But there was NEVER ANY DOUBT ABOUT THE WORST THING THAT WALKED DOWN THE RUNWAY. Ping wrapped burlap around her model, leaving the sides gaping open (because she does NOT UNDERSTAND HOW TO SEW A WAISTBAND)...The gaping sides made the model look like she had saddlebags....and in the back, the center seam was held together with safety pins...and her butt was hanging out for all the world to see...

In the first challenge, Ping wrapped her model in rectangles of fabric -- and the judges acted like they were smitten with her 'creativity".

It is absolutely unbelievable that PING did not get sent home after she abused that potato sack... Are you kidding me?

THEY KEPT PING...and sent home the design school teacher (Pamela?) who did an impeccable job of hombre dying her fabric?

Ugh...I have nooo idea what the judges were thinking.

AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO BELIEVES PING SHOULD HAVE HER OWN REALITY SERIES CALLED "The Emperor's New Clothes"??

Chair Dressed for Christmas

Underneath it all -- this chair is a very ugly brown floral velvet. If you remember -- I had it dressed for the 'Fourth of July". Most of the year, it wears an abstract printed shirt...

THIS is the holiday garb. the vest is a size 3X that doesn't fit me anymore...and the turtleneck underneath has a couple of stains...
Festive, eh? I'm about ready to DE-CHRISTMAS the house. For me, that means putting away the rugs and the mugs. And dress the chair in something new and different -- I haven't quite decided. I decorated the ottoman with a Christmas towel...so it's not going to be all that difficult to "de-Christmas"...

On second thought -- what's the big hurry? I've been so busy with the Sew Expo stuff -- I'm thinking of just hanging some red hearts on the Christmas Tree...HEY -- it would be fun to celebrate Valentine's Day, eh?

What's a Halupkie?

I believe everybody should have family "specialties". You know -- that 'GO TO DISH" that, when eaten, will taste like love...and remind them of home. The best cook I ever personally knew was my mother-in-law, Helen Farro. And she taught me how to make halupkies. Which I never had until I met her. Helen was half Irish, half Ukranian, and she married an Italian. Her halupkies were neatly folded cabbage rolls -- and she always made it look easy. They are DELICIOUS...

Over the holidays, my cousins Linda & Jackie came for a little visit -- and I put them to work, making halupkies. Here's the official "recipe", girls:

One large head of cabbage.

Filling -- mix in a bowl:
1 lb. raw hamburger
1 yellow onion -- chopped fine
1 cup of Minute Rice
1 cup of "salsa"

Sauce:
1 can of tomato soup
1 soup can of water
1 soup can of salsa

Fill your largest pot with water and bring to a boil. I stick a big meat fork into the core of my head of cabbage -- so I can lift it in and out of the boiling water (without piercing the leaves). Put the head of cabbage down into the boiling water -- then "cut away" the outside leaves as they get just slightly tender...(just cut into the outer leaves, several at a time -- keep lifting the cabbage in and out of the boiling water).

Hey -- it takes longer to write about than it takes to actually DO.

Helen's "trick" when rolling the halupkies is to shave away the thick vein of the cabbage leaves -- you can see in front of Linda, on the cutting board, the shavings...

Then, roll -- as pictured.

Helen always cooked halupkies in a pressure cooker. Make the halupkies, cover with sauce, bring to pressure, and cook for 15 minutes. SOFT AND WONDERFUL.

You can also make them in the oven, in a covered roaster, cook for about 1 hour at 350 degrees. This is a picture of Jackie -- taking her first cabbage-rolling-job-very seriously.

Baby Blankets -- Brown velour!

Yes, we've been blessed with a BABY EXPLOSION in our family. And, one of the things I've learned from all the new young mothers is that the baby blankets available in the retail world really are pitiful.

BECAUSE WE SEW -- my sisters and I all MAKE blankets -- and it's been interesting to realize how different our "blankets" are. It got me to thinking -- isn't that the beauty of sewing? You could give the SAME assignment to 300 different sew-ers -- "make a baby blanket" -- and no two blankets would be alike. Apparently, sew-ers are like snow-flakes...!

My sister Deborah, of course, EMBROIDERS the baby's name or a theme.

My sister Deena loves to incorporate a "theme" with the fabric she chooses. Deena loves to make those hand-tied polar fleece blankets. If I can manage it, I'll post her unique method of doing the fringed edge...without the pesky knots that draw everything up too much. With Kelcy, it was all about the Safari fabrics, and with Brenda, she went bandana-crazy, remember?

My sister Ronda loves to flannel-fabric-shop (she has THOUSANDS OF YARDS ON HAND) -- so, using six different fabrics -- she makes those flannel-squares-right-sides-sewn-together -- and then cuts all those fringes.

Me? I am the instant-gift-girl. So my receiving blankets are light weight and VERY easy tomake. Carefully lay two pieces of 36" square fabric, right sides together, pin, and sew around the edges, rounding the corners, leaving a hole to "turn":

Here, you can see the opening I used to turn the blanket right side out..:

Then, I iron/steam around the edges, and topstitch 1/2" around the edge. (which closes the opening -- I am sooo lazy).

Sometimes, if I'm in the mood, I do a little embroidered heart or circle every 15" or so in the body of the blanket....just to keep the two "layers" together.

I'm telling you -- a cute little BOY blanket is quite a challenge. So now you've seen MY KIND OF BABY BLANKET. This 36" square blanket is red bandana flannel on one side and brown velour on the other side!

In future posts -- if I can get the pictures -- I'll show sisters' various VERY DIFFERENT STYLES OF handmade BABY blankets.

Hey -- if I remember to take my camera -- I'll show the baby (Clayton) that goes with the red bandana blanket!

2009-2010 Ice Storms

Yep. Another ice storm. This time, we filled TWO bathtubs with water (for flushing) and have 10 gallons of drinking water in our basement...so, of course, our power did NOT go out.

But thousands of people around us were not so lucky. There are power lines down, there are crews all over Eastern Iowa, trying to restore electricity.

Here's a picture of the bush just outside our basement door...it is soo beautiful. And so deadly.My plan is to NOT leave the house until the ice melts. Not a problem...there's plenty of work to do.

For one thing, I'm starting to lay out my Pink & Red Outfit for the show...WHAT ABOUT YOU??