My Style Sunday: Stitch Fix #26

As always, I eagerly anticipated the arrival of my next Fix. Those of you who have read previous blog posts about Stitch Fix know that every few weeks a box arrives at my house with five items of clothing in it. I get to try them all on, mixing them with stuff I already own, and then decide what I want to keep and what I'll send back in the enclosed postage paid envelope.
Since spring will be here soon, new goodies for the season will be great! Between now and the arrival of my next Fix, I'm going to North Carolina for a few days and spending some time at home. North Carolina will probably be about the same temperatures as here and maybe a little rain.

The first two items out of the box were a white lace top and a pair of pink pants. I knew I liked the top, but didn't know how I was going to work it in; the fabric of the pants was a little thin and produced a visible panty line, so they were definitely a Return.

Rear view confirmed my decision -- return the pants and keep the top.

Next was the blue blouse; I grabbed a pair of my own black pants for this picture. Didn't think the blouse was particularly flattering, so it's also a Return.

The black lace pencil skirt was the next thing out of the box -- really liked the way it fit, love lace! It's a keeper. Not sure about it with the white top, though, so let's play!

First I tucked it in and belted it -- nope, not a good look!

However, the last item out of the box was a 3/4 sleeve cardigan with some great detailing in the front -- Score! Now I can keep the skirt AND the cardigan and have a great outfit for spring!

I was still determined to work the top in, so started going through some of my other skirts. This one is from White House Black Market and the ivory colors really work well together. However, I wanted more of the skirt to show. Back to the closet!

Grabbed a vest that I bought from Cache (it was such a bummer when that whole chain closed!), tucked in the top and now I have another outfit for spring.

Outcome for this fix: Pink pants, returned; blue blouse, returned; black lace pencil skirt, kept; black/white cardigan, kept; white lace top, kept. That's pretty good! Three pieces kept, two great outfits! Cost for the three pieces was about $175, but since you pay a $20 styling fee up front each time, that was subtracted from the cost as well as another credit that I had from someone else who doesn't love or have time to shop signing up through my link on the blog. So the three pieces were $130, within what I consider a reasonable price range for a skirt, cardigan and top.

Next fix will arrive April 1 -- can't wait! Hope it isn't an April Fool's Day thing!

I'm participating in a fun Stitch Fix Linky Party HERE!!  Check it out!

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Linking to Crazy Together

Foodie Friday: Cooking from Rachael Ray Every Day

I used to have a television in my sewing room and most of the time it was set on the Food Channel. At some point, I decided that I needed more space on my desktop, so the TV was out and a great big monster monitor came in. But by that time, I was totally hooked on a few of the chefs, one of them being Rachael Ray. Love her perkiness! Love that each piece of that diced onion didn't have to be perfect! Love that she could get a whole meal on the table in 30 minutes -- always took me 45, but that's OK.

I've been a subscriber to her magazine, Rachael Ray Every Day, since the very first issue and usually cook a few things from it every month. I'm not one of these people who has a few staple recipes and makes them over and over -- I rarely make the same thing twice.
We love roast chicken because it's so yummy and produces great leftovers, so the Pan-o-Rama article caught my eye -- three ways to roast a chicken in a cast iron skillet. Didn't matter that I don't have one, a roasting pan will work, right?

The only thing I did different from the recipe was instead of salt and peppering the chicken, I used the Ultimate Roast Chicken Rub from Williams-Sonoma. When I run low, I always buy two cans of this because I use it every single time I make chicken. The recipe called for fresh thyme; happened to have that on hand from another recipe. The thyme was used both inside the chicken and tossed with the veggies. The chicken roasted for about 25 minutes before adding the veggies.

Cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, thyme and shallots in a big bowl...

Pour over a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and toss.

Arrange the vegetables around the chicken and put back in the oven for about another 35 minutes.

All done! Dan doing the carving...and then to the plate! This was excellent and I think I may break my rule for making something twice....although a recipe on the same page for Glazed Sesame Chicken with Mushrooms & Bok Choy is intriguing!  Here's another way to cook a delicious chicken!  Don't love chicken??  How about pork?

Happy Feasting!!

Paula

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International Spring Cleaning Month - CLEAN OUT THOSE SCRAPS PEOPLE!!

I just learned that March is “International Spring Cleaning Month” – what are you doing to celebrate?  One of my friends who quilts all the time and rarely cooks told me she was planning to dust her kitchen!  Me?  I’m cleaning out my stash….I do this about every three or four years, going through all the fabrics, touching them, petting them, daydreaming about the wonderful quilts I could make if I had more time.  Some of my fabric pieces are fairly small and could probably qualify as scraps, but I just can’t bear to toss them. 

So it might be time to get a new Craftsy class about using up these scraps – there’s one from Pepper Cory called “Scrap Quilting: waste not, want not” – that sounds just perfect!  Pepper has written many many books over the years; I’ve always enjoyed her teaching style and her sense of humor, so here’s an opportunity to get her off the pages of the book and onto my iPad screen.

The first time I met Pepper was one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever done/said!  We were both teaching at an AQS show in Knoxville TN several years ago when we were seated near each other at breakfast in the hotel.  After some conversation among the group, she introduced herself to me – “I don’t think we’ve met – I’m Pepper Cory!”  My brain immediately flashed to the large stack of quilting books next to my reading chair and I said, “Oh! I have your picture in my living room!”  Pepper gave me a rather odd look and so I explained about the stack of books…..it was awkward and embarrassing and so totally me!

So if you'd like to check out her class "Scrap Quilting: waste not, want not" click HERE.  You'll LOVE it!  (And it's on a super sale right now!!)

Happy Cleaning!!!!!!! 

Paula

How to Handle the Big Quilts a Little Easier!

A lot of quilters complain of fatigue and shoulder and neck pain when they sit down at their sewing machine to work on a quilt. Since I quilt for several hours every day, I have found that working in no more than 90 minute increments keeps me from having my chiropractor on retainer!

After a maximum of 90 minutes, I get up and stretch, walk around a little and generally loosen up. Then I’m ready to get back to work. Four or five 90 minute segments works well for me as a regular work schedule.

A lot of the difficulty quilters experience with large quilts is controlling the weight of the fabric, batting and pins! If your quilt is constantly falling off of your work surface, you are expending a lot of energy repeatedly lifting it back up to the table. After three years of struggling with this issue in my quilting business, I finally found a way to “trap” the quilt’s bulk on my table by putting my sewing table in a corner so that the left side and back of the table are both along a wall:

 

When I'm working on larger projects, I use the whole table positioned in a corner so that my quilt can bank up against the walls. This makes the weight of the quilt much more manageable...

 

For smaller quilts, I put some decorative storage boxes and the cover to my sewing machine on the table. This creates the barrier "closer in" so that the little quilts will bunch up and then will be easier to maneuver...

 
Once you have hoisted your heavy quilt to this table, it can’t fall off. The weight is supported by the table and all you have to worry about is the part that's in your lap!

Another problem with quilting large quilts is that gravity always seems to be pulling your quilt down. If you keep the quilt fluffed up as you feed it through your machine, you will not get the loss of control and the little bitty stitches caused when your quilt is “hung up” on your machine table or on a corner of the platform that fits on your machine (if you are not working on a flush surface).  I pull the quilt up from my lap, pile it on my chest and then sew down from there rather than trying to pull the quilt directly from my lap to the machine. Try it - your stitches will be more even.

See more tips and tricks on my website!

It's Dream Day 2016 and I Finished the Ruler Project

I have this cool app on my iPhone that tells me all the weird, wacky and obscure holidays for each day of the year. For instance, today is: Middle Name Pride Day, Plumbing Day, Johnny Appleseed day and Dream 2016 Day. Of all of those choices, Dream Day seems like the best -- so think about the absolute best outcome for whatever your brain is dwelling on these days, break it down into baby steps, and let's do it!

A beautiful sunrise like this morning's is so inspirational -- must have pink fabric around here somewhere, right?

Got the binding on the ruler class project -- this will remind me to never ever ever bind dark fabric with the same fabric. Practically went blind trying to do all the hand stitching, so when I make this again for the trunk show that Sew Steady is putting together I will definitely use a print in the thread colors rather than the dark blue again.
A very nice and educational thing about doing the binding was that I used Wonder Clips instead of hair clips (they were sold as quilt clips, but still, they're the same darn thing) and loved them. Carol and Shelley had given our whole group a bunch of them on a card (I think there's maybe a dozen or so) to use in a project they were teaching us. When Missouri Star Quilt Company had a sale on a box of 50 PINK ones, I grabbed them right away. Now I find that they will be my new favorite thing for binding!
I loved working with the rulers, so want to make some other things using them to do the quilting. Possibilities are running all around in my brain, so on Dream Day 2016, that's what I'll be thinking about!

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Golden Chicken & Orzo (sort of) Soup

For the past few months, I've subscribed to the Make It Tonight Easy Dinner Download from Fine Cooking. Once a week, they send out an email with 5 dinner recipes labeled Monday through Friday, along with shopping lists and recipes. What I especially like about the shopping lists is that they are coded for each day so that you don't have to wade through a great big long list and eliminate the ingredients for the dishes you aren't going to make that week. I usually make two or three of them per week when I'm in town and there are always great ideas for when I just don't know what I'm hungry for.

The download is in pretty color, but I always print it on my office computer, which is just a black and white.
It would have taken me less time to make, within the 30 minutes that most of the recipes take, except for two things: No rotisserie chicken on hand, so I poached two largish chicken breasts in chicken broth. Didn't want orzo so fired up rice in the rice cooker, which normally takes about an hour. Used 2 cups American jasmine rice to 3 cups water and a bit of sea salt.

While the chicken poached (even though they were large, it only took about 20 minutes), I minced up some celery and onions. Since I took a knife skills class at Sur la Table, that goes a lot faster than it used to!

A couple of tablespoons of olive oil went into the pot first -- my in-laws brought this back from a trip to Italy and I never get tired of looking at it.

After preheating the olive oil, the chopped celery and onions went into the pot, along with saffron and thyme. Sautéed that for a few minutes and then added the broth (I measured what was left in the skillet from poaching the chicken and then added more to make up the 8 cups called for) and brought it to a simmer.

The chicken went in next and the pot simmered until the music went off, signaling the rice cooker was done. Fluffed up the rice and added a cup of frozen corn to the soup pot along with fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper.

To serve, a scoop of rice went into each soup bowl and then the soup was ladled over it -- yum! Our weather has still been pretty chilly, so it's nice to have a hot bowl of soup to sit down to!

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Happy International Women's Day!

Browsing my blogs on my Bloglovin feed, I saw this one from Lauren Conrad that informed us all that today is International Women’s Day – did you know that?  I sure didn’t, but it seems like an excellent reason to have a nice glass of champagne and maybe cake! Lauren Conrad had a lovely post about women today... read it here!

Start Machine Quilting... with Paula Reid

I've been promoting my favorite Craftsy Classes for the last week because Craftsy is doing a big giveaway to a craft-focused charity later this month!

Today I am featuring MY Craftsy Class!!!!!!!!  It seems like forever ago that I was in Denver recording my class.  Craftsy made it so much fun and I have wonderful memories from my time spent with them.

So... This is the description for my Craftsy Class and if you purchase through this link, you'll get 50% off (plus you'll be entered into the drawing!).

"Finish all your quilt projects with confidence alongside prolific instructor Paula Reid. Choose the perfect batting, needles, thread and machine feet for every project. Layer and pin baste your backing, batting and quilt top for pucker-free quilting. Adjust your tension and stitch length for stitches that look and act just the way you want. Straight stitch quilts so that your layers remain securely fastened through multiple washings, and your starts and stops are virtually invisible. Master Paula's "fluff and stuff" method to easily move any size quilt through your machine. Select, mark and free-motion quilt the perfect designs for your quilt. Plus, gain the confidence to freehand quilt gorgeous hearts, flowers and leaves with no marking. Turn your pieced tops into quilts you love!"

Playing with Rulers!

When I was at Quilt Market in Houston last fall, I was intrigued with the Sew Steady booth further down the aisle from us. I've worked with Sew Steady before in promoting acrylic tables that support quilts so much better than the small trays that come with a lot of machines. The newest thing Sew Steady is doing in the world of acrylics is cutting rulers that can be used by longarmers, midarmers and now us, the domestic machine user who wants to free motion quilt various designs without marking.
I purchased the required free motion foot for my machine and the Sampler Template Set 1 and started to play with them with the end game being to stitch a sample and begin teaching classes. I've finished the ruler work on the sample and am ready to bind it -- I'll show you that when it's completely finished.

Meanwhile, here is a peek at some of my practice pieces. I had a whole bolt of this beautiful blue fabric, so whacked some off, grabbed some wool batting and 40 wt. Mettler PolySheen thread and started stitching using the rulers as my guide.

It's a rainy cloudy day here in Southern California, but all of a sudden the sun came out and totally transformed the fabric color on the top photo -- doesn't even look like the same fabric!
So what do you think of the designs that I did with the ruler set? Doesn't this look like a lot of fun?

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Wild Quilting

Wild Quilting by Christina Cameli.

A - MA - ZING !

Christina makes this such a fun class, the techniques you'll learn are incredible, and the projects you'll make after taking this class will be absolutely stunning!

Check it out at my affiliate link HERE!   (p.s. It's on sale!)

Visit Christina's website for more of her fun style!