Blue Ribbon Pie

I got some rhubarb at our local farmer's market, Saturday and wanted to make a pie. I had made a rhubarb/strawberry pie earlier this month and wasn't quite happy with it. Perfectly good pie but I didn't like the strawberry in it as much as I thought I would.

So, I looked for recipes online and found a wonderful, super-dooper recipe. It is located here. It has a special secret, the sugar/flour part of the recipe is placed, half on the bottom crust and half on top of the rhubarb right before the crust goes on. This makes the bottom crust kind of sugary crisp. The juice from the rhubarb gets to the bottom a bit later in the cooking process so it doesn't get soggy.

The crust I use is oil-based and very easy to make and roll out. The recipe comes from my mom. :-)

Two-crust pie crust

2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup salad oil

1/4 cup milk

Mix gently with a fork and roll out one half at a time between two sheets of wax paper. Peel one side of wax paper at a time, flipping gently to the second side before placing on the pie pan. 

Strawberry Runner

Strawberries and seersucker, what says summer-time better than this. I put the top together, added the backing--all seersucker and then sewed in the ditch along the tops pieced blocks. I can't decide what else to do with it. It looks kind of plain. What kind of stitching does it need?

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Our first trip out this year and it was glorious!

I had to try out my new water shoes--they match my boat don't cha know--I give them a mixed review--they stay wet for too long but are extremely comfortable.

Green, Green, Growing

Tented from the heat, we are trying to keep our snow peas cool. I hope it is not a losing battle as I am looking forward to some of this fresh, nice vege.

 

J is moving ferns into the woods. They have been growing along the side of the house in the sun and they don't like it very much. They like just a little sun, please. I am feeling that way, after a sunny week, a little shade is loverly.

Smaller and Smaller

Well, my last quilt was pretty small, it's dimensions, roughly 17 x 20 inches, with blocks 1 1/4 x 2 1/2 and 1 3/4 x 4 1/2. This time I went even smaller and I love this size. It is a bitty doll quilt, only 12 x 14 inches, with all blocks 2 inches square. I told you I had been fooling around with the Hello Betty collection by Moda from last summer or thereabouts. As soon as my sewing machine came back one of the things I whipped up was this small project. I wanted something portable and it was elegantly so. I stuffed it into my purse with a bit of thread and needle and off I went. One good tip I read somewhere was to use the small cutter on a box of dental floss instead of scissors when those aren't allowed. We just got back from a trip and the dental floss thing worked great! I reverted to scissors when I could but the floss was a real saver.

Felted Black Wool Needle Case

Here is a small wool needle case I finished a week or so ago.

I will have to add to this post later to tell you the pattern producer for this case. OK, the company is All Through the Night Folk Art Designs. I bought the pattern as a kit with the wool included at a quilt shop that also had a bunch of felted wool on bolts.

The front cover (top picture) is my own design, however, originally it was supposed to be a picture of a spool of thread with flowers coming out of it. I changed it to make what you see.

I had not done some of the embroidery stitches inside (second picture) for a very long time. It was so much fun to pick it back up.

Yum!

Needles Galore

No words needed for this beauty!

Felt Mouse

I have not shared this gorgeous mouse that Meg made me. She got the pattern in the book "Hand-Stitched Felt" by Kata Golda. She made changes to the dress pattern and made the shoes by herself. Oh-and the little dolly is the pattern sized down with a wee crocheted basket by Meg. I made the blue felt dress with the ric-rac and used Meg's pattern for the shoes. I made a pattern for the pink-striped socks and used some jersey knit fabric from an old scrap.

Happy Mother's Day

Doll Quilt

Well I have finally finished the quilt I started all the way back in the fall.

I stitched together some squares of Hello Betty by Moda yesterday to make a small quilt--even smaller than this one. I bound it before quilting since it was so small and I finally tried the double-fold binding method with mitered corners. Yikes, it was a little fussy but it worked. It is small enough to tuck into a purse and not make me hot when I quilt it.

I switched to a new editor in blogger which allows more freedom with pictures and has this text centered--weird and I don't know what it will look like yet......

Have a great weekend!

"Laura"

One of my very favorite books of long ago, "Little House in the Big Woods", has come alive today. Em had a historical dress-up day today and I was able to finish this outfit last night----my sewing machine finally making it home yesterday afternoon. Phew!!

This dressing up and all makes me want to make homemade cookies.......or give mittens in a stocking at Christmas like Laura.

Happy May Day

A lovely frilly pink, pink for you! Oh, and the spicy, sweet aroma....it is to die for. I haven't put my pot of pinks in the ground yet because I love coming out the front door and catching a whiff of these beautiful pinks.

Here's to a wonderful beginning of May and more flowers to come. I love spring!