Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Danger, Will Robinson

Rotary cutter versus fingernail... rotary cutter wins.



A relatively cheap lesson when you consider how close it came to my tender finger flesh. o.o

Monday, July 13, 2009

Some more swaps...

Just in case anyone is wondering, these aren't poorly shot pictures. They are brilliant masterpieces with an aura of mystery. Just so you know.

I finished up a needle book, which does not look *anything* like an underwear liner when it is open:

After I had sewn the needlebook completely, I decided that it needed something to decorate the exterior, so I embroidered two cherries on the flap. I did it without disassembling the book by embroidering blind through a single layer. Lesson learned: embroidery first, sew second!

I also embroidered these two bookmarks. I think undyed fabric was a really great choice for these:




And meanwhile I have been working on my not-exactly-secret project...

Monday, July 6, 2009

An overdue thank you and vegetables (not overdue)

First an embarrassingly overdue thank you to Evelyn at Use The Loot for the Rosali fat quarters that she sent me. Yes, they did arrive, and I love them! I worked all last weekend on two little baby quilts for my youngest nieces. I am trying to decide whether to post pictures or leave it as a surprise. I'm not sure I can wait to share, since I still have a good bit of work to do.

So I'm on a new kick to get my veggies every day. I am targetting lunch time, because that's an easy place for me to make menu changes without affecting anyone else. I guess it's just laziness that was keeping them out of my lunches, since I genuinely like a lot of vegetables. Carrots are crunchy and delicious. Sugar snap peas are the most decadent treat. Broccoli is way cute and totally tasty. And don't even get me started about corn-on-the-cob.

I started with some carrots; I bought a big bag and put them in the fridge at work. I just wash them and then munch on them whole, because really, why do they need to be cut up? This eased me into thinking that it would be simple to add more vegetables, so I made up a list of ones that I could eat raw, and then looked up vegetables that I could cook in the microwave here at work.

Of course my first microwave experiment was corn on the cob (husked, 2.5 min), which needed maybe another minute in the nuculator, but tasted just like corn. Today I had some butternut squash (cut in half, face down on plate, 1/2" water on plate, 7 min). I'm not sure if it was the microwave preparation or the squash itself (I'm used to winter squash, not butternut) but the flavor seemed a bit lacking. Probably the squash, right? How could the microwave suck out flavor? Regardless, it was a good meal and I will probably try again with other squash options.

So everyone eat your veggies! It's easy and they are so good for you.