Actually, it’s my lap. The impossible has happened.

After mentally accepting the notion that I might be able to talk myself into making some hexagons, and after going so far as turning to my husband at the county fair and asking, “Do you like these? Do you think you might want to learn to make them?” like the shamelessly lazy cow that I am, I found a vintage 36″ x 42″ hexagon quilt at Goodwill today.

Pardon me, I’m still in awe.

Not much going on here, other than hand quilting - I broke my last machine needle the other day in a fit of temper, and need to wait for the nice postman to bring me some more. This is what we call learning a lesson, I suppose!

But I’ve been wanting to link to a few recipes I’ve found online and tried over the past month or so. It’s tough to tell if a recipe without any reviews or anything will actually turn out, but I’ve had fabulous luck with some lately, so it seemed time to share the love.

I’m warning you, nothing here qualifies as health food, except for maybe the pudding cake made with whole wheat flour. But, obviously, I served it with ice cream, so, you know.

This lemon curd from the one, the only, the Martha has been consistently reliable after about three tries. I have to admit, one of the reasons I favor it is that it seems to yield a fair amount for the amount of ingredients that go into it. I don’t consider Martha to always be a paragon of thrift, but I can almost always make this with stuff I have on hand, which is rare for a fancy dessert recipe. And it tastes flippin’ great.

Pink of Perfection can boast pretty consistently great recipes, but this pudding cake is most certainly my favorite. Not too sweet, not at all difficult, and made with whole wheat flour, it can be made in a 9×9 and still stretch to feed about 10 people, if the aforementioned ice cream is available. I find a lot of “I’m glad I tried this” recipes online; this one belongs in the “I need to make this all the time” file.

A couple of years ago, I was sad because I didn’t know how to make a brisket. I was never able to find a recipe that didn’t require sever days of prep. So I was skeptical when I saw this on Mama Urchin’s blog - it just seemed to effortless! Which is was. And also delicious.

I usually stay far away from recipes that call for a can of cream of ________, but I will occasionally bend that rule when I am already making a bunch of stuff from scratch. My Superbowl Party was structured so that I had to prepare both lunch and dinner for quite a few people, so, enter creamed spinach. I was initially drawn to it by the description: “This spinach casserole is similar to one served at a Boston restaurant chain.” Which it does! But it has two other things going for it. One is that it is possible to dump every ingredient listed into a saucepan at 10 a.m., cover, and heat 9 hours later for dinner. The other is that it looks exactly like the processed algae they eat on Battlestar Galactica, so if you routinely eat dinner with a bunch of BSG fans (and why wouldn’t you?) you can serve them algae.

And, finally please don’t eat this, but do make it: laundry detergent a la Neesy. This was SO easy, and it works great. I’ve even been giving jars away as gifts. Which probably seems lame. Until they try it! It’s got a great smell, it’s eco-friendly, and won’t irritate any allergic types. But the best part is, nothing will ever make you feel more usefully domestic than making your own laundry detergent. Seriously.

I know they barely even qualify as a variation on the other quilty things I make, but, holy heck am I into potholders right now!

Behold the pile:

They are not selling as quickly as I’m producing them, which seems almost wrong, in a way. Not monetarily; I’m just sure I can’t be the only person thoroughly infatuated with hotpadded goodness at the moment.

A few sets are available here.

Apparently, news of the Doll Quilt Craze hasn’t reached my local Bargain Box, because not only was I able to score this cutie; I was able to score it for $2!!!

It’s even reversible!

So, yeah, major score, and inspiration, too - I’ve been meaning to make quilts for my Blythes, but wasn’t sure where to start with dimension and color. This just so happens to be the perfect size to keep Pres. Roslin warm in sick bay. (Yes, I know her eyes are the wrong color. I’m working on that.)

Speaking of BSG, I got some good press this week, which thrilled me to no end. Not because it’s such a huge deal in and of itself, but because there are so many blogs/websites/publications that are for crafters, by crafters, about crafters that getting attention from a totally unrelated site - specifically, sci-fi-geek-unrelated - was a huge, huge treat.

And, finally, since we’re just about to hit the end of February, I want to point out some serious quilty goodness from the Threads Together flickr group. I honestly can’t believe I own these blocks!

Which leads me back to the best quilting advice I’ve stumbled upon - USE the fabrics you love the most! I hung on to these for a couple of years, terrified of cutting into them. Finally, I left the job to some people who weren’t quite as emotionally attached and, voila! Seriously, having this quilt is going to be so much nicer than having all this yardage stacked up in my studio. Something to remember for the future!

I wish I remembered to blog. Like, ever.

It’s not like I don’t have anything to talk about.

There’s this, for example.

Made from scraps I got in a scrap swap with the lovely Alison. If you’ve been to her shop, you can imagine the bag of loveliness I had to work with. I was able to piece this in a couple of afternoons, based on the premise that, if I was trading fabric for fabric, I ought to try to avoid expanding my stash too much.

I like how homey it looks. I think I’ll tie it.

And another totally unexpected project:

I picked up all of these 14″ x 4″ strips while bidding a fond farewell to WhizBang Fabrics in the Mission. I snapped up a bunch from the Katie Jump Rope line, because it’s popular and discontinued, but I didn’t have a plan for it until I sat down with a calculator and was able to puzzle out the possibilities.

I added a 14″-wide border to make it twin-sized. I’m trying to make more bed quilts, if just on principle - I sure as heck don’t have a twin bed anywhere. But who knew a twin top would fit our dining table just about perfectly? Oh, the possibilities….

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’d started, and then quickly finished, the “Summer Breeze” quilt from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, but what I might not have mentioned was that I didn’t follow the instructions exactly.

That’s not even true. I followed them to the letter, until I didn’t.

If you own Joelle Hoverson’s book, you might be surprised to see the quilt laid out and covering so much of a queen-sized bed. You might also be surprised to see it made up of seven stripes instead of five.

Why seven stripes? No numerology here. I used them because I had them.

Here’s what happened: I cut the fabrics as I was instructed to do. The first phase of this involved folding a long cut of quilter’s cotton lengthwise and cutting into four strips. Those are the big strips of houndstooth you’re seeing in the photos. Then, I cut 45″ (or 42″ or whatever, the whole width of the fabric) strips from that and four other fabrics of varying widths.

Yes, I am being intentionally vague about measurements, because I’d really like for people to buy the book.

As you might imagine from the pictures, I mixed up the 45″-wide cuts, sewed them together in groups of four or five, varying widths and prints as much as possible, pressed the seams, cut them into chunks, and stacked them up to make the horizontal striped sections of the quilt.

The technique yielded a really cute combination of stripes. However, it also turned out to be way more stripe-age than I needed. I guess if I were really picky about fabric position, I’d have been happy with so much to work with, but I can’t imagine making a randomized, strippy picnic blanket is really a fun activity for the overly picky.

Plus, there was the fact that I was only about to use two of the long houndstooth pieces I cut. To be fair, the instructions do call for the remaining long cuts to be used as binding, but I determined the print was too busy for that, and used a dark brown Kona cotton with some of the leftover striped bits integrated in. So if you end up “going big” on this quilt like I did, make sure you have enough of something
to use for binding.

So, after a bit of head-scratching, I determined I didn’t have another use for the stripes I’d made, and added another column of those, as well as an extra houndstooth strip. My finished quilt is somewhere around 81″ square - small for my bed, but could make a good guest quilt, or fit a twin that sits high off the floor.

If I made this quilt again - and I may very well do so - I’d either proceed with the modifications I’ve just detailed (might as well go big if you can do it without any extra effort!) or make the original eliminate a few of the widest 45″ cuts. I’m sure there are almost infinite ways to make this project less of a yardage-eater, but that might involve more math than I generally feel like doing.

I think my cleaning and organizational kick has really paid off - in the form of a bunch of 9-patch blocks I made about 10 years ago! I found them all crumpled in with some forgotten scraps and supplies. I should take better care of my things.

I should start by remembering I have said things.

I’m really excited to integrate these into my sampler quilt, which hasn’t grown since I last posted about it.

I know this is a terrible picture, and not even a good subject for a blog post, but I feel better - physically lighter and just better - now that I’ve organized the cupboard that serves as my “pantry”:

The inaugural email sent to the The Vintage Housekeepers Circle today charged us with baking a Wednesday Cake, and though mine is not as frilly or fancy as the lovely Alison suggested, it’s going to be served underneath lemon curd.

Oh, lemon curd! Even the promise of you is happy-making.

I don’t know of a better lemon curd recipe than Martha’s. And I mean that quite literally - this is the only one I’ve tried, but I’m happy to concede I am a curd n00b. My cupcake book has a slightly different recipe, and with a passionfruit variation, which I would have tried had I been able to find passionfruit nectar. As it is, I have a lemon tree out front, so I’ll go with Martha’s instructions. They’re what I know, and the lemons are free.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so domestic in just a few short hours. I need to decide if I want to keep on housekeepin’ on, or do something entirely frivolous so I don’t burn out….

After finishing three quilts in two weeks - while working full time - I’m not really amazed at people who can get so much crafting done.

I’m amazed at people who can get so much crafting done and then photograph and blog it. Truly, I am just not there yet.

Just a quick shot of a quilt you’ve seen before. I wanted to show the backing, and the binding, which I fear have thrown my once tidy little top into a state of chaos, but the idea of taking the time to change them is enough to make me determined to love this as-is.

As is, and quite to death. Sometimes it’s nice to create a flawed quilt. If I am ever going to have the kids, dogs, and additional cats that I want, I might as well come to terms with the fact that all of the above a natural-born stuff-wreckers.

Exhibit A.

I also bound the “Summer Breeze” quilt, which I will photograph more thoroughly when it’s time to review the pattern, and - if you can believe it - The Total Love Quilt.

The Total Love Quilt is so unbelievably old that it was named after a line from that cute video game, PaRappa the Rappa. I think I started it in something like 1999, finished the top in November of ‘01, and hand-quilted from then until February of last year. We slept under it last night. I feel like I just graduated or something!

But lest I feel too accomplished, in characteristic Jennicakes fashion, having it on the bed has raised all sorts of doubts about its suitability for a sleeping quilt. For one thing, it’s thin, and I like a lot of weight on me when I sleep. For another, it’s a tiny bit short on all sides for our massively fat mattress. Not that I could have known that almost ten years ago, but looking at it now, I do wonder why I never considered making us a custom-sized bed quilt that would take less than, oh, a year or so.

And then there’s the kitty factor. She likes to play in bed, and I shudder to think of the effect of her claws on all my meticulous blanket stitching. She also drools something terrible, usually on things that belong to me, not her, and I have a terror of washing this quilt, given all the handwork and interfacing and the wear and tear it saw in its making when I dragged it through three states and four or five residences.

So mayhaps it is into the blanket chest with the TLQ? Ever since I made this baby quilt, I’ve been unable to sell it, because I love the colors too much. And it’s so simple to make, and could be quilted so sturdily….

I need to stop now, because my husband is going to read this at work, and do a little headdeskin’. Just thinking out loud, baby!

I’m working on binding a quilt today, and trying to finish up this book, which makes this kind of a big day for me. If I’m depressed or upset about something, I like getting lost in book. For many reasons, but I love to be able to get to the end and say, “If nothing else, at least I finished this book today!”

Thanks to my busy hands, I only read 20-30 books a year, which is really not a lot for this former English/writing student. But what can you do?

I feel the same way about binding a quilt. It’s such an unimpressive feat after months or even years of the work a quilt takes, and when I’ve finished, it’s almost an anti-climax compared to, say, finishing up hand-quilting after something like 5 years. So I plod along, dispassionately, until the end, at which point I say, “Well, if nothing else, at least I finished that quilt today!”

If I can do both this afternoon? I may really feel I’ve done something.

Speaking of binding, how crazy is this satin-ribbon version? Crazy like a FOX, I say! I have such simple taste in quilts, I’d love to try this to spice things up some day. Next time I find a big ol’ spool on sale, I’m going for it.

And now, back to work. At which point, I will reward myself with a run and a dinner of scrambled eggs. At least I’ll accomplish that much today!