Pinakbet?

Just came across this blog yesterday by a Filipino food blogger and read his post on his favorite Filipino dish. Ha! It's mine, too! It's the one thing my Mom must cook for me whenever she comes to visit. In fact, I made my cousin, John, make it for me when he came to visit, too! He and Mom have a competition of sorts going on when it comes to food. I think both of their pinakbets are awesome, especially since I'm pinakbet making impaired. What is pinakbet? It is a pork and vegetable stew comprised mainly of tomatoes, eggplant, onions, garlic, bittermelon, chicharron (deep fried pork belly), patis or bagoong (fish sauces) and sometimes okra, lima beans and long green beans. Doesn't sound too hard to make, does it? Well, my first foray into the pinakbet making world ended up sadly like my fellow blogger Burnt Lumpia. It had all the right stuff, just didn't taste the way it should. Luckily, I have some of my Mom's pinakbet squirreled away in individual servings in my freezer that I can take out when I get a craving. After reading Burnt Lumpia's post, however, I feel the need to make some of my very own. Unfortunately, I can't find my notes from the last time she made it. Guess I'll be following Burnt Lumpia's instructions...or call my cousin, John!

What have I been crafting lately? Not a damn thing! Actually, I've knitted 3 dishcloths and crocheted one scrubbie. I haven't quilted or sewn anything although I want to make a tote bag tomorrow.

I found some fabric in my son's school colors and tomorrow is the "Bone" game, which is the biggest rivalry of the year against Rancho HS. This rivalry has been going on since the 1950's when, according to legend, each school claims that they were the ones to discover a dinosaur bone during an archeological dig. The bone was named Sir Herkimer's Bone. It's actually a leg bone from a cow that was painted silver and later bronzed. The two schools agreed that the bone would go to the winning school as the trophy. This game is such a sore spot in my household because my husband graduated from Rancho HS and our son attends Las Vegas HS. My husband refuses to wear anything in LVHS school colors and during the game, refuses to sit on LVHS' side. I think he's being ridiculous! There are so many parents of LVHS players who graduated from Rancho but they support their sons. Argh! Anyway, the JV plays tonight so I'd better get ready to go watch us beat Rancho, huh? Later!

The Mom Song

Don't have anything to post today so I'll leave you with this video that was forwarded to me by my friend, Steph. Anyone who is a Mom or has a Mom will relate!

Crocheted "Swiffer" Cover

My friend, Stephanie, was telling me the other day that she was knitting a seed stitch cover for her Swiffer mop. I thought it was a really great idea because it's reusable. I decided to make one for myself but as I loathe seed stitch I decided to crochet mine. I bought a Japanese swiffer-type mop years ago and had been using the Swiffer brand sheets to cover it but every time I touched those sheets with my bare skin, I'd start to itch and felt like my hand was swelling so I stopped using them. I even tried using terry washcloths and just poked them into the four holes on the top of the mop. It worked but then I discovered microfiber mops, which I absolutely love and forgot all about the swiffer. Heck, to be honest, making it was just something to do with my hands while I watched TV. Here is the fruit of my labor.

Today's new bag

After spending 2 days checking out other people's purses and bags, I was itching to try a new one myself. This is what I came up with based upon a pattern called the Dorothy Handbag. The major differences are that there is no side gusset, I stuffed my handles with Poly-Fill instead of upholstery cording, and I used a magnetic snap closure rather than Velcro. Oh, and I didn't have a pattern! I used one fat quarter for the outside and handles and one 11" x 12" piece of fabric for the lining. After using it at the football game with no closure, I came home and dug a couple of scraps out of the trash can and added the closure, which thrills me to no end. I love this fabric and wish I knew who made it, but it was an unmarked fat quarter that I bought at a LQS. I think it's Moda but I can't call the store. They have closed up and will only sell online now. The bag is just large enough for my wallet, keys, cell phone, coin purse, and sunglasses.

Goodnight all! I'm off to clean my kitchen and then off to bed!

Doggie collar covers

Sam told me that she wanted her collar to match my new bag. Being the good mom that I am, I made a new collar cover for her. Sophie actually looks better with neckerchiefs, so she just might get a neckerchief collar cover to match. I prefer the collar cover type to the tie on ones. Here she's modeling one I made a few weeks ago.

New bag and pouch

What woman can have enough bags? I fell in love with this lilac pattern and bought it with no specific project in mind, but thought it would eventually work it's way into a quilt, which it just might. After reading the purse message boards on Craftster, I decided to sit down this afternoon and make myself a new tote. It kindof reminds me of a bucket bag since it's pretty tall. It has a layer of quilt batting sandwiched between the front and lining fabrics to make it nice and squooshy. I had cut enough to make a matching zippered pouch but got so involved in working around the zipper that I forgot to quilt it. I also had enough of the black/white and red fabrics to make a cosmetics pouch to match my other pieces. I'd say it was a rather productive day.

Quilt #8

I'm glad this one is done. I don't know what kept me from finishing it. The top sat for 3 weeks patiently waiting to be quilted and bound. I was really hoping to keep the momentum going and finish one a week until Christmas. Now to figure out which one I'll do next. I didn't think the black would be too overpowering since there is black in the floral print, but obviously not enough. Too big of a contrast! Isn't it funny how things don't look so bad until you take pictures of them?

How to finish a quilt binding by machine

I think I've mentioned before how much I love hand finishing my quilt binding, however, there are times when either I want to get it done more quickly or lately, because I'm having so much pain in my wrist that it hurts too much to hand sew. I know there are several methods for machine finishing a quilt binding but I just haven't been too happy with my personal results. I came across this video today and will have to try this method soon. Hope this helps someone else out there.

Oh yeah, I finished binding my latest quilt at Chris' baseball game tonight. I'll have to post pictures tomorrow.

Go Bows!

Hawaii 49, UNLV 14

When I was growing up, the University of Hawaii athletic teams were called the Rainbow Warriors or Bows for short. A few years back,a decision was made to get rid of the word "Rainbow" because it wasn't good for their image. They'll always be the "Bows" to me. They're ranked #22 overall with the #1 offense in the nation, according to the commentators at tonight's game.

I took my boys and a couple of their friends to the game here in Las Vegas this evening. We had a blast sitting in our free seats on the UNLV side (courtesy of the visiting WAC officials) and met some other Hawaii fans. This older man sitting right in front of me was really ticked off because he bought 6 tickets from an online scalper for $600.00 because he was told the game was a sell-out and he wouldn't be able to find tickets anywhere else. He said this was the most expensive football game he'd ever been to. We really wished we could have sat with the other Hawaii fans but beggars can't be choosers. I was able to see my sister and her family during half time. She and her husband flew all the way from Hawaii to be here for the game (along with a few thousand other Hawaii fans), while her sons (in the picture on the right side with their girlfriends) drove up from San Diego.

Has anyone ever seen the haka dance performed by the UH football team? It's an awesome sight. It's so cool because not only the Polynesian players do it, everyone does it! We didn't see it tonight, don't know if they performed it after the game as we left at the start of the 4th quarter because the score was already 42-7 and we wanted to avoid traffic. I did hear, however, that they won't be doing it anymore. Too bad, if that's true. Here's a sample:

More little goodies

Yep, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I had to make some modifications to the checkbook covers. If you're like me, you tend to stuff receipts and cards into your wallet until it's bulging before you go through it and weed out the junk. I had to add some type of closure and keep the pockets deep. I felt that an elastic loop would be good to take care of the expansion. It works for me.

I tweaked the iPod cozy and made a slightly bigger one for my phone. I also used a different way of constructing them so that they have a smoother, more finished appearance. I added a red lining because I had LVHS football on my mind and those are the school colors. Now I have a matching set of phone cozy, iPod cozy and a zippered pouch that I use to keep my tampons from disintigrating in my purse. I found an awesome tutorial here.

Oh, and if you're wondering why I changed the appearance of my blog, it wasn't because I wanted to. I posted about my little goodies last night, saved my post and then when I went to view my blog, everything but the posts were missing! WTF???? I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I closed everything and re-opened the blog but it was still messed up. Luckily, I had recently saved a copy of my template in a Word document and referred to that in order to re-create my blog. I upgraded to the new Blogger templates so I lost my cool template but I think it might be easier to upkeep in the future. We'll see. Damn Blogger!

Cubs for Kids!

Cubs for Kids!
Originally uploaded by fancygreenbee.

Here are the sweaters that the Football Alongers made for Cubs for Kids. Too cool!

Now that Chris has seen the camouflage sweater, he wants me to make one for his monkey.

Knitters Rock!

Whipped these up yesterday

Okay, don't laugh when I tell you that all the time I spent making these could have been spent finishing that quilt. Some days though, it is so satisfying to finish a bunch of little things than one big thing. Anyone else agree? These, obviously, are the binder cover, checkbook covers and iPod covers that I said I wanted to make last post. I was smart this time and either made patterns or took measurements so that I can re-create them without too much trouble. The binder cover and checkbook cover are just scaled up/down versions of the paperback book covers I made recently. Same exact technique. The iPod covers are fully lined and all the raw edges are either turned in or finished. I could still tweak this one just a tad but don't know if I will as they're fine as is.

A couple of quick projects

I really wanted to make a cover for my quilting binder but didn't have a pattern, so like always, I made it up as I went along. I also made another pincushion since I had a little more fabric left over. I'd like to make another binder cover but this time I think I'll draft a pattern to use again later. Maybe a quilted checkbook cover and quilted iPod cozy are in my future as well. I'll be sure to post pictures when/if I make them. Oh yeah, I still have that quilt to finish that I started last week. Good thing I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow!

Six years ago tomorrow...

More here





Enough said.

Wishing everyone love and peace
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On pins and needles

Well, not really. I just got so excited about this pincushion that I saw on May Britt's site. She was kind enough to post a tutorial and I fell in love with it. She used the English paper piecing method and 2 1/2 inch fabric squares. I tried it using 3 inch fabric squares and it took me several hours to complete my first one. Problem was that I was working on it during my son's baseball game and didn't have a picture of how to assemble it, so I actually put it together wrong. (See the dumpling shaped one on the left?) I was in such a rush to finish it because I was having lunch with Pat and wanted to show her "my bad ass English paper piecing skillz, dog". No matter how I poked or prodded it, it just didn't form that cool star shape. Duh! So I go back to May's site and googled around to see if anyone else made my mistake and found out where I went wrong. I really wanted one made correctly so after dinner I took my happy butt upstairs to make one, however, I wanted it NOW so I pieced it on the machine in about 30 minutes compared to the 4+ hours of hand piecing. No paper had to be harmed in the making of this pincushion, honest. It was really easy and if I make any more, I'll do them on the machine.

Oh, just wanted to show pictures of the Halloween print backpack I made for Chris. It cinches closed when you pull the straps. I intended it to be used for trick-or-treating but he insisted on using it for school. See the loop I added for his phone? I was afraid that it would fall out and get lost. He asked me why I made a backpack for trick-or-treating and I said I wanted him to have a backpack in case he got tired of carrying it, he could just sling it on his back. You don't know Chris, he gets more excited about handing out candy at home than having to go out and work for it. In fact, every year, he winds up giving most of his candy away to the trick-or-treaters after we've run out of the stuff we bought. The teenager has more fun than he does.

Has anyone else noticed that they're spending more and more on candy every year and it seems that it goes far more quickly than ever? We usually spend over $100 and we're all out between 8-9pm. I swear people bus their kids into our neighborhood!

Gotta get to bed. We have an early baseball game tomorrow...8 a.m.!

Well dressed monkey

I sent off my sweaters to Jen today for the Football Along's charity project. I made this one for monkey to wear. He will also get the blue and brown one that I have on the needles, whenever I can get around to finishing it.

Started another quilt yesterday. I'm kindof making it up as I go along. Not quite sure if I like it yet, though. If I can stand it, I'll post pictures.

New quilt finished this week

Just finished binding this one at 1:30 this morning. I'll be having lunch with my friend and her husband and wanted to be able to show her the finished quilt. It is a long lap sized to accomodate the taller members of my family. This was the first quilt I've made using my walking foot to quilt it. Can I just say that I'm not too sure I like the walking foot. I didn't feel like I had as much control as I usually do and I couldn't really see the ditch as well. It was easier to go over the intersections, however. I experienced a lot more puckering of the backing fabric than normal. I used it to attach the binding because I was going over so many layers and while hand stitching the binding down, I noticed that the quilt top had a couple of pleats in it. Overall, I don't think this was my best quilt but I still love it for the fabrics I used. This was also my first time using nylon invisible thread during the quilting portion. I only had it break once. I kept checking for breakage because my friend told me she had a big problem with that. Because of the invisibility of it, I couldn't tell, most of the time, where I'd quilted until I looked at the back. I will definitely be using this thread again! Now if I can only get over my fear of free motion.

More knitting going on

I've been working on the teddy bear sweaters and they're easy to memorize. I started the pink striped one while at the salon waiting for my pedicure this morning. I got to the underarms before I was done there. I wanted to do a girly one for the non-football fan. The blue one is for my NY Giants. I'm glad I have something small to work on since we're driving to Phoenix this weekend for a funeral and I'll knit while Bernie drives.


Just had to get a little sewing done yesterday so I whipped up this little sling bag from part of a fat quarter and left over quilt backing fabric. I will definitely make more of these but next time I want to give the bag a bit more substance by using batting and quilting it. I even started on a patchwork version but haven't finished it yet.

New quilt top and sweater done

Just finished this quilt top this morning. I'm still trying to decide whether to make it bigger than lap sized or not. If so, I'll need to get a bigger batting. I just love these two fabrics together. I'm sure this won't be the last time I use them.

This sweater in Las Vegas HS colors is the pre-season charity knitting project for the Football-A-Long. Now I have to start one in New York Giants colors, whip up a couple of scarves and send them off. They are really quick to make but since I haven't done any prolonged knitting in awhile, I am suffering from some wrist pain that might slow me down a bit.

I hope to complete the quilt tomorrow. I have the backing fabric in the washer right now. Pics to come.

Addicted to Quilting

Saw this poem on an online quilting group I belong to:

*Addicted to Quilting*

She learned to quilt on Monday.
Her stitches all were very fine.
She forgot to thaw out dinner.
so we went out to dine.

She quilted miniatures on Tuesday.
she says they are a must.
They really were quite lovely.
But she forgot to dust.

On Wednesday it was a sampler.
She says stippling's fun.
What highlights! What Shadows!
But the laundry wasn't done.

Nine patches were on Thursday -
Green, yellow, blue and red.
I guess she really was engrossed;
She never made the bed.

It was wall hangings on Friday,
In colors she adores.
It never bothered her at all,
That crumbs were on the floors.

I found a maid on Saturday,
My week is now complete.
My wife can quilt the hours away;
The house will still be neat.

Well, now it's only Sunday,
I think I'm about to wilt.
I cursed, I raved, I ranted,
Cause the MAID has learned to QUILT!

Author Unknown
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It's so true except that my husband hasn't reached Saturday yet!