Saw-Toothed Edging Quilted Pillow, Note Book Cover and Whiting Fish Souffle

I can't believe it!

It's already the last day of February!
It sure did go fast!

Around here things have been pretty much the same.

So that's very good news, thus it means J is doing OK.

The wound is getting much smaller and healing really good

(that's the open wound from surgery).

Me... just the same old same... It's still too cold for gardening,

so I've been inside doing some sewing.

I've finished the quilted pillow

I told you about the last post. It's made from scraps pieced together,

but the edges were the main reason I made it;

I just wanted to practice these type of edge:

Saw-Toothed edging, that's what's called.

It came out pretty good I think, so I'm ready to try it on a tote bag.

I'll tell and show you when it's done.

Also, I played a little bit with felt and put a nice cover on a note book.

And I reckon it was about it for crafting.

I've been cooking a little too.

Today I made a Whiting fish Souffle.

I use to make it a lot back in Portugal when my son was a kid,

it was just a good way for him to eat fish.

And specially for him, here goes the recipe:

-4/5 fillets of cooked Whiting fish

-2 tablespoons of butter

-2 tablespoons of flour

-1 cup of warm milk

-6 egg yolks

-6 egg whites, stiffly beaten

-salt, pepper, nutmeg (a pinch)

After the fish is cooked cut it in small pieces. Set it aside.

In a medium sauce pan melt the butter;

slowly stir in the flour and then the warm milk, whisking constantly.

Remove from heat and add the fish pieces.

Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg

(just a pinch, maybe a 1/4  teaspoon of each).

Add the 6 yolks one a time, whisking well in between.

Let it rest while preparing the egg whites; beat them stiffly till they're firm,

and then slowly incorporate in the mix.

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees (Fahrenheit)

and pour the batter in a greased round pan.

Let it bake for about 30 minutes,

or until a inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Et voilà!

It's really tasty and goes very well with a tomato and lettuce salad, Portuguese style.

Maybe my talented daughter-in-law would like to give it a try,

I know my son liked it quite well when he was a kid.

Oh, and by the way,

you can find some of her amazing culinary essays

in her blog, Acquired Taste,

and now also in Madeinkitchen,

since she is now their English Web Editor.

Go check them out!

I'm pretty sure you'll love it!

Not quite Spring time yet, but some T-Shirt Yarn and fabric bowls and a fabric facial tissue pocket

I think I'm ready for Spring now...

(Ah!Ah!... tricked you!

Sun flower's from last year!)

My Easter flowers think so too,

that they're ready for Spring time.

But the willows say they aren't ready yet.

Oh well... how many more months of Winter...?

Lately it has been really busy around here.

Mainly concerning J.
With his care, medical appointments, the wound care...
it has been a all day long routine.

But I always have to make time for a little crafting...
So, today I'm going to tell you about my T-Shirt yarn.
Remember the post where I told you about trapilho,
and the craft magazines about trapilho my sister sent me from Portugal?
Well, here in the States I can't find trapilho anywhere.
The closest thing I can think of is the T-Shirt yarn
(the tape yarn I got from Joann.com it's definitely not trapilho).
I've finally decided I had to try to make some.
I found a wonderful blog here,
where Lettie shares with us all a bunch of her tutorials,
and believe me, she has some great stuff there
(thank you for sharing Lettie!).
As you can see by her tutorial,
it's a totally new and easier way (at least for me) of making T-Shirt yarn.
So, I got a few T-Shirts from my closet
(I really wasn't wearing them anymore, honest... ),
and my rotary cut, and... here we go!
This is the before:

and this is the after:

I got 6 balls of yarn (each ball = one T-Shirt).

The T-Shirts without the side seams are the best,

but I've used also the one with seams.

I already started a project but it's not finished yet,

so I am going to wait till I'm finished to tell you about it.

Lettie's blog has so many wonderful ideas,

I couldn't resist to try another of her projects.

This is the final product, a fabric facial tissue pocket:

Pretty cool, isn't it?

Another thing I've made during these last days, more fabric raggedy bowls:

I always have lots of uses for my bowls... :0)

If you would remember,

this post is where I first told you about this fabric bowls/baskets.

Also I've been working on a quilted pillow...

but I'll tell you later about that!

Happy Valentine's Day!

As far as I can remember

I didn't pay any attention to Valentine's day

(Dia dos Namorados, in Portugal)

till I met my husband.

He gave me my first Valentine as well as the last one, six years ago.

This was the little card

attached

to this beautiful angel bear

 

he gave me that last Valentine's day.

As you can imagine I really treasure everything

very very much!

And each year I get a little something

for the both of us,

a little something that will became a part of our memories together.

This year I'll share with you all what I got us:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Lolita tutorial posted by TotallyTutorials, a couple of softies and some snow

My Lolita tutorial was posted yesterday by TotallyTutorials,

a great blog for craft freebies!
You can find it here.

Dotty does a wonderful job posting all these free tutorials.

Thank you Dotty!

And by the way,

I've finished two more Lolitas in the last couple of days.

I've also made a couple of softies

one a cat like...,

and the other a robot like...

And I reckon it's about it.

This week was really busy.

J had to go back to the wound center

(follow up on the surgery wound).

It's healing well, but still is a very large wound.

I am still in a kind of shock how could this have happened...

I mean, the whole thing... I should have never authorized this surgery!

Of course now I can't cry over spilled milk, so... it's one more thing for me to endure, that's for sure.

We had some snow last Wednesday, not too much but still a little bit.

This is how it looked.

Luckily, it happened the day after J went to the wound center.

I'm thinking about putting another ramp at the front of the house,

'cause with this winter weather the ambulance can't drive to the back,

where the ramp is (look at the picture above).

It was an adventure to get him in the ambulance this time.

They decided to bring him out trough the ramp and then

just push him trough the yard.

But everything went well, thank goodness.Till next time.

And this is it for this post too.

Fleece blankets and belated Xmas gifts

I've finished some fleece blankets for the girls

(maybe as belated Xmas gifts).

Three of them are the classical tied knots I usually make:

I used two fleece fabrics, a printed one and one coordinated solid color.

These are always a huge hit,

they come out pretty good and everybody seems to love them.

And I made another one, with fleece also, but with the raggedy blanket technique:

cut 30 7" squares each color (60 total)

Sew them together

and then in rows of 6

and then the rows together till the desired length.

After all the rows are sewn, machine stitch all around the blanket.

And then just slit all the seams to make like a fringe.

And that's it!

The finished blanket will look like this:

I've made some bags to fill with the blankets and some other stuff:

For the bags,

I've used flannel and ironed on some applique Christmassy motifs.

I think they came out pretty.

I know I'm not really in the mood anymore

(spending Xmas in the hospital alone with J was even more sad than usually),

but I'm trying to be okay with everything

and not to think much about stuff like this.

Sewing and crafting do help me to keep a fresh and stress free mind

as much as possible.

Anyway...

I kept the Christmas tree and everything Christmas up till now

(so we could enjoy it for a little bit)

but I think this weekend it's time to take everything down.