Rainy Day Play "Quilt"

After a very rainy week the sun made a perfectly timed reappearance on Columbus Day when the Mr had a day off of work allowing us to go apple picking, something that's been on my Fall bucket list for years. unfortunately I knew the ground would be wet and that we would probably end up sitting on the ground at some point. Knowing that the regular blankets we usually use as play areas for her weren't going to cut it in the mud, I whipped up this water proof "quilt" during her morning nap before venturing out for an afternoon at the apple orchard.

I'll start out by saying I have NO experience in quilting but I was able to complete this project from concept to packing it in the diaper bag in about 2 hours, with a little help from my husband to cut and pin a few pieces.

Rainy Day Play "Quilt"

Materials: 3 large scraps of fabric about 1/2 yd each (A,B,C)
1 yd PUL
thread
embroidery floss

1. Cut nine 1 ft square pieces of fabric, 3 of each color (A,B,C).

2. Pin sqaures right sides together into 3 rows of three in the following order: 

• Row 1: A, B, C
• Row 2: C, A, B
• Row 3: B, C, A

3. Sew the squares to form the three rows using a 1/2 inch seam allowance. 

4. Now pin the rows right sides together matching up and pinning open the seams. You can take the extra step of using an iron to press the seams open but I was in a hurry and it turned out just fine when I only pinned them open to sew. Sew using 1/2 inch seam allowance to form a large square from now on called the Quilt Square.

5. Now that you have your Quilt Square pieced together, lay it onto the PUL matching up one of the corners and two edges. Cut the PUL along the remaining two sides of the Quilt Sqaure to make a PUL square of the same size.
6. Match up the sides and pin the Quilt Square to the PUL square right sides together and sew using 1/2 inch seam allowance and leaving a gap a few inches wide to pull the piece through.

7. Trim the edges to 1/4 inch and clip the corners to the seam then turn the piece right side out through the gap you left.
8. Pin the edges smooth and sew a 1/4 inch hem all the way around to close the gap and keep the edges in place. We want a mat not a bag! :)
9. Now the whole point of this is to have a dry place to sit on damp/muddy ground. That's what the PUL is for; it keeps water from seeping through the blanket to baby's bum the way a normal blanket would. Now the more holes we put in the PUL by sewing through it, the more places there are for water to leak through so we can't stitch all over quilt style to keep the two sides of the blanket from slipping around. Instead I used embroidery floss in a complimentary color to stitch small Xs at the four corners of the central square in my "quilt." You can do French knots instead if you prefer the look or place the stitches in the center of some of your quilt squares instead but I recommend as few stitches as possible to hole the piece together in order to maximize water-proofing.
Enjoy!

Cranberry Sauce

Growing up I hated cranberry sauce. Why? Because we always had that canned jelly stuff, gross. Now that I'm older I love cranberry! Cranberry juice, dried cranberries alone as a snack or baked into granola, bread, cookies, cereal... you name it! Two years ago I made cranberry sauce for the first time using Paula Deen's cranberry-clementine sauce recipe. It was so much better than the canned stuff but super powerful, I could only eat a little. My mom loved it though so I've made it every holiday since.
This year I branched out and I think I've perfected my own recipe. It has a much more mild taste than Paula's recipe which I found way too tart.


Orange Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
1 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
2 large oranges
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp anise seed
Directions:
In a small sauce pan add cranberries, the juice of one orange including pulp (at least 1/2 cup) plus water to equal 1 cup of liquid, sugar, anise, and 1/2 tsp orange zest. Bring to a boil at medium heat then reduce heat to low. Let simmer until the berries have burst and the sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, peel the other orange and cut segments into 1" pieces. Remove sauce from heat, stir in the orange chunks and allow to chill before serving.

That's all! Easy, right? I don't know why more people don't make their own cranberry sauce, especially since its best made at least a day ahead of time to allow it to chill.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and enjoy!

Lunch

Jealous? Don't be! Just make your own!

Apple vs. Pumpkin: October update

Apple vs Pumpkin Fall 2012 is under way.

So far it's a close battle: 

Team Apple has 8 Pinners, 99 followers, and 29 Pins. 

Team Pumpkin has  10 Pinners, 105 followers, and 25 Pins.

Take sides:

• Check out the Boards on Pinterest. 
• Comment here to: share links, tell me about projects you tried on the boards
• And now add to the Linky below!

Add to Team Apple!

Add to Team Pumpkin!

Apple vs. Pumpkin: Choose your side!

I don't know about all of you, but my Facebook and Pinterest feeds are being overwhelmed with pumpkin everything at the first sniffs of fall. Where are the apples?!?!
Don't get me wrong, you all know I can enjoy some pumpkin and tis the season, but Johnny Appleseed doesn't have his own holiday for nothing!
So I propose a friendly competition of sorts between the top two classic tastes of fall; Apple vs. Pumpkin!
How to participate:

1. Comment below with a link to your favorite pumpkin or apple recipe or craft.
2. If you Pin, follow me on Pinterest (if you don't already) and comment with a request to be added as a Pinner to one or both of my Pinterest boards. 
3. Share as many recipes/crafts as you like. Pick a team or support both sides! 
4. Share this blog post with as many people as you want. The more participants, the merrier! 

Happy Fall and let the competition begin!

Team Apple! Ham & Apple Pie

  

Team Pumpkin! Pumpkin Bottom Cupcakes

Fall is on the way!

Sage: one of the only survivors

Fall is by far my favorite season. I'm so excited to see the leaves changing color, feel the air getting cooler. Fall is also my opportunity for a second chance with my garden.