Sunday, April 26, 2009

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Oh, the joy of a grilled cheese sandwich!  It’s one of those things you eat that tends to bring back memories. 

I remember my mom’s grilled cheese.  She’d put a pat of butter in a frying pan and fry the sandwich in there, one at a time.  Usually served with Campbell’s Tomato Soup on the side.  She used Wonder bread or bakery bread.  The kind of bread you can’t buy anymore cuz of my government’s idea of protecting me from trans-fat.

I spread margarine on the outside of the bread, cheese in the inside.  Has to be Kraft American Cheese slices.  Cooked on my griddle, stove top.  Can fit 4 at a time on there.  Serve with some potato chips on the side and a Kosher Dill Pickle from the crock at the Festival Flea Market.

My DH turned me on to this – sprinkle a bit of shredded Cheddar Cheese on the American Cheese before closing up the sandwich for grilling.  What a difference that makes.  He likes his sandwich cut into 4 pieces.  Another comfort thing.

Sometimes, I like cooked bacon strips in the sandwich.
Sometimes, I like sliced tomato in the sandwich.

I bet there are more variations on a grilled cheese sandwich, but I always come back to the basic one – just grill it!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

More Fabric Baskets, nice gifts

I’ve been sewing away!  Made some more fabric baskets that I first found out about at the Pink Penguin blog -- http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html

1066I like the different looks you get when you pick different colors from the focus fabric for the checkerboard rows.  Four fabrics used for each basket shown above.

1067If you click on the pic above, you will see a larger version of the pic and you will also see that I am in my “gridded wavy lines quilting” phase on my quilted pieces these days.  The gentle wavy lines are so easy to stitch and so relaxing.  No matter what you do, the quilting comes out looking great.  Try it sometime.  These fabric baskets are a good place on which to practice quilting.

1088I cut the striped fabric into squares for the checkerboard rows on the basket and when I laid out the rows, I rotated the squares so that a horizontal stripe was next to a vertical stripe.  I forgot to take a pic of it in the flat, but here’s a drawing from EQ6 to show you what I mean --

090417

When I first made a fabric basket --http://anotherpatch.blogspot.com/2008/11/its-lovely-day-after-election.html  I cut the lining shorter so that it would lay better in the inside of basket.

On the stripes and dots basket, I experimented & cut the lining the same size as the quilted piece.  I let the top seam allowance extend up.  Did NOT turn the top seam allowance to the inside of basket.  Much easier to stitch in the ditch through all the layers – no bulk.

In the pic below you can see that the lining fabric shows at the top cuz it is brought to the outside of basket, rather than being turned to the inside of basket.1085I like the “cut same size” method cuz I don’t have to do any figuring and the lining does lay nicely inside.

Here’s 3 finished baskets:1090Each of the baskets has a “secret pocket” in the lining bottom – a hiding place for secrets.

Angie Padilla has directions for a cute basket -- http://tinyurl.com/c46c2d  I’m just going to have to make one of those!

I have a few more things that either haven’t been completed or haven’t been gifted and will put them up on the blog when I’ve made it so.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sewing and LeAnn Rimes

I haven’t put up any “quilty” things lately cuz I’ve been working on some items that will be gifts.  The “giftees” just might visit this blog and I don’t want them to see those pics before the items are gifted.

I hope to be able to show the results of some of my sewing sessions by the end of the week.

LeAnn Rimes was on the Today Show this morning and she was plugging her new book “What I Cannot Change” which is also a tune on her CD and which is also a website.

You can see a video of LeAnn singing a brief portion of the song and then the interview with Kathie Lee & Hoda - http://tinyurl.com/cbb2q7

The lyrics to the song are poignant.  Here’s a link to the lyrics -- http://tinyurl.com/dj64l6  Then, I went to the website -- http://www.leannrimesworld.com/wicc/ .  There are posts from people who have had experiences in their life that they can’t change – haven’t we all – and they are having to learn to live through.  Reading some of the heartfelt posts makes me feel as if I don’t have it quite so bad as I thought.  There are a lot of people suffering with an awful lot of pain, caused by themselves or others.

I guess what makes us strong is learning how to cope with what we are dealt. 

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Sit or Squat

I heard about www.sitorsquat.com on Today Show segment with Kathie Lee & Hoda. At first I thought it was amusing. But, then, I thought it to be a most useful thing. You type in a city - anywhere in the world and its map comes up with icons for available public toilets or restrooms. You can add a toilet if you happen to know about one that’s not on the map. See the legend down in the bottom right corner about the colors of the icons.

The iphone/ipodTouch has an app for sitorsquat. So, if you’re going to Paducah for the big quilt show week after next, you might want to remember that website – you might find it useful. You might find a new toilet to stick on the map.

Here’s a link to the segment with Kathie Lee & Hoda. http://tinyurl.com/demaht Skip to 4:17 for the item about SOS.

The website is sponsored by Charmin toilet paper. Isn’t that a hoot!

Monday, April 6, 2009

AOL Quilting Community Project #3

AOL Quilting Community Project #3

03BLemailterri01 I have put up another project from the old AOL Quilting Community. This time it’s a Mystery - “Case of the Progressive Units” by Billie Lauder that can be made into a quilt, a wallhanging or a table top -
www.anotherpat.com/qt/03LauderMystery.pdf

Several quilters have sent in pics of their finished items – http://www.anotherpat.com/qt/gallery03BL.htm

Here’s a list of Quilting Community projects -
http://www.anotherpat.com/qt/index.html with more to be coming.