This frightening antique female clown was one of the hundreds of odd things for sale today at Uncommon Goods in the SoCo neighborhood of Austin, TX. This will not be coming home with me.
Looking out the window of an empty dairy barn
Posted by on December 3, 2011 Leave a Comment
I took this photo from the inside of an old dairy barn. It hadn't been used in 10 years and was in such disrepair it probably never would be again. So terribly sad.
Quilted Sweater Baby Blanket
Posted by on December 3, 2011 4 Comments
I practically killed myself getting this finished before I left on my trip, but here it is.
I am constantly scouring thrift stores and Goodwill for old wool or cashmere sweaters. If they won’t fit any of my family, into the wash they for felting. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 trips through the wash to get them felted really well. Once a sweater is felted, you can cut it without worry that it will unravel on you. This works best with only 100% (or pretty close to it) wool or cashmere. I’ve got boxes of sweaters that I’ve bought at thrift stores, some felted and some not, waiting for the time to make all of the projects I’ve got in mind.
I wanted to make a quilted blanket with smaller pieces of some of these sweaters. I found this great pinwale corduroy recently, and my sister and I came up with a good color scheme to go with it. Using mostly the arms of sweaters, saving the larger body pieces for other projects, I cut the sweaters into 6″ squares using a cutting mat and a rotary cutter. If I had some smaller pieces, I made a few that were 3-1/4″ x 6″ and patched two pieces together to make a square just for something a little different in the quilt.
6" squares of felted sweaters.
I’m extremely fortunate to have a sewing machine called an overlock. I’ve been wanting it for years and finally got it for Christmas last year. However, if you don’t happen to have one of these, I think this project is still possible. If the sweaters are properly felted, unraveling shouldn’t be a concern. You can either stitch the pieces together using a large zigzag stitch, or you can just seam them together with a sewing machine. For demonstration purposes though, I’ll show you how I did it with my overlock.
I laid out the general pattern I wanted on a large clean surface. I was careful to lay them out in alternating directions so that the weave switched from diagonal to horizontal every other strip. This should help to keep the blanket from stretching out. I was also careful not to have the same pattern next to each other; no two cables butted up next to each other in the same strip. Then I sewed together one strip at a time, overlapping two squares and joining them. I was careful to always keep the seams going in the same direction.
Lay out the general pattern/color scheme you'd like on a large, clean surface.
Stitch two 6" squares together, with one piece slightly overlapping the other.
A finished strip of sweater pieces.
Sewing the fabrics together may cause a little stretching, so straighten out any uneven edges with a straight-edge and your rotary cutter.
Lay out all the strips together to give your design a final once-over. Make sure all the colors in each strip work with the strip they’ll be joined with. Some juggling may be necessary. Then, again keeping the seams all going in the same direction, I joined the strips together, one at a time, to make the quilt.
Lay out the strips together, making sure all the colors are working with colors in the next strip. Some juggling may be necessary.
Pen the strips together, overlapping one strip slightly with the other.
Sew the strips together.
Continue sewing the strips together until you’ve got the top of your quilt completed.
The finished sweater quilt top
This is what the backside looks like when it's done with an overlock machine.
Then I joined the top with the corduroy fabric, and I used wool batting in between. I used this batting on Sia’s Baby Blanket and really loved it.
Cut batting slightly smaller than the sweater quilt top.
Turn the quilt right side out.
I used a fairly thin yarn and made french knots at each square to join the quilt and prevent any shifting of the batting. I made a knot in the doubled yarn on a needle and came down through the top at the “intersection” points. Come right back up with the thread to the top, being careful that you get right at that intersection point again. wrap the thread around the needle a few times, and holding the thread taught, came down close to the same point that you’re already gone through at the bottom. Pull the thread gently, still holding the thread taught, and you’ll form a french knot! Click here for a good tutorial on what I’m trying to explain. You want a really big knot, so do wrap the yarn around the needle 3 or 4 times! At the back, stitch around the threads already there once or twice, then make a knot and snip the yarn, leaving about 1/3″.
French knots at the corners throughout the quilt.
I love the way it came out. It’s a great project, and would make a great baby gift, or Christmas gift. Mine measures 40″ x 43″ finished, but you can make it any size you want. Let me know if you try it, or if you have any questions about how I made this one. Pin It
Rooster
Posted by on December 2, 2011 1 Comment
In preparation for my upcoming road trip I decided to spend some money I'd gotten unexpectedly for some design work on a new camera. While I'm still figuring out the basics, I thought this photo of my rooster came out great. And yes, his neck feathers really do glisten like that; he gets more beautiful every day.
Lover’s Leap
Posted by on November 30, 2011 Leave a Comment
While driving up to Kent today to go riding I took a road I hadn't been on before and came across this bridge called Lover's Leap, in New Milford, Connecticut.
A Road Trip with Beyonce?
Posted by on November 30, 2011 3 Comments
I’m not sure if you’ve read the blog post on The Bloggess about Beyonce the Metal Chicken, but if you haven’t, you can read it now by clicking the link here. You won’t be sorry; it’s hysterical.
I’ll wait while you read that….
I don’t even remember how I found this post on Beyonce the Giant Metal Chicken, but I have a feeling it was Pinterest. I think it went viral in a blogging sort of way. I laughed for days over that post. I had actually seen that very same chicken at my local Home Goods this summer, but it wasn’t on clearance yet and I must have been thinking clearly that day for it not to have come home with me.
So my Southern Road Trip with my sister is right around the corner. We leave at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning to fly to Austin, where we will rent a car and drive all the way home, via Atlanta. A Foodie, Photography, Antiquing, Search-For-Bizarre-Things, Road Trip. And the reason we are driving all the way home from Austin, Texas, is so we can bring all the shit we buy home. We are sick of traveling and finding great things that we can’t have because we’re flying home. In fact, the last time I was in Texas I fell in love with an old sign and ended having them ship it to me.
I bought this for my office we have yet to build. It will proudly hang in it someday.
On that same trip last year with Amanda and India, while driving from Austin to Fredericksburg we passed this strange store that sold every conceivable kind of metal outdoor sculpture. We stopped to check it out, but they were closed.
They had a lot of sculptures like the terrific pigs that Jim got me for mother’s day that guard the goat house for me now.
Well, for some reason I’ve got it in my head that my sister and I need to stop at this same place on our way from Austin to Fredericksburg and strap our Beyonce to the roof of the minivan as the mascot for The Crafty Farm Sisters Southern Road Trip I just know that place is going to have them.
It’s not that my husband tells me not to buy towels when I go out to the store. He doesn’t. In fact, I probably could use some new towels. But I do buy things that he finds questionable all the time, and that blog post was just so damned funny.
Then to take my level of crazy up one notch higher I got to thinking we needed Crafty Farm Sisters’ Southern Road Trip T-shirts.
So this is what happens to me when I don’t get enough sleep on a daily basis, haven’t had a real vacation in too long, yet know one is just days away. I go a little off the deep end.
So if you see a minivan driving down the road next week somewhere between Austin and Connecticut with a giant metal chicken strapped to the roof, give a wave!
Another Rooster Development
Posted by on November 30, 2011 1 Comment
We’ve had quite a bit of gloomy, steel gray skies around here the past few days, which aren’t very good for farm photos. It’s also been very warm for this time of year, so the animals have at least been enjoying that. Despite the warm weather, the goats are getting their thicker winter coats and are feeling very soft these days.
Remember this poor pathetic molting chicken back at the end of October?
She's looking pretty good now!
And one of the chicks that I had ordered this summer was a barred rock rooster. I ordered him because after seeing them again at the agricultural fair this summer I just couldn’t resist. They are so beautiful. This was one of the roosters at the fair.
Since there was one chick that was dead on arrival of the package, I’d never been certain if that might have been my rooster or not. But sure enough, the other day when I was out at the farm I noticed that one of my barred rock chickens was getting the distinct longer tail feathers, his comb was bigger than the other barred rock’s of the same age, and the neck feathers were becoming longer. I think it’s going to be my rooster! I’ll keep you posted as he develops.
In the meantime, my other rooster is looking more rooster-like every day.
And finally, I’ll show you photos of two of my hens. I have so many beautiful chickens, but when you carefully look at their feathers, it is really just astounding how beautiful their feathers are. Nature is so amazing.
Floating Chihuly
Posted by on November 30, 2011 Leave a Comment
A few years ago the New York Botanical Gardens had an exhibit of Dale Chihuly glass sculptures. It was an enormous exhibit, but I loved the pieces that were floating in the outdoor water gardens the most.
Family Christmas Photo 2011
Posted by on November 28, 2011 4 Comments
There are literally about 10 days a year when all 4 of my children, Jim and I are in the same place at the same time. We seized the opportunity this weekend to try and take a photo for our holiday card.This is what our family photos tend to come out like. When you've got 4 kids, 2 adults, 2 chickens, one dog, and a camera-shy goat trying to all look good at the same time, we don't. I particularly love the way my dog is longingly looking at Paula Deen, the chicken in my arms. Luckily, we did get a better photo than this one.
Ricotta & Chive Gnocchi
Posted by on November 28, 2011 1 Comment
I recently posted gnocchi in a brown butter sage sauce that was delicious. That was the first time I’d made gnocchi in probably 25 years. It was fun! When I was at my local library for the lecture by The Beekman Boys for their new 1802 Heirloom Cookbook, I saw that Amanda Hesser and Merril Stubbs were going to be there this coming Monday promoting their new cookbook Food 52. I had never heard of this book (trust me, I own enough cookbooks already), but Erin, one of the librarians at the library, was explaining the book to me, so I checked it out on Amazon. It was really highly reviewed, so I decided to order a copy and bring it with me to the Library. I kind of liked getting out of the house at night!
There were so many delicious recipes in the book that I can’t wait to try, but while Amanda was home from college this weekend she was really looking for some of Mama’s comfort food. She asked me to make meatloaf’s for her that we froze and she took home in her suitcase. Apparently one fell out of her carry-on onto the kid sitting next to her who exclaimed “sick!”. She also had me make my spicy hummus, which she took home in small containers, and she made some of the chocolate chip cookies I recently posted to bring down to her friends, too. We decided this gnocchi recipe should be the first one we tried. They were terrific. The crust from frying them after you boil them made them extra yummy. I added
Ricotta and Chive Gnocchi
Recipe from The Food 52 Cookbook by Amanda Hesser & Merril Stubbs. Adapted (slightly), by Crafty Farm Girl, November, 2011.
Serves four to six
3 Russet potatoes
2 Eggs
1 c. ricotta
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/3 cup chives
2 cups Flour (making sure you have extra on hand for rolling them later)
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt & pepper
Bring a large pot of water to boil and add the russet potatoes. Boil for 45 minutes, draing the water through a colander, and let the potatoes cool. Following what I learned from the earlier gnocchi recipe, I peeled and riced the potatoes carefully while still hot and spread them out to cool on a rimmed baking sheet. Discard the skins.
Once the potatoes have cooled down, add the eggs and stir into the mixture. Once the eggs have been incorporated, stire in the ricotta, parmesan, and chives.
At this point, the mixture should be very thick, but it needs to be thick and maliable as dough. Add the flour and stir together until you get that consistency. I found this easiest to do by turning the mixture out onto a clean work surface and kneading it until it came together. Continue kneading, flouring the work surface as necessary, until it’s more dough-like and doesn’t stick to everything in sight. Cut the dough into 4 pieces.
Begin rolling the dough, a section at a time, with your hands as if you’re forming a large snake. I found it easiest to cut the coil into two pieces about half-way through to make it easier to work with. Continue rolling until you form rolls that are no bigger than a quarter in circumference. (Any bigger and you’ll have difficulty cooking them.) I probably made mine about the size of a nickel around.
From the skinnier rolls, take a knife or pinch off little sections and roll them around in the palm of your hand to make the gnocchi. You may need to continue dredging them in a little flour as you go, which is fine. Set all the finished gnocchi on a large plate to the side. I found it easiest to cut all the gnocchi, and then I went and rolled each one to form a more evenly rounded shape.
Once all the gnocchi have been formed. Dump them into a boiling pot of hot, salted water. Boil the gnocchi for five minutes to ensure their centers are nice and dense. (They will automatically start popping up to the top of the pot once they’re cooking, but make sure you give them a little extra time in the water.)
Drain the boiled gnocchi through a colandar or remove from the boiling water with a strainer. Then, in a very large saute pan over medium high heat, add two tablespoons of oil and butter. Add just enough gnocchi to the pan where they have enough space to get a light, brown crust around them. I seasoned them with salt and pepper in the pan. Add more oil, butter, and gnocchi when the first batch is done. When plating the gnocchi, lightly season them with a little kosher salt, parsley, or extra chives and some grated parmesan.
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