A Bit Of Crafting

Haven't been doing any Cross Stitch or Hardanger in the last few weeks, but I have been picking up a needle and doing a little bit of hand sewing and machine sewing. 

Decided to make a few more Autumn/Fall bits.

 A couple of tall skinny pumpkins, lots of hand sewing and one machine sewn seam.

My Monster had a bandanna that he ripped so I decided to make a Halloween Pumpkin out of it, keeping with the black and white theme of the bandanna.

 'Boo Baby'

I figured with all of the pumpkins I've made I needed to try making a Ghost to go with them. Here he is all Primed out in canvas fabric with a coffee stain and dye.

 Boo Baby flying through the pumpkin patch. He's only eight inches long and seven inches tall. I think I'll need to make a few more in a couple of different sizes maybe even a few different shapes. 

I need to figure out a bat and a crow pattern to go with the pumpkins too.

We don't get any Trick or Treater's here at the Cabin very small town and an area with little to no street lights equals people taking their kids to the main street areas of town or the bigger towns near by not out into the rural areas, so I hardly ever decorate with Halloween in mind.

That's it for today everyone, thank you for stopping by the Cabin and having a look around.

Until next visit.......

Take Care & Happy Craftin'

Hugs, Sandy

Home Canned Pickled Beets

We had an early morning frost on Thursday that killed off what was left of the cucumbers and peppers and made all of the tomatoes very sad looking. So, because of this we harvested all of our beets and the rest of the peppers and cucumbers and over 30 pounds of tomatoes on Friday. 

I set up our trusty Squeezo'......

and proceeded to throw in the little yellow pear tomatoes in whole with a small screen size to run them through and jar up the pulp for later, I ended up with 2 quarts.
We then switched screens and went on to seed and core the Roma's before running them through and freezing the pulp (2 gallon bags worth) until we harvest the rest for a big day of canning spaghetti sauce.
I'll do more tomatoes today or tomorrow and check the garden for any more ripe ones. Then I'll probably have to harvest the green ones and let them ripen inside for even more sauce, unless I can find some good canning recipes for green tomatoes.  
Anyone have some suggestions?  

We ended up canning 15 pints of beautiful pickled beets on Sunday.

Well, that's it from the Cabin for today, think I might do a bit of craftin'.

So until next time ........

Take Care and Happy Harvestin'

Hug's Sandy

Making A New Favorite Snack

Two weeks back I found out that I LOVE Hummus. 

We were in Costco and they had the Sabra Organic Hummus with Red Peppers at a taste booth or traffic congester as I like to call them, so I thought what the heck might as well try something new. I LOVED it!!!!, so I bought the tub of hummus and had it gone in the first week : (

Didn't want to continue to pay almost $10 for a snack that would only last a week, so I went on the internet and found recipes for the yummy treat then proceeded to make my own using the basics of different recipes as my template to come up with my own from what I had on hand.

Homemade Garlic Hummus

   

2 - 15.5 ounce cans Garbanzo Beans - drained and skins left on

2 T. Lemon Juice - I used bottled

1 to 2 T. Garlic - I used pre-minced

4 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 t. Kosher Salt

1 t. ground Cumin

1/2 to 1 t. Paprika

1/2 t. Onion Powder

1/4 c. Red Bell Pepper - chopped

2 to 3 T. Water

I put the Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas) into the food processor and pulsed them around until they were coarse ground then I added everything except the peppers and water and processed until smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape the sides of the bowl. 

Then add the water a little at a time until you get the thickness that you want, then add the peppers and process to mix them in, next time I will stir them in by hand so I end up with little pepper chunks instead of the barely there that I got from processing. 

I added a little Paprika and a swirl of olive oil on top for looks.

Most of the recipes called for Tahini, but I didn't have any or enough Sesame Seed to make my own, but it was an optional ingredient so I didn't worry about it.

It's really good with Wheat Thins or baby Carrots, I didn't like it with Triscuits.

If you like Hummus, give making your own a try, it's really yummy and quick.

Take Care Everyone

Hugs, Sandy

A Little Touch of Autumn

Decided to make a fall wreath for the front porch this morning, so I took a trip through my fall crafting supplies. 

I came up with a handmade vine wreath, some silk fall leaf sprigs, a couple of handmade flowers, a couple of handmade pumpkins, a fall cross stitch piece and a couple of scarecrows that I picked up at Walmart a couple of years ago and this is what came from my crafty mind.

"Autumn Wreath"

Can't see the vine wreath, but I might change that later. I didn't use any glue, just slipped the scarecrows and the leaves into the vine wreath then tied the flowers, pumpkins and stitched pillow on with crochet cotton by taking a stitch through the back or bottom. Really easy to make changes that way in case I change my mind about it next fall.

Happy Fall Everyone

Hugs, Sandy 

Goodness From The Garden

Since it was cold and rainy all weekend long the hubs and I decided to do some more canning.

After he went out to garden twice and came back with at least 30 pounds of tomatoes and over a dozen cucumbers we decided on more spaghetti sauce and pickles.

On Saturday we made...... 

6 quarts of Spaghetti Sauce.

 

Unlike last time we didn't blanch and peel the tomatoes, I just seeded them and he ran them through the Squeeze-O food mill. Worked much better and was quicker. I can truly call this organic since it was made from home grown tomatoes, peppers, onions, and herbs. 

 

On Sunday we made......

7 quarts of Bread & Butter Pickles

I don't think we will be needing any pickles for a while as this brings our total to a whopping 58 quarts and 3 pints. 

36 quarts of Bread & Butter

15 quarts of Dill spears

7 quarts of Sweet spears

3 pints of sweet pickle relish

There are still lots of tomatoes that will need harvesting and a few more cucumbers, then we need to harvest the beets and make pickled beets or beet relish. There are more peppers out there as well that I'll chop up and add to the freezer to use later. So much home grown goodness, gotta love it.

Well that's all for today, so until next time.......

Take Care & Happy Fall Everyone

Hugs, Sandy

One Last Halloween Gift

Wow, I think this is the most gift charts and posts that I've done in a single month. 

This will be my final Halloween chart then it will be on to Christmas and winter if my designing mojo holds up.

"Hardanger Spider's Web"

6" x 6" (78 x78) on 28 count evenweave

Again I didn't write any directions for this one, I suck at Hardanger directions, but you can go to Nordic Needles Stitch Dictionary and find quite a few examples and directions for the stitches. I added Doves Eyes and Reverse Branch just as an example, I really want to see where your vision takes the chart.

I charted it for white or DMC 762 for the web, straight stitch for the outside webbing being couched down with petite crystal or clear seed beads as dew drops, and black for the spiders. 

I know there are other websites that you can get directions from but I can't seem to find them among my bookmarks, so if you have other sources I'd love to hear about them so I can add them to the post.

More Stitch Tutorials

http://www.needlework-tips-and-techniques.com/learn-hardanger.html
http://www.lynxlace.com/Hardangertutorial.html
http://maryjoanstitching.blogspot.ca/2011/01/hardanger.html

Thank you for the links Marl.

That's it for September everyone, I hope you enjoy the chart and as always, I would love to see your finished pieces. So until next time, thank you so much for stopping by the cabin and leaving your thoughts behind.

Take Care Everyone & Happy Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy