Sewing

For Hubby's & my anniversary back in June I bought him an industrial sewing machine, yes that's what he wanted. I had no intentions of using this machine, I prefer to handstich :) But then while at the craft store I found a "Sew a Friend" kit on clearance. It included the pattern, instructions, & fabric to make a monster. Against my better judgement (the little angel on my shoulder whispering you have never used a sewing machine before), I bought it & decided to make it for Elias, the youngest of the Crazy People who live downstairs, for Christmas. Hubby taught me to use the machine, and after lots of threats to throw it out the window I finished the monster. I also learned to never use cheap thread in a sewing machine, apparently that was why I was having so many problems.

Here is the finished monster :) I guess sewing machines aren't as scary as I always believed.

 Elias loves his monster :) And Conner wants one now also. Which I owe him since he is older and I have never made him anything. He is so mistreated ;)

So since I have conquered my fear of the sewing machine, and learned not to use cheap thread in it, I decided to finally do something with all those special, but to worn out to wear tshirts that hubby & I have held onto over the years. I made a tshirt quilt! It is a rag quilt, and the back of it is the backs of the tshirts, which made it fairly simple.

First I chose 25 shirts to use, and I cut a 16" square out of the middle of each of them. I did this by pinning the front & back together so I could cut a square from both the front & back at the same time. Then I decided what order the shirts would be in on the quilt, & started pinning them together 2 shirts at a time.  Then I sewed the squares together with the right sides facing out so there is an exposed seam. This gave me 5 rows of shirts, each row being 5 shirts long (sorry I didn't start taking pics until late in the process).

After I had the 5 rows, I pinned the first 2 rows together, again with the right sides out to give an exposed seam, & sewed it together.

The first 2 rows

I continued this until all 5 rows were sewn together

All 5 rows, sorry not a great pic :(

Then I sewed along the 4 outer edges of the quilt. All seams are as close to 1/2" as I could muster as a newbie seamstress :) None of my seams are straight, so I ask that good seamstresses not look to close, please :)

Lastly I cut the seams in 1" pieces to give the "rag" look & washed it.

This is a close up of the "rag" effect

And here is hubby with the finished quilt :)

So if there is anything this newbie can tell you it would be, don't use cheap thread. The machine stopped giving me problems once I changed the thread!
If there are any experienced seamstresses, I could use any tips you would like to share :)

My Gift From Hubby

A few days before Christmas Hubby told me that for my gift he was buying me a tattoo! I decided this summer that I wanted a tattoo & have been researching it for months, but I didn't know when we would be able to do it. I told him he had to get one with me because I was scared to be the only person getting one. So Friday Hubby, Mom-in-Law, & I all went & got our first tattoos! It was awesome! I won't tell you it didn't hurt, but it definitely didn't hurt as much as I expected it to :) (& I'm typically known as a wuss). Going into it I knew exactly what I wanted, a frog with some sort of ivy around him. Hubby & mom-in-law didn't decide what they were getting til we were there. We are obviously very different people :) But we all left with a tattoo we love, & that's what matters.

 This is my frog :) I love him!

This is what Patrick got, a Celtic Shamrock

 and mom-in-law got a hummingbird in honor of her mom who loved hummingbirds.

Thank you hubby for a great Christmas present that will last a lifetime! :)

Beans...Blah

Well we finally tried beans that I tried to make for Christmas... they were not great :( If I was just wanting a pot of black beans to pour over cornbread, then they would have been fine, but I was wanting Mexican black beans...& that they were not :( So I will try again another day & if I am successful then I will share the recipe with you.
However something that I have tried that was wonderful is this candy bar Hubby put in my stocking.

Yes this is just the candy bar wrapper, it was that good :) & yes those are boxes that previously held Christmas presents...please excuse my Christmas mess.
I was already a huge fan of dark chocolate & spicy together. Hubby has bought me dark chocolate bars before with chilis in it & those are always great! This time he found this, with chipotle, salt, & popping candy! Yes we are talking Pop Rocks! I can tell you this candy bar lives up to it's name!
So if you are looking for an interesting sweet treat, I recommend this candy bar, or any dark chocolate bar with something spicy inside :)

CHUAO gave me nothing for this blog, I just really loved this candy bar that Hubby so sweetly picked out for me :)