Make Your Own Tomato Sauce

There's a great song "Home Grown Tomatoes" By Guy Clark....

 And I totally agree! Funny enough; I don't really like to eat raw tomatoes. But I love me my tomato soup. With lots of crackers.

My sauce garden!

 And there's nothing in the world like a good old fashioned home grown tomato sauce!

Sauce in progress! My Mom's old kitchen; not a lot of space but we managed.

Great Tomato Sauce

8-10 nice juicy ripe Tomatoes - cored, chopped, ready to use OR 3 Large cans chopped tomatoes

Two large sweet onions  - Chopped

1 each Red and Green Pepper - Chopped

5 cloves Garlic - Minced

5 stalks Celery - Chopped

2 Shallots - Chopped

Peppercorns Crushed 2 Tsp

Salt  1 tsp or to taste

Brown Sugar 3 Tsp (to taste)

Italian seasoning 4 Tsp (to taste)

Dash Louisiana Hot Sauce

4-6 leaves fresh Basil leaves

In large deep frying pan,  preheat on med-high and cover bottom with olive oil. 

Continuing on med-high heat brown onions, garlic & shallots. 

Once caramelized add in the peppers and celery, reduce heat to medium.

About three minutes later, or when your peppers have turned 'bright', add in your tomatoes (canned or fresh.)

Add Salt, Pepper and Italian seasoning. Gently 'crush' tomatoes with a potato masher, stir all together. I would not recommend an inmmersion blender (unless you want this a puree) as the beauty is in the chunky sauce.

Cover and let simmer for half hour, stirring occasionally. Taste at the 30 minute mark, adjusting your spices. Add lid and on your lowest heat setting, simmer another hour.

I finish off my sauce with a couple of splashes of Louisiana Hot Sauce and serve with fresh basil.

What is your favourite pasta to top? Any recipe tips to share? Would love to share them!

2015 Skillbuilding - January's Goal - To get Organized

**Warning. Terrible, terrible photos are at the bottom of this post.

 They may be disturbing to some readers!!!**

I will admit it. I make messes when I work.

And...I *really* need to get into the habit of cleaning as I go.

That is, putting things back where I got them when I use them. Not leaving things out, in piles. Everywhere.

Is this anyone else or is it just me? 

What are your surefire ways to stay organized?

So this is January's Skill to build, you may or may not  need to work on this. 

But Link up!

Let's encourage each other to stick with it!

 1. Go through all my tower shelves. Decide what stays and what goes.

2. Fold up neatly any fabric I pulled out and place in the correct colour bin.

3. Clean off my desk, put all notions back in the correct drawer.

4. Clean off the shelves and put things where they belong.

5. Place ALL UFO's into the proper wicker bin.

6. Continue the Closet Cleanse. Get some garbage bags and put stuff in it immediately.

7. All donatable goods to go INTO back of car immediately.

8. All trims, lace, notions back folded neatly into their drawer.

9. All thread back onto their hanger or in the box.

 ***

My sewing room is technically our guest room. And we had guests over Christmas.

So all my sewing stuff was crammed away. 

Now, in my New Year's Closet Cleanse, somehow it all got piled in there.

And sewing projects. And UFO projects. And knitting projects. 

And ...clothes to mend/alter.

So.

Here it is. I am putting it 'out there' and letting the world see.

(deep breath)

Yep. This is my creative space. I think I need to work on this.

I'm totally cringing right now. But I'm being honest, this is me. Although it doesn't ALWAYS or usually look like this. I swear.

So....yeah. You can see why Organization needs to be a focus for me this month!

What are your surefire ways to stay organized?

Tips?

 

Join the fun! Link up!

Our own special hashtag -   #skillbuilding2015  to IG/Tweet progress!

Know a great tutorial? Someone who nails these skills?

Post links in our comments & let's get sewing!

Planning the Year

I'm an Aries.

So, I almost always bite off more than I can chew.

Usually, anyway.

I start out with grandiose plans and then have to scale back somewhat.

I like to make lists to help me keep focused, and I usually put easy stuff on there that I'm always going to accomplish...like............ "Pet Cats" ..."Make Coffee"....you get the picture.

So, this year is going to be the year that I slow down and focus a little more.

Focus on friends, in person, not always online.

Focus on building skills, one project at a time. (This one's gonna be hard)

Focus on FINISHING the many quilt tops/projects currently on the go.

So, here is my List for 2015. It is flexible, amendable, and hopefully, attainable!

1. Learn how to Cable Knit.

2. Knit a sweater using Cable Knit skills.

3. Pet Cats.

4. Clean out bathroom closet - any old toiletries/makeup/etcetc is going out!

5. Finish up all quilt tops.

5.1 Finish up all UFO projects.

6. Learn how to properly sew in zippers and make some zipper pouches.

7. Vaccuum.

8. Get back into hitting the gym thrice weekly.

9. Use more words like "thrice".

10.  Be a better person.

And because all things good to to Eleven:

11. PLAN MY WEDDING!!!!!!

(Oh...and work on my blog. And blogging audience. And photo skills. And clean out the basement. And get my car fixed up. And work on leaning OT stuff to help my Mama and keep her sharp. Get her back knitting again. Find a great therapist to help her relearn to walk. And tell Mr. J I love him each and every day a million times a million.)

Bring it on, 2015.

Cozy Cottage Quilt....in progress!

========================================================================

Last week Mr. J. brought up a very good point.

All my quilts are, well, girly.

So, maybe there IS a lot of...pink.

But what's wrong with that??

Well this week I have thought about what would make a quilt more

Should it be pine-scented?

Flannel?

Vintage Car themed?

 Sewn whilst wearing a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up covered in grease?

Ain't he a cutie!! But...I digress.

 So I did some research; and while I generally don't like gender-specific roles/colour palettes....I noticed that 'masculine' in the colour world means navy, burgundy, hunter green, etc etc. 

(Not my personal opinion I think PINK is for everyone and so are pastels. But I digress.)

 So I thought.... Aha! COTTAGE Themed!! 

For me that means rich browns, deep reds, and deep forest greens.

The basic square-in-a-square block; with a layout that is Vamp approved.

Editor's note: Whilst sewing the blocks together, I was experiencing serious tension issues.

 The machine. Not me. I'm pretty mellow. Anyway.

As you can see, the blocks are showing the exposed seams. I have had to RE-sew ALL the seams. Le sigh.

I will post updated photos as the week progresses!

 

 

 

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Fancy'in Up The House! Pillow Tutorial

 I've said it before and I'll say it again.

 I love to decorate and bake and give and sit in the sparkle.

 Decorating the house is a lot of fun....and I found the easiest, most funnest, super simplest tutorial that looks AMAZING when they're done..... SPROCKET PILLOWS!!!

I made a few for gifts last year, and when I pulled out mine to add to our festive decor, I *knew* I had to share the joy of making them. Even if you're not a strong in the sewing area; this is a super easy project to make.

This tutorial is courtesy of the AMAZING Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew.

Her photos and step by step instructions make everything easy and understandable.

Sprocket Pillow Tutorial HERE.

The bottom centre one is Mine. :)

Happy Sewing & Decorating!

Strippin' in Black and White

Nope...it's not what you think.

Or...maybe it is!

It was recently brought to my attention that my Etsy shop is overloaded with (ahem) 'girly stuff'. 

Vintage sheet Pink Rail fence

I realized..... that's very true.  There's a lot of pinks and pastels and shall we say, more feminine quilts and things on there. Not so much for in the Manly Men department.

So I am working on that discrepancy this week!

Here's a sneak peek:

Strip Quilts come together quickly!

I cut some of my fav black and white fabrics into varied widths

 

 

I don't know...felt like someone was watching me....

So I have a few planned to work on this week, and a few more finished tops that just need to be quilted up.

Heading up to sew for awhile, get some work done!

OOOOH and I almost forgot...finally finally finally 'they' are printing ALL the superheroines onto fabric!!  When I cut into this darling, I will DEF let you all know what it's turning into!

Batgirl, Supergirl AND Wonderwoman, together at last!

 

 

My finished Wonderwoman Quilt; a gift for my bestie!!

Which comes first - fabric or pattern?

I have a question to pose to all the quilters out there.... what 

 comes first for you?

Do you find gorgeous fabrics INSPIRE you to create and then you grab the pattern?

Or do intricate design patterns INSPIRE you to pull fabrics and then you create?

I found this fabric and fell in love. I didn't want to cut it at first.

For me, I think that it's the fabric that inspires the pattern. But wait...sometimes when I peruse blogs online I see patterns that just yell at me to pull fabrics from my stash. I don't know....laugh.

I put it to the interwebs: What comes first??

The fabric, or the pattern?

And of course. Like all my quilts, Muffin Approved.

Trimming....Not the Tree Kind

Well I *suppose* you could use these gorgeous trims to trim your tree. They're sparkly enough!

At one of my favourite fabric shops; (see this post here) they had a pre-Christmas Get-Your-Sewing-Started Sale. (And; they do not sponsor me. Heck they don't even know I exist. But I love them.)

Everything in the store was 2-3-4-5-10 dollars a yard. Satins, Lace & Sequined applique Net, Lace panels....FIVE BUCKS..GORGEOUS stretch velvets - FIVE BUCKS! Cottons! THREE BUCKS!!!

and the Bestest part.....the most awesomest part....was The Trim.

Shining sequins, beading, gold & silver threads...two inches wide...TWO DOLLAHS!!!

 For Two. Dollars. A. Yard.

My head nearly exploded.

 Taking photos in there is frowned upon; so I shall leave this magical place to your imagination.

Something like this.

And this. But with trim.

Now, I'm not gonna admit how much I spent....but I know all you sewists/costumers out there would TOTALLY understand. In fact, you're probably nodding your head right now in understanding.

But I had limited time; and it took seriously ALL my self control to get out of that wonderful place in just over an hour.

My booty.

Yep. One Hour.

I had some costumes to alter and fix; one is an easy peasy peasant skirt of silk (I found some awesome remnants years ago at a close out sale).

The other...... is a Beast of a heavy court dress.

 It's Blue Velvet (insert song here) and it is a beast. 

Even after some hard pressing (heh) and steaming, you can still see the creases.

Lots of hand sewing thru mulitple layers...the alterations I had to undo and redo left solid creases & worn down areas to the nap of the velvet.

And that's why trim saves the day..a bit of lace, some silver shimmer, boom.

So that's me....what're you up to? Link up your projects!

 Brag a little! Leave a comment & share some love. :)