Five Favorites - Summer Edition

 1. Phone Props - How cute are these?! I saw the picture on Pinterest, found a YouTube video, modified it slightly so there wasn’t any hand sewing, and made one for everyone in my life! My modification was that the directions had you leave a gap to fill with rice and then hand sew it shut. To avoid the hand sewing, I stitched two straight seems down the parallel raw edges, right sided it out, put some rice in, and pinned it tightly in place. I then used my zipper foot with the needle almost all the way to the edge to baste the pin line, and then stitched it a second time using regular length stitches just inside of the baste line (go slowly and be very careful to push the rice back as needed to avoid breaking/bending the needle!). You can see from the top that mine are getting plenty of use already!  

2. Sewing Books - A friend of mine has given me some of her mom’s sewing books (her mom was an amazing sewer!) since her mom has passed away. I am really excited to see what I can learn from reading them… 

3. Fabric from Europe - Some of my friends went to Europe this spring, and the brought me back these adorable fabrics! I am so excited to use them, and I think I’ll put them in the next purse I make for myself. 

4. Summer Salad - I have been making this salad almost every week lately! It’s so easy to prep and grab for lunches at work, and sometimes I throw some cooked chicken or hard boiled eggs in for more protein. You will need: 

1/4 cup Couscous

1/4 cup Quinoa

1/4 cup Pepitas 

1/2 a Cucumber, seeds removed, cut into 1/2” chunks

1 Bell Pepper, cut into 1/2” chunks

1 Shallot, diced (or 1/4 cup green onions, chopped) 

1 Tomato, diced; or 12-15 Cherry Tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup Fresh Parsley  

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes 

1/4 cup Feta  

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

2 TBL Olive Oil 

1 TBL Prepared Mustard 

Salt and Pepper

Directions: In a pan, bring couscous and quinoa to a boil with 1 cup of water (follow directions on packages).  Set a side to cool when done cooking.  In a frying pan on low/medium heat, toast pepitas until they are popping and turning brown/yellow.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, combine vegetables and Feta.  Add in quinoa mix and pepitas.  Stir in wet ingredients, and season with salt and pepper if needed.  Keeps in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.

5. Glass Head Pins - My mom always used glass head pins for sewing when I was growing up, but when I started to get back into sewing after college, she gave me a set of plastic headed ones she had accidentally purchased and never used. When I moved out on my own, I had a few of her glass head ones in a project a was in process of, and I’ve held onto them for a number of years (whoops!), but I decided it was time to invest in my own set. Glass head pins are handy because you can iron over them without the head melting off, which is really handy for things like hemming, pressing for topstitching, etc. Plus, they are often better quality than some of the plastic headed ones…