Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Vintage lace

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I pulled a few pieces of vintage lace  and trimmings from my stash today and just played around.  I found them inspiring, and thought I would share them with you.    Vintage lace is just amazing.   It had to be so time consuming to make, yet many were made by hand.  So inspiring in so many ways. 

Wishing you an evening of abounding inspiration,

Elizabeth

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Sweet Baby Hats

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Like so many parents with school age children, I spend a lot of time in the car waiting.  Dropping off and picking up the kids are part of my daily routine in this season of my life.  I try to have portable projects to work on while I wait, and that usually means something yarn related.  These last few weeks I have been working on some knitted and crocheted baby hats for a local charity.  It’s fun to use some of the vintage patterns in my stash that I have picked up here and there, and also to hunt down free patterns on the internet.  I especially love Crochet Pattern Central and Knitting Pattern Central.  Both are such great resources! 

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Last week I donated two knitted hats as well as three sewn hats made from some soft stretchy terry. (I squeezed in a little night-time sewing at the machine for those!) This week I switched it up, and traded my needles for a hook and have been working in crochet.  I’ve got two made and another on the hook.  Baby hats are so tiny and sweet.  They just make you feel good - to make them, to look at them, and especially to gift them.

In keeping with an “orange” theme, I will leave you with an orange cake recipe I am thinking of trying out for Easter.  If you decide to try it out too, let me know what you think!

Orange Coconut Cake

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 Tablespoon grated orange rind

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup grated coconut

1 cup chopped dates (optional)

In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar and add eggs.   In another bowl, combine flour and baking soda.  Add flour/soda mixture to creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk.  Add remaining ingredients.  Pour into greased tube pan.  Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 45 minutes or until tests done.  Can sprinkle with powdered sugar or use topping below.

Topping:

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup orange juice

In saucepan, mix sugar and juice.  Bring to a full boil.  Remove from heat.  With a table knife or chopstick, puncture top of cake in several places.  Pour topping over cake and let stand, covered, overnight.

With Sweet Thoughts,

-Elizabeth

Monday, March 7, 2011

A little shopping

I just bought this book on ebay, and it’s filled with some great stuff!

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I am beginning to practice my hand-quilting skills, and this has some really, easy-to-grasp ideas and techniques.  Ami Simms has a great conversation-style voice that is easy to follow and understand.  I highly recommend this book if you are interested in taking the plunge into hand quilting.  Anybody have any others?

Now I’m off on a mission to find a perfect thimble!

-Elizabeth