The great bread experiment

Last week I picked up a few things to try out some gluten free recipes. We've been trying (some harder than others) to go gluten free for the past couple months. My husband has a wheat sensitivity, so we've been mostly wheat-free for a year or so, but finally decided to make the leap and try gluten free. I sort of gave up on baking for a little while, but have decided I'd like to take another crack at it. When we first cut out wheat I did a little baking with rice flour and wasn't very happy with it. Rice flour has a sort of sandy texture, so it really needs to mixed with some other things to have a pleasant texture. This is last week's bread. It's all gone now. I'll post a recipe soon, but I want to give it another go before I put anything up.

We have a quilt top!

I managed to get the last of the quilt top put together yesterday and got a little direction on the next step from my mom. I'm thinking this pattern will work for the quilting. I'm going to attempt to machine quilt it. Gotta get practicing!


I stopped by Blue Sky yesterday to drop off some (top secret) projects, and they so graciously lent me this lovely book. My mom and I pored over it yesterday. It's filled with wonderful, vintage-looking quilts. Maybe quilting is for me after all.


I finished my first birthday garland and I think I'll attempt a second with the sewing machine. I'll share some pictures later. Busy, busy, busy. What have you been up to?

Farmers Market Coasters

I've been sitting on these for several weeks waiting for my sister to get somewhat settled in her new home. I gave them to her the other day and got to see them in action even. They're super simple. I just cut 5-inch squares from some quilting cotton for the fronts and canvas for the backs. There is a slightly smaller piece of fleece in the center. I pressed one edge in a half inch and then turned the right sides together and stitched on the three remaining sides, turned right side out and top stitched all edges. They turned out pretty cute. Now I need to make some for myself!

Finally... and what an adorable couple

I finally put a face on Ms. Ribbit and made her a boyfriend too! A friend of mine is due with her first baby at the end of the month and after an uninspired trip to the store I decided Ribbit would be a wonderful baby gift. Both of these whipped up super quick. I used fiber fill for the bodies (a tennis ball didn't seem very baby friendly). I finally figured out why my face was not turning out quite right. You need to use a double thickness of embroidery floss. They're not perfect, but I think they turned out pretty cute. My little one loves those long, silly arms and legs.

Next!

Next up is a fabric garland for a first birthday party. I'm thinking I'll use this as a jumping off point. I'll probably trade the flowers for hearts and leave out the rectangular flags. I've got a stack of pink fabrics ready, so as soon as I finish a knitting project (or two) I'll be diving in. Can't wait! Looks so fun.

Family of Hats

My mom and I embarked on a journey of hat knitting for some friends in Alaska. Here is our family of hats (which began a journey of their own yesterday). Dad got a striped hat in BSA Worsted and Mom got a hat in the same yarn from this pattern. We thought washable hats would be ultimately practical for the kids. Big Brother got an improvised earflap hat in S&C Outer. The Twins each got a Flap Happy. My mom lined all the kids hats with fleece and took on the knitting for Dad's hat and Big Brother's hat. I hope they'll keep some ears toasty!