Cooking like Betty Crocker!

 It was bad enough when Covid first started and we couldn't eat out...yes, I sure missed it....now I'm not wanting to go out to eat just because I am having fun cooking!  WHAT!  Fun cooking??  Well, the cooking part is fun but the cleanup isn't so much but guess it goes with the cooking, right!  

I am hooked on recipes by Tieghan Geard and her book/website.  I have her Super Simple Meal cookbook and love the recipes.

On Wednesday I was on a baking/cooking kick, again!  I made these Salted Tahini Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies.  They were really good BUT the tahini/honey mixture was suppose to create a little carmel type area in each cookie.  My Tahini mix never did get thick...I'm thinking it was the type of Tahini I used.  BUT the cookies still tasted really good!

Yes, I cook my bacon in the oven, then I freeze them.  So much easier to clean up (lay newspapers on top of the grease left in the sheet pan and toss in trash).  No more grease all over the stove top!  This way we always have bacon in the freezer that I can pull out for breakfast!

This  is a Crispy Cheese Poblano Avocado Burrito!  It was  fantastic and is on her website.  

You fill your tortilla with lots of good stuff!, then lay jalapeno's on the flat grill, place shredded cheese on top of the pepper in a circle and lay your wrapped burrito on top of the cheese.  When the cheese starts to crisp up, wrap the cheese around the burrito and then flip over!  Delicious!

This quesadilla has bacon bits (which I took out of the freezer!  ha), spinach, Poblano sliced/sauteed peppers, cheese between two tortilla shells and cooked on flat top.  YUM...you also make a pineapple salsa to put on top!  This is in the cookbook, Super Simple.

I also made another recipe from Tieghan's web site called:  Slow Cooker Mustard Herb Chicken and Creamy Orzo for dinner on Wednesday!  Whew!  That's a mouthful but it was really good too.

Of course I had to make more bread!

I've started another block on my disperse dyed quilt top.

I've finished one block so far!

Day 3/101:  In addition to showing the start of the hand embroidered quilt block, I  created two crops from this feathered picture.  I hope to get to make another collage from them!

So off to check out some more recipes!  Betty Crocker...look out!

Yep, it's cold enough to stay in!

This is what we woke up to the other morning!  Yes, that is minus 4 degrees!!!

   

 

It is beautiful out and I don't mind being stuck in the house.  Gives me time to work on projects!  I did meet Donna for lunch out and some grocery shopping on Friday.  Only problem, I complained the entire day about my back hurting.  And hurt it did!  UGH.....1-10 it was a 15!

I am making progress on my lace T.  I have quite a ways to knit the body and go back and knit the sleeves but at least I am past the lace work!   So I don't need total concentration!  ALTHOUGH, last night while watching the Olympics I noticed I dropped a stitch!  YIKES!  But I was able to pick it up with instead of  'untinking'!  Actually, this is a real term knitters use (I just found this out!)...it's 'knit' in reverse..get it!

So now I'm working on the disperse dye quilt top.  I free motion quilted around each of the purple leaf patterns.

Then I'll start to hand embroider inside them for the stem and veins.

This is one area that I did some embroidery stitching on....

And another area.....

In case you don't remember, this is the quilt top before I did any FMQ or hand work.  So this should keep me busy at least during the daytime while keeping warm.  Knitting, I save for nighttime while watching TV and the Olympics.  

Back at Disperse Dye Quilt in Progress!

 Back in September I started this small quilt top using some of the disperse dye blocks I made.  You can see the first layout here.  With my knitted lace Top consuming all my brain energy, I've let this piece marinate on my design board.  Because I can now knit while watching football or movies, I'm using my time during the day to get back to finishing this small piece.  I have some designs in mind to use for adding  hand embroidery...like I need another small quilt, right!

This is pretty much the final layout....but I haven't stitched the rows together yet...I keep changing my mind!

I am adding fused strips on the blocks...again...just not sure where they are all going!  I'm thinking I'll use a dark purple for hand embroidery and yellow when stitching on the purple strips...but, hey, that could change at any minute!!

This was my original draft...well, some of the blocks are where I had them here on paper but not many!  HA

this was auditioning for background fabric.  I think the purple gave the contrast these light blocks needed.

It's funny because I never have enough lights when working on certain quilt projects and here I am making an entire quilt of lights!  HA  Go figure!  Oh, that yellow square on the right that looks like the pattern from my iron....it is a pattern from my iron and I didn't put it in the final quilt layout!  HA HA

We got to watch some good football this weekend!  Four games all won in the last quarter and with field goals!  Really exciting...Bob and I love football and it's always sad when the season is over.  I'm not a big basketball or baseball fan but I love me a good football game!!  

So now with the snow, which is keeping us indoors...I'll have time to work on this top!  My walking bud, Donna, and I try to get one or two days walking at the church...it's no fun walking on the treadmill....I may have to break down and walk on the 'thing'!

Disperse Dye Prints - part 2

Before I get into this post, check out the picture our Prime delivery person took!!!  OMG...this is priceless!  We weren't at home but did see him on our Nest camera.  He made a point to get our little Gigi in the picture.  I talked with another Prime delivery person and he said "We do that on occasion.  We've had some funny pictures."  

 I will thank this delivery person, if we ever see him (well, that's silly!  We know we'll be ordering from PRIME again at least one more time! HA.)  It sure made our day!

Now the fun begins!  OK, not so much fun trying to come up with a layout to use all the prints we make is it.  

I wanted to take advantage of the 3"x8" prints and  include them but I didn't want a standard type layout.

I just kept playing with some different layouts.

After awhile they all look the same but they are different!

Next I laid the prints on top of a bright orange, purple batik print.

I like this purple batik fabric for the background and borders.  Gives a good contrast.

So, next was to measure the prints I have and see where they 'might' fit in this layout.  I guarantee you this won't the the final layout.  

Actually, after coming up with this type of layout, I'm going to need more prints...but that's fun to do and I've lots of painted papers left.  

I know this post is getting to be more dog related but it's only fair to show a pic of Kalee since Gigi was the star on this one!  We were sitting in the vets office for a check up - Kalee not me!

And I ordered more Delica #8 seed beads to make another knitted cuff!  Yes, I'm obsessed...I don't have any other knitted pattern to work on.  Haven't had any time to look up a pattern.

Disperse Dye Prints

 Here are the printed results from the disperse transfer dyes I painted last weekend.  There are still tons of ink remaining on the papers because I wasn't applying a lot of pressure with the hot iron...some of the fabrics started to turn brown, even using teflon sheet on top.  But now I can experiment with more fabrics and papers!  

These were small rectangle papers I dyed/painted.

And this is the print I got. I had some Mixed Media Sheets by Icraft that I played with in 2019 while doing Hilary's MIP online class.  These picked up the color well but the sheets did start to bubble, which you can see on the orange in the middle!

The printed paper is on the right and the transfer results are on the left.

I used blue, orange and yellow dyes on this paper!

I printed 4 different times with the transfer paper below.

It is so deceiving when you look at the paper you painted with the transfer dye.  You need to keep in mind the dye you used.  In this sample, I painted Yellow and blue, which you can see on the print but the paper doesn't show that!

Again, these are pretty prints and with stitching you can enhance what you see.

You would think the leaf print would be black!  Fooled you!  I used a mixture of blue and purple and I think I may have added some orange paint.  Hence, some 'mud' color but this is one of my favorites.

These are really pale prints but there's a lot of paint left on the paper.

I mixed blue and yellow...duh...

Actually, I think I may just use some of the papers in some art pieces!  I could seal the transfer ink/paint with some of Hilary's wax that I purchased for preserving the colors on dyed/stenciled papers.

8.5" 11" paper!

These transfer dyed papers look the same but if you look closely they are different.  Lots of color left to transfer!  

I almost finished knitting the cowl on my poncho, so once that's finished I'll print some more from the papers in this series.  I am anxious to do something with these!!

Disperse Dyeing (again!)

 I know...why don't I finish a few projects before starting more!  Well, the hand stitched rail fence is almost finished...just need to get a pillow form or make a pillow form!  I'm almost, also, finished with the poncho.  Just need to pick up stitches to make the cowl collar...so that means, I can start some new projects and that's what I did this weekend. I've played with disperse dyes before and posted on my blog.  You can see two posts here and here!   So thought I'd give it a go again!  Here here are some papers that were 'cooking'.  

Pro Chem sells disperse dyes, which you mix with water.  You paint on to paper (printer paper is what I use), allow to dry then you iron the transfer/paint onto polyester fabric.  At least that is the fabric that is recommended to use.  You get several, several prints from each paper and the papers last forever!!

You can see on this blog post,  where I achieved good results on 100% cotton fabric.  Thanks to Laura Kemshall, from last March, for testing this out.  Let's face it.  I'm not washing my pieces that hang on a wall and I'd be careful to not make a small piece to sit on a table to hold my glass of wine!  

I cut some leaves from out back to lay on the papers!

I mixed up orange, yellow, blue and a purple dye.

I laid a leaf on top of a painted piece of paper, sometimes using one color or two.  Then I laid a piece of saran wrap on top of the leaf and paper and pushed out any air and crinkled some of the saran wrap.

Linda Kemshall did a video on their Design Matters where she demo'd using the saran wrap.   Just an addition to what Laura showed.  Linda suggested to keeping the paper(s) small because of  the difficulty in keeping the heat even on larger piece of dyed papers.  I kept mine at around 8" square and colored the leftover papers to use as well.  "Waste not...want not", right!

The colors may appear quite dark and to be honest, just because you see gold, green, etc. on paper, you may not get that same result when you iron on to your fabric.

I laid each piece on top of one another on a piece of plastic trash bag.  Because the saran wrap was on top of each paper, I could layer them easily.  

I took the entire 'pile' outside in the sun, covering the top layer with the trash bag and placed about 6 heavy books to squeeze the pieces a tad more!

Here's one set with the leaves removed and papers all dry.

I can't wait to print!  Again, I don't expect each piece to retain the intensity you see in the colors here....but you never know!!!!  Until the next disperse dye post, enjoy your week!  I sure will!