Not Only is He Brilliant, He’s Handy Too

One day last week, I was tracing some embroidery patterns onto muslin with the pattern and fabric taped to the window of the back door.  I commented how much easier it would be to trace them if I had a light box and wished there was a way to make one that wouldn’t cost too much.

A few minutes later, I noticed that Dave had disappeared into the garage and then was off for a quick trip to the hardware store.  Some more time in the garage and he came in with a new light box for me.

This is what he started out with:

The wood frame is from an extra drawer organizer that was stored in the garage.  He removed the dividers and the bottom to give him the frame.  The sheet of plexiglass, rope light and tiny finishing nails he picked up at the hardware store.

He installed the rope light using the clips that came with it.

A notch was cut in one corner for the cord to come through.

A bit of his time, under $20 in materials and here’s the finished light box. (There’s enough plexiglass left for another project and of course lots of tiny nails for many future projects)

Light Box Plugged In and Lit Up

And this is my new light box in action:

One of my next sewing projects will be to make a bag to store it in.

This post has been added to Made By You Monday over at Skip to my Lou

FNSI Update – I Won!

Heidi, one of the wonderful ladies who co-host the Friday Night Sew In, drew numbers of all those who signed up for last Friday’s Sew In and I won!

The prize is a cute little FNSI pin cushion that Heidi made and a four pack of beautiful Verna fat quarters.  I’m already thinking up things I can make with them.   If you want to see, Heidi has posted a photo on her blog, Handmade by Heidi.

I want to thank both Heidi and Bobbi (Crafty Vegas Mom) for hosting this fun event.  This was my first time participating.  I’ve had so much fun visiting the other blogs and seeing what everyone’s been working on.  I’m looking forward to next time.

And I also wanted to thank everyone who took the time to visit and leave comments on my last post.  I think that’s the most comments I’ve ever had.

Yesterday I managed to get all 24 blocks sewn together.  Then today after pressing and starching I laid them out on our bed to see how they’d look once sewed together.

It’s looking just a little too busy for our tastes, so I going to do sashing in 1.5” strips (1” finished) between the blocks.  I’m thinking this will give the quilt a kind of stained glass effect and provide a visual break between blocks to tone down the busy-ness.

FNSI – Disappearing Nine Patch Progress

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FNSI – Disappearing Nine Patch Progress

How to Make the Best Use of Your Oven

One way to keep energy costs down is to make the most of your oven each time you use it.  For example, I rarely bake just one loaf of bread.  Five loaves will fit on my oven racks and so that’s how many I bake at a time.

Another way to make the most efficient use of the heat in your oven is to bake/cook more than one dish at a time.  Two nights ago, we were having turkey sausages and sauerkraut for supper.  I also made an apple crisp for dessert and then to fill up the rest of the oven rack, we added eight large baking potatoes.

The potatoes will be used throughout the week.  Last night, I sliced them and fried them with onions in a little butter and olive oil and sprinkled with homemade ranch dressing mix.  Later this week, my husband will turn some into twice baked potatoes.  Another night we might just reheat them, but whichever dishes they get turned into, it’s great to have them in the fridge as a starting point.

Friday Night Sew In – Feb 18th

As you’ve probably gathered from previous posts, I’ve been doing a lot of sewing lately.  Mostly on the Christmas gift bags, but also on some other projects that I had either purchased the fabric for and not gotten around to making them or had actually got the project half way done and then put it away.

While taking a break from sewing I came across the Friday Night Sew In sign up over at Crafty Vegas Mom.   As I mentioned in a previous post, this year is my year of getting things done.  So to keep my momentum going and because it sounded fun, I decided to sign up for the upcoming Friday Night Sew In (FNSI.)

This is the project I’ll be working on:

A couple of years ago, I found these fabrics on sale and knew I wanted to make a quilt out of them.  But I couldn’t seem to find a quilt block design that wouldn’t have me cutting that pretty floral up into such small pieces that they’d get lost.  Then just a few days ago, Mary Grace over at Hooked on Needles posted her block eight of the Layer Cake Quilt Along and I knew I’d found the perfect block to use my floral fabric in… a Disappearing Nine Patch.

I’ve made some progress since that photo was taken.   My plan is to have all twenty-four of those nine patch blocks in the photo sewn together and then on Friday night during the Sew In… I’m going to cut them apart and sew them back together to make Disappearing Nine Patch blocks.   Having this plan in place and out there for everyone to read, will hopefully give me the courage to actually cut the blocks apart.  I’ve never sewn anything together before with the intention of then cutting it up.

It’ll be fun to be working away at my sewing machine knowing the other participants are busy at their machines too.