Hawaiian Barbecue Chicken

 Looking for a quick, delicious dinner that looks like you worked hours on it?  Hawaiian Barbecue Chicken!

Here's how I whipped it up:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. barbecue sauce
3 T. ketchup
1 T. teriyaki sauce
1 t. garlic powder
8 oz. can chunk pineapple in juice
8 small to medium chicken breasts
(or 4 large chicken breasts)


To make the sauce, combine barbecue sauce, ketchup, teriyaki sauce, garlic powder, and the juice from the pineapples.  Reserve 1/2 c. for garnishing.  Brush the sauce on both sides of the chicken, place on a hot outdoor grill approximately 7 minutes per side, or until done.  Be careful not to overcook.  Brush more sauce onto the chicken as it cooks, and each time you flip it.  To serve, place pineapples on top and drizzle on the remaining sauce.

I served this up with some zucchini cakes and steamed broccoli. Simple, and oh-so-delicious!

Tutorial: Quilted Nook Case

I got a Nook for my birthday last year, and it has been so wonderful!  I love reading on it, and I love bringing it around with me to read whenever I get a chance.  Since I take it out so much, I have been wanting a cover for it to keep it protected.  Instead of going out and buying one in the $20 range, I decided to use scrap fabrics I had laying around, and make it for practically ZERO!  Much better deal!! Here's the steps I took:

First, I cut out two squares for the back of the cover.  

two layers for the back

Then, I cut out two layers in a box the shape of the front cover.

two layers of a rectangle for the front

Add batting to the middle of the two rectangle layers, then pin and sew the inside box.

pinned with batting in the middle, inside seam sewn

 Add batting between the back pieces, with right sides facing out, then pin both the rectangle front and the back together, and sew around the outside of the front rectangle.

Lay these two pieces together, then pin

Sew together on the outside of the front rectangle, as shown

Trim all excess, to look like this
(Note: I do not like the way this puckers like this, I would have done it differently to make it not pucker on the sides.  It needed a little more seam allowance on the left and right sides)

Finished case without cover

To create the cover, cut two rectangles the size of the front plus seam allowance, place them right sides together, then place batting on top.  Sew around the perimeter, then turn inside out.  When turned inside out, the batting will be in the middle of the two pieces of fabric.

Two layers of fabric, right sides together, with batting on top.  Sewn around, leaving a few inches to turn inside out.

After I turned the front cover inside out, I sewed a top stitch around the edges, sewed it to the top of the nook cover, then added embellishments in a contrasting color.

Finished front cover, sewn to the top of the inside cover

Finished nook case, with cover flipped up

Finished nook case!

Ruffled Onesie Baby Dress

It seems like ruffles have been popping up everywhere recently, on comforters, pillows, tops, and very cute dresses!  So, here's my rendition in an adorable baby dress.

Front

Back

Back of Skirt

Front Close-up

This dress turned out wonderful in so many ways!   It was inexpensive to make. I used fabric on sale, and only needed 1/8 of a yard per color (1/4 for the main skirt print), which came out to about $4 in fabric, about $1 for the black elastic at the waist, and about $2 for the onesie, which I could have gotten even cheaper in bulk.

 It was also pretty simple sewing!  I left the onesie intact, which is nice because it serves to keep it on the baby and also to cover the diaper.  All I had to do to create the skirt was to cut a rectangle in the main skirt fabric: the height of the rectangle is the desired length of the skirt, and the width is double the width of the onesie. Then I gathered the top of it, and sewed it on to the onesie at the right place.  I cut out a V-shape in the back of the skirt, and sewed the gathered ruffles onto another rectangle of fabric, then tacked that rectangle of fabric into place in the hole I cut.  Then finished it with the elastic over the top and a flower to cover the seam in the elastic.

Quilted Coffee Cozy

So my newest quilting endeavor is learning how to free motion quilt on the machine.    I never even knew you could lower the feed dogs on the machine, and certainly had never tried it before.   But you never know until you try!!  So, down they went!  I started practicing by creating practice sandwiches of scrap fabric with batting in the middle.  I found that it takes a lot of practice to get uniform stitch length.  Upon further research, I found that using a darning foot on the machine would work much better.  I purchased one on line, and that helped a lot.  After practicing many styles on many different sandwiches, I decided to get started on a real project, and knew I needed to start small.  So here's what I completed:

It has turned out to be pretty challenging to get uniform stitch lengths.  Although the instinct is to go slow on the machine, I have found that it is actually better to go faster while moving the fabric around at a uniform slow speed.  Although I still have some practicing to do before I'm ready to tackle the task of free motion quilting on an entire quilt, I feel like I'm one step closer to the project!

Argyle Baby Boy Quilt

Quilting has become one of the new skills I have been teaching myself.  I decided to start small.  This cute quilt was created using an easy applique method, with no real "quilting" besides attaching the appliques.

This quilt turned out to be super easy.  I started with a brown square of cotton, sewed a strip of the plaid to the top and bottom, then cut out the diamonds from different fabrics.  I went ahead and added the layer of batting, and a layer of baby blue flannel to the back.  

I wanted it to be puffy looking, so i didn't use any iron-on adhesive or finishing to the diamonds, just pinned them on and sewed twice around them, all the way through the 3 layers, so that the applique actually served as the "quilting."  I did the same for the strips of ribbon that go across the diamonds.  Then, I finished it with pre-made double-fold bias tape binding.

I hope to get into more challenging sewing methods, quilting methods, and binding methods, but for one of my first quilts, not too bad, huh?

Reupholstered Wingback Chair

One of the many sticker-shocks I have experienced upon beginning our new life together is the price of furniture!  Finding the perfect piece to fit in with what you already have and what your future plans on is hard enough, and add on the overwhelming price of that perfect piece, and a wave of sheer disappointment lurches over the happy moment.  So I have made it my mission to find out how to make furniture, and re-vamp old furniture that's past its prime.  Here's my first shot at it:

So, what do you think?   I think it turned out pretty good for my first try!  I still have to paint the legs, but it was SUPER cold the day I did this project, so I'm waiting for a nicer day.  

It turns out reupholstering furniture is not that hard.  It takes a lot of patience, creates sore hands and fingers, and was a serious pain at times, but it didn't take too long, and I think it gets a lot of bang for the buck of a few yards of fabric.

BOTTOM LINE: I definitely see reupholstering being a new part of my future.