Sttich that Stash - June Bee Block

Hi Ladies,

Happy June!! {tomorrow} I am SO ready for some pool time, bbq & just the laid back, slow pace summertime brings!

I have had the hardest time choosing a block for my month. Back in April I was at a quilting retreat and fell in love with Amber's (oneshabbychickhawaii) quilt she made while there. So, after much deliberation, I have chose the Low volume charm plus quilt block. You can find the tutorial here on Rachel's flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wooden_spoon/8584301543/in/set-72157633912755236

Here are my two blocks.

 I'd like both of them to have a mix of the low volume, tone on tone, text, cream or white for the  background. For the PLUS, I'd like one block in a solid color and the other in some sort of print.

The block measures 11 3/4" unfinished. It's super quick to cut out and comes together fast.

I look forward to seeing your blocks!

Stuffed Red Peppers

Well, look at me! I'm actually sitting down at the computer and blogging! I did promise my youngest daughter, Tori, that I would blog more in 2013....she's posted twice already so she's done better than me!

I posted a pic on my Instagram (@sewbettyjane) a week or so ago of  John's stuffed red peppers and several people asked for the recipe. I didn't have time to tag everyone and tell them where I got it, or what changes he made, so I decided to share it here on my blog. It also gave me an excuse to get on here.

You will need...

extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lb ground Chicken breast w/ some ground thigh meat (John grinds ours) 
1 cup chopped yellow onions
2 tbsp homemade taco seasoning (recipe below)
2 cups of cooked brown rice 
4 Red bell peppers, halved.. seeds removed (we only used 2 and the leftover mixture we froze & made enchilada's with it that weekend) 
1 can of black beans, drained and be sure to rinse them to get sodium off! 
½ cup frozen corn 
1 (15 oz) jar of peach salsa (try to find an organic one that is clean, or make your own)
sharp cheddar cheese, shredded   (just a little for the tops)
cilantro 
sour cream 
sliced avocado

Taco seasoning
1 tbsp chili powder
1/4 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper & oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 ground cumin
1 tsp each of salt & black pepper
Mix well!  I store mine in an old spice jar (seasoning jar not the cologne...ha!)

preheat oven to 400*. Lightly coat the peppers with evoo and roast in the oven for 25 minutes. While these are roasting, saute your onions in a 1/2 tsp evoo for 3-5 minutes...remove them and brown your chicken until no longer pink, then add onions back to pan along with the rice, black beans, corn, salsa & seasoning... Then stuff your peppers generously!
Bake for 20 minutes...the last few minutes top with about a tablespoon of sharp cheddar and bake until melted and bubbly. Top with chopped fresh cilantro, sliced avocado & a dollop (or three) of sour cream. 
Yummy! These are seriously delicious!!!

Recipe adapted from this one found here:  http://simplylovefood.blog.com/2012/02/25/southwestern-stuffed-peppers/

Coin purse tutorial

I am a visual person, so I tried to take lots of pictures for this tutorial. These are super quick and easy to make, about 30 minutes from your first cut to the finished purse.  (This is NOT my pattern - just the way I make this coin purse)

Materials
1 exterior piece cut 5" x 8"
1 lining piece cut 5" x 8"
Scrap piece of batting cut 4 1/2" x 7 1/2"
8" inch zipper or longer
basting spray (or pins)

*if you want a quilted coin purse, I'd cut all materials an inch wider all around. After you quilt it, cut it down to the correct measurements.














Sandwich your exterior and lining fabric with the batting. Lightly baste with the basting spray. (or pins)

                                                

                                                  Put zipper foot on machine.

With lining side facing up and zipper pull to your left and facing up, line up top of fabric sandwich to edge of zipper & sew.

   
                      Flip sandwich over so that exterior fabric is facing up and zipper pull is to the right.

Now fold over sandwich (lining is facing up again & so is zipper pull) making sure your fabric lines up on the sides. Sew along the zipper.

                                                 Change your foot ( I use my 1/4" foot)

                            Open up zipper & turn purse with exterior side up. Press lightly.

          

                                                    Top stitch on both sides.

Open your zipper about 3/4 the way. Bend over top about 1/2" or so....I eyeball this but you can measure. Sew down both sides using a 1/4" seam allowance and make sure you back stitch at beginning and end. You want to go over zipper several times to secure it.

*To ensure zipper pull is to the right on completed purse, make sure the zipper is closest to you and to the pull is to the right. Does that makes sense? You want it just like above photo.

                           Clip corners, cut off excess fabric & zipper and turn inside out.

                                 With a turning tool or chopstick, poke the corners out.

                                                               

                                                     Voilà! There you go!

                                                       It measures about 4.25" x 4.5"

                                                                 HAPPY SEWING!

Clean Chinese

Chinese food is one of our favorite cuisines. Unfortunately, it's hidden with rich calories & the horrible MSG. Every time I would eat at our local Chinese restaurant I'd have a horrible headache that lingered for hours from the MSG that's supposed to enhance the flavor of the foods. I was excited to find this recipe a few months back and we have been making this instead of going out to eat. Of course I miss the yummy variety of the buffet and not having to do the dishes, but this is healthier, no more headaches & John usually does the cleanup. So if you're looking for a clean, healthy dish that"s sweet & a little spicy this is it!

Recipe adapted from Oxygen magazine


This is our version and feeds both of us with enough leftover for John's lunch the next day. :)

2 chicken breast, cut into bite size cubes
3-4 red, orange, yellow sweet mini peppers
1/2 pineapple cut into chunks
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 red pepper flakes
3 tbsp low sugar ketchup
3 tbsp sugar free Apricot Jam
3 tbsp grey poupon (harvest course ground)

Season chicken with garlic powder & red pepper flakes. In a skillet add 1 tsp coconut oil and cook chicken through, about 6-8 minutes.
Add peppers & toss. Prepare sauce by combining last 3 ingredients together. Add to chicken & peppers and stir. Add pineapple and cook for another 5 minutes until all is heated through. Serve with brown rice.

It comes out to be around a 300 calorie meal! Enjoy!

Clean Delightful Brownies

Since I started cracking down harder on my clean eating I started craving sweets more often. A few weeks ago I was craving chocolate real bad and decided to create a clean brownie recipe. This is the perfect clean brownie for me! I feel like I'm cheating on my clean eating when I eat one.

picture shown without nuts

CLEAN DELIGHTFUL BROWNIES

2 tbsps chia seeds, soaked in 2 tbsps water for 10 minutes
2 tbsp coconut butter, melted
1 egg white & 1 whole egg
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup xylitol
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cacao powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup walnuts (optional)



Soak chia seeds in water and set aside. Melt coconut butter and add eggs, once chia seeds are soaked the 10 minutes add to coconut butter & egg mixture. Add xylitol & vanilla, mix well. In a separate bowl mix together oat flour, cacao powder, salt, & baking powder to combine. Slowly add to wet mixture & mix well...add walnuts if desired. Grease an 8x8 pan with coconut oil and pour in batter.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Cut into 16 small squares.

My friends husband did the math on the calories and he came up with 80 calories for each square.That's not bad at all for a yummy brownie!

They must be stored in refrigerator since there are no preservatives in them. They will keep for around 4 days...if they last that long.

Enjoy!



Some of you might ask what xylitol is....it's an all-natural sweetener found in many fruits and vegetables. It contains only 2.4 calories per gram and is slowly absorbed as a complex carbohydrate. Xylitol looks like sugar, tastes like sugar, and is the same sweetness as sugar – making it the ideal natural sugar replacement. If you can't find xylitol, I'm sure you could use stevia in these, but cut it down to 1/4 cup. I personally prefer the taste xylitol gives over stevia.

Me & the big D

As most of you can remember, I am a HUGE workout junkie!  I'm at the gym 5-6 days a week for at least 2 hours a day. I also eat very healthy & "clean".  

Well, back in June I started to gain a little weight....at first I thought nothing of this, I just chalked it up to gaining muscle. But, the weight steadily continued to climb and my clothes started shrinking. This is not typical with weight gain from muscle...usually you gain muscle, but lose fat, and you lose inches....I was gaining them. By October I had gained 12 pounds and couldn't fit into ANYTHING! Needless to say, I started to become very frustrated and fell into a slight depression. I didn't give up though, I was persistent and determined to lose the weight. But nothing I did was working...by the end of December my weight had hit a new all time high....I had gained 22 pounds and I was FED UP!

The end of December I decided it was time to see my doctor. I went in there sobbing like a big baby. I HATED to get on that scale. I explained to him everything that was going on. How I wasn't able to lose weight....I was depressed...My bones ached....I had headaches....I had NO energy AT ALL....it took every bit of energy I could muster up just to get out of bed in the mornings....I had to push through my workouts because I always felt drained. He decided to do a complete blood test. 

After 2 weeks I finally got my results! I had a SEVERE vitamin D deficiency!!! My levels were a 4 and optimum levels are 50-100!! Finally some answers! Every symptom I had was caused by lack of Vitamin D! I was put on 50,000 IU of vitamin D once a week and 5,000 per day. Those were like little magic pills, I tell ya! Within the first 3 weeks I had dropped 10 pounds!! 10 POUNDS!!! My energy soared and my mood was lifting! 

I'm in my 4th month of taking the Vitamin D and I've never felt better. I am down 17 POUNDS as of today! I've lost a total of 10 inches so far. I'm out of the bigger jeans I had to buy....they were a size 13!  The other day I took a pair of my favorite Lucky jeans from a year ago that I had put in a Goodwill pile....I tried them on and they FIT! A size 5!!  I went from a 13 to a 5!!! My bones don't ache anymore, the headaches are far and few between, and I have more energy than I know what to do with.

Thankfully, I had my awesome, wonderful, very supportive husband John! He loved me for me, he would listen to me cry, he would listen to me bitch....and he would just listen. I know sometimes he got sick of hearing me complain but I thank him for always encouraging me to keep going when I wanted to give up!

I tell every woman I know about getting your vitamin D checked. I learned that they only test for that deficiency in women over 40, so if you're younger than that and want to get yours checked, you'll have to ask them to do so. 

I'm happy to be back to the old me! :)

Hello....anyone out there? Boy, there sure is a lot of dust on this blog...has it really been 5 months since my last post?!! Does anyone remember me? Do I even have any followers anymore?

I "plan" on returning full swing tomorrow! Until then....

Nomad

Meg's quilt is DONE!

I have named this one "Nomad."

Meg is a wanderer at heart, she loves to travel and see the world. I don't see her settling down in one place, ever! But, wherever she goes she will have this quilt and a piece of her momma's heart and love to keep her warm!

She had bought the map fabric a few years ago because she liked it. She never knew what she was going to do with it. She gave it to me to include in a quilt for her. This is the pattern I drew up. I am super happy with how my pattern came out! The flying geese (triangles) represent her flying around the world, and the row of three strips represent the roads she will travel on.

This is the center of the quilt.

back of quilt is a cool hexagon pattern that ties well with the front colors. Meg's nickname is Bear, so I made her label with a bear applique.

I am in love with this quilt....ha, I say that with everyone, huh?!

Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip

I always make this dip whenever I host a party or we are attending a pot luck. People are always asking me for my recipe, and some friends have even called me up and put in an order for it. :)

I thought I would finally sit down and blog the recipe. So, here it is.

Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip

Ingredients:
1 14oz. quartered artichoke hearts, drained
3/4 cup 3 cheese Italian (I use Frigo-parmesan, asiago & romano)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 10oz. package frozen spinach, thawed & squeeze all water out.
1 8oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup mozzarella, shredded (& more for top)
salt & pepper

Heat oven to 350° and get a 9x13 pan out or several small ones

In food processor place artichoke hearts, 3 Italian cheeses & garlic. Pulse 5 times. Add spinach, cream cheese, sour cream, & heavy cream - pulse until combined. Add mozzarella & pulse 2-3 times more. Season with salt & pepper.

Spoon mixture into baking dish. Top with additional mozzarella.

Bake for 20-25 minutes and it's hot & bubbly! We eat ours with tortilla chips.

Enjoy!

Bird Nest Quilt

Both my girls are now out of the house for good (again) and living on their own. I decided to make each of them a quilt for snuggling on the couch. I finished Tori's first.

I took them both shopping for fabric and had them pick out several colors that they wanted in a quilt. I then (tried to) decided on a pattern. I made this one up as I went along. Tori picked out these amazing colors and prints and I think they all flow beautifully together.
Hubby named it Bird's Nest, appropriate name since we call Tori, Bird.

I made twelve 12" disappearing 9 patch blocks and twelve 12" solid blocks with 2 1/2" strip pieces for the sashing and border. I am IN LOVE with how it came out!


Back of quilt with my label on it.

Here is Bird with her Bird's Nest quilt :)

*find me on facebook....TheMadQuilter

Juicing for Health

I juice at least twice a day.

Some juices are just as pretty as they are yummy. This one was beets, red grapes, peach and an apple.

Cabbage & Granny Smith apple = delicious!

Sweet potato, carrots & cantaloupe...Yummers!

Tomato, watermelon, pineapple & oranges! One of my favorites! So refreshing!

And then you have this ugly cuppa juice....cabbage, red grapes, celery & granny smith apple. Not the prettiest, but it was actually quite yummy.

Do you juice? I highly recommend it!!!

Treasures found

Tori moved into her very own apartment last month. The only thing she was lacking was a table. She wanted/needed something small to fit in the space she had. John had been looking on a local website everyday, but everything he found was way to big. While driving into downtown one day I discovered a newly opened flea market. I was super stoked over this discovery. I love thrifting and finding those hidden treasures. So you can only imagine my exhilaration when I came across this table! I immediately text a photo to Tori and she responded with a OMG perfect! That's just the size I wanted! Ah! (those are all quotes)

Here it is sitting pretty in here home. It's for sure vintage, just not sure what decade...maybe 50's? It's very sturdy. Whoever painted it did a fabulous job, and she can always strip it later on down the road and bring it back to it's natural state. Isn't it just darling?!!

I also found this vintage pyrex in the "Forest Fancies Mushroom" pattern for Tori. She had found a baking dish awhile back in this pattern. (both my girls have a love affair with vintage Pyrex...just like their Momma)



John went back to Dolly's flea market with me a week later and I found more vintage Pyrex. O, my goodness, I was in Pyrex heaven.

This pattern is "Town & Country."

I came across the ENTIRE nesting bowl set of "Americana" I about fell over. There are no chips and very few scratches. Woo-Hoo!!!

So, John told me that I have become a hoarder of Pyrex. Whatever! I explained to him the difference between a hoarder and a collector!!! He was really just kidding...I think.

Who's that blogger?

You've probably forgotten all about me by now. It's been over 3 months since I've blogged. :/

Quick update:

I lost my job at the school. I was upset about it at first, worried about my children...wondering if they will make it without a "safe person/room" to go to. I still worry about the kiddos, but i'm not upset anymore. I am LOVING just being a bus driver again!! This is the start of my 21st school year driving a bus. O, and the best part, I was one of the lucky few who received one with air conditioning!!


I spent the summer worried sick about my two daughter's traveling all over Europe. They visited 9 countries in all. Here are a few pictures from their adventures.

Spain

Portugal



Belgium

Barefoot Park in Germany (therapeutic 3 hour walk)

They both agreed that Portugal was the most beautiful place on Earth. I want to visit now.

The girls were home for most of August. They have both moved out again. Tori back to Conway, in her own apartment, for her last year in college. Meg moved to Texas where she is tutoring after school and is thinking about going back to college to get her degree in Bi-lingual Speech Pathology.

So, we are empty-nesters...again!

Happy Labor Day, everyone!

8 more days

That's 8 more days I have to work before summer vacation! Our last day is June 9th. This has been the never ending school year. Thanks to a crazy winter/spring of snow & floods we have an extra 6 days added on to the year.

I started a page on facebook....TheMadQuilter....check it out if you wish and "Like" me. :) Go here and check it out.

Also, check out Jenna's vlog on youtube. You can see sweet baby girl, Scarlett, in action. Love that baby girl. Jenna & David and my sweet baby Scarlett, will be moving to England in the near future. I'm trying to get her to start a blog as well.

Hope to catch up with all of you this weekend!! Happy Memorial Day! Be safe!!!

What I'm currently working on

Another busy weekend for me.


I'm adding the binding to the "Punctuation" quilt and then it's in the
washer & dryer before it goes to it's new home.

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I cut up 180 squares, and then sewed them together to make 90, and then cut them to make 180 triangles, and then I pressed them all open to have a total of 180 squares. (does that makes sense?) That took about 4 hours and my back is now hurting from being bent over the cutting table, sewing machine and standing up to iron/press.

I've decided on 2 different quilts with this material.

The Zig Zag

The Pinwheel

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I'm making a Sock Monkey story book quilt as well. This one is going to be fun to make. Who doesn't love Sock Monkeys?!! My girls would giggle when I sang them this song when they were little.