Fall + Friends + Food + Fun = Pumpkin Tutorial

 I have such wonderful friends! After seeing a photo of DIL Katie's pumpkin from our arts and crafts day last week my friend Trish said "I want to make a pumpkin" - so she googled it and came up with this wonderfully easy way of making such cute fall decorations. Much easier than the time consuming sewing of wedges that we did last week. So easy in fact, that prior to this morning she has made 21 of the darling little creatures.

So, what are friends for but to share! And support one another.... Armed with a shopping list Katie, Trish, Annette and I headed to Wally-world for some fall fabric, yarn, poly-fil and leaves...Trish would be sharing her knowledge with us once we arrived back to my studio.

When I added the comment "support one another" that was my lead in to the food part (grin). Without a lot of details here cuz I know you want to get on to the tutorial....our arts and crafts day really stemmed from my cry for help...seems my healthcare provider has suggested a change in lifestyle....namely more veggies, dairy limited to eggs and butter, lots of protein, limited fruit, and going grain free for 30 days...recommended reading "The Paleo Solution Diet" by Robb Wolf and "Wheat Belly" by William Davis. While I am excited about the health benefits, my friends actually found me in tears stressing over the implication of this lofty goal of regaining my health (and potentially shedding some unwanted pounds). Why you ask? Well, I'm not known for my culinary skills  - and I'm what is known unfavorably as a "picky eater"....so today's gathering included Annette steaming some previously unknown veggies for me to "try" and Katie making a delicious Greek salad (which was totally Greek to me - things I'd never eaten before in my life!) For the record, there was a little cheating going on with the Feta cheese, but hey, this is a work in progress.

I think the girls got tickled as I was sorta like a 5 year old in discovering that I could eat things all mixed together (grin).  Did I mention that this was also the day I'd scheduled the Sears repairman to come fix my oven? Seems it's been out since April or May or quite possibly Christmas...pitiful I know....yep...I desperately  needed my girlfriends today!

If you look closely on the table above you will see the orange pumpkin Trish brought over and the smaller one she used to demo. Before you knew it, we all had one or two made.

Okay, okay...I know you are eager to follow along and make your own - trust me, they are like a bag of chips, you can't make just one!

Pumpkins ala Trish

Ingredients (grin)

 Fabric (duh)

Heavy thread, 12 wt to 30 wt

Yarn

Tapestry needle (or large embroidery needle)

"Doll" needle - or large plastic needle - key is to be long and have a large eye for the yarn

Stuffing

Stems from the weeds growing in the pasture or the empty lot next door (as the case may be)

Misc. fall decorations such as leaves, etc.

Sewing machine and typical sewing supplies

Trish has found that the following sizes have worked well in her collection...so cut your fabrics either 6 x 12, 7 x 14, 8 x 16, 9 x 18, 10 x 16 or 10 x 20....and feel free to experiment. She suggests that you make a 6 x 12 first and then play around..

Fold the fabric in half  right sides together (if it were 6 x 12 you would now have a folded 6 x 6).  With a quarter inch seam sew the side opposite the fold, securing each end with a back stitch, forming a tube.  Finger press the  seam open.

Using a running stitch or gathering stitch sew a quarter of an inch on one side of the tube, still wrong side out (see first photo).  Gather and secure tightly with a knot. BYT, thread color doesn't matter, it won't be seen. Next turn the tube right side out and fill with poly-fil or similar stuffing. Not too full, it should feel a little squishie to be sculpt-able.

Upon completion use that same gathering stitch to close the opening. This is harder than it looks (one reason for heavy thread)....don't be discouraged if you end up with a hole and can see the stuffing - it will later be covered with a stem...Tie securely and bury your thread if you know how (not an issue if you don't).

Now it is time to sculpt your pumpkin. Using a large needle with yarn (tied with a knot of course) go through the open top and come out on the bottom, this buries the thread and knot. From the bottom travel up the side again going through the top. I found it helpful to make the placement of my first stitch to cover that one seam - but it probably doesn't matter (grin). Continue going down through the top, out the bottom, and up the sides until you have the desired number of wedges.

Pull the yarn tight to get that desired effect. You WILL have a hole in the middle...

When complete, tie off the yarn and hide the knot.

Next, if you are fortunate enough to have a hot glue gun this is where you'd want to pull it out...me? nope. Probably the only gal in town that doesn't, and Trish left her half a dozen at home. No worries, I have various forms of craft glue (Liquid Stitch worked wonders).

Be as creative as you want... Trish had some floral wire that we wrapped around a pen to make tendrils. I thought they added a nice touch.

These were my first set made with the girls from our Wally-world fabric.  After they left the oven-repairmen came so I was distracted for a while....then back to the studio to make this set. Yes, Vera Bradly fans, these are Safari Sunset...I purchased napkins from my favorite pattern and have it scattered in my living room (pillows). These should give a nice pulled together look that will dazzle my friends and family with my decorating skills don't ya think? And yes, they are going to stay stacked. Trish had a stacked trio that was very cute...you are only limited by your imagination!

And I told you they were addictive! Here's my beautiful Blank batiks (thanks Tom, these colors are going to look fantastic in the living room - can't wait to make a couch quilt out of them).

Time will tell just how many pumpkins I'll have scattered over my house this fall. I doubt that I will catch up to Trish...but who knows, I do have an addictive personality  - as opposed to a competitive one (grin).

Yes, this was quite a day. Fun time with friends, learning some new skills in the kitchen with such wonderful taste tests (I can eat veggies!), and having something to show for my day besides dirty dishes - I just love these little pumpkins!....I'm excited about the future, hopeful that I can learn to cook healthier and feel better. It's not as daunting as it was a few days ago. Changing habits is never easy, but...

"with God all things are possible" Matthew 19:26

Breakfast of Champions!

 We interrupt this quilting blog for a nutritional break. Actually, this quilting blog has been anything but quilting lately - but hey, it's summer! A time to relax, refresh, and try new things.

So my new thing is trying to eat more veggies. I'm a plain salad sort of gal, just a little lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli and croutons. Yep, pretty plain. Don't even do dressing, well, once in a while a little ranch, but pretty much a plain Jane when it comes to variety in eating, cooking or non-cooking as the case may be. In reality, the only other veggies I get is when we go out to eat and I'll venture out and get a fresh grilled mix...so when I say I need to increase my veggie intake, I truly need to increase my veggie intake.

So when my friend Tom Russell was over for a friendly studio visit last week our talk turned to his drinking green smoothies...I replied that I didn't care much for greens and couldn't see "going green" as I'm a fruit smoothie sorta gal. When Tom shared that I could mix the two, fruit AND greens,  it perked my interest!

So Tom & I went to Krogers. Seriously. Right then and there. We hopped in his car and away we went. I'm a very visual learner and I probably wouldn't have tried some of this if he hadn't of held my hand - well, actually instead of holding my hand he came back to my kitchen and made me one to try! Wow, I can drink veggies!

There's not a "set" recipe, but here's what I put in my Vita Mix this morning:

(1) Canned pineapple in it's own juice (never heavy juice - you defeat the "healthy" goal). Now for the record, this wasn't in Tom's version, he uses spring water for the base, but I've always liked this for my fruit smoothies so we went with it.

(2) Veggies - we added spinach, broccoli and shredded carrots, limiting the veggies for my "first taste" since I'm not big into greens and Tom didn't want a strong flavor to scare me away. Tom, you will be happy to know that in a week's time I've "grown up" and this morning added kale, bean sprouts, and cucumbers.  The truth is, you can add anything you want....

(3) fruit - in my Vita Mix today, in addition to the canned pineapple, is half a granny smith apple (my fav variety), a banana, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries and a few frozen grapes. I like using a mix of fresh and frozen fruit - the frozen gives my smoothie a nice cool texture. Since I buy and eat a lot of fruit, more times than not, it will sometimes get over ripe. That's when I pop it in freezer bags for future smoothies. Bananas freeze well. Tom shared his secret of freezing - wrap in parchment paper and they don't stick to each other!

(4) a little protein powder, just because ... figured it can't hurt (grin)

Now normally I would slowly add the items as I increased the variable speed on the Vita Mix...but I didn't think that would photograph as pretty (grin)...oh and speaking of which, sorry the photos are a tad blurry - I used the iPhone and it's a cloudy overcast day in my kitchen...(and I don't have a magic camera like Tom).

 Ta da!  A wonderful concoction chalked full of good stuff!  Indeed a breakfast for champions!

And for the record, yep, it makes several servings - but it refrigerates well. I can either have another one later in the day or skip the prep tomorrow. And, if you have a Vita Mix, the clean up is easy! Just rinse out, fill half way with hot water, add a little dish washing soap and turn on high - clean as a whistle and you have nice sudsy water if you have more dishes to wash...

Cheers! I'm off to the quilting studio now - ready for a fun filled day!

Morning Sunshine - to your health!

Thought I'd share my new morning mix. I recently upgraded to a new Vita Mix. I had purchased one in the late 80's early 90's and used it here and there throughout the years, not as faithful as I'd intended...but it played out on me and after seeing the new upgrades I decided it was better to purchase a new one instead of repairing the old one. Wise choice. It arrived the end of last week!

For background, this "health kick" started several months ago when I injured my leg after hurricane Ike helping in the food distribution truck. Among other things that my chiropractor helped me work through he shared with me the idea of eating right according to your blood type. He recommend that I check out the works of Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo to learn which foods were beneficial to me and which ones to avoid. Of course you have to know your blood type (grin) so I checked with the local blood center to check my records as well as my husband's. I discovered that I'm Type A and he's Type O. From there began an interesting quest....

According to Dr. D'Adamo I'm suppose to be more of a fruit and grain eater, which is pretty much how I like to eat. My husband on the other hand is more of a meat eater (which also was true to his normal habit). The key is trying to find things that we have in common to help with meal preparation, and to learn what foods to avoid. We both found it interesting that some of the no-no's on our individual lists were things we didn't particularly care for in the first place so that wasn't too difficult, but there have been a few things that we said "oh darn".

I'm starting with the fruits right now, made a list for each of us grouped by the blood type recommendations of highly beneficial, neutral, and avoid. The reading of this book is very eye-opening. I've combined this information with Jay Kordick's The Juiceman's Power of Juicing to discover the health benefits of the individual fruits. Okay, there is a difference in juicing and the total juice of a Vita Mix, but that's a discussion for another time and another place (grin). I chose the Vita Mix, which is a total juicer - meaning you get pulp and all - and I'm going to share with you my recipe of this morning.

You can see the ingredients in the above photo. And below is how they looked in the container before mixing. I first poured in a small can of pineapple juice to give me liquid (could have used water but wanted more nutrients). Then I place two slices of fresh pineapple, four frozen strawberries and 4 frozen cherries (pits had been removed prior to freezing), and 4 frozen raspberries. In about 30 seconds in my Vita Mix I had a nice frozen sorbet. It was thicker than what I wanted -- I was in a hurry to drink it before going to my water aerobics class at the YMCA - so I added a little distilled water to make it more juice like.

Ta da! A great way to start the day!

Now I'm not a dietitian or a nutritionist, but according to my reading this little glass of sunshine was packed with potassium, chlorine, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, iron, iodine, provitamin A, B complex, vitamin C, Bromelain (an enzyme that helps with digestion) and all that from just the pineapple and pineapple juice. The strawberries contributed vitamin C and natural sugars that cleanse the system, potassium and iron - good for strengthening the blood, while the sodium content provided a valuable tonic for the nerves and keeping the glands healthy. Plus strawberries have an added benefit of ellagic acid which is suppose to reduce and neutralize the damaging effects of the carcinogen PAH found in cigarette smoke and second hand smoke. But wait, there's more! The cherries contributed even more iron, magnesium, potassium, silicon (good for hair and skin) as well as provitamin A (which is also known as beta carotene). From what I understand in the reading - you can't overdose on provitamin A derived from vegetable and fruit. Plus everything is natural, no preservatives!

Wow, didn't know you'd get a science lesson just by visiting my kitchen! And for those that have asked, here's a picture of my cherry pitter. You just place the cherry stem side up in this little do-dad, use the spring action and push down the plunger and out the other end (the clear plastic area) pops that pit! Like I said, made my work seem like play it was so much fun!


I'm eager to try more mixes with my fruits and later work into juicing veggies. I can testify that I'm not hungry after having my fruit drinks and I think I have more energy! I'm hoping to lose some weight! Dr. D'Adamo says that if you eat according to your blood type that you should achieve your ideal weight. I'm counting on his words of wisdom (grin).

Here's to the beginning of a healthier lifestyle!