One person's trash is another's treasure

I love getting bags of scraps from other people, there are so many possibilities. This quilt was made entirely out of other people scraps. The broken dishes blocks are from a small sandwich bag full of "waste triangles" and the borders are from random scraps. I love it! This will be going on my wall of small quilts.

My Challenge for 2013

I taught myself to knit back when Alex was a baby because I wanted to use wool soakers with my cloth diapers and wasn't willing to pay $50+ for one. Since that time I have knitted mostly dishcloths and scrubbies. This year I decided it was time to expand my knitting horizons and made a goal to learn to knit socks. I started by buying a knitting class from Craftsy. Next I bought some yarn and some impossibly tiny needles. Finally this weekend my friend Angela and I sat down together and started working on some socks. This is how far I've gotten up until now. I have actually knitted about twice this much but I spent about as much time ripping stitches as I did knitting. The other picture is of Angela trying to get the hang of knitting of 5 needles rather than the usual 2.

Brown Sugar Granola

I originally got this recipe from The Hillbilly Housewife but when I went looking for it recently she had changed the recipe.  Here is the original recipe that my kids and I love.

Brown Sugar Granola

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
4 cups rolled oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dried fruits (optional)
1/2 cup nuts or seeds (optional, we like almonds)

In a large saucepan melt the butter, sugar and water together.  Stir well and let it simmer for a 2-3 minutes.  Add the salt, oatmeal and cinnamon stir until evenly coated.  Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool in the pan, then break into pieces.  Add any fruit or nuts (I like to bake the nuts right in the granola) and store in an airtight container.

Easy Street Step 7 and 8

I'm chugging along on finishing up Easy Street.  I have most of step 7 done and have started the A blocks for step 8.  I didn't get as much sewing done this weekend as I hoped because I completely reorganized the kids playroom and book storage which took up most of my time.  I was lucky enough to sew with Kathy and Barb Saturday night for a few hours and Angela for a few hours on Sunday afternoon.

This week Oreo has decided that she is quilting quality control!  As you can see she inspected my blocks in progress to make sure the workmanship was up to snuff and then she moved on to the ironing board to oversee that step aslo :)

I'm very excited to get to finally meet Bonnie this Thursday at her lecture in Cottonwood.  I have been a fan of her's for about 7 years now and it will be nice to finally meet her.

I'm posting this as part of Bonnie's Mystery Monday Link-up.  You can see the other quilts in progress here
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