It's Raining, It's Pouring...

...and it certainly would be easy to be snoring. But instead, I've been doing a bit of sewing.

It's raining, it's pouring!
Suzanne's doing some sewing!

My friend, Abi, posted this tutorial last year, showing how to repurpose pillow cases into shopping totes. I thought it was a wonderful idea! I tried one right away, as you may remember from this post, last May. I gave it away promptly, and continued to look for vintage pillow cases on thrift store trips, but just never got around to sewing any more.

Part of the reason for not sewing was that I haven't been very enamored of my current machine. Flash back to two weeks ago... Hubby and I were rained out of the garden and decided to make the best of it by thrifting our way to the boys' chorus rehearsal. We were getting ready to leave one of our favorite stores when I spied this on a rack behind me:

Price tag: $7.50

Yes, that's seven dollars and fifty cents! No fake! I couldn't believe it.

Let me divert to a slightly different topic here for a moment. The topic is relativity. After shopping in mostly thrift stores for years, $7.50 seems like a hefty price. I actually stood there... considering, cogitating, contemplating. We rarely spend more than $2 or $3 on any single item in a thrift store. $7.50 seemed like so much at the time. This kind of relativity is a good exercise for the mind. Thinking this way, I believe, is a good habit to establish. There is so much excess in our country.

So I started examining the machine. I am familiar with the maker, Janome, enough to know that it has a good reputation. I lifted off the case (not pictured here) and moved the fly wheel, operated levers and switches, examined the bobbin and looked underneath the machine. There was no power cord and foot pedal, so I asked the sales clerk if there were any missing cords laying around. She said there weren't, so I looked around in the electronics part of the store and on the shelves nearby, coming up empty.

Finally, with Hubby's encouragement, I decided to get the machine. The clerk said I could return it in a week if it didn't work. So I got busy, found a foot pedal and power cord for about $50, had a nearby Amishman look at it, and downloaded an instruction manual. All that took about a week. Then I started playing.

Back when I first started sewing seriously, my last year of college, about 25 years ago (oops... I'm dating myself here... a quarter of a century???? Crap I'm getting old...) I bought an old Singer sewing machine from the University. They were having a sale of old equipment and this machine was from the 50s. It had a cast iron head, painted black, and was mounted in a solid wood cabinet with drawers, for $20.


A beauty. I bought that machine, took it home, and promptly went to the university library, where I found an old book that explained how to take the machine apart and oil and lube the parts, check the motor brushes and generally care for the machine. I took that book to a copy shop and made myself a notebook. Then I got busy and fixed that machine right up. I bought attachments for it and used it like crazy for years... about eight years, to be exact. I sewed all of my clothes for work on it, business suits with interfacing, pad-stitching, lining, and welt pockets. It was a great machine, and I really learned a lot using it.

During my professional, working-girl days, I eventually splurged on a new, expensive machine. And it was a nice machine, with some modern conveniences, that served me quite well. But I couldn't maintenance that machine. It had all these access panels that would only open with special tools and I would have had to break the machine to service it myself. I got a lot of use out of that machine, but I hated having to take it in to the dealer and pay $50 to $100 every time I wanted to clean the lint out, oil it, and adjust the tension mechanism. Especially once we moved out to the country. I didn't want to have to drive 50 to 80 miles to pay that kind of money for something I should be able to do myself.

So, about four years ago, I sold that machine on eBay, and for a good price, I might add. With the proceeds we bought a decent mechanical machine with a treadle option, which appealed to me, because I could operate it without electricity if needs be. But I've never really gotten the hang of that machine. And I found myself not wanting to use it that much. I'm a busy person, so this didn't bother me that much. And yet... there remained a nagging sort of hankering in the back of my mind. A hankering to sew.

Now, back to my story. I'll bet you didn't plan on getting a sewing machine history and maintenance lesson, did you?

The Singer has been out of my life for awhile, but the knowledge of sewing machine construction and maintenance stuck with me. So, I recognized that this Janome has all-metal parts, and that the user can maintenance the machine herself. So many modern machines are computerized, and have those funny panels and tools I mentioned earlier. I was delighted that I could simply and easily see under the machine and watch all the moving parts in action as I rotated the fly wheel!

My Janome is mechanical, and the manual even shows how to maintenance the machine! So I did exactly that. I delinted that puppy and wiped it down, oiled the moving parts, and set it up for sewing. The rest, as they say, is history. This is the best machine I've ever had. I love sewing on it, and I have been thinking about it every day for the last week. Thank you, thrift store Goddess, for shining a light on me two weeks ago. I am so grateful!

A good project to test out a new machine is Abi's pillow case shopping tote. Once I did a bag:


I just kept pulling out my pillow cases. And then I started changing things up.



I did a different strap...



dug into my stash of vintage trims,



and have been having a ball.



Thanks, Abi, for the inspiration.

It's been one of the rainiest springs on record here in our part of Ohio, and there is more on the way over the next three days. There are puddles in the garden, and it's hard to plant certain things. So, I'll continue to sew, off and on. There is a time and place for everything, and the time for me right now is one in which to sew.

I have not forgotten about "A" is for Alley Cropping, so please stay tuned. If there's one thing I've learned from blogging, it's that I never know exactly where my entries are headed. I just start with an idea and my posts take on a life of their own. This means you, dear reader, never know what you may find when you drop in here. Thanks, as always, for stopping by.

Good Times

Good Monday morning to all!

I want to begin by saying that the last four days have been diverse and interesting and busy! It all started last Thursday, with a garage sale Hubby and I managed to hit prior to 9am after dropping the kids at school. Fellow fabric fanatics, I lucked out. Seriously. Lucked. Out.

I was poking around in a table of stuff and saw a box of brand new, still in original packaging, fat quarters. Fat quarters are 18" x 22" pieces of 100% cotton prints that people purchase for quilting projects. They are bundled in coordinating colorways to make it easy on the quilter. They call out to us in the fabric stores, "Here! Buy us! You won't have to think about picking colors on your own!" Being terminally low on cash, and having collected a fair shake of fabric remnants and leftovers from a variety of sources and sales over the years, I, personally, have never bought fat quarters in my life. They are a thing of beauty, wondrous to behold in their crisp neatness, all tucked in together, wrapped up with ribbon.


Well, this box had packages of three fat quarters and the garage sale lady wanted 75 cents each for them. I did a quick scan in the box, wondering what she would take for the whole thing. I thought about offering her $10, thinking she'd never take a price that low. Finally I just decided to ask her what she'd take for the entire box. She said, "How about $7.50?" "Sold," said I, tucking the box under my arm.

Over the weekend, I had a chance to open them all up, lay them out on my sewing table, mix and match, sigh and admire, all the while cogitating project ideas. There are 110 total pieces of fabric. I still can't believe my good fortune!


In other sewing news, I had a chance to try Abi's Vintage Pillowcase Grocery Tote Tutorial and made a bag on Saturday. Thanks, Abi, for such a great tutorial! I encourage all of you to try it. I'm already planning on making a pile of them for Christmas gifts this year. It really was quick and easy, with great results. Since it turned out so well, I decided to take the pile of newborn baby clothes I've been saving and tuck them inside for the mother-to-be's shower gift. Not only will she get a pile of adorable clothes for her newborn, she'll get to keep the packaging for use in the grocery store.


On Mother's Day, the guys took me shopping at a great thrift store and I found a few more treasures, including another pillow case for 25 cents. It was a beautiful day for a drive, I got to knit in the car (coming up with a new design!), and I scored a vintage Pyrex refrigerator container in near perfect condition --and it's yellow-- and a porcelain coffee pot complete with filter.




Now it's Monday, and there is way too much to do in the garden, but that's okay. I'm rejuvenated and inspired by the last several days. I hope you all had a fabulous Mother's Day, be you mother, daughter, father, or son, spending it with your family doing what you love to do. I'd love to linger, but there are onions to weed, compost to spread, and beds to mulch, so for now, I'm off to my tasks at hand...

Kanten-Ease -or- Sneaky Summer Squash

Greetings, and thank you for stopping by to read another entry!

Today I want to share one of my favorite recipes with you. It is particularly great for moms who are trying to feed their kids healthful desserts, so consider this my Mother's Day gift to all of you, even if you aren't a mom!

This recipe fits the bill for so many reasons! It seems to please all children, while being healthy, so that puts it at the top of my list. Adults like it, too, and it's quick, easy, and practically fool-proof. What's not to love?

We call it jello, but macrobiotics call it kanten. Once you master this easy method, I can almost guarantee you'll be pulling this recipe out of your bag of tricks all summer long. Here's what you'll need (I'll show you exactly what I use):

Grape juice - 1 to 1.5 quarts

Canned pineapple tidbits in juice - 1 quart


Agar (half a package)

(Here is one source you may use for Telephone Agar-Agar Powder, although I buy mine at a local Asian grocery.)

To feed a crowd, I use a 4-quart, rectangular Pyrex pan. If you want to try a smaller batch, use a 2- or 3- quart dish and half the amounts.

First, pour the quart of pineapple, juice and all, into a saucepan (here's a great opportunity to use some beautiful, vintage Corning or Pyrex). Next add about a quart and a half of grape juice. Using a whisk, gradually sprinkle in the agar, all the while gently whisking it as it dissolves into the juice mixture.

(Please ignore the fact that I need to clean my stove top.)

Continue sprinkling and whisking and heating over a low flame until the mixture almost breaks into a simmer. It will begin to look a bit cloudy at this point.

Pour the liquid into your pan and let it sit! That's it. No refrigeration. Nothing special. Just let it sit on the counter and in a couple of hours it will be set!

(Notice the steam rising as it cools!)

If you eat this within a day or so (it probably will not last that long, anyway), you don't even have to keep it in the fridge. I just set mine in the oven with a post-it that reminds everyone not to preheat the oven. This reminds me of something worthy of sharing... once last summer, entertaining a crowd, I had a big pan of kanten waiting, safe from flies, to reveal to the kids after dinner. On the spur of the moment, I decided to make a quick rhubarb crisp for the adults. I came in from the garden and preheated the oven. Ooops! The jello had all turned to liquid again! Guess what? I left it on the counter and it re-set! How's that for some magic?

Anyway, once it sets, you can slice it into cubes or squares of desired size, put it on a platter, and watch it disappear. It's a great finger food for toddlers and kids.

(Please ignore the ridiculous length of my un-groomed thumbnail.)
(Thanks for the picture, Rachel!)

There are a couple of variations I regularly use. Often I just use grape juice and agar. For potlucks, I frequently use strawberries, or mandarin orange sections and pineapple chunks, or blueberries, bananas, whatever fresh fruit I might have on hand. The difference when using fresh fruit is to prepare the juice and agar alone. Pour it into the pan and then check it every fifteen minute or so. Jiggle the pan, and stick your finger in to test the consistency. Once it is beginning to set up a bit, poke the fruit in with a chopstick. You can even make pretty designs with the fruit. Another thing you can do is make the jello very thin, then use cookie cutters to cut it into fun shapes for kids' parties and such.

A word of advice about juices... I have tried this with all kinds of juice and it's more of a crowd-pleaser with grape juice or one of those all-juice blends that is supposed to taste like tropical punch. The dark red and purple juices seem to yield the best results.

One other note... you may have noticed that I used a quart canning jar of pineapple and juice. Well, I'm about to let you in on another sneaky secret! It's actually marrow squash that I home-canned in pineapple juice! Yes, moms of the world, your children will actually be eating their vegetables if you make it like this, and they will never know the difference! Today I took it to a 4-H meeting and all the kids and adults gobbled it up, thinking it was pineapple! Mwah ha ha ha...

To answer your next question, marrow squash is a firmer, equally prolific (!) variety of zucchini. I had so much in my garden last year, I tried all kinds of ways to preserve it. This has to be one of the best. I used pineapple juice, some organic dehydrated cane, and chunks of marrow or zucchini, peeled and cut into tidbit size and shape. I did it with both zucchini and marrow, but prefer the marrow, as it's slightly firmer in texture.

(A pile of marrow and zucchini from my garden.)

Well, I guess that's it for now. I hope this kanten/jello becomes one of your favorite recipes. I hope you share it with all your friends and family, because it's just too good to keep secret.

Happy Mother's Day! I have lots of ideas for blog posts, and I'm quite eager to write them, but for now, back to my tasks at hand...