working on a college quilt

It is official,  Brick Master is starting his college life in less than 2 weeks! We spent a fair amount of time shopping for his trousseau, and I felt the best way to set him up for his new dorm life was to sew him a quilt, in the colors of his school.

Luckily for him, it happens to be colors he likes: black and red, with a little grey.
I was inspired by this quilt from Pinterest:
(no Utah for us!)
And here is what the top looks like:

bright and happy!
It is a simple quilt, just rectangles. I like the woven aspect. I still need to applique his school symbol, and quilt it and bind it! Luckily I am using fleece for the back and no batting, so it might go a little faster!
A few people have asked me more details about this quilt,so here are the quilted dimensions of the various pieces:

Here are some of the quilts I made for him over the years:
modern teen quilt
Noah's ark
Dungeons and Dragons
 and I Spy quilt.
So quite some work to do, and a fast deadline!
Happy sewing!

a pouch with a little Eiffel tower

A good friend of mine was celebrating

a big birthday this week 

so I had to make her a little present:

a sweet pouch with a little Eiffel tower!

I used linen and Liberty of London,

and a little tag for the back:

I use the pattern from "Diary in Stitches" by Minki Kim,

but chose a different applique that is not in the book:

and a little hand embroidery,

I know my friend is dreaming of going to Paris one day...

So I also added some Eiffel tower print in the inside!

The binding is actually a premade binding, I think it is Japanese,

it is linen with some little Parisian details!

It makes me want to go visit....

Happy sewing!

the farm quilt is finished

It finally happened, I finished my farm quilt for my niece:

and it has arrived  and she likes it!

She uses it as I spy quilt.

They are so many things to look at,

it is the perfect game...

And I love the final texture of the quilt:

I added a lot of details to my original blocks, like eyes to all the animals.

I embroidered a world map for the globe (it is a little potato-like..!), I also added details to the Dala Horse, the cow got its tails, the cat its whiskers.

The tractor got a stirring wheel, the ship its legs, the butterfly its antennas, and I just realized I forgot to stitch the seeds in the pears! Well too late now, I do not think it matters.... 
Eleanor looks perfect with it,

and I hope she enjoys it for a few years!
Happy sewing!

a sweet peach parfait with homemade granola

It is the perfect time of the year to go on the weekend to the orchard to get some peaches, and like in previous years, we purchased too many! Well a half bushel is about 20 lbs, so that is quite a few peaches!
A great and "healthy" way to eat the peaches (besides neat of course!) is to make some peach parfait with homemade granola.

It is delicious!

To make my granola, I use only oat (2cups),

 canola oil (1/4 cup) and honey (1/4 cup).

I mix the 2 liquids together

and then coat the oat with it,

it looks like it will not work out,

but it does!

then I bake it at 350F for 20 min until golden,

it has happened many times to go much darker

as I forgot about it, it is just as delicious.

As soon as it is done, I transferred it still hot

onto parchment paper,

otherwise it sticks to the pan.

It keeps for at least a week in a dry container,

if it lasts that long!

I cut a lot of peaches and stir them with some lemon juice and a little sugar. I let them stand for 20 min, and took some of them to make a little compote, fancy work for just cooking them for 10 minutes, reducing the amount of juice.
I cooled the peach compote in the fridge for a few hours.
Finally I assembled my parfait: compote on the bottom, yogurt on the top  (I like greek yogurt, unsweeten) and whatever level of granola you need!

It is best to wait until last moment,

so that the granola remains crunchy.

I made so many that I used some small canning jars (from IKEA)

to keep them on hands for snacks for the kids,

they did not last very long...

they were eaten so fast that I need to make more granola!

Since I had so many peaches already cut, I also made a peach crumble with some flour, brown sugar and butter:

That was quite tasty too! Here are some peach recipes from previous years:
peach crumble with oats:
peach cobbler:
peach pie:
Of all of them are quite good, but for an easy afternoon snack, nothing beat cutting a peach in small pieces, adding some yogurt and sprinkling some granola and enjoy the taste of summer!

Happy day!

Paris-page, a little embroidery for Bastille day!

 Happy Bastille day,

or Fete Nat, as we call it jokingly!

I set up this little vignette to commemorate the event:

a new little embroidery: Paris-plage from "les brodeuses parisiennes",

an Eiffel tower, an espresso in a Laughing Cow cup,

and of course a crepe,

a great beginning of the day!

It is my 3rd embroidery from the same pattern set

that I used for my Amsterdam vignette,

and my after-ski vignette.

These embroideries are so fun to make,

and decorate with, just the right size and amount of time!

I dream of summer vacations at the beach....

It will happen, 

I just need to wait a few more weeks!

Happy sewing!