Friday night sewing

My grandtoddlers wear bibs at our house pretty much anytime they eat anything, I don't like them wearing dirty clothes and bibs are  much easier to take off than to change into a clean outfit.  

Their other batch of bibs were getting rather worn so I sewed up a new batch.  

the bird print is my favorite

For the pattern,  I traced around a bib we already had,  then since my tracing was not as straight as it could be,  I just cut it out about 1/2 inch away from the tracing line.

pattern drawn on wax paper

I used a couple yards of a retro fabric bought at a thrift store a few years ago.  

Blogs are like diaries,  I just did a search and found exactly when it was purchased from an old blog post of mine. 

If you are curious,  you can read it on this link.  

when I bought that funny animal fabric at a thrift store in 2009

I fussy cut each bib so I could center these fun animals on each one.
And I ended up with 9 nice size bibs.

I've used velcro for closures but it seems to get full of lint in the laundry and  velcro bibs are a little to easy for toddlers to take off.
Ties get tangled and knotted.
So,  I put button closures on this batch,  so far,  I like this method  a lot.  

My toddlers never did smile for the camera but they really liked their new bibs.
Gavin picked out the seal one and Elizabeth chose the cat and mouse one.


And just in case  because I said I don't like for them to be dirty, that they don't have fun,
 well,  I should of said I  don't like for them to run around in food-dirty clothes.
It is very warm today and we had rain over the weekend that left their sandbox full of water.
So for play time,  they played in the water in sandbox.  It kept them happy for 2 hours.
We came in at noon and put on clean dry clothes,  had lunch, story time and naps.  

Use your gadgets Part 3

Another gadget I found in my decluttering is this potato ricer.
I think Jeff bought it about 7 or so years ago and I think he saw the Barefoot Contessa or Alton Brown or one of those tv chefs use one.
The first time I used it was for a big Thanksgiving meal and  I cooked at least 5 pounds of potatoes.
Jimmy helped me that day and we were both tired from squeezing that many spuds.  

this Sunday,  I only cooked 6 small potatoes.
Ricing just a few potatoes goes really quick and easy.  

See how fine they are?
I just added a little half and half cream to them until they creamy
and a little salt and pepper.
They were really good mashed potates - very light, and smooth

If you like really smooth potatoes,  then you should try a ricer.

Cook your potatoes all the way tender so your won't have to work up a sweat while you press them  through.

But if you cook mashed potatoes for a crowd,  I would not recommend ricing unless you have some helpers with  muscles.  

about the Pampered Chef 4 loaf baking pan- I looked on the Pampered Chef sight and they do still sell it. 

 I think it is $34.  

I've got one more gadget to show you later,  as soon as I work up my nerve to use it anyway. 

Any guesses on what it might be?  

Bloggers are the best! Many thanks to Jilly

Blogging friend Jilly over at Sunnyville Cottage    just moved to a smaller town and smaller home.  She downsized her craft and sewing supplies as she says she really prefers to cross stitch and crochet.  

So Lucky Duck me,  I was the recipient of  her quilting strips.  

These pictures don't do justice to just how much fabric and how nice this fabric is.  

Jilly packed this box with precision and I think she had to of sat on it to get it close.    

 This box was much heavier than it looks, and my Marine husband dropped it when he got it out of the mailbox,  .  Jilly's Sailor husband will probably think that is funny.  

I tried to spread them out to take a better picture of them,  but there are just so many and I am not a good photographer.  

You will just have to believe me that this was a wonderful gift and I will have so much fun sewing up some strip quilts.  

Thank you Jilly!  I think you are the best.