T-shirt quilt

I have been talking about learning to do this for a while. In, fact my poor son brought me a bunch of T-shirts 2-3 years ago. Things get in the way and also I was worried about how to sew stretchy fabric. My sister Pam had asked where she buys fabric and they told her to use this Heat and Bond. I am no stranger to Heat and Bond, I have used it for years to attach things or even hem things when I was lazy. The new pirate bag I made for Wyatt had Heat and Bond to make the sides more sturdy. I basically did what is below with regular cotton fabric.

I was time this morning to give it a go. I went in search of an old t-shirt to use since this is an experiment. I found one of Wyatt's little shirts he outgrew and gave it a go.

First cut off the design leaving plenty of room. This one is closer than I wanted but it was a tiny T-shirt so it was a small design.

 This is Heat and Bond. You buy it on a roll at Walmart or any place you buy fabric.

Heat and bond has two different sides.... the one side has a shiny look to it and that is what you use to bond it to the shirt.

The other side will simply look like paper.

Cut a piece of the Heat and Bond just smaller than the design. This is IMPORTANT! That glue stuff gets hot and it doesn't care what it bonds to... it will bond to your ironing board cover or your iron. If you feel you must have the Heat and Bond hanging off the design I would use a pressing cloth that you don't want anymore. Make sure your iron is HOT. The turn your design facing down then lay the glue side down, leaving the paper facing up. Press and iron all over the paper so it will stick to your shirt. Set it aside and let it cool.

Now this is the part that makes it stable to sew with. Pick a fabric that you will use behind your blocks, cutting it larger than the design. In the end it will not be seen but if you are doing a white T-shirt you don't want black backing. Press the backing fabric.

The Heat and Bond will have cooled now. The paper peels off like this. The glue is now on the t-shirt. Sorry you can't really tell in the picture. Peel it completely off and throw away.

Lay your T-shirt design down then put your back fabric on top and press in the same manner as before.

When you are done it will look like this and will be stable to sew. There is no stretching now. Cut your design to whatever size you want and make your quilt.

Butter Chicken

Butter chicken

2 eggs, beaten 

1 cup crushed ritz crackers

1/2 tsp garlic salt

salt and pepper to taste

4 chicken breasts 

1/2 cup butter cut into thin slices

Preheat oven to 375

It calls for 4 but they package I had was 3. Spray the pan with cooking spray. Dip the chicken breasts in the egg then the crackers

I added the left over crackers then cut your cold butter into thin pieces all over the top.

Bake for 40 minutes. I turn the broiler on for a few minutes at the end to give it a nice brown crust.

This turns out really moist! yum

A short post... like that title??

Yesterday I noticed Pearl out and about twice. She is the one that was broody and laying on those eggs to the point that they were rotting and smelling. I thought I would take the chance to take the last few eggs from her little nest. What had been like 15-18 eggs at one point had gone down to 5 because of breaking and it smelled awful. I knew they were not going to hatch but I didn't have the heart to take them away from her, I didn't want discourage future nesting in the future. I covered the nest with fresh hay and this morning she was out with all the others again.

I am also going to try to make this,

I have been saving my feed sacks. I have 6 so I am hoping it is easy to make. They are water proof and woven plastic... so I will use them to take to the store and carrying home food. If it turns out good I will post a picture... if not then you can assume it went bad.

The Broody and the Bully

It has been awhile since we checked in on the soap opera that is the life of my flock. 

Shelly has had it ... she went running to Reggie for help.  "Reggie, Guido is attacking!" Everyday he follows me around and if I don't run away he jumps on my back!" "Look at my missing feathers! I am not going to lay anymore eggs until he is in jail!"

Reggie decides it is time to have a talk with Guido... "son, I am getting complaints that you are roughing up the girls, is this true?" Guido says "nah, I am just looking for a nice girl to raise some chicks with." Reggie says "you need to treat them nice, you know send them to the chicken spa for pampering. Girls need some romance too, ask them out of the coop at night to looks at the stars."then he also says "if I get more reports of you acting like a bully I will tell the human mama.

The next day Copper goes to Reggie and through tears says "Guido is a bully! he just jumps on any female he sees! He told me that he wanted me to hatch his chicks! He has started acting like he OWNS all the girls!" Reggie tells her "That's it! I am going to the human mama"

Reggie waits by the door that leads into the human coop and waits for the woman to open the door, he is so mad! After awhile of waiting he gets frustrated and begins to gobble as loud as he could. The human mama thinks there is a ruckus and hurries to the door and when she opens it, Reggie is there waiting. He tells her about all that has been going on and together they decide to go find Guido. 

They find him around the girls, crowing about how he just got out of the rooster air force... and showing them his tattoo and fancy spurs. "Guido! we need to have a talk!" Guido is afraid and quickly runs up under Reggie to escape the human mama. Reggie is not impressed and moves, so Guido is on his own. "Guido! I don't care how handsome you think you are, it does NOT mean that all the girls want you. You have hurt them and you make them try to avoid you! See that pen over there? The one Reggie used to live in... you keep it up and you will find yourself in there ALONE. Got it?" Reggie is ashamed, no crowing now.

I few weeks ago Reggie noticed that Pearl was spending an awful lot of time in the coop, in the nesting boxes. He went in for a talk "Pearl, are you feeling ok?" Pearl says "yes, sir I am afraid to leave the eggs." Reggie wasn't even aware that there were eggs in there, until Pearl moves over and l shows him about 15 eggs! They are not even all hers! He wonders how that happened. Guido asks gently "Pearl, are you telling me that Guido got you in a bad way and then ran off to hit on other hens? Does he DO anything to help you?" Pearl cries and says " no he just makes me sit here and sometimes he has another hens come in and lay more eggs in my nest when I am out for a few minutes to eat. He wants me to try to hatch all of them! I am nothing but an oven!" Reggie says "Pearl how long does it take to hatch an egg?" pearl says 21 days from the time they are laid after being fertilized. Reggie thinks back, trying to figure out how long she has been sitting on them and decides that it has been longer than that. He tells her "Honey, you have been on those eggs longer than that, they aren't going to hatch" Pearl is heartbroken. "Just give me another day?" Reggie says ok and leaves her to her eggs but he is trying figure out a way to remove the eggs with out breaking her heart. 

Once again it is time to have a talk with the human mama.

Hello

I have come to realize how much I miss writing.  I already share most of the chaos that is my life, but this will allow me to tell longer stories and more pictures and not flood my friend's news feeds.

So this blog will be simply about my life as a homemaker. That covers a lot of ground.... recipes, sewing, animals, cleaning, new products I find, funny things that happen to me, silly chicken stories... just anything that is a part of my days. I will not (God will have to help me here) write about politics or anything that might be cause drama.  I will not dwell on pain issues, I refuse to let that take over my life.

I will share updates on my facebook page... feel free to share the links if you want. I will not spend my time going over and, over and over, my post to make sure the punctuation is correct. I WILL proof read and try to toss in the commas and other things, but it you are going to be grading my posts then you will go crazy.

Pull up a chair... get your needles and thread and let's enjoy this quilting bee!