Sunday, September 26, 2010

owlies and relish

Many, many moons ago Jan asked me to make her some owl pillows. Her MIL had gotten a catalog with this picture in it.
owl pillow inspiration
And so that's what she wanted. I put it on my to-do list. Last weekend I went out to the quilt store and looked all over for the perfect fabric for the tummies of the owls. Originally I thought I wanted some owl fabric a la Alexander Henry spotted owl. But, they only had a canvas with brown backround and it just didn't feel right. In the very back of the store there was a section with hunting/fishing fabrics. Which is pretty much perfect because Jan's husband is a hunter/fisherman and that's how their house is decorated. As are most of the men in this town :) this is what I came up with:
smaller owl pillow
The picture looks like it is a stuffed owl that is the pillow, and I really wanted something easy to wash so I fashioned a pillow case instead of a stuffie. I'm happy with the way they turned out. The only iffy part for washing is probably going to be the felt I used for the eyes.
owlie pillowsAren't they funny???

So this morning I canned up some zucchini relish. This is the first time I used my food processor to cut up the veggies, and I noticed that it added a lot of air bubbles to the chopped veggies. I also added the veggies too early in the recipe and boiled then with the vinegar/sugar mixture and so therefore I think this created a ton of bubbles. Which I thought I had gotten out, but no. I took the jars out of the boiling water bath and there were a TON of air bubbles! a TON. So, I know that they won't keep on the shelf this way, so do I break the seals and start over??? How do I get those teeny bubbles out???? I made the same recipe last year, but I had hand chopped the veg which I think equals less air bubbles.
zucchini relish
In other news, I finished the Percy Jackson series this week. I have to admit that I totally loved it! They are totally younger books, but full of action and a good story line. Yesterday I started a Beverly Lewis book called The Telling, it's the third and final book in a series of hers.

So this month is my month for the vintage sheet quilting bee and I've been receiving the blocks I asked for in the mail, it's so fun! Last night I laid them out on the ground and started making the leaf and stem blocks that will go in the middle of the flowers I asked for. Later today I'll maybe start on the butterflies. I have a feeling I'm going to love this quilt!

1 comment:

Jodie said...

Oh my gosh! Those owls are ADORABLE. Swoooon. :)