When I was growing up we ate tons of yellow squash. It grows well in a hot climate with sandy soil, so it was a vegetable that we had in abundance. There was squash casserole, sauteed squash, boiled and mashed squash, succotash, but never soup. Even with all I ate, I still love the mellow flavor, so I thought I would experiment a bit and I was really quite happy with the outcome.
6 large or 8 medium squash chopped 1 large Spanish onion chopped 1 yellow bell pepper chopped 3 large cloves garlic chopped 2 leeks chopped, white portion only 1 tablespoon fresh thyme chopped 2 cups vegetable broth 2 cups coconut milk 1/4 cup parmesan cheese shredded 1 poblano pepper seeded and chopped (optional) salt and black pepper to taste 2 tablespoons olive oil Heat oil in a heavy bottom pot. Add onion, leeks, yellow bell pepper, and poblano pepper. Saute until tender. Add garlic and saute another minute to bring out the flavor of the garlic. Add squash, vegetable broth, thyme, salt, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook until squash is tender, about 20 minutes. Using a hand held mixer, or blender, puree the soup mixture until smooth. Add coconut milk and parmesan cheese. Return to heat and heat until soup is warmed through. Serve and enjoy! If you would like, the soup can be topped with fresh chopped chives, a little extra shredded parmesan cheese, and roasted pinenuts.
Not much is better than a nice warm bowl of soup in my hands :) Enjoy!
Happy Friday!!! I think you are going to especially enjoy the new Sewbussted video :) It features a fellow Haute Couture Club of Chicago member, Mary Kay Blaschke. Such a lovely, creative, and innovative lady. She designed a special outfit for our fashion show that was held last May, and when she walked out on to the runway, the audience absolutely went crazy. So I thought, why shouldn't you have the opportunity to see what she did and learn how to do it? Enjoy!
I thought that the play on stripes made for a fun and whimsical outfit. As we showed in the video, it's actually 3 pieces, a unitard, the skirt and a ruff at the neckline. The 3 pieces makes it especially versatile. The skirt can be worn on its own, the unitard paired with a short pencil skirt. Lots of possibilities and lots of fun:) Mary Kay had the idea, but wasn't initially quite sure of how to execute her design. So she played around quite a bit, never gave up, and ultimately achieved her goal. The skirt is basically a 6-gore skirt with just a bit of a twist. Take note of how full it is at the hem.
I see now that I didn't get the drawstrings quite right for this picture, but I think you get the idea. Take note of the little striped unitard legs peeking out from below. So, so cute!
And I just had to tell you a cute story about the little ruff. In the video she talks about how she used toilet paper to create the ruff. After we had finished, she said that she probably shouldn't have shared that on the video. I told her that I loved it because it shows how you can take everyday household items and use them in the design process.
I thought I would just let you enjoy the video first and then do a separate post with the instructions on how to create this super fun skirt. Look for that in an upcoming post. So...stay tuned ;) Hope you enjoyed the video. Remember to follow me on YouTube to stay up to date on new videos. You can find my channel HERE.
It's hard to believe that another hurricane is barreling its way through the Caribbean with its destination set on the United States. As horrific as Hurricane Harvey proved to be to Texas, this one has the potential to be far worse, a category 5 storm with winds of 180 miles per hour. At this point, it looks like it will bring high winds and a storm surge to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, but spare the islands from a direct hit. The same can't be said for the Bahamas and it looks like when it hits Florida, it will turn and make it's way up the entire state. At this point, other than pray, there's nothing that we can do until it's all over.
A few days ago, I clicked on my Instagram account, and saw the most generous act of kindness. A year or so ago(maybe 2), I introduced you to Kyle of Vacuuming The Lawn. Many of you may know her from Pattern Review. She did this super cute bag...
Which won the 2016 Handbag Contest.
Well, Kyle put her excellent bag making skills to work once again, and created this so, so sweet bag.
BTW, Kyle is also an excellent embroiderer. She combined both of her skills for this beautiful creation. The bag is now on her Instagram account where she is offering it as a contest to raise money for the Houston Food Bank. The highest bidder will win the bag. You can read all about it HERE.
The contest will run through Thursday, September 7, 2017. In my opinion, the bag is priceless, but it's not about the value of the bag, it's about an opportunity to give. So place your bids!!! Now, everyone knows that I love a picture of a girl and her dog :)
I would like to introduce you to Brenda of Flatter Patter, a lovely woman with a unique mission. She had breast cancer and has decided not to have reconstructive surgery. Her mission is to create a robust blog site for sewists who want to create garments that will fit a post-mastectomy flat body.
Even if you have not had breast cancer, this is a woman that you will want to know. Such a generous and kind woman, she has said that she will match the winning bid for Kyle's bag. Amazing! What I hope to see is the bid going quite high and Brenda not being held to that commitment. By all means, pop over to Brenda's blog and say hello. I know she will enjoy meeting you :) And now, a little something that just may bring a tear to your eyes. I receive some of the loveliest emails. So many of you share an accomplishment that you've made, maybe your story. And there are times that someone will forward some little something that they think I will enjoy. The link to the video below came last night. It's only 5 minutes long and I think it will be your best spent 5 minutes of the day. PLEASE WATCH!
I've received so many messages from those of you who would like to participate in the Little Dresses For Texas campaign that my friend Andrea is sponsoring, and I thank you. There are some who don't like the idea of sending any type of hard goods to the region, and I understand. Please know that the little dresses that Andrea is collecting are going to a private group who has the ability to make sure that the dresses will go to little girls who would love to have something new and lovely to wear. This post touches my heart in so many ways. When I lived in Houston, I worked for the Baptist Mission Center which served the poorest of the poor. I have spent the night with children where I listened to mice run across the floor and roaches fly across the room. Yes, roaches can fly! Of all the experiences I had while working for the mission center, the one that I remember and cherish was the day that I just happened to turn around and a little boy was standing and watching as I prepared the van to go and pick up the weekly bread donation. It was a cold day for Houston and the child was dressed in a thin cotton skirt. Shocked, I asked, "aren't you cold?" He shook his head yes. I took him by the hand and prayed that I could find a coat in the donations of clothes. I did. From that moment on, whenever I saw little Oscar, he would beam. A simple coat on a cold day, a few minutes of my time for which I was repeatedly paid with a smile worth more than gold. There is great need in this world, spiritual as well as material. Find what touches your heart, and it will be the right thing.
Something rather fun is going to happen tomorrow night, Tuesday, September 5, 2017. At least, I hope it's going to be fun!!! In case you haven't heard, there's a fun internet sewing show called That Sewing Blab which airs each and every Tuesday evening at 7:30 eastern time, 6:30 central. It's an hour long program that showcases sewing bloggers. Their aim is to educate and entertain.
The program is held on Crowdcast and it gives you the opportunity to actually participate! The hosts of the show are Dawn Pengelly and Myra Rentmeester. Dawn lives in Ontario, Canada and Myra in Tampa, Florida which is a little like living at opposite ends of the world! But they have found a way to come together and bring our sewing world together as well. When not working on That Sewing Blab, you can find Dawn on her blog, Dueling Designs. She loves to sew, but she always enjoys patternmaking, so be sure to check her blog. Myra also hosts a blog and I love the title, Simple Inspirations. She's been sewing since she was 13 years old, so only a year or two ;) She entitled her blog Simple Inspirations because it's the simple things of life that inspire her. Lovely. So...the BIG REVEAL!!!!! Yep, that's me :) I am going to be the guest on tomorrow night's show.
I'm a little nervous as I have no idea what I'll be asked :/ And then there's the opportunity for you to ask questions as well. Another :/ But I am sure that regardless of what I'm asked, it will be fun! If you would like to come by and see the show, you can find it HERE. If for some reason that link does not work, you can always go to their website and click on the "watch the show" button. You can find their website HERE. If you are unable to tune in tomorrow night, the show will go up on Youtube. As soon as that link is up, I'll let you know. Have a wonderful week! Hope to see you tomorrow night!!! Rhonda
Many of you have heard of Little Dresses For Africa, a wonderful, philanthropic organization that provides simple, yet sweet dresses that honor the little girls and teach them that they are valuable, and not forgotten. The pattern is simple, made from a simple pillowcase.
The pillowcase dress pattern was originally used during the early pioneer days here in the U.S. when feed sacks were turned into simple little dresses. A sewing friend, Andrea called and said that she has been so very upset about the incredible devastation in Texas. She loves beautiful clothes and understands the importance of having something pretty to wear. So she went into her studio, looked through her fabrics and came up with the idea of doing little dresses for the girls of Texas who no longer have anything. A phone call was made to a friend in Texas who has the connections to be able to distribute the dresses, and the dream began to become a reality.
Her dream is to have sewing friends make just 1 little dress, send it to her and then her husband will take care of getting the dresses to Houston where they can then be distributed. I loved the idea and told her that I would be happy to make 1, post it here and invite you to make 1 as well. Last night, I went into my studio to put my little dress together and emerged with 4.
I had so much fun going through my fabrics and trims. I used the pattern instructions from the Little Dresses For Africa website. Worked beautifully.
The above picture is from Andrea's Facebook page. She decided to use a pattern. McCall's 5797 and New Look were her choices. Her dream is to collect 1000 little dresses and or short and top outfits. The weather there is horribly hot, so a nice little cotton outfit will be perfect. If you would like to participate, you can find Andrea HERE on Facebook. She also invites you to send the dresses directly to her. Her address is; Andrea Birkin 905 Highland Grove Dr. Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 For those of you who may be members of the Haute Couture Club of Chicago, Andrea will be attending our meeting on September 9, 2017 and invites you to bring the dresses to the meeting. I have 2 more that I will be making. While money is needed to provide food, water, and shelter, feeding the soul is also so very important. Having something sweet and new to put on when everything you had was destroyed I know will be an incredible gift. I hope that you will find it in your heart to help make Andrea's dream a reality. Thank you, Rhonda
Back in April I shared that I have a goal to complete 12 knitting projects this year. Well, it's September 1st, and at this point I have only completed 3 pieces. I'm just a bit behind ;) Ya gotta be optimistic!
After the lace shawl that I completed, I really needed to do something that was less monotonous, and faster.
The sweater below from Rowan, a Martin Storey design was on the list and I thought it would make a great next project.
A few had asked to see my progress, so here it is, front, back and 1 sleeve. At this point, I am very happy with how it is turning out. One more sleeve, the neckline and the cable and woo-hoo!!!, it's finished.
In my original list of 12 items, I had mentioned a bag. It's done in some leftover Rowan Tweed wool that I had. At this point, I need to sew it up and I would like to lightly felt it to give it a little more body.
Here's how it was knitted. The top portion is actually a band that will turn down. The tongue at the bottom of course will be the bottom of the bag. I have enough of the yarn to knit handles, but I'm just not sure if that's what I would like.
Not quite half way to my goal. Oh well, just keep trying :)
