Zip into my heart

Zippy heart

Start with a 7” zipper, any color will do, you could probably get away with using a 5” zipper but the 7” gives you a little more room to play with.

Unzip the zipper so it opens to a V shape.

Fold one side of the zipper around so the teeth are always facing out. The side of the zipper that you would sew into the clothes should come right under where the zipper pull is now.  Repeat with the other side, to form a heart shape. This is where you can play with the size of your heart; bigger or smaller.

Pin the ends of where you folded the zipper over

With needle and thread sew the edges down

Trim off the excess zipper and enjoy your heart.

These can be used as necklaces, key chains, and zipper pulls.

Rope rug

Decided to make a few rugs for gifts this year.   What a great gift idea for the hard-to-buy for man in your life, this one is going to my dad.

Start with some basics—hot glue gun, glue sticks, and 100 feet of utility rope from your local home improvement store, or boat section of your local Walmart

Start with one end and tightly roll it around its self, gluing as you go. Remember as the hot glue cools it loses it sticking power.

You will want to figure out which way works best for you with putting the glue on the rope and rolling the rope around its self. As you wrap the rope remember that you are trying to make a FLAT rug so make sure you are gluing and sticking on a flat surface. As you can see I used a piece of cardboard to start my rug so I didn’t have a lot of glue on the table.

Keep wrapping and gluing until you get the rug to the size that you would like. This one was made with 50’ of so it was on the smaller size. I also had some leftover red from another rug that I added around the end to add some size and color to the rug.

DRYING AND FREEZING

This summer has been a good one for my garden with lots of tomatoes on my plants. These tomatoes were sweet and firm with only a few seeds.

Tomatoes on the plant.

Tomatoes thinly sliced.

Add a little sea salt to bring out the flavor.

Put them on the racks of the dehydrator, make sure they are not touching.

After 12 hours check them for dryness.

Now on to blanching fresh green beans for freezing.

Blanching stops the ripening process to keep the vegetable fresh. Blanching stops enzyme action from destroying the fresh flavor of your vegetables. If they are not blanched, vegetables will lose their color and flavor after about four to six weeks of freezer storage.

Start with the basics...pot of boiling water.

Put the green bean into the pot of boiling water for approximately 3 minutes.

Quickly pull the green beans out and plunge them into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

Once the beans are cool package them into freezer bags and put in the freezer.

PICKLING AND CANNING

WOW what a busy day. Saturday I stopped at the farmers market and picked up a bushel of tomatoes and a few cucumbers. I knew going into this project that it was going to be an all day thing, and it was. I started around 11am and didn't finish until almost 9 pm. WOW was I tired, but I made some great things

2- quart jars of Curry Pickles

4- quart jars of Veggie Salsa

6- quart jars of Crushed Tomatoes

5- pint jars of medium salsa

7- pint jars of Bread-n-Butter Pickles

Some tools of the trade

knives and a mandolin to make uniform slices

Cucumber and onion for the pickles

Add some green pepper to the Bread-n-Butter pickles

Slice everything up and put it in a glass pan with some pickling salt to cure.

Follow the directions to make the juice for which ever pickles you choose.

Heat the jars, add cucumber mixture and put the hot liquid over top.

Wipe the tops of the jars clean, put on a lid and ring and put into a hot water bath to seal.

NOW on to the salsas

Start with tomatoes.

Boil them in a hot water bath for about 60 seconds. This makes that skin easier to remove.

Cut the tomatoes and put in a large pot to start making the salsa.

Add the additional ingredients and boil for a few minutes.

Spoon into hot jars.

Wipe the tops of the jars clean, put on a lid and ring and put into a hot water bath to seal.

Now you have a great salsa to keep as your own or share with friends and family for the holidays.

GONE TO THE DOGS PART 2

Spoiled little doggies got me again. This is their second bed, because one bed is never enough when you have 3 dogs.

This is an old queen size quilt that has seen better days.

The fluff is coming out the sides.

Some white fabric that was folded in half and sewn up 2 sides.

Trim the corners to keep the case from bunching around the edges.

Cover the bed and sew the last end closed.

The good thing about this bed is that because it is an old quilt the whole thing can be tossed into the washer to be cleaned.

CASE of the king pillow case

We bought a set of new sheets for our king size bed, with the new sheets came 2 king size pillow cases. We do not have king size pillows so it was time to cut them down and make the case fit the right way.

King size pillow case

Regular size pillow case that is being used as pattern.

Line up the tops of the cases.

Measure a few inches longer to give you room to sew and leave a hem allowance.

Use your tailor's chalk to draw your line across.

Cut across the line and sew leaving 1/2" seam allowance.

Trim the corners of the case to reduce bunching when turned right side out.

The finished case with pillow inside.