Patching Jeans

 If you're a mother of boys, you know how fast they blow their knees out.  I like to patch my boys' holes up to give them a little extra life out of their jeans.

First you'll want to remove the extra piece from your sewing machine if possible.  The smaller the jeans, the harder it is to get in the leg and move and turn as you need to.

 Next, you'll want to cut all the strings that are hanging in or around the hole.

Now, measure the size of the hole, so you'll know how big of a patch to cut.  I like to allow myself about 1/2" on each side of the hole.

So for this hole, I would cut a 4" X 2" patch.

Cut out your patch.  Turn the jeans inside out, and pin the patch over the hole.

Rainbow Baby Chevron

 Ah, Christmas break is over!  We can now exhale and get back to a certain level of normalcy.  At our house, of course, normal is just a guideline!

My husbands best friend and his wife are having a baby!  So that means we get to make a quilt!  I originally planned to have the chevron with four colors, but had to add the red when I realized the finished size needs to be a little bigger.

The finished size of this quilt is 31" x 39".

This quilt is along the same guidelines as my Half Square Tutorial, but in a different size.

The squares on this quilt will start at 6.5".

Start by cutting out 20 squares in your solid color (mine is white).

Also, cut four of each of your five colors. Remember my picture is missing the red.

There should be 40 squares total.

A Christmas of Quilts

We made it through!  Honestly, I am not sure how we did it.  Between my sister-in-law and I, we completed six quilts for Christmas presents.  Not bad for a couple of amateurs!  Before this adventure, I had only helped complete one quilt, and my sister-in-law zero!  I guess we decided go big or go home!!  Yes, I know I neglected my blog in the process!  

Now I am not going to say that they were the most wonderful perfectly created quilts, but they were stitched with those we love in mind.  And they will, in return, get a lot of love back!  So here I share with you some smiles we created!

 We had a couple helpers!!

 The first to get hers open!

 The Whole Tribe!

 Grandma, loving it already!

Grandma's Quilt

Apple Pie ~ Grandma's Way

Today I am going to share with you my Grandma's Apple Pie

I am so glad that I took the time to learn as much as I could from her.  A woman who overcame so much, and always with a smile.  I try to carry that into my everyday life.

Without further ado, 

Apple Pie

The Way Grandma Did It

First, start by making your crusts for a double crust pie.

(Perhaps that will have to be a future tutorial)

Roll one out, and place in the bottom of your pie pan.

Now, here is the strange part.  Grandma said, just throw it in the bottom, the juices will take care of the rest.

To the pie plate, add:

3/4 cup sugar

1 Tbl. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

Peel and slice your apples, and pile them on top.

(I like to use nice tart apples.  My apple tree makes great pies, but if I have to buy apples from the store for a pie, I always buy Granny Smith.)  I pile them nice and high, usually takes about five nice sized apples.

Boys Quilt Part 2

Welcome to another quilt tutorial.

This is part 2 of my boys quilts.

With this second quilt, I started once again with 60 - 9.5" squares.  

As in the last quilt, I used the grey chevron fabric as my main color, so I had 30 of those.  Three other fabrics 10 of each.

I thought it would be cool to have a square with a little and a big square opposite of each other.