T-Shirt Quilt

I have always wanted to have a T-Shirt quilt made out of my old t-shirts. Since I am graduating on Saturday I thought, "hey! this could be an excellent graduation gift!" So I started to look all over the internet for companies that make them. Let me tell you -- there are a LOT. And what's worse, they start at close to $200 for a lap-size quilt! I thought to myself that I could make one cheaper, easier, and faster than any of these companies. 

My wonderful mother-in-law (weird to say!) quilts and let me borrow some of her tools! I could've never done it without them!

Here is an abbreviated step-by-step process. I kinda made it up as I went along. If you want to make one yourself, let me know and I can give you more details. 

*SIDE NOTE: I have never taken professional sewing classes or anything. Even though I have made clothes and blankets before, I always just go to the internet and figure it out on my own. 

Step 1: Collect t-shirts and figure out which sides you are going to use. Obviously, the more shirts the larger the quilt.

Step 2: Cut shirts to squares. Leave as much extra as possible because you will constantly be trimming and squaring up the shirts.

Step 3: Figure out how you want to lay out your quilt.

Step 4: Back your shirts with fusible interfacing. This is really important. Since t-shirts are a jersey material they will stretch and pull and pucker. They need to be backed and sturdy before you can start sewing.

Step 5: Cut strips of fabric to run between your shirts. I used a twin size flat sheet from Walmart (JoAnns is too far from us and in all honesty I think a single sheet was cheeper than buying fabric). Sew these to the shirts on the bottom and top. Press seams open.

Step 6: Sew these together in the layout you want. Here is an example:

Step 7: I had three columns and then I used longs strips to sew each column together, like so:

Step 8: Add boarders until your heart is content.

Step 9: Bind together (you're going to have to YouTube that one) and you got yourself a quilt!

Simple, huh? Not really. I just dumbed down the quilt-making recipe a TON. There is a lot of math involved... and I am not a math person. And it took a LONG time. There is also a ton of ironing involved; I guess this all depends on how OCD one is. I have seen a few tutorials on the internet but I still had to guess on a lot of the quilt. 

But it is wonderful. I should start making them for $200 a pop!

-Sara

DIY - $3 Fridge Organization

I would consider myself to be OCD when it comes to certain things... School work? Definitely. Closet? Not so much. Kitchen? Most assuredly. Here is a picture of my refrigerator prior to my organizing of it:

"Not so bad" you may say. Well to Josh and I (and our about 30 square foot kitchen), the clutter was starting to take over. I have never been big on the recipe card boxes... lets be real; most websites print off your recipes on an 81/2 by 11" piece of paper. I like to be able to grab my favorites right off the fridge and have the whole piece of paper handy so I can see the entire recipe at once. Regular magnets wouldn't hold these recipes up, so I was forced to use some magnetic pictures I got from the classes I interned. I was getting very annoyed very quickly about this lack of organization so I decided to come up with a solution: a DIY "letter holder" of sorts. This project cost me nothing (since I already had the supplies) but about $3 for the magnets!

Here is what I used:

When Life Gives You Peaches...

Life  gave us peaches this past week. Literally. Josh was running on campus and stumbled across a peach tree dripping with peaches ripe for the taking. I am not a huge fan of peaches, so my first reaction to his big bag full of them was "what are we going to do with all of them??"

The answer: make peach cobbler. 

Meaty Mondays -- Simmered Boston Butt

So a few months back Josh and I stocked up on a rather large boston butt that was on sale at the supermarket. We ended up using half of it for BBQ a while ago and then tucked the rest of it away deep in the freezer. We have been eating chicken for almost every meal lately, so when I uncovered the hunk of meat in the freezer, you bet we were excited! I started perusing the internet for recipes to use that were not BBQ and that I wouldn't have to go to the store for, and came across this... and it turned out wonderfully!

Meaty Mondays -- Baked Ziti

I love the casserole. Whoever came up with it is a genius! If it wasn't for Josh, I would be cooking a different chicken casserole every night of the week and eating the leftovers for lunch the next day. There is just something yummy about them... but, alas, I am married to a boy that likes his starch, veggies, and meat to be separate entities. The only way I tend to get by with a casserole is if it is pasta or mexican. Tonight, we have feasted on pasta. Josh is not a big fan of pasta, however, so I have to do a lot of "doctoring" to recipes to make them man enough for him.


This recipe was honed by my roommate Valerie and I over the course of living together during undergrad. And, I must say, it is pretty rockin!

Meaty Mondays -- Kansas City Chicken

You didn't know we'd be headed out to the heart of the USA this Monday night... check out the super easy recipe I snagged from a certain Aaron McPhail (kudos if you are reading this Aaron) that is tasty and quick!

Busy-ness

Sorry for the lack of blogging and the absence of Meaty Mondays this week! From traveling and trying to finish up grad school it has been a pretty busy last few weeks. In my free time (ha!) I have been sending out resumes and creating a portfolio website. Check it out here -- its not nearly done, but at least I have almost the entire Africa unit up! Russia, the EU, and more to follow!!

Teaching Portfolio

-Sara

Meaty Mondays -- Country Pork Chops

So I actually made this dish last week, but I have been raving about it to EVERYONE, so here it is:


Lowcountry Smothered Pork Chops

Meaty Mondays -- Southern Fried Chicken

Things are staying busy here in Gainesville. With the semester wrapping up and the job hunt almost in full gear, I am surprised I am even finding time to write this recipe down!


No pics today... just the assurance from my husband that this is probably "the BEST" fried chicken he's ever had... and that's sayin' something. Gotta thank Paula Dean for the recipe:


Awesome (and a little spicy) Fried Chicken

Meaty Mondays -- We are definitely not vegetarians.

My interest in cooking grew a lot during undergrad -- I loved cooking for my roommates, trying new dishes with them, and exchanging recipes. Ever since Josh & I got married, I have been trying out new main courses trying to appease his need for spiciness and flavor and my picky-eating syndrome. Some have been a complete bust, but others are completely AWESOME. Half in order to share these recipes with you and half to remember them and not let them get mixed in with some of the more mediocre recipes, I began thinking about posting them (with a few pics for kicks). Some of these "Monday" posts might be full of awesomely prepared meat dishes & moments while some might tell of horrible stories I encountered in the kitchen, but Josh said it would be okay for me to write about them all as long as I don't become like Julie & Julia... which I couldn't do anyway since I have other things to do around the house besides cook, could probably not afford to cook braised duck or raspberry Bavarian cream frequently, and do not really have the stamina to cook every night of the week ;) 

The following is probably THE BEST pulled pork I have ever had in my life...