Black Bean Salad

There's an over abundance of soup in the fridge right now so as much as I wanted to make black bean soup I opted for salad. I love how colorful this is, especially because CT is pretty colorless these days.  I'm not missing soup for a minute, this stuff is delicious. Anytime I can use lime and cilantro...it's a good day. 

Black Bean Salad

2 cans black beans drained and rinsed 

1/2 English cucumber seeded and diced

A handful of grape tomatoes halved

4 scallions sliced

A few small sweet red peppers chopped

A bunch of cilantro chopped

2 limes zested and juiced

2tbs olive oil (I used chipotle infused)

1 clove garlic grated 

Salt, pepper, and a pinch of chili powder and cumin

Make a dressing with the lime zest, juice, oil, and seasoning. 

Toss all other Ingredients together with dressing. So simple. 

Refrigerate for an hour or so and serve cold. 

Now onto feeding my creative soul! I am addicted to vintage embroidery patterns

And as hard as I try not to go to www.patternbee.com, sometimes I can't help it. So this came in the mail yesterday:

 I started stitching on some gingham last night, these will cloth napkins soon. 

And I also managed to finish this cute towel yesterday

Jumping on the hexagon bandwagon

I keep seeing all of the beautiful hexagon quilts on crafty blogs and pinterest and automatically fell in love and felt so overwhelmed by the thought of ever making one. I mean, come on, it is all hand stitched! So, I read and read, looked at all the pretty pictures a bunch of times before I said "what the heck do I have to lose?"
I knew that I wanted to have the center hexagon be an embroidered piece so I searched through my patterns for designs under 4 inches... I had way more than I thought! Here is the start of my embroidered work:


embroidery for hexagon centers

 I just ironed them on a solid piece of white muslin, very randomly with no theme or thought of color scheme. Then I made a hexagon template. At first I used a 4" template but realized it was too big for my 5" charm squares that I am hoping to use up, so I just cut 1/4" off each side and had the perfect size. I cut out a bunch from freezer paper, ironed them on to some squares, whip stitched them together and this is what I have:


my first completed hexagon!

Is it perfect? Absolutely not!! Do I love it? Oh my gosh, YES! I love this project. It is perfect for nights when we want to see what is growing in the dvr. I get into a rythm with the hand stitching and it actually becomes addictive. If you too felt intimidated by hexagons, try it, it is so much fun. 

serial stitching

I just can't stop! Between Beyonce Bowl (which was amazing) and Blizzard Nemo (not so much), I have had lots of time embroidering. I am determined to stitch something from every pattern packet that I have, hopefully I will live a nice long arthritis free life.

Here is one of my favorite vintage Vogart designs, "Bee" Smart #293. Look at the packet...19 cents!

next is Baby Birds #3247. I bought this from Pattern Bee but just noticed that Aunt Martha's has brought it back. Good call Aunt Martha.

I love this guy. The pattern is #268 Day of The Week Apron Bib patterns with cute little animals for babies. I made the animal print towel from a piece of home dec weight cotton that I found in the remnant bin. I love buying up cute prints like that and make towels and/or potholders for gifts.

This is one of my all time favorites from Aunt Martha; #3929 Happy Gadgets. I am such a sucker for animated kitchen things.

this last towel is a combination of my favorite fabric and patterns. So cute! Sometimes I like to add a patch to a towel I love rather than stitch on a plain towel.My towel, my rules.

lastly, here is a picture of my driveway yesterday

not nearly as sweet as vintage embroidery.









oh my

Hello, my name is Carol and I am an embroidery pattern addict.

I had a free day yesterday and decided to tackle my craft supplies that have gone wild; baskets and baskets of mixed up supplies and bags from craft stores that I never put away. Wow, did I learn a lot about myself. I know that I love all things embroidery and of course I know that I love to buy patterns...vintage (original and reproduced), modern ones, corny ones, I LOVE THEM ALL! It wasn't until I decided to file them that I realized that I have HUNDREDS of patterns.

I have a special affection for produce and household items with faces and days-of-the-week; in fact I could probably produce 700 of just those towels easily. So, what the heck am I to do with them? It is nearly impossible to make money from embroidered dishtowels...I know, I've tried, so I think I will just be gifting them to every single person I know.
If you love vintage patterns you really need to visit Vicki at www.patternbee.com , she has an amazing collection and is such a sweet person.

 I love all of the cheesy Aunt Martha's that I find at www.colonialpatterns.com, the prices are great.

 Of course there is www.sublimestitching for all of your hip and modern patterns, they are so cute.

 A lot of times I just sketch a simple line drawing right on a towel or paper
for a quick gift...because I never could find a pattern before I organized them!