about the vlog: Talk To Me Tuesday

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Things have been a’changing around the sewhooked blog. You may have noticed several vlog posts, where yours truly does a little crafty chatting.

Yesterday, in the Talk To Me Tuesday post, I invited you to talk to me via video. I’m thrilled to say that there have been video responses and that is wonderful! If you’d like to participate in Talk To Me Tuesday, jump right in! Grab the icon above to post on your own blog and link back to this post to let others know all about TTMT!

You can also go straight to my YouTube Channel, subscribe and you’ll never miss a vlog and you’ll know just when it’s time to chat!

Talk To Me Tuesday playlist on YouTube – all the videos I’ve earmarked so far as being TTMT.

Join our Livejournal group – TTMT.

vlog #3 – Freezer Paper Follow-Up & Talk To Me Tuesday

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Come talk to me!

Recipe Review: Tortilla Soup

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The holy grail of soups in my world is Tortilla Soup (yes, capitalized, it’s that important!). We spent a very brief stint in the 1990s living in Southern California. The one thing I miss that I have never been able anywhere else is a Tortilla Soup as delicious as the variety I ate at Spoons in Tustin, CA.

I spent years ordering Tortilla Soup from every restaurant that we’ve visited. I’ve had some really good soups, including a creamy jalapeno tortilla that was eye-water and extremely delicious, but I’ve never found anything to rival Spoons’ recipe.

This is one of the versions I make at home. It is nothing like the fabled Spoons’ soup, but it’s still pretty darned good. It takes about five minutes to cook, too, which makes it even better on busy nights with music lessons and such that require the mom taxi to be on call.

Six Can Tortilla Soup

I first came across this recipe on allrecipes, but have since seen it in a number church and community cookbooks (something I collect). Wherever you find the recipe, it’s really hard to go wrong with!

1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth (I prefer using 1 32 oz carton of organic free-range chicken broth)
1 (10 ounce) can chunk chicken (I typically use leftovers, but this works, too!)
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, drained

Garnish: (not listed in the original recipe)

tortilla chips
grated cheese (sharp cheddar or Monterrey Jack are both excellent)
jalapenos (optional)
sour cream (optional)

Empty first five ingredients into a large cooking pot. Allow to simmer a couple of minutes and then ladle into bowls. Serve topped with garnish. This makes a fantastic side or starter. It’s great served with enchiladas, rice, or just by itself!

more recipes

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vlog #2 – All About Freezer Paper

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Quilting: Bloggers Quilt Festival

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I just heard of the First Annual Blogger’s Quilt Festival yesterday and my first thought was “why didn’t I think of that?!” What a great idea, bringing quilting bloggers together by sharing photos of our quilts.

The idea is to post photos of your favorite quilt that you’ve made and tell it’s story. Excellent idea, huh!

My Magical Lens, designed, pieced and quilted by Jennifer Ofenstein

My all time favorite quilt that I have made, absolutely hands-down, is my Harry Potter quilt. I embarked on this project in early 2006. My family had long been fans (we started reading Harry in 1999) and I’d been quilting for a few years. After discovering what so many HP crafters now know, that licensed fabric is out of print and nigh on impossible to find (and expensive if you do!), I decided to try to design my own.

The very first HP block I designed was Hedwig, though not the one that ended up in the quilt (you can see it in the photo below…bleargh!). It was pretty dreadful, too complicated and just bad, bad, bad. I’d only ever designed simple blocks before, so I changed gears and started with a broom and a lightning bolt. The stack of blocks began to grow. All through the process, I was sharing on the Harry Potter Crafts Yahoo! Group. Members started asking if I’d share my patterns, and before long, my little craft site, then called Jen’s Crochet & Crafts, grew into sewhooked, full of all kinds of crafts, crochet, and now paper pieced patterns.

I went to Lumos in Las Vegas in 2006 and took my HP blocks with me to share with my online craft friends. By this time I was a Moderator at Harry Potter Crafts. Sharing my designs and other projects I’d made with them for myself and friends, on top of the fact that I knew HTML, led to a year and a half as a Crafty Witch at The Leaky Cauldron where I made truly amazing friends. The quilt that wasn’t a quilt yet was already helping me to connect with people.

In the fall of 2006, I decided to attend Phoenix Rising in New Orleans which, like Lumos, was a Harry Potter fandom conference, and was scheduled to take place in May 2007. Even though my quilt wasn’t even close to done, nor was I close to having enough blocks designed for a whole quilt, I entered a mock-up for consideration in the Phoenix Rising art gallery, and was, to my surprise, accepted. With a deadline looming, I started churning out patterns and blocks, finishing up the quilt in March of 2007, just two months before it was to be shown in New Orleans.

This quilt is more just a million bits of fabric stitched together. It represents all the years I’ve loved Harry Potter and some of my favorite things about the series. It has brought me friends, and fans, and brought more quilters that I can count into the wonderful world of paper piecing. In the fall of 2007, I started hp_paperpiecing on Livejournal as way to share more with other Harry Potter quilters than just patterns. I’ve posted over 100 unique HP themed blocks there and have in the process met a lot of awesome quilters and designers, many brand new to paper piecing.

The mock-up submitted for submission into the Phoenix Rising art gallery (complete with horrible Hedwig).

I don’t design as many HP blocks as I used to, though I’m still very involved with hp_paperpiecing.

Harry Potter patterns at sewhooked, free for personal and non-profit use.

See loads more photos of the making of My Magical Lens over at flickr.

If you make any pattern or craft from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the Friends of sewhooked flickr group.

Happy crafting

vlog #1 – Meet Jennifer

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Quilting: The Generosity of Quilters

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I have a little story to tell.

Over on Livejournal, I run a group called hp_paperpiecing, short for Harry Potter Paper Piecing. I’m sure most of you know by now that I’m a huge HP fan and spent several years designing HP quilt blocks that I’ve shared with the fandom. That’s been the purpose of hp_paperpiecing, and until recently, HP blocks and block-related challenges were what we shared.

A few months ago, I read about the Bushfire Quilt Project, started by Tia of Camp Follower Bags & Quilts, for making quilts to give to those affected by the Australian bushfires in Victoria earlier this year.

My first thoughts were that I myself would make a block or two and share the project with various quilting friends. I posted about it on hp_paperpiecing, asking our members to consider sending in a block.

The members did me one better and within a day, my suggestion of sharing blocks morphed into the group itself making all the blocks for a quilt, including the free services of a professional quilter who is also part of our group!

Within a few weeks, we had a full quilt worth of blocks, pieced, quilted and shipped off to Australia.

Photo by Tia from Camp Follower Bags & Quilts, quilted by Shannon Shaw

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The quilt label, made by me from the Pigwidgeon pattern.

We had to have one HP block on the quilt!

I count myself to be incredibly fortunate to not only know so amazing online crafters, quilters and other fans, but to be part of their generosity. I volunteer and donate locally on a regular basis, something I find easy to incorporate into my life. Volunteering to make something that will then go in the mail and travel thousands of miles before it ends at it’s final destination for no financial gain is a true gift.

My virtual hat is off to every single Harry Potter Quilt that participated in the Bushfire Quilt Project. You are ALL amazing!

You can see more great photos from the hp_paperpiecing group quilt here and many amazing quilt photos in the Bushfire Quilt Project Flickr Group.

Much love,

Stencil: The Angels Have The Phone Box

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I admit it freely. I am new to the Doctor Who fandom. My best friend is old school DW and my hubby has been into DW since he was a kid. We’ve been catching up so we can go out with 10 next year.

My daughter has taken Doctor Who to heart and this is the latest in a line of Who craftiness.

One Doctor Who-inspired stencil:

box*

*the original stencil was lost in a tragic file-accidentally-deleted mishap since this was originally posted. The current stencil includes an approximation of the original, plus a bonus, much more scribbled looking version.

Loads more stencils, right here on Sewhooked!

Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

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Video: threadly tip

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I received an awesome goody bag from a friend recently that contained (among other things) tiny lint rollers. I tossed them in my sewing basket and went about my business.

That is, until I had some serious seam-rippage to take care of and got totally frustrated at the million and one wee bits of thread!

This short video is just a quick tip, a time saver for quickly conquering all that itty bitty post-rippage thread!

As always, if you make any pattern or craft from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the Friends of sewhooked flickr group.

Happy crafting

Cooking: Whole Wheat Pancakes

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I get hungry just looking at this picture! Yummy pancakes, maple syrup, melting butter. Mmm!

Whole Wheat Pancakes

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs sugar or honey
2 eggs
1 1/3 cup of skim milk
1/3 cup half-and-half or buttermilk
3 tbs shortening or butter, melted

Sift together dry ingredients into a large bowl. Mix eggs, milk and half-half together in a small bowl. Hollow out the center of the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients, mixing as you go. The batter will need to be mixed a little than regular pancakes because of the whole wheat. Add melted shortening last, folding in. You can substitute veggie oil, but I like the flavor and texture better with shortening.

Pre-heat a lightly greased griddle or large cast-iron skillet until water drops will dance on the surface. Place about 1/3 cup of pancake mix (about the size of a serving spoon or ice-cream scoop) on the griddle, making sure not to crowd because they will grow! These don’t bubble as much as plain flour pancakes, so give them time to rise and flip when they’re golden brown on the underside. Cook the second side until also golden brown.

If making a whole batch at once, keep them warm wrapped in a tea towel inside of a large sauce pan with the lid on. That will keep them warm without overcooking or the pancakes getting soggy.

Serve warm with butter and maple syrup, if desired.

Right now, I desire!

Serve 4 adults or 2 adults and 2 growing kids.

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Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post.

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