Baby Fox Quilt

Woah has it been a while since I have typed and even visited this space.

I was on Pinterest about a month ago and just aimlessly scrolling like normal when this pin popped up.... https://www.pinterest.com/pin/226235581258413581/

Two things.

1. I love making things for other people.

2. My best friend just happens to be obsessed with foxes.

I knew immediately that I wanted to make this quilt for her. I quickly turned to my google and found out that I could purchase this lovely pattern designed by Elizabeth Hartman. The name of the pattern is "Fancy Fox" and it can be found here.

After purchasing the pattern I knew that picking out the perfect patterns would be essential to an amazing looking quilt. Before I picked out the fabrics I had to pick what size I wanted to make, the pattern comes in three sizes; baby, lap, and twin. I just knew that I had to make a baby quilt for her. Now for a disclaimer....she is not pregnant, BUT she will be one day and will have a beautiful baby girl or boy and so I wanted to be able to give it to her for when the time came. No rush hehe.

I ended up on Art Gallery Fabrics and fell in love with designer April Rhodes and specifically her line Wanderer. I ended up picking out three fabrics from the line and one additional fabric called Fletching Chant by Maureen Cracknell. I also ordered Kona in Pepper and Snow for the muzzle and eyes and nose. I ordered through Fabric Bubb and in about a week my beautiful fabric arrived. The combination of fabrics was stunning. Eventually, because I was not patient enough to order more Kona for the background color, I found myself settling for a blue/green color in Country Cotton at JoAnns. I honestly do not know the name, sorry.

Once I had all my pieces, the cutting began. I spent a Monday night, watching, AMERICA, The Story of US on Netflix and cut perfect squares and rectangles.

The hardest part about making this quilt was keeping it secret from my best friend. I would do incognito pictures on Instragram, posting that I was just working on a regular ol' quilt.

Piecing the faces together was fun as I had practiced with some of my scrap fabric before I even got in the fabric I used for the project. It was a lot of sewing and pressing and filling up my iron with water and repeating the process until I had just enough fox faces for the quilt.

After that I sewed the faces together to form 4 rows and then I connected them with the background fabric to make a beautiful quilt top.

I found the perfect quilt backing fabric at JoAnns that was 100% organic cotton and was just the finishing touch for this project. I loved the pops of gold and the feathers, it matched so well.

I have quilted a few times before but I always used fleece on the back and would just sew right sides together leaving enough space for me to turn it right side out and then sew on the lines as my "quilting." This was the first time I got batting and actual backing fabric and laid them on top of each other and pinned the heck out the quilt. I recently received a new sewing machine from my friends that has around 100 fancy stitches and I was determined to us it to my full advantage as well. I finally picked out my stitches and went to town, sewing straight lines, then fancy lines, alternating to get this neat textured look to the quilt.

My roommate also got some shots of my sewing in the middle of my project!!

I kept going until it was all sewn together. Finally I added some black binding which tied in nicely to the eyes and noses of the foxes. My quilt was complete, and I could not be more satisfied with it. I have definitely caught the quilting bug and plan on producing a lot more in the next year.

Jenny

Fried Cabbage

Growing up I ate two vegetables....canned corn and canned green beans. No salad, broccoli, squash, cabbage, pea...nothing else. It was not until I got to college and then beyond that I actually started eating all of the great vegetables this world has to offer. Living on my own and cooking for one most of the time has enabled me to be adventurous and try new things. A while back I found a Kielbasa and Cabbage recipe on Pinterest and was inspired to make it. I did and it tasted so delicious and I knew that my love for cabbage was growing. Fast forward to this past weekend when I went over to some friend's house and they made fried cabbage and sausage for dinner. I knew it was a meal that I wanted to make soon. The next day I went to the store and got all of the ingredients and last night after hitting the gym I made some, and I was going to pair it with some sausage but ended up just eating half of it in a bowl by itself...it was perfect.

FRIED CABBAGE

Ingredients:

1 head of cabbage
4 slices of bacon
1 small/medium onion
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Butter
Salt
Pepper

Directions

First get a nice deep sauce pan, I acquired mine through my old job as a nanny when they cleaned out their kitchen. The cabbage starts out a little unruly and then cooks down but regardless don't use a shallow pan.

Put 4 slice of bacon in the pan on medium low and let that bacon cook and release the fat for a good while. The bacon does not need to get crispy, you do not want the fat to get scorched so slow and steady wins the race in this recipe. (I know my picture only has three slices but I added one more!)

While that bacon is cooking up chop the small/medium onion into bite size pieces. (If you want your cabbage to be more on the spicy side use a large onion, I just want enough of the flavor and not be overwhelmed)

Take the cabbage head and chop it into larger pieces, there is no rhyme or reason on cutting the cabbage, I like my pieces long and thin but if you want them chunkier that works as well! Set aside the cabbage and onions and focus on that bacon for now. 

After the bacon is cooked, remove it and set it on a paper towel to drain a bit. Don't do anything with that bacon fat, other then slide those onions right on in there. You're senses won't know how to thank you, because at this point the house smells like it belongs in the south where you know good cookin' is happening. 

Cook the onions for a few minutes to get them brown and tender, and then add the whole head of cabbage into the pan.

After you put the cabbage in the pan, stir it around for a bit and let the bacon fat with the onion juices spread around. Then here is where I add the the 2 Tbsp of both the oil and the butter and continue to stir it around so there is no chance for burning. At this point raise the temperature to medium-high (or number 7 if your stove is like mine).

Cook that for about 10 minutes, stirring often to help ensure the cabbage is getting cooked evenly. At point take the bacon that you set aside and chop it up into smaller pieces and add it to that cabbage mix. 

Continue to stir and stir and have patience, it can take a while but it gets there and in the end you will be so glad that you waited and didn't jump the gun. 

In the final stretch the cabbage goes from the top picture to the bottom picture...as you can see it reduces down a good bit, but that is where you get some of the best flavor. 

The cabbage already has bacon in it, but if you want you can pair it with a nice Kielbasa or Sausage...or if you're like me, just slap some in a bowl and put on How to Get Away with Murder and call it a night. 

Until next time....

Jenny