Smoked Brisket

We love grilled meat, especially smoked brisket.

By careful planning it's very possible to stretch this meat into several meals.

After eating on the meat the first night I then refrigerate the leftover brisket overnight. Once chilled I cut the brisket into manageable hunks.

Sometimes I slice the meat with just a sharp knife but this time I used a food slicer;

 Purchased for $3 buck at an estate sale.

By slicing the meat into thin strips we are able to make it stretch into more meals.

 One brisket makes a lot of slices!

After separating the slices there were enough for 5-meals; plus I still had extra slices in the fridge to be eaten as leftovers.

 All the irregular slices of meat are gathered together;

And cut into cubes for barbecue sandwiches.

I paid just over $15 for a 10-pound brisket. We've eaten on it 3-times plus the 5 meal size portions that are in the freezer. This makes a total of 8 meals from one brisket!

My 2013 Quilt Club Quilt

The quilt is finally finished!

I came close to giving up so many times, but now that it's finished I'm so glad I kept on going.

 

The quilt as you go method was more time consuming than expected.

Plus, it took more fabric than I expected so I ended up having to use a second fabric of a different print. Thankfully the other fabric worked out just fine.

 

 Elizabeth had her heart set on this quilt from the beginning. She knew I was making it for her and she was so in love with all the purple being used! It was her excitement that kept me going.

I used two layers of batting in this quilt; which of course doubled my cost. However, it added so much weight to the quilt that I'm planning to start using two layers from now on.

Oh how I'm so glad I finished this mammoth job. It was so much work. Each time I look at the quilt on Elizabeth's bed I smile and tell myself it was worth all the stress and time spent on every stitch.

Crabapple Season

It's been several years since I've made crabapple jelly.

With all the wonderful rain we have had this summer the crabapples were big!

Elizabeth helped me wash them outside with the garden hose.

Then I put them on the stove to boil using my vintage pressure cooker.

I really love cooking with this pot.

The apples made enough juice for 2 batches of jelly.

Here is the first batch; all together I had over 2-dozen jars of jelly.

Homemade jelly makes a great gift that I plan to share this Christmas.

Saturday Sewing

Saturday afternoon I made a pillowcase dress for my niece.

It was super easy; no pattern needed. 

I simply cut two rectangles, curves for under the arms, straps and a coordinating trim for the bottom of the dress.

Decorating Flip Flops

To make a pair of decorated flip flops I started with a plain pair of shoes we already had; I believe these were 98-cents.

 Next I dug in my fabric stash and found exactly what was needed.

This dark blue star fabric was perfect for covering the straps.

I cut two pieces 2-inches wide plus the width of the fabric;

Serged one edge, tri-folded and ironed.

Starting in the middle I wrapped my fabric twice around the center;

And simply started wrapping each side, being careful to overlap the fabric in order to keep everything tight.

When I reached the end I cut off any extra fabric and stitched everything in place.

Here is how both shoes looked once all the straps were covered.

Next I cut petals from red fabric and stitched them together.

These were then gathered onto a long needle;

And formed into a flower.

I used 5 petals per flower.

For the center of my flower I cover a button.

This was stitched onto the flower and then the flower was stitched onto the flip flop.

I was very pleased with how nice the flip flops turned out.

Here is Elizabeth all ready for the July 4th parade.

What a fun and easy project!