Christmas present #1

I made two Christmas presents this year, which is rather unusual for me. When I try to make presents, they are usually late. But this time, I had both presents finished, wrapped, and labeled when I left to go visit K on the 19th. I was extraordinarily proud of myself!

For Teresa, I made pot holders, or hot pads. (They seem to go by a lot of names.) I was aiming for floppy enough that she could pick things up, but large enough that you could set a pot on them, rather than just a serving dish. I think I succeeded!

 I made two hot pads. They turned out pretty well, I thought, and they were easy to make. Teresa is moving into a house next year, and her kitchen is going to be apple-themed. So apple hot pads seemed cute, easy, and useful! A win-win situation.

 I quilted around the apples, rather than diagonally, because I thought it looked cuter. The diagonal lines turned out sort of weird and bunchy. One of the apples is coming out already, though! Not sure why, but I'll put it back in before Teresa leaves to go back to college.

Here are the two finished hot pads. You can see the diagonal lines from the earlier stitching on the left one, and how strange it looks. Other than that, I'm really pleased with how these turned out. There's some leftover fabric, so perhaps I'll make her a matching apron!

Two aprons

I made the white and blue apron on the left a few years ago. The blue one with stars that I'm wearing I made last month. Neither of them is very interesting, but I do still like my fabric choices for both of them. Aprons are actually pretty fun to make because there's no fitting, but they're so useful.

Jelly in Pictures, Part 2

(Here is part one.)

After you have made the juice, you have to turn it into jelly. Essentially, you add a bunch of sugar and cook the sugared juice until it's reaching the jelling point (8* above boiling).

Here is the process in pictures.

The juice with the sugar, cooking. I put the sugar in too early, but it doesn't seem to have caused a problem.

A tricky part (for me) is remembering that all the jars and lids have to be sterilized! I did it in a steamer basket, but you can use paper towels and a pot with water in it just as well.

A jam funnel makes it easier to not get jelly on the threads of the jars.

The finished product!

 Except, there's a little lie there. The picture above is not the finished product. My jelly has turned into a three step process again! Stay tuned for part 3, which will come as soon as possible, pending schoolwork.

Jelly in Pictures, Part 1

Yesterday I set out to make more jelly. A colleague of my father's has an orchard, and he gave Papa a bag of apples with the caveat that they were better suited for applesauce or something similar than for regular eating. I decided to make jelly. This time, though, I took pictures!

Jelly is a two step process. You cook the fruit and drain it to get fruit juice. Then you turn the fruit juice into the actual jelly.

Here is the process in pictures!

Start with apples (or another fruit)

Quarter them, but don't core or peel them. Stick them in a pot.

Cook them until they're mushy, and then let them strain through cheesecloth.

If you have a fruitfly problem in your house like I do, cover your fruit!

A different kind of productivity

We have been relaxing these past few weeks, and I have learned a new skill: making jelly! Eight jars down, four to go. I am making grape jelly with the grapes from my grandfather's back yard, which is really a lovely feeling.