A Stitch In Time: July Finishes Giveaway Winner

Whatever it takes to finish things, finish. You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something you never finished. –Neil Gaiman

Thank you to everyone who linked up in July! There were some really amazing finishes and it was so much fun to to see and read about your projects. I am always so inspired when I see the beautiful things you all make. And now, I'm excited to announce our July winner, drawn by Mr. Bug, who picked #15.

Congratulations to

Linda

at L&R Designs

Linda will receive a charm pack of Road 15 by Sweetwater! Make sure you click on over and see her amazing postage stamp quilt {with 3,584 1½" [finished] squares in it!}. And if you haven't already, check out a few of the other really fun finishes in July!

The August Finishes Linky Party is open, so you can link up as you go throughout the month. Remember to include the August Finishes button {code found in the August post} somewhere in any post you link up. Code for a button for your sidebar can also be found at the bottom of the August post. This month, The Fat Quarter shop is giving away a 7" stacker of Gracie Girl by Lori Holt! Lori designed this fabric line with her daughter, Kassidy Grace and named it after her. Visit Lori's fun post to see Kassidy with the new fabric line and read a little about how they came up with the colors for this design.

Today's post brought to you by:

A Stitch In Time: August Finishes Linky Party

If you take responsibility for yourself, you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams. –Les Brown

This is my 20^th monthly finishes linky party. I'm really excited that you keep coming back and linking up! I love coming to visit your blogs every month to see what you've been doing. I'm always so inspired and in awe of how talented you are. I haven't had many finishes this year; I've mostly been puttering around, but love every minute of my sewing time. I enjoy the creative outlet and have several projects that I want to finish in the next few months. Hopefully, I'll have something to share with you all soon. At any rate, let the linking begin!

To participate in this month's linky party:
• Your project must be completed sometime in August, 2013.
• Once you've got your project finished {as in done, finito, nothing more to add, ready to use/display/give away} with some sort of stitching in it, blog about it or post a photo of it on Flickr.
• Scroll down to see what other bloggers are up to and link to your own finishes.
• Please include the August button in your blog post. Copy the code in the text box below and paste it somewhere in the post you link for this month's finishes. The button is a link to this specific post, so that other bloggers can find their way over and link up too. If you'd like a button for your sidebar, the code is at the bottom of this post.
<center><a href="http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-stitch-in-time-august-finishes-linky.html" target="_blank" title="August Finishes"><img alt="August Finishes" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmCIb5rOBypOZdcKhwTJOfCUgXpaULWgs304ZkOkxx7KouOybL7Wrtxh5gzEbWyTo5Kol6HcrpPnn_bYndjOU3Zc9ACInCY03W3Q1fuYQ1Mv6G2FDVagzeUq3D-rh2iSawweOnUc79a_Gn/w165-h255-no/A+Stitch+In+Time+2013+8.jpg" /></a> </center>
• Each time you link up a finished project, you're entered to win the August giveaway. I'm really excited about this giveaway and wish I could enter myself because it is from one of my favorite designers. This month, The Fat Quarter shop is giving away a 7" stacker of Gracie Girl by Lori Holt! Lori designed this fabric line with her daughter, Kassidy Grace and named it after her. Visit Lori's fun post to see Kassidy with the new fabric line and read a little about how they came up with the colors for this design.

• Thank you to The Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring our giveaway!


The Fine Print {which might be boring but you really should read}:
• Your project must be completed during the month you are linking to.
• Projects must include stitching of some sort. For example: appliqué, crochet, cross-stitch, embroidery, knitting, practical sewing {garment construction, bags, curtains, etc.}, quilting.
• Projects must be completely finished. As in done, finito, nothing more to add, ready to use/display/give away.
• You can pick something new to do, but projects do not have to be started during the month. If you pick up a UFO, Ph.D, WIP and finish it during the month, it counts.
• Finishes must be completed during this month, but you have until noon MST on the 1^st of the next month to link your post.
• Post about your finish and then link your specific post {instructions here} above. Links to your blog and not the individual post about your finished project will be deleted.
• Have more than one finish this month? Great! Post about each finish individually and then link the specific posts up separately. Each finish, and therefore each link you add, counts as one entry for this month's giveaway.
• If you've already posted about a finish for this month, there's no need to do a separate post. Just add the button to that post and link up.
• Please copy and paste the code below to include this month's button somewhere in the post {not your sidebar} you link up for this month.

<center><a href="http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-stitch-in-time-august-finishes-linky.html" target="_blank" title="August Finishes"><img alt="August Finishes" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmCIb5rOBypOZdcKhwTJOfCUgXpaULWgs304ZkOkxx7KouOybL7Wrtxh5gzEbWyTo5Kol6HcrpPnn_bYndjOU3Zc9ACInCY03W3Q1fuYQ1Mv6G2FDVagzeUq3D-rh2iSawweOnUc79a_Gn/w165-h255-no/A+Stitch+In+Time+2013+8.jpg" /></a> </center>
• Don't have a blog? You can link from your flickr account. Just post a picture, include a little note about your finish and a link back here {code included below} in the description. Then join the linky party.
<a href="http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-stitch-in-time-august-finishes-linky.html" target="_blank" title="August Finishes">A Stitch In Time: August Finishes</a>
• Want a button for your sidebar? Copy and paste the code below into an HTML gadget for your sidebar. This button is a link to the main A Stitch In Time Linky Party page, which always has the current month's finishes and links to all previous linky parties.
<center><a href="http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/p/a-stitch-in-time.html" target="_blank" title="A Stitch In Time Linky Party"><img alt="A Stitch In Time Linky Party" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ZUqnmB6necy2Gd3KS_n1ayAOXnnDALFBCWnG2u4QKgrxh1gJaWIeYGBf9Z4NQRmn5eHPnu3ZT6nlkM9tgtZV-zgjDM2mqSPjc9J-qnFI-qNjTFieKnX5T8HzSwrGdINdVX7TYNCJWz-A/s255/A%2520Stitch%2520In%2520Time%25202013%2520Sidebar.jpg" /></a></center>
• Make sure to visit a few of the other links and leave them some love {ie, a comment}. A good rule of thumb is to visit two links for every one you include.
• Winner of the sponsored giveaway will be drawn randomly from among the links and announced by 8:00 pm MST on the 3^rd of the following month.
• Instructions for making an index page to your finishes can be found here.
• Kindly consider changing your comment settings to the pop-up window option for faster and easier commenting for visitors to your blog. Instructions can be found here.

{Dairy Free} Zuppa Toscana

A dairy intolerant woman went into a local restaurant for a meal and asked the waiter, “I can't eat anything with dairy in it. Can you tell me how this meal is prepared?”

“Oh yes,” said the waiter, smiling helpfully, “It’s cooked in a Wok!” –adaped from WhatAllergy.com

Dairy has bothered me with varying degrees of severity/ annoyance for about as long as I remember. But over the last couple of years it has gotten worse. About seven months ago, I went dairy-free. I immediately felt better, but soon realized that I should probably be a whole-lot-of-other-things-free too. Giving up dairy was hard and I'm stubbornly avoiding trying to weed out any other intolerances, especially when the official test said I don't have Celiac Disease {gluten allergy}, which is pretty serious if left unaddressed. But that's an adventure for another day.

When giving up dairy, I looked for ways to find substitutes at first, but there are just some things that can't be recreated without dairy, so I only substitute when it doesn't alter the food too much. Mostly, I look for recipes that don't have dairy in them in the first place so they don't feel incomplete without it. It's always fun, though, to find a good dairy-free recreation of a dish that usually has dairy in it. Today, I want to share a really yummy dairy-free {and gluten-free if you use the right mayonnaise and sausage} Zuppa Toscana.

Zuppa Toscana

1 lb. mildly spicy sausage
½ cup finely diced onions
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
1½ tablespoons finely diced fresh parsley or 1½ teaspoons dried parsley
⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2½ lbs. red potatoes, diced
¼ cup mayonnaise
4 cups rice milk

• In a large saucepan, brown sausage; drain off excess grease. Add onions to sausage and cook until onions turn clear. Stir in chives, parsley, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Add potatoes. Whisk together mayonnaise and about ¾ cup rice milk. Add remaining rice milk to ingredients in the pan and then stir in mayonnaise and milk mixture.
• Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer together until potatoes are tender.

Serves 5-6

Notes:
• I used sausage labeled as "mild spice," and with the red pepper flakes it wasn't too spicy. I like things mild so you can increase the spiciness of the dish by getting a medium or hot sausage.

More Pretty Modern Fabrics. And Too Many Projects. I Need A Sewcation.

I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, do not be fooled by what I am saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying. –Charles C. Finn

While I was busy visiting Yellowstone and other outdoorsy places last week, a cute little package arrived on my doorstep and was promptly whisked away by the mail collectors. My first priority when I got home was to get said package. Seriously. We'd been home for less than an hour when I was calling my neighbors to find out when I could come and collect it.

Courtesy of Pat Bravo, a half-yard bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway was waiting for me when I got home. It's even more groovy in person.

I immediately knew what I wanted to do with these fabrics. Jess at The Elven Garden showed her Retro Flowers Quilt during the Spring Blogger's Quilt Festival and I loved it. I knew these fabrics would be perfect in that quilt. So I tracked down the pattern. Then I rummaged through my stash and found that several of the Pure Elements Solids I'd got when I ordered Pat's Indie fabric line work with Carnaby Street too! {Well, I'm not sold on the dark purple [Cabernet], so we'll see on that one.} I also threw in the Squared Elements in Watermelon that I recently ordered and thought that worked pretty well too.

Now I need a sewcation so I can work on any or all of the sixty-eleven projects I have going on.

Addicted to Color. And Fabric. A Foray Into Modern Quilting.

Everyone wants happiness;
Nobody wants pain.
But you can't have a rainbow
Without a little rain.
–Unknown

I ♥ rainbows. They are just so happy. And I love every color of the rainbow. There's not a single color I don't like, not even puce, although I think it is very unfortunately named.

I've always loved all things rainbow. I kind of held back, though, on making a rainbow quilt because I thought it might seem childish. But it seems like ROY G BIV {red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet; I suppose the acronym makes it sound more grown-up} quilts are kind of the thing these days. I have two different quilts in progress that are going to be rainbow-y {I'm going with "rainbow," rather than the acronym because I'm not a grown-up yet} and I'm dreaming up another one in my head.

I seems that modern fabrics are kind of the thing these days as well. I'm a little behind the times, but I thought I'd venture out into some new territory. Just look at these lovelies.

Living Lattice in Red
Chevron Small in Tone on Tone Red
Maze in Orange
Tile in Persimmon
Metro Living Circles in Marigold
Leaf in Sun
Tarika in Moss
Reunion Daisy's Dates in Key Lime
Metro Living Circles in Chartreuse
Pearl Bracelet in Basil
Geometric Frames in Aquatic Blue
Mod Boxes in Blue
Just Color in Chambray
Citadel in Indigo
Metro Living Circles in Navy
Tiny Diamonds in Navy
Just Color in Grape
Geometric Ogee in Eggplant
Pearl Bracelet in Frosting
Geometric Eyelet in Honesysuckle Pink
Squared Elements in Watermelon

These fabrics are partly for the quilt idea I have in my head {which I may or may not get to sometime this decade; I have no less than 14 quilts in various states of finished-ness, or rather unfinished-ness} but they are mostly just to have in my stash. Stash buying isn't something I usually do. I try to buy with a project in mind {which is probably why I have 14 PhD quilts}. But you see, despite my better judgement, I keep going to visit Amy Smart over at Diary of a Quilter. And after I do that, I have to spend money {see also, Indie and Sparkle All the Way Christmas Quilt}. She introduced me to Pink Castle Fabrics and their Stash Stack Club, which I promptly joined. It seemed like a good idea. I also ordered 13 of the 21 prints shown above {the other 8 came from my favorite LQS, but I found links for you on-line. You're welcome}. That also seemed like a good idea. Their prices are kind of awesome.

What, exactly is the Stash Stack Club {and no, I'm not getting compensation of any kind to tell you, but if the folks at Pink Castle want to send me the July Stash Stack Fat Quarter Bundle, because I missed it, I wouldn't say no}? Brenda at Pink Castle has teamed up with Jeni at In Color Order and each month, they put together 12 modern fabrics from a single color family that are either tone on tone or that color plus white. Then they put them in a package and ship them off to you so you can admire them and pet them and put them in your stash. Read more by clicking the button below.

While I'm waiting for my first Stash Stack to arrive, I've been thinking a lot about color. Jeni has put together a really great series on choosing, folding and storing fabric, fabric types, color basics, color schemes and color combinations. I especially love her posts on color. I mean, I learned about the color wheel, primary, secondary and tertiary colors and complementary colors when I took art class in Jr. High. But Jeni takes it to a whole new level. Check it out.

I also went through my stash and pulled out all the modern{ish} fabrics I had that fall into the "stash builder" category. Not too shabby, eh? I think I'm on the way to a modern stash.