Disappearing 4-Patch

I have been working on my latest quilt project for a friend of mine.  Her daughter is turning a year old and so I wanted to make her a quilt like I did her sister.  In fact, her sister was the first baby quilt that I had ever done, second quilt ever as well.  Below is that quilt:

 All of my quilts have been unique patterns and this one was no exception.  I was trying to find a way to use a fat quarter bundle with 5 coordinating fabrics and stuff I had on hand.  I have so much fabric, I should try to use some of it before buying more.  It took a long time to come up with a pattern that was interesting and not just straight blocks and which also used all the fabric without requiring loads more.  This sounds easy, but it really wasn't.

Pinterest is really a great visual place to get inspiration for quilts.  I can search block types and see what people have done for colors and fabric choices.  Some are really creative.  I settled on a block called "Disappearing 4-Patch".  It required 12 - 5" blocks of each of the 5 fabrics and 60 - 5" blocks of my solid, gray in this case.  The tutorial I used can be found here on how to make this block pattern.

Lots and lots of cutting.  Thankfully a fat quarter will give you 12 of these and have just a tiny bit left over.  Scrap pile!

Now all these squares need to be friends.  Sew them together.  Can I just say I love the chain piecing technique?  Quilting would be much more tedious if it wasn't for this!

After some cutting and swapping pieces around, you get a finished block that looks something like this:

Then you take a bunch of those and make a pattern and add a couple of borders.  I wanted to bring out the purple in this (one of my favorite colors and this is for a little girl so it's only appropriate) so I found hues that went with the patterns in the fat quarters.  As an aside - purples can be very tricky to match!

A close up view of the work in progress.  I was impressed with myself on how well all my points matched on this quilt.  Being an anal engineer definitely has its perks.

Then we toss in some batting, put a back on it, stitch it together and throw some binding on and ba-da bing, ba-da boom, voila!

I am hoping the little munchkin likes it.  :)  The next one in the hopper is for my daughter, so there's more to come off the sewing presses.  Not sure who else I am going to make these for now that everyone is done having babies.  Ha!  

Sausage and Pumpkin Pasta

Continuing the pumpkin theme with fall cooking, I stumbled upon this Sausage and Pumpkin Pasta by Rachel Ray.  When I saw it pass the Pinterest feed, I said, hmmm, that sounds good.  Turns out I am getting a lot better at picking out winning recipes.  The bonus to this recipe is that it was from one of her 30 minute meal episodes.

I do want to comment on the set of instructions that were provided.  I consider myself a pretty decent cook.  Not much intimidates me from a recipe with the exception of how long it will take, but that's a recent development thanks to kids.  I do remember spending 3 hours in the kitchen one Saturday many many moons ago making the most delicious stew, but that's something I just can't do these days.  That aside, I still have things to learn.  I am gradually working my way to not necessarily always needing to measure things exactly.  If you have ever watched Rachel Ray cook, you know she's not big on using measuring devices most of the time.  In this recipe, I liked the side note for how much cream to use - 1/2 cup (about 3 turns around the pan).  So, instead of measuring, I just did 3 turns around the pan and I'll be darned if that didn't seem to be about half the container which I know is a cup.  Level up on cooking skills!

I think the only real edit I made to this recipe might have been the amount of sage they called for and what I used.  The recommended 2 tablespoons fresh and I had dried.  The bottle said 1 teaspoon dried = about 2 teaspoons fresh which would have meant using 3 teaspoons worth.  I used two rounded teaspoons worth and thought that was plenty.  Also, I couldn't find "sweet" Italian sausage, so I just went with a pound of turkey sausage.  In my head I was telling myself it was healthier.  Didn't adversely affect the taste at all (well what would we know? It was delicious the way we had it).  We have a great turkey burger recipe that calls for sage as the main spice, so the flavor combination was already a proven success.  If you wanted it to be even healthier, you could use whole wheat pasta and use half and half instead of heavy cream.  While we are health conscience, we let our taste buds have a little fun, so we did not make those substitutes.

I also made the salad that went with this and it was delicious!  I didn't have a golden delicious apple, but the Macintosh I had was scrumptious all the same.  I edited the prep/serving of this because I don't like pre-dressed salads and it was meant for 4 people which would have translated to soggy leftover salad with browning apples.  Yuck.  Instead I just made the salad again the next night.  The pasta was awesome on leftover night too.  Definitely going to be a staple rolling forward for our fall recipe rotation.

Rainbow Whirls

In my free time (ha!), what little there is, I enjoy sitting at the sewing machine and creating quilts.  Mostly I am doing baby quilts due to the rash of friends having little ones, but I someday envision a time where I actually make a bigger one for people to use when they are curled up on the sofa or one for our bed.  In the meantime I get a lot of practice on technique and picking fabrics.  My latest finished quilt took a lot time to get together.  Not because it was hard, but just because it was one that didn't have priority to be done for a baby shower. :)

Of course I have an inspiration board on Pinterest for quilts and one of those pins spurred the thought behind this quilt.  When I set out to do this, the person having the baby didn't know if was a boy or a girl.  I was looking for something to do in rainbows.

Thankfully, the Missouri Star Quilt Company put together this fabulous tutorial on making pinwheels.  I have such a hard time with triangles, so this video gave me the boost of confidence in finding a "cheat" to making pinwheels so I just went for it.  I think it is the best way to make them, especially if your whole quilt is pinwheels.  You can basically make whatever size you want and just roll.  As a side note, the lady that does these tutorials is great.  I have watched a good number of them and they are excellent.

I am pretty pleased with how this one turned out.  It's colorful and pops.  Not to mention it was fun to make.  I had a small learning curve to learn that it mattered how I assembled the pinwheels together.  My seam ripper and I bonded just like always.  I swear, one of these days I'll get through a project where I won't need it.

It was shown off to the whole family and everyone ooohed and aaahed over it.  I just hope the little man who ended up with it loves it just as much. :)

Online Yard Sales

Let's face it, Craigslist is a menagerie of sketchy miscreants, flaky individuals, and the occasional honest and normal person just trying to sell or buy something.  Not only that, but the posting for an area like Northern DC can be a dice roll.  Oh hey, great deal on a dresser, but it's on the other side of the city.  Forget it.  I know you can search, but the amount of filters you need to apply just to find what you are looking for can be annoying.  Not to mention you have to continually check back and apply all those filters each time.

Facebook has it's ups and downs, but the most recent useful thing I have found it can do is bring local people together to buy and sell things in an online yard sale group.  There are a bunch of these all over the place for people to buy and sell in a town.  The rules are usually that you need to be willing to meet in that location or be in an adjacent location.  This kind of eliminates the searching of things for sale in my area.  Not only that, it pops into my news feed AND 95% of the posts have pictures.  To boot, you can often tell if an item is for sale or has interest from other people thanks to the handy comment feature.  Sure there's a lot of crap I don't want, but given all the other junk in my news feed, I really don't mind.  And if I wanted to, I could set it to not show in my feed and just browse it when I wanted to.

We are on a new kind of budget system and so catching deals from people that are selling what we are looking for is ideal.  Some of the things I have been able to snag at really good prices (or free):

Two Target bags of sleepers for 2T girls - Free
Little Tykes Car (Flinstone Car - Older Model)  - $10
Melissa and Doug Fire Truck Floor Puzzle (like new) - $5
Snap and Go Stroller for Graco car sear - Free
Garbage Ball full of assorted girl clothes - Free
Two lamp shades - $7 - This completes a ridiculously long project, not that it was hard, just took forever to do.
Pair of shoes (Franco Sarto wedges, actually in my size) - $5
Dress - $4

I fully intend to pay it forward with passing on these items I have gotten for free to other people in need.  The Snap and Go Stroller has been the most useful win since our other stroller is a Bob (bought from Craigslist), and is way large to shove in a car if you want to cart anything else with you.  All in all though I have made out pretty well.  One lady was having a moving sale for a while and I swear almost everything in her house was for sale and for cheap!  I ended up acquiring 4 fabric bins (couldn't find purple in the stores and wanted them for my daughters room), a purple rug, a kaleidoscope, a pair of Mary Jane clogs, and a paper cutter for $21.  I was ecstatic.

I have only had one bust and that was from a lady selling step stools.  When I got to her house she couldn't find them.  How that is possible I am not quite sure, but whatever.  I guess we will have to buy those from a store.  They are needed for potty training and those would have been ideal.

For all the other grief and eye rolling Facebook can something cause, I think the online yard sale is a pretty awesome feature.  If you don't have one for your area, you should put a group together and see how it goes!

Sunday Morning Pancakes

Our Sunday morning tradition is to spend most of the morning in PJs and eat pancakes.  We have a homemade recipe for pancakes I make in bulk and then just make batches every weekend until it's empty and refill.  Being that it is fall and I am on a pumpkin/chocolate chip kick, it was totally a sign when I saw a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes on Pinterest.

It took a bit more effort pre-coffee to make which is kind of a big deal when you have a toddler "helping" you.  It used all of my measuring cups and spoons and dirtied far more dishes than our typical Sunday morning treat, BUT I think it was worth it.  I am not one for saying pancakes don't really need syrup, but these really are good on their own.  To me, pancakes are the vehicle to eat syrup because taking shots from the bottle is kind of frowned upon by health experts.

Anywho, these turned out fluffy and delicious.  They took a bit longer to cook because the batter is so thick, so by the time I got around the eating my pancakes, the rest of the family had finished theirs.  (I eat mine from the last batch).  The recipe actually made about 16 pancakes by my 1/4 cup portions, so we have plenty in the freezer for any other fall weekend we want these but don't want to put the time in to achieve the desired results.

Thank you fall for inspiring wonderful flavors into regular meals.  We will be trying a Pumpkin and Sausage Penne Pasta later this week too.  :)  Could be delicious!

Grilled BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

We are always looking for something new to try at dinner. Bonus points if it's easy and possibly could be tailored to get a toddler to eat it. I saw this recipe on Pinterest and thought, huh, that does sound delicious!

The recipe!

I have never grilled pineapple before but thought it had potential. I started with a misfire getting to grill properly lit (I still have no idea what happened exactly), but once I got going, there was no stopping me!

This recipe come together fairly easily and is customizable to your taste preferences. We had Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce on hand (who doesn't?) so we used that for the chicken and as some added flavor in the quesadillas. We opted to skip the jalapeños but I am sure they would have been delicious too. I did devour at least half a "stalk" of the pineapple we grilled. We should have had more cheese on hand, but I was impressed we at least had the monetary jack the recipe suggested. Just not as much as we could have done.

Verdict: We absolutely need to do this one again. The toddler even looked the pieces of it (just not all together).

Quotes for Service

We are in the process of getting quotes for replacing our really really antiquated HVAC system.  When the sight of your unit inspires a "Whoa" from everyone giving you a quote, that must indicate a level of age. The way we figure it, the system is 22 years old.  When we bought the house 3 years ago, during the home inspection we were told it was old.  We did get the 1-year home warranty with the home sale and we were hoping the HVAC would up a die within a year and then be replaced for free.  It is so old that repairs to major components would not be possible.  That would have been great, but alas, that did not happen.

So fast forward to the future with two kids and many other home improvements under our belt, we have called four people to get quotes.  We decided on 3 big companies and 1 smaller independent contractor.  All of them have been to the house and have provided their quotes and first impressions.  This isn't so much about what their prices came back at, but more about the perception and sales pitch each of them provided.  It's really astounding how different their approaches were.

Contractor 1 - I got a call to confirm the appointment the day before.  The guy called about 30 minutes prior to arrival.  Once here, he put on boot covers and introduced himself in a professional manner.  He was dressed in business casual with a button down monogrammed shirt.  Question from him was, "Is your unit broken now?" since all of our windows and doors were open.  "Nope, just nice out."  Inspected the unit with the appropriate "whoa" reaction.  Took measurements and pictures.  Pulled out his phone for a nifty app to calculate what we needed for a HVAC size.  Comes to the conclusion that we have the wrong size and need to get a bigger unit.  Interesting.  Talks about his company and keeps saying, "What else can I tell you?" As if to go through a memorized fact list in his head.  Provides some quotes, but nothing in writing on what we are getting, just a bottom line price.  I got a follow up call and emails from him.

Contractor 2 (Independent) - I received a call the day he was going to come by.  I was on another call, so I didn't catch the first call.  The second call came through and he wanted to come by during the only 30 minutes I was going to be out of the house.  He said he would call when he was going to pop over.  About 15 minutes after I got back from my appointment, I heard my doorbell go off, but no call.  Ok....  He is dressed pretty casually, t-shirt, kahki shorts, and work shoes.  Comes in and introduces himself, goes to look at the unit.  "Whoa" Then realizes he doesn't have a measuring tape, asks to borrow one that's in sight.  Takes some measurements, sketches some things and is kind of all over the place with what kind of unit they have, what they would recommend, etc.  Takes a look at some electrical issue we would also like quoted.  Says, I'll get back to you with a quote by the weekend.  Ok thanks!  I got an email with the quote which asked me to respond that I got it.  I did and received, "Thank u for replying" as a response.

Contractor 3 - Calls the night before to confirm appointment.  Calls about 30 minutes out to confirm arrival.  I was a bit skeptical of this one because they wanted 2 hours of my time.  From what I had seen with the first two contractors, neither spent more than 40 minutes in my house.  Couldn't imagine what 2 hours was going to get this guy.  He showed up in business casual with a briefcase and boot covers.  Went downstairs, "whoa", took pictures and measurements.  He starts to explain all the things his company will do and what's important about the systems and why you don't see units that sit on the floor anymore.  He takes pictures of the outside unit and then we go upstairs.  He asks a lot of questions and what's important to me and what I want in my HVAC system.  I told him I basically wanted something new and anything would be an improvement over my existing system in all ways.  He explained how the two parts of the system work, what variable speed air handlers do, differences in SEER, EER, and HSPF, and did all of this with a genuine desire to make sure I was comfortable with what I being told.  He also explained which units would be eligible for rebates with the power company and which wouldn't and why.  I now understand why this should take two hours.  Comes up with quotes, and prints a contract from his car.  Very impressive.  I also got 2 follow up phone calls from the salesman and who I would presume is his boss.

Contract 4 - To be fair, this one came hot on the heals to Contractor 3 so I had a bit more in mind for my expectations than what I got.  He called 20 minutes prior to coming.  Upon arrival I notice this is the first person not traveling in a company vehicle.  He is wearing jeans and a polo.  Introduces himself and then says, "Well, let's take a look at the unit and I can give you some quotes and get out of your hair."  Ok... Takes some measurements, pictures, and looks at the electrical box twice.  Comes upstairs, sits down with me, plops open a book and says we should replace what I have with the same stuff and *flips pages*, "I can do that for you for x dollars."  I ask about a wi-fi programmable thermostat which all the other contractors had no issue with.  "Ummm, yeah, I think we could do that.  The guys are used to installing X brand, but we could probably do that for you."  I asked about air filters, he kind of ruffled through his book and handed me a one page brochure from his stack of stuff and says, "You can have that" which really told me nothing.  He quoted a few more options from his book and then said, "Not sure what else I can tell you..."  Really?  Nothing to sell yourself or your company?  Your warranty, how long you have been in business, what makes you special and worthy of my business for a major home improvement purchase?  And you have nothing?  Ok, see ya later!  I think he had a happy hour to get to as it was Friday afternoon.  Follow up email, nothing else.

Needless to say, Contractor 2 and 4 were immediately crossed off the list.  Contractor 2 aside from being a bit all over the place also had the highest price.  I am not fond of statements such as "Will do what is required to install the system." written in a contract.  It's totally ambiguous and can be interpreted too many ways.  These guys also were not able to offer duct cleanings, so that would have been another contractor to hunt down and then pay more $$ on top of their already high prices. They also skirted from warranty questions and didn't really want to push that.  Glad you want to stand behind your work.

Contractor 1 had a good priced system, but Contractor 3 really won out.  They were including a free humidifier in the system and their install process seemed more thorough and "proper" if you will.  Also, they had a cooler wi-fi thermostat and offered to clean the dryer vent as well as the ducts.  It's small perks, but I really feel like we are getting a good system with them and a good install process. They also recycle our old unit in its entirety.  They have two guys they pay minimum wage to disassemble units for recycling and resale (copper components). The warranties with each company is a bit weird.  Both of these want a kind of service contract agreement renewable by year.  The first year with both are free, but the routine maintenance/warranty beyond that time is a bit different.  Hard to say which will be a better value over time.

Ultimately, the lesson learned is you really really REALLY need to get multiple quotes from people. I was initially not too thrilled with Contractor 3 when they told me they wanted two hours of my time when I set up the appointment.  I was tempted to cancel, but I am glad I didn't.  You just never know what is going to make the deal.  And if you are in sales, take notes.  First impressions matter and being respectful of peoples homes is a selling point and one I think more contractors could benefit from.  Know your business and how to sell yourself/your company.  Price is only one factor of the deal.  I am willing to pay another $100-300 to have someone who wore boot covers and who has background checked their employees.

Now to see those electric bills go down!!