Baby Quilt

This was my second project. The plan was to make this first but then I decided to make some quilted coasters as for practice and of course getting that confidence again that I can get back to using a sewing machine after all these years.


Design:
I came across this design online along with basic tutorial.

Materials:
Along with the basic tools (scissors, quilting pins, cutting board, rotary cutter, ruler) and sewing machine I used the following:

Top: I bought a fat quarter (18" * 22") bundle which had 8 different fat quarters and 1.5 yds of cream fabric for borders and in between columns.

Backing: 1.5 yds light brown print fabric. Some of the fat quarters had brown shades so it made sense to get some light shade of brown.

Binding: 0.5 yds of dark brown print fabric.

Batting: 44" * 55" batting. You should decide on the loft based on your needs. I used an extra-loft poly-fill batting. Cotton might be easier to quilt.

Note: Seam allowance for all stitches is 1/4".

Prepare Top: 

1. Cut 2.5" * 5" pieces out of fat quarters for the print strips. Join 22 of these to form one strip. You can decide on the order of various prints according to your own taste of colors. Make 5 such strips.
2. Iron on the back seams to fold them all in same direction. Measure the length of the strip and say its L1.
3. Cut 6 strips of the cream fabric (cut along lengthwise grain) each of L1" * 3.5".
4. Join the cream strips and the printed strips in alternate order. 
5. Iron on the back of the joined fabric and move all seams towards the dark fabric side.
6. Measure the width of this fabric and say its L2.
7. Cut 2 strips (cut along the crosswise grain) each of L2 * 3.5".
8. Join these strips on top and bottom of the unfinished top.

Your top is ready now. Measure the length and width of the finished top after ironing the seams on the back. Say its L" * W".

Prepare Back:
I also used a strip of printed fabric from the top to create a strip at the back. Its optional though.

To decide on how many 2.5" * 5" pieces I need to stitch together to make it fit in the back width, I did the math: x * 2.5 - (x-1) * ¼ = W + 3. Cut 'x' number of 2.5" * 5" pieces and stitch them together. Cut 2 pieces of backing fabric as:
20" * W + 3"
(L - 4.5 - 17)" * W + 3"  [Note: we have added an extra 3" in length and width]
Join all 3 pieces of fabric in order (2 cut pieces with the top fabric strip in between).
Iron on the seams and over the complete fabric back. The back is also ready.

Prepare Quilt Sandwich:
You now need to prepare the quilt sandwich to quilt it. Lay the backing with wrong side up on a flat surface/floor. Lay out the batting on top of it by making sure that the back doesn't move or form folds. Finally place the top on top of batting. Usually you use some kind of spray adhesive to make the batting stick to the backing. I did not use anything. I just used lots of pins all over to keep the 3 layers intact.
Now its time to quilt all over so that the three layers are stabilized and also to make sure the batting won't move when the quilt is washed. I mainly used stitch-in-the-ditch all over. I am yet to get used to free-motion quilting. Will try on something smaller.

Add Binding:

Once the quilt is done, its time to attach binding to the sides of the quilt.

Binding:
5 strips cut cross grain of 2.5” each
½ yard

Dining Table Runner

Finally I got some time to write this long pending tutorial. Just as a note, this will probably not be the best as I forgot to take pictures in between while making it. Still it will give overall idea of what I did.

Fig 1. Complete runner

As usual this is a quilt which means it has 3 layers: Top, Batting and Backing which are then quilted to hold it together and then bound together with the binding. 

Design: 

I don't remember where I saw this design so I am not going to put any link here. I wanted to make table runner of size 40" * 15".

Materials: 

Basic tools: scissors, quilting pins, cutting board, rotary cutter, ruler and sewing machine.

Note: Seam allowance for all stitches is 1/4"

Top:

If you look at the picture above, you can see that that top is composed of 3 big blocks and the surrounding layer of small blocks. I made the inner blocks first and then attached the boundary strips of smaller blocks. To make one block:

Take 8, 3" * 3" of each of the 2 contrast color prints fabric. These will form 16, 3"*3" squares as shown in Fig. 5. The way its done is by taking 1 piece of each color and put the right sides together and then draw a line with a pencil/pen diagonal as shown in Fig 3. Stitch straight on either side of this line leaving 1/4" seam allowance as shown in Fig. 4. Once you are done will all 16 square pairs, cut on the line you had drawn earlier. Press/iron the seams an usual. You will end up with 16 squares similar to Fig. 5.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

The next step is to join these squares and form a nice big square block as shown in Fig. 7. Combine squares to form rows first and then combine these to form the complete block. I think I ended up with 8.5" * 8.5" block.

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

The next thing I did was cut 4, 2" * 11" strips of off white cloth. Attach these strips as boundary to the above block. You want to attach them such that the strip starts at one corner of the block and continues beyond the end on that side. It may be more clear in Fig. 9. Once you have all 3 blocks finished, its time to make the strips to combine these. I used some leftover fabric to make these. I think I used 5-6 pattern fabrics to make them. I don't remember how big I cut the squares to combine them to form a strip but you can measure the completed block above and based on that, cut smaller square blocks to form a strip to attach to its 2 sides. You need to make 4 such strips so that you can attach all 3 blocks above. Once that is done, you need to make 2 longer strips for the complete length of the runner. Attach these to complete the top as shown below.

Fig. 8

Fig. 9

Batting: For this table runner, I used cotton batting which is easy to quilt with. Everything was bought from Walmart and is super cheap.

Backing: I used the light print from the center blocks as backing. Again, I forgot to take a picture of the back. Remember to cut the batting and backing 1" extra than the top on all sides.

I used stitch-in-the-ditch for quilting. Once the quilting is done, add binding. I used the darker fabric from the center block for binding.

Fig. 10

Quilted Waterproof Coasters

Some of my friends requested to post a tutorial on how to make these quilted coasters out of fabric scraps. So here is a quick tutorial on how to make your own. This one is a simple one with the front and back piece made out a single piece but you can try different layouts with multiple pieces.

Happy Quilting! 

Cut 2, 4.5" * 4.5" pieces for front and back of the coaster.

Put the right sides of the front and back pieces together and sew around the corner with 1/4 " seam allowance on 3 sides and partially on the 4th side. The best way to do it is to start 1/4 off one of the corners and finish 1/4 off the other corner on the same side. 

Cut a 4" * 4" piece of fusible fleece as the batting in between.

 Put the batting the with the glue on one side of the sewn pieces. Iron on to fuse them together.

 Imp: Cut the corners of the piece now so that they are rounded.

Turn the right side of the fabric outside from the side that's partially sewn.

Iron on the open side to turn the ends of the fabric pieces inside the opening and prepare it for sewing.

Use any stitch to quilt the coaster.

I used iron-on-vinyl which I bought from walmart for laminating the coasters to make them waterproof. I found the stuff a lot cheaper at walmart than Joann. Iron-on-vinyl is easy to use. You just need to take out the lamination from the backing paper and put it on top of the fabric. Put the backing paper on top and iron on to fuse.

Here are how they look when complete.The last picture shows the complete set I made. It has 6 in it. 

Thai curry

I have changed my routine where I only cook on weekends now. A weekend trip to the produce market is sometimes a feeling like it might be for a kid to go to a toy store. I decided that every weekend I will try to get some ingredient which I have never used before. This time I got habanero peppers. Along with that I picked up mushrooms, bell peppers and string beans. So I decide to make Thai curry with coconut milk. I head to the indian store and picked a can of coconut milk. Here is my recipe:

Thai curry

Ingredients:

1. Coconut milk - 1 can
2. Red and green bell pepper - 1 each
3. String beans - 6-7 beans
4. White mushrooms - 5-6
5. Tomatoes
6. Green onion - 1/2 bunch
7. Firm tofu - 2 inch cube
8. Spices - turmeric, coriander powder
9. Green chillies - 1-2
10. Mint leaves - 7-8
11. Coriander leaves
12. Lemon juice - 3 tsp. spoons
13. Olive oil - 1 tbsp. spoons
14. Cumin and mustard seeds
15. Ginger and garlic

Preparation:

1. Cut vegetables into pieces. Cut the bell peppers along their length.
2. Make puree out of mint and coriander leaves
3. Heat oil in a pan
4. Put cumin and mustard seeds
5. Now put long cut green chilli, small cut ginger and garlic. I also added few small cut pieces of habanero pepper. (Caution: use only small amount of habanero pepper. Its super hot)
6. Let the ginger garlic be light brown
7. Now add the small cut green onion and fry them for a minute
8. Add cut tomatoes
9. Add all the cut vegetables and mix well
10. Add turmeric and coriander powder
11. Add salt
12. Now add the mint and coriander puree
13. Add the lemon juice and mix everything well
14. Add 1/4 to 1/2 can of coconut milk
15. Add cubes of cut tofu and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes

Serve hot with rice. I got some rum cake as well and it went well as a desert after the thai lunch.

Dahi-Vade

Dahi-Vade

Holi is over this year but it cannot be complete without having dahi-vade. Since childhood I am so used to having dahi-vade on holi.  This was my first time making them myself.


Ingredients:
1. Urad daal - 1 small bowl
2. Tamarind - 1/4 small bowl
3. Oil
4. Salt
5. Red chilli powder
6. Roasted cumin seeds powder

Preparation:
1. Soak urad daal overnight  (I added a small amount of moong daal as well)
2. Soak tamarind in water in a bowl for an hour
3. Mash tamarind, keep the pulp and discard the rest.
4. Boil the tamarind mix and then add sugar (or jaggery), some salt and a bit of red chilli powder to it.
5. Boil till it thickens. Keep the tamarind chutney aside.
6. Grind the urad daal into a fine paste beat it a little.
7. Make vade with hand (add a piece of green chilli or a raisin) in between and deep fry them till light golden brown.
8. Heat water in a pan and add 1 tsp salt to it.
9. Add the cooled down vade to the hot water and keep for 10 min.
10. Remove the vade from the water and squeeze out extra water by putting them in between palms.
11. Beat curd in a bowl and add some water to it to make it little thin.
12. Add curd to the vade and add tamarind chutney on top.
13. Sprinkle salt, cumin powder and red chilli powder on top and serve.

Khajoor-Badam Laddoo (Dates-Almond balls)

Khajoor-badam laddoo

I tried Whole foods Dates-pecan rolls a while back at cousin's place. Wanted to make something sweet for Makar Sankranti so thought will try something healthy this time. Made a trip to whole foods specifically for the dates. Here is the simple recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Dates - 1 bowl
2. Almonds - 1/2 bowl
3. Dry grated coconut

Preparation:
1. Add dates and almonds in the grinder and fine grind it.
2. Make small balls out of this mixture.
3. Roll these bowls over the dry grated coconut to remove the stickiness.
4. You can also garnish with some dry fruits on top.

So far the easiest recipe in my list!

Guacamole (Avocado Sauce)

Guacamole

During lunch I remembered that I have 2 avocados sitting happily in my fridge. I got them to make guacamole last week and forgot. So I decided to do the honor before dinner and below is the recipe. Remember to make it in small quantity as it turns brown (due to oxidation) quickly and you don't want to eat discolored guacamole.

Ingredients:
1. 2 ripe avocado
2. Small red Onion
3. Tomato
4. Lemon Juice
5. Black pepper
6. Salt

Preparation:
1. Cut Avocado in half and then remove the seed. Use a spoon to take out the inside stuff in a bowl.
2. Mash the avocado in the bowl.
3. Add a pinch of black pepper in it.
4. Add finely chopped 1/2 onion in it.
5. Add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice in it.
6. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt in it.
7. Mix the ingredients in the bowl.
8. Finally add a small chopped tomato to it before serving.
9. Serve it with corn chips or you can also have it with roti or bread.

Avocado

Nan Khatai (Butter cookies)

Nan Khatai

It feels like ages since I have updated this blog. Yes I was lazying around with no motivation to do anything! My sisters tried making Nan khatai and i was tempted to eat those but unfortunately only got to taste it virtually. At 8:30pm I go into my kitchen to try my hands on making some nan-khatai. I checked several recipes online and then made my own version with ingredients I had available. By 9:30pm my cookies as well as my dinner was ready.

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:
1. 1/2 bowl Flour (Maida)
2. 1/2 bowl Semolina (Sooji)
3. 1/2 bowl Gram flour (besan)
4. 1/2 cup butter
5. 1/2-3/4 bowl powdered sugar
6. Baking soda (I used a pinch of Eno as a replacement)
7. Almonds, walnuts (optional)

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven at 375 F.
2. Mix sugar and butter in a bowl (Caution: Do not melt the butter. Let the butter soften on room temperature)
3. Beat the butter and the sugar mix.
4. Mix the flour mixture in the butter-sugar bowl.  (I added a pinch of Eno as well)
5. Knead the mix so that its soft. It might be a bit sticky. I tried putting the mix in refrigerator for 15 min to let it settle.
6. Make small balls out of the mix.
7. Flatten the ball a bit and place it on the oven sheet.
8. Sprinkle some fine cut almonds and walnuts on top. (this step is optional)
9. Bake the cookies for 15-16 min or until they are brown on the sides.
10. Let the cookies cool for a bit and then store them in an air tight box.

Just out of the oven

Palak ka Kaapa (Spinach Saag)

Palak ka Kaapa

Friday evenings are usually lazy for me. So today also I wanted to cook something quick and healthy so decided to cook something with spinach. The first thing which came to my mind was Kaapa which I wanted to make since some time but could not. A little background about this dish for those have no clue what this is. 'Kaapa' is a specific dish of Kumaon (part of Uttarakhand where I come from in India). There are many more savory dishes from Kumaon and I will focus on them from time to time when I try them. Palak ka Kaapa is made of spinach, curd and flour. It goes well with rice or roti. So heres the recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Spinach (250gms)
2. Curd ( 1/2 small bowl) (Beat it a little to make it smooth)
3. Rice paste (1/2 small bowl)
4. Cumin seeds (Jeera)
5. Asafoetida (Heeng)
6. Turmeric
7. Red chili powder (I use paprika powder instead of red chili powder in my cooking)
8. Oil
9. Salt
10. Water
11. Some hot spices (according to your own taste)

Preparation:
1. Wash and chop spinach. Boil it and keep it aside
2. Soak rice in water for 2 hours and then make paste out of it. (Of course I was lazy so I just heated the rice in water for some time and made a paste out of that)
3. In a pan, heat the oil.
4. Put heeng, jeera to it.
5. Now put turmeric and red chili powder and let the spices to get roasted.
6. Now add the boiled spinach to it. Save the water for later use from the boiled spinach.
7. Cook this for few minutes.
8. Add curd to it and keep mixing. Now add the rice paste and water from the boiled spinach to it.
9. Cook it for some time and keep mixing otherwise the rice paste can form lumps.
10. Add Salt and some garam masala (Hot spices) to make it.
11. Serve it with rice or roti.

Dont forget to eat some oranges ( and get vitamin C) to absorb all the iron you just got from Kaapa :)

Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna

I had bought all the ingredients for making lasagna last week but ended up using some of them for baking pizza twice. So finally I thought today is the day! Essentially it turned out to be an Italian food weekend. Now I feel all cheesy cheesy :) Hopefully next time I will plan to make something with less fat and more protein!

Before making lasagna, I spent some time reading about the way its made and I found that there is no one particular way. All the recipes were different.  So here is my recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Vegetables (bell pepper, mushrooms, onion, tomato, green beans, cauliflower)
2. Garlic (1 clove)
3. 1-2 cup Pasta sauce
4. Dried basil
5. 1 cup mozzarella cheese
6. 1 Egg
7. 1 cup ricotta cheese ( I am using less than normal cheese)
8. Dried basil
9. Lasagna noodles
10. Olive Oil (2 tablespoon)

Preparation:

Sauce

Cheese sauce

1. Mix mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese and egg in a bowl and keep it aside.
2. Cut all vegetables in finely.
3. In a pan, heat oil and fry all the vegetables for 5 min.
4. Add the pasta sauce to it. Add 1 teaspoon basil to it. Let the mix simmer for 10 min.
5. Preheat the oven on 350 F.
6. In a deep oven pan, spread a layer (thin) of the above created vegetable sauce. Top it with the lasagna noodles. make sure that the noodles are on top of the sauce. spread a layer of the cheese sauce on top. Put another (thick this time) layer of the vegetable sauce on top. Repeat the layering. The last layer will be of the cheese sauce.
7. Cook this in the oven for 30-40 min.

8. Leave it to cool for some time.

9. Serve pieces with some salad as side.

After baking

Vegetable Pizza

Vegetable Pizza

It had been raining this whole week. It did not rain today but there was storm and even now I can hear the sound of wind and the trees waving outside. Overall a lazy weekend so while grabbing some stuff from Trader Joe's I decided to buy pizza dough. I wanted to avoid spending too much time making dinner tonight and I think pizza worked very well.

Ingredients:
1. Pizza dough (I used garlic and herb dough. You can even make it at home, Google more for that)
2. Small cut vegetables
3. Cheese (I used mozzarella cheese)
4. Marinara sauce
5. Small quantity of flour (to spread below the base)

Preparation:
1. Preheat the over at 450/500F for about 20-30 min
2. Spread a layer of flour on a flat pan
3. Put the dough ball on the pan and spread it so as to make a circle of around 12 inch diameter.
You can also use a roller to do so

Pizza dough spread on a flat pan

4. Spread marinara sauce above the base
5. Spread a layer of cheese above the sauce on the base
6. Spread the cut vegetables (green bell pepper, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms etc) on top of the cheese

Marinara sauce spread on the base

Before putting toppings

Before baking

7. Put the pan in the preheated oven and bake for about 10-12 min
8. Serve pizza hot with coke

In oven after baking

Gujiya

Gujiya

It was Holi last week so I decided to devote this weekend to the famous sweet of Holi celebration : Gujiya. People in North India make gujiya in different ways. I wanted to make Khoa gujiya and had been thinking since yesterday that I will go to Indian store and get some khoa and then the start of day light saving screwed up the whole schedule. So finally at 4pm today I started to make gujiya with some homemade khoa. Here is my recipe (modify the quantity according to the number of gujiyas you want to make). I made around 6 of them. 

Ingredients:
1. 1 bowl of flour (Maida)
2. 1/2 small bowl of Almonds
3. 1/4 small bowl of Cashews
4. 1/4 small bowl Raisins (kishmish)
5. 1/4 small bowl Sooji
6. 2-3 tablespoons Sugar
7. Shredded dry coconut (I did not use it but its also used in the filling)
8. Milk
9. Ghee
10. Khoa

Preparation:
Making Khoa:
I used milk to make khoa. Boil 2-3 cups of milk in a pan and keep stirring in between. Add 1 spoon of lemon juice to make it faster. Let the milk become dry to a granular mix (khoa)

1. Cut almonds and cashews into fine pieces
2. Cut the raisins into half and add to the above mix
3. Roast the sooji and keep aside
4. Add 1 tea spoon ghee to a pan and add the above prepared mix of dry fruits to it
5. Add the khoa and sooji also to it
6. Roast it for a few minutes and then add sugar and keep aside

Filling mix

7. Now prepare the dough for the gujiya shells
8. Add ghee to the maida and mix it well. Add water to the dough and knead it to make it soft
9.  Now make small balls of this dough and make round circles of about 4 inch diameter
10. Since I did not have a gujiya mould available, I just made them myself. I used a paperclip to stick the corners together.  Use maida mixed in few drops of water to stick the corners so as to make a half circular gujiya
11. Make all the gujiya and keep them aside.

Before frying

12. Heat oil/ghee to fry (I did not use ghee to fry) in a deep fry pan
13. Deep fry previously made gujiya on low to medium flame

Serve them hot or on normal temperature. You can even store them for few days.