Green Apple Pie and Cake

One of the many things I love about my new(ish) house is the apple tree in our backyard.  We weren't sure for a while what kind of apples were on it, but one day, we took the plunge and bit into one.  It's kind of a cross between a Granny Smith and a Golden Delicious--crisp, but not too sweet or tart.  Just very apple-y.

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It's fun to go up to the tree and pick some fruit for munching, but I knew I had to find recipes quick.  Apple pie, naturally, and some kind of apple cake.

The Green Apple Pie was pretty easy to make.  I made the crust in my food processor, since I was in a bit of a hurry.  The only difficult thing was peeling and slicing the apples.  They're a bit smaller than the store-bought kind, so I had to use 12 to get the amount I needed.

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It was a hit.  The crust was nice and flaky and it the filling wasn't overly sweet.  I may add a touch more spice next time, but it was a great first attempt.

The Green Apple Cake is soft, spicy with nice chunks of apple spread through it.  The topping is a caramel-coconut mixture that's browned a bit with the broiler.  The Boy really liked it. And he said it tasted even better because the apples came from our own tree.

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Vogue 1050 Pants

I saw the pattern for these pants on a banner ad on a website and was intrigued. Could I make them? Could I actually get away with wearing them? Will they be flattering?  A massive sale at JoAnn's let me buy the fabric cheap enough so I wouldn't minds to much if the answers to those questions was "No".  I got peachskin in black and cream and found some cream frog closures at MJTrim.com.

I was worried the peachskin would be a pain to work with, but, honestly, it wasn't too bad. I don't have a serger, so I just did a zig-zag stitch over the edge to keep the fraying to a minimum.

Back zippers don't really work for me, so I altered the pattern a bit.  I made the waistband all elastic and cut the back waistband piece to match the front.  To make sure I would have enough room to get them over my hips, I cut the waist one size larger than the hips.  The frog closures I got were a little larger than the ones in the pattern, and as I'm a little shorter than the model, I only used two.

I think these would look so cute with black Converse and a t-shirt. Might just be my new uniform for the fall.

More Fabric-Button Rings

I love my two fabric button rings so much, I had to make more.  I got some larger ring blanks and button-covering kits and went through my fabric stash.  Three rings, under $10 and in 30 minutes can't be beat.

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Matching Quilt Pillowcases

I finally figured out what kind of pillowcases I wanted to make to match my Bunch of Squares Quilt.  I thought through a bunch of different designs and filtered out the ones that were more labor intensive.  After spending over a year on the quilt itself, I wanted to finish the cases quickly.

I went with a stripes of varying width design because I didn't want to be too match-matchy and I wanted to highlight the flower print.  I winged the pattern, and was happy it all worked out.

I measured a standard pillow, which was 26" x 19.5".  I wanted a little extra room in case I upgraded to a king-size pillow and needed a bit of room for seam allowances, so I wanted my finished dimensions to be 28" x 21".  For the envelope back, I cut two pieces of 17" x 21".

I'm really pleased with the way it all turned out.  I don't know if I'm ready to do another project this big right away, but definitely sometime in the future.