Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

Happy Fourth of July weekend, everyone! I got off work on Thursday and had a craving for lemonade, real lemonade. None was to be had, so I was going to have to learn to make it myself. Fortunately, the internet is a beautiful thing - goggle "how to make lemonade" - and voila! Real lemonade. It was delicious and there is a still a quart of it in the frig for the weekend. What worked for me:

Mix 1 cup of water with 1 scant cup of sugar. Bring to a boil. Set aside.
Squeeze the juice of 6 lemons, and pour the lemon juice into the water/sugar mixture. Pour a little over 3 cups of cold water into a pitcher and add the water/sugar/lemon mixture. Pour over ice into glass. Yum!

I also did a quick project: I made a runner for a chest of drawers in my bedroom to match my new bed quilt. I used some of the leftover fabrics, piecing them with no particular plan, but I ended up with this:

I rounded the front two corners because that is how the chest of drawers is shaped. Also, I never miss an opportunity to have curved corners because I hate mitering corners. I auditioned several bowls for the proper circumference, but this is the size I went with: I also sewed the binding on completely by machine, front and back. Here is a shot of my pinning prior to the final sew down - it gives you an idea how far apart I put my pins:

(See? That extra binding I made when doing the bed quilt came in handy!) This runner ended up about 29 inches by 16 inches, so I used fusible batting, and I did straight line quilting along the length. I used the edge of the walking foot as my guide and I simply varied the width by moving the needle to different needle positions on my machine:

Another shot:

I pieced the back as well:

Here you can see the runner on the chest of drawers. Pretty good fit!

It was fun to do something that only took a day or two. I also have a bedside table I was thinking about making a runner for, but I'm afraid to overload my bedroom with these fabrics. I love them, but I'm trying not to go nuts.

Parting Shot: New quilting book. Between this book and the internet, I don't really see any reason to buy a new quilting magazine, ever.