2010 Sew Along. Now with de-stashing power!

Dear Donk,

I'm sure that despite all my self-promoting this year you never would have guessed which book I'd suggest for our 2010 sew along.

Nope. No way you'd have guessed it.

OR - you totally would have guessed it with only one guess because BIG SURPRISE I suggested One Yard Wonders.

SHOCKER. I know, I should have told you to sit down so that you'd be able to bear the surprise. Apologies.

But, friends - to be clear - we're not just choosing it because I'm in it. On page 113, thank you Aunt Colleen for pointing that out to the family at Hanukkah because while I had the wherewithal to gift the book to everyone, I failed to find and mark My Page for their benefit. Which, if you're me, is pretty surprising given how self-promotey and LOOK AT ME I am, but that's how it went. My laziness won out and I left it up to the recipients to find my page. And then I failed to commit it to memory because I'm not such a good sales person.

ANYWAY.

We had many other reasons for choosing this book for this year's ~along. Reasons that also coincide with the other part of the ~along.

The cooking part.

Let me back up.

Another reason why we chose One Yard Wonders was because of its extreme stash busting power. We love to de-stash, don't we? Or at least we really like the idea of de-stashing and maybe doing something with that precious Never Going To Be Able To Find It Again So Better Do Something Useful With It fabric besides leaving it to crumble at the bottom of the sacred fabric basket in the craft closet while you instead make a hundred projects from that putrid pink and green striped vomit fabric bought for one project but now involved in all projects because GET IT OUT OF HERE.

Anyway - this book is a de-stasher like no book has been before. One yard of fabric, 101 projects - GO.

And, to go full circle on that de-stashing mantra, just try and tell me that you don't force the same kind of de-stashification on your fridge. Like, when you have dinner menus motivated 100% by your desire to get rid of the GOD.DAMNED.CHARD. Or maybe you have normal food lurking around your house like, I don't know, apples or half loaves of french bread or something that doesn't haunt you when you sleep.

Anyway, the point is this - we will de-stash the fridge while we de-stash the fabric - one month at a time.


Each month we'll have one fabric project from One Yard Wonders and we'll also have one recipe, from either Kelli or myself, derived from moments of fridge de-stashing. 

Whether your fridge includes one or more of the ingredients from the de-stashing recipe is not important. If you want to make the recipe and your fridge is mercifully devoid of the stashed food in question, you're well within your rights to procure all the ingredients and make it anew.

Meanwhile knowing that the leftovers may need to then be de-stashed.

Just saying.

You can do one or both or neither of the projects or work them up into some sort of unholy combination and load them into the Flickr pool by the last day of the month so that we can judge you and award a prize to a monthly winner and then come back again on the first of the month to do it all again.

Did you get all that? Those were the rules for the sew~along, in case you missed them.

They are basically the same rules we've had for the last three years (can you believe this is already our fourth year?). Now in bullet format for your (and mine - who are we kidding?) enjoyment:

• At or around the first of the month, Kelli and I will both post the month's ONE sewing and ONE cooking project and one of us will announce the previous month's winner. It's possible that the number of projects might change and we'll just expect you to be adults about the whole thing. Embrace change and what not.
  
  
• By the last day of the month, anyone who wants to participate will finish one or both of the projects and post pictures to our new One Yard Wonders : Sew Along 2010 pool for judging.
  
  
• We will then show back up at or around the first, announce the winners and do the rest of the stuff I just said in the first bullet.
  
  
• It will go on this way for the year and, at the end it will be the end and you don't need a bullet to tell you that.

And, these things are obvious, but I feel the need to have them in writing lest we get the questions; you need a copy of the book to do the sewing part, you do not need to sign up, you don't have to participate every month and there's no cookbook so don't worry about having to buy one of those, too. 

There will be other questions, I'm sure, but we'll just piss those people off when they show themselves.

And before I peel off of this long-winded Welcome to Sewing With Psychos 2010 post, let me share with you January's Projects:

Fabric de-stasher from One Yard Wonders: The "Good Hat Day" Hat by Rebecca Jo Malmström (and, no, I didn't choose this because she has the famed and desireable ö in her name. Though that didn't hurt.)

Fridge de-stasher from Africankelli: Spicy garlic dressing

Ingredients
1 tablespoon or more of Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons red vinegar
1 pinch of garlic salt
1 pinch of coarsely ground black pepper
juice of 1 lime
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon honey
any fresh herbs you may have -- I used thyme

Blend this in a food processor, adding more red wine vinegar and lime juice if necessary. This is also easy to make if you want to omit the chopped garlic by simply adding all ingredients to the Dijon mustard bottle and shaking with fury. Then pour over your salad and enjoy.

And if you so desire, you may add this badge to your sites/blogs/Facebook profiles to pledge your allegiance to de-stashing in 2010.

Cheers,
Finny