Quick and Easy Baby Shower Gift

If your life is anything like mine, you’re finding out every week about a friend or relative who is expecting an addition to their family. This cute baby tag blanket is perfect for the beginning sewer!

MATERIALS:
• ¾ yard quilting cotton
• 1 piece cotton batting – 20.5” x 20.5”
• grosgrain ribbon – various colors, totalling 18 feet
• coordinating thread
• straight pins
• washable marker or chalk
• sewing machine
• iron

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Cut batting into a 20.5” x 20.5” piece. A ruler, mat and rotary cutter aren’t at all necessary, but they do make things easier!

2. Cut two pieces from quilting cotton – each 20.5” x 20.5.” One will be the front of the blanket. The other will be the back of the blanket.

3. Using basting spray or pins, baste batting to the wrong side of the front fabric piece.

4. Mark quilting guide lines on the right side of the fabric you just pinned the batting to. This photo shows straight, diagonal lines. Feel free to be creative with your quilting. Mark lines so that there isn’t more than about two inches of open space between them. Be sure to fill the entire square.

5. Set your machine stitch length to a longer than normal one. I normally set my machine stitch length to 3.5, to give a nice wide quilting stitch. If your machine doesn’t have a variable stitch length, that’s okay, too! Work with what you have. Just take your time if you’re feeling uncertain!

6. Quilt, as desired, stitching along each of your marked quilting lines. It is best to start from the innermost lines and work your way out.

7. Admire your quilting!

8. Cut your ribbon into 36 pieces measuring 6” long. Ribbon should be grosgrain, but can be any width under 1.” Consider using multiple colors!

9. Find the middle of one side of the quilted piece of fabric. Mark with a pin.

10. Fold each ribbon in half. Pin the first ribbon piece in the middle of the quilted piece of fabric so that cut edges are even with fabric edge and the folded end of the ribbon is toward the center of the fabric.

11. Repeat ribbon pinning every two inches. Each side should have nine ribbons pinned to it, working from the center to the corner.

12. Machine baste around outside of blanket, using a 1/4” seam allowance. For the very beginner, machine basting is just straight sewing but with a very long stitch. Your machine probably features a basting stitch.

13. With right sides together, pin the back fabric piece to the front, leaving an unpinned area (about 5” wide) for turning, later.

14. Beginning at that opening, sew around the outside of all four sides of the blanket, using a 1/4” seam allowance. At each corner, stop stitching 1/4” from the end of that side. End with the needle in the down position. Lift the presser foot, pivot the blanket, lower the foot and continue sewing along the next side. Stop sewing on the other side of your turning opening. (I don’t recommend sewing over pins as that can damage your machine and be dangerous if a needle or pin is to break. Instead, sew right up to the pin, stop, then ease the pin out and continue sewing. With practice, this becomes an almost automatic movement.)

15. Turn blanket right side out through opening. Reach in and push out corners with your finger.

16. Press all edges. Turn the seam allowances in at the opening where you turned it inside out and pin.

17. Starting at the pinned opening, topstitch about 1/8” from the edge around the entire blanket. For you beginners, don’t be intimidated by the word “topstitch” or the fancy foot I have on my machine in the picture below. Sure, it’s nice to have that foot, but it’s not necessary. Topstitching should be done close to the edge of the fabric and be straight since all the stitching shows. So – choose a point on your presser foot to line up the outside of the fabric with. Go slowly and sew straight, keeping your fabric aligned with that point on your presser foot.

18. Press, and admire your handiwork!

I think this little blanket would look AWESOME in some Kentucky Blue and White. I also think it would look okay in your team’s favorite colors! Paired with a bib and/or cute onesie, you’ve got a baby gift that you can be proud of!

If you have any questions about this tutorial, please contact Lydia.

Feel free to use this tutorial for your personal use, however, please remember that all images and text are copyrighted and that all rights are reserved.

Lexington Pizza: Puccini's & Mad Mushroom

Two of my favorite pizza places in Lexington are Puccini's and Mad Mushroom.

Puccini's Smiling Teeth is located in Chevy Chase and has AMAZING pasta in addition to their pizzas.  I have been there many a time and scarfed down their house salad with a pizza or pasta.  The thing I love most about Puccini's is the casual atmosphere.  You could see friends from college or families dining with their kids. 

Mad Mushroom, not to be confused with Mellow Mushroom is one of those late-night treats that you can't imagine unless you experience it first-hand.  Cheese sticks.  Dipped. in. ranch. 

You can't tell me that you went to UK and never had the cheese sticks late at night.

Kentucky Places: Lexington Cemetery

Seeing as spring has sprung early (seriously - we had about 2.2 days of winter this year), flowers and trees are all blooming. One of the most beautiful places to watch this transformation is at the Lexington Cemetery.


Founded in 1849, the Lexington Cemetery skirts downtown with over 170 acres of land, and has has over 200 species of trees including dogwoods, color crab apples, ornamental magnolias and pink weeping cherries. Throughout the season, cemetery visitors can find beautiful gardens of annuals and perennials.

First 5 photos courtesy of Dee Fife. Last photo courtesy of the Lexington Cemetery. 

To learn more about the horticulture, or even the notable people buried on the grounds (including my mom - she is notable to me :), visit http://lexcem.org.

On Kentucky Girls and Basketball

State College Gymnasium

When I was freshly out of graduate school, I found myself working in a small office.  My co-workers were a couple of women transplanted from far-away places like Grosse Pointe and Long Island.  When March rolled around, my office had the oddest custom: they did nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary. No brackets. No surreptitious use of the office television. No bending of the dress code to accommodate school colors. No smack talk. It was like spending the spring in an odd alternate universe that had somehow planted itself in Lexington's South Side.  It sure wasn't how we do it in Kentucky.  Even when it's just us girls.

We take basketball quite seriously in the Commonwealth.  It's a perfectly justifiable position, because our teams are really, really good at the game. Tonight, as the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament kicked off, four Kentucky schools were among the competitors. Two of those schools will also send teams to the Women's Tournament.  For most Kentuckians, that translates to a very personal stake.  Everybody knows at least one person who went to UK, Western, Louisville, or Murray State.  A lot of us went to at least one of those schools ourselves.     We  raise our kids to be fans of our alma maters and the closest regional university.  We teach them to take sides in the huge in-state rivalry. When we hear of enterprising Nebraska fifth-grader Max Kohll, who made national headlines for being sent to the principal's office after starting a $5 bracket pool among his classmates, we don't know what all the fuss is about.  Even the most conservative church-goers among us think "there's nothing wrong with filling out a bracket; little Max is just learning his math and earning some spending money."

They say that, in some parts of the country, women don't follow basketball all that closely.  Apparently, sports are often construed as a "guy thing."   In Kentucky, being a basketball fan knows no gender line.  You'll never hear any "guys watch sports while the girls go shopping" nonsense around here.  You can walk into any gym in the Commonwealth-- from grade school to D-I --and  find little old grandmothers decked out head-to-toe in team colors, actively following the game and uttering the only curse words they ever allow themselves in reaction to bad officiating.   All across Kentucky this weekend, wives and girlfriends will be planning elaborate game day spreads. As we prepare our hot wing dips and cheese balls, we make sure that we won't get stuck in the kitchen at game time.  Our love of basketball is as much our birthright as wearing elaborate hats to the Derby or inheriting our grandmothers' perfectly seasoned cast iron skillets.

Every March, the nation is treated to stories of fandom and sports mania.  Some are heart-warming, some are ridiculous, and some are just insane  There are the Cinderella stories that are so beloved by the national media.  There are the guys who travel thousands of miles, never miss a game, and saddle their kids with ridiculous names.  Here in Kentucky, one of the great storylines of our obsessive love of basketball is our female fans.  There's the elderly lady whom I recently saw in my hometown Wal-Mart -- her long grey ponytail and ankle-length skirt identified her as a member of a particularly conservative Baptist sect, while her "Legacy of Kentucky Basketball" t-shirt identified her as a member of the Big Blue Nation.  There's my sorority sister Alexia, who's teaching her Baltimore-raised children about Murray State basketball through the power of cable TV and internet feeds.  There's my dear friend Jenksie, sister to a  Mr. Basketball and Wildcat alumnus, who has forgotten more inside scoop than Pat Forde ever uncovered.   There's my Mama Cindy -- mother to two of my dearest friends -- who dreamily recalls that Pat Riley was her first Wildcat crush.  There are innumerable stories of other Kentucky women who can break down a defense better than any TruTV analyst I've seen this week.  Unlike the most famous UK alumna/basketball fan, most of us even remember to put on pants with our jerseys.

Kentucky Connections

Last week, I was trying to book a flight to Chicago from work. For a while, I contemplated driving as Chicago is only 6 hours from Lexington. Did you know that 2/3 of the US population can be reached within one days driving from Lexington?

If you prefer to travel by air, there are also many direct flight options from both Lexington (LEX) and Louisville (SDF) airports, as well as from the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati Airport (CVG) which is technically a Kentucky airport as well. I'm a little less familiar with CVG's direct flights as they lost about half of their flights when Delta stopped operating there as a hub. Major sad face.

Direct flights from Lexington (LEX), although I think Las Vegas is about to go away.

Direct flights from Louisville (SDF) - newest addition is SDF to Grand Bahama Island

In the end, I chose to get a fare for less than $200 direct from SDF to O'Hare (ORD). It only takes about 75 minutes to get to SDF from LEX, and was 1/4 of the cost of the LEX direct flights. I also booked a direct flight from LEX to New York (LaGuardia - LGA) for less than $300.

So while I love the Bluegrass, it's nice to be able to conveniently escape to so many nearby places! 

What would be your favorite direct destination?

My Kentucky–Downtown Frankfort

I live in our Commonwealth’s capital city, only about four blocks from the Capitol. (That’s the first lesson you learn in my town – the difference between “capital” and “capitol.”)

Y’all. My town is beautiful. Your capital city is beautiful! I love it more than any place in the world. I hope you like it, too. Here are some of my favorite places in the old parts of town – South Frankfort and Downtown Frankfort.

I sat on the wall along the South Frankfort Presbyterian Church’s and ate lunch nearly everyday when I was a Freshman in high school. My alma mater didn’t have a cafeteria back then.

This building housed the first YMCA in town. It’s been vacant for as long as I can remember. I’ve never thought it was a very beautiful building, but a group of preservationists are working to turn it into our town’s first boutique hotel. It sits right on the Kentucky river next to what we affectionately name The Singing Bridge. This bridge, now the site of an open-grate roadbed steel bridge originally had an old-fashioned covered bridge to serve folks coming from Louisville to the Old Capitol Building.

This building was originally a post office. I know it best as the library. It’s currently owned by Kentucky State University and is being remodeled. I’d love to go up into that turret.

There is always a renovation or restoration project in progress in our downtown. I’d not noticed that this one was in the midst of one until I shot this photo and realized that the column is only partially painted. I’m not sure if this is an active renovation or if it got stalled along the way and the plans have been abandoned for exterior work. The building houses businesses and apartments.

This portion of St. Clair street used to be a pedestrian-only mall paved with bricks and lined with trees. About 10 years ago, the city revamped the mall to allow for mixed traffic use. I was devastated at the thought of it, but I have to admit that they did it well. The bars and restaurants have ample room for outdoor seating. Pedestrians have room to walk. People have room to gather and traffic flows in a single-lane, one-way pattern. The jeweler’s clock has been standing sentry over this part of town for many years (the jeweler’s been in business since 1872).

This little guy was tied to a lamp post outside the coffee shop while his owners ordered their coffee. That’s one of the great things about my town – no one will bother this dog unless it’s with scratches behind the ear. If it were a hot day, the shop owner would offer up a bowl of water for him. People care around here.

I love the paint scheme on these buildings on Broadway – the only street in town divided by railroad tracks. If I had a wide-angle lens you’d see that the buildings continue on to the left of this picture. The entire city block is filled with locally-owned businesses including a specialty wine and liquor shop, an antique store, a book store owned by a former Kentucky Poet Laureate, a café, a Kentucky artisan shop and an upscale dining spot.

Directly across from those shops stands the Old State Capitol building. It’s surrounded by a walled park featuring brick-laid walkways and a fountain and is a beautiful spot. While it was once the site of political machinations and even a gubernatorial assassination in 1900, today, the building serves as part of the state’s Historical Society and the grounds are the site of summer concerts and many picnics and playdates.

Our town, like any small town you’ll find in the South is home to a great number of churches. The ones downtown are the oldest and, to me, most beautiful. These two, in particular, remind me of England and cottage gardens (not that I’ve ever been there!). Fittingly, one of them is the Anglican church!

As a town first settled in the 1780s, Frankfort has its fair share of historic homes. These are two of my favorites.

I found this front gate decoration in front of the historic Liberty Hall. Legend has it that the house is haunted and that you can sometimes see The Gray Lady at one of the upstairs windows.

The grounds of the historic homes are open to the public. In elementary school, we would often walk to them in the spring time and spend an afternoon reading or exploring. Can’t you just imagine a garden party in this spot?

Finally, crossing back over to my side of the river, you can see where the painter Paul Sawyier was so inspired by the area.

It won’t be long until the Capitol grounds crew has these guys out and ready for photographing, again. The tulips in bloom signal spring’s arrival and prompt lots of family photo opportunities.

Just a few short weeks after the tulips, it’s Derby time!

Giovanni's Pizza

Anybody who has spent any time in Eastern Kentucky has eaten plenty of Giovanni's pizza.  It just seems like there's always been a Giovanni's location in every town along U.S. Route 23.

Giovanni's is known for big ol' pizzas that feed a crowd, making them a favorite for birthday parties and sporting events.  Their pizza buffet is a lunchtime staple in most everybody's hometown, offering all-you-can-eat breadsticks, pizza and pasta.  

Giovanni's sandwiches are a perennial favorite as well.  The stromboli sandwich (a steak hoagie with pizza sauce and cheese) and the Big Red (steak hoagie with cheese and red French dressing) are classic menu items.

My hometown Giovanni's location, in the little town of Martin, holds monthly fundraisers for the Jordan Light Foundation, a local charity (its offices are quite literally next door to the Giovanni's) that provides financial and spiritual support for families facing a medical crisis. It's always a good excuse to indulge!

Have y'all tried Giovanni's Pizza?