Making a Spud Zapper

I won some fat quarters at the fabric shop in Humboldt, KS when I was in town for the Biblesta parade in October.  Since I don't quilt anymore, they were sitting - gathering dust.  What to do with them?

DD#3 came to visit a week or so ago and mentioned that her Spud Zapper had died a horrible death and a light bulb came on for me.  I could make Spud Zapper and Therapy Bags from the fat quarters.  AND.... I promised her I would make a tutorial so she could see how I made the Spud Zappers and could make them herself.  So here goes - 

What you will need:

• a fat quarter or about 1/3 yd of 100% cotton fabric
• 1/4 to 1/3 yd of 100% cotton batting
• cotton thread
• scissors or rotary cutter
• cutting mat (optional - only required if you're using a rotary cutter)
• an iron and surface for ironing
• pins
• ruler

Here's the fabric I chose:

This piece of fabric is about 18" x 22".  18" x 18" would be sufficient.

Press the wrinkles out.  This step is not required, but the fabric will be much easier to work with and the finished product will look much nicer when you're done.

Cut the fabric length-wise into 9" x 22" pieces.  I've folded the fabric in half here to make it easier to use on my small cutting board.

Cut one piece of batting to the same dimensions as one of the fabric pieces.

Now stack the fabric pieces right sides together then put the batting on top.

Sew a 1/2 inch seam on the short ends of the stack.

Turn the fabric to the right side so the batting is sandwiched between the fabric.  Press the ends so they lay flat and smooth.  Top stitch the ends if you wish (optional).

Fold one side of the fabric towards the center.  About 3" from the end.

Now fold the opposite end so that it overlaps the 1st end by about 2"

Sew up the sides with 1/2" seam allowance.  You may have to gently pull the fabric to sew over the thick spots.

Now you need to turn the spud zapper right side out.

Ta-da!

HOW TO USE IT:

1.  Wash 1 large or 2 medium potatoes
2.  Wrap potato(es) in paper towel.
3.  Put wrapped potato(es) in spud zapper.
4.  Microwave potato(es) for 4-6 minutes, then let sit for 4-5 minutes.
5.  Carefully remove potato(es) from spud zapper and put on plate.
6.  Prepare potato(es) just as you would a regular baked potato.
7.  Yum! Yum!

Slow police response

On my way home yesterday evening at about 8:35, I saw a little boy (maybe about 3 yrs old) walking up 3rd street alone in his stocking feet. I called 911 and notified the police.  The 911 dispatcher took asked me for a description of the child and my location, yada, yada.  The child turned up 2nd st and continued to walk while I followed him in the car until I got to my house, then I got out and tried to persuade him to sit with me on the porch steps and have a drink or a snack.  He would have none of that and took off up 2nd street again.  I followed him to be sure he didn't get hurt or anything.   There were a couple of other neighbors keeping track of us as well.  I let my husband know that if the police came to the door, that the boy and I were on the move and they could contact my cell phone.  The little boy continued to walk up the street, crossing the street at the circle and at Craigmont (never looking for traffic, thank goodness traffic was almost non-existent at that time) then heading up the hill.  I was really having trouble keeping up, he was moving really fast and I could not convince him to slow down or hold my hand or come back towards my house with me.  I could not get him to talk to me either.  He just kept saying 'walk'.  At the corner of 1st street  and Craigmont, he walked up to a house and tried to go in.  I was hopeful that this was his house and my problems were over.  When he rattled the front door knob (which he could barely reach), the people who lived there 1st looked out the window then finally came to the door.  He did not belong to him. They called 911 too.  The young man of the house was able to grab and hold the boy though, so at least we were stationery; although the boy wanted down and wiggled and squirmed trying to get away.  I was glad it was not me trying to hold on to him.

I made my 911 call at 8:35.  When I looked at my watch while the boy was being held by the young neighbor, it was 8:52.  About 5-10 minutes after I checked the time, the police finally showed up and said the mom (actually was the grandma) was on the way.  She was very distraught and said that she had inadvertently left the garage door open and the boy had slipped out.  She did not acknowledge all the people who had helped keep her grandson safe, but left with the boy and the policeman, presumably to go home.

20 minutes???? for a report of a small child wandering the streets alone. It takes me less than 20 minutes to drive all the way across town from Longview to Lotawana, why did it take them so long???  I was, to say the least, disappointed in the response time of the police.  At the same time, I was very pleased that my neighbors were all concerned and participated in protecting this child.  At least the child is safe now.

 I wrote this account down to help me remember all the details.   My memory isn't what it used to be, and I thought there should be a record of this somewhere.  As I look back on my actions, I think maybe I should have dragged the boy (even if he was kicking and screaming) into my house, or at least to the front porch, to be sure he was safe until the police got here.

WIP Wednesday: 2012-05-02

It is May already.  Doesn't seem like it's been that long since Christmas, but isn't that the way it goes sometimes.

I started an online class on Tunisian Crochet last week.  I'll do a review on the class soon.  I've already completed 2 washcloths which I will post on Friday.  Today I'm posting my WIP from the class, the Multi Garment.  It's a sort of sampler of different tunisian stitches:

Another project that has shown some progress is my Tunisian Tee.  I've finished the 1st full body block (gosh, that's sound like a wrestling term), and am ready to start the next block.  There is a Tunisian Crochet-A-Long on this project that was scheduled to be complete a long time ago, but I don't think anyone ever finished the project.  I'm struggling with the pattern a bit and not having much luck getting help.

My Bumbleberrypie afghan is resting today.  I did manage to weave in all the ends on the completed squares and will start joining them soon.  Not sure how many more I'm going to need or if I'm going to stop doing squares and start thinking about a border.

This poor shawl that I was testing for a designer on Ravelry had to be ripped back 19 rows.  Her pattern called for 200g of fingering weight yarn, which was exactly what I had in my stash and no more.  I was about 2/3 through the LAST row when I ran out.  GRRR!  In the pic below, you see the almost finished shawl.  I've ripped back to row 30 now and am omitting row 31 in order to have enough to finish the shawl.

The shawl will come with me for my hair appointment this afternoon.  Maybe I can get a little bit done while I'm sitting under the hair dryer.  I'm getting my hair cut and COLORED.  This is unusual for me, but L commented how I ought to color the gray, so I'm going to try it.  It'll probably run all over everywhere when I ride my bike and sweat glisten until I drip.

FO Friday: 2012-04-20

Yay!  I have another finished object this week.  It is a shawl that I made to test this pattern.  It came out very pretty.  It's designed to use 1 100g skein of fingering yarn.  And it used almost exactly the whole skein.

WIP Wednesday: 2012-04-18

Only 2 WIP's to comment on this week.  The others had no progress.

Bumbleberry pie afghan - I sewed in the ends on the remaining finished squares.  Now I need to sew together what I've got and see if I'm going to need more or if it's time to add a border and finish it up.

And here is the Fuschia Fiesta Shawl Pattern that I am testing for a designer on Ravelry.  I've got 22 rows done.

FO Friday: 2012-04-13

Yeesh!  Friday the 13th.  But it hasn't been a bad day at all.  I did an hour of weight training this morning followed by 45 minutes on the stationary bike and now, 10 hours later, I feel like I need to go exercise some more.  Not very likely.  LOL

One project was finished this week -

WIP Wednesday: 2012-04-11

I've got several items on the hook today:

This is a shawl pattern that I am testing for the designer.  Right now I'm on hold and waiting for the designer to get back to me with some answers to a couple of questions.

This is the swatch for the beginning of a Tunisian Sock-in-the-round CAL.  This is the pattern.

 No progress on this one this week.  I'm WAY behind in making squares for the Granny-a-day CAL.

This one is still languishing.  I've folded it up and put it in the pile on the cutting table.  Don't know when I'll get motivated to work on it again.   Here's a link to the pattern for the square.

I work on this one when I go to the laundromat.  It's almost getting too big to carry with me though.  Haven't been to the laundromat yet this week, so no progress.  Pattern is from the Interweave Fall 2011 issue.

Rats!  I've run out of the yarn for this one.  It was a cone from Pisgah & Co., that I bought when the closed their factory in North Carolina.  It's Peaches & Cream 100% cotton, but it doesn't have the same texture as the cones and skeins you can get at Walmart and other big box stores.  Not use what I'll do with it.  I could re-do it in a smaller size, maybe; or re-do it and add another color; or just frog it and save the yarn for something else.  Hmmmmmm.