Espresso

Walter was not involved with this project, but I thought I would share a photo of the ultimate retrofitting of an old espresso machine that a lab-mate designed (my contributions were minor).

You pour already heated water into the reservoir and then flow compressed air at 120 psi up the steamer tube, which forces the water through the grounds. This way you can get what a fancy espresso machine has, which is higher pressure than you can get from just steam and a brew with water at the ideal temperature just below the boiling point.

Book of Pockets

Dan and I made a book of pockets for Katie and Erin. The idea was that people could put things in the pockets, they could put other things in the pockets later, and mostly that we would make a cloth book of pockets. (Everyone loves pockets!)

First I sewed pockets on red felt (felt for sturdy pages).

then I laid out all the pages and pockets to decide the layout of each page and of the entire book.

The local hardware store was very helpful with ideas for book binding - we thought we would use wood, but decided cardboard was easier. It works very well to sew (with the machine) onto cardboard. A little fabric glue was needed to cover over the stitches and make the inside cover. Dan was the binder, I was the pocket maker.