Creative Living — Centerpiece creation tips coming

Information on making a quilted pieced placemat, creating centerpieces and learning to use a serger will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and noon Thursday (all times Mountain).

Designer and seamstress, Patty Dunn will show how to weave fabric strips to make a quilted pieced look. She’ll also show placemats and purses that have been made with this technique called “line dancing.” She is a business owner in Corpus Christi, Texas.

link Sheryl Borden

Patty Waid says creating beautiful centerpieces is like adding “jewelry” to your event. She’ll present a close look at the basic elements of design that help to set the foundation for building centerpieces with a “wow” factor. Waid lives in Albuquerque.

Kerri Forrest is going to talk about sergers. She’ll explain what they can do, how to select one and then demonstrate some of the basic stitches. Unlike traditional sewing machines, sergers trim the fabric, sew the seam and finish the edge at the same time. She is from Clovis.

Information on making a 3-dimensional candy house, preparing healthy recipes, and making sculpted dolls will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” noon Tuesday and 2 p.m. Saturday.

Nancy Siler will demonstrate how to decorate a stand-up house using candy, cookies and gum, and she’ll also display a dog house, a school house and a flower house. She from Woodridge, Illinois.

Kristin Kuhlmann, formerly with Eastern New Mexico University Health Services, will share healthy recipe ideas for persons with diabetes, and she stresses that “the closer we can get to nature the better.”

Sewing expert and designer, Lois Boncer will show how to make sculpted dolls. She’ll also show how to make and attach hair, eyes and wings for angel dolls. She’s from Carlsbad, California.

Healthy Eating with Diabetes

Adults with diabetes have an increased risk for:

1. Heart disease

2. High blood pressure

3. Kidney disease

4. Vision loss

5. Circulatory problems

Keeping the blood glucose or sugar level controlled is the key to living healthy with diabetes. Everyone, not just people with diabetes, can take advantage of the healthy, well-balanced daily “diet” that is recommended for good glucose control. First of all, the closer we can get to nature the better- whole grain cereals and breads, fresh, frozen or canned vegetables, lean meats and proteins, foods without added sugars, fats and salt. Foods high in fiber help to reduce cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels. Also, eat — don’t drink — your calories. Limit fruit and vegetable juices, and items like sweetened tea and regular soda can raise blood sugar levels dangerously high.

Another topic is portion versus serving size. In order to control blood sugar levels, knowing the serving size of a food is very important.

Serving Sizes

• 1/2 cup = a tennis ball or a handful (rice, beans, pasta, frozen or canned fruit, corn, and peas)

• 3 oz. = a deck of cards or the palm of a woman’s hand (meat or fish serving)

• 1 cup = 1 coffee cup (dairy products, many vegetables)

• 2 tablespoons = 1 golf ball (peanut butter, salad dressing, sour cream)

• 1 teaspoon = 1 quarter (butter or margarine serving)

• 1 waffle/pancake = CD or DVD

• 1 baked potato = computer mouse

“Creative Living” is produced and hosted by Sheryl Borden. The show is carried by more than 118 PBS stations in the United States, Canada, Guam and Puerto Rico and is distributed by Westlink of Albuquerque.