Picnics, books and paper piecing

Friday night we went to Durst Winery and had a picnic.  There was salami, cheese, olives, deviled eggs, bread and fruit and mini pies from the farmers market.  We drank wine and listened to the band and talked until the sun went down and the mosquitoes came out.  It was cool for once and it turned out to be a really nice evening.  Thanks to my sister in law Karen and her guy Gabe for suggesting it and meeting us there.  There are so many great wineries within 20 minutes of our house we really should take advantage of this more often.

I've barely been in the sewing room except to retrieve a pair of scissors or iron a blouse.  I read this book, and now I'm off on a tangent reading about Permaculture, here and here.  If you like to garden, this is heady stuff.  I feel as though everything I have ever learned about gardening is all wrong, and I'm blown away by how simple and natural it can all be.  Who knew.
 I'm shamelessly copying this quilt (scroll down a bit when you get there).  I ran out and bought a few fat quarters to add to my red stash.  I would like something to show for this handwork by Christmas, but who am I kidding.  It's going to be a long slow project, and if I did nothing else, I could maybe have a table runner by the holidays.

Lastly, there has to be a place in my yard for this.  If only I could make a chicken coop like I can make a quilt.  I would have coops all over my yard!  A whole chicken village with flowers and pathways and ponds, maybe some ducks too......... 
Sigh.

I have to go vacuum dog hair.
See ya :)

Busy not sewing

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen last week.  In the garden too.  I'm trying to keep up with the weeding because it will mean less clean up come the end of Autumn.
This risotto recipe was delicious.  I added some zucchini and served it with a salad.  I will be making that again for sure.
I bought two nice bowls and a calico apron, (you know the kind that crisscross in the back?) during a thrift store shopping trip. I really like that blue bowl.
Then I made some granola, using a combination of this recipe and this one. I love to see that big jar sitting on the kitchen counter.
The pumpkins that sprouted from the compost pile are slowly ripening (there are 4 so far), and the cantaloupe are ridiculously sweet. 
The cherry tomatoes are plentiful, yet four feet away, my regular tomatoes are struggling.  The yellow and red peppers are doing great, but my jalapeno plant had exactly 3 peppers and looks like it's done.  That's gardening for ya.  You just never know.
I picked basil and sage, dried them in a 200 degree oven on cookie sheets then packed them into old glass spice jars.  Next week I'll dry rosemary, but not in the oven.  The last time I tried it, my oven and everything I cooked in it afterwards reeked of rosemary for at least a week.  It put me off of using rosemary for a while.  
I'm slowly quilting a small basket quilt and made a few pink blocks (more on that later) for my next scrap quilt, but I just haven't been in the sewing room much at all.  I felt like I needed break, so I'm just going with it.  Hopefully I'll get back into some sort of rhythm here soon.
It's August!  Fall is right around the corner.  Yippee! I can't wait :)

Little flag quilt

Every once in a while around the 4th of July, I itch to make something flag-ish. This little quilt was the inspiration, although I changed the block sizes to make them slightly bigger, and drew different birds.  I even tea dyed the white sashing, something I haven't done in years.  You can see in the photo below how the fabric darkened up a bit in the tea bath.  I soaked my quilt top in a big spaghetti pot filled with hot water and 6 black tea bags.  When it got dark enough for my liking I rinsed it under cool water and hung it on the clothesline to dry.

I took these pictures out by the garden, where the tomatoes are really starting to pop out.  I've been eating a toasted tomato and cheese sandwich almost every day this week.

Here's how I make it.
Lightly toast a thick piece of sourdough bread then spread on some mayonnaise.  Next add your just picked tomato slices, salt and pepper, and top with a few slices of your favorite cheese.  I'm really hooked on this one lately.  Put it back in the toaster oven (or under the broiler) for just a few minutes to get it all melty.  Pour some lemonade. If it's nice out, sit on the porch and devour it.  If it's 102 degrees (like yesterday), sit in the air conditioned kitchen.  It tastes good no matter where you eat it.

Almost every closeup I took had a fly on it.  Can you find it?

I ended up tying each flag corner with gold embroidery floss to finish it off.  You can see a few of them above where I was just starting.

Little quilt size 27 x 31 inches
Made with scraps
Backing fabric from French General

Stuck in the middle

Oh I'm in the middle of too many projects at once and it's getting to me. I work on something for a bit, put it down because I just saw the pile of blocks for another quilt and need to move that one along, and then remember to add a few rows to my crochet scarf, and sew the last 2 blocks of the Hillside houses quilt.  Gaaah!  It's like the wheels are spinning but I'm not getting anywhere.  Time to bear down and focus on one thing.  The top priority is the blue May scrap quilt.  Just have to sew on the binding.  Okay that's easy.  

Then the green June scrap quilt.  I'm sewing the last 5 blocks together before I cut and piece the sashing (by the way sashing is a real thing you stupid computer.  Quit underlining it and making me doubt myself and repeatedly put it through spell check.)  Doable by the end of the month (fingers crossed).

Then I have to stop and make some muffins..

These are Banana Crunch Muffins from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.  The crunch part comes from the addition of granola in the batter and sprinkled on the top.  They're also really sweet, and I cut the 2 cups of sugar back to 1 1/2 cups and it didn't affect the taste.  The bananas make it sweet as well. Great for breakfast with coffee or tea.
And just as I get all organized and prioritized this happens...

Basket blocks from Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston.  Somebody slap me.

Out of practice

 My new oven was finally installed on Saturday and let me tell you that thing is a beast.  It's shiny  and clean,  just begging for a roast chicken or a pan of cookies.  The front burners on the stove top are quite powerful and the first time I turned them on I swear I heard jet engines and my mascara started to melt.  Not being able to bake anything for the last month and a half, I was anticipating a marathon weekend in the kitchen, sporting a jaunty apron and producing loaves of fresh artisan bread, homemade Mac and Cheese and this pineapple upside down cake.
The recipe calls for a layer of pineapple, then a brown sugar/butter mixture poured over the fruit, then the cake batter.  Humming happily, I slid the pans into the oven (bonus - it makes 2 cakes in 8 inch pans) and within 20 minutes I was rewarded with the smell of sugar and pineapple and...... smoke.
I peeked inside to find that the butter/sugar mixture had bubbled up all over the racks and spilled onto the bottom of the oven. Noooooo!  So much for shiny and clean.  Next time I'll place a few pieces of foil under the cake pans to catch the drips.

About this time I proceeded to boil the macaroni over onto the stove top (I told you those burners were powerful) and then spent the next half hour with my body inside the warm oven, scrubbing off burnt caramel, burning myself, swearing, sweating, burning myself again.
What I won't do for a good meal.

Anyway when the mac and cheese was finally baking in the now clean again oven, (and I had wiped off the spilled starchy pasta water from the stove top) I sat down and cut myself a small sliver of cake (must be tested before serving right?) topped with a blob of whipped cream. (I don't know why I didn't pour a glass of wine at this point.  I mean really, where are my priorities?)  I stabbed into a piece of pineapple and my plate flipped over off the end of the table and you guessed it, upside down on the kitchen floor.  Oh please, can I clean up just one more mess?

And finally the point of the whole story, in case you thought it would never end, is that the oven performed brilliantly, but the cook was a bit out of practice. Everything tasted delicious, and I highly recommend that cake recipe.
The pictures above which have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what I was just blabbing about, are of 16 patch blocks for my May blue quilt and a scarf made with Cascade Tangier yarn in the color Sunset Beach.  It's main ingredient is silk, and so far it's real nice to work with.  Kind of reminds me of Noro, but without the swearing.

Edited to add:  The scarf pattern is Chevron Lace Infinity Scarf by Tamara Kelly.  You can find it on Ravelry.

Utility cake and quilt

I took my finished quilt out to the middle of the property, over by the old chicken coop.  The sky was white and hazy, like someone was shining a light through a glass of milk.  It made me squint.  But this quilt is so bright, especially those red blocks, I think you could find it in a snowstorm.
I started with 6 log cabin blocks, mostly made with Kaffe Fasset shot cottons, then added some Denyse Schmidt, a Phillip Jacobs floral, a pink and white seersucker, and an old plaid shirt from the Goodwill.  I was shooting for a Gees Bend/utilitarian kind of quilt made from recycled cloth. I didn't have a pattern in mind, I just figured I'd see what went together.  But while playing around with different block combinations I discovered something.
It's hard to re-create frugal, make-do quilts when you're picking from a fabric stash the size of Texas.  I had way too many choices in my cupboard. Utility quilts were usually made from Granny's old floral dress, Pa's worn work shirts, or tablecloths, or feed sacks. Whatever was handy. Because sometimes, that's all they had.  At first I threw everything I had at those log cabin blocks. It was a scrap orgy.  A scrap feast.  A scrap circus.
It looked like crap scrap.
After going back to study pictures of older utility type quilts, I realized my mistake. 
The work shirt, tablecloth, and floral dress would have been saved and put to use when there was enough to make a quilt.  Those few fabrics would have been repeated over and over throughout the quilt. I was trying too hard. As soon as I narrowed down my choices to a small handful, I got closer to the look I was after. It measures 54 x 60, and the backing was some old yardage of Robert Kaufman "Sakura" which I thought about giving away a few years ago. How silly of me.
It's not the prettiest, or most favorite quilt I ever made, but I think it was a good "lesson" quilt.

Now, have you got two apples, some flour, sugar, and cinnamon?  Of course you do.

Here is the recipe for an Apple Cake

Here are the pictures

Here are my modifications to the recipe....

It calls for a springform pan.  I have one but it would have required me to drag a chair across the kitchen to the highest cupboard and while on my tiptoes, on the chair, root around until I found it. There would have been lots of sweating and loud cursing, followed by assorted pans falling about my head.
Instead, I used my enamel baking dish which was within arms reach.

I did not have any buttermilk, so measured out 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar and added it to the 1/2 cup of milk.

I used bread flour instead of All Purpose Flour, because that's all I had.  The higher protein content in bread flour is the kiss of death if you're using it to make a cake.  But it still turned out great. (Can you tell that I really, really wanted to make this cake immediately?)

Before putting it in the oven, I sprinkled the top (generously) with raw sugar, then added sliced almonds.  This baked up to a sweet and crunchy crust.  I followed with a squirt of whipping creme right from the can. I ate some for breakfast and lunch, repeatedly.   I have no shame.

A little sugar

Well here we are deep into the Christmas season.  I've got the music playing, the tree up, the halls decked, and the daily whump of cardboard packages hitting the front porch.

I'm stacking these up in my son's half empty room while he's at school.
I can't wait to start drinking wrapping.

Anyway, I have hardly touched anything crafty this week, (I did attempt a striped crochet blanket, but after about 20 rows into it, I decided it looked like the cuff of a men's athletic sock, you know the white ones with the colored stripes at the top? Uh-gly. So I ripped it out), but did manage to finish the pillow that goes with my daughter's quilt in the last post.

 I found this free quilt pattern here, after starting her quilt.  I would like to have made the whole quilt like this, but just made one block and turned it into a pillow.  

I'm very, very far behind on my Quiltmania Advent blocks.  Seriously, I'm thinking of making only one per month from now on, thereby finishing up by next Christmas. They are a lot of fun, but I'm finding them quite time consuming.  I guess if I wasn't wasting my time crocheting blankets that look like men's socks, I would be much farther along.  Oh well.
Here are the next four blocks.

Last, but not least, what is Christmas without all those sugar-laden desserts to tempt your waistline right out of your jeans and into sweatpants?  My daughter made these while we were decorating the tree on Sunday, in the late afternoon just before dinner.  Cinnamon rolls for dinner?  Okay.
The recipe says to bake them in a cast iron skillet, but I'm sure any kind of pan will do. The icing goes on after they have cooled slightly.  Oh, and we added brown sugar in place of some of the white sugar.  Made it a bit more caramelized as you can see by the bottom of the pan. 

 Yeah, they were really good.

An 8-link post. Spreading the blog love.

While in the throes of making wonky colored quilt blocks, I did a complete U turn and started to crochet dish cloths.  I don't get it at all.  I don't even try to analyze my actions any more.

Thanks goes to Meredith, who made about a bazillion of these (and others) for the holidays.  The power of suggestion is strong in blog land. This is the Primrose dishcloth pattern, which had a broken link for a while, but has been resurrected over at Love the Bluebird.  I made a few of these a couple of years ago, and used them until they turned to rags.  The pattern is super easy and fast.  Grab some cotton yarn and an H hook, and you'll have one or two done before you need to wash the dinner dishes.

I'm also making this scarf right now, but am waiting on more yarn so I'll just show you when it's all done. Kristen made one too, so you can go have a look while you're waiting for me to finish mine.

I just finished the Orient Heights scarf made out of a bulky Louisa Harding that I had squirreled away to make a poncho that never happened.  It's really a pretty blue, very warm, and well, bulky.  I'll have to wait for a trip to Tahoe to wear this, it's just never cold enough here in the valley unless I want to go out at say, 3 o'clock in the morning.  No.

Do you like fish tacos?  I tried a new sauce recipe for fish tacos and it was quite amazing.  I used fresh cilantro and a jalapeno pepper and it was like a party in my mouth.  If you don't have a food processor, I'm sure a blender would work fine.

My latest inspiration for the holidays came from Katrin's blog.  There is an Advent calendar tutorial over on Quiltmania, and she has already completed 4 of the blocks, maybe more by the time I'm done fiddling with this post, and I have been compelled to join in.  There is a new block released every day (except weekends) up to Dec. 15th., and they are already on block 5.  I have completed 2 so far, but I am finding that I'm so anal about every little bit and bob that goes into it (plus I'm spending a lot of time searching my craft bins for said bits and bobs), that it's really taking me a long time to make just one.  If you decide to join in, be forewarned, all the instructional videos for each block are in French.  But they are well done, and it's easy to figure out how to proceed.

Heading off to start block three. Toodles.

What a weekend

I spent last weekend happily sorting through my fabric and decided to challenge myself.  I wanted to make some quilt blocks from my bin of small scraps, and not yardage from my stash.  They had to be solid or almost solid fabrics, and I couldn't use a pattern.  A fly by the seat of your pants, make it up as you go kind of quilt.  I was so fired up after reading this book- did you ever get so excited about something it almost renders you immobile because your mind is so full of ideas that you don't know where to start?- that I just started throwing fabric around the room.  When things finally settled down,  I had six 10 1/2 inch blocks, and started playing with a layout.

Kind of like Gees Bend meets the Amish.

While that was percolating, I transformed 2 old quilt blocks into pot holders.  I can always use new ones at Thanksgiving.

By the way, see that long yellow squash back there?  Perhaps you've had these before, they are called Delicata squash. I am obsessed with them right now and have been making one every week since they arrived at the grocery store.  The outside peeling cooks up soft so you don't have to remove it before eating.  I slice it into one inch rounds, take out the seeds, and lay on a cookie sheet tossed with olive oil and sea salt.  Roast at about 400 degrees until they get softened and slightly browned.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese while they are still warm.   I'm making that one with pork chops and wild rice tonight. 
Okay where was I.  Oh yeah, then last night, after watching several taped Hallmark Holiday movies (where every female main character is named Holly.  Why don't they branch out and try Noelle? I do love watching these though, no matter how corny or badly written), I got on Pinterest and found a banner for Thanksgiving.  So with midnight approaching, I warmed up the printer, dug out the glue and twine and made this.

I reduced the size of the letters to 60%, because the original printed out as big as the copy paper (too big for where I was hanging it) and I didn't have any brown craft paper, so I cut up some grocery bags instead.  I already had the small clothespins, but where were they?  No matter, I was on a mission of the most determined crafty kind, and there would be no rest until the clothespins were all present and accounted for (you know these "quick" projects are never really quick are they?).  After a half hour search through every basket, box and bag, in my sewing room I found them.  However I was one  short, so a hair clip is standing in until I can get to the craft store.  Can you spot it?  Or maybe I will leave it like that haha!

I swear the sun was coming up when I finally went to bed.  What a weekend.

Get your craft on!