Looks like Christmas

In Santa Fe, a common question asked by servers in restaurants is, "Red or Green or Christmas?" They are asking about chile sauce, but when I tried this recipe, Buttery Brussels Sprouts with Sage, Dried Cranberries and Pecans, I was conditioned to see the red plumped up cranberries and bright green brussels sprouts as Christmas.

You can click the link above for the recipe, but the name pretty much says it all. I decided to try it because I happened to have all the ingredients on hand.  The cranberries and brussels sprouts are an unexpected, interesting combination.

I think it would be a nice side dish for the upcoming holidays.  The author suggests adding cooked quinoa and shredded chicken to turn it into a light meal.  It could be a good candidate for what to do with leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

Time to quilt ...

The problem with modest goals is that it's too easy to put them off ... and so it is with my October goal for a lovely finish. Here's here I am ... I've layered it, basted it and this weekend I'll begin to quilt it.

Autumn Salads– Yum!

It's a sure sign that Autumn is here when I make up the bed with flannel sheets, pull out a flannel quilt and turn on the oven and start roasting things.  After seeing this recipe, I went looking for fresh figs in Santa Fe ... and settled for dried, which were apparently only available because, "they're seasonal."  Still, it made for a tasty lunch yesterday. The figs are combined with kale (massaged with lemon juice and olive oil), roasted butternut squash, shallot, pumpkin seeds and a balsamic reduction.

I thought I was all done with salad meals at the end of summer (and the end of fresh heirloom tomatoes at the farmers market), but this one was so good, it has me shifting gears and thinking about roasted vegetables and autumn salads.  

Original plan or new idea?

I had a new idea for an old project and decided to put it on the wall to help me decide. These bear claw blocks were received in a birthday block swap a few years ago.

The original plan was to make appliqué four of the tulip blocks. Lately, under the influence of Erin Russek's Jingle Bell blocks and started thinking about enlarging a block (or four of the blocks) from that quilt to use as alternate blocks.

  

You can see all of the Jingle Bell blocks on Erin's blog, One Piece at a Time HERE.  If I go this route, I'll have to decide if I'll use one pattern for all four appliqué blocks or one each of the four appliqué blocks with cardinals. 

Usually when a new design opportunity presents itself for something in progress–or in this case, parked until I am ready to appliqué all those leaves–I am attracted to the new shiny idea for a while, but usually stick with the original plan.  How about you? 

I'm joining the Design Wall Monday list on the Patchwork Times blog.  Check it out to see what other quilters are up to. 

Tools & Gadgets: Design Wall

On the Block Lotto, the topic for our October linky party is Tools and Gadgets.

I had thought to blog about all of the specialty rulers/templates I've collected and never used ... and USE one of them to make a small project.

Then, a couple days ago, I started making a set of scrappy red and white sampler blocks from this year's set of Block Lotto blocks.  I started wondering how long it had been since I put a new blade in my rotary cutter.  I couldn't remember, but after I put a new blade in, it was clear it had been far too long.  It was such a treat.  Like taking the time to clean and oil my old Singer 301, remembering to change the needle in the machine, taking my trusty Dovo scissors to be sharpened, and those other maintenance tasks, they make using our tools of the trade a joy.  So I thought I'd blog about that.

But then, as I was making, arranging and rearranging my sampler blocks, I found myself using (and appreciating) one of my most essential tools for quilting: my design wall.

I started the idea with an idea for making a simple sampler quilt from this year's 6-by-9-inch lotto blocks, with lots of white space for free motion quilting.  To get an idea of proportions (and share my idea with the block lotto community without sharing the blocks we'd be making), I created this layout.

But, somehow, seeing the blocks, life size and in-person on my design wall, the blocks seem to be placed too far apart.

Design walls, whether permanently attached to the wall or, like this one, a flannel-backed tablecloth temporarily tacked to the wall, are essential for my process.

(The November and December blocks aren't shown, but will be part of the quilt).

I use a design wall to create a quilt design organically, arrange (and re-arrange) a scrappy set of blocks until the colors and values feel just right, or, like now, tweak the proportions and play with the negative space to suit my design esthetic. If I'm not sure, leaving something on the wall over night (or for a few days while I work on something else) is always a good idea. I often walk into the studio first thing in the morning, look at the project on the wall and know what it needs ... or that it's good and needs no more.

I'm joining the linky parties on the Block Lotto and WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced.

October's Theme: Leaves

Whether it's the season or a bit of synchronicity, October is here and, for me, it's all about LEAVES.

Almost four years ago, I sent this little journal quilt to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Iniative. It was chosen to be part of their traveling exhibition, Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope, and is now part of their October auction.  Here's the link to my quilt's page on the AAQI site and you can bid on it here.

The design was inspired by a real tree with a real last leaf that hung on through winter behind the little house where I lived in Lansing, Michigan.  The completed quilt moved with me to Dallas, Texas, where I was living when I sent it to AAQI (back in Michigan).

You can see all the quilts in the October auction here. These are half of the little quilts from the traveling exhibit; the rest (along with some celebrity quilts) will be part of the last AAQI auction next month.

Because of some other projects going on this month, I set another modest goal for October's Lovely Finish: to finally quilt and finish and hang ("done done") this small quilt.

The maple leaf blocks measure 3 inches and were received as part of an exchange years ago.

Of course, the fact that I haven't managed to finish it for YEARS may indicate that, for some reason, it really isn't such modest of a goal for me ... I think I have been afraid of not being able to do it justice until now.

The last of October's Leaves are these Oak Leaf blocks, made for this month's Block Lotto.  This is the virtual quilt that I put together from photos of early blocks.

If you like the Oak Leaf block, you can find my  free block pattern the Block Patterns page.  Click over the Block Lotto, if you like it enough to join in this month's lotto.

When I was working on the block pattern for the Oak Leaf, I saw that it could be constructed from half-square triangle units ... and thought it might be a good choice for scrap-busting.

The directions for making this version of the leaf is included in the Oak Leaf Block pattern as a bonus.

I can definitely see a rainbow of scrappy oak leaves in my future. rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014?

Ring Around the Lone Star - September's Lovely Finish

It seemed like a modest goal ... but still took some effort for me to complete it.  This 60-inch square quilt top now feels "done" and and ready to be quilted. Somehow the addition of those quirky feather-inspired leave shapes–that I know wouldn't have been everyone's choice–makes it more "me."

Along the way, this quilt now has a name, Ring Around the Lone Star.  It's my completed project for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  This project has helped me push myself even when I continue to have little or no inclination to quilt ...

Playing with Color and Stepping Outside Our Color Comfort Zone

I think we all have our go-to colors and color combinations whether it's for quilts, the clothing we wear or the way we paint and decorate our homes.

I was thinking about color and how I choose colors today, as I went on my own little color hunt in search of fabric for a blouse that would work with a chunky cotton cardigan that was an impulse buy a couple years ago.

I love the mint green with gray color combination, but I always end up wearing it over a white shirt or gray knit top because I have nothing else,  Today, on my way home from the farmer's market, I decided to see if I could find any fabric that was a color match for the mint green which could become a blouse.  As I was waiting in line at the cutting table, the ladies in front of me were so excited that it had sailboats–they had apparently just been looking for sailboat fabric for a quilt. I confessed to them that I bought it solely for the color.

For me, sometimes finding the right color is as easy as matching something that I like.

A few years ago, I was thinking that I wanted to try making a quilt from bright colors, so I decided to use brights for a set of Quilt-Along blocks that I would be making. Not knowing where to start, I chose a Laurel Burch print and decided to use it in each of my blocks.

As I blogged my progress with these blocks I received a lot of compliments on the colors/fabrics I used.  I did make a couple rules for my blocks, liking including both warm and cool fabrics and a black and white print in each, but, it was using using the color palette in the Laurel Burch fabric that gave me confidence that it would work.

The idea worked so well for me that when I was choosing colors for the big traditional feathered star blocks I've been making and sharing on the Daily Feather, again, I chose a fabric from my stash on which to base my choices.  Here's the fabric, Provence, from Michael Miller (and oldie that has been waiting in my stash for the right project) and the five blocks I've made so far.

I think the role of the inspiration fabric is less obvious in the feathered star blocks than in my bright QAL blocks, but, I'm confident that the result will still be a good one.

As I look at the blocks on the wall, I've been thinking I need to make more blocks with purple.



Seeing the photos of the fabric and the blocks, side by side, I can see that while I have used the same colors, I need to also consider the overall proportions in order to achieve the feeling of Provence.

We used a similar approach, earlier this year in the Tea Towel challenge, where the colors to be used in the quilt were supposed to be determined by the colors in the tea towel.  My choice was a 1950's reproduction with a limited 4-color palette. It was a great exercise for me to limit myself ... and it was another project that, as I worked/blogged along, received a lot of comments and compliments about my color choices.

I think taking color inspiration from fabric, a photo or other work of art is a great way to climb out of our color comfort zone and try something new.

Speaking of new, yesterday, I was looking through the greeting cards in my desk and found some color palette inspiration for the stenciled feather on silk I made as part of my Daily Feather project.

The image is of a Picasso painting, Two Girls Reading, an oil on canvass that I'd seen at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. I bought the card to remember the painting and what was, to me, an unusual combination of colors.  When I saw it again yesterday, I immediately thought of the gold silk noil fabric on which I'd printed the black feather.  My original plan when I stenciled that feather was to make a pillow cover, but it continues to assert that it wants to become an wall quilt.  I have some ideas for design elements, but I've been stuck on finding the right colors to add ... until now.

Thank you, Pablo Picasso.

How do you step outside your color comfort zone?  This month, I've asked the Block Lotto community to Blog about Color.  I'm adding this post to the linky party happening over there.  Have you blogged about color?  Feel free to join us.

My Continuing Chile Education

If you ask the vendors at the Farmer's market about the relative hot-ness of the chiles they sell, they will inevitably tell you that they're either "mild" or "medium hot" ... or they'll say something along the lines of, "you can never tell, they might be mild but sometimes you get a hot one."

I figured the only way to decide which ones were for me was to taste my way through the farmer's market during the season.



These are Padrones.  They originated in Spain and are quite mild.  I like them prepared simply,  blistered in a hot pan with a little olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt–Bon Appetit's recipe is here.

The Japanese Shishito chiles are also quite mild and lovely.

There are a lot of varieties being roasted at the farmer's market and in parking lots all over Santa Fe.

Most of the chiles at the farmer's market are identified in some way.  Sometimes a grower will confess, "I don't remember what kind of seeds we planted." Most come with some sort of signage.

Some of the names are regional, some have an appended, "improved."  The Alcalde Improved that have become a favorite of mine are derived from Espinola Improved. The name is, in part, regional and also reflects the growers selection process.



These red beauties came home for their taste test this week. They're sweet peppers and not chiles at all ... but I couldn't resist them.

I plan to use them in a version of a recipe I found on Kate's blog, Black Pepper Tofu.


The peppers below aren't chiles either, but aren't the colors glorious?

September's Lovely Goal

Remember this almost finished effort from a couple months ago?

 

While I have been not quilting, sewing or otherwise creating, I think my subconscious has been thinking about a couple of these lovely works-in-progress ... and now I am ready to come back to this one and complete the design.  It's my goal for a lovely finish in September.  

If it happens quickly, I may even finish up last month's project ... as I have also worked out some border decisions in my head for this one during my creative funk. 

I guess even when I'm not actively sewing my brain doesn't stop solving the creative challenges in quilt design–Stay tuned to see what I've come up with to resolve these quilt designs ;-) 

Parked on my Design Wall

In the last few weeks, I seem to have lost my will to sew ... and the projects parked on my design wall reflect that.  But since there are a few new blocks (and a new block pattern), I've decided to share.

Fabric is cut to make more of the traditional feathered star blocks ... but I have made only minimal progress.  I joked with a friendly a while ago that I probably should re-label The Daily Feather blog as The Occasional Feather, unless I get back on track soon.

The pieced curve bird blocks are still waiting for the design idea in my head to be translated to paper.

The recently ordered charms to be used with the drunkard's path panel have arrived and  so the only thing holding me back from making progress is ... myself.



The tall variations of the traditional Oklahoma Boomer blocks are for the September Block Lotto.

I had a lot of fun dressing the Boomers in back-to-school clothes.

You can download the pattern from my Block Patterns page and find the guidelines we're using for the block lotto here:

September is Boom Goes-Back-to-School Month

Will I find my creative mojo in September?  As much as I don't feel like sewing, I am missing it ... so I'm hopeful.  What do you do when you just don't feel like quilting and want to restart the create urge?

My Quilter's Origin Story

This weekend, I've asked quilter's in the Block Lotto community to share how they learned to quilt and became quilters.

I did not grow up in a family with a quilting tradition–my mother sewed garments and saved all the scraps from the clothes she made for me and my siblings and always talked about quilting. While she did make a cathedral window quilt for me as a wedding gift–sewn completely by machine–using many of those scraps, it was the beginning and end of her quilting experience.

So, how did I become a quilter?

I can't remember exactly what sparked the idea of making a quilt when I was a teenager, but I do remember the attempt. I used this book and chose to make a Drunkard's path quilt.  The book, Award Winning Quilts, by Effie Chalmers Pforr, was published in 1974 and includes patterns for winners in a quilt block competition.

One of the requirements of the contest was that the block had to be completely stitched by hand!  All the pieced block patterns include templates and the book describe how to create templates from sandpaper.

I remember that my first attempt at quilting began with this book and block pattern. I started with one block–made in a combination of blue and orange solids.  Mine was not stitched by hand–I knew how to use a sewing machine and used one.  But I never got past that first block.   It became a lovely, graphic pillow cover ... and I didn't think about quilting again for a couple of decades ... although, like my mother, I sometimes bought fabrics for a one-day quilt.

While living in a small community in the California Wine country, my interest in quilting was sparked again and a chance meeting with a friend-of-a-friend, who taught quilting and became my quilting friend. I don't have most of my early quilts because they were made for gifts for my family, but I do have my first quilt, made in a paper foundation piecing class taught by my friend.

When I took this class, I had no quilting fabrics and wasn't quite ready to invest in any–I showed up at class with two cotton shirts. A fellow classmate gave me the white-on-white that I used for the inner border on this little 12-inch quilt.

Being a geek, as soon as I started quilting, I went online, looking for quilting information and found online communities of quilters discussing quilting and swapping fabrics and quilt blocks. I think I signed up for two swaps on my first day. The 4-inch wide strips and 10-inch squares that I swapped became the basis for my scrappy stash.

As I flipped through the blocks in the book again, lately, I realized how much those with curved elements appealed to me from the beginning. I thought it was time to think about that Drunkard's Path pattern again.

This time, I didn't make templates and carefully cut the fabrics with scissors ... I used a die to cut the pieces from a charm pack of Stonehenge fabrics and some mottled batik, with the idea of creating a stone path.

A package of 36 charms plus background became seventy-two 3 1/2-inch square Drunkard's path units. The little notches in the die made it easy to line things up when I sewed them together.

I played on the design wall, arranging, rearranging and playing with proportions before sewing them together into the 21-by-42 inch panel above.

I have some ideas about what comes next in this quilt design ... stay tuned.

If you would like to share a link to your quilting origin story, join in the linky party below.  (I'm sharing this list with the Block Lotto Weekend update, so you only need to add your link in one place.)

An Appliqué Adventure

Here's the result of my Sunday night (and Monday night) slow stitching.

It is #50 of my 365-project and will likely become a cover for a throw pillow.

The large size of the appliqué and the many seams in the crumb-pieced black and white made fabric, gave me the idea of using a new-to-me technique for securing/marking the appliqué: back-basting.


The leaf silhouette is the same I used to produce the tiny pink feather pincushion which was my first project in the series of 365 feather-related efforts.  I enlarged it to 8-by-16 inches and then used it as a reference when putting together the small scraps from my black and white scrap bin.


Earlier this year, a friend explained back-basting to me in a way that I finally got it ... but didn't actually try it until this week. Although the feather shape was lightly marked with a chalk pencil on the front and not the back, I used the back basting technique to stitch along the marked line to secure the two pieces of fabric together (with red thread).

Rather than attempt to turn under the edges of the black and white crumb-pieced fabric, with all those seams and the extra fabric in those seams, I used reverse appliqué and needle-turned the teal batik background and stitched it down to the black and white fabric underneath.


I removed the basting and cut away the background fabric a few inches at a time, revealing the black and white fabric underneath, a little at a time. after all the applique was done, I turned the piece over and cut away the excess black and white fabric from the corners.

I loved how the back-basting technique held the fabrics in place–especially that skinny little feather spine–and, although it added to the time to prepare the piece for appliqué, I know I'll be using it again ... and I'll be using more made fabric in appliqué, too.  As an experiment in trying something new, this project was a win-win for me.

I'm linking this post to the lists for Esther's WOW (on Tuesday in the US) and Angie's Appliqué Tuesday ...  on Wednesday and WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced.

(I confess that one of the reasons I think that appliqué appeals to me right now, is that I'm brushing off my skills and finding the courage to begin Esther's fabulous Love Enwined BOM).

A New project on the Design Wall

I guess I was on a roll ... because I couldn't resist spending some time this afternoon continuing the scrap bin clean-out.

I sorted out the black and white scraps and made more fabric. The piece on the design wall is approximately 10 by 16 inches, as is the enlarged feather drawing I plan to use for some appliqué. beginning tonight as my Sunday evening slow stitch project.

Earlier today, the curb-pieced flying geese, now sewn together, came off the design wall. It's resting while I make a border decision. I had a little brainstorm today ... I'm excited.

(I know it doesn't look so different, but it now has sashing between the strips of geese :-)

A Foodie's Favorite Time of Year

It's that time of year, when any trip to the local Farmers Market means many tasty meals and new things to try.

I was disappointed that the goat cheese ladies didn't have their feta this week, but happy to find a basket of beautiful heirloom tomatoes on a table in the corner inside. I came home with three of the beauties, picked up some quinoa-millet bread at the gluten-free bakery on the way, and knew I'd be making Panzanella for lunch today.

Panzanella is an Italian bread salad made from mostly tomatoes and bread.


Today, I tried this recipe for Heirloom Tomato Panzanella from the blog, What's Gaby Cooking?  The bread became garlic herbed croutons, I added some yellow cherry tomatoes to the heirlooms and made a fresh vinaigrette, with lots of basil.

Yum.  

I wasn't the only one excited about all the beautiful veggies and fresh herbs that came home with me from the Farmers Market ... Johnny thought the green tops of the organic beets were irresistible.

It's also that time of year when chile roasters are being set up all over town.  I bought chiles, both fresh and freshly roasted, too, and told myself I was going to taste my way through all the varieties available this year as part of my continuing chile education.

Plain Geometry Amish Quilts Exhibit

Friday evening, I went to see a small exhibition of Amish Quilts at the International Folk Art Museum.

Although I could argue with some of the information provided as educational facts by the curator, I enjoyed the quilts very much.

I thought this 1950's quilt, identified as "Windows,"  from Indiana was quite modern looking.

I especially liked the asymmetric placement of the colored bars and the detail of how the design was continued into the outer border. 

I think I liked this wool, monochrome log cabin made in Lancaster County, PA, c. 1885,  mostly because I have never seen anything like it. 

The quilter in me wonders about just how boring making all those blocks from one fabric would be ... but I like the effect. It is also meticulously hand quilted along every one of those seams. 

I rarely add plain borders to my quilts, but I loved the effect and the proportions of this one, on a Trip Around the World quilt made in 1935 in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. 

As you might expect, there is some lovely quilting in that wide border, too. 

Another border detail that made me smile was on this Drunkard's Path quilt, made in Holmes County, Ohio, c. 1928. 

The appliquéd shapes are the quarter-circles left after the drunkard's path pattern was cut from the fabric.  What a great way to use all those small scraps.

Although I never found the hexagons in the quilt below, labelled "Bowties and Hexagons," made in Pennsylvania, c. 1932 from wool and cotton, I loved the way the quilter played with color and value in this quilt ... and the secondary pattern of 8-sided OCTAGONS was pretty cool, too. 

I couldn't figure out how to embed a Flickr photoset as a slide show into this post, but you can click over to Plain Geometry Amish Quilts Exhibit, a set on Flickr, to see detail photos of these five quilts, as well as my photos of the rest of the exhibit.  Note that the names of the quilts are as they were identified by the curator.  You might disagree with a few of them (I know I did ;-)

If you are in the area, the exhibit continues through September 2.

As this is how I spent my Friday night–not exactly stitching, but definitely being inspired to stitch ... I'm joining Friday Night with Friends. Maybe some of my friends will be inspired, too.