Memorial Day 2012

Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg, PA  Nov. 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Ugly Fabric Quilt Challenge -UFQC

BJ came for a while yesterday and was cutting her fabrics for the Mystery Quilt next Saturday.

I worked on my personal challenge and gifted BJ with a set of the same basic fabrics so it will be interesting to see what she does with hers! Today should see these blocks sewn together and maybe even borders.

Here again is the UFQC that BJ gave me and below are some fabrics that could work with them.

The red and the green/blue are from stash.

The grey/green and the red from stash, maybe it needs a stronger green?

Ugh, this fishy thing from BJ was tough, but the other three fabrics will, I hope, distract from the fishy fabric that I plan to cut in liiiiiittle bitty pieces!

The blue leafy is from BJ, not so ugly, and I found 3 fabrics that would blend.
When you see these combined with fabrics from my stash, what do you think, will it work?
The plan is for more Paper Piecing as with the previous UFQC but I want to use a different PP pattern, have to look through what I have on hand.

Five Yard Quilt

It has been a fairly productive week quilt-wise and when I tried to link up with Finished For Friday there was no current post, so here's my finish!

The Five Yard Quilt is 66" square and has been added to the "Quilts For Sale" list here. I like the pattern well enough that I am currently piecing another in a different set of fabrics [my own personal ugly fabric quilt challenge, fabrics from my own stash].

The quilting echoes the flower and leaf motif in the fabrics, using a wonderful variegated Rainbow thread from Superior Thread company.

The backing and binding are a Marcus Brother's fabric that coordinates with the front.

Andee's Pineapple Blossom Quilt

Andee's cheery, colorful Pineapple Blossom quilt is all ready to go back to her for binding.

Quilted with Superior Art Studio thread, Yucatan Gold, I love how it looks and how it sews. The design is a freehand all-over leafy floral.

The Carousel

Wordless Wednesday

Aussie Burger With The Works!

Last evening JW and I were chatting about the food we eat when in Oz, and primary in his gustatory memory are the great Aussie burgers! They are super huge, a wonderful real bread bun [not the cake-like dough American burgers are traditionally served in] deliciously drippy and filled with oh so many flavors, mmmmm yummy! It made our salivary glands anxious for a repeat so I decided to make them for dinner this evening.
Apart from the ground meat, you also need quite a few fixings that aren't normally found in American burgers.
Now I don't eat beef-well, I have eaten it once in the past 20 years, in Australia. I don't care for US beef, it's corn fed and likely filled with hormones and antibiotics. My body has enough challenges without coping with all of that.

So off to Costco this morning to buy some ground bison for the burger patties. 

The best buns for this recipe that I have found are also from Costco, they are sturdier and better tasting, these burgers need a good hefty bun!

Then you also need a couple of good free range eggs,

 my friend Gale's hens lay these lovely brown, pale green and aqua colored eggs, you'll need one egg for each burger.

In addition, prepare for each burger, a large onion slice 1/4" thick, a slice of strong tasty cheddar, a lettuce leaf, a slice of beefsteak tomato, crispy fried bacon strips, and the essential pickled beets!

A little mayo ..........and ketchup.

The burgers themselves are seasoned with finely diced red onion, salt and pepper and about half a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce for each serving. I make generous sized patties, 4-6 ozs. each and press an indentation in the center so they cook evenly.

Fry up the bacon and onion rings, then set aside and cook the burgers, about 4-5 minutes each side depending on your taste for doneness and how cold the patties are.The final minute or two of cooking place a slice of tasty sharp cheese on each patty so it melts  little. At the same time grill the insides of the buns and fry the eggs over easy, the yolks should be runny.

Spread a little mayo on the bottom half of the bun, stack up lettuce, sliced pickled beets, tomato, bacon then the burger/cheese and onion and egg on top! A little ketchup on the top half of the bun and there you have it.

Ah, such culinary bliss

One bite down............

? many to go! If you are an eagle eye you can just spot the glass of good red wine to the left of the plate, these burgers go really well with a nice red. This one was a Malbec from Argentina.

Warning, these are multiple napkin burgers.

Served with a wonderful healthy spinach salad!

I just know that when DH sees this post he may be sorry he's in CO. tonight!

Weekend Sewing

Yesterday Samantha came to sew, her second "lesson".
21x 4 patches are now sewn and this week I think she will try to sew them together. We will report further next  weekend!

Pressing as you sew is a very important step in the quilting process in order to end up with a nice square, flat top, so Samantha is learning how to carefully press all the seams at every step, then how to trim them all to the same size and shape, makes stitching together so much easier.

Thursday this little Olivia Pig quilt came off the longarm machine and is now bound. It doesn't yet have a new home, but would suit a young girl nicely.

The back is pieced from the bits left over..............

 quilted with an all-over freehand echoed heart a nod to the heart fabric in the corner blocks.
Last night the original Five Yard Quilt was mounted on the longarm and may be quilted later today. I took the little fellow to Sunday School when I went to church this morning and he's still here, his Daddy took advantage of the break to go to the gym.
It will be a quieter couple of weeks for me while DH is away in Colorado, I get very laid back about meals, minimal food prep. sort of a mini vacation!

New Challenges

In the spirit of all the quilt challenges around it seemed appropriate to challenge myself with some "ugly fabrics" from my own stash! Anything I can sew from the stash makes it possible to allow another fabric to inveigle itself into my possession!

This grouping is one of those "OMG whatever was I thinking"?! It has been hanging around longer than it should simply because I have not been able to think of a thing to do with these "interesting" fabrics. There are so many yards of the geometric that I will be using it for backing and maybe borders too, whatever it takes to get it out of my stash!

Browsing the shelves in my studio these fabrics came to light as good distractions from the ugliness of the others!

They actually fit in quite nicely don't they?

Searching for a design that would allow me to utilize these strange fabrics I remembered this Five Yard quilt pattern Leslie sent me and having already used it once I know it goes together fast and easily. This is now "kitted up " and ready to sew.
Then Angela, Modern Diary Blogspot, one of the Saturday group that meets here to sew, invited us all to join Cal's Spring Mystery that will be posted at Quilt Talk .

These are the fabrics the Mystery designer Cal has chosen for her version.

 A search through my stash revealed these fabrics that would suit my purpose. For me, the two greens are close enough to be treated as one color. Unfortunately the purple is only one yard and I will need almost another yard of something similar.

Quiltz had nothing close, necessitating a visit to 35th.Avenue Sew And Vac, where I found a fabric that is similar enough to make do.

The Mystery unfolds June 2nd. when the AZ. Huggy Bunch will meet here to unravel the clues!
Just when I was thinking I had a plan, BJ couldn't resist her own challenge to Andee and me- Andee already blogged about it here but I want to show you the "ugly fabrics" BJ has challenged us to use!

Taken separately these fabrics are not too bad but put them all together and what to do with them? Perhaps three separate projects? Help!  I may have to resort to more paper piecing.........

Rings On His Fingers...........

Wordless Wednesday

and bells on his toes?

Mother's Day

In the Anglican church when I was young we had something called "Mothering Sunday", celebrated during Lent. It was separate from "Mother's Day" and I never really understood the origin or meaning . Wikipedia has some info on it here.

My Mum went to be with the Lord in October 2001, so I have not had a mother to celebrate since then but I do celebrate the memory of this lovely Godly woman and her strong influence and prayer for us over our lives.
I wish all mothers then a lovely day with messages of love from your children- and especially for mothers who have lost a child I send blessings for love and comfort this day.
Mother's Day-or any day for that matter- is never the same when you have lost a child.

Taming The Scraps

A couple of years ago I began to use a scrap saver system described by Bonnie Hunter here.
It did help to bring some order from the chaos of all the extra bits and pieces left over from each project. That is, anything short of yardage, 1/4 yd. pieces and less that can be cut into a series of strips for future scrap quilts.
Then yesterday on the MQP group [Machine Quilting Professionals] Cindy Roth of Longarm University introduced us to a new website she has developed called "Scrap Slayer"!
Her method starts out the same as Bonnie Hunter's but instead of tossing strips into drawers she forms them into "jelly rolls", now why didn't I think of that?! Brilliant, you simply wind all the strips onto a straw, and they store neatly and compactly instead of crumpled and disorderly!
One drawer went from this.........

to this! WOW.

Now I must confess that I did remove some scraps I decided I will not likely use, 

this gallon bag will go to my very scrappy friend BJ, who never saw a scrap she didn't love! My new rule is that no strip less than 12" will be saved, that will eliminate a lot of stress for me - and pass it along to BJ, LOL.

There was enough of this fabric below to make a roll by itself, and I cut it 2.5" wide just perfect for a binding.

There always seem to be a lot of pink scraps so they are wound on pink- only rolls, ready for the next baby girl quilt.

After a search through kitchen cabinets, no straws were to be found so when DH was going to Big Lots yesterday I asked him to see if they had any straws for my jelly rolls project,

and this is what he brought me, 100 x 20" straws, a life-time supply for me and all my quilting friends!

And all for only $3, a bargain, right? You can get at least half a dozen jelly rolls from each straw, you just snip off what you don't need.

Now that my scraps are so organized I am ready for the next scrappy quilt, bring it on!

There are still a lot of extra triangles in the drawer, anyone know of a system for getting those into order?!

After a gym workout, it was time to pick up young Matthew,

who fell asleep before I could get the 5 miles home from preschool, but GF managed to get him out of the car-seat and upstairs into his bed without waking him and he slept about two hours.

Taking advantage of this brief time I made banana bread and a new batch of chocolate chip gluten free cookies for the boy.

A productive day and it's only 5:30p.m.

Since we went gluten free for Matthew I have been experimenting with recipes especially for bread and cookies. The store bought are either bland or odd tasting, gritty and nutritionally poor.

We also try to keep Matthew away from dairy as much as possible, this requires some trial and error.

The best cookie recipe so far is one I adapted from a regular recipe, as follows: 

Gluten free Cookies- Preheat oven to 375 degrees

4ozs. coconut oil at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. baking powder-I use aluminum free

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1.25 cups regular rolled oats, not instant

1 cup gluten free flour, I prefer King Arthur brand

1/4 cup white choc. chips

1/4 cup semi sweet choc. chips

Method

Beat coconut oil, sugars, bak.powder, bak.soda and salt, then beat in egg and vanilla. This sounds an odd method but it works!

In a blender process the oats and the white choc. chips till the oats are finely ground.

To the egg/oil mix add oat mixture, flour and ss. choc. chips and stir just until combined.

Drop by tablespoonsful 2" apart onto greased/oiled cookie sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes until cookies are just beginning to brown at the edges. Cool on sheet for a few minutes then move to cooling rack.

This recipe makes about 4 dozen, and doubles well for freezing.

Next I need to experiment substituting stevia for some of the sugar-I like Agave syrup but I am afraid of what all that liquid would do to the recipe.

Scrap Quilting Insanity

  Put on your sunglasses for this one! Remember the wild, insanely scrappy Wonky Scrap Log Cabin? It was one of my projects from last year's Fall retreat and turned out single bed size. How can you ever forget, once seen never forgotten; everything but the kitchen sink went into it using up leftover scraps and there's no rhyme or reason to the order!

However, since the scrap strips cost the same amount [as part of the original yardage] I try to use up as many of them as possible. It is nicely quilted with a freehand all-over stylized flower motif, Hobbs 80/20 Heirloom batting and a bright pink print backing and binding. There seemed to be a lot of pink, therefore  the pink backing from stash, making it very gender specific.

  

The scrap drawers are getting overloaded again so it must be time to make something else with them, but next time there will be a little more control of the color madness!

For now, this one is bound, whew, and it can find a new home.

 Hmmmmm, now where might I unload donate it?!

Friday Report

For a long time it has bothered me that the many visitors from other countries may not be as fluent in English as I am, and could only see the pictures and perhaps guess at the content of the post, so when Google offered this new "TRANSLATE" tool where it is possible to choose one of many languages from the drop-down menu. I immediately jumped on it and from now on you should always see the little "TRANSLATE" button at the head of each new post. I am very excited to be able to offer this to readers of other nationalities and also perhaps now to be able to read comments from them and to respond! This is a great innovation.

 BJ and I did not go to the Spring retreat in Colorado this week, a couple of reasons, my illness that left me too wiped out for an 1100 mile round trip driven over only 4 days, and BJ's dog Teddy who had major surgery last week and is needing close attention. It's very hard to leave your furry friends when they are ill. Instead we are staying in Phx. and getting things done around our homes and sewing.

This week then was an opportunity for some simple sewing piecing together a couple of backings, having spent most of the week recuperating from the vicious virus that youngest DGS brought to us no doubt courtesy of his preschool friends! These little ones are walking germs and it is impossible to prevent them from sharing said germs with each other-and then their families! Such generosity, LOL.

Constructing a couple of backings was about all I felt up to tackling once I got over the worst of the illness and could think about how to entertain myself other than reading or audiobooks- I am not much of a TV devotee.

Today, back at the gym and feeling almost"normal" again but whew, that was not fun!

The first backing above is for the pink and brown quilt 

and uses up most of that fabric collection, and some of what's still left will be used for a pieced scrappy binding.

The second, below, will back the"Olivia Pig Exercises" quilt

a top I finished at Fall retreat in Colorado last year

 Now both of these tops are ready to quilt as soon as I please because I do not currently have a line up of client quilts on which to focus and I can take the time to get a few of my own finished up.

I have come to really love scrappy backings but for me they must have some sort of "order".