Succumbing to Peer Pressure on Easy Street


So a few Twitter folks talked me into it. They talked me into walking down Easy Street with Bonnie Hunter and the crew.
Today I simply dug out my probable fabrics. May still swap some out. I still have a couple of weeks to live with them until it starts.


Care to join along?

Katie of Katie's Quilting Corner, Pam of Hip to Be a Square, and I have a Flickr group for anyone who wants to walk on Easy Street with us.

I've also set up a group in Threadbias (because you can post pics to Flickr and then simply import them into your Threadbias account--easy peasy to post them in two places at once).

Tomorrow is my sew day with my guild peeps. I've made pumpkin bisque with smoked gouda for our potluck lunch. I really have to remember to post that recipe someday. I guess I should start doing Food Fridays again, eh?

Of Pizzazz and Possibilities (and Soup)

Of Pizzazz



The center is pieced! Woot!

Debating borders. I have two fabrics left from this set that haven't been used yet. Both give some very interesting possibilities, but would take some finagling.

But maybe I don't want borders at all. I like the sort of vague ambiguity it leaves as it sort of wanders off the edge with no defined end.

I might ultimately want it bigger, though, so it can be more easily used as a cuddle quilt.

Pondering...

Of Possibilities

So here's the thing. I've already got a line-up of projects I want to do. The bins are sitting coaxingly on the floor near my sewing room door, just waiting for me to grab-and-go.

And yet...people are talking about Easy Street.

Who started this in my head? It was (like so many things) a conversation on Twitter among some of my tweeps. Was it @ddrquilter? Perhaps @Quiltedmagnolia? Or should I blame @quiltcabana? I know not to blame @Craftygardenmom due to her very succinct, but unrepeatable response indicating that clearly they had tempted her as well as she wasn't any too keen on it. I came in very late to the conversation--just to catch enough to get me thinking. And heading to Bonnie Hunter's website "Quiltville." And checking out her new mystery quilt that starts this month.

Kate from my guild did Orca Bay last year. It was gorgeous. But I'd watched her working on it at a retreat or two and had followed a lot of blogs of folks working on it--I know it was hard work! My first thought when I heard folks talking about Bonnie's new mystery quilt was, "I don't want to get into that. I have other things I want to get done!"

And yet Bonnie promises this one is going to be easier than Orca Bay. So maybe I could work on it and still have a life.

I emailed Kate to find out how she liked doing Orca Bay. So now she's working me over too: "Do it, do it, do it!"

Still haven't decided. I do, after all, still have those other projects in bins. Staring at me.

(And Soup)



Homemade chicken and rice soup tonight.

'Nuff said.

Banned Book Challenge Giveaway Winner Announced

Tanesha of CraftyGardenMom and I had a ball co-hosting the Banned Book Challenge Giveaway. Let me just start by saying, however, that Tanesha definitely wins on having the best blog posts about it! I was so tied up in my travel schedule during the challenge that I wasn't able to hold up my end of the stick as capably. However, never fear: We're already making plans for next year! Woot woot!

So, get out there and start reading some banned books!


I want to point you in the direction of Tanesha's blog post announcing her winner, and she also gave a very nice list of all who entered. Be sure you read it!

Meanwhile, my winner is (using the random number generator): SewExcitedQuilts! Jackie, woot! And I guess you were probably wondering what you were winning. Jackie, I'll be sending you a...

$25 gift certificate to EQuilter.com


As always, my rule is you have to send me pictures of whatever you make with the fabrics you win in any of my giveaways. I'll expect those pictures next week. Tee hee.

It was so much fun seeing how everyone interpreted their books and the inspiration for this challenge. I want to thank fionaogre, cyprium_misty, marisa-dot-onebyone, sewexcitedquilts, marissa_l (give the kids hugs from me!), jenny, and landscapelady (Tanesha's winner) for playing along. I also want to send a huge big thank you out to Tanesha for jumping on this idea and really running with it. It was so much fun working with you on this, Tanesha. and I've already got next year's on my calendar. Yes, we WILL plan ahead next time!

Okay, I've been brewing some thoughts about my 2013 challenge giveaways. So be listening in on my next few podcast episodes as I start giving you information about the next one. You can probably guess what it is--it's almost a new year, hint hint.


Total Color Tuesday--Splits and Points

Happy election day! Have you voted? 


I looked ahead at how many color harmonies we still had to go in this book, and there are a lot. So the rest of these posts will be looking at two or three at a time. Mostly, those pairing/triplings will be very related color harmonies that are simply variations on each other. These two for this week, however, are two distinct color harmonies.

Splitting the Opposite

Making alien antennae with my color wheel. 'Cause that's how I roll.

This one is a variation on the basic complementary scheme, in which you choose one color and then jump across the color wheel to find its opposite. This time, however, when you find the opposite, you use the color to each side of it rather than using the complementary itself. This way you still get the excitement of the complementary harmony (which tends to be visually energetic), but more interest using more colors.


So, in my case, I started with purple, and then moved across to yellow. If I were to use this scheme, then, I'd be making a quilt with purple, yellow-green, and yellow-orange.


Rummaging through my stash, I came up with an approximation of what that might look like.

I have this wonderful purple print that someday I'll actually use.

In itself, it pretty much encapsulates this color harmonie, although there's some deeper reds and a straight-up yellow in there as well. I know in the past I tried not to cheat like this, but I just don't have a big enough stash to be a purist all the time!

So the green on the left is about as close to yellow-green as my stash gets, and then the yellow-orange on the right is my close-enough there as well. It's a little more yellow than orange, but it's pretty close

Using the Joen Wolfrom 3-in-1 Color Tool was fairly problematic for me again--it leads towards a much tighter mix of colors than what my stash can handle.

But hey, I got to play with chartreuse! (I've heard rumor that it's Frances of Off-Kilter Quilt's favorite color. Tee hee.)


I did actually have something that could be considered chartreuse in my stash. Go figure.

I think I came pretty close on these, didn't I? I'd never make a quilt out of this particular set of fabrics, though. I'd want to work with a wider selection to make this color harmony really sing.


Four Points on a Square

Issue an all points bulletin!

Yep, we're using compass points here, although you could choose any four colors, as long as they're equally distributed around the wheel. Technical term: tetrad. Roll that one out at a party to impress the troops, as my high school history teacher used to say.

This time, of course, you're combining two sets of complementary colors. So you've got some visual pizzazz again, but more variation for interest.

For simplicity's sake I started again with purple and yellow, since that's how I started above. This time, though, you would use the yellow, and then you'd also be using blue-green and red-orange.

I find this an odd combination. I think I'd like it better if I shifted everything one to the right--red-violet, orange, yellow-green, and blue. But that's just me.


I messed and messed and messed with this one, and just couldn't find a combination of fabrics in my stash that would work in the four colors the color wheel indicated.

Here's my best attempt. Ick.

This is one that I'd definitely have to take the color wheel into a quilt shop to find four fabrics that really work well together.






The Wolfrom Wheel (that's got a better ring to it, doesn't it?) actually worked in my favor this time--I liked the particular hues this one indicated together much better.

Violet, aqua green, red, and yellow. I could dig this.

Play time!

Your turn! As usual, link up your blog posts as you play with these color harmonies. Let me know what you think--have you, or would you,actually use either of these types of harmonies in a quilt?

Sunday Progress--9-Patch Pizzazz

It was a quiet Sunday morning. We had our first snow. Sam was pensive as he watched. 
 
 
 
Later, we cleaned. I knew it was time to stop cleaning when blocks from my design wall decided to leap directly into the path of the oncoming vacuum cleaner.

 

By the time I'd hauled the vacuum all over the second floor, plus cleaned out a closet and two vanity cabinets and hauled all resulting garbage (it's been awhile) to the garage, I wasn't sure I was up to sewing. 

So I organized myself. 

This design means you can't sew blocks in rows. You must chunk. Jaye would be happy. 
 I just need to plan that out so I don't end up accidentally having set-in seams anywhere. 

Then I decided to do myself the favor of figuring out my seam pressing in advance too.


Those Fons & Porter directional pins have come in handy many a time. No, you don't absolutely have to press seams in opposite directions, but it sure can help.

I did get two chunks sewn, but I'm calling it quits for the day. It's a quiet, cold evening; time to sit in front of the fireplace with a quilt magazine or two while dinner's in the oven.

Saturday Progress--Organizing and Dreaming

Here's the latest version of the potential layout for my 9-Patch Pizzazz:
I think this is probably going to be the one. I posted it to Twitter and Threadbias to get opinions and people seemed to pretty much all agree it works. It's tough on this one to balance those two big blue blocks. My other 9-Patch Pizzazz had so little contrast it really didn't matter how I laid it out. This one has been trickier.

While I was waiting for responses from my online quilty consultants, I did some cleaning and organizing. I'd posted my niece's quilt on Threadbias and was remembering that the pattern was fairly easy and thought, "Gee, I could use up some fabrics from my stash pretty easily if I made another of these." So I pulled the pattern out and dug through my stash.

The pattern is on the right; the fabrics I'll be using are on the left. The red is really jumping out in this picture--it's really not quite that brilliant in real life. Bright, but not eye-dazzlingly so.

That's now in a bin ready to go with me to my guild sew day next weekend--I finally get to go to one! The pattern is easy enough I should be able to get it mostly pieced in one day.

(I love those fabrics--that'll be a keeper for me. Woot!)

Then I started thinking about potential Christmas gifts. May not actually get it done but thought it might be worth a shot. We have a couple of family friend-kids that should get quilts from "Aunt" Sandy, so if I can pull it off, hey, it would be nice. If not, no sweat--they'll get birthday gifts sometime in 2013.

One is a teenage girl. I've queried what her fave colors are. Meanwhile I'm contemplating a stack n' slash using these fat quarters:
 
And I also pulled out one of my favorite table runner patterns that uses charm packs. Yep, had a Christmas charm pack. I could use some more Christmas table runners.
 
So now I've got my collection to go to my sew day next week.


Hmmm. One would think I'm excited to finally be home for several weeks on end. Think my eyes are bigger than my sewing machine, so to speak?

Total Color Tuesday Returns! Woot! One Color and 3 Opposites

After something like a five or six month hiatus, Total Color Tuesday is back! We're getting close to the end of the book so I really wanted to finish this project. Since it's been so long, you might want to review past Total Color Tuesday posts.

This time we're looking at one color with three opposite colors.


So, for this one, you choose what your main fabric color is going to be. This might be your focus fabric, or just the color you start with. "I want to make a blue quilt," you might say, "But I want it to have some zip!"

Zip there is when you go directly across the color wheel to find its complement. (Remember that term from a few months back?) In this case, the complement to blue, using our traditional 12-point color wheel, is orange.

For this scheme, then, you also pull in the two colors on either side of that complementary color. In our example, you'd also be including yellow-orange and red-orange.



I dug into my stash. We've already established in previous Total Color Tuesday posts that I'm lacking in the orange department of my stash. That hasn't improved over the last several months that TCT has been on hiatus. However, I do have a fabric that's got both orange and yellow-orange in it, and then another that's got orange and red-orange in it. So in my example, I decided to use three fabrics to cover four colors. Probably not quite kosher, but it works for me. I could see doing a funky star quilt with this combo.




Again, if you recall, part of my challenge to myself on the TCT posts is also to look at the Joen Wolfrom 24-point CMYK color wheel to see if it would be different.

In this case, it didn't feel very different.





So now it's your play time! 

Put your linky here with a blog post of your own playing with color!

Found Time--and Some Quilt Progress (WIP)

So my eponymous (sigh) hurricane downed our offices server-wise (we're based in Valley Forge, PA), so I ended up with today off. I could've spent the day working on another closet, but I'm a firm believer in "Found Time." When you end up with time you didn't expect to have, you should enjoy it! Thus, off to my sewing machine I went.

If you've been able to listen to the podcast episode I posted right before the storm hit on Monday evening, you'll know I'm working on a challenge project for my guild. If you haven't been able to listen to it yet, you might need to wait a bit. The podcast host servers also seem to be down now so if you didn't download it the night I posted it, you might not be able to for a few days. Sorry about that!

So, to recap for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about--this is the Untouchables Challenge, in which the challenge is to use that fabric that's been on your shelf for a long time and you (1) haven't wanted to cut into it because it's too pretty and you're sure you'll ruin it; (2) it's a tricky fabric and you're just not entirely sure how to use it; or, (3) it's butt-ugly and you can't imagine what you were thinking when you bought it.

Fortunately, my fabric for the challenge falls into categories (1) and (2). It's a McKenna Ryan collection. In my podcast episode, I talk about how I ended up landing on the technique I'm using so I won't go into that here. The nutshell version: It's the 9-Patch Pizzazz technique by Judy Sisneros.

Right now the blocks are all just hanging out on my design wall--I haven't actually figured out my final layout yet. This layout was simply me seeing whether I had enough blocks to work with.

I'll eventually have it in a layout that helps your eye travel more and blends better. It's very low contrast intentionally--sort of a spa feel. I may do something with the border to give it more definition. Or not. Haven't decided yet. I need to let it brew for a bit.

I think the colors blend in person better than they seem to in this picture. Lighting issues.

I made a 9-Patch Pizzazz a few years back. This one is named "Roman Pizzazz." It hangs in my dining room most of the year until I switch it out with a flag quilt that hangs from Memorial Day to Labor Day (or, like this year, until tonight when I realized, "Yeesh--the flag is still up!").

It's named "Roman" because the focus fabric felt very romanesque to me. Other than the border quilting which you can see pretty clearly in this picture, I quilted the rest of it with climbing leaf vines to give it an ancient ruins-kind-of-feel.

Whenever you do listen to my episode, you can probably see what I mean when I referred to some of the fabrics blending *too* well in this quilt--you can't even tell that most of those blocks are 9-patches. But still, I like the colors!

Boy, does it feel good to be making progress on projects again!

Alice the Spider (Banned Book Challenge)


Alice the Spider
Originally uploaded by sandyquiltz
The only quilt project I can lay claim to for the last two-plus months, sigh.

This is my project for the Banned Book Challenge that Tanesha of CraftyGardenMom and I are co-hosting this month. I decided to do something that would do double-duty: It's both inspired by a banned book and it's a Hallowe'en decoration! (The yo-yos from a previous post are the head and body--I wanted my spider to be a little dimensional and appliqueing yo-yos upside down seemed a heck of a lot faster than messing with trapunto.)

My inspiration book is Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (edited by Beatrice Sparks). This book is a diary-style story of a teenage girl who, after being given a drink laced with LCD at a party, descends into addiction and eventually (spoiler alert) dies of an overdose. It was put forth as a real diary but has since been pretty much debunked in that regard. But still, I was the target audience at the time I read it and it certainly worked on me.  Although it's somewhat unlikely I'd have ever tried drugs anyway, I read this book when I was 12 or 13 (it was in my school library--thank God they didn't believe in banning books!), and I still give it partial credit to this day for the fact that I never even experimented. There are a few scenes from this book that stick with me--one in which she was hallucinating about spiders crawling all over her. So here it is, my spider, in honor of Go Ask Alice.

I imagine it's on the banned book list because I recall it being fairly graphic. It's hard to imagine it's been about 35 years since I read the book. If I read it again today, I'd probably think, "Yeesh. This impressed me THAT much?" Funny, since I was about the same age that I tackled The Hobbit. I pretty much read anything and everything that I could find.

So, have you done your Banned Book Challenge yet? You've got a few days left!

Banned Book Challenge Giveaway

Woohoo! Another giveaway! Tanesha of CraftyGardenMom podcast and I are co-hosting a challenge in October, inspired by Banned Book Week. Tanesha's living is based on books, and I'm just a book-a-phile in general, so neither of us is particularly keen on the whole idea of banning books. I fully support your right to read what you want and to make decisions for your own children, but in return I'd like to make decisions for myself and my kids. (Or, at least, I did when they were still young enough that my opinion mattered!)

So Tanesha and I have created a challenge for you. Create a quilty project of any type that's inspired by a book that you've read and loved that appears on the list of banned books. Haven't checked out the list? You may be surprised by some of the books that appear on it! This is the list for banned books in the last decade; this one is the list of classics that have been banned. Thanks to Tanesha for providing those links.

Your project can be big or small--it can be a wallhanging, a totebag, a mugrug...whatever you're inspired to do. The only guideline is that it needs to be "quilty" and be inspired by a book on the banned book list.

When you've done your project, post a picture of it in the Flickr group that Tanesha created just for this challenge.

On November 1st, Tanesha and I will go into the group and each draw one winner from the people who have posted pictures there. Tanesha has already announced what her giveaway will be. I'm still trying to figure mine out. (Give me another few days...I'll post an update here.)




I'm already working on my Banned Book Project. Go ahead--just try to guess what it is and what book it's based on. Go ahead. Dare ya.

Upcoming Quilt Show for Your Calendars

Just a quick note to let you know...if you live within driving distance of Rochester, New York, be sure to put the quilt show of the Genesee Valley Quilt Club on your calendars. It's a great one!

The 2013 show theme is "Magical Threads--Inspired Stitches," and it's May 31-June 2, 2013, at the Gordon Field House of Rochester Institute of Technology. Beautiful quilts, vendors, the works!

For more information, visit http://www.geneseequiltfest.com/.


Food Friday--CSA-I-Have-No-Idea-What-Week-It-Is

This week's pick-up. We're getting smaller as we reach the end of our growing season around here, but we're also getting into some of my favorite fruits and vegetables. Still going strong on bell peppers and getting into winter squash. Yum.

  • 3 large tomatoes
  • 3 small tomatoes
  • 3 bell peppers (1 red, 1 orange, and 1 different type of red I've never had before. Unfortunately the orange had an issue when I cut into it so it got tossed--and that's the beauty of real farm food--but the other red that was unfamiliar to me actually almost tasted like an apple--that one and the other red pepper, which had a really wonderfully intense red bell pepper flavor, were fantastic!)
  • 3 leeks
  • 1 eggplant
  • A few eating apples, and a few baking apples
  • 1 acorn squash
  • 1 baking pumpkin

I immediately used the bell peppers, leeks, and two of the tomatoes for dinner by sauteeing those altogether in my Wild Mushroom and Sage-flavored oil with some garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, and tarragon. I added in some diced cooked chicken, and just a dash of my Lemon Bouquet Balsamic Vinegar right at the end to brighten it up a bit. I ate it over whole wheat pasta. Very, very tasty! Leftovers for lunch tomorrow--woot.

I wasn't able to use much of the CSA for the last few weeks because I was gone on weekends which is when I do most of my prep work with the fresh produce. I gave a lot to my MIL, but some just went bad before I could use it, unfortunately. I didn't even have time to freeze or do any other storage techniques, either. I'm actually relieved to be getting less every week now--it's much easier to use up while it's fresh.

Here are some other pictures I took along the way of what I was able to make over the last few weeks.

Apple crisp. Not bad, but I'm still looking for a better recipe. And, since I'm trying to eat a lot healthier these days, I'm not sure I should actually find a better recipe.












Corn chowder with fresh corn on the cob. This was my favorite new recipe of the season. My daughter and I are huge fans now. Yes, I can make it with frozen corn any time of the year but the corn I was getting through the CSA was the absolute best I've ever had, so frozen store corn just won't quite hack it.





And this is just a really pretty purple pepper we got a few weeks ago. It tasted like a normal bell pepper, but isn't it gorgeous? I love the green inside next to the purple outside. Beautiful.





At some point I'll do a summary of what I feel about CSAs now that I've done it for the first time. I've really enjoyed it, but there are certain things from the experience that surprised me. I'm still pondering a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to put up a few blog posts for next week that are back to quilty matters. Meanwhile, have a great weekend!

Maine, Meetings, and Merchandise, O My




I was here last weekend...














...and sometimes it looked like this.


Other times it looked more like this.




And during some particularly stunning moments it looked like this.


Lots of people walked all over this beach and created great designs in the sand. 


At one point, we went to visit this.


And I sat here for awhile.



And then we ate dinner here. With this view. As the tide came in.





I had to say goodbye when it looked like this.


So yes, I was at meetings all weekend.
But I was in meetings on the coast of Maine.
I can handle that.





I did get out quickly one afternoon for a fast trip to an area quilt shop. Normally I don't have or take time to do that when I'm on a working weekend, but it was the best thank-you gift we could think of for the woman who had volunteered to do all our airport pick-ups and drop-offs. She's a quilter. Great excuse.





I thoroughly enjoyed the shop. Lots of options, rooms full of fabric that kept appearing as if by magic as I turned corners. Nice batik selection. I got our volunteer four fat quarters.

And two for me. Just doing my part to support a local business.






And then, on the way home, I decided to detour through New Hampshire to visit the quilter's pilgrimage destination.

Keepsake Quilting.

Lovely shop. I had to laugh at myself because I inhaled deeply as I walked in the front door. You can smell the pretty, pretty fabrics. Mmmmm.

Unfortunately, it ended up adding three hours to my already 8-plus-hour drive home. I'm still working out the kinks.





But I bought these.



And these. (They had samples of the Gloves in a Bottle in their bathroom. I tried it, and was absolutely sold. I also bought a small bottle to keep in my purse. Soft hands, no grease or detectable smell. FTW.)





And these.

Four of these are for a thank-you gift I'd like to make one of the other volunteers who provided a ton of food and the world's best homemade chicken pot pie for our team's dinner one night. I'm thinking I'll do some more of those candle mats, maybe.

Not that I needed half a yard of each to make a candle mat. Gee, dang. I think I'll have leftovers.



I'm home for all of three days this week. Bully. Might not get much blogging done. However, I'm going to be posting a podcast episode tonight, so get ready. Jaye's back!

Another finish (and it took long enough!)


It took stinking long enough but I finally have my pieces of my team's donation basket for a silent auction to raise funds for a local hospice house. My team's theme was "spa," and I volunteered to make candle mats and a lavender sachet, using lavender harvested from my garden last summer.

I didn't want to mess with making a circle something-or-other, so I chose three blocks that had sort of round feels to them and made them 6 1/2" (after getting a pillar candle from my own meager candle collection to see about what size would work best). @ddrquilter suggested quilting it in circles--a great idea!--which gave me a chance to play with the circular sewing attachment for my Janome. The attachment mostly worked--I'll probably talk about that on a future podcast episode.

Then I got to the binding. The poor block in the center got bound three different times, using two different methods, none of which worked. Rip rip rip. And rip some more. And run out of the original binding fabric, which was the rest of that wonderful pink that appears in two of the blocks. Finally, after several hours of nonsense spread over two nights, I had a "doh" moment. Use a method I hadn't used in years. Once I did, and once I found another fat quarter that coordinated, bang. All three bindings done in about half an hour. Jiminy Crickets, but I can be my own worst enemy.

And here they are, all ready to go with the pillar candles I bought to go with them. My basket offering...done!

We'll be putting together all five baskets at tomorrow night's guild meeting. The other themes were "tailgating/picnic," "baby shower," "holiday," and "kitchen." Pictures will be on our guild's blog at http://canalcq.wordpress.com within a few days, probably. I can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with!

(Sorry, my plan had been to get a Total Color Tuesday post done tonight to appear tomorrow but I spent all night working on the donation blocks instead. Dang, but I'm glad those things are done! It's always the simple projects that trip you up, right?)

Finally--a Finish!

I finally finished my project from the Craftsy class "Stitch and Slash," taught by Carol Ann Waugh. Woot! Had a grand ol' time with this; it's a very fun and pretty easy technique. I'll be podcasting this week about the class with my special guest, AJ of The Quilting Pot, as we talk about our experiences taking this class. I'll post more detail, including "in process" pictures, tomorrow when I've got a little more time. Just had to celebrate having my first finish in awhile!

(Front)

(Back)

(And yes, currently unnamed. Any suggestions?)

100th Episode Giveaway! Come Celebrate with Me!

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for playing along! Listen to episode 100 of Quilting...for the Rest of Us to hear the winners!

I'm almost to my 100th episode--can you believe it? I want to celebrate with a big giveaway. Three winners will get stuff from me! Woot woot! Right now I'm on vacation and can't post pictures, but I'll update this post next week when I'm home again. Meanwhile, listen to episode 98.2 for a little more background information, and leave your comments here.

Here's the question:
I have 100 episodes under my belt. What would you like to have 100 of in your life? Anything goes--it doesn't have to be quilty related unless you want it to be!

Leave your comment here by Sunday, August 26th, for your chance to be one of the three (count 'em: 3!) winners. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Food Friday--Report on CSA Week 8 and Pick-up Week 9 (and a brief moment of quilty)

If you're not a foodie and just want some fabric-quilty-stuff, here's a quick pic of one ongoing project I'm working on...

Now, back to food!

Oh, we have reached the bounty of summer!

Remember last week's haul? I've done pretty well at using it all this week, with the exception of one zucchini that's carrying over into this week's dinner explorations. (I might be resorting to zucchini bread.)

Fortunately, we had family over for dinner on Friday night so I used up quite a bit of the produce right away. We did a marinated flank steak--or three, since we had a couple of young adult males in the mix--and bought a loaf of French bread because I ran out of time to make homemade. Other than that, Dinner Brought to You by McCracken Farms.

Two cucumbers were turned into a cucumber and tomato salad with Italian dressing for starters. I had to use some storebought tomatoes for the salad because I used all my CSA tomatoes on the next dish. Unfortunately, I didn't think to get a picture. (My daughter ate the other two cucumbers--one straight up, the other in some sort of rice curry thing she makes herself. I've never been positive what all is in it, but she likes it, so hey. I won't even ask.)

The huge yellow squash, the honkin' big zucchini, the tomatoes, and the pattypan squash were cut into 1" chunks (more or less), tossed with some olive oil, salt, garlic powder (I was out of fresh garlic), and thyme, and roasted in a 400 oven for about 40 minutes. It probably would've taken a lot less time except the squash and zucchini were (have I mentioned?) freaking huge so the veggie mix took up two jelly roll pans that I rotated between two racks. Again, unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that one either. Too busy trying to get everything on the table! It was yummy, though.

The corn on the cob was done straight up, and boy, was it amazing! Believe it or not, it was my first sweet corn of the season, and we all were raving about it--it was really, really good.

I had forgotten to include the watermelon in the original picture of last week's pick-up, so I snapped a pic as I cut into it a couple of days later. Yes, it is just that sweet and juicy!









Here it is as a salad before dinner one night--a little feta, a little fresh mint from the garden. (This has more feta on it than I'd normally do--the container got away from me. But that's okay, I like feta and watermelon. Nice combination.)







I made Italian sausage and peppers for dinner a night or two later again to use the green peppers. No pictures of that since I just blogged about it awhile back. Looked about the same, although I did better keeping the green pepper actually green. Tasty, tasty, tasty. Next time I'll use chicken sausage, to make the meat match the health factor of the rest of the dish.

The peaches disappeared pretty quickly, just eating out of hand. Very sweet.

The head of broccoli was simply microwaved and used as a side dish with chicken breasts one evening. I'm a bit of a purist where broccoli is concerned--I don't really like it covered in sauces or anything. Just steam it a little bit, add some salt, and I'm good to go.

Sunday morning I was in the mood for a big breakfast and, since I had a lot of those roasted vegetables to use up, I made myself an omelette. Or, at least, what's supposed to be an omelette. I can never get it to flip right. A couple of eggs, the roasted vegetables, a little goat cheese...nummy.






And, the next day, since I still had roasted vegetables left, I picked up some naan from the grocery store, heated it up in the oven for a bit brushed with a wonderful basting oil from Wegmans (love that stuff, use it on a ton of things), then spread some hummus on top, piled the roasted veggies on, shredded some chicken, and topped it with, you guessed it, goat cheese. I drizzled just a touch more basting oil on it, popped it back in the oven for a couple of minutes to heat the veggies back up again, and it was a very tasty lunch.

So that took care of everything, except the watermelon. Somehow I ended up being the only one in the house eating most of that watermelon. It's taking me awhile.

Tonight, I treated myself to a watermelon cocktail.

Don't notice me spitting out the seeds on the patio.







And now, we're up to Week 9! Another bounty!

 

  • 12 ears of corn this time! Woot!
  • 4 cucumbers
  • 1 zucchini (I dug through the pile to find a smaller one this time)
  • 1 yellow squash (same strategy)
  • 1 patty pan squash (I got a slightly larger one this time because I decided I like it)
  • 2 green peppers
  • tomatoes (maybe 10, still small, but smell amazing)
  • 6 Jersey Mac apples
  • 4 peaches--larger this time, I hope they're still as sweet!
  • 1 red onion
  • 1 yellow onion
  • about 7 or 8 jalapeno peppers
  • 1 eggplant
I've never been a big fan of eggplant. It's a texture thing, really. Eggplant parmesan just makes me gag. Too slippery. But I'm willing to give eggplant in another form a shot. I've seen a recipe for breading and frying slices of it that looks like it might work for me.

I'm not a huge heat person either so I'm going to gift the jalapenos to a family I'll be visiting tomorrow night. They're originally from Burma, so they're all about the hot peppers. They'll love them.

Probably a good thing there's no watermelon this week since I'm still working on last week's. Time for another cocktail.








Photos to go with episode 98

 Here are the photos of fabrics I talked about in episode 98 In Which I'm Alive, posted Saturday, August 4, 2012.

(I already posted the pictures of fabrics from The Fat Quarter Shop here.)


One set of eight 10" squares of South African fabric. 


Second set of eight 10" squares of South African fabric.


Third set of eight 10" squares of South African fabric. 











Fourth set of eight 10" squares of South African fabric.











Fifth set of eight 10" squares of South African fabric. (Which means yes, there are forty squares altogether.)

Notice how the last square is folded--it's distinctly two-sided! Although others in this set could also be used right or wrong side, this is the only one that actually looks like two completely different fabrics. Pretty dang cool.




Thanks to Vickie, my friend that gave me these. They're definitely the best quilty toys ever!




Some wonderful inspiration

A few months back I had the opportunity to visit a friend's church on a Sunday morning. As I walked into the sanctuary, I was struck by several absolutely beautiful quilted wallhangings throughout the worship space.

As we took our seats, I tugged at my friends' sleeve. "I need to meet whoever made those, if that person is here this morning."

My friend pointed a thumb over her shoulder. "She's sitting right behind us."

There was a church luncheon following worship but I immediately tackled the creator of the wallhangings and she took me on a tour of her quilts, telling me the stories behind each one. We barely made it to the luncheon while food was still available.

I asked her permission to share images of the quilts with you. I'm not going to share the stories--too much complex church history and particular individual's stories for the space that a blog allows. I'll let the quilts speak for themselves.





The quilts' creator, Carol Fielding of Austin, Texas.