My World Spins (or: Something I May End up Doing Eventually)

In my most recent episode of the podcast, I talked about seeing the spinning demonstration at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott, Arizona. Yes, it's tempting! 

Here are the pictures:...

The spinning guild members demonstrating their skills

A close-up of the spindle (at least, I think that's what this part is called) 

Feeding the roving onto the spindle. (If I recall, this was some that had been koolaid-dyed, but don't quote me on that.)

A different model of spinning wheel. They're so pretty! 

A hand-spindle. I'd think this would take some wrist strength, but nicely portable. Good for business travel.... Hmmm.... 

A very bad close-up of the hand-spindle (dang camera phone), but it gives you an idea of how fast that little thing is going. 

Ahem. Shed much? Yarn made from Golden Retriever fur. I would happily mail her some extra that I just happen to have laying around my house!

So the floor-model-style spinning wheels all had treadle foot pedals. My first thought was, "Way to be creative AND burn some calories!" And it was so cool watching these lumps of formless roving become really wonderful yarn. 

Yes, indeedy.

Tempting. 

I Know How to Meet a Deadline (Another Finish)

So ignore the fact that I knew this young woman would be graduating from high school a few years before it happened.  

Ignore the fact that I decided to make her a quilt about 10 months before said graduation date.

Ignore watching me pick out fabrics from my stash that I could use in said quilt about six months before said graduation date, choose what kind of quilt I'd make about a week later, and then sort the fabrics into necessary piles about a week after that. 

Don't even look at those fabrics sitting, neatly pressed and still separated into their respective piles...until about two weeks ago. Graduation date done and gone. Graduation party (fortunately) delayed until mid-August. Quilter returns home from summer travels, completely fried, looks at calendar, and immediately thinks, "Cr*p. The party is next Friday."  

I didn't *quite* make the party. I was able to wrap up a completed quilt top (in some circles that's called a "flimsy," which I find highly entertaining and a perfect description) in a gift bag and hand it to her at her party, and them promptly snatched it back away again with promises she'd have a fully finished quilt before she moved away to college.

I made it. Sure, I had to overnight express the darn thing to get to her house the day before she moved, but I made it. 

Graduation quilt complete

Backing and binding

Binding by machine--did a pretty darn good job this time!

Back of binding--I stayed on the lines! (Well, 95% of the time, anyway. Better than in the past.)

Requisite "Quilts n' Dogs" shot. He's looking quite regal. A bit full of himself because he was recently groomed. (Read: "Defurminated.")

(Yes, my portable quilt hanger was in jammies and a sweatshirt and I dragged her outside early for pictures. I had to get the quilt to the post office, dontchaknow.) 

I heard from the grad today--she got the quilt and loves it; I had to assure her that it really is okay to take it to college and not to worry about stuff getting spilled on it. I made it to be beat up. Velveteen Rabbit and all that.  

And now I get to start on baby quilts... 

Ice-Dyed Results

This.... 

Became these... 

Fabric placed underneath tray to catch run-off

Fabric scrunched on top of tray--note imprint of wire rack in colors. Great texture!

And this... 

Became these... 

Folded on top of rack

Wadded up on top of rack. This one got much more "watercolor-y" results. Very cool.

And finally, this rather gruesome-looking mess...

became these... 

Fabric placed under rack to catch run-off. I laughingly called this on "The Hand of God" because the pattern in the middle looks like an open hand to me.

Scrunched on top of the rack. This one was probably the winner in the "Interesting" contest.

The last one was the crowd favorite at my guild meeting last night. Had to watch people to keep them from sneaking it out in their bags! Tee hee. I had them try to guess what two colors I started with and they couldn't. That's the beauty of this process, really: it's unpredictability. The teal dye completely broke into its component colors, and the purple partially broke. I really dig all the grays that turned up.

I don't know that this is a method I'll use often. It does use a lot of extra dye and it's messier and more of a pain to do than standard low-water immersion methods I've been using. However, I'm thinking through ways I might be able to edit the process and do it in my basement dye studio to decrease some of the variables--not to control the results (this method is all about surprise endings!) but to control the mess! 

One happy "mistake"--when doing this method outdoors one of the big issues is dye powder blowing where it shouldn't. In this instance, one of my blue/yellow fabrics ended up with a bit of a stain of a different color dye that blew onto it from one of the other ice baths. You can't really see it well in these pictures, but dang if it didn't turn out to be almost the exact color orange I was shooting for in my Sedona Series. So now I have another possible color combination to play with that hadn't occurred to me before.

That's what I love best about hand-dyeing. I'm learning a TON about color! 

Weekend Progress

As my last couple of days before I go back to work tomorrow, I didn't really push myself to be super-productive. My summer has been productive enough, thank you very much, where work is concerned--I needed some sloth time to get my brain unfried. That being said, I did make significant progress on a quilt that's to be a graduation gift. Since I'd be surprised if any of the people concerned read this blog, I'll go ahead and post a picture of it... 

Top complete. The picture stinks because I can't get far enough back from my design wall, and it's very dark in that corner. (The lighting issue is something I'm hoping to have fixed in the next few weeks.) But you get the gist. I'll do a better picture when it's finished.

It's a stack n' slash done with fat quarters from an old Jason Yenter/In the Beginning fabric line. I've had the fat quarters for awhile, and when I found out the grad-in-question's favorite color is purple, it seemed a perfect fit. I'd originally planned to do something a little fancier but when push came to shove, I just wasn't home enough to get anything done. Hence, the grad party being next week and me just getting off the starting block and doing yet another stack n' slash.  This is throw size--great for curling up in during late night study sessions.

I'd hoped to get started on quilting it today until I realized I have no appropriate fabrics for backing. I'll have to make a quick run out tomorrow to find something.  

Meanwhile, today was Betty Homemaker day. I currently have this rising in the kitchen, getting ready to do grilled pizza tonight. 

I roasted the few little beets we got from our CSA this week (it's been a tough year for produce hereabouts), and I have pancetta, sausage, pepperoni, spinach, red and green bell peppers, onions, Parmesan. mozzarella, and goat cheeses, so we can get as creative as we want. My husband and son are both gone today, unfortunately, but my nephew is coming over and he and my daughter really get into playing with their pizza combos.

Finally, I'm taking another shot at ice-dyeing. I'm still not convinced this is something I'll want to do all that much. We'll see if the results blow me away this time--they didn't last time. It's a fair amount of mess (more so than standard dyeing) and uses about three times as much dye powder, if not more, so you really have to be committed to it as a style to want to do it often. 

Here's everything ready to go in a far corner of my back yard, so when I dump it out the CSI-style stains it leaves in the grass will at least be hidden in the woods and underbrush. (No ma'am, nothing happened here, ma'am!) 

If you've never done it before, here's the drill. Fabric is soaked in soda ash-water mixture for awhile first--15 mins minimum, but mine was in for well over an hour as I got other stuff done--then twisted, rolled, or put into whatever manipulation you want onto racks in a bin. I mostly do the scrunchy thing because I like that effect, but the long column one is pleated loosely. You can also put fabrics under the racks to catch the run-off, for different effects. You'll see in the first bin I did that, but not in the second. The third bin (not pictured) has fabrics above and below the rack as well.

Then you pile the ice on. 

This got tricky for me because I don't really have any flat spots in my yard so my bins are slanted enough that the ice didn't want to stay nicely piled on top. I propped up one end of the foam board with a stick to even it out some, but I still have edges of fabric with no ice on it. That'll just mean those spots may not get dyed much. I'll live with it.  (I did finish piling more ice on after I took this picture but I still have white space on the edges--we'll see what happens.)

By the way, yes, that's a spot of green you see on that fabric under the ice in the lower left. I noticed some nice leaves in the underbrush so laid them as flat as I could on the fabric to see whether they will act as a resist. I doubt it'll work that well since it's not completely flat, but it might be a hint of a leaf image. Always worth trying! 

Now, start working as fast as possible so the ice doesn't melt before you can get the dye on!

Teal and purple mix. I work in teal and purple a lot because they're the signature colors of my organization and I'm always thinking about possible items for fundraisers. This is a test to see how this works: If I like it, I'm probably going to try doing some beach-y garments for next summer's fundraiser. I'm also experimenting with the teal and purple in general, since they're both blends and may break in really interesting ways. ("Breaking" is when compound dyes break into their component colors during the dye process. Ice dyeing often causes compound dyes to break, adding to the effect.)

"Intense Blue" and Sunny Yellow. That's my favorite blue dye so far although I was a bit sparing with it because there's some sort of shortage of one of the component ingredients so it's suddenly quite expensive and in limited supply. I hope I used enough to get a decent saturation. In any case, I should get some nice green blends from this combination.  

And here's turquoise and fuschia.  Just 'cause. I love working with both these colors because, again, they're compound colors and often break in cool ways. And here's to a wonderful purple showing up here and there.

And everything's covered and bedded down for the night. Pretty sure I inadvertently trapped some buggies in there. Sorry, guys. I've got the plastic weighted down in case winds pick up but there's nothing predicted. That, of course, is meaningless. I don't call our house "Windy Hill" for nuttin'.

To wrap this post up, I'll just leave you with a few lovely pictures... 

Sedona Series Experiment #1

The results from my first attempt at recreating some of the colors I saw in Sedona:

Fabrics #1, #3, and #6 were pure samples of new dyes I'd just bought: Camel, Ecru, and Stormy Grey. The Ecru looks much more light gray on my computer screen in this picture than in person--it's more a greeny-pink, or a pinky-green. Interesting, in either case. The others are blends as I tested various combinations of dyes I have on hand to see how close I could come to an orange/red/brown (not quite rust but almost). The last one, the green, was playing with other dye combinations just for fun.

I didn't quite get what I was going for this time around, although the results were really nice nonetheless. Seriously dig the Cabernet color I got in #2. I'll definitely be keeping samples of all of these for future use. Meanwhile, back to the dye studio to play with more combinations.

No, I'm not looking up anyone else's recipes to make this easier. 'Cause I'm ornery like that, you know. (I believe in experiential learning. I'll know more in the long run that way. Besides, playing is just a lot more fun.)  

Short break in the dye fun as I speedily try to knock out a few quilts I should've started months ago... 

Sauntering through Sedona

My husband flew out to Phoenix to meet me at the end of my work event, and we drove a little north to spend a few days in Sedona, with a brief jaunt up to the Grand Canyon via the Grand Canyon Railway.

I took tons of pictures. I even deleted a bunch after I got home, and still have a lot left in the album. Some pictures were just for a sense of place, but most were for color or texture or line inspiration, as we quilters are wont to do. 

If you're interested, I've embedded a slideshow of all my pictures here. (I captioned them so you know what you're looking at but I think you may only be able to see the captions if you're actually looking at them in Flickr, not in this embedded slideshow. And note that you can click on the little arrows symbol on the lower right if you want it full-screen.)

And yes, that color inspiration has led to my current dye experiments that I've termed my "Sedona Series." 

I'm about to go start the wash-out process now, so results tomorrow! 

Three Scarves and a Quilt (wasn't that a movie?)

If you're a podcast listener you know I was working on some things to be donated to my organization for our annual fundraiser auction. Pretty much every year I plan on contributing something quilted and in my 11 summers with the organization I've only managed to do that once. I'm very impressed with myself that I actually managed to get done what I wanted to get done this year!  Before I start stuffing things in suitcases, though, I figured you might be interested in seeing the results.

I hand-dyed three silk scarves. I was aiming for our organization's signature colors (purple for the women, teal for the girls). I bought a purple dye specifically for this that's pretty dang close to the purple in our women's logo. As for teal, I figured I could probably come close given the dyes I already had.  

What I learned is that although the dyes I'm using do work with silk, they work differently with silk than with cotton. (Still on that learning curve!) 

Purple scarf with diamonds

This is one of two "standard" scarves. I believe they're something like 11" wide by 60" long...? Don't recall exactly. I used rubber bands on the end of this for the detail and interestingly, the circles all came out more as diamonds. Lesson #1: Since silk handles differently than cotton, the geometry turns out differently--go figure. (Sorry about the tag showing in the picture--kept trying to prevent that but it's a little breezy today so I gave up.)

Purple scarf with diamonds detail

Here's a better shot of the diamonds. I did manage to get them roughly evenly spaced on both sides, just eyeballing it. Yay, me.

Purple cowl scarf

This is a funky scarf--a large circle that you loop around your neck to form a cowl. You can also flip it up over your head if you need to protect your hairstyle. Me, I don't really have a hairstyle to protect. 'Nuff said. 

Love the color again, but I'd hoped this would come out much more mottled so it would have a little more visual interest. However, (lesson #2 learned), silk wicks dye much more readily than cotton does, as it turns out. I had it scrunched pretty tightly and it didn't have a whole lot of liquid in the dye bath--if it had been cotton, it would've been extremely unevenly dyed, which is a really cool effect. This came out almost solid. You can see a little mottling here and there but it almost looks like a mistake rather than intentional. I think it'll still be a popular item. Our women sure do love their "signature color" items to wear to show their support!

Teal scarf

This one was disappointing to me but my daughter loves it, so I'm getting over myself. The usual dye mix that I use at the moment to approximate teal looks very washed out done in silk.  (Lesson #3) Apparently some of my dye colors just naturally "take" to silk better than others. I had a mix of fabrics in dye baths all at the same time which meant I could do an easy side-by-side comparison. The purple dyed about the same on cotton as on silk. The blue/green quasi-teal is much more vibrant and saturated on the cotton than on the silk. Interesting.

For the detail on this one I used one large rubber band on each end and then stuffed the middle that protruded at the top, once I was done banding it, back down into the center. I do like that effect quite a bit.

Yep, already have plans for next summer's conference and what items I'll be hand-dyeing! 

Baby Quilt

There's always a theme for the auction, although generally very loosely interpreted. But this year's theme was a bit of a gimme for a quilter. The theme was "Oh, the Places You'll Go," as sort of a riff off a travel theme but also celebrating the future of the organization and so forth. I joked with the planning team, "Oh, I bet I could find fabric for that!" Certainly.  

I bought the panel and a collection of fat quarters from Fat Quarter Shop. I actually had it in both colorways--the one shown here and one in primaries (clearly meant to be girls and boys, but let's not be so gender-biased about all this!). After I put this one together, though, and started on the primary color version, the panel was giving me fits because it wasn't printed even close to being on square. It was so obnoxious to deal with I finally pitched the panel into the trash, declared with fervor, "No one even remembers I said I'd do one quilt, let alone knowing I'd thought I might make two!", and stalked angrily out of my sewing room.  

(Yes, because I know some of you just gasped in horror, a few days later, calmer heads prevailed and I fished the panel back out of the trash and stuffed it on my "to be given away" shelf. I have a friend who would probably love messing with it. More power to her. I just want it out of my life.)

I designed the quilt myself, in case you're curious. Nothing special, just sashing but playing with color placement. The binding was the remaining strips from the fat quarters that were left over, and the backing is pieced from the four remaining fat quarters that didn't get used anywhere on the front. I had to add narrow strips of a fabric from my stash to get the backing long enough but it was pretty close. And I just stitched in the ditch along all the seams--one, because I wanted it done; two, because I didn't want to have the text disappear behind quilting. But mostly one.

So that's my show n' tell. Here's hoping they do their part to raise much-needed funds for the organization! 

And for your entertainment...another entry in my "Dogs with Quilts" series, although this one should be "Dog with Scarf." He was none too sure about the model.*

Dogs with Quilts

*No actual owls were harmed in the writing of this blog post. 

The Final MomUFO--Completed

Shirley the Quilter

If you've followed my blog for awhile, you may recall previous posts about my journey through completing several UFOs that Mom left behind at her passing. (Such as here, and here. And this one talks about the experience a little more deeply--what I learned, how I felt.)

I finished a whole bunch of her UFOs in those first few months after she passed away in April 2009, mostly because I wanted them to go into the general distribution of keepsakes amongst my sibs, and I wanted to finish a few that I knew she had intended as Christmas gifts for that Christmas. (One of the above blog posts talks about those.) A couple took a bit longer, but I finished up the vast majority of them within 18 months. The very last one, however, sat for some time. I kept taking it out, looking at it, puttering a bit, and then putting it back away. It felt somehow overwhelming. It was the only one of her UFOs that I'd kept that was still in pieces, and trying to figure out how to pick up where she'd left off and finish it the way she had planned was beyond my mental capabilities any of those times I pulled it off the shelf to shuffle through it again. 

But last summer, when my daughter and I decided to spend a week together at the cottage (my first full week there in years n' years), I decided it was time to finish Mom's last UFO while I was there, in a place Mom had loved so much and where she'd done a lot of quilting herself.  

Here is what I started with. The project bag contained:

1. A whole ream of print-outs of variants on the design and paper-piecing foundations therein.

2. 24 pieced log-cabin blocks. 

3. 16 paper-pieced flower blocks.

4. One paper-pieced stem/leaf block. 

5. A boatload of fabrics--some she'd already used, most still uncut. She clearly hadn't made all her final decisions yet. 

I had distinct memories of her planning this quilt. She had told me she wanted to make a quilt for our family cottage, where we'd spent every summer as kids. After my Dad had passed away in 2001, my oldest sister had spent several summers rehabbing the cottage, including repainting the inside walls a soft yellow. Mom wanted to make a pretty, summery, blue and yellow quilt to go with my sister's new color scheme. In fact, I had given Mom some fabrics out of my own stash in case she needed them--I recognized some of those fabrics in the project bag. Probably, of all Mom's UFOs, this was the one with the most personal connection for me.

It was also the trickiest to finish. I could write a whole long blog post about how I had to figure out which of all the print-outs of designs was likely her final choice; I could write a blog post about having to figure out how to get log cabin blocks (not on foundations)  to play nicely with paper-pieced flower blocks. As for that, I'll just say, don't take a tape measure to this quilt to measure for square. I went for "good enough for horseshoes."

I could write a blog post about trying to figure out how I was going to re-create seven more leaf blocks to match the one she'd done when she didn't have any of THOSE foundations printed in the project bag. (She had every other paper-pieced pattern for leaves and stems known to quilters, I think, but not that particular one. Go figure.) As for that, suffice it to say that it took me three years to have the sudden realization, "She designed it in EQ. What're the chances it's a block in the EQ Library?" Well, of course it was. But the one she'd already made wasn't the right size--and I could imagine her doing that, realizing it was the wrong size, throwing it down on her sewing table in frustration and walking away, intending to return to it when she was in a better mood, and that's why it was still in pieces in a project bag. Been there, done that. In any case, I made 8 new ones, using her fabrics and fabric placement.

I could also write a blog post about laying it out on my design wall, checking it by her design....and then taking the bold step of moving a couple of things around because I liked it a little better. Sorry, Mom. Hope you don't mind. It's still about 95% her original design.

I got the center pieced at the cottage.  But there was no border fabric in the bag, so I had to wait until I got home and could head to my LQS to by border and backing. Found the perfect border. Got talked into another fabric for the backing that looked better in the store than it did when I actually got it on the quilt months later, but that's okay. It's backing. I'm not sweating it.

I had it custom-quilted at my LQS because trying to figure out how to quilt it adequately was beyond me. At this stage, I just wanted it done. I was able to pick it up from them last week, and got the binding on it yesterday, just in time for my guild's show n' tell.

The last of Mom's UFOs, done. It's the end of an era for me. I introduce to you, "Summers by the Lake with Shirley," Designed by Shirley DeMott, pieced by Shirley DeMott and Sandy Hasenauer, quilted by Debby Kenney at Mt. Pleasant Quilt Company.  

Doing some catching up...recent hand-dyes

Back in June I finished up a couple more hand-dyeing adventures so it's about time I did some show n' tell. 

You may remember awhile back when I posted about having done the Stones & Shells Gradation sampler kit from Prochemical & Dye. Here it is again, just to remind you...

Stones & Shells Gradation Sampler Kit from Prochemical & Dye

Someone asked what three dyes these were--sorry I hadn't posted that before. It's Procion MX Camel (5181), Old Rose (5220), and Stormy Grey (6160)--all names and numbers are the ProChem labels; Dharma would have different names.

I loved what came from the combination of those three dyes so much I now own each of those colors.

I had a second sampler pack kit named "Rainforest" that I finally got done in June.

By the way--I'm not entirely sure they're in exactly the right order. Here's the problem with dark dye baths: They tend to conceal the notes one made to oneself using a black Sharpie in the corners of the fabric pre-dyeing. Oops.

The three colors used here are Olive (708), Bright Green (7158), and Kilt Green (7218). I haven't bought any of these yet since largely I've been able to produce greens I like from dyes I already have. May well purchase some in the future, though--I especially liked the teal nature of the Kilt Green. I did find one thing very interesting: Note the Bright Green pure sample right in the middle of the bottom row, and notice how much it completely changes when only a half tablespoon of either Olive (to the right of it), or Kilt Green (to the left of it) are added. That has a much more drastic change than any of the other colors.

Finally, what I really wanted to start playing with was creating blacks and grays using value gradations. When I was in Paducah and doing some serious damage at the ProChem booth, I bought two black dyes: 628 and 629. They were described to me as one being a "warm black," and one being a "cool black." I dyed them side by side so I could see what the difference might be.  

Blacks value gradations

628 is on top; 629 is on bottom. One can sort of see a bit of a difference, but not much. I suspect there may be more involvement when I'm mixing black with a color to get a muddier tone--then it may matter quite a bit which I use. Also, the method I used to get gradations didn't work very well in this instance; I'd probably have been better off doing the parfait method. They also lived in the dye baths for several days because I got quite busy suddenly and couldn't get to my rinse-out when I'd originally planned, so they are VERY dyed! 

My next plan with these blacks is to use them as an opportunity to play with some discharges. Wheee! 

Gifts from Kansas

Then, just because they're pretty and it was a wonderful moment, I must show you this too. I was gifted with some beautiful batiks in thanks for my keynoting at a women's conference in Kansas in early June. They know I'm a quilter, and one of the women on the planning team was also a quilter, so she knew the best thank-you gift they could give me! Apparently Kansas has a big shop-hop every year and Kaufmann Fabrics produces the sunflower batik especially for that shop-hop; I was told it was the only place you can get it. The women then had fun putting together several coordinating fat quarters for me. No idea what I'm going to use these for yet, but I can't keep my hands off them!  (If you're curious, they were from the Material Girls quilt shop in Wichita. I was also given a very nice clear vinyl totebag with zippered top from the same shop that is now my hand-embroidery project bag.)

Okay, I think that finally catches me up with show n' tell! I should have one more finish (new one) before the week is out... 

Wheee! Finally--a Finish!

Yes, at long last, the Disappearing 9-Patch donation quilt is done. Woot! 

I started with a Moda charm pack (don't recall the line, it was fairly old), added some 5" squares from my scrap stash, and then used stash fabrics for the borders and binding. I did have to buy the backing, but found it on a 50% off rack.  

machine binding--front

I did the binding completely by machine, something I've done a couple of times before and never been happy with the results. I'm somewhat happier with the results on this one, but I still just don't like the look as well as one that's done the traditional way.  

 (Backing and back of binding)

This is wheelchair quilt size (roughly something like 36" x 45" or so, don't recall the measurements exactly now). I hope whatever elder gentleman receives it loves it and finds it cozy!

And then, because it's tradition... 

Dogs n' Quilts

A little more patience, please...

Every two years, the organization I serve hosts two major national events (plus) nearly back to back. This is one of those years. I just got home yesterday from the first event weekend, and now am in the throes of finalizing details for the other which is at the end of July (and is actually three events in one). 

So this is just a bid for a little more patience! I haven't stopped blogging. I'm just using up all my energy for work. I got back in town Tuesday and am now nearly recovered from that trip, so I hope to get some blogs up later this week or over the weekend...not that I've got all that much to blog about...but I think I may have some stuff I got done before the mayhem hit but didn't get posted yet.

Meanwhile, have you listened to my episode with Jane Dunnewold yet? It's a good one! 

Food Friday Begins Again: CSA 2013 Week 1, "Faux Frittata"

It's CSA time again, so I get to kick Food Fridays back into gear! I was thrilled last week to get the email telling me that this week would be our first pick-up for our CSA. (If you are just joining me and are unfamiliar with CSAs, check out my blog post about it from last year.) Up here in Western New York we're just barely getting gardens in the ground at this time of year, so actually getting fresh produce from the farmer feels like a special treat.

Week 1 is small and extremely manageable. They like to lull us into a false sense of security, only to get that cold dash of reality in August of "OMG What am I going to do with all these vegetables???" For this week, I got:

1. two bunches of asparagus and
2. a small bag of spinach.

I'm a big fan of spinach. I remember when I was in second or third grade, suddenly realizing that none of my peers liked spinach and the fact that I did like it might render me permanently uncool. So I hid my love of spinach from the general public for years. I was still rendered permanently uncool just on general principle but at least spinach wasn't the culprit. As an adult, doing my own grocery shopping, I was then hindered by a husband and kids who were none too keen on it. It's only been in recent years that spinach has returned on a permanent basis to my household--I love tossing baby spinach leaves in my salads and occasionally wilting some into scrambled eggs.

Asparagus and I have a much more mixed history together. As much as I loved spinach as a kid, I hated asparagus. I mean, hated it. And we had it regularly because my parents grew it. I thought it was bitter and nasty. Although I tried it once or twice again in my adulthood years only to confirm my hatred of it, I avoided asparagus quite successfully until my husband and I were at dinner at a friend's house and she made steamed asparagus and baby carrots as a side. I steeled myself to choke it down only to be polite and was quite surprised to find I actually liked it. Hers was quite sweet, even though she hadn't put anything on it. A week later I tried cooking it myself by sauteeing it with olive oil and garlic. Not bad. I have sense gotten a little more adventuresome with asparagus (roasting, grilling) and have gotten to the point of saying that, in certain preparations, I can actually like asparagus. Not all preparations--still hate it boiled--and I wouldn't say "love," but now I can deal with it with much more aplomb.

When I picked up my delivery of spinach and asparagus this week, the first thought that popped into my head was "Goat cheese! Woohoo!" Basically I assess most foods on a how-are-they-as-a-goat-cheese-delivery-device scale. Spinach and goat cheese are a particularly good pairing. My next thought was, "frittata." Never mind I've never made one. Never mind I really don't think I've ever even eaten one. But spinach+asparagus+goat cheese just seemed to = frittata. I did a quick check on my cell phone of a couple of recipes to check what ingredients I needed, made a quick run through the grocery store on the way back from the farm, and set about chopping and dicing as soon as I got home. I never consulted a recipe after that quick-pre-shopping-check, so I only had the most vague impression of what was involved and probably made some moves that aren't true frittata territory. Hence...

​Sandy's Faux Frittata

Ingredients​

• olive oil ​
• 1 half Vidalia onion, sliced thin
  
• 1 bunch asparagus, stems removed, chopped into 1" pieces
  
• 1 roasted red bell pepper, diced
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 handful spinach
• ​bread crumbs (I think I threw in about a half cup, maybe 3/4)
  
• 3 eggs
• 3 egg whites
• Approximately 1/4 cup of skim milk
• 3-4 Roma (plum) tomatoes
• Goat cheese
• salt and pepper
• finishing oil (optional)
  

Heat a medium-sized fry or saute pan on over medium heat until pan is warm; add a tablespoon or two of olive oil and let the oil heat until it shimmers. Add onion, separating the half-rings, and let it begin to cook down and caramelize, stirring occasionally. ​

Meanwhile, prep the asparagus, put in a bowl with a tablespoon or so of water, cover with plastic, and cook for 2-3 minutes in the microwave (otherwise it'll take longer to cook than everything else in the pan). ​While asparagus and onion are cooking respectively, dice the roasted red bell pepper and mince the garlic cloves. When asparagus is done in the microwave and onion has begun to turn slightly brown, add asparagus to pan and saute for a minute or two. Then add red pepper and garlic. Finally, add spinach and let it wilt. Season to taste.

When the spinach is wilted, add the bread crumbs and stir to combine. You may need to add a little more oil and seasoning now as the bread crumbs will soak up all the moisture in the pan. However, you don't want it soggy since you'll be adding the eggs in a minute--the oil will just help the bread crumbs and vegetables hang out together better.

While the bread/vegetable mixture is cooking, whisk the eggs, egg whites, and milk together thoroughly. Feel free to add salt and pepper here too. Pour egg mixture over bread/vegetable mixture in the pan. Stir only enough to make sure the egg has saturated completely and evenly. Then cover the pan, step back and leave it alone.

Mine took about 7 minutes, but the size of your pan, the heat of your flame, and what vegetables you've included will affect the cooking time. You'll know it's done when it acts like a pancake--the edges are a little on the dry side and the middle is set. (My edges crisped up very nicely--I loved that. If you don't want dry edges, you can call it "done" earlier but make sure your egg is cooked through. No salmonella here.)

Frittatas can either be cooked completely on the stovetop or finished in the oven. I let mine cook almost completely on the stove top, then I added my tomatoes and sliced goat cheese over the top and put it covered in a 375 oven for another 5-7 minutes. I took the cover off the pan and let it bake for another 3-4 minutes. Taking it out of the oven, I let it rest for about 5 minutes before slicing and eating.

Notes:​

1. For the olive oil, I used a flavored oil, "Sage and Wild Harvest Mushroom." It gives it just another layer of flavor, so I highly recommend using a flavored oil if you've got one. I also drizzled just a little "Tuscan Herb" flavored olive oil over it at the end because the bread crumbs did make it a little more dry.
   
2. To be honest, I have no idea where the bread crumb concept came from. I could swear I'd seen it listed in my very brief perusal of a couple of frittata recipes before I went into the grocery store, but I never saw that listed anywhere else so who knows. (Some frittata recipes have potato in them so I'm thinking one starch is much like another in this case!) I had some leftover dinner rolls so I tossed them in my food processor to make crumbs while I was slicing my onion, and I felt all kinds of virtuous about using them up in such a creative way. 

The goat cheese never melted--goat cheese isn't a particularly melty cheese. And the bread crumbs made it more of a strata-like casserole and less of a frittata, I think, but boy was it tasty. And could I have crammed any more vegetables into a single meal?

Been Busy in the Basement

I've been hanging out in my basement again, partly because I went from this...​

To this!

I was so excited about my bright, daylight-color florescent fixture I didn't even bother straightening up before I took the picture. But then, the basement doesn't have a lot of ambiance regardless, although my #twilters ("Twitter Quilters," with thanks to @verylazydaisy) all said that the industrial look fits my Mad Quilt Scientist persona. ​However, it's always a lot neater than that before I start a new project.

Back to the story..​

Memorial Day (#MDSI) was fairly warm and clear, so I took advantage of that to use up some old dyes with outdoor dyeing, and having the long weekend also meant I got to play with a new technique (see Sandi's blog at Quilt Cabana Patterns for the backstory to this), and finally use a sampler pack I'd bought from ProChemical & Dye in Paducah.

I don't have time to do a big long blog entry so I'm just going to embed a slideshow from Flickr. This is my first time taking this embed-slideshow-from-Flickr thing for a spin on this new website (which works a little differently than embedding Flickr on other sites) so hopefully this will work. If not, just go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandyquiltz/sets/72157633790172177/. The photos are captions with explanations although, again, not sure if those show up on the slideshow or not. Here's hoping for the best...

(LATER Editor's note: If you hold your cursor over the word "notes" just to the lower right of the slide show, it'll pop up the captions to the pictures. This dog has learned a new trick!)​

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

I get my first CSA delivery of the season this afternoon--woot! Maybe I'll be able to kick Food Fridays back into gear....​

Monday Musings

“If you know what a work is going to look like before you begin, why start???” (Steve Sorman)

SPOILER ALERT: Kimberly Einmo Mystery Quilt

If you're doing the Kimberly Einmo Mystery Quilt "Chain of Stars" in Craftsy and do not want to see what the end result is, close this blog post now! Quick! Now! Stop reading!​ Step away from the blog post, ma'am, there's nothing to see here.

​* * * * *

Okay, for everyone else, here we go. ​

​I enjoyed doing this--so much so I did it twice at the same time. She offers instructions for four sizes so I chose the wallhanging size, noting that it's actually a decent size for lap quilts.

Here's the version I did all in batiks. I had most of this in my stash but did add two fabrics to give more contrast.

My daughter has claimed that one for her own. Since she's "fun-sized," (as she describes her diminutive height), this one works well for her to use as a lap quilt.​ The backing and binding are a dark purple batik I had in my stash.

​For the second one, I decided to go a completely different direction and use black, white, and red. I had most of it in my stash, but bought a couple of fabrics to round it out a little bit. This one seemed to be floating off into the distance with all the white around the outside of the design, so I added borders to ground it. (The backing is the red/white/black print from the front, and I used the same as binding).

My nephew claimed this one while it was still on my design wall. I texted him this afternoon to let him know it was ready for him to pick it up. His response was, "Omg!!!!! Yay!!!!" Nice to have such an enthusiastic recipient for my quilts.​

​I had them both quilted by the longarmer at Mt. Pleasant Quilting Company. I asked for pantographs with threads that would blend, but left it up to the quilter's choice from there.

Here's a close-up of the quilting on the batik quilt:​

 And a close-up of the quilting on the red, white, and black quilt. It's hard to see in this picture but the thread is variegated black-to-gray.

Doofus (Sam) is up at the cottage with my daughter for most of the summer, playing in the lake and generally getting messy and having a great ol' Golden time. Princess Doggie (Spencer) stayed home with us because she, well, let's just say she doesn't like change very much.

In any case, to stay with my Dogs and Quilts theme, here's Princess Doggie doing her best to make me happy, which is her general modus operandi.

(She's not smiling so much as pleading with me to please love her please please please love her love her please....)​

("I submit! I submit! Please love me...please please please love me love me love me...")​

By the way, depending on when you read this, you still have a couple of days left to enter my Kimberly Einmo Craftsy Class Giveaway on my previous podcast episode! You could win this Chain of Stars class, or her other Magical Jelly Rolls class, for free! Enter using the link on the podcast show notes here.​

Retreat Reflections

On a lovely hillside overlooking a sparkling lake, the stressed, frazzled, overtired Young (ahem) Woman spent two days surrounded by friends and fabric.

She finished stitching a project for a class.

She made two pillowcases for donation to a women's shelter.

She completed five more blocks on her Jelly Roll Sampler quilt. (And did a little jig over only having three more to go!)

And she led the "Beach Fun Challenge" for those who wanted to play along. Here are some folks who did.*

(There was one more person who participated and I thought I had a picture of her project but couldn't find it on my phone this morning. Sorry!)

And this is all the Young (ahem) Woman is showing of her beach challenge project, as it is doing double-duty for the Project Hope Online Quilt Show...to be revealed later.

She returned home Sunday afternoon happy with her progress, and completely decompressed.

A good time was had by all.

(*Young -ahem- Woman will talk about the retreat challenge in her next podcast episode.)

Monday Musings

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people." (Leo Burnett)

Impressive.

Thanks to following links through some art quilters blogs and newsletters (I apologize, but now I really don't recall whose I was on when I found this), I now subscribe to Hand/Eye Magazine and email newsletter. Hand/Eye "tells the stories of artists, artisans, and designers worldwide." Volume 10, available right now, is about "Craft and Compassion," which is right in my wheelhouse. I'm halfway through the magazine and just falling in love more and more.​

Today's email newsletter announced the launch of their new Vimeo channel and the upload of this video about the metalsmiths of Croix des Bouquets, Haiti. . I've seen the artwork in galleries but didn't know how it was done.​ Incredible. Recycling has never been more beautiful.

Metal Magic from HAND/EYE Video on Vimeo.

This explains a lot...

This article from LifeHacker came onto my Feedly feed on a particularly opportune time this week: "It's True, Thinking Hard Really Can Wear You Out."

​No wonder I'm so fatigued lately! Intense days at work. Good thing I'm going to the gym in the morning. Doesn't bode well for the post-work quilting sessions, however.

Monday Musings

Thoughts to ponder, to make Monday just a little more interesting.​ (This is a new incarnation of "Slow Quilt Mondays".)

"If you hear a voice within you say, 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."​ (Vincent Van Gogh)