There's a Lesson in That, Somewhere

What makes the lighening bug, the firefly, magical disapears in the daylight. The flash and glow obvious in dusky evenings disapears, ceases to exist when contrasted with the light of the sun. Resting on the shady side of a Sycamore leaf this firefly will stay cool and rest unitl the twilight allows it to shine again. Timing is everything.

Northwoods Baby Quilt

I just finished pin-basting this machine applique northwoods baby quilt. I love to make heirloom pieces and generally hand quilt the baby quilts I make, but an overwhelming sense of irony confronts me when I consider hand quilting a machine applique top. Machine quilting just seems more fitting.

The applique blocks are embellished with a fabric paint pen for the eyes, hooves, etc. and the designs I pulled out of the sashing fabric. I have always loved the little birds especially, and although I have no more of that sashing fabric, I foresee another all cardinals quilt in the future. (maybe bluejays -- they have those tufts too)


It was easy enough to draw out a larger version of the simplistic but adorable animals (and a tree). The buttonhole stitch effect I achieved with a blanketstitch setting on my machine and a rayon thread. If I had wanted to do a larger quilt there were also canoes and snowshoes and cute little cabins to choose from. But I chose a Bird:

A Bear: [He's tan in the sashing fabric but I chose a brown and black calico for the applique -- it just looked more bear-ish to me, you'll notice it also looked more tree trunk, twig, and antler-ish to me as well.]

A Moose:

And an Evergreen Tree:

And I'm backing it with flannel. Snuggly, northwoodsy flannel, I just know that will make this a favorite quilt with the little ones.

Gray Areas

When I studied antique quilts, I learned that many quilters used just black or white thread to piece their quilts. I made black, white, and cream staples of my thread drawer and tried to emulate this efficiency of thread. Not everything is black or white though, and I could not quell my desire to match my thread to my fabric, even though it would never show. Then I remembered about gray.

In dressmaking, particularly fitting bridesmaid dresses, a lot of gray thread is used. Why? Because gray is a color that pulls other colors into itself and blends in. Gray isn’t just the color between black and white, it’s a mediator color that takes on shades of whatever it’s next to. Using gray means the seamstress doesn’t need to stock up on every dye lot of fuchsia and teal thread in the world. This is useful information.

I use a lot of gray thread in my sewing now. It really makes sense, especially when I’m planning a project that uses multiple colors or divergent colors. I stock my thread drawer with pale grays, blue grays, green grays, dark grays, muddy gray browns, and tan-ish grays. I stock up during sales and never have to worry if the thread will match whatever I decide to work on later. I even have a beautiful spool of Charlie Child’s hand dyed logwood (the gorgeous stuff on the wooden spool) which someday, if I can ever bring myself to use it, I will use to tie a quilt. It doesn't matter which quilt, that thread will match anything. It's gray.

Blue, Walking

A Garden Like Solomon's

Awake, north wind,
Come, wind of the south!
Breathe over my garden,
To spread its sweet smell.
Let my Beloved come into His garden
Let Him taste its rarest fruits.

Song of Solomon 4:16

Blue and White

Are you inspired by blue embroidery on white linen? Or a blue bird on an antique chocolate pot? I am. I used a fine tip micron permanent pen in blue and crisp white kona cotton to draw this tree. I added an envelope backing of coordinating “shirting” fabrics, and a plump pillow form finished the job. Tada! Blue and white tree pillow.

Elusive Color

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leafs a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

--- Robert Frost

Fast and Fat Quarter Friendly Folk Art Baby Quilt

Here’s a quick baby quilt top to do. It’s not really Courthouse Steps or any named Log Cabin variation, but it’s based on that idea.

Layer your fat quarters as thick as you are comfortable with, I can usually manage to cut eight thick with my rotary cutter unless it’s been used on paper (I really ought to stop doing that). What width do you cut your strips? It doesn’t matter, as long as they’re all the same width. You’ll need plain (solid) strips that width too.

And then you need squares. The squares and the border are the same fabric so pick something thematic – I went with a gold leaf print here. (Autumn colours, etc.) It doesn’t matter what size the squares are either. I chose to make mine larger/wider than my strips but you could make them the same size or even make them smaller. Folk art is like that, folks.

On opposite sides of the square sew two pieces of the plain strips. Then, drawing randomly from your pile of fat quarter strips, you will sew strips along the other two sides. Back to the plain strips on the alternate sides, then random fat quarter strips again… keep going until you like the size of your block.

Now do that again, but start with the fat quarter strips on two opposite sides and then the plain strips on the other two sides, then fat quarter, then plain… until you have another block the same size as the first.

You’ll alternate these blocks when putting the quilt top together. And then you’ll put your border on it. If you’re like me, then you’ll stick it in the closet and feel guilty you’re not getting around to quilting it yet and wonder if maybe it would look good machine quilted, or tied even.

Cup of Poetry

This morning I am sipping a cup of Wuyi Oolong tea. There is a mellowness about oolongs which black teas lack, and who could resist a tea billed as “The Cup of Poetry”? I love this tea. I also love obsessively researching insignificant details that most people don’t care about. That is why this morning, with my mug of poetry beside me, I surfed a few tea sites to learn this oolong’s history.

I learned that Song dynasty poets were enraptured over this [Chinese pronunciation] wulong tea as early as the eleventh century. Also known as Rock Tea, or Crag Tea, Yancha has a unique flavor known as Rock Rhyme (Yan Yun) because of the high mineral content on Wuyi Mountain where it is grown. “Crag bone floral fragrance” one website said the flavor is called.

The secret of Wuyi Oolong is its geographical location, the uniqueness of a small spot in China where the nine-bend Jiuqu Xi River meanders among deep gorges. Thirty-six peaks, ninety-nine crags, four thousand different plant species and the Var Bohea -- the Wuyi tea plant cultivated only in this biologists dream landscape.

Did I mention, I also learned that the place where I bought my “Cup of Poetry” grows their Oolongs in Taiwan. Taiwan. There is no Wuyi mountain in Taiwan.

My tea is not the miracle weight loss Wu-Yi that several websites gushed about. It is not the tea sipped in the Imperial Tea Gardens in the Fuijan province birthplace of Oolong Teas. My tea’s rich darkness is not characterized by the poetic history of cliffs and caves interwoven with watery ravines. It’s just a good cup of tea nothing more, but nothing less.

A Look at the Verb "To Bee"

Road Trip

I have been travelling. Most of the time accompanied by Christian radio stations, sometimes resorting to tapes where the mountains made radio signals and cell phone signals fuzzy. For seven hours on Tuesday and seven hours on Wednesday I had the opportunity to contemplate, meditate, learn, and worship as I drove. Don’t worry, I paid attention to traffic too.

In the State of Virginia on Interstate 81 Northbound, I crossed the James River. The mountains surrounded and swallowed the river in folds of earth, crisscrossed by bridges, by lines of road and rail. At this spot 81 dove towards the valley floor and suspended above the river by concrete and steel continued northbound as though nothing significant had passed beneath its surface. Two roads, Mount Joy Road and Narrow Passage Road flank the James there, if the signs can be believed, and I thought how Biblical it sounded. Like the Mount of Olives, Mount Sinai, the Joy of the Lord is my strength. Narrow is the way. At that spot I thought, perhaps the river received its name less from a king in England, and more from a follower of the One King.

The Book of James in the Bible offers wisdom the early settlers, the namers of rivers, struggling in the new world might have cherished.
My brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance… 1:2-3

Be patient therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. … Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 5:7-8,13

I am comforted and encouraged by these words from James, by Scripture, by prayer and by praise as I endure long drives.

Blue Stocking Bee Balm

Bee Balm, or Monarda, is an excellent companion plant for the garden. A member of the Mint family, it spreads easily – unless you have the blue kind of this normally red flower. We have ‘blue stocking’ – it resents being asked to be blue and spread at the same time. But, as you can see, it’s still okay with attracting beneficial insects, and it doesn’t seem to mind dry clay soil. So really, who can complain?

Bee Balm is a lesser used herb, but has excellent antiseptic properties. It is a source of Thymol (like in Listerine) and can be used as a mouthwash and to treat minor scrapes. It’s also edible. Use the flowers in salads – I find you need to break them up or people usually pick them all out too easily.
I am informed that Monarda is excellent for seasoning wild game but have not tried this myself -- the wildest games I have in the kitchen are usually board games. ;-)

Also known as Oswago Tea or Bergamot, Bee Balm make an excellent tea. Blend with black tea for an earl-greyish taste, although this is not the Bergamot of Earl Grey fame; or go straight Bee Balmy for curing headaches and "the vapors." Just breathing the steam of boiling Bee Balm is said to be good for a sore throat, and it certainly smells nice enough to be worth trying that the next time I have a sore throat.

Spray Starch and Sizing

I love the puckery look of washing and shrinking a quilt after it has been layered and quilted. That's my preference. There are some fabrics that absolutely must be pre-washed however. For example, Batiks will bleed their dye everywhere the instant I forget and don't pre-wash them.

I believe it's okay to mix pre-washed and not pre-washed fabrics in the same quilt top -- puckers, remember. The one thing to overcome when mixing fabric like that is the texture. Pre-washed fabric and fabric straight off the bolt at the store behave differently. Here's why: textile manufacturers use sizing on the fabric to give it more body.

So, to make pre-washed fabric behave like new from the store fabric, use a spray starch when ironing.

You Can't Catch Me I'm the Gingerbread Man

This morning before I run, run, run errands as fast as I can I thought I’d make a gingerbread man potholder. These anthropomorphic kitchen helpers are a big hit with my family and I’ve a sister with a birthday coming up. {Pretend to be surprised later – you know who you are.}

First I layer fabric with all the leftover bits trimmed from finished quilts. All those scrappy bits of batt wider than 2 inches that I hate to throw away because “they’re still good for something” are good for this. I like a thick potholder (these are meant to be used) so I go about 5 or 6 layers thick. This particular gingerbread man is sporting layers of Quilter’s Dream Poly, natural Dream Cotton, and his belly has got a wholesome piece of Organic Cotton batt in it. Yum.

His top layer gets pinned in place to prevent shifting and I cut him out with pinking shears . Then it’s off to the oven, err, sewing machine with our gingerbread man. He gets a row of straight stitching, use a hopping foot to get over the layers if you need to, and then switch back to a regular wide foot to do zigzag around the edges.

Mine always need to be trimmed a little then. To even out the edges and neaten him up a bit; I go fast and don’t always stay on my own lines. It adds character.

Be sure to check both sides. You want to make sure all the raw edges are caught so it won’t fray out badly in the washing machine, but don’t panic if his stuffing is showing a little. It’s supposed to – he’s raw. (As in raw-edged, and uncooked, and possibly a bad pun?) I have tried making gingerbread with turned under edges and they end up looking too skinny, this way they just look plump and properly puffy.

Then his decorations secure the fragments of batting so that he doesn’t end up lopsided. I use the stitched zigzag (#16 stitch for my machine) across his hands and feet. Normally I do buttonholes for the button spots down his middle, this time I tried free-handing some weeping willow trees. And don’t forget to add his face – straight stitch with the hopping foot and scribble it on there.

Could You Be More Specific?

How to Break-Up

The following conversation may vary with the unscripted responses of the other individual -- the most likely comments were chosen as representative.

“Umm, Honey, I believe the evidence examined in the unbiased light of real science supports the Intelligent Design and Creation.”
“What!?! How could you be so ignorant? Don’t you know that evolution has been proven?”
“Define proven.”
“Well, Everyone knows it’s true.”
Try not to be smug when you say: “I don’t.”
At this point they will look at you as if you are the stupidest person on the planet. Tell your soon to be in-significant other “Evolution is an unproven Theory. Even Darwin didn’t believe it in the end.”
The rebuttal to that point will most likely be an inarticulate scream of frustration and a forceble attempt to remove hair from their own head. A movement resembling a figure skating sit-spin sometimes accompanies this.
Now show some mercy, soften your voice and speak calmly but pleasantly. “I am willing to postulate that both Intelligent Design and Evolution are un-testable hypotheses and therefore theoretical, with no proof beyond sheer faith. I even go so far as to grant your right to believe, however misguided, that you are the product of millions of years of accidental mishaps in the life of an amoebic protein chain.”
“So you do think evolution is true, then.” Confusion and relief will struggle for dominance in this response.
“No.” not too breezily, now. Be kind. You and I know what you’re going to say next but they do not see it coming. “But since I can neither prove nor disprove either theory to your satisfaction, I have decided to let you be the product of evolution if you want and I will continue to be the purposely created child of a Loving God.”
“Well, I… What?”
“It’s a compromise.”
“So I’ve evolved and you’ve been designed.” The shaking head and patronizing smirk indicate amusement and a degree of disgust.
“Yes, I will accept the idea that you are the end product, the eventual genetic offspring of random mutant monkey parentage, while you will admit I am the deliberate, intentional child of a purposeful Creator.” Pause for a moment, let it sink in. “Unfortunately that means I can’t date you anymore.”
“Huh?” [editor's note: there is a 47% variable indicating that this response might actually be "Wha...?" as that is not an actual word we have kept the "Huh?"]
You continue, “Our compromise requires that I no longer believe that we are the same species, I’m sorry. I'm just not willing to date inter-specially.”
They will tell all their friends that they broke up with you because you are nuts.

Disclaimer: the above is pure imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is coincidental and mostly unintentional. For entertainment purposes only, ABSOLUTELY NOT MEANT AS RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.

Pink Diamonds

You may have seen the PBS Nature program special on Diamonds that first aired back in 2006, or perhaps are aware of this through some other channels, but it caught my attention that there are pink (and a few red) diamonds coming from the Argyle Mines in the Australian outback. What’s really interesting about these million dollars a karat diamonds is why the diamonds are pink. No one knows why. The program was quite clear on what makes other colors (such as boron makes diamonds blue) but they said that the pink baffled everyone.

Now I will admit I know nothing of conditions below the mantle where diamonds form; and diamonds supposedly two to three million years old are from an era definitely out of my sphere of surety -- but I immediately thought of a reason for diamonds to be pink. (I’ll admit from a scientific standpoint it’s a complete cop-out.)

They were made that way. After all, some diamonds just are meant to be pink – like the ones in this strip-pieced Lonestar baby quilt. I found this pieced top in my stack of UFOs, that’s UnFinished Objects not space visitors, in my closet. I think it may be older than those Australian pink diamonds.

I Want More Good Movies

Clearly the movie industry does not agree with me.

We rented Definitely, Maybe over the weekend and here’s my opinion: Definitely NOT.

Most people probably wouldn’t agree with me; I wish I didn’t agree with me. The movie was well acted – superb, believable performances by an excellent cast. It was well written – first-rate dialogue, brilliant use of voice over and foreshadowing. And the directing and cinematography were stellar as well. Why don’t I like it? I’m not a fan of immorality. Oh, sure the little girl catches out her dad as a former smoker and chastises him, but the teasing “Dad what’s the male word for slut?” doesn’t carry nearly as much weight. The movie condones (where it should condemn or at least correct) the loose morality and sexual perversion of the four adult characters.

Here’s the kicker for me though: His marriage, signing the divorce papers is presented as the only thing standing between the girl’s father and the woman he really loved all along (not her mother) – WHAT? What kind of message is that? Allow me to sum up.
‘Hey, Kido, it’s okay Mommy and Daddy are getting divorced. I know we made commitments and stuff but I never really loved her, we’d both had sex with so many people it was just time to try something else for a while. I’ve really been in love with someone else this whole time.'
‘Sounds great, Pop. Not like families matter that much afterall – need help getting the old girlfriend back?’
My predictable response? DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME.

Now a great movie, which properly addresses the idea of philandering (there are temptations, they are resolved), has yet to be released on DVD. I am not alone in my appreciation of this film. For whatever reasons tons of people love this movie. A Google search on the title reveals multiple sites offering good reviews, fans recommending the film, and several hundred petitions each demanding the release of this film on DVD. And I checked – there are over 800 pages listing bloggers on Google Blogger who have put this movie in their profile favorites.

Released in 1992 this movie, with a stellar cast and truly excellent cinematography (as well as my personal favorite, even though you can’t find it anywhere, movie soundtrack of all time), offers a soothing drama about the lives of four women who face life and find love where they least expected it – in unlikely friendships and their own marriages. The film, nominated for multiple Oscars and Golden Globes, garnered two of the latter. The reworked screenplay was revived in 2003 as a successful Broadway show, and the almost forgotten book on which the film was originally based has not only been reprinted but has become a book club favorite over the intervening years.

I am wearing out my second VHS tape of the movie at a rate which causes me to worry about where I’ll find another copy I can afford. Used VHS copies of the film range from $30 to $80 on Amazon, and yet the film still has not been released on DVD.

To which popular movie do I refer? ENCHANTED APRIL

If you haven't seen it (or haven't seen it in a while), go rent it – if you can find it – and if you can’t find it, do me a favor and complain. I think they’ve stopped listening to me.

Garlic Soup

I probably shouldn't admit this but I never follow the recipe, well, almost never. That's especially true with recipes that get scribbled down while I'm watching a chef on TV. Case in point, this garlic soup.

I modified the original recipe from the Victory Garden because, really, who has 12 heads of garlic on hand? I used two. I also substituted milk for cream to make a "healthier" soup and because I didn't actually have more than a tablespoon of cream left in the fridge anyway. The red pepper and thyme cream that the chef on the show made to go with this soup got a bare nod with thyme leaves as a garnish. You'll note my attitude is that if you don't have enough cream on hand you just have to make do with something else. Normal people would probably just not attempt the dish until they'd been shopping and bought what was needed.


So my cut-down, make-do recipe went something like this:
Two cups of water
Two vegetable bullion cubes, and
Two heads of garlic
went into a pot with a pinch of Kosher salt. That got cooked down for an hour and then strained. I removed the cloves and instead of pushing them through the strainer (because that would be a pain to clean up and I don't have kitchen staff to do that for me) I just chopped them a little, then mashed them with the side of the knife, and added them back to the pot. Still off the heat I also stirred in
1/3 cup milk, and
a squirt of lemon juice.

I did use a whisk, as reccommended, even though it made an extra dish to wash later because I do love whisks. There's just something chef-ish about whisking that makes me think the food is going to taste that much better. The soup went back on the stove over medium heat, stirring (whisking) constantly until it was warmed through. Once in the bowl mine didn't look as pretty as the TV soup (garlic soup by itself is really just kind of beige) so I used a couple drops of cream and a toothpick to make a marbled pattern and sprinkled some thyme leaves on for extra garnish and extra flavor.


It turned out pretty decent, but probably would have been better with the red pepper and thyme cream. And I thought it could have used more garlic, the flavor cooked down to such a mellow sweetness that it didn't have enough zing left for my taste. I think either more garlic or shorter cooking time (or both) might make it stronger. A trip to the grocery for the right supplies probably wouldn't hurt either.

Raspberry Drop Scones

I’ve seen the prices in the store, a pint of regular berries costs almost more than buying the plants, and our organic garden produces raspberries that would be out of my price range. Fortunately for me, we do grow them.

If you are blessed with a large patch of raspberries, or are quick enough to gather the wild raspberries (that’s wineberries to some of ya’ll) before the birds devour them, you’ll have extras to freeze and pull out for a taste of summer in winter. Just sprinkle the berries with a little sugar –little, I said – and seal in a Ziploc freezer bag. Sometime this winter, possibly as early as November, you’ll be glad you printed out the recipe below and taped it to the bag of raspberries. (You can use commercially frozen raspberries too – they get even juicier which is great for this recipe.)

Raspberry Drop

Scones

2 cup unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tarter
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter (you can use margarine too, but it’s less sconey)
¾ cup milk

Aside from “Bake 400F 12-15 min” that’s where the handwritten recipe ends. What it forgets to say is that you should combine the ingredients in the order they’re listed, the way my grandmother taught me to make scones in my great grandmother’s kitchen one time when more family had gathered than expected. When you get to the butter, it’s easier to cut it in with two knives like you do for piecrust. Grandma used her hands.

Add the milk, especially that milk that you think might be going off a bit. If you're tempted to say "Hey, is this still good?" that's scone making milk. For regular scones you stop there and finish by patting the dough into two circles and cutting it into eight wedge shapes to bake; or you could keep going and add about 3 cups thawed-out frozen raspberries and all the juice they made. The juice will turn the scones pink and make the dough too gooey to shape into proper scones. That’s how my grandmother's scone recipe becomes my raspberry drop scones – just spoon about 12 big pink dollops onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake at 400 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.

They're best warm and with tea, a mellow oolong or confident English breakfast. Grandma always liked heavy whipping cream with them too.

Building Blocks (Part 2)

Sixteen units make a lovely block… and Yes, in my head that is set to the tune of “Sixteen Candles.” Here are several of the quilt squares that can be made using these simple quarter circle units as the building blocks.

I already mentioned Robbing Peter to Pay Paul (I’m certain this has something to do with the Biblical Peter and Paul and the collection of tithes in the early church, but I have no anecdotal proof.)

There are two versions of Robbing Peter to Pay Paul that use the unit we’re looking at. (There are also other variations that do not use this same basic unit).

If I had made an uneven number of units this next block could have been Wonder of the World (the four corners would have their values reversed) which is also pictured in the last post. With even numbers of light and dark quarter circles though, this is as close as you can get. Turns out this is Fool’s Puzzle, then.

Reverse Baseball -- Frankly, I don’t see the point of this one. Unless you use sashing the fact that it’s “reverse” gets completely lost. For more fun just go ahead and appliqué polkadot circles on wholecloth, asymmetrically of course.

Note that I am too lazy to sample all the possible patterns – I have used graph paper (don’t you love graph paper?) to illustrate the blocks Around the World which requires 16 identical units, and Love Ring also known as Nonesuch which requires 36 units so my sample would be huge. Sixteen units evenly divided works just fine for me, thanks. I know that somewhere there is another name for Queen’s Crown but I haven’t been able to find it. And really, since I’m being lazy today, one name is enough, don’t you think?

Many quilt names apply to more than one block, just as many quilt blocks have more than one name. The Snowball doesn’t always look like the above block and Ocean Waves (below) is also called Falling Timber.

There are two Drunkard’s Path blocks that use our quarter circle unit.

Drunkards Path – the version below anyway – is also known by the name of Rocky Road to Dublin. Which I’m hoping was not meant as an ethnic slur. I haven’t done the research on that one, but we’ll assume it wasn’t meant to indicate a drunken Irishman trying to find his way home from the pub, but was instead a keen observation on potholes and cobbles decorating the highways around that great town. While famous for its musical culture and the Book of Kells (housed at Trinity College, which people have also heard of), Dublin goes down in my book as being the home of the Italian restaurant Paddy Garibaldi’s. Twelve years ago my friend Fiona and I, tired and hungry, found it open on a bank holiday and were deserted by the rest of our group who went, in vain, to look for someplace better than “that hole in the wall.” Fiona and I ate there every night, and by the end of our week in Dublin everyone else in our group was eating there too.

Vine of Friendship creates diagonals that have many possibilities in setting. Placing them different directions could create diamond patterns, all striped diagonals, or zig zags. Fun.

And then there’s Wishing Well , when I sew my units together I think this is the pattern I’ll use. I love the round and flow of this pattern (and it’s perfect for penny fabric).

For those of you wondering why I’ve switched fabrics between posts – I have a yard of the pennies, and there’s something fitting about using a money print to illustrate Robbing Peter to Pay Paul and Wishing Well – don’t you think? Basically though, I ran out of carrot fabric. I knew I would. I only bought a fat quarter to began with, and I have used it in sampling several times already – always in combo with that lovely repro Depression Era orange which began life as a third (of a yard) and so is also running low. In case you’re curious, the test samples I make up generally become potholders or pillows – obviously the carrot samples became potholders.