Now that that is out-of-the-way….

Luckily, I was able to use left over binding and am putting the hand stitching into the binding on Colorblocked, last week’s quilt. I just love when there is *just enough* binding left to finish it off. It makes the entire quilt project seem to go faster when you don’t have to stop and cut more. I usually make it by the yard², so miles and miles of continuous bias binding, well it seems that way anyway…. . It is handy to have on hand, but I’m always happy to move on to new colors.

Like this.

I think this speaks for itself.

Yup, that’s another quilt top using Amy Butler scraps along with another Kona quilt using cerise . Don’t you just LOVE Amy Butler fabric? I certainly do! I think she was the first fabric designer that I could readily pick her fabrics out from a rack full of gorgeous brights.

Good stuff.

And more good stuff here.

]]> http://sewfrench.com/2012/05/30/wip-wednesday-2/feed/ 5 sewfrench Kaleidoscope quilt wipwednesdaybutton http://sewfrench.com/2012/05/29/i-am-humbled/ http://sewfrench.com/2012/05/29/i-am-humbled/#comments Tue, 29 May 2012 13:09:10 +0000 sewfrench http://sewfrench.com/?p=3351 Continue reading →]]> Yesterday, while I was out and about, I received an email saying I had been nominated in the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival. I started having heart palpitations but couldn’t get to a computer to see what it was for. If you haven’t read my post by now, it is here.

Then a second message from a stranger (thanks Carly!) saying they had voted for me in “a couple” of categories. I thought I would pee my pants.

THEN a third message (thanks Tilda!) saying I had been nominated in 4 of the 15 categories!! Seriously? I couldn’t believe my eyes when I was finally able to get to a computer.

4 categories??? Seriously?

It means so much, to me, to be nominated. Really.

Total shock and awe to be considered worthy enough; to be in the same class as these talented women. I am humbled.

I seriously couldn’t have done it, not piecing the circles in, like wanted to, without daughter Amanda’s help. If it weren’t for her encouragement this quilt would still be lingering in the back of my mind.

Nor could I have done it without Farbstoff‘s idea. It wasn’t just me, but a collaboration of ideas and brainstorming. Thank you two for doing the hard work!

Thank you, Amy, for putting this festival of quilts together. I can not begin to imagine what all goes in to it. Then this year you add in nominations, categories and voting? You are the woman!!!

And thank you so much to everyone who nominated my quilt – you have made my year!

Now head on over here and look at some amazing quilts, read their stories and vote. The voting button is above each quilt. Just click to vote. No registration required. One vote in each of the 15 categories. One set of votes per IP address. For some of you that may mean cell phone and computer.

Then if you want to take it one step further, go here and scroll through all 621 quilts. You can vote for the viewers choice award winner there. Once again click “vote” about your pick.

IF you are looking for mine it’s #69.

And if I’ve ever made you a quilt? Or your child a quilt? Or your grandchild a quilt? Or your neighbor’s cousin’s dog a quilt? I’d super appreciate your support and your sharing this with your friends. With all the appreciation I’ve felt, over the years, for the hundreds of quilts, I’ve quilted, you’d think I would be a landslide! But the competition is stiff.

Go take a look.  Here. and Here. Now.  Voting ends soon.

If you read the labels, that is.

Memorial Day weekend can’t come and go without making a batch. We first had this back in the 90s when a fellow Girl Scout brought it, and copies of her recipe, as her “snack to share” for a winter camping trip. We have been hooked ever since. Can’t go camping without it. And because we always went camping over Memorial Day weekend… You get the drift.

Just so you know, you don’t have to be a camper to love Puppy Chow.

Puppy Chow

20 oz Chex, rice or corn will make it gluten-free

12oz pkg Nestle semi sweet chocolate chips, for other brands read the label for hidden gluten

1 c peanut butter

1 stick butter

1 pound powdered sugar

Melt butter, peanut butter and chocolate chips in the microwave. Stirring every minute until all is melted.

In a really big bowl pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal.

Then in another really large container you will toss the chocolate coated cereal in the powdered sugar until it is evenly coated. This was traditionally done in a clean trash bag. Not sure that’s really a healthy idea….  A disposable turkey roasting pan is about the right size to save your counters and floors from the mess.

Lay it out to dry on the countertops. You can try putting it on waxed paper or foil, but it seems to make a big mess no matter how you do it. Did I say this was messy?

It makes a lot. So there is always plenty to share!

Now where are those Uno cards????

So many times I’ve tried to keep a garden journal and have failed miserably. This year I thought I’d take a different approach. A photo journal. What do you think?

So, just a couple of days after planting our container garden, I talked about it a couple of weeks ago, I stepped out to snap some shots. I’m going to see how this type of journaling works to record how much of what we planted and how each vegetable worked out for us.

First up, my ratatouille garden. Most everything I need to make one of my favorite dishes! Not that I expect it will all come in at the same time… But who knows…

Okay, celery may not be in ratatouille, but I wanted to give this a try to see how it works. I’ve read that you can take the base end of a vegetable, in this case celery, and plant it directly in to the ground and have it take root and regrow. I soaked the root end, of this organic celery stalk, for a couple of days, in a window sill, and saw no evidence of anything, but what the heck. People on Pinterest say it works. We shall see…

Hot pepper, bell pepper, my celery experiment, cherry tomato, 2 miniature eggplants, and basil.

Check out this new climbing gadget my FIL sent us. He grew fabulous container gardens before I was a part of the family, but I’ve seen the pictures! He sent them with the intention of them being used for tomatoes. We decided to use them for climbing vegetables instead. They didn’t allow us a way to tie up the tomatoes as stable as cages and ropes have in the past. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just wait. Our venue is a tough one on top-heavy plants like tomatoes.

Four climbing cucumbers and a zucchini.

Caught the sprinklers running, that’s why there is a little blur going on. You would think I could have waited. But no.

With all the little eggplants we have going on it looks like we’ll be making Baba Ganoush, another eggplant favorite.

rTwo more eggplants and some shallots.

We all love beets. Traditionally roasted, cooked, sliced and chilled in a salad, raw in a smoothie… Some around here even love them pickled. Anxious to see how this works out!

A container full of beet potential.

We have never grown sweet peas. Husband doesn’t like them. This was his idea. I suspect he doesn’t like them like he doesn’t like asparagus and tomatoes….. We shall see.

A cilantro plant, 3 sweet peas, and another pepper, I think.

This is one of our original herb garden containers and the chives just keep coming back like there is no winter. These were in the garage, over the winter, and growing white. Hauled them out, cut them back and within hours they were greening up.

Two Parsley plants, thyme, cilantro seeds and a bit of the chives that have been around forever.

Radishes at the top, a Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato and a pepper plant.

I was SO excited to locally find a Fernleaf dill plant, it is a dwarf and he is proud of it. He will only get about 18″ high as opposed to the 3-4 feet most get. While a traditional dill is great it doesn’t look so great in a container…. And the two strawberry plants? Those are volunteers that self seeded into the rock at the edge of the deck. Even after we freshly rocked over them they continued coming. I dug them up and tossed them into this pot. They survived and have even put on flowers. I never knew strawberries were so tough. These are just for fun. Chipmunk bait. Maybe it will keep them out of the rest of the crops…

And there is a huge thyme that came back on its own. We don’t usually get that in this 5A hardiness zone. Maybe when it’s in the ground, but not usually in a container. It was a very mild winter, though… I cut this back after I took this picture, so I have my first cutting drying, as we speak!

Really not sure how these are going to work in a container.

Four cauliflower plants.

Nor these.

Four broccoli plants.

And our largest tomato plant, so far. We picked this one up at Grow Benzie. When they told me it was just some seeds the local Germans use, we decided to give it a try. Then I thought we might better look them up to see what we can find about them to know what container/space we need. Come to find out they are considered a rare variety of heirloom that produces huge tomatoes! This is where needing a traditional tomato cage, with tie downs, to be added later, is required. Too much wind here on the north shore!

Elmer’s Old German Heirloom tomato plant.

The east end of the deck. All day sun. All summer long. This is going to be fun!

Not much to see here on the west end of the deck, yet. It is shaded by cedar trees, most of the day, except for some morning sun. For now most of our boxes of greens are here where there are irrigation drops available. When we are able to be here everyday they’ll be moved to a sunnier location, at least until the heat of summer arrives. Then back again. That’s why they are in these lighter weight, portable pots.

Spinach and a Gourmet Lettuces Mix have been planted.

Two more planters of greens, one of arugula and the other is an heirloom Black Simpson lettuce. You can only eat so many salads, in one day. I suspect there will be an abundance of green smoothies coming from our deck, this year.

Then we have the random seedlings that aren’t quite big enough for pots of their own. Missing is a picture of the stone planter full of beet seeds for their greens. Yes, we love beets, in all manner.

Not sure how much, in actual groceries, container gardening will produce but we are giving it our best shot. We planted organically and as many heirloom varieties, if not all, I’ll have to double-check that, as possible.

We have come to the realization that we just love to grow things, so this year we majorly cut back on flowers and opted to grow real food instead.

It’s still food for the soul. Ya know?

I have been overwhelmed with sweet comments on my entry in the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival. Thank you all so very much.

It is so special to have other quilters recognize your work. Family always does, that’s what they do. But strangers? It is very sweet. I was even pinned, over at Pinterest, by none other than the fabric designer, Robert Kaufman himself! He wrote such a nice comment.  I feel filled with love and gratitude.

I am just #69 of 631 favorite quilts. All are very special to their friends and families, I am sure. Nominations started last night and will continue through Friday for 16 different categories. I am having a really hard time remembering which quilt I wanted to nominate for which category. I should have been taking notes from the beginning. I am glad I have through Friday to get them picked!

Voting started this morning, for Viewers Favorite, and will continue for one week.  I am not self promoting, okay, maybe just a little, even though doing so is encouraged as is creating alliances. I like a little competition but I don’t do well with being judged…. But I have had several people ask so I’m just putting the information out there. Clicking on the vote button, above the quilt you are choosing, is how you vote. No log in or information needed to vote. One vote per ISP address or cell phone, ir would appear. Do with it what you want.

For me, I’ve still got another couple hundred quilts to look at before I have all my favorites picked!

So what have I worked on this week?

I put together a quickie quilt to try my hand at machine quilting. I’ll give you more details on this when I get it finished. Can you tell I love Robert Kaufmans Kona cotton solids? I have done so little quilting by machine, but just a quick look through the Festival quilts, you can see it is all the rage…

It was fun.

And fast! Holy Cow! I got this 44″ quilt top sandwiched, basted, quilting lines marked and machine quilted in about two hours. Can that even be right?? Now I understand how people are putting out multiple quilts per week! Machine quilting may help me get some of my quilt tops quilted faster, but I think I’ll stick with hand quilting for the majority of them…

For now I need to take a peek at all the WIP Wednesday projects!

Have a Wildly Wonderful Wednesday!

]]> http://sewfrench.com/2012/05/23/wip-wednesday/feed/ 20 sewfrench bubble quilt #69 DSC_8606 wipwednesdaybutton http://sewfrench.com/2012/05/22/happy-hour-rhubarbarita/ http://sewfrench.com/2012/05/22/happy-hour-rhubarbarita/#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 20:50:07 +0000 sewfrench http://sewfrench.com/?p=3189 Continue reading →]]> Does anything shout spring louder than rhubarb?

You know, that perennial vegetable, that we think of as a fruit to use in pies, cakes, jellies and jams? It is such an easy crop to grow. Plop it down in a sunny location and let it do its thing. Like a lot of plants you won’t want to cut it the first year but wait and you’ll reap more benefits for years and years to come. Just don’t eat the leaf, it contains oxalic acid, which can be poisonous. You’d need to eat about eleven pounds of rhubarb leaves at one sitting for a lethal dose, but just to be safe, no leaf nibbling.

We planted a rhubarb plant way back when. Maybe 8 years ago? It produces like crazy. You have to climb through the weeds to get to it, at the time, I thought that was a good thing. It would prevent random walkers from stepping up and helping themselves. Come to find out someone has cut it, besides me. I suspect it is the neighbor lady, who we once mentioned than we have more rhubarb than we can eat, help yourself. Guess those two words gets her out of the whole Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s stuff….

Anyway.

It’s early I just realized. We were expecting more rhubarb because the weather has been so nice, but in reality its way too early to be getting the amount of rhubarb as I was hoping for.

But there was enough to make this. Not much but enough to test out a new recipe.

That is about 10 precious ounces of Rhubeena. Basically it’s rhubarb seeped simple syrup.

Rhubeena
my version adapted from hungrytigress
who adapted it from the river cottage preserves handbook

1 pound rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar, more or less
jelly bag and strainer, or tight-weaved cheesecloth and strainer

Put chopped rhubarb & a cup of water to a non-reactive pan. Heat on medium, partly covered, and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering until all the rhubarb has softened – about 45 minutes. Don’t let it go dry. Add more water if needed.

While rhubarb is cooking place jelly bag or cheesecloth in a small pan of water and bring to the boil, let boil for 10 minutes to sterilize.

Once sterilized, squeeze excess water from jelly bag, and place on stand over a large bowl. If using cheese cloth place over a strainer propped over a bowl. Pour in the cooked rhubarb and let drip overnight.

The next morning measure the rhubarb liquid. Into a saucepan add the liquid and 1/2 cup of sugar per cup of liquid. Warm the juice & sugar mixture on low heat until the sugar has melted, turn the heat to medium-high and bring it to a boil. Boil for one minute.

Pour into a jar, cool and refrigerate.

Now you have to decide what to do with it.

Perhaps you’re feeling to need for a fresh and fruity soda?

Rhubarb Italian Soda

Over a glass of ice, pour 1/4 cup rhubeena and top it off with sparkling water and a squeeze of lime. Garnish with a slice of lime. Add more or less syrup depending on the amount of sweetness you prefer. Very refreshing.

Not exactly what I had in mind?

Maybe you’d rather concoct one of these veggie laden cocktails instead??

After a hard day of gardening a Rhubarbarita was calling my name. And I’m not deaf, I heard it loud and clear.

Rhubarbarita

1 shot Rhubeena

1 shot of your favorite Tequila

1 shot of fresh squeezed lime juice

Shake it up, pour it in, top it off with some of the ice and a rhubarb stir stick.

Kick back and relax.

If you got as much done yard work done today, as I did, you deserve one, too!

Cheers!

It all started with a past year’s Quilt Festival. You look at hundreds and hundreds of quilts, finding so many ‘new to you’ blogs to follow. Some you find an attachment to and add to your Google Reader. It’s so exciting to link up with others who have similar ideas and creative outlets.

This year’s quilt stated with following a new blog.

Farbstoff.

One of her regular columns is one of pattern choices for the modern quilter. When she threw this pattern idea out there, I knew I needed to figure out how to do it.

I knew I could do this, because I had a secret weapon. My helper. My youngest daughter. She was finishing up her senior year of college, majoring art with an emphasis in graphic design and had a much better understanding of how computer drawing works. She took Brigitte’s idea and turned it into a pattern. Since she could make it any size we decided on, I opted for 44″ square. Frugally speaking, one single width of a piece of backing fabric would make the perfect size for a wall hanging. And everyone needs a fresh wall hanging.

And a rough layout of our color palette…

We weren’t sure if all the fabrics were exactly what we had in mind, based off the Kona swatch card, but we would try and try again.  We had lots of options and playing to do.

Can’t you just visualize it based on the way the fabrics are layed out??? You have to dive in and start somewhere.
I printed two copies of my pattern and taped them together. Using one copy, that Amanda colored, as pattern pieces, mentally adding my 1/4″ seam allowances. Then used the other, as a whole, to keep track of where each color went.

Where the colors overlap I was aiming to create the appearance of transparency. When some colors didn’t work, as I had originally hoped, I changed colors. If you were to want to attempt to copy mine, do not use the colors labelled in my pictures. Well, you could, it just won’t turn out the same. While I did exclusively use Robert Kauffman Kona cottons, some of the colors I went after weren’t available and others, when I saw in person, up against their neighbors, didn’t look like I thought they should. That was another pattern confusion, all its own.

Finally, I got it put together, which was not easy, but easier than I dreaded. I did not want it to be an appliqued quilt, but inset circles. My most anxious piecing was putting the chartreuse, a nearly full circle, into the larger red bubble piece. It wasn’t nearly as scary as I had envisioned it to be. Isn’t that usually the case with the unknown?

Then I used my trusty, handmade templates, used on so many other quilts, like this one and this one to mark concentric circles at 1″ intervals to hand quilt, usually while as a passenger in the car, one of my most productive places to quilt.

Yes, I could have machine quilted it and been done that much faster. But what’s the hurry? Life is all about the journey, isn’t it?

Bubbles, wall hanging, 44″ square

The back really shows off the quilting. I duplicated the arc, opposing it, from the front to use as a label.

So check it out, if you haven’t already. My entry is #69.
So much to see, sew and sigh over….

If you like what you see here, leave me a comment. It’s so exciting to hear what people think and have to say. Share the love! I would be thrilled if you would Subscribe in the sidebar, too. Thanks for stopping by ♥

We pondered, last summer, about putting in more space to grown vegetables. Planters are great, but they weren’t deep enough for some things or sturdy enough for others.

Summer 2011

We even considered yanking out some of our 10-year-old landscape. It has gotten overgrown, grass was creeping in, cedar tree debris was deep…. Obviously, or maybe not, this is before this year’s spring cleanup. We don’t live with this mess throughout the summer.

Before you ask, that’s our planter irrigation lines and drops stuck into the deck, to get them out-of-the-way. And yes, we are prepping for painting, having had many of the cedar siding boards replaced on this south-facing side.

We decided to go for it. Nothing could look worse than those creepy/creeping evergreens with dead spots on them. The two Princess Spireas, to the far left, have seen better days, too. What a difference a day makes when you have a strong, willing man with a shovel along with 6 whiskey barrel planters, 24 cubic feet of organic,  soil less growing medium and 2 yards of fresh stone, well one yard of stone here, another yard around the rest of the yard.

Did you know it’s nearly impossible to find, online, how much soil one of these barrels will hold? Just so you know ours took about 4 cubic feet each : )

We will still be able to use our deck planters for lettuces and smaller plants that we might want to move around and the irrigation lines should still have enough oomph for it all. Can’t wait!

We’ve now completed cleaning up the debris all around the house and refreshed the stone. Time to bring out the deck furniture and flower planters.

Time to get the trees trimmed and flowers planted out front

and to get our tiny pond cleaned out and some fishies put in.

And, of course, getting our herbs and veggie plants and seeds put in….

For now, I think I’ll just take a peek and see what my fiends are up to!

Did you know May was Celiac Awareness month? Well, it is.

1 in 133 Americans have the very dangerous form of gluten allergy called Celiac. 1 in 20 have some form of gluten sensitivity. Lots of information available at your fingertips, if you are curious you can Google it. The WSJ published an article just last month. It is obvious companies are listening to their customers. Just look at the explosive quantities of gluten-free foods now available. And not just at health food stores but even your local corner store. Things that you have eaten forever, and which are naturally gluten-free, are now labeled to reflect that.

Do you think the rampant numbers of diagnosed celiac and gluten sensitive individuals has anything to do with the genetic modifications that happened to wheat in the last 50 years? Or that generically modified wheat could be a major contributor to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, depression and so many other of our modern ills? It is FrankenWheat — a scientifically engineered food product developed in the last 50 years that is behind so many of our ills, I say. I could be wrong but jeez we eat a lot more wheat, now, than we did 100 years ago.

And I know not everyone is eating wheat free, or gluten-free for that matter, but if you have a friend, co-worker, neighbor, party thrower, you name them, that does avoid wheat or gluten give these a go. They will thank you for your thoughtfulness. But so will the same neighbor, friend, co-worker…. that does eat gluten. They are that good! You could also try them with traditional all-purpose flour. Either way, I bet you’ll think these are better than any old boxed brownie.

Okay, so, back to the best gluten-free brownies I have ever made.

Even if these may be the only gluten-free, brownies I’ve ever made, they are right up there with our favorite, some may even call famous, family brownie recipe which has gluten in it.

In my opinion, these have the perfect balance of chocolate and sugar. Fudgey but not heavy, more cake-like but not quite. You just have to trust me and make them.

Just so you know, I didn’t create this recipe. I just followed a recipe. Seems to be the best way to go when looking into *new* GF recipes. Karina is a goddess of all things GF. For real. She’s been eating this way since before most of us had ever even heard the word, much less put together symptoms and wheat.  She has been creating recipes since before we had the internet at our disposal. She is the actual creator of many of the recipes we see out there on this internet thing.

Here you go.

We spent part of the winter, less connected to technology, while playing snowbirds.

Only to return to near snowy conditions, in April, after missing out on the near 90° temperatures Michigan experienced during March. There was at least a week were it was warmer in Michigan than it was in Florida.

Go figure….

We had a great time taking in Tigers spring ball games,

getting up close and personal, with nature, as we walked almost every morning, putting in over 200 miles,

and taking in the sunsets most nights. I feel blessed and refreshed.

I did get some quilting done while we were away, but only on the drive south and back.

My Bubble quilt is quilted and I now have gotten the continuous bias binding attached and ready to hand stitch it down. Then off to the washing machine to bring out all the cuddly goodness.

Stay tuned to see my slowest, continually worked on quilt, ever, finally completed!

Happy Wednesday! Now, go check out the other WIPs over at Freshlypieced!