Posted on August 16, 2012 by Sewfrench

Life is good!

Sewfrench's avatarSewfrench

While both our girls were here canning with me, on this day, it is strange that there are no pictures of them… I’m guessing they had their PJs on already!

I am so glad I passed on the knowledge of canning, to my girls and that they proudly do it! Woo Hoo for being publicly acknowledged for it Krystal!

Seems like just yesterday the cherries trees were in bloom.

But that was back in April. After 2 solid weeks of temps in the 70s and 80s in March, blooms came much sooner than the last frost. With every frost, more blooms were lost, meaning fewer cherries survived. You may not know it but Michigan produces 75% of the nations tart cherries, those used in pies, cherry juice for their anti-inflammatory benefits, cough syrups and many other food products. We also produce 20% of the sweet cherries and rank #3…

View original post 341 more words

Posted in Canning, Cooking, Cottage, Dairy free, Eating, Gluten Free, Health, Nature, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

I know it’s too early to celebrate, but….

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Sewfrench

An hour of this

is extremely

Honeycomb quilt

rewarding.

Though you can bet I’ll be whining about the soreness tomorrow, because pin basting a 100″ x 106″ quilt is one of the toughest workouts evah.

Posted in fabric, Fabric Tuesday, Linkys, Quilting, Sewing, WIP, WIP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

A Baker’s dozen from Julia Child

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Sewfrench

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”

“The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken. Bon appétit. ”

“Life itself is the proper binge.”

“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.”

“I always give my bird a generous butter massage before I put it in the oven. Why? Because I think the chicken likes it — and, more important, I like to give it.”

“…nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should.”

“It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate – you know someone’s fingers have been all over it.”

“Just like becoming an expert in wine–you learn by drinking it, the best you can afford–you learn about great food by finding the best there is, whether simply or luxurious. Then you savor it, analyze it, and discuss it with your companions, and you compare it with other experiences.”

“Everything in moderation… including moderation.”

“Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you’ll have a marvelous time!”

“…small helpings, no seconds, no snacking, and a little bit of everything.”

“You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.”

And finally when a sommelier asked her to name her favorite wine, she replied, “Gin.”

In honor of JC’s 100th birthday, I say we should celebrate fresh. And gin.

Cucumber Collins
printer friendly version

1 1/2 oz gin
4 1/2 oz cucumber purée*

Shake ingredients well and strain over fresh ice, in a tall glass, garnish with a cucumber spear.

*To make cucumber purée: Blend 1 cucumber with 3 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice and 4 oz simple syrup

“Bon A Petiet” ~Julia Child

Posted in Birthday, Celebrate, Cocktails, Cooking, Quotes, Recipes, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Can you smell us coming?

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Sewfrench

Several years ago my husband and brother-in-law were participating in the Customer in Residence program at the Thomas Moser studios in Freeport, Maine. If you aren’t familiar with Freeport it is the home of the Moser furniture empire and an old-fashioned outlet store town all wrapped up in one. It is also in one of the prettiest parts of our country. Husband was there to build a chair and I, and my sister, were there to get in some sister time and to shop. A perfect plan, I’d say.

While the guys were hanging out with the woodworkers, they learned one of the craftsmen was a grower of garlic. When he found out we also grow, or more accurately, had grown, garlic, he wanted to share what he had with us. I didn’t take a picture of what he gave us because I wasn’t sure it would amount to anything.

He gave us one clove of garlic to take home and plant. Yes, you heard that right.

One clove. One precious clove of his treasured heirloom garlic varieties, of which I can not, for the life of me, remember which one it is.

As soon as we got back to Michigan, among the winter dormant plants, I dug a small hole and planted that single clove of garlic. I then marked it with a spoon. Hoping no one would mistake it, come spring, for a weed and pull it or that the deer or squirrels would dig it up and destroy our entire crop. That was November 2009.

Come late summer, the one lonely stalk of garlic had somehow survived. We carefully dug him up and dried him and come November we broke apart the cloves and planted them. This time there were 7 cloves to plant.

Harvest 2, summer of 2011.

Luckily they all took! The next November we proceeded to break the heads up and replant the cloves again beneath the gravel of our landscape and into the soil.

Harvest 3, 2012.

And this summer we had a great harvest. All 24 of stalks came up. We may have harvested them a bit late, there wasn’t much paper left on them to protect them, but they look really healthy, nonetheless.

And after *one* more year, we might venture to taste it. We should have enough then.

And it is just that easy to grow garlic. And with all the healthful and interesting uses for garlic, you really should give it a try!

And just for the record, yes, you can usually smell us coming. Garlic is known for making your body odor garlicky smelling, that’s a fact that no one can escape. The thing that most people don’t realize about this smell is that it is the one responsible for making garlic such a health food.

So really…. we don’t just smell of garlic, we smell of health!

If you ever get a chance to visit Maine, Just Do It!!

Posted in Cooking, Gardening, Health, Landscape | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Lots of Hugs

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Sewfrench

Another one bites the dust, yeah, I said that already.

This was March 7, 2012. Quite the pile of quilts to be quilted. You recognize them all by now, right? From the bottom up, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, (my) Wall Hanging, Bubbles and now Lots of Hugs.

This is the one I most recently talked about gifting.

Cross Terrain quilt

I fell in love with this quilt because of the scrappy potential and you know how I love scrappy quilts! This pattern was designed by Lee, for Moda, and was done in Terrain by Kate Spain, thus the title. I didn’t realize that is where the name for the pattern, Cross Terrain, came from until I dug deeper.  To the quilters, out there, it’s obvious that I didn’t use Kate Spain fabric. I used fabric that has been around longer than Kate has been in the biz! I love quilts like this.

To me, this quilt will forever be known as Lots of Hugs. That is what I stitched into this quilt, as in all my quilts, really. Lots and lots of hugs to wrap you in. And also because it looks like one half of the XO symbols standing for hugs and kisses. The hugs part, specifically, as four arms wrap around each other. And because each quadrant in this quilt is a different fabric, you can envision them as arms, right?

This original pattern called for using a matchy, matchy collection of 40, 2 1/2″ wide x 42″ long strips of fabric, aka a jelly roll, making for half the work being done for you. I opted, instead, to drag out all the fabric, I own, and cut bits and pieces from probably 64 different fabrics. I discounted at least that many for not being the right shades and then another stack that didn’t contain enough fabric! It wasn’t planned to destroy my studio that way, I just got to cutting and piecing and the color took me over! Or was that the piles? I was consumed by the memories of so many quilts past that went into this one, that I may just have gotten a bit carried away. I suspect you will see this quilt, with a slight variation, soon.

And of course, it is my latest favorite quilt!

And this is the beautiful photo I received last week.

Cross Terrain quilt

Emerald Lucille, being held
by Lots of Hugs. Emmie was born May 24, 2012 weighing in at just 6 pounds. She is the latest grand baby of my sister, Kim. Emmie makes number six, for her!

Lots of Hugs

40″ x 48″
Scrap quilt
Kona White
machine pieced
hand quilted
May 24, 2012

A bit of trivia~
This quilt went to the home whom houses more of my quilts than any, outside my own or my children’s. One, two, three, four and five, the only wedding quilt I have ever gifted. How about that! And what a beautiful occasion for this last one, don’t you think?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

   

SaveSave

Posted in 2012 completes, A Sttitch in Time, Can I get a Whoop Whoop, hand quilting, Linkys, machine quilting, Quilting, Sew and Tell Friday, Sewing, Show it off Friday, Show it off Fridays, TGIFF | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

The unnamed Kona wall hanging.

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Sewfrench

Honeycomb quiltAnd the Honeycomb quilt size has been determined.

95″w x 101″l. That’s a queen for a 20″ deep mattress, when it tucks under the pillow, not over it. Well, that is what I came up with, anyway.

And as huge as it is… It is still one row short. Meaning while it still needs its center seam stitched, the bottom row has to be removed. Because it is a special row. With half hexies. Then the extra row added and the *special* row returned to its rightful place. Me, who always makes *everything* too big, because bigger is somehow better, cut this one short. Bah, at least I cut too many hexies, that’s all I can say….

Remember this? From Amy’s Show Me Your Mess Challenge?

I’m back at it. It has been my focus this week. The design came to me during a meditative/dream session back in February. Really. I pondered it all of March, while traveling, and put most of it together in April. I am just now getting back to it. Still working on the name.

It is made up of Kona cotton solids from leftover projects. I am machine quilting it.

After attempting to hand quilt it.

I tried. I tried hard.

I couldn’t get the density, of quilting, I was looking for with a needle and thread. I’ve used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 for years and years and never thought about using something else until it came up in for discussion at Celebrate Hand Quilting. Well, Hobbs Heirloom is lovely for machine quilting, but for hand? It takes me back to about 4 stitches per inch and it’s not pretty! But I am loving the looks of it with machine quilting. If I was a more proficient free motion quilter it would be a whole lot faster than using an even feed foot and constantly turning the quilt, sometimes as often as every 1/4″ back and forth, back and forth. But I like the intentional movement I am creating using the even feed. Not sure that is possible any other way. I will persevere. This one is about 49″ square.

Hopefully I’ll have it finished by this time next week. Need to decide on, and make the binding, on top of actually finishing the quilting. And weaving in all those pesky threads… Can’t forget all the tails…

What are you up to this week?

a

Posted in Crafting, Design, fabric, Fabric Tuesday, machine quilting, WIP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Oh, how my garden grows!

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Sewfrench

Growing celery pinterestRemember when I told you I had read that you could take the base end of a vegetable, in this case celery, and plant it directly into the ground and have it take root and regrow? If you remember, I soaked the root end, of this organic celery stalk, in a small dish of water, for a couple of days, and saw no evidence of anything. What the heck, I thought. People on Pinterest said it worked to re-grow celery. Others said they had nothing but leaves past ten days. Well, we stuck it in the ground for a definitive answer. 73 days later…

We have celery! Beautiful, crisp celery. Oh, how I love celery! If you know me, you know I eat it almost everyday. There must be some vitamin or trace mineral, in it, that my body craves or maybe it just goes back to my Native American heritage. They were big celery eaters, too. And since there are so many health benefits and relatively no calories… Crunch, crunch, crunch, you can hear me coming!

I actually received celery seeds, as part of a Mother’s Day gift, and decided they took more time, than we had, and possibly more space, than we could allow, so we opted out of planting them, this year. So when I read about planting the part of the vegetable that you generally toss into the compost pile, into a planter instead, I thought it was a brilliant alternative and possibly time saver if this actually would create a plant.

Okay, it’s not a huge stalk, but it is not a huge plant, either. But it is celery. In a pot. The largest ribs are about 5/8″ in diameter. Overall it is about 16″ tall. The leaves are so thick and healthy, very reminiscent of a flat leaf parsley. They are going to be fabulous in a big pot of stock! And the plant isn’t the 4 foot plant, I feared when reading my seed package. And now I’ve cut the cost basis of one celery stalk in half. Or, as I prefer to think of it, buy one, get one free! I’ll take a BOGO deal anyday!

I also have two leeks! These are the same ones as in the first photo. The base part left over from making Asparagus soup. Okay, one is laying down, resting. It’s been a long hot summer. But hey, it works! So successful were the leeks that they even put on scapes. I hear that when they are sautéed they taste like asparagus. We shall see!

It’s looking like I might soon be making a variation of my Potato Leek soup. Celery, Asparagus Leek soup soups good to me!

Cheers!

Posted in Cottage, Gardening, Landscape, Pinterest | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Let’s talk creativity.

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Sewfrench

Creativity is generally recognized as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.

To be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective. Among other things, you need to be able to generate new possibilities or new alternatives. Tests of creativity measure not only the number of alternatives that people can generate but the uniqueness of those alternatives. The ability to generate alternatives or to see things uniquely does not occur by change; it is linked to other, more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability, and the enjoyment of things heretofore unknown. ~Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken

Hmmm…. ambiguity is an interesting word.

am·bi·gu·i·ty/ˌambiˈgyo͞o-itē/
Noun:
A lack of decisiveness or commitment resulting from a failure to make a choice between alternatives.

With that, I think I am on the verge of finding my inner pièce de résistance!

Creativity is...

To me, it feels as if being creative is getting harder and harder because of the internet, and particularly because of Pinterest. My brain is getting clogged with other people’s colorways, layouts and ideas in general. But it is also becoming harder to pretend *you* thought that great idea up, when you see the same quilt over and over and over. Often with the exact same fabrics the originator used.

Still others think of creativity simply as re-arranging what came before, in new and unique ways.

How do you define creativity?

Do we need to reinvent to wheel to feel creative or just create our own,  new version of what came before?

Let’s talk.

Posted in Let's talk, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

How to sew a French Seam.

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Sewfrench

or as the French call it a “couture anglaise” an English Seam. Hmmm… isn’t that funny?!!

One of the most common searches that brings people to my blog is the phrase How to sew a French seam. I’m not sure how often I’ve talked about them or if it is just random hits because of my blog name. I suspect the latter. And apparently there are a whole lot of people who need to know.

I think we should talk about them.

French seams are quick, simple and clean. Perfect to tidy up the inside of  bag, pouches, and totes. They are especially nice for clothes that will endure lots of washings. This is a perfect technique to use when working with fabrics that tend to fray heavily or if you just want a professional, polished finish without a serger, zigzag or an overlock stitch. With a French Seam all raw edges are completely enclosed. No unraveling.

Let’s get started!

When your pattern calls for a 5/8″ seam, with wrong sides together, take a 1/4″ seam. For me 1/4″ measures from the edge of my sewing machine foot. I know that feels awkward, you don’t want to do it, but be brave, just sew that fabric together opposite of everything you have ever learned. It will be okay.

Now press it open. Isn’t a pressed open seam pretty? It makes me smile.

Now it is time to fold and kiss the right sides together, as you have been taught for most of your sewing career. Press again, this time pressing seam flat.

Press seam flat

Take a 3/8″ seam, just to enclose the previous 1/4″ seam.

1/4″ (first seam) + 3/8″ (second seam) = 5/8″ (how much we originally allowed for the seam). It is as easy as that. Make adjustments, as necessary, if your seam is larger or smaller than 5/8″.

Take a 3/8" seam and you did it!

You did it! A perfectly enclosed seam. No unraveling. It some cases you  might want to press it to one side and then topstitch it as often seen in men’s dress shirts. For my lounge pants leaving as is is just fine.

If you are a regular around here you may have noticed my ironing board cover. No, I did not make a new one as you first thought. But I do have the new fabric, as you can see. Since it needs changed so often, I’m thinking I might just pin it on and be done with it…

Now I’m off to see why making potatoes with nea fitini brings people to my blog…

Have a great day!

Posted in Sewing, Tutorial | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Another one bites the dust.

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Sewfrench

Anybody out there going to the AQS quilt show in Grand Rapids??? This will be my first big time quilt show. I can’t believe the Paducah show is now the Grand Rapids show, well for the next three years, I’m told. You have until 3 o’clock today to pre-register and buy your tickets. I’m SO excited!!

The Honeycomb quilt is down to the center seam. I was waiting on a final measurement for the width and I’ve got it now. I picked up Kona Ash for the back. 8 yards. Jeesh, that’s a lot of fabric! I’ve chosen the batting, but I’ve yet to decide how to quilt it. Arrgg. I’d like to machine quilt it but it is SO big and I am SO inexperienced at it! It seems so much easier just to hand quilt it, I know how I’d do that… But I really like how Malka did hers. It almost looks like matelassé. And I just now realized I bought Quilters Dream request, not select. Pretty sure I don’t want request? Double Arrggg.

Malka Dubrawsky honeycomb quilt

I’m down to the last few hours of hand quilting the borders of my wall hanging. I decided to just crosshatch it all the way. I tend to mark as I go and was marking in the car and now my rulers have all gradually migrated to the house while I am back at the cottage…. So today I’m off to the grocery store to see if they have any to finish marking this baby. Otherwise I’ll have to find time to go the distance to the quilt shop : )

And I pulled this pretty stack of fabric for a quick project. I was surprised at how many limey greens I had. Many had been cut into, some were just waiting for brilliance to strike! This is possibly my earliest start to any Christmas project, at my house, ever!

I got this pretty little package in the mail this week.

If you paid attention, you’ll recognize it. You’ve seen it in the past, now it’s in the hands of the USPS for the new baby in the family. I hate having to mail packages and wait, and wait, and wait. Then worry whether or not they got it, like it, or even care about hand-made. Not this family, per se, but in general… That’s what you get with living so far away from family…

Posted in 2012 completes, Christmas, fabric, Quilting, WIP | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments