Friday, August 30, 2013

Halfway There and Heading Home

Yesterday I passed the halfway point in quilting the wide border. Looks as though I will get this project done before I leave for France after all. My husband is going climbing this weekend, a long holiday weekend here in the US, so I will have even more time to quilt. Now I have to decide among my three options for my next project. No matter what it will be smaller than a bed size quilt. I have made three in a row now that are around queen size and I am ready for a project that takes infinite care but also gets done more quickly. I am undecided if I make a quilt with the antique oak leaf and reel  blocks, a Christmas quilt with cats again, or a wild quilt with chameleons and frogs and many insects that has been stewing in my brain.

Update 8/31--I just passed the 500 yard mark in quilting thread. That probably isn't much if one is machine quilting, but it's a decent amount for hand quilting. I estimate another 250 yards to go.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

A Cautionary Tale

More than a decade ago I had neck surgery involving discectomy and fusion on four levels of my neck. One of the odder results of that surgery was  that I had hypertension and tachycardia during the procedure. So my physicians put me on a beta blocker right away and then changed that to an ACE inhibitor to control the hypertension. I developed an allergic reaction to the ACE inhibitor and was then switched to an angiotensin II receptor blocker combined with a diuretic. All of that is background for what happened this year when my medication went from the proprietary form of the drug to the generic. Usually I am not an alarmist about generics since theoretically the formulas are the same.

This time, as it turns out, the two pills were not the same. Although more in depth research would need to be done to show the exact differences, right off the bat physician, pharmacist, and patient (me) knew that there was one visible difference in the pills--the generic did not have a coating on it. I didn't think that much about it; I had been taking the original drug for a decade with good results and few if any side effects. So I didn't connect what happened next right away to the switch from proprietary to generic. I started feeling sick all the time, sort of like morning sickness without being able to vomit. My heartbeat started to accelerate as well. Since I had been a competitive swimmer most of my life, my normal resting heart beat was well under 60 beats a minute and now it was running between 70 and 85. That's when I started to monitor my blood pressure more often, several times a day in fact. After two months on the generic, it was very low, around 90/50. Believe me, it is weird to have bp that low.

I went to my doctor who changed my prescription to the generic version of the drug that does not have the diuretic in it. Yesterday I had a follow up visit with her. My bp is still lower than she would like--about 110/65--but not as low as before so I feel better. My nausea is gone which is a big relief for me. My heart rate is still higher than I would like it to be, about 70 beats a minute, but not in any range that a physician would worry about. My doctor recommended sticking with this version of the drug but alternating half a pill a day with a full pill since she wants my bp to be about 120/80. We'll see if this regimen works.

Anyway, I learned a lesson about making assumptions and taking advice for granted. Anytime your medication changes, pay attention to what your body does. I needed the surgery since I had lost most of the sensation in my hands, but I am still dealing with the aftermath ten years later.

Update 8/31--Taking a half pill didn't work out. I am back to the full pill and blood pressure averaging around 110/65. That's fine with me. Funny thing though--my physician said I should meditate. I told her I didn't need to--I quilt.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

My Sister the Angel

I am not a religious person; I haven't been to church except for weddings in more than fifty years even though I had a pretty standard Roman Catholic upbringing that included a trip to Rome when I was about four years old. More for cultural and anthropological reasons than religious ones,  I have some religious iconography in my house. This is not limited to Catholic or even Christian art since I have a bust of Athena, a Peruvian medicine man's rattle, and other non-Christian items. So why is this post titled "My Sister the Angel?"

The third anniversary of my sister's death was four days ago so she has been on my mind. Truth to tell she is on my mind regularly but not so much in a mournful way. What happened right after her death is the story I am going to tell and it can be taken at face value or in any way you wish to construe it. Pamela's life was hard, made harder by the never ending depression that she added to with cigarettes and alcohol. She would be the first person to tell you that she was taking the long road to suicide. So three years ago I spent part of that summer in Washington DC, sitting by her hospital bed quilting (see Dresden Plate) and talking. Pamela died August 24th and my husband, who had come out for the final week, and I flew home.

The next morning we got up as usual, read the paper, and went out the front door to take the dogs on their morning walk. There was an angel standing on my front porch. Now this was not a gleaming messenger from above but a very tacky, Dynel haired, nylon robed angel about a foot tall. Well when your sister has been dead for all of 72 hours and an angel shows up on your front porch, you invite her in. And I guarantee that if Pamela were to come back as an angel she would be a very tacky Dynel haired, nylon angel and she would be laughing at all of us. So I put the angel on the entry table where I also have my Athena, a retablo from Mexico, a clay angel from Nicaragua, and a carved figure of Jesus.

I already introduced everyone to Max, the dust mop kitty, but the important part about Max is that he is still less than two years old so he has that young cat curiosity and derring do. One Monday a year ago I was doing my regular Monday morning cleaning, dusting, and vacuuming when I heard a crash. I went down the front stairs and found Max standing on the entry table looking down at Jesus lying on the floor with one of his arms on the ground next to him. The figure is wood with pegs holding on the arms and legs so no real harm was done but I still chastised Max, telling him that he had broken poor Jesus. When I bent down and picked up the pieces and stuck the arm back on I heard music. Now I was very confused because there shouldn't have been music. I looked around and cocked my head trying to figure out where the music was coming from. Well there was my sister, the angel, playing music and waving her arms. My tacky Dynel haired, nylon robed angel was a music box that had never played a note until Jesus was back in one piece. She has never played a note since either.


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Unexpected Task For Husband

Sometimes events transpire that push either me or my husband into doing tasks that we have been putting off or don't want to do. Case in point started when I purchased some framed antique English prints at an estate sale. While the frames were nice curly maple, they weren't holding together that well. To add to that issue, these had been framed a while ago, at that point date unknown, and had both cardboard and brown wrapping paper on the backs, both of which have acid in them that will eventually cause foxing and problems on the prints. So I took all five to the framer and picked out new matting and new framing material. The framer told me that I should take all the "leftovers" with me, including the cardboard that had been signed by the previous framer with a date of 1938. He said the frames could be re-glued and the glass was old float glass. Well lights went off in my head at that.

Like many people around here who live in old houses, we are reluctant to fix small windows that get broken because the old glass just looks so much better than the new glass even if it does have a tiny crack. My living room has windows with muntins that divide the glass into small squares on top of larger windows on the bottom and a couple of these had small cracks in the corners. Now I had five pieces of old float glass, wavy and wonderful, that could replace those small panes at no further cost to me. Well almost no further cost to me since I did need to get glaziers' points and glaziers' putty.  My very nice and talented husband changed one of the small panes out today. It isn't a difficult job but the putty was very old and had been painted over so it took longer than the task itself warranted.

Next week I will pick up my Cruikshank prints, newly matted and framed, and now they may last another two hundred years.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

My Dust Mop Kitty

This is Max. He is a Maine coon cat about two years old. Max is the only one of my pets (three cats and two dogs) who is not a rescue animal. Max was the runt of his litter so he remains smaller than the norm for a coon cat, about 15 pounds. He hates to be groomed but allows it if I either put the "cone of shame"on him or if I use my own hairbrush. Where we live there are no fleas so I don't have to worry about that and my cats are strictly indoor cats, but lots of people think I am a little nuts for brushing the cat with my brush. Not being a fashion plate and swimming and showering daily relieve me of any worry but it probably is a little weird. Without brushing Max would be a mass of dreadlocks so I don't have any other choice except shaving him and he hates that.

We have two other cats, Tom and Barn. Tom is a mostly Siamese who is the friendliest cat in the world even though his childhood was a little rough. Barn, a grey and black tabby, was abandoned at the horse barn where my daughter-in-law keeps her horses. He rules the animals around here, keeping everyone in line. The canines in our house are studies in opposites. We have Tucker, a rat terrier, who is about the same size as Max. He was physically abused when he was young so he takes a while to warm up to strangers, especially men. Once he becomes your friend he is dogged in trying to get you to play fetch. Our other dog is a bluetick coonhound named Watson. He is a 75 pound lump of love who also had a rough time when he was young. Someone bought him to be a hunting dog, specifically to hunt cougars in the mountains around here. Because that was his intended future, he lived outside in a concrete dog run without a name and without socialization  with humans at all.  Well, as the saying goes, that dog don't hunt. When his owner realized that his expensive coonhound had no interest in chasing anything bigger than a squirrel he simply shoved him out into the snow. By the time he was taken to the shelter he weighed about 50 pounds even though he was full grown. Now he is fully housebroken, loves cats, and is a gentle house pet. He does have separation anxiety when we leave him alone and he will go to great lengths to get food, but he is just a trusting soul.    

Friday, August 23, 2013

Denna's Quilt

Up until 2005, my husband and I lived in a gigantic house with enormous bedrooms and wonderful details. The best part about living there was my neighbor, Denna, a wonderful woman with nine children and a husband of 50 + years. The five daughters asked me if I would make a quilt for their mother for that anniversary. Below are some pictures of the quilt and one picture of Denna's house. We chose the Baltimore Album style since each block can be personalized to fit the recipient, as was commonly done in the 1840's. The blocks come from a variety of Ellie Sienkiewicz's books except for the house block which is my own design.
Denna is an avid gardener still, well into her 80's, so she had to have a basket of flowers on her quilt. This block might be from a Jeanna Kimball book instead of Ellie Sienkiewicz.

Best wishes are also appropriate for a 50th anniversary quilt.


Above is a photo of Denna's house and the block I made to represent the house with Gracie, the golden retriever, in the yard.

I saw Denna again recently. She still lives in her house though her husband died a few years back. She still gardens every day and she still sleeps under the quilt. Anticipating the real estate downturn we sold that old white elephant (10,000 sf, 11 bedrooms, 5 fireplaces, 100years old--beautiful but a money pit), but still live in the same neighborhood.

New School Year, New and Old Tutees

School started this week where I live. Today a former tutee, going into his sophomore year at Yale, is coming by to say hello and bringing his sister, who is starting her sophomore year in high school, with him. I hope she has one of the few good teachers for English literature. I often wonder how many of these teachers even have certification for teaching the subject. It certainly isn't because they understand the works they teach or how to write an essay. When I tell students to consider the religious turmoil that was current in Shakespeare's time when reading "Hamlet", or when I warn them that didactic argument is not appropriate for critical essays they look at me as though I have lost my mind. "But my teacher said," is a common response.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wide Border One Fourth Complete

I have been quilting steadily on the wide border of The Ties That Bind. It would be nice to finish before I leave for France but it is beginning to look as though I will just miss that goal. I have completed one quarter of the border in just under three weeks. My trip is a little under eight weeks away. So I expect that I will be close but not complete. I still hope to visit some quilt stores while in France so if anyone has any suggestions for areas near Versailles or near Dijon let me know. While a cool map exists online, there is nothing like hearing from folks who have been there and done that. We will have a rental car. This trip is for fun and to see more than just the museums and restaurants we usually visit. My husband has a pipe dream of purchasing property either in France or Spain.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

New Novel

I don't know if anyone else out there is a Richard Powers fan but he has a new book coming out in January, 2014 titled Orfeo. I heard him speak at a science meets art symposium many years ago. Scary smart. He won the National Book award for his last novel, The Echo Maker.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Getting Ready to Write

In my avocation of tutoring students in writing (see Off To College),  I am frequently asked the best way to improve vocabulary. The obvious answer is to read and to read a variety of material. But parents and students need to know that simply reading doesn't complete the job. I have often had students whose vocabulary is only that of a reader--they never think about using the words they know in oral or written communication, sometimes with funny results.

Once while looking over a student essay on Ethan Frome, I was astonished and amused to read that "Ethan Frome was an onanist." The poor student's argument was that Ethan Frome was self-centered. She jumped from that idea to Frome being focused on self-gratification. Then, no doubt with the help of a thesaurus, she made the astonishing leap to Frome as an onanist without any idea that she was accusing Frome of masturbation. Dictionaries and thesauruses are great tools but they can only take you so far.

First, students should discuss ideas at home, learn to form and defend a critical argument and then learn to form and defend the other side of the argument. As they practice those skills, they should access good vocabulary lists. Be aware that there are two sorts of vocabulary lists that are critical for success in AP Literature. The first, and most commonly supplied list, gives the vocabulary necessary to read the works assigned. Those lists are crucial but even more important are the lists that give the words and phrases necessary for literary criticism. Clearly "solipsist" is a better fit for Ethan Frome than "onanist" and "eponymous"  is a good word to know for that and other works. Learning to use "bildungsroman", "anodyne", "rebarbative", "inchoate", and "pathetic fallacy" among myriad others improves the end product--those dreaded essays. So have your student search online for "vocabulary for literary criticism." Using appropriate vocabulary in conversation at home makes the written product more persuasive because it is more natural.

Don't let any student develop either a fear of or a hatred for writing. Writing is key to success in academia and also in life. Even artists need to be able to write well to apply for grants. When my husband read resumes the ones that were poorly written rarely went further than his first reading regardless of what other qualifications the person had.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Fun Table Runner

This picture shows the table runner I made for my friend's dining room table before it was completed, sort of stuck on the back of my sofa. The design is from a quilt artist in northern Utah but I cannot find the pattern. If and when I do I will provide her name. Her original runner was in bright colors on plain white with elaborate machine quilting. My friend is older with more traditional Henredon furniture so these fabrics suit her house better. When I quilted it I did an all-over free form pattern by hand with feathers and swirls without marking the fabric. It was fun to simply quilt with no lines drawn. My friend likes it so much she keeps it on the table year round but won't let anyone put any food near it.

(Update)I finally found the pattern cover for this table runner. It is from Sunflower Hill Designs, by Julie Popa. She has some very nice items on her website if you want to check them out.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Tomato Jam

Now that it is the height of tomato season here it's time to start preserving some of our bounty. Since my youngest son is a professional chef, we get the inside track on many restaurants around the country including one of the very best, Niche, in St. Louis where chef Gerard Craft does his thing. One of their starters that we enjoyed on a visit was tomato jam with Spanish white sardines.

Here is my take on that jam since I couldn't talk Gerard into sharing the recipe:

In a large saucepan cook 1 cup of mixed chopped shallots and white onion in some olive oil until soft. Add one fresh garlic clove, or more to taste, and saute briefly until you can smell the garlic.  Add 3.5 pounds of fresh tomatoes coarsely chopped, the zest of one lemon, the juice of that lemon, one tablespoon fresh ginger either finely chopped or grated with a microplane, one tablespoon of candied ginger chopped, six tablespoons of red wine vinegar, two tablespoons of sugar  (or more to your taste up to 1 cup) and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Bring to the boil and then turn way down and simmer while stirring occasionally for about 40 minutes or until the mixture is thicker and nearly dry.

You can put this in sterile jam jars as usual or if you are going to use it more quickly, just put in a container with a lid and refrigerate until used. This is good with those white Spanish sardines or canned sardines, but it is also good with corned beef hash or on sandwiches.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Amazing Quilts

I don't make modern quilts; too many just look like quilts from catalogs that end up in my mailbox rather than art or expression. But if you go to www.saqa.com you will see some quilts that will simply amaze and astound you. Of course the devil is in the details and I don't know what they look like in person but go to the site and enjoy the show. They are incredible.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Quilting the Wide Border

I have gotten  to the wide border on the current project (The Ties That Bind). There are pictures of this quilt in a few different posts (Still Stitching, Layered and Quilting, and Progress on the Project) so no need to post more until it is completed. Sometimes I feel like the last hand quilter in the United States. I was thinking about that while doing the cross hatch quilting on this border. If I were a machine quilter there would probably be stippling or something but this ten inch border looks just fine with a one inch grid set diagonally. I do include stippling in many quilts, including the border of the Dresden Plate quilt, but this time I picked a simple cross hatch for stability behind the very curvy vine.

In case you were wondering about that name--the main blocks are bow ties and one noxious kind of morning glory is called bindweed. Since this quilt will end up on our big old Victorian bed, The Ties That Bind seems fitting after 43 years of marriage.

Monday, August 12, 2013

It's Ironic

While even I find my previous post inspiring (believe me, it was a humbling experience to change that girl's life) , it is ironic that it got just as many hits on a quilting blog as did any of the entries about quilting. Perhaps I should just tell stories rather than show quilt pix. There's the time my life was threatened by the Mafia when I was only seven, or the nine month series of funny to hilarious occurrences around dealing with my mother's ashes.

Anyway, thank you all for reading this young woman's story--try to change someone's life today--you will never regret it.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Off to College

For many years I have been tutoring high school students for free, helping them improve their essay writing skills. Most students who come to me already have their ideal college in mind, no matter if that choice is unattainable. They tend to be good at math and science, not so good at writing. They also tend to have enormous egos. A couple of years ago I mentored a 16 year old who was an immigrant from Viet Nam. Very bright and very studious, she was also very poor.  I asked her where she planned to go to college and she named our local state university, saying it was the only school her mother could afford. Knowing how smart she was and appreciating her dedication to improving herself and her life, I told her that she should apply to Harvard, my husband's alma mater. At her family's income level Harvard would be cheaper than going to our local university. Though she didn't  believe me about the cost, she agreed to apply if I would help her through the process, not in any way that would compromise her integrity but simply as an adviser.

Well, today I am taking that young woman  to lunch. She is leaving next week to become a member of the class of 2017 at Harvard. It won't be the easiest job she has ever shouldered but I still believe that Harvard needs her more than she needs Harvard. I have helped dozens of students over the years, but this one is the most deserving.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Fussy Cutting

As I wrote before, I have a large stash of fabrics to choose from, but all quilters should consider the fabrics available when planning the details. Don't just consider the colors, consider the patterns on the fabric as well. This works for pieced quilts as well as for applique but I do far more applique than piecing. Above are two examples of fussy cutting on the quilt border from my Dresden Plate quilt. The snail shell is an obvious choice given that the batik had that nice spiral. The flying bug next to the snail is less obvious but still fussy cut to align all those little circles.
Less obvious is the fussy cutting on this dragonfly and the fussy cutting on one of the flower petals. The dragon fly body  is two different fabrics, one with dots and one with fan shapes while the leaf vein on the petal adds some depth to that detail. If you look closely to the wings you will see the embroidered accents I added when all the applique was complete.
In this detail the fussy cutting is even more subtle but just as pleasing in the final product. The swirls on the fabric mimic feathers on the bird wings.

Two other examples of fussy cutting in the current pictures are from the details of the Bird of Paradise quilt. In the first one below, the head feathers are fussy cut to place the stylized flower motif at the top of each feather. The original quilt artist made a similar cutting decision.
The second example from that quilt represents the choice I made to change some of the fabric choices made for the original top. In several instances the top uses a very plain figured fabric, a major break from the other design decisions she made. Since I didn't like the plain figured fabric much, I made my own choices on the buzzards, fussy cutting the tail feathers and then amplifying the fussy cutting with quilting stitches in a chevron.
  

Fussy cutting can be taken to an extreme, sometimes distracting from viewing the whole, but when done with caution it can add to the delight you and your audience take in your quilts. 

If any of you have any questions about applique or fabric choices or embroidery, leave  a comment. I do try to answer when people are nice enough to make comments.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Other Projects, Other Influences

Although my taste in quilts runs to the traditional, my taste in art is more eclectic. I much prefer modern and contemporary art with Paul Klee as one of my favorites. Above is a small watercolor from 1938 by Klee titled Tanze vor Angst or Dances cause by fear. It occurred to me that this would make a nice quilt.
On the appliqued side of the quilt I more or less duplicated Klee's watercolor but I added various colors to the mix to memorialize the colored triangles worn by Jews, homosexuals, and others during the Third Reich. I used different widths of twill tape to form the geometric limbs of the figures.  

I was planning to give the finished quilt to my husband to use as a lap quilt in his basement office where the temperature, even in summer, is cool, and where in winter it can be almost unbearable. So rather than backing the quilt with the normal muslin or similar fabric, I made a small blanket out of wool rectangles and did some decorative stitching with perle cotton. The quilt has a wool batt as well so it keeps my husband and our cat Barney very warm no matter how cold the basement is.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Tomato Time


All of our tomato vines are producing right now. Sometimes it seems that we wait for this all year--planning the varieties, nurturing the seedlings, staking and tweaking the vines. Last year we had very little success so this year we made a special effort to amend the soil. We shoveled in compost last fall and added mushroom compost and chicken manure this spring. That is paying off big time. There are only two of us at home so we are sharing our bounty with our son's restaurant. We have a very small yard, only a tenth of an acre, but since we xeriscaped when we first moved in pretty much everything is potentially a place to plant. Our cold springs and early winters mean that the south side of the house is best for the tomatoes. We have squash, potatoes, green beans, pumpkins and all sorts of herbs as well but the tomatoes are what makes the work memorable and worthwhile.
 This is just one day's picking. Lots of varieties of tomatoes--German Johnson, Indigo Rose, Celebrity, Sungold, Marmande--even one developed at our local agricultural college that's just a number. 


Sunday, August 4, 2013

Progress on the Project

I apologize in advance for the picture of me. I hate having my picture taken. I also apologize for the state of my apron. I have had it for nearly thirty years and worn it for cooking, painting, gardening, you name it. It's a kappogi, a Japanese mama-san apron and is far more useful than the ordinary cover your skirt affair. Some day I will just have to find or make another one.

Anyway, this is the quilt I have been working on since April or so. I have been quilting it for a week now and have about two thirds of the center section done heading toward the outside border. That's the part I want to point out in this blog. I like to mix pieced sections with applique sections. As in the Dresden Plate quilt, the flowers are very stylized with small Japanese fans acting as morning glories and simple shapes making up the fuchsia. I added some embroidery and small appliqued dots to make the style and stigma section of the fuchsia. While it seems sort of crazy to use a hole punch to make paper circles and then cover them with fabric, I have been doing it so long the dots have become a fixture in my quilts. I use watercolor paper that is acid free so it can be left in the quilt, not removed, without damaging the fabric. It makes the dots become three dimensional and holds up beautifully when the quilt is laundered. Different size circles can be made by covering buttons or coins but those need to be removed each time. The only flowers that are more realistic are the rudbeckia in the center of each side. I am a sucker for bias vines too. Many of my quilting tasks make me wonder if I have OCD.

When I decided on the bowtie blocks for the center, I was a little nervous about sewing all those Y-seams by hand, but they were surprisingly easy. Bowties would make a good travel project to take along since they are very portable and don't need pressing at each separate step. Too bad I didn't think about that before starting this quilt since I don't know what I will take on our trip to France in October. Oh well, I am sure something will come up.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Cake Not Quilts

My husband loves this cake that I have been making for decades. It began life as a classic 1-2-3-4 cake, then got updated by the Pillsbury folks, then got changed by me to reflect my distaste for bourbon.

Rum/Kahlua Butter Cake

3 cups of flour
2 cups of sugar
dash of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup butter softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 tablespoon Kahlua or similar liqueur
4 large eggs

Pre-heat oven to 350 F and prepare a tubed cake pan like a bundt pan or angel food pan. Be generous with the butter and flour when prepping the pan as this cake likes to stick. Mix the dry ingredients together (the first five), then proceed.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter until fluffy and then add the sugar and cream again. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until blended then blend in the vanilla, rum and Kahlua. Working alternately, add the flour mixture and the buttermilk. Do not over blend after adding the flour mixture. Transfer the batter to your prepared baking pan and bake on the center rack  for about 55 minutes. Since all ovens cook differently and altitude has an impact on baking, test at about 52 minutes. Remove from oven when it tests done with a straw or skewer and place on cooling rack. Poke all over with the skewer and then pour the following sauce slowly over the cake while still in the pan:

In a small saucepan heat together over low heat until the butter melts:
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
3 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 tablespoon Kahlua

Pour the sauce over the cake and then let cake cool completely. Remove from cake pan and serve. This is good with fruit or just plain.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Embroidery Enhances Page 2, New Pictures


Here are some more close-up views of elements from the deMorgan inspired quilt.

When I was choosing what flowers to put on the quilt and what colors to make those flowers I used the White Flower Farms catalog since it has such lovely photographs of various flowers. In this yellow lily I highlighted the outline with a contrasting stem stitch and quilted some details with bright orange quilting thread. The pistil and stamen parts were done in stem stitch and bullion stitch with two different colors of floss. A very wild batik forms the upright petal at the back with mottled batiks making the other petals and details.

The large red lily also uses batiks including one that has metallic gold as part of its design. Outline stitching in blue makes many of the petals stand out giving a more painterly effect to the entire quilt.



 I have a small collection of blue and white Chinese porcelain hence my choice of these colors for the vase. The original tile set was entirely in various shades of blue, probably intended to be a fireplace surround but in choosing any quilt designs or fabrics I invariably look to what I like in my own decor. The snake fabric worked out very well. Not only is it appropriate for the snake, whose head and tail both appear here, but with the other dotted batiks as plant stems the snake is even more hidden among the greenery. There is some outline stitching on the mouth and a very cheesy "ruby" eye. As cheesy as it is, I like it. The combination of batik and floral fabrics works well here and the outline stitching on the vase gives definition to the shape.



This is a detail of the lower right flower showing the straight stitch detailing and the plain and batik fabrics. The leaf fabrics also appear along with the outline quilting that is done all over the quilt.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Pie not Quilts

Our youngest son recently changed jobs to be a chef at a new restaurant near our house. One of his favorite desserts when he was growing up was buttermilk pie. A couple of weeks after the restaurant opened, Brendan asked me if I thought it possible to add goat cheese to the regular buttermilk pie recipe. I said I didn't see why not and the next day I bought a log of goat cheese to experiment. Well now, two months later, that goat cheese buttermilk pie is one of the favorite items on the menu. The restaurant, Avenues Proper, makes it with beet ice cream on the side but that's a little overboard for me. Fresh fruit, especially peaches, nectarines, and blueberries right now, are just the right touch.

Set oven at 425 F.

Whole Wheat Crust

1/2 cup whole wheat or graham flour
1/2 cup white flour
pinch of salt
6 tablespoons butter at room temperature
3 tablespoons ice cold water You can use ice cold vodka as well for a crisper crust. Since water activates gluten and the alcohol in vodka does not activate gluten, the crust does not get tough. The texture does change a little but not in a bad way.

Using a pastry cutter, blend the flours, butter, and salt together until the mixture looks like torn paper towels--all raggedy but layered. Add the ice cold water or vodka and using the fingers squeeze gently into a ball. Put in refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Roll the dough out on floured wax paper and fit into a 9 inch pie plate. Refrigerate again while you make the filling.

Goat Cheese Buttermilk Pie Filling
4 ounces plain goat cheese
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
3 large eggs well beaten
1/2 cup butter melted
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons citrus juice (lemon, orange, or lime)
grated zest of the citrus chosen (only grate organic fruit skin)

In the food processor, blend the goat cheese with the sugar until blended. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into the prepared crust and put in preheated oven (425 F). Cook for 15 minutes and then lower temperature to 350F. Cook for about another 30 minutes until a knife inserted in  middle of pie comes out clean. This pie is best at room temperature or even slightly warm. All ovens are different and I live above 4000 feet above sea level my times may not match your times.