Saturday, November 30, 2013

Layered and Basted

Sarah's quilt is moving quickly. My husband thinks it should be called Reach For The Stars because of her educational aspirations. The quilting will be simple arced lines moving from the points of the outer compass and crossing before curving back slightly. I am not going to put a hanging sleeve on this one since there is no up or down or sideways to the design.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Leftovers

While my husband thinks I am the best cook in the world, the area where he thinks I really shine is leftovers. I always have many different ways to cook what is left over from meals with my aim generally being to make the second meal different in multiple ways from the first meal. My family does like turkey cottage pie with Thanksgiving leftovers. No one really needs a recipe for that since it's essentially cut up meat, leftover gravy, some peas or green beans, covered with mashed potatoes and baked until the potatoes are browned and the filling is hot. The following recipe is almost as easy with instructions that are nearly as flexible. It is my variation of a Chinese recipe for "noodles both sides brown".

One package Chinese noodles cooked and drained. One brand is Wel-Pac Chow Mein Noodles in the 6 oz package. Many grocery stores sell fresh noodles now but the dry ones are just as good and if you can't get them you can always fall back on plain old spaghetti.
Toss the noodles with 1 tablespoon sesame oil and let wait while you prepare the rest.

Some leftover cooked meat such as turkey (light or dark meat), chicken, pork roast, duck breast, even beef if that's what you have, cut into small pieces--about 1/4 inch thick and about 1 inch by two inches long. For 4--6 people one and a half or two cups is more than enough.Let sit in 1 teaspoon soy sauce and one teaspoon rice wine.
Assorted fresh Chinese vegetables such as bok choy, snow peas, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots. You can also add western vegetables such as sliced onion, fresh green bean pieces, broccoli, carrot, bell peppers, even celery. Just aim for crunch and color. All pieces should be the size to pick up with chopsticks.

Seasoning sauce--Two tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice wine, 1 tablespoon chili paste with garlic, 1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated, fresh garlic to taste, 1 tablespoon rice wine or white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon sesame oil. If you want this sauce a little thicker you can stir in a teaspoon of cornstarch. This will thicken up at the end when it is poured over the hot mixture in the pan.

In a large nonstick frying pan, cook the drained noodles until one side is browned lightly. Using a pizza pan as a lid, flip the noodles over and cook the other side. Slide the noodle cake on to a large serving platter.

In the same pan, put a tablespoon of cooking oil and cook the vegetables. I usually cook the onion and the mushrooms together for about five minutes and then add the meat and cook until that is warm. Then add the other vegetables and cook very quickly 1 to 2 minutes until the snow peas are bright green but still very crisp. Pour in the seasoning sauce and stir to coat everything. cook until cornstarch thickens,  then pour everything over the noodles and serve.

You can fool around with this recipe endlessly, changing the meat, the vegetables. add black bean and garlic paste to the mixture, more hot chili sauce, oyster sauce, etc. It's not authentic Chinese, it's just leftovers.

It isn't club sandwiches that's for sure.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Sarah's Quilt



Mathematics being my student's passion made making a mathematics themed quilt harder not easier. I enjoy the mysteries and patterns that mathematics has but I cannot claim enough expertise to be inventive in making a quilt to satisfy someone who lives, eats, and breathes maths ideas. So I took the easy way out and worked on something that wasn't terribly math oriented but will have a Fibonacci sequence incorporated in the design. Originally I was going to make a science themed quilt, perhaps something like the quilts at http://www.fiberartists-looseends.com/BioArtGallery.html but much bigger since those were 18 inches square. That may still happen in the future since those are so wonderful.

Right now this is just a length of fabric with the compass design half pinned and half sewn to it. You can see all the threads clinging as well. This is a Judy Mathieson design from a while ago. I placed it off center so that I could have quilting lines spinning off from the compass with some  fabric circles appliqued along one of the lines. Those circles will begin at 1/4 inch and move up the Fibonacci sequence to 3.25 inches using each color, though not each fabric, represented in this design. It is not quite a rainbow since it only goes through indigo not violet.  It has been fairly fast and easy so far though I don't think I will have it completed by December 15 which is the day most colleges send out their email notifications of the early admission results.

My next project will be another dark background quilt and then a light background one. I have been getting interesting batiks from multiple sources including local stores as well as online sources such as eQuilter and Hancock fabrics. 

Tomorrow will be baking day for Thanksgiving--apple pie, pumpkin pie, Kentucky butter cake. I will probably have time to finish sewing the compass to the background but not much else. Next week my husband is off traveling on business--long story about how the man who was supposed to be retired ended up with two new jobs--but that will leave me even more time to sew.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Mental Tangents

You can never tell where your mind is going to go when sparked by an idea, an occurrence, an event. Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John Kennedy. Like most people who were alive at the time I remember where I was when I heard the news. I even remember from whom I heard it. I had just left physical education class and I was walking to my next class in junior high school. Clark Weldon was running down the corridor yelling that the president had been killed. For the next four days we were glued to the television, hungry for news, hungry for images. Seeing Lee Harvey Oswald get killed shocked and appalled me--it was nothing like the movies I had grown up on.

Simultaneous to everything else that was going on was all the background gossip and investigation about who could have done this thing and why. That's where my memories went with all of the replaying during the week of Ruby shooting Oswald. Several years previous to the assassination, my family and I lived in a small town in western Pennsylvania that was a notorious mob town run by the Mannarino brothers. My father was an officer in the US Army and had nothing to do with the mob, but I was best friends with Dolores Mannarino for a while. One of the rackets that involved the Mannarino brothers was gambling in Cuba before the revolution. Supposedly the brothers were angry that Kennedy was inept at returning Cuba to Bautista and the mob so they were closely investigated as possible contractors for Kennedy's assassination.

Anyway, I used to go to Dolores's house to play after school. She was an only child and very indulged but going there was pretty strange. Her mother always had rough men in the kitchen playing cards, sometimes with guns visible, always with rolls of money on the table. Her father was wanted by the FBI so he was clearly not around. Dolores and I were friends until the day I told her her father was a gangster. I am not sure why I told her that truth--we were both somewhere between seven and nine years old so what memories I have of it are that she was bragging about her father and I wanted to counter those brags. Anyway, she told me to go home so I left. By the time I got home my mother was in the front yard looking pretty frantic. She told me I had to go back to Dolores's house right away and apologize and tell her that I had lied. Of course at that age I was taken aback that my mother was asking me to lie after telling me to always tell the truth no matter what. But she was very insistent that I go back and lie. I never saw Dolores again after that and shortly after my family moved to California, to Monterey for the Army Language School.

Needless to say making Dolores cry was a very bad idea. Her mother threatened my life during my walk back home. The only lesson I learned was that parents couldn't  be trusted.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Quilting Limbo

For one reason or another I am between quilts with nothing to work on. The designs I have been considering for the small gift quilt for the young student I have been working with haven't pleased me enough to get me to the cutting board yet. I ordered some fabric from an online merchant that is arriving tomorrow. Perhaps that will provide that final spark that gets the process moving. Since there is a time limit on that quilt, spring of 2014, I would like to make it before starting any other project although I have several in mind. I am not used to being idle. It reminds me of all the down times I have had after surgeries (neck, both elbows, left thumb twice) when I couldn't sew and those aren't the best memories. There are some very intriguing science based quilts, specifically biology based, but she is more of a math person. I am not a math person which might point to the reason I am having issues. The well known Clifford torus quilt just isn't that interesting to me. Oh well, I will settle on a design over the next few days.

Update: I have been working on a Judy Mathieson compass design on a black background. When I get the center done I will add pictures.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Quilts of Christmas Past

I know it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, but if you are a quilter you are a long term thinker and planner anyway. Here are a couple of quilts from long ago in my quilting history.


The first one dates from about two years after I had started quilting so there are numerous flaws both in execution and color choices but I still like it. This quilt was a real lesson in attention to details. Jodi Warner was the designer.

The snowmen quilt was and is just fun. They are comical anyway and the snaps for eyes and fringe and buttons just emphasize the humor. The snowman on the right has a very nice Liberty of London tie. This one was a Red Wagon design. The part that took the longest was sewing on all of the small fake pearls.

It's funny that color choices have changed so much since 1993. Many quilts back then were the muted "country" colors and now everything seems to be discordant neon brights.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Done But Not Completed

Well it's about 4 pm where I live and I have just finished the small Christmas cats quilt. I finished the quilting yesterday and today I made and applied the binding. This picture shows the quilt as it is. There are still some basting threads, still some chalk marks, a little bearding, and it hasn't been blocked yet.

All appearances to the contrary, the quilt is true and square. That bottom corner is tucked in slightly giving the appearance of being both shorter and crooked. When it is blocked, that will disappear. So tomorrow I will make a label and do my quick wash and block. I never used to label my quilts but the more quilt books I purchased that showed family treasures with no provenance (Anonymous Thy Name IsWoman), the more labels I made. Plus foundation piecing can make a label more than just a piece of fabric.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

More Nutcrackers

 This group of nutcrackers is the group lovingly referred to as the family crackers. They include a leprechaun for our shared Irish heritage; a couple of Germans for my German grandfather, one sort of warlike and one holding a stein; a mountain climber for my husband; a golfer for my middle son; a chef for my youngest son; and an array of wild animals playing musical instruments for the son who always marched to a different drummer. There is also a specially commissioned female nutcracker in a swimsuit and swim cap given to me by one of the teams I coached at the time.
 This group of nutcrackers is the Santa group--Santas of all types from St. Nicholas to the toymaker Santa,  and more.
This group of nutcrackers is all the character nutcrackers--native Americans, fishermen, angels, chimney sweeps, skiers, the statue of Liberty, etc.

Once again, even all of these added to the previous photo do not add up to the full number of nutcrackers. There are a couple of different groups of the three kings, a small group of female nutcrackers. For some reason there just aren't many female nutcrackers made but I do have a few including a knitting nutcracker though not a quilting nutcracker.

So the day after Thanksgiving, I will be moving from the first floor to the basement and back again, with the glue gun plugged in for those minor repairs, setting out all the nutcrackers. There are numerous other decorations that have become traditional so those will go out as well. It is weird but it is also like seeing old friends after being away for a while.

Interwoven Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum

Looking at a friend's blog this morning reminded me of the Interwoven exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC that runs until January. We stayed in the city for two days before going to France and went to the exhibit having read about it in the New York Times. If you plan to visit the city between now and January make sure you see this exhibit. There are only a couple of quilts in the display but that's okay. The other splendors more than make up for that. Exquisite embroidery from 500 years ago--amazing dresses that are both embroidered and hand painted--tablecloths and altar cloths. For me it wasn't just that the pieces were beautiful. The very thought of doing that kind of work with who knows what kind of needle and under candle light bowled me over. Then, one of the points of the exhibit, the various places that the materials came from coming together to enable the making of that wonderful work simply astounded me. There was a bedcover from Mexico where the cotton came from Mexico, the wool from South America, and the silk from China--all in a bedcover made by a woman more than 300 years ago for her marriage bed.  There was a yellow silk gown from Revolutionary America that had a fascinating hem treatment, tucked and pleated silk that was left raw edged on the top and the bottom but cut into points on the bottom side. This whole band of wonderful handwork was sewn to the bottom edge of the gown--yards and yards of pleated silk in wonderful points. Anyway, this is a must see show.

I found a picture from the last time we had the nutcrackers on display at our house. Keep in mind that this is just a fraction of the total. The others are in various places in the living room.

 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Three Corners--Good Progress

I have just been zipping along on the border quilting. I just reached the fourth corner so three sides are complete and the corner on the fourth side is complete too. That means I have to finish the fourth corner, quilt across about three fourths of the bottom side, and then the quilting will be done. Then bind the quilt, make a sleeve and attach that, make a label and attach that, then soak and dry and block the quilt. Ta-da. So barring some unforeseen event, this little quilt will be done before the weekend is over. Pictures will follow when it is complete. I started the sewing on September 19th so that will be just short of two months. Big pieces with little layering on the applique makes a big difference.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Monday, Monday

For some reason, Monday is the day I change the sheets, dust, vacuum, etc. Because of that it is also the day that I change out quilt displays, either the ones on the wall or the ones on the my bed. So what you can see in this picture is the process kind of midway with Max claiming the "Princess and the Pea" bed as his own. You can see, if you look carefully, seven quilts in this photo. What you cannot see is the quilts I removed from that bed and put elsewhere or stacked on the rocking chair just out of the photo range to replace on the bed in order to get the two quilts I wanted from the collection. Also visible is the bottom part of a painting by an American artist named Richard Deyber titled "The Ox-Bow Incident" and the piles of books that stack up in this, my guest bedroom.

Ordinarily the quilts are not visible, except some of their bottom edges. They get layered, then covered with a commercial quilt (to the right in the photo with the pillows and shams) and then some blankets and a large terry cloth towel to protect them from the animals who choose to sleep here. I don't like the look of fold lines in quilts so I either roll them or put them on the bed in this room so they can be flat. Once a week they get shaken out to get the dust off and then covered again. I suppose when I die someone will have to figure out what to do with all of them.

Max is a Maine coon cat. He is mostly hair though certainly bigger than the average house cat at about 19 pounds. He was the runt of his litter so he will never get as big as his siblings or his father. You can just barely see the tufts on his ears, like a bobcat. All of my cats are personality plus but this one is a real character. He thinks he is a dog and can't understand why he isn't allowed on our daily walks with his canine companions. Coon cats don't have much in the way of voices, they sort of warble unless they are very angry.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

One Side Complete

It is almost the middle of November which means Christmas decorating is getting very close. I have just finished one long side of quilting on the Christmas cat quilt so I think it will get done for this Christmas. Not to worry if it doesn't get done since one of the results of having lived in the big house is that I have far too much junk to decorate with. What I do now is alternate years with what is out on display. This year we will go back to the full display of the nutcrackers I have collected--last year it was the Santas. With over 100 nutcrackers it is a little overwhelming in such a small space. In the old house it was  barely noticeable. Once I put everything out I will post a picture.

Friday, November 8, 2013

What?

Dear readers, you have endured many complaints in this blog before but this one is a new one for me. I went into the high school today to make another presentation on essays. The teacher requested this appearance and I spoke to two of her classes yesterday. When I showed up for the class today there was an unfamiliar woman there. At first I thought little of it, people do get sick. But the classroom teacher hadn't even called in sick. She simply hadn't shown up. That meant there was no lesson plan, no work, nothing. To add to that, the woman they found to babysit the students, and that is all it was, told them they didn't have to be there if they had some better place to be, leaving eight students in the room idly chatting.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Will They Ask Questions?

Tomorrow and Friday I am going to the high school to speak to three classes about their essays, those Crime and Punishment attempts, and about essays in general. I always wonder whether there will be good questions. These students are supposed to be the smartest in the city, skilled in math and science, in gifted education since kindergarten sort of idea. What that has done for them is made them confident, even arrogant, but it hasn't made many of them into critical thinkers. That's where good writing begins.

I am almost finished with the block portion of the Christmas quilt quilting. I have a tiny bit more background and a couple of inches of the candy cane sashing. I am thinking of doing echo quilting on the inside side of the light strand and then a diamond grid on the outside side using painter's tape to mark the lines. That way the quilt edges will be more stabilized than they would be if I simply outline quilted the light cord and then did the stars. Since this is intended to hang on the wall stability is important.

(Update 11/7) I spoke with two classes today partly about their essays and partly about what an essay is. One young lady asked how to begin an essay. She asked this smack in the middle of my explanation of what the prompt they responded to expected of them. So I finished my sentence and then asked her, in response to her question (she was directly in front of me and waving her hand so it was hard to ignore), "What does this book mean?" Keep in mind that the class is done with Crime and Punishment.They have read, discussed, dissected, written the essay. The young lady said she had no idea what the book meant. Trying to make it easier on her I told her she didn't have to be right (if there were such an idea); she only needed to articulate some personal notion of what the book means. She said she had no idea.

We'll see if tomorrow brings good questions.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Pay Attention

I have just finished scoring two classes worth of essay responses on Crime and Punishment. That added up to approximately 65 students though I didn't count precisely. At most ten students answered the prompt correctly. Most provided plot summary with no argument to support, making their papers book reports not essays.

If any of you people out there who read this blog have students in AP English Literature, work with them on reading and understanding the prompts. All forty odd years of open prompts are available online and most of the targeted prompts are as well. Only very rarely do the prompts care about what happens in the book. Many even caution students not to give "mere plot summary". If I were to describe the general thrust of the questions it would be that they want a discussion of an author's skill in using some element of language to enhance meaning. In this case, the prompt from last year's exam asks how does a pivotal moment in a character's maturation process"shape the meaning of the work as a whole"? So the prompt assumes there is maturation. The prompt assumes a pivotal moment in that process. Neither one needs to be proven to exist. "Mere plot summary" does not answer the question asked.

Anyway, I am done now and can go back to quilting my Christmas cats quilt. I have made a lot of progress on completing this project. That's good since I now have a new one in mind. My tutee from last year who just completed her early admission application to MIT came by the other day to thank me for all my help and support. I told her I would make her a science or math focused quilt for a graduation present. There are many examples online if I need inspiration. She raised her SAT writing sample score over a 100 points after working with me. Of course she's smart  and a hard worker anyway so it isn't entirely down to me by any means.