Apple Quilt and Bread

It's been a busy weekend. In addition to the usual washing and cooking, I've had time to put some borders on the quilt top. Sorry for the horrible photo, my camera was in the car and I obviously didn't give it enough time to come to room temperature before I photographed the quilt on my bed. I would go do it again, but since the bed is now occupied, I'm not sure that he would think it needs to be re-photographed tonight. These are the letters that I did for the border. I think I'm going to really like them. I have run out of border fabric, that's what I get for making it up as I go along, and will have to get more tomorrow, so the top border isn't done yet, but the others are. I'm binding it in strips of all the colors. The colors in the quilt are actually the same as in the quilted coasters that I made out of the scraps. I made the coasters big, 6x6, because they are for my big mugs that I drink tea from, and as you can see the coasters are pretty colorful.

These are the coasters, undone, I'm binding them tonight. The binding is slower because I do it by hand, so it takes longer, but it looks much better than if I do it by machine. I machine lettered Eat Michigan Apples on one and One Every Day on the other.

This was my other project today. I have never made bread before by hand. The bread maker doesn't count. But this morning, as I was laying in bed, I decided I wasn't getting any younger and I wasn't sure what I was waiting for, so these are the unbaked loaves ready to go into the oven. Making bread is one of those things. You know, the ones that you don't do because you are positive they won't work. I have always regarded people who can make bread as magicians, more or less. I tried to make something about 37 or 38 years ago that had yeast in it and the yeast didn't rise. Since then, I have been sure that I couldn't make breads with yeast. It turns out that I can. One of the baked loaves was eaten with the potato soup that we had for dinner and the other is on the counter waiting for breakfast. It's hard to make bread that isn't good if it's got butter on and it is just out of the oven, but it turned out really well, so I'll try it again, maybe next weekend.

And, I'm going to re-evaluate that list of things that I can't do.

Gee's Bend

Ok, so it's a good thing that I did not set a goal about blogging. It turns out that I don't really have that much to say on a daily basis.

Last Saturday, I visited the Flint institute of Arts to see the Gee's Bend quilts. Very interesting from a cultural perspective. These 4 generations of African American women quilted at night after working in fields and taking care of families in order to keep their families warm in houses without heat. They used what they had, recycling old work clothes, dresses, whatever, into quilts in what is now called a liberated quilting style. The community was geographically very isolated for a long time and some of these quilts were done in the days before they had TV, so there was little else to do in the evening, so they sang hymns and quilted. Some of the quilts are very striking patterns with strong color differences, like abstract paintings. The quilting is fairly large stitches and not terribly even. They looked like the quilts that I remember as a kid in Ohio when I went to visit my grandparents. There was always an old quilt on the bed that I slept in. I'm not an artist of course, and I'm still trying to decide exactly why they are art, hmmm, not sure, but they are memorable. And as I said, the quilts and accompanying video were very interesting from a cultural and social perspective, so I was glad that I went. The stories were intriguing and seemed indicative of the 30s and 40s in a small community. I'm not sure what makes these quilts different from other utilitarian quilts that were made from recycled clothes and fabric. Here's a link to some of the quilts if you are interested. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/other/geesbend/explore/catalog/slideshow/index.htm
My quilt guild is going as a group next month to see the exhibit. I'll be interested in their comments.

I've started another quilt, using red, golds, and cream fabrics, some with apples and apple blossoms on them, others with the names of apple varieties. I'm trying some free form pieced lettering to go with it in the borders, which I haven't done before, and I think it's going to look pretty cool. I love the idea of being able to personalize quilts with words. I'm also going to try a new way of machine quilting that I recently read about in a magazine. When I tried to machine quilt before, I couldn't keep the different layers of fabric together evenly and the sewing always puckered at the end of the seams and where I crossed other seams. The new way calls for using a spray basting product to layer the top, batting, and backing together, so the fabric layer acts as a single piece and won't slip. This will be a good quilt to try it out on.

I've also got the ideas together, and most of the fabric purchased, for 2 new quilts, both applique and large. I'm not going to show photos of these as they are intended to be surprises, but I am going to start on them very soon.

Also thanks to R, P, and K, for joining me a couple weeks ago for a long quilting weekend at R's cabin up north. It was wonderful to have K cook, and to be able to just quilt for 3 days. We bought fabric on the way up, compared notes, debated color and placement, ripped out seams, had 3 machines going, did some hand applique, read some quilt books, and in general, had a blast. We are thinking of making it at least an annual event. So in retrospect, I guess it was a fairly productive January.

Happy New Year to all. It's a new year and I'm back to blogging. And though the holidays are over and the family and friends have gone back to their own lives, we have been so fortunate that all our kids were together, H's sister's family could join us, and my sisters were both here for a few days. Family is good. The best gift is that everyone is happy and healthy. However the video of my sister's family purchasing toys for Toys for Tots as gifts for our family was very cute and such a good idea.

My crafting goals for the new year are to complete a pieced Michigan map quilt for my son, the appliqued Civil War Bride's quilt for me, and a (as yet undecided pattern) wedding quilt for my stepson and his soon-to-be-bride. I also heard the other day that another wedding date is being planned, so that quilt will be on the agenda soon too. I have plans to take a few more classes at the local quilt shops and intend to participate in the 2 workshops that my quilt guild has scheduled. I've also got a couple basket classes planned and my friends and I are doing a quilting retreat at R's cabin in January. I also want to make time for the art guild and garden meetings. Of course, when spring arrives, I get to plant my new annual garden that my family put in for me last fall. It will be spectacular. Lots of color and texture and will provide inspiration for more colorful quilts and baskets of natural materials.

I made a couple things over the holidays, but since they aren't in the mail until next week, I'm reserving the photos til later.

Kumihimo

Okay, I learned to do kumihimo tonight. The top one is the practice run with the directions, but without instructions. The one on the bottom is after tonight's instruction. The process wasn't fast, it took 3 hours to make 8.5" of beaded cord, though I'm sure it would be much faster after a couple times. (And of course, that includes the time it took to undo it twice after I found mistakes.) These really could make cool bracelets. It takes a bit of rayon cord, some #8 beads and the tool. The cord needs some end caps and a clasp, but it definitely has potential.

Kumihimo

Cool, you never know what you have. I just found out that I have a URL. I was trying to post a comment to the CWBQ page and had to fumble around trying to figure out how and they needed a URL, so I used the URL from the blog. And it worked! How fun is that? I also sent the note asking to join the CWBQ blog since I am starting this quilt after the holidays. But, and it is a big but... I still have to find the background. Nothing has yet called my name in the fabric store, well not exactly true. There are lots of ideas in my head and things call my name all the time, but not THE background. I'll have to work on it after Jan 1. I'm kind of busy until then with fabulous holidays, starting with hubby's birthday on Dec 23, celebrated with all the extended kids (including son-in-law, fiancee, and significant friend... ) and his sister's family, and couple extra folks on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas with all the kids. My sisters are coming after the holidays for a few days and it will be so good to see them too. I can't wait....

I'm excited, the art/fabric guild is tomorrow night and I'm using this stuff to create a beaded cord thingy (think bracelet or something). It is usually done using floss. It actually comes loaded with embroidery floss, if you look close, you can see the red and yellow. If you follow the enclosed pattern, you get a very dense red cord about the thickness of a pencil with little tiny yellow diamonds as the pattern. One of the folks is teaching us how to make the cord with beads. It's a Japanese kumihimo beading technique. I gave it a practice run and I'm not posting a photo of the trial. I'll see how it turns out with instruction. It has to be better. C was watching the trial and it is a bit comical, chasing those little beads all over.

It's supposed to look something like this...credit for this bracelet goes to EML Designs on the web. This is actually very nice, so I'll see if I can pull this off. Maybe next years gifts... I suspect it would take me that long to make several of these. It was a pretty slow process.

Bread and Birch

Perfect cranberry and orange bread. A co-worker brought in her mom's cranberry bread to the office last week. It was the best that I have ever tasted, moist, tart, and nutty. I got the recipe today, thanks A, and made it tonight. I had enough batter to also make 6 muffins, which of course, you don't see because they were really good with our tea tonight and the other 2 are put away for breakfast. Each of these loaves is made with 2 cups of cranberries and a cup of walnuts. The moisture comes from orange and cranberry juice and there is also some orange zest for more flavor. It is pretty tart and you can really taste the cranberries, which I love. These are going in the freezer for the holidays so I will have something to go with the evening tea and coffee.

This next photo was yesterday afternoon's project. One of the women from basket guild makes the most beautiful little birch bark baskets. This photo does not do them justice. I went over to her house and she graciously showed me how to prepare the birch for basket-making. This stuff, after you strip off the outside white paper and the inside dark brown lining material, is gorgeous. It is supple, like leather and has that feel too, because it has natural oils left in the bark. This is bark from fallen birch that I picked up in the woods last summer while we were in Munising. It looked awful, was dirty brown and stiff, and probably at least a year old. But after scraping is going to make lovely baskets. It is every color of tan and cream imaginable. And we scraped it at M's kitchen table and just swept the floor afterwards. I left the big plastic bag of fire-starter with her. I'm not going to get to the baskets until after the holidays, but it is now stored properly, in C's dresser, don't tell her, and will be ready when I have time.

Gift Basket

This is the hand thrown glazed clay basket that I received today at Basket Guild during our annual gift exchange. Isn't it fabulous? The leaves, berries and curlicues on the side of the handles are made of clay too. N has been taking pottery classes for some time and it really shows in the details. N also weaves with me and does baskets at guild. All of her things are just as beautiful as this. Thank you N. The brown things in the basket are some kind of cone from a conifer tree. We weren't sure what kind it is, but they are pretty cool, very flat and rose shaped. If anybody knows what they are, let me know. These came from the collections of a friend that wove baskets with us and passed away a few months ago. I so much enjoy the gift exchange because I now have baskets from most of the guild members who are also dear friends. I love seeing my friends baskets on the shelf.

I see that some of the internet quilt groups do this kind of exchange too. They call them an advent exchange. I would do that too, but I need to get better at quilting first (unless I could just send cool fat quarters and buttons, that would work).

K will be here soon. She is interviewing locally and will be in town tomorrow. I can hardly wait to see her. I miss the kids so much. I made peanut brittle and fudge yesterday so she can take some back. And we went to Lansing today, had coffee with C, and bought some food for D. Next week is exam week and I wanted to make sure that he had easily made food so that he had time to eat this week. It's easier with C at home right now, I can make sure there is turkey and ham for sandwiches and fruit in the refrigerator, but it's harder when they are away. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that interviews for K and exams for P, C, and D (and neices and sister) all go well. And E will be here in a couple weeks too. How incredibly fortunate we are.