The results, with quilty cutting surfaces

Tonight was my night to host Friendship Circle, which is a sub group of my local quilt guild.  Tonight, I decided we should do a small project while we caught up, and did some critique of larger projects.  I had seen this small pincushion on Pinterest, and it was perfect for us to do.  We all have done plenty of hand sewing, and it was a simple thing to do with some elastic, some bottle caps, and some fabric and ribbon.

With a hot glue gun, a cordless drill, and some scraps, we each made a little pin cushion ring in about 30 minutes.  We do a lot of talking at Friendship Circle, so you could probably do it in less time by yourself, but we had some fun.    Here’s the original tutorial that I re-pinned, by Jodena Lakey.  Thanks, Jodena!

With the assistance of my dear guild pals (whose job is to aid and abet in fabric shopping, get me outside my comfort zone in projects, and to of course, coach, cheer, and commiserate in the many small puzzles and victories along the way), I have now chosen the pattern and purchased the fabric and notions.  I’m ready to start diving in with cutting, assembling, and working through my block-based phobias.  I am prepared to confront my fear of interpreting traditional quilt pattern directions.   I have 11 months to finish this.  I have eleven months to finish this.  I think I can.  I think I can.

But enough talking- on to the eye candy and the details.  The pattern is Faceted Jewels, by Glad Creations, Inc. of Minneapolis. (Very prompt service using their site- I got the pattern and tools in just a couple days) My guild friends have great things to say about their patterns- that the directions are well tested, and the borders are interesting, etc.   M up in Eleveth, MN is the one who suggested this for  K & D’s wedding quilt.  (She made a Faceted Jewels quilt with batiks that was GORGEOUS.)

Yesterday I headed to Rather Bee Quilting in Lake City, MN, and spent a sum of money on fabrics.  I like the look of batiks, and I think they will make a suitably chic and modern quilt for the lovely couple who live in NYC.  Here’s what I got:

The darks and mediums (click for larger view)

The lights (click for larger view)

I am particularly pleased that I could get the pre-cut strips of assorted darks and lights, since the pattern calls for up to 18 different dark fabrics and up to 18 different light fabrics, many of which get cut into 2.5 inch strips.  I figure the assorted pre-cut strip packs have saved me at least 2 hours of cutting, as well as about 1 hour of time agonizing about which fabrics to choose.  (As I often say, if you’re going to be lazy, it’s best to be efficient!)

This makes me even more energized to get going on the quilt.  I think I can, I think I can.  I can figure out this triangle paper.  I can figure out the Tri-Recs rulers.  I am smart.  I was great in geometry in school.  I have a sister (a math teacher) who can do quilt border yardage calculations in her head.  I’ve got people.  I’ve got Facebook to send out distress messages on.  This is going to be a FUN project.  I can overcome my fear of traditional quilt patterns. The quilt will be pretty and warm, and I know K & D are going to love it.  That’s what’s going to be the best part.  Stay tuned. More to follow.

Blocks for C

Here is the pair of blocks I made for C’s Friendship Circle quilt this year.  The blocks are 9 1/2 inches square.  This was from a pattern in a magazine from 2002.  I’m not sure what it was, but C’s pictures showed that this block has some real potential.  I actually cut out enough for a third, but didn’t sew it together.  I think I will just add the blocks to an envelope when I give this to C, in case she wants to incorporate the colors in another block she’s working on.  (How’s THAT for re-marketing one’s laziness?  I’m just offering C more OPTIONS!)

Sunflower Block for J

It was important to me to not just have hand dyes and batiks in the block- I’m not really sure why.  And I like that it looks like a face.  Here’s hoping J likes it, too!

(Fear not, if any of the Friendship Circle is a reader, I am unlikely to choose a Baltimore Album. Though that might not be too difficult for the applique whizzes in the group.)

This month’s block is called Mississippi Wheel of Fortune, and we got two fabrics- one red, one yellow.  I still have a sashing piece that is paper pieced sawteeth, but I’ve finished a pinwheel setting square and the big Wheel of Fortune block.

Mississippi Wheel of Fortune Block

This involved curved piecing, and paper piecing.  I hadn’t done any paper piecing in years, so I needed to re-learn.  I found some videos on YouTube about it, some which didn’t show much of the actual technique.  This one is a good tutorial.  And this one is a scream.  Of course, I didn’t find the first one until now, when I’m writing about it.  The second one was fun, and enough to jog my memory.  I don’t remember the folding bit when I first learned, but in my experience this time, the folding helps a lot.

I like the sharp points you get with paper piecing.  But it does take a while, and you can’t be stingy with your fabric pieces.  The curved piecing was easy, since I used Ruth B. McDowell’s technique with freezer paper templates.  That’s my wheelhouse, as they say.  I can’t wait to see what the others look like.

Photo credit to DH, copyright 2009

I am the type of person who would like to move to Emilia Romagna for a month to have some elderly woman teach me the proper way to make homemade fresh pasta by hand, and to spend a month or so making it at least once a day to be sure I can actually do it correctly.  While I have a passport, and can speak Italian, the likelihood of this happening soon in my life is remote.

I do, however, have good cookbooks, access to eBay, and some lovely KitchenAid appliances at my disposal.

First, the cookbook:  Marcella Says…, by Marcella Hazan.  Marcella has made a career teaching Italian cooking to Americans and others, in the USA and in Italy.  This book is one of the first cookbooks I bought when I moved to the midwest.  I read through Marcella’s description of making homemade pasta, and I read that she herself, in her advanced age, no longer uses the hand crank pasta machines one often sees.  She uses the pasta roller and cutter attachments made in Italy for Kitchen Aid.  So, the pasta attachments became a wish-list item for me.

Five Years Later….

I was  perusing eBay looking for a used ice cream maker (thanks to a wonderful visit with Adelia and Burt in Stillwater, OK), and ended up bidding on the KitchenAid pasta rollers.  I’m pleased to say I won the auction, and got them for less than retail.

Pasta Roller on Mixer

This weekend, I took the lovely rollers out of their box, and checked it all out.  It was time to refer back to Marcella for the basic recipe.  She doesn’t tell you how easy it is, as Jamie Oliver does, and show you how much fun it is to energetically mix it with your hands.  She’s much more direct.  I will paraphrase/embellish the directions here.  For enough pasta for 2-4 people (2 as a generous main dish or 4  primi piatti (first course), IMHO):

1. Put your metal blade in your food processor.  Add a heaping cup of all-purpose flour and two eggs.  Process until it clumps together.  If it’s sticky, add flour by the tablespoon, pulsing between until it isn’t sticky.  If it’s too dry, add water by the tablespoon until it comes together in big clumps.
2. Gather the dough into a ball and knead it for one minute, pushing it away with the heel of your hand against the worksurface.  Turn, fold, and repeat.  The heat of your hands and the pressure will make the dough smooth.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap or foil and let rest (15 min. to 1 hr.)
3. Roll and cut with the pasta roller and cutter, according to the manufacturer’s directions.  Either cook the pasta immediately in boiling water (2-4 minutes), or let the pasta air dry on tea towels, and store for later.

Doesn't this dough look well rested?

Okay, so there’s none of the romance of making it completely by hand, of a special skill gained learning to roll the pasta with a dowel.  But it is fast, easy, and delicious in the way that dried pasta can never be.  It’s tender, tasty, and has a texture all it’s own.  You can understand why this has a special place in the hearts of Italians by taste alone.  The fact that it’s made with love by mamma, well, books have been written about that.

We made this pasta twice this weekend.  (First to try out the tools and a quick sauce recipe, and the second time to avoid the mistakes of our first effort, cutting too-sticky pasta by hand. And to use up the sauce.  And because we were hungry.)

Roller in Action

Honestly, it IS possible to go from eggs and flour to cooked pasta in about 35 minutes (15 min. of resting time) with the food processor and the KitchenAid pasta roller and cutter. If you add another 20 minutes on the front making a quick tomato sauce, in an hour it’s a really great dinner.  OK, we’re aided by some sophisticated machinery.  But it does pass Michael Pollan’s test for real food.  We can identify all ingredients, and we combined them together at home.  And Michael Pollan never said sophisticated cooking machinery was not allowed. (Imagine the backlash…)

I can see why this might be too much effort for some people.  But I am pretty sure this is not a flash in the pan gadget for us.  Tonight, while we were cooking the pasta pictured here, DH mentioned that this might be a great first course at a dinner we’re cooking for a silent auction.  Or that we might want to do this at another dinner party.  Marcella would be proud.  I’ve introduced another person to the joys of homemade pasta all’uova, and he can tell how good it is.

Candy enjoys a lot of different techniques in sewing and quilting, and particularly likes hand applique and embroidery.  She’s pretty fearless when it comes to trying new techniques, and is always up for a challenge.  I’m not sure I could pinpoint a signature style in Candy’s work, as she likes to try lots of different things, and varies her color palette from piece to piece.

Candy's Geranium Quilt

Here is a quilt that Candy had started on a previous WAQG retreat.  Orange is an unusual color for Candy, but I think her use of the different orange batiks is an example of how fearless she can be to go outside her comfort zone.  This quilt is pieced, and then the geraniums are added by machine applique.  (Candy’s very good at traditional applique, so this was a conscious choice to do otherwise.  Below is a closeup view of the applique and quilting.  For those who are less knowledgeable about flora and fauna (real or stylized), Candy machine quilted the leaves with the distinctive veining of geraniums.

Closeup of Geraniums

In the upper right of this picture you can see that she repeated the “veins” of the leaves in the rest of her quilting in this area.  Pretty impressive to me, who really can only meander in my machine quilting.   I believe Candy intended to add some beading to the quilt as well, but I’m not sure whether that happened in the course of the weekend.

Candy worked on two other projects.  One is a Spring/Easter themed wall hanging, with bunnies and carrots, with machine piecing and fusible applique.  There will also be embellishments, and possibly embroidery, for the centers of the flowers, the eyes of the rabbits, etc.

Candy's Bunnies

And another detail shot:

Closeup of Piecing and Applique

In case you haven’t noticed,  Candy likes doing hand work, and mixing techniques in a single piece.  She was also working on a little wool placemat that you can use for a cupcake to celebrate a birthday.  This will also have beading and embroidery on it when it’s complete.   This mat is approximately 6 inches in diameter.

Candy's Wool Cake Mat, in Progress

Isn’t this cute?  It would be perfect for a surprise for a co-worker, or if you don’t want to have a whole cake around at home when you celebrate birthdays.

Candy's Fracture

Here’s one of the smaller fracture quilts we did as a group.  Candy came up with this image based on a photograph of some relatives.  From what I remember, each of our pieces was about 12-14 inches long, and between 5 and 8 inches tall.  We all had a good laugh when we realized that her cousin’s head was separated from her body when the picture was fractured.  I was the one who got her head, while Kathy got her body.  I made the head, but left it as a separate piece to fuse on, since I didn’t want to put it in the wrong spot.

Candy sent me this photo this morning, and I’m pleased to see the head lines up with the body.

As you can see,  there were lots of ways that we approached the leaves and branches.  In the detail shot below, I tried to capture some of the different ways we did this.  (It’s a cropped section of Candy’s original photo)

Closeup of detail in Candy's Fracture

You can see that Candy has couched on some thread for the gunwales of the canoe, and you can see that we used different approaches to representing leaves.  This shot shows how five different sections came together, and you can see piecing, applique, and lots of leaf treatments.  I used colored netting to hold my leaf snippets down, and then I used stitching in green thread to hold them in place. (not pictured)
Beautiful, Candy!

Jo's Fracture Quilt

Jo took the original photograph for her quilt in her garden.  We didn’t really know what the background was, as she brought a black & white photo, and said  that the ground was covered with “chips” or “mulch”, or some other not very descriptive phrase, so that we wouldn’t be too literal. I like the fact that there are different backgrounds, and yet, the fractured flowers all come together as foreground anyway.

We also discussed options for a group project this year, and it looks like we’re going for something a bit simpler, partly because the group is growing, and partly because of the time commitments the fractures took  (“You panic for the first week, then you start to get some ideas, then you have to go buy fabric, and finally do what came into your head…. it can be pressure!”)  Ok. that’s a combination of many comments into one big sentence, but it COULD have been a quote.

I still think this group is GREAT.

First, the last one we did- Melissa’s

Melissa's Interpretation of the Minnesota Statehood Stamp

And then Sue’s

Sue's Gears, before it was finished

And then Mary’s

Mary's Mosque in Morocco

Then mine, since I can find the photo:

Fruitful Friendship

And Kathy’s:

Kathy's Pieced Old Barn

I’ll provide an update when I get photos of the last two quilts.