Square in a Square - Next Installment

Here's number 9 in the challenge series--it went pretty fast; pretty fun!

Assignment for this one:

Color: Black & White

Content: photo or picture

Media to include: paper

When I was drawing the year's worth of assignments out of the three different baskets, I admit to a sigh of relief on this combination (especially when just random chance!). With planning, I think this would have been the best choice.

The paper is: the picture itself, the frame, & the curls coming out of the frame edges. The rest is fabric. The triangle points are actually 3-D too--kind of hard to tell in the photo (especially when I didn't quite get it focused!).

Quilting Day Out

I mentioned that last week I went to my friend's longarm quilting studio for the day. What fun that was! Talk about challenging the ol' hand-eye coordination & feeling all thumbs initially--whew!

But actually, after some time 'practicing' in the morning, I finished three of my UFO's by the end of the afternoon. The quilting is nothing exciting, but it looks OK (better than I expected, truthfully) & it really is a blast to do! Practice will definitely improve my skill--I have a long way to go!

Just a quick note on the three items here:

The wild colored (& black) patchwork quilt is a community quilt; it's bright & happy and hopefully will find a good home soon!

The flamingo is for a good friend who really is flamingo fan. It's a wall hanging that will hopefully find a cheery spot in her office or house.

The third lap quilt actually has become one I like--but it didn't start out that way. I taught a couple of sessions on how to do this technique--by request, after I made Devin's graduation quilt. I just took a bunch of I'm-not-really-wild-about-it scraps out of my stash to use for demonstration & then ended up with a bunch of blocks that were finished, or nearly so. Can't toss 'em, right? So I ended up making more to finish out & by the time I got the border on, it had grown on me.

I'm going back this week for another day--mostly so I don't forget what I learned, and keep on practicing. And I have plenty of UFO's to get checked off my list!

Square in a Square - Part Eight

I've had a few extra hours in the last week & so have been catching up on various 'almost finished' items, and have completed the next two installments in the monthly challenge catch-up.

This one's assignment:

Color: Autumn

Content/Feature: Circles

Media to include: Text

This one was fun--wasn't what I started out thinking I was doing, but just let the process lead me down the path..

The text says: "October poplars are flaming torches lighting the way for winter." It's not as crooked as it looks--chalk that up to the photographer!

It has paint, ink, felt (the 3-D leaves) and beads.

The text is a translucent fabric put through the printer...

Sharing a Piece of My Heart

There were many amazing & touching moments in leaving my workplace at the end of January. One that was particularly sweet & heartfelt was a group gift from the staff: a signature quilt.

Wow--do they know me, or what? In every way, the colors, the batiks, the comments included--it was spectacular & completely over the top.

You won't be able to see well in the photos, but the quilting between the blocks was in the shape of hearts & there are helping hands in the borders. (It was based on a logo theme we've used for our Palliative Care education project--and couldn't have been more special to me.) Three of the staff are great quilters in their own right, and took the lead on the project--special thanks to Nancy, Diana & Joan.

The 'group' comment was the following: May your joys be as deep as the ocean, your sorrows as light as the foam. (Oh, man... )

It will warm my heart & keep me cozy for many years to come. Anytime one is tempted to have the "oh, poor me's" fifteen minutes with this warm fuzzy definitely provides the cure.

What a gift!

Crock Pot Wednesday

OK, here's the next installment in the slow cooking extravaganza! I was half-kidding when I nicknamed it 'Crock Pot Wednesday' but so far it's proving true... The lasagna from last week lasted until Sunday in surprisingly good shape; mellowed, blended with age. That will definitely be a 'do-over' at some point.

Here is the before & after of this week's recipe: Tamale Pie. Pretty easy, fairly good. This recipe uses hamburger but any meat would do--and easily could be only vegetarian. I added corn & chopped jalapenos to both the meat/sauce mix & to the cornbread 'dumplings', added more spice than requested, and less meat & cheese. The cornbread was made with a Jiffy mix base--came out too sweet; I think a made-from-scratch cornbread with additions would be better, as long as not too thick. Thought of Joe's cornbread stuffing after the fact & wonder if that might be a good try as well.

Pros: nice flavor, easy, good idea. Cons: not spicy enough, didn't make as large a pot as expected. Next time (or find a better recipe): double the recipe on most things (more), hot enchilada sauce + more peppers/spice, don't make the cornbread a top layer (mix spoonfuls more into sauce).

And, no, so far we're not expanding balloons of couch-potatoes. Walking a lot and can 'cook-and-forget-it' with some of these recipes. Have a nice portion for dinner & save the rest for lunches or dinners to come, so we can be off to do other things. Like our Saturday morning yoga class. 8-) Or like today: I'm going to spend the day at a friend's long-arm quilting studio; she has a 2nd machine that she 'rents out' for the day. This will be my first adventure into DIY...will let you know how it goes.
Meanwhile, Jim is getting busier now with the Hearts & Hammers projects for this year: work day is first Saturday in May, so they're finalizing the projects that will be included and planning budgets, materials, and work team assignments. This is only year two for the Central group, but they're acting pretty organized! I'm always proud to see the local community step up & lend a hand...we're lucky to live here.
So we'll be eating our leftovers when we manage to return home.

Square in a Square - Part Seven

This was the assignment most recently finished--but as I was ready to add the hanger & label, I realized that I didn't quite cover all three areas of the assignment, but here it was:

Color: Cool colors

Theme/subject: fortune from a cookie

Technique/media: hand-dyed fabric

I did use a little of my hand-dyes but I definitely lost sight of that part of the assignment as I got into the idea--so in the end only covered two of the three tasks. Had plenty of hand-dyes that would have worked well; just think I got distracted. The little 3-D purse holds a red scarf & a glass heart that can be removed. Even though cool colors prevailed, how can you have hearts & not use red (warm) for contrast?

The fortune was: As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.

Square in a Square - Next Installment

The sixth little quilt was to include:

Color - Jewel tones

Content - Food

Technique/Media - printing

Most of the prints were made with apples, although there are a some carrots & zucchini for good measure. Devin initially thought some looked like lungs--and have to say, he was right!

It was fun, I'd like to try some more painting/printing--I'll have better ideas about printing with organic objects next time; and it was fun to finish it in something besides a rectangle!

Monthly Square in a Square Project - Revisited

OK--I think it's time to catch up on projects, challenges, UFO's, etc. So interspersed with some other posts, I'm going to provide some brief peeks into what's been up in 9 months. (I'm not quite ready to start talking about "life-without-work" yet; soon hopefully.)

You may remember I had a monthly challenge going--three items randomly chosen to be portrayed in a small (about 9 x 11) art quilt, with the theme of the project being some form of square-in-a-square. The original idea was to complete one monthly--but I fell sorely behind as the year wore on. Here were the first four that have already been posted previously.

I do hope to finish the project, even though it's now 2010. Meanwhile, I'll be sharing the completed ones to bring us up to date.

Here was the fifth assignment:

color - warm

content/subject - numbers (there are two ways to count to four)

technique - cut/split ('wonky') piecing

February 14th!

Happy Valentines Day to everyone--

may you find a special way to celebrate with 'that certain someone'--

or lift a glass in honor of love among us!

If ever there was a time to acknowledge

"what the world needs now, is love, sweet love...." this is it! Cheers!

Most of all, I wish a heartfelt day (& year too!) to my special sweetie,

who will be my valentine for 30 years this year!!

I am grateful...thank you! XXOO

Crock Pot Wednesday

So here was this week's adventure in crock-pot 'new recipe night': slow-cooker lasagna. Actually turned out well--with plenty of left overs to work on for several meals. Only prep was cooking up the meat, garlic & onion with tomatoes & sauce. Then all goes into the pot--including uncooked noodles. So easy! Tasted great..

Someone's In the Kitchen...

OK, so I'm just gonna go with this food roll I'm on.

Not sure what that's all about--except it helps with the years of guilt stored up while Jim cheerfully cooked most meals--and I obviously have the gift of a little more time just now. We both have a tendency--especially now with usually just the two of us--to go towards to 'same-old-simple' when we don't plan ahead. You know (I know you do!): tortillas/quesadillas, popcorn, etc. I'm not eating more (or wanting to), just wanting to enjoy when we do eat.

So I'm trying to get more creative, learn some new recipes (hopfully many of them on the healthy side), not waste food on-hand--oh, and did I say, have some fun with it? The internet definitely puts the fun into food & recipes exploration--can waste a chunk of time there if one isn't careful. I tend to easy prep, healthy, ethnic, etc. True baking--especially sweets, deserts are usually reserved for special occasions, visitors, etc.

So what are your favorite places to go hunting?

Here are some of my favorite locations--or new found surprises that I'm sure will become favorites:

101 Cookbooks (mentioned previously)

Orangette

Savory Sweet Life

Epicurious (which has a linked blog, too)

All Recipes

I'm always open to new suggestions & adventures--so if you have any tips or locations to share, bring 'em on! Bon appetite!

Creativity ala Natalya Aikens

One of the blogs I enjoy following is art by natalya (in the list on the right). She's an inspiration both in the work that she produces, but also because she actively works at the discipline of her art.

Each year she focuses on a 'journal' process for herself--and unlike many of us, she produces! This is one of her daily journal pages from last year.

So go here to check out what she's doing this year--now a monthly (vs daily) project. It will (once again) be great to follow her progress!

The Crock Pot

I had an opportunity in December to spend more time cooking & baking for a change--which was great while the boys were here. It was fun to pull out some old family favorites for the holidays--as well as try some new recipe adventures. (One of those: the triple ginger cookies were a big hit! The recipe was from one of my favorite blogs: 101 Cookbooks.)

During that time, we acknowledged the demise of our old slow cooker--not something I've used alot, but I've appreciated having one around despite the space it occupies. After New Years, my friend Meg came to work & announced that she had a never-out-of-the-box Crock Pot in need of a home. I quickly raised my hand & offered adoption. It has many nice features--but Jim & I agreed: it looks sort of like Darth Vader sitting there on the counter!

Since then, I've had fun looking up slow cooker recipes that we might like for 'new recipe night' auditions. We also have several roasts, chops, etc. in the freezer that need to be used. So, here was the maiden voyage of the Crock Pot--and the pork roast & veggies result. May not look that great here but was tasty--& will know better 'to do's' next time. We're not big meat eaters, so I've been looking for some veggie, or not-so-much-meat recipes for future trials.

We'll let you know how it goes.

Postcards

Lots of catch-up to do about UFO's, my personal challenge project (that has been on hiatus until this year got off the ground!), and some other projects in various stages of completion.

But for now I thought I would share this little project that my round-robin group is doing. One of our members is ill with a terminal illness--so sad--and we've been finding ways to check in, show her we care, etc. Each week one of us completes an art postcard (fabric, quilted) and mails it to her.

This was my first contribution on this fun project (sorry it's a poor picture--I'm trying to get used to a new camera!)--and we're wishing there will be many opportunities for the rotation to come back around! It's fast--because they are small--and it's a chance to try something new, etc. For people not into fabric, this also works great with paper & little found items, pictures, etc.--a little mini-collage.

Try one! Maybe a valentine!

Knowing Just Enough to be Dangerous

One of the things I've missed during this last 9 months of non-blogging, is the whole conversation going on in Blogger/Blogspot about custom domain vs FTP--and the fact that Blogger will no longer support FTP blogs after March.
So far I've visited 4 different locations & in none is there the key Q&A: how do you know if you are an FTP blog? I'm gleening that FTP is 'older' language--and therefore a little geekier oriented? (No offense intended to anyone with that remark--I'm in awe of geeks most of the time!). Based on that I'm thinking I'm NOT an FTP blog, but how would I know that? (Doubt that Blogger tells you directly that you're an affected party...)
Anyone able to point my in the right direction for info (or just tell me not to worry...)? Jim sez: well if your blog doesn't work in March, you'll know! (thanks!)

Cassie is 12!

Yesterday was Cassie's birthday. Although we never knew exactly when our little pound puppy was born, we slated Groundhog Day as the day to celebrate as it was about the right time.

In January when all our family was here for a wonderful visit, the three of us sat on the same bench for a group shot that was taken when she first arrived in our family. (We're ALL a bit older now--and definitely colder!). Although she is now a 'mature woman'--there is much of that puppy still inside--as noted by the leaps through the barbed wire fence multiple times later in the walk! (Cheeze!)

So--here's to many more, Cassie!

I'm Back!

Can't believe that nine months later I'm returning to the blog--with a bit of trepidation along with some hopefulness. Thought that I needed a new look to pay tribute to a new beginning. Whadya think?

This will be a month of changes--brief as it may be. Last Friday was my last day of work at a job of nearly 27 years--not sure what comes next but work will still be involved. Muddling that one over...

So bear with the new start-up and stay tuned. Oh--and Happy Groundhog Day, all!

"I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank piña coladas. At sunset, we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over?" Phil Conners