Yee-ha!

Yesterday the dam broke, or someone flipped a switch, or ... something dramatic, because suddenly I could just make letters. Not that I couldn't make them before, but I had to psych myself up and I was very critical of every little thing. I finished orange and giddily went on to green, which took next to no time. Definitely, something clicked. I did not look at Tonya's great tutorial even once (I used to check it constantly), I had finally internalized the process and JUST DID IT.

I did suffer a bit from the Stroop effect when I moved to the orange fabric and started making the word orange, but fortunately I caught myself before I got too far. When I finished, I laid all the letters out on the grid of my ironing surface to figure out what height to use for the finished words. My letters vary a good bit, but not as much as they appear to in this photo, which was taken at an angle. I decided on 5" and set to work forming blocks of each color word.
I may have to futz with a few letters, but I'll take that as it comes. Once I get the word blocks formed, I'll figure out how to fit them together. Suddenly it's doable. :)

Exuberant Color

Wanda at Exuberant Color has an amazing blog! I have learned a lot about color and value from her quilts and posts. Such creativity, such exuberant use of color (such an aptly named blog!), such fun! It's uplifting to visit. Today she posted a string pieced block with a layout I wouldn't have thought of. Since I just took a class about color and string piecing, it was the perfect post for me. Take a look!

Quilt class

My guild invited Kay Capps Cross of Cross Cuts quilting to make a presentation and teach a couple classes. I like her stuff but almost didn't take her Slaphappy class because I already know how to piece string blocks. Fortunately someone told me the class was much more about color than about piecing, and they were right. It was a great class!

During her lecture, Kay showed two versions each of about 8 quilts -- one version was made with color and one with black, white and one zinger color. Then she talked about the different effects of the quilts and the things to consider when making each version. On her color quilts, I especially liked her "flowing borders" as she called them (sorry, I don't have a photo), where the color/texture change is small but very effective -- it gives a sense of both boundary and background. For blacks and whites, she talked about scale of print, how a mixed black/white fabric reads, and what happens with grey. Translating a color quilt to black and white is not simply a matter of replacing value for value. I learned so much! Here are two blocks I made in the class -- fun, easy, and I loved playing with the fabrics (there were lots of us and we shared). In the blocks below there's a fabric full of 3 Stooges quotes and one with gentle sayings like "If all else fails, pet the cat."

My friend and co-worker Marilyn is not a big fan of blacks and whites, so she decided to make the block with her colors -- creams and tans with yellow and orange zingers. Even though those are not my colors, I think her group of 4 blocks is just wonderful!

It's a constant wonder to me how different we all are in our response to color and design. While I can appreciate and like -- even really like -- lots of things, I would just never want to spend much time working with certain colors or styles that others can't get enough of. Keeps life interesting!

Here's a block I made this week that is definitely not my colors. I often participate in the guild's block lotto for the practice of making different blocks, and it's fun to do. They always provide the background fabric, and it's almost always a tan or cream. As often as not, I don't have much in my stash to put with it. I had to work hard to find fabrics that fit what was asked in this one, but I like the block pattern.

Other quilting things I did this week -- I cut batting for these 3 Linus quilts. Someone donated a bunch of flannel cut into various sizes and I stitched them into tops. It was amazing that we had this piece of batting that just fit them!

And Val was home for a long weekend! She volunteered to make dinner one night (look at how fast that hand is tossing the pasta!). She lives in a coop at school and says it's such a pleasure to cook at home where no one has taken the food you need and all the utensils are put away in the right places!

I kept checking in with her while she cooked to see if I could help, and she kept saying no. I knew she didn't need my assistance, I just liked being told I didn't have to make dinner! And it was a yummy dinner indeed.

The Darjeeling Limited

I have some photos to post but haven't had the chance to transfer them to the computer (still dealing with a slow system), and my daughter Val is home for a visit, so this will be brief.

We just watched The Darjeeling Limited/Hotel Chevalier. Bizarre, very bizarre. But the soundtrack is great and the photography is fabulous! It's worth seeing the movie to take in the colors and the beautiful photo styling. Absolutely gorgeous! It's drenched with light and color, and has a look that I don't know how to describe. Most scenes would work as still photos. The film has a crisp, clear quality. Visually, it was a real treat and I just wanted to alert all of you who love saturated color and clean design.

You can see a trailer here, but it doesn't really capture what entranced me about the look of the film.

Why is this woman smiling?

Lots of reasons!

First and foremost, I QUIT MY JOB! And what's even better is that I didn't actually quit, I am retiring! I was shocked when I learned that I was eligible, but when we moved here in 1982 I taught European history at the high school on campus, and most of my jobs since then have also been at the University of Illinois. That means they all contributed towards the same retirement program. Suddenly I wouldn't be walking away but would be moving on. I will miss seeing some of my good friends at work, but I plan to keep in touch. Otherwise, it is time for me to go. Does anyone remember "Marvin K. Mooney, will you please go now?" by Dr. Seuss? It ends, "The time had come, so Marvin went." On April 1, the time will come and I will go.

Second, my guild had an auction Thursday. On the premise that one quilter's trash is another quilter's treasure, everyone donated the quilting stuff they didn't want anymore so that others could bid on it. There was a huge pile of quilting magazines and I despaired of trying to flip through to choose those I might want. I picked one up at random and it fell open to this article by Chris Kleppe (American Quilter, Winter 2003):
I love, I am completely fascinated by mosaics and Moorish architecture. I have often wondered how I could make one of those tracery designs into a quilt, but the answer always came up applique, and I am a piecer. Here Kleppe explains how to determine whether a particular design could be pieced using her method. Of the quilts shown in the article, this design is my favorite (there's another quilt overlapping in the upper right):

Third, I am grateful to so many quilters for their help and advice. Yesterday brought another example. A good friend and quilter stopped by yesterday afternoon just as I was finishing laying out AGAIN the quilt that had fallen off my design wall last May.
I love the look and feel of these rich batik flannels, but I didn't have as many blocks as I want and I couldn't find any more fabric. She had some in her stash and drove them over and gave them to me later in the day. How amazingly sweet, I am so very grateful. This is easy piecing, so I will make more blocks and then have something simple to stitch together in odd moments.

And fourth, after a brief shower this morning, the sun is out and our snow is melting! We might reach 50 degrees today and I can't stop smiling as I watch the mountain of dirty snow in our front yard dissolve into beautiful, non-frozen, totally splashable puddles.

Playing with the frogs

Can you see the problem? I didn't until I put it up on the design wall, and even then it took me a minute to figure out where the problem was. In the spirit of wonkiness and freedom, I considered leaving it, but my mental image of what I wanted was just too different. So I decided to do the frog stitch (rip-it, rip-it) and fix the problem. It wasn't a simple fix and I should probably have just started over, but I didn't.
Here's what I ended up with. I'm so much happier! :)

Oops, well, I was much happier until I previewed this post. In the photo I prefer the first a, but in real life it looked weird. Anyhow, I am NOT re-redoing it!

Back at it!

Yay!! I pulled out the pieces of my Stroop quilt today and put them up on the design wall. I was surprised by how many letters I had already done.

I have only two more color words to do -- orange, which I started today, and green (which will be done in orange). I did o, r, and a today, but liked the a better as an e, so tomorrow will do a, n, and g and -- I hope! -- green. It went very quickly and I would have done more if I hadn't spent some time cutting for another quilt. That was avoidance, pure and simple, but I think I'm over the hump.

See the black and green prints at the top of the color words? I've been trying to figure out how to put the words together as a quilt, and it suddenly dawned on me to do a border of crumbs using the colors of the words, but I think I'll throw in a few crumbs of these fabrics for a little sparkle. I'm also thinking the purple fabric (the word pink) may be too dark, and I may re-do it in a lighter purple. Then again, I may not.

You may be sick of seeing my I Spy quilts, but since I finished piecing this top (except for the borders), I'll post a photo of it. I did this one in odd moments, but I have such a system for it now that it takes very little time. I enjoy working on it, though it's no longer very creatively or intellectually or even technically challenging. I enjoy thinking of the kids the quilts are going to, and I try to personalize each one a tiny bit by choosing a few designs that relate particularly to the recipients. In the last one I had a cup of coffee labeled "Kona", since my nieces live in Kailua Kona -- plus I put in some tropical and oceanic prints. In this one I have a map in one square and the name of one of the towns is my niece's last name. They are little things, but fun.

Houses

When I want a little relaxation, I can tootle over to the sewing machine and chain piece my I Spy hexagon stars, but slicing and stitching without measuring is another story. I need to psych myself up for it. I feel just a wee bit of trepidation when it comes to making something without a pattern. I want rules! And yet I don't, and I find myself attracted to things that are more free form. Once I get into it, I enjoy it, but I have to get over that getting-started hump. I decided that making a house for Bonnie would be a good way to warm up my creativity so I can get back to my own free-piecing project.

For those of you who don't know, Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting is hosting a housewarming party for Bonnie. I've used some of Bonnie's patterns and sending her a house block is a way to say thank you. I rooted through my novelty prints to find something to fill the doorway. I had wanted a cat and couldn't find one quite the right size, but Micky seemed up for the job. Very fun! I have a whole pile of stuff I need to mail, so I'll pack this block and everything else up this weekend and head to the post office on Monday. I would do it tomorrow, but I have to spend the day in Kankakee for work. (I'm taking Monday off to make up for it!!)

And more on houses -- I just found out they're going to be doing Happy Houses at the national Project Linus conference in June! Yay!

How to make a mola

Molas have been running through my mind ever since I posted yesterday, so I did a little more scouting on the web and found an excellent site with great detail about how to make a mola. Not surprisingly, the short description usually given is over simplified. Take a look Charlotte Patera's directions here. Check out her quilt gallery (there's a link on her home page, which you can click to from the mola directions) and look at some of her mola-inspired quilts.

Molas

While I'm recovering from Make A Blanket Day (our raffle quilt brought in $1024 for Project Linus!), I thought I'd do a post about molas, the traditional multi-layer applique of the Cuna women who live in the San Blas inslands of Panama. Unlike traditional applique, in which fabric is stitched on top of a background to make a design, molas are made by layering several brightly colored solid fabrics and cutting through to the desired layer to form the design. The top fabric is folded under and hand stitched along the edge. In the mola below, the top layer of fabric is red.

Sorry about the angle and quality of this photo and the next -- I have these molas under glass and was trying to minimize reflections when I took the photos. I love this first mola, which my parents bought for me when we were living in Panama in the 1960's. It's a very traditional one, with no embellishment; even the eyes are made by applique. There is so much playfulness in the design! Are those little donkeys reflected in sunglasses, or is that just a design? I don't know, but I smile when I see it.
I got this mola from my aunt. It's hard to tell in this poor photo (try clicking to enlarge it), but it has quite a bit of embroidery on it. What was that old TV show where the guy said, "I like it, but I don't love it"? That's how I feel about this one. It's very cool, but it lacks the warmth and spontaneity of the first one.
Molas have become quite popular and there are now many designs that at first glance appear to be molas but are not really. Some are quite lovely in their own right, but they're just not molas. I bought this vest at the Ann Arbor art fair in the mid-90's. I adore it, it has not one but two "made in Panama" labels, but it's not a true mola -- the design is appliqued on top of a black background.
I've thought about trying to make a mola, but it would be a painstaking process. Still, I think about it from time to time. I got these two books to help me. The Electric Mola is out of print, but I found a used copy for about $3 on Amazon. The author used the mola style but makes the design through machine applique. Some of them are really fun, but I don't think it's quite what I'm looking for. The other is a Dover book -- I love Dover books! This is just black line drawings of traditional mola designs, but there are some color photos in the book. It occurred to me that some of the shapes would make neat quilting patterns.

If you want to see more molas, do a google search and a zillion will show up. They're wonderful to look at!

Neat blog for bloggers

I have been a little out of it the last couple days (just had a colonoscopy, everything's fine), so have no fun quilting photos. But I was looking up how to put a signature at the end of my post like some of you have -- very snazzy! -- and found Tips for Bloggers. Vin, who has a great signature at the end of his posts, runs the blog and explains how to do all those things you want to do on your blog but don't know how. (Well, *I* don't know how!) He covers adding Paypal buttons, social bookmarks, signatures, multiple photos, and much more. And he responds to questions people send.

Still haven't put up my own sure-to-be-cool signature, but I will ...

I did change my comment settings. Spam arrived thick and fast when I first had a blog, so I quit allowing anonymous comments and started requiring people to type in those crazy letters. But I've noticed many people don't have those restrictions anymore. I wonder whether google's awesome spam filters help prevent problems these days? Anyhow, I changed my settings a few days ago and so far, so good.

(Apologies to my non-blogging friends and family who read this post, but I'll be back to quilt photos soon.)

strings and rows and pretty shapes

This coming Saturday is Make A Blanket Day for Project Linus, and getting ready for it has taken up most of my quilting time recently. It's fun, but I'm getting impatient to get back to my own projects. One of our big MABD projects will be making heartstring blocks -- they're easy to do, and inevitably we get eager attendees who don't know how to sew. This is such a fun way to learn! This morning I stitched together some blocks we made at a worknight so we'd have a sample to show on Saturday.
The only personal quilting I've had time for this week is my new I Spy. I was able to cut up shapes on the breakfast table while all the Linus stuff was spread out downstairs by the sewing machine. With all the pieces for each row in a little baggie, it's pretty easy to stitch a row. It amazes me how hard my first I Spy was to make, and how now I think of it as easy, mindless sewing.
And just for your aesthetic delight, how's this?
That's my new olive oil dipping bowl that's sculpted into onion-like layers. The golden green puddle is cold-pressed, extra-virgin, polyphenol-rich olive oil. It's good -- so good, so very very good! I discovered how send-me-to-the-moon delicious really fine olive oil can be when we visited Italy a few years ago, and now I'm splurging on the occasional bottle of this wonderful stuff. Unlike your grocery store vegetable oils, each one has its own spunky personality. Mmmmm.....

Two Kinds of Trips

Appropriately enough for a quilting blog, a trip-around-the-world quilt is the first kind of trip I'm writing about today. I was inspired to post this photo since I've seen so many blogs where people joined Bonnie's Super Bowl and made scrappy bargello quilts on Super Bowl Sunday.

I made this Trip Around the World top in 2005, one of the first tops I pieced. I had gone to a Project Linus work day and noticed that there were lots of strips in the Linus stash and I determined to use them up. I did an internet search and found Bonnie's Quiltville website with directions for using up strips to make very simply constructed, scrappy bargello or Trip Around the World quilts. Hers was the first quilting website I bookmarked -- if you haven't been there, go! She has lots of ideas and shares them freely. Bonnie's a real boon to the online quilting community.

I tried to use a red fabric (or purple, when I ran out of red) in the same place in each block to provide some visual organization (I have a hard time with total randomness), but it never seemed like a Linus quilt to me. About two weeks ago I stitched the blocks together and decided I'd border it to make it big enough to back a Linus quilt. Some child will have lots of fun looking at all those fabrics!

The second trip I'll mention here is the one I took to San Diego last November to walk with my daughter Jocelyn in the 60-mile, 3 Day Walk to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research. Jocelyn is quite taken with pirates, so we named our team the Pink Pirates. Toni at the Quilting Pirate had posted some wonderful pink quilting pirate fabric (the crossbones are made of scissors), so I ordered it to make scarves for us to wear. Turns out the store also had knitting pirate fabric (with knitting needles for crossbones), and since Jocelyn is a knitter, I got that for her.
Here we are in our scarves, posing with a pink-shirted San Jose policeman. A bunch of cops from San Jose volunteers to help patrol the San Diego walk every year, and they are terrific! They wear pink shirts (and often lots of other bling) and ride decorated bikes all along the walking route. They were there for our safety, but provided lots of moral support and were really funny, joking and singing and laughing with the walkers.
Decorated vans also drove the route to pick up any walkers that were having trouble. Here's one of my favorite vans, decorated with pink bras!
At one of the rest areas I saw this quilt, which I think must have been used as a fundraiser. (The hardest part of the walk for me was raising money!) If you click for a closer look, you can see that the quilt squares are signed by donors.

The walk was an amazing experience, and if it weren't for the annoying plantar fasciitis I have in my right foot, I would have recovered right away. I'm still in the process of stretching out my achilles tendon and strengthening various parts of my foot to ease the pressure. Here's a photo of my feet in yoga toe stretchers. Looks odd, but I'm starting to like how they feel!

I'm back!

Many apologies for the long delay between posts. Having gotten behind, it became more and more work to catch up, so I just didn't. I did a lot of traveling this fall -- so much so that the airlines have upgraded my status, but now that I have perks I am done traveling for awhile and can't use them! All those trips really cut into my quilting time, too.

I felt so bad about not posting, that I quit reading others' blogs, and I have really missed being part of the online community. Now that I'm back, I'm planning on some wonderful reads catching up with everyone.

So what quilty things have I been up to?

Working with the Project Linus committee of my guild has taken most of my quilting time recently. I just updated that blog (see the link in the sidebar to "Hearts for Linus"). Our raffle quilt is amazing -- I didn't make it, but as chair of the committee, I handled logistics. You can see it and read about it on Ami Simms' website. If you live nearby, please buy a ticket! All the proceeds benefit Project Linus.

I also coordinated putting together this quilt for a good friend who just had a baby.

Lots of people contributed blocks and I put them together and did the quilting. The pattern is called Hugs and Kisses from "the little box of Baby Quilts" by Jenny Wilding Cardon.

I also did the backing and quilting to finish off this I Spy for my nephew Andy's two little girls. It was finished last fall except for that, but I didn't get to it until this past week. Tomorrow I plan to trek to the post office to send it to them. The modern world is amazing -- I'll trudge through our snow to mail this, and they'll open it in bright sunshine on the big island of Hawaii!

And this is the back.
If you've read my blog before, you know I have plans to make I Spy quilts for all my nieces' and nephew's children. Andy's was the third, and here on the table are the hexagons being prepared for Andrea's quilt. The little kid in me loves playing with all the novelty fabrics!
I had planned to use a red background fabric on this, but when I laid some of the hexagons on it, they got lost. It was too dark and fought with too many of the novelty prints. So I tried this one, and I like it. It's not the greatest photo, but the fabric is blue with bright confetti.
And finally, when Val was home for the holidays, she and I started to make a holiday quilt together. The only photo I have so far is of the fabric, but I'll take more as I work on it. We had a blast choosing lots of sparkly reds and greens and creams.
And just for fun, here's a chest we recently bought for the family room. It goes with all our colors, and I have plans for a quilt that will look good in there.
I still have a few projects I'm working on that I will finish soon (I hope!!). Meanwhile, hello to everyone, it's good to be back in touch.

Guild quilt show

I've been away from blogging and reading blogs for a few weeks. Many apologies.

Our guild had its bienniel quilt show this weekend. Our members made some truly lovely quilts. I have downloaded only the first bunch so far, but here they are.

This was my personal favorite -- a New York Beauty quilt by Lorraine Gray. It's all batiks, and absolutely stunning in person. Unfortunately, this photo is washed out. The back has a yin yang symbol.
I loved this wall hanging, pieced by Whizzie Evans and quilted by her daughter Dorothy.
Lisa Ruch made this amazing Dear Jane, each block in a different batik.
We had a Kids Korner, and here it is being set up. I loved the letters -- pieced and appliqued onto a cloud background. The second photo shows a closer view.

I'll post more of the quilts after I've downloaded them.

I have done so much traveling this fall! I was in Philadelphia for a conference (and had the great fun to meet up with my cousin Barbie and her husband Frank), and to be walking through downtown when suddenly the town went crazy. For a second I thought it was a terrorist attack, then I realized that the Phillys had just won the pennant! The next day, the fountain in the park I walked through was dyed red in their honor.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Denver on a business trip, back home on Wednesday. Remember Elaine Adair's popping quilt corners that reminded her of the Denver Airport? I'll be thinking of that when I land!

Another thing that has been eating up my time is training for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day. I'm walking in San Diego with my daughter Jocelyn and niece Kim. We'll be walking 60 miles, 20 miles a day. Getting in shape to do that is no small chore! It takes many hours on the weekend to do the training, and I'm wiped out when I'm done. My DH has done a lot of it with me, which makes it tolerable. Otherwise those ridiculously long walks can be really boring! I have plantar fasciitis in one foot, which is a bit better with new orthotics, but all this walking has really aggravated it. Still, after all this complaining, it's kind of fun -- I've never done anything like this in my life!

Falling off the grid

Many apologies for the long delay between posts. Things have gotten a little crazy and I haven't gotten much of my own quilting done. I did attend the Make A Blanket Day for Project Linus event for the Central Illinois Region -- lots of fun, lots of people attending -- and pieced most of a top there. It's so energizing to be with a group of people all working away! Some of the quilts that people donate are amazingly creative. I also got to demonstrate how to make a Happy Houses quilt from kid-friendly scraps or as a group project. Lynda over at Master of Patience? made some wonderful Happy Houses!

Things have been jumping at work, but the fun part of it is that our chili took home the grand prize this weekend at the Urbana International Beer Tasting & Chili Cook-Off! Here I am with my co-worker Marilyn (also a quilter) and a student, Katie. Note our tacky chili lights and chili necklaces and earrings.

The chili uses textured soy protein and is vegetarian -- I think the judges were very surprised to discover they liked ours better than all the other meaty chilies! It was a blind judging. Our chili really is delicious, with wonderful flavor from the chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, which come from a can. It's very quick and easy to make, too. The recipe is on our website, Illinois Center for Soy Foods.

I am off to the Food & Nutrition Conference & Exhibition in Philadelphia, but will be back quilting by mid-week! I am trying to catch up on my blog reading. I've been so busy with other things this week, and I really miss keeping up with all of you!

Sew many things

Those of you who thought I might be setting myself up for a guilt trip with my last post, don't worry! Alas, I never feel compelled to stick to my project list. Sometimes I should, but I don't. Lists help keep me organized, remind me of projects I want to do, but don't stand in the way of enjoying my hobby. I have other lists I can't ignore, but my quilting to-do list is just a reminder.

And just to prove my point, with all I had to do on my list, I took an hour Sunday afternoon to make a little minkee blanket for a friend who's having a baby. Not on my list, but done, and it was fun! There's nothing like the feel of minkee, and that's soft flannel on the other side.

I'm taking Tonya's class and playing around with the letter A. It took me awhile to get started, even though I've been trying some wonky letters on my own. What color scheme? How big? Which letter? I just couldn't get over the hump (life seems so much more secure with a pattern). Finally I decided it didn't matter which colors, what size, which letter. Just do it! So I am using only pieces from my scrap bin, at least to start. I have never made a capital letter, so I'm starting with those. And I'm trying all sorts of sizes, dictated in part by how big a particular scrap is. Here are my first two.
I tried scribbling some A's for inspiration, and found I couldn't loosen up and get creative with them. So I googled "letter A" and this is what I came up with.

Wow! I'm off to have at it!

Keeping up with the Joneses

First off -- Happy Birthday, Jocelyn! My little girl is 23 years old today! And I am turning into one of those crazy adults who mutters things like, "My, how time flies."

Now on to the Joneses. There are some very energetic quilters out there in Blogland. While I don't wish to measure my productivity against the ridiculous standard of what everyone else is accomplishing, I do feel inspired by the start of a new quilting year, so to speak, as the school bells are ringing again and the mornings have a slight nip in the air (actually, the latter hasn't happened yet but, Mr. Weatherman, please take the suggestion). So I am going to lay out a few projects and plans. The list is not definitive, but thinking aloud is helpful.

1. I am back in school! At least, I'm taking an online quilting class with Lazy Gal Tonya to learn to be a little more wonky. You can check out her blog here and scroll down the sidebar to find links to all her tutorials. So far, this has really been a good class and we just got a new assignment today! I'm going to work hard at not letting other things interfere with what I want to do in this course.

2. We need a quilt for the wall behind our couch. I have some ideas (inspired by Sandi Cummings' book, Thinking Outside the Block) but need to JUST DO IT.

3. By September 30, I need to finish the Happy Houses quilt for a Project Linus Make A Blanket Day demo.

4. This past week brought me a couple UPS deliveries. The first was two big boxes from my sister. Her husband is in the military and they are packing up for a tour in Germany. Rather than taking all their t-shirts from past assignments with them, she sent them to me to put into a quilt -- more like ten quilts! She said to use the best and toss the rest. It should be fun, though finding fabrics to coordinate will be a challenge as military colors are not my usual color scheme.
4. I bought some Asian fabrics from a fellow blogger who is clearing out her collection of those to make room for fabrics that fit her current interests. We both win! I love the look of Asian fabrics and have a scrappy quilt I plan to make for someone who is very into all things Asian.
5. And of course -- I want to finish two more I Spy quilts before the holidays (one is almost done), complete my Stroop quilt, make some things for the guild bazaar at the quilt show, and put some patterns on the Hearts for Linus blog I do for the guild.

Hmmm... all this without looking at my list of projects, which is pretty long. I think I can accomplish all this IF I can keep organized and work out a system. Time to hop to it!

Farfalle con fagiolini, mandorle e pomodori

When I was in Italy a few years ago I couldn't resist picking up a copy of one of their cooking magazines, Sale e Pepe. I figured it would help me improve my culinary Italian and provide delicious reading on the airplane home. Right on both counts. With much help from a dictionary, I translated this recipe that has become one of our favorites. It's quick and easy, absolutely divine to eat, and different from the usual everyday American version of pasta. I just made it this weekend for some guests and it's been on my mind ever since, so I thought I'd share the recipe. I hope you like it as much as I do!

My photo of the finished product didn't come out, but here's what it looks like just before you put it all together. Farfalle con fagiolini, mandorle e pomodori
(Bowtie Pasta with Green Beans, Almonds & Tomatoes)

From the July 2004 issue of Sale & Pepe

1/2 cup almonds (50 g)
1 tsp. sweet paprika
4 oz. feta cheese (100 g) (sometimes I use a little more on top)
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice (recipe says juice of half a lemon – I thought this was too much)
1 bunch parsley, leaves only
1 clove of garlic
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 cup thin (if you have them) green beans (200 g)
1 large round tomato, diced (recipe says 8 cherry tomatoes, sliced)
12 oz. bowtie pasta (320 g) (farfalle means butterfly in Italian - how cute is that?)
salt

1) Toast the almonds in the toaster oven until fragrant. Heat the paprika in a nonstick pan over low heat until the aroma rises up. Let the almonds and paprika cool and put them into the food processer with 80% of the crumbled feta, the lemon juice, chopped parsley leaves, garlic and olive oil. Blend the ingredients into a paste and transfer it into a bowl.

2) Wash and trim the green beans (the thin ones really are the best!), dry them, and cut them on an angle. Cook until crisp tender (the crispness is a nice contrast to the pasta). Wash and dry the tomatoes and cut them into thin slices (I prefer diced).

3) Cook the pasta in boiling salted water and drain it reserving a little of the water, which you should stir into the parsley mixture to thin it to sauce consistency. Mix the pasta and sauce, add the sliced tomatoes and beans, sprinkle it all with the remaining crumbled feta and serve.

Buon appetito!

It never rains, but it pours!

Why does everything happen at once? My kids have been visiting, we've had other houseguests and dinner guests, extra stuff at work, and my training for my 60-mile, 3-day walk has really picked up -- it wears me out! (I walked 13 miles on Saturday and 9 on Sunday.) I've enjoyed it all, but I've gotten behind in my blogging.

I've had several quilting activities, but not many photos to post. I have put the inner border on my I Spy at last -- it was making me feel guilty just hanging there on my design wall. Borders and backings and the finishing up part of quilting are so much less fun than the designing and piecing!
I'll put an outer border in the same blue that is on the star points, and then back it with a map and bright yellow, just like in my previous I Spy quilts.

I've also started a class with Tonya from Lazy Gal Quilting. It's been great! Once I start having something to show, I'll post those photos. I've also been working on a project I can't yet write about, and am ready to put sashing and borders on the Happy Houses quilt for Project Linus. I've been putting that off because I can't decide on sashing fabric and because, well, I don't much like doing sashing and borders, etc. But I'm giving a short demo on these houses for Central Illinois's Make A Blanket Day later this month, and I need to have the quilt to show!