Production Day

Alyssa stayed for a few days after Christmas. We both read quite a bit -- she read The Help by Kathryn Stockett and started The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, both of which I heartily recommend. I finished Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls, (O.K.) tried One Day by David Nicholls (after 100 pages I just couldn't get into it, so gave it up), and started Olive Kitteredge by Elizabeth Strout, (grabbed me in Chapter 1). There are not many Christmas breaks that Alyssa misses reading at least one novel, not only because everyone gets books as gifts, but because it's her down time from work-related reading and grading. Me? I just hop on that reading train because I enjoy the ride any time.
We also got some crafty production in. On Tuesday, we got down to business. She did block printing on kitchen towels. Learning to cut linoleum blocks as a 4-H project turned out to be a valuable lesson. The leaf blocks shown here were especially appealing to me. Then again, this design was pretty cute, too. Of course there were other designs and colors -- stars and circles and birch bark in silver or blue. Alyssa went home with a nice stack of designer gifts for her friends and I managed to reap the benefits of her talents with a few towels too.After the towels it was on to quilting. I meandered a baby quilt Alyssa and friend Rachelle had pieced for another friend. Nice bright blocks surround by a cheerful green dot. It took just a couple of hours to meander the entire quilt before handing it back to Alyssa to complete the binding.While she did that, I moved on to a project that's been churning in my brain for a few weeks. It's not quite finished, but it will be by the end of the weekend. I'll be back then to share.

A few of my favorite things

It's December 23 and I'm working on my annual "Do I really need to do that?" list. The absolute musts of Christmas preparations grow fewer every year.

This year's absolutes includes these wonderful little Chocolate Covered Cognac Cranberries from Oprah (I used Grand Marnier ... yum!).

This morning's first order of business was to finish these pillow covers for our solid green sofa pillows.
The pillows are resting on the turnover quilt that gave me pause a while back. Well, it's finished and it's absolutely beautiful with elaborate feather quilting done by Yolanda Sanchez who said she would do a "simple feather" design (O.K., I'm still working on the binding, but it will be finished by the time it's given to my mom tomorrow night).

My other favorite decorations of the year are these jars filled with simple things. I sprayed some pine cones with glitter to give them a little spark, added some ribbon to last year's pomanders and filled one of my favorite jars. It's simple and sparkly all at once.

And now it's on to some serious work. There's Irish stew to make, cookies and breads to bake, more cranberries to coat with chocolate, and gifts to wrap in time for a Christmas Eve trip to Racine followed by our own family celebration back here on Blueberry Road Christmas Day.

Here's to your own simple and sparkly Christmas. Enjoy!

Sister time

Notice the view outside my sister Jane's living room window. It's green. It's in a land where people place poinsettias on the porch in December like we'd put geraniums out in June. I was there last week. In addition to Jane giving me a private banjo recital, we did things we love to do.

We made Christmas cookies using our grandmother's 90-year old cookie cutters.

We sorted through Jane's extensive collection of beautiful silk ties.

We started working to bring to reality a vision Jane has had for these ties since working on her interior design internship in San Francisco many years ago. This will be a spectactular piece when it's completed. I'll be back again next year to help get it finished.
We admired some of our previous collaborations, like the quilt Jane is showing off here. And, of course we planned more future projects than either of us will ever live to complete. And we went to a concert and out for lunch and for dinner and did a little bit of shopping (a yarn shop, naturally) and talked and knitted and talked and laughed and reminisced and dreamed. In short, we were sisters together again after far too much time apart. It was wonderful.

Even the reality of coming back to Wisconsin's absurd amount of snow and cold for the beginning of December can't take away the warmth of a week with my sister. It was just what I needed to warm my soul for the cold months ahead.

Look at my quilt!

It's titled "Christmas ... at last" and it is finally finished and hanging in the living room. And looking as good in its holiday spot as I imagined it might. It looks better than in this photo and I'll blame the camera for that because I have to hold the batteries in place with my thumb while trying to aim and shoot a decent picture. It's even more annoying than it sounds.
The first of the little plastic latches that hold the battery cover in place broke off the weekend that I spent at Tim and Julaine's cabin to work on this quilt. A piece of Scotch tape helped the camera get through that weekend (although the pictures of my hand from those days will testify that I had come up with a pretty wimpy fix).
The rest of the little latches broke off over Thanksgiving weekend. Now it's a two-handed maneuver to snap a picture. The right hand holds the battery cover in place and steadies the camera while the left reaches over to press the shutter button, jiggle the camera and sometimes shoot itself. Even though I really don't want to do it, I'm going to have to break down and dig up some duct tape.

What's that crunching sound?

Turkey Day, or any holiday for that matter, rarely goes as planned here. This year was no exception. Karl and Alissa arrived Wednesday night, but had to return after dinner on Thursday, which was planned for 2:00 p.m. The turkey got a late start on the grill, but all other dishes were on schedule. The end result: picture the turkey dinner scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Except substitute stuffing for the turkey. Add loud crunching sound effects and you get the picture.
Everything else was great. A traditional turkey dinner with fresh cranberry sauce, maple-orange glazed sweet potatoes, cranberry bread, green beans, potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, maple pecan pie and very, very crunchy stuffing.
Alyssa brought her friend Tomoko along to share our Thanksgiving dinner. It was her first experience celebrating an American Thanksgiving. As Tomoko stirred the gravy, I chiseled stuffing out of the baking dish and explained that she should never expect to see or taste stuffing like this again. Or at least I hope she never experiences it again.
Karl and Alissa headed back to Eau Claire after dinner and the other guys scattered to do chores or whatever else it is they do during hunting season. Paul, Alyssa, Tomoko and I played a couple of games of Yahtzee -- another first for Tomoko -- who soundly beat us in her second game. While Tomoko learned how to beat us at our own game, we learned a bit about her home and family in Japan, her planned 3-year study of implant dentistry at UCLA and her goal to return home and resume her dentistry practice alongside her father.
Alyssa and Tomoko then settled in (good thing I keep making all those quilts, eh?) for our traditional viewing of the first Christmas movie of the year, Elf.
Black Friday began at a reasonable hour with Alyssa, Tomoko and me at the Wooden Chair for breakfast. Frustrating stops at Michaels and Kohl's left us with just enough energy for a fruitful stop at Fleet Farm and then it was home again. After a lunch of venison sausage (Tomoko had now tasted the entire gamut of farm-produced offerings) sandwiches, we lounged around until it was time for Alyssa and Tomoko to head back to Minneapolis.
It was a great Thanksgiving. Our customary individual offers of thanks before dinner covered it all: We are thankful for our new family members, good health, the safe arrival of our travelers, the delicious meal (well maybe not the stuffing), each other, and the opportunity to share our holiday with Tomoko.

The spice of life

Saturday was the opening day of the 9-day gun deer hunting season. It's a traditional big shopping day for deer hunting widows whose men take off for hunting camp. Since I happen to live at just such a place, my men go nowhere. They're here for the hunt and they have other men with them. Our farm was headquarters for nine hunters this year. Other than eating a lot of food, they really aren't much bother; they're just here being manly. Enough said.
I usually don't go too far from home either. This year was a little different. My daughter-in-law Alissa came along with Karl on Friday night. Wise one that she is, she opted to travel a bit farther and go visit her family for the weekend. I was happy to assist in that choice by driving her to Appleton on Saturday to meet her mom. We met at Penzey's Spices near the Appleton Mall. I love that store and always spend more time reading the recipes and smelling the spices than my shopping companions.
A long-time Penzey's devotee, my loyalty was recently reaffirmed when I foolishly tried another brand of pure vanilla. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't as expensive as Penzey's -- or so I thought. After complaining one too many times of an "off" flavor in baked goods, I finally decided that it had to be that bargain vanilla. My mother-in-law used to say that store-bought bakery often tasted "perfumey" which I frankly didn't understand. Now I do. That "off" flavor in Paul's most recent batch of chocolate chip cookies was more than just an odd taste, it was also the aroma. Perfumey is the perfect word.
That cheap vanilla was dumped out (which certainly knocks it out of the running for bargain of the year) and replaced with my absolute favorite Penzey's product. Pure Vanilla. It is so good. The size of the bag tells you that I found a few other little tidbits to buy as well. We love Chili 9000 and Bold Taco seasoning. Both have just the right amount of heat. And grated orange peel that puts me in the middle of an orchard each time I open it to add a tablespoon or two to a batch of cranberry bread (keep your grated orange or lemon peel in the fridge -- it will put you back in that orchard longer).
Unfortunately, I forgot to take my shopping list with me. I forgot the Bouquet Garni at the top of my list and the nutmeg for Christmas cookies. I may have to go back, or at the very least do a catalog order. And that's O.K. The catalog is nice to receive (this issue has a great recipe for Irish stew that was consumed with gusto by the aforementioned 9 hunters here Saturday evening), but it's not the same as walking through the store with the little black shopping basket, stopping to smell all the offerings and dreaming up the next great dinner -- or dessert -- for my family. The experience is the beauty of the store...and what keeps me coming back. This time, the return trip may be sooner rather than later.

Turnovers

Quilt shops sell many different types of precut fabric collections. Many are named for bakery items: Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and in the case of my project of the day, Turnovers. These precut triangles represent a specific collection of fabrics. The set I have is from Kansas Troubles. After buying one set of 80 somewhere, I happened across the same collection on special somewhere else and picked that up, too. After solemnly swearing off triangles just two weeks ago, I pieced all these triangles this morning without much of a plan, other than to make a lap quilt for a Christmas gift.

As it turned out, there were more darks than lights, so some medium ranges found their way to the light stack to balance out the piles. Piecing the triangles was a breeze. Since I happen to know the intended recipient really likes flying gees quilts, the triangles were pieced in appropriate pairs.

Unfortunately this setting met with a "kind of like it, kind of don't" verdict. There is not a strong enough dominant color to pull off the ridged look effectively. A quick change came up with this

No big thrill here either. It was back to shuffling the pieces again to something like this
Still not screaming, "this is it," but definitely telling me to think about this little quilt some more. Mabye doing those flying geese in columns with a border fabric between. Maybe mixing up the colors more. Maybe picking up the pieces and letting them rest for a few days, which is how it goes when piecing on a whim rather than with a plan. Still, it is my preferred method. I like mulling over my projects. Allowing all those possibilities to sort themselves out in my mind is part of the enjoyment of the process. This batch of turnovers simply needs just a little more time.

Thanksgiving is now

Everyone was here for a celebration feast last night. It was Evan's birthday, which is reason enough for a celebration, but there was more to it than that. It was also close to the one year anniversary of the transplant that converted Karl's stem cells into Evan's lifeblood. More importantly even than that, was that we were able to say that it was the anniversary of the SUCCESSFUL transplant.
All of this celebrating was rather last minute and spontaneous (Evan just received the official report on Tuesday). While we knew Karl and Alissa Diane planned to visit this weekend, Evan's news spurred Kit and Violet's decision to make the drive, too. Knowing that Alyssa wouldn't want to miss out on this event, I called her late Thursday (11-ish) to let her know we were going to celebrate. She squeezed the trip into her schedule as well. As she so aptly put it, "We all came together when Evan was diagnosed with Hodgkins, it's only fitting that we all come together when he gets the news of remission." We even had a little visit from Jeannine and Rick who joined us for a little "pre-sert" birthday cake on their way (don't let them kid you, it was really out of their way) from Eau Claire to Racine. (Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting - 1 stick butter, 1 cup peanut butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 3-4 TBSP milk and a little vanilla -- try it some time with your favorite chocolate cake; it's a great combination.)
Nephew Joel also came down the road to join us for a celebration harvest menu: Roast beef and roast pork (Paul's Angus and Evan and Joel's pork); acorn squash (monsters from our garden); apple and quince compote (apples, quince and dried cranberries stewed with cinnamon, ginger and splash of pumpkin wine); green bean casserole, mashed red potatoes with gravy and rolls. And, of course, birthday cake. The table was full and so we were. The evening was rounded out with rather eclectic music selections (Nat King Cole to Modest Mouse), some rousing games of Yahtzee and conversation.
Evan was up bright and early to make breakfast for all: corn bread (we call it Johnny Cake) with our own maple syrup and breakfast links made from the pork he raised. Another harvest celebration. These bountiful meals are splashed all over magazine covers at this time of year to get us enthused for the holiday season to come. For us, the enthusiasm was plentiful. Even though the calendar may say the official date is three weeks away, Thanksgiving is now.

Quilting at the cabin

We were all set to meet at the Cutting Edge quilt shop in Antigo on Thursday morning. We both scheduled vacation days Thursday and Friday, agreed on menu plans, and shared project plans for our almost-annual quilting at the cabin weekend. Wednesday evening found me busy packing way more than I could ever hope to accomplish when Julaine called to say that last Tuesday's wind storms knocked out the power to the cabin and it wasn't expected to be back on until SATURDAY! What a blow. We plan this for months: Meet Thursday morning; sew all day Thursday and Friday, wrap it up Saturday morning and head home. I hung up feeling nothing but bummed. I deliberated about going to work and saving my days for another time when Paul (now elevated to sainthood) offered to take me and a generator to the cabin the next day. After several, "Really? You'd really do that?" kind of questions, I called Julaine and told her to hang tight, our almost-annual weekend was back on!

Paul and I arrived about 2:00 Thursday afternoon with sub sandwiches and POWER. After our lunch, he got to work getting us situated for our customary quilt-a-thon. Although this temporary set up required an open window on a very chilly day, Julaine was up to the challenge and fired up the woodstove to keep us Arizona-in-August warm.

Paul ran three power cords for us: One for our machines (we both plugged into the same surge protector); one for a lamp; one for the iron. We may have started a few hours later than planned, but thanks to farm living and the necessity of generators, and of course Paul's willingness to cart me, my sewing machine and several fabric totes 100 miles to the North Woods, we were ready to fly.

The power came back Thursday night. But those extra few hours of sewing and talking and talking and sewing were even better with the hum of the generator in the background. It was a great evening.

My first project was to finish up a quilt top from our first (was it six years ago?) quilting-at-the-cabin adventure. A good idea at the time, this thing became a patchwork nightmare. I loved it the first year, ignored it the second through fourth years, and absolutely hated the guilt-infested thing by the time I took it out again this year.

Stubbornly determined to finish it, I pieced and pieced and gradually found the thing growing on me again. Renewed love or not, sixteen 16-inch blocks -- all triangles -- were all I could muster. After deciding that it wanted to hang on the wall behind the spinning wheel rather than on a queen size bed, the quilt also cried out for just a small defined border. Not wanting to fool around with any odd math calculations, using a 1/4-inch folded trim between the blocks and border provided just the right amount of definition and contrast. If you look closely at the quilt on the right, you'll notice that red line. I'm pleased -- at last -- with my Christmas quilt and very first cabin quilt. There's even a good chance of having it quilted and hanging in time for Christmas.

Julaine started -- and finished -- her quilt top (on the left) over the weekend. Although this is not the best picture of it, it is made entirely of 2' strips cut and pieced and cut and pieced again to create the the great streak of lightning setting she chose. It is a beauty.

Just so you know, I've also started and finished projects at the cabin. This flannel quilt made from leftovers of one made for Kit while he was in West Virginia, was one of my cabin quilts. It remains a favorite nap quilt for everyone and a spark for good memories for me.

My second project this year was a resurrected churn dash inspired by Paul's black and tan beer at an
anniversary lunch more years ago than I care to remember. After making the blocks, I just couldn't decide how to put them together. No kidding, I've had these blocks laid out in so many different ways, I don't even recall what they were. Finally, I decided these zigzag-print lattice strips were the way to go. The quilt will have a black plaid border appliqued with a bird and leaf design cut of the the tans and reds in the quilt. Even though the border design is drawn and calculated, those little birds and leaves will have to wait a bit before coming to life; there are too many other projects that must take priority and that's O.K. with me. I now have a sense of direction for my very patient churn dash. I'm looking forward to coming back to it on a long winter weekend.

We wound up our piecing adventure late Saturday morning. Tim came up to join Julaine and do some work around the cabin. While he was busy winterizing, we entertained ourselves with Quiltopoly. Crazy. But fun -- even when you're losing.

Paul arrived to get me and the generator Saturday afternoon. After a great lunch and visit with Julaine and Tim, we took some convoluted route to Wausau (Paul rarely takes the same way twice) where we made a few stops for essentials, and arrived back home about 7:30 in the evening. He had put on 400 miles. I had pieced yards and yards of fabric. It was wonderful.

Thanks Tim and Julaine. Your cute little cabin is a wonderful quilter's get-away. No one could ask for better cousins or friends.

Good things come to those who wait

If you're waiting for a new post, it will be coming soon. It will be filled with pictures and glorious stories of quilting success. But not just yet. Soon. Just wait.

Ahhh. Fall.

I love fall. Since it's an "off" year for acorns, we have little risk of getting nailed by those pouncing little devils every time we walk out the door which adds to the enjoyment of the quiet changes taking place. The woods are beautiful. Our sugar maples -- scarlet beauties to me -- lost a little of their lustre and more than a few leaves in last week's rains, but still the overall warm tones everywhere invite sweaters and quilts and all the other things I love to use and make. Oh, and fall cooking. That is not something to be overlooked.
Last week I made creamy pumpkin soup that was quite good. This week's Harvest Pumpkin bundt cake from the Kiss My Bundt cookbook is made with the rest of that pumpkin. Paul stopped at a farmer's market and brought home some Sparta apples. I'll try to get out to the orchard this week for some Macoun's, my absolute favorites. We'll have acorn squash from Evan's garden spiked with our own maple syrup for supper tonight along with either beef or venison (Evan claimed a buck while bow hunting last night!). Fall flavors are so hearty, warm and especially welcome after a summer of not wanting to use the oven.
And there are few greater pleasures than humming away at the sewing machine as those autumn aromas fill the house. The camera is without its batteries (my contribution to the aforementioned successful hunter's GPS), so I can't provide proof, but I am on a piecing roll. After a several-year hiatus from this project because it became just too overwhelming, I am loving it again and will be happy to share shots of my finished Christmas quilt just as soon as it reaches that stage and I remember to buy batteries. In the meantime, it's back to the machine where The Goonies, a cup of coffee and hundreds of beautiful triangles are calling my name.

Lucky in love

Paul and Ned recently returned from their Great West Adventure during which they visited the Badlands, Mt Rushmore, the 2010 National Black Angus Conference in Bozeman, Montana, Yellowstone National Park and more. I stayed behind with Evan who did all the farm chores. Paul called nightly with updates of the day's activity. Feeling myself turn green is an understatement especially when he called to wish me a happy 33rd anniversary while watching Old Faithful (I was in the grocery story parking lot at that particular moment). Still I tried to remain the cheerful listener and often countered with, "That all sounds great, but what are the quilts shops like?"
Paul was listening. I was touched when he returned with a sampler quilt booklet from Big Horn Quilts in Graybull, Wyoming. That gift immediately sent me to my stash looking for appropriate fabric selections. Naturally, my decision is far from final, but as of this moment in time the quilt will be made entirely of reds and greens. Or blacks and reds. Or maybe just reds. But first there are others to finish and start and the Great Cabin Quilting Weekend with Julaine and aprons, aprons, aprons again, oh and some curtains for the bathroom and our annual mother-daughter Thanksgiving weekend gift-a-thon-sew-along. After all those things, I'll look at my stash again on some cold winter day, pull out my rotary cutter, mat and rulers and make a color decision. And that decision will be warmed by the gift of a husband of 33 years who stopped in a Wyoming quilt shop, took pictures -- inside and out -- and bought me a gift unique to the shop. I am lucky in love.

Meet Alissa and Karl Ruesch

From Memorial Day to Labor Day our summer was all about love. Just as we opened the summer with a wedding, we closed the season with one. That's right, Karl and Alissa exchanged wedding vows in Kiel, Wisconsin on September 4, 2010.
Once again, I got the thrill of seeing my son dance with his beautiful bride on their wedding day. And, thanks to Dave Dettmann (really, this guy is phenomenal!) of Capital Photography, I get to share this photo of the happy couple with you.
From the barefoot flower girl to the beautiful fuchsia-gowned bridesmaids to the handsome groomsmen and the beaming parents of the couple, the wedding could not have been any more lovely. Honestly, it was breathtaking.
Alissa and her mom and dad and sister, and of course, Karl, did an outstanding job planning and tending to every detail. There was talk of a few stumbles in the set up on Friday, but whatever those were, they were nowhere in evidence on the big day. The Lulloffs put on one heck of a great wedding and the Ruesches gained one wonderful new daughter-in-law. What better way to say goodbye to summer and hello to happily ever after!

Life's a peach

If we have enough tomatoes in the garden, we'll have this wonderful fresh tomato soup for supper tonight. First, though, it will be a day to finish all those peaches. I managed to get through the first box by making some delicious Southern Comfort Peach Jam. It wasn't as easy as it sounds. I made one batch that didn't set properly, so we have an ample supply of Southern Comfort Peach Ice Cream Topping. Then, I made a batch of plain old peach freezer jam which was also a little soupy in my opinion, so we may have enough peach ice cream topping for eternity, especially since I don't recall ever having -- or even wanting -- peach ice cream topping before. Really though, the last batch of jam did turn out so delicious that I want everyone to taste it, yet I want to hoard it. The trick to success was re-reading the recipe to catch the detail of using the low-sugar PINK BOX of Sure-Jell. Thanks to Paul, the remaining peaches in the box were sliced and frozen for my favorite winter smoothies.

Today, I'm moving on to brandied peaches just as soon as we finish a lazy breakfast of Julia Child's bacon quiche. Using a frozen whole wheat crust (I find them in the organic foods section at the grocery store), makes quiche a breeze to prepare. And really, 3 eggs and skim milk make it pretty reasonable in the it-might-kill-you category. (Yes, the six slices of bacon and half-cup of shredded cheese are being intentionally ignored in this "it's-healthy" opine.) I couldn't resist the temptation of sliced tomatoes on top and toyed with the idea of taco seasoning, but that might have put me over the top of Paul's quiche tolerance. So, it's bacon quiche with tomato, parsley and basil. A beautiful offering for a beautiful Sunday breakfast picnic and my first day off in two weeks. Just peachy!

Blueberry Cobbler

I had this notion recently that I would make a quilt of black baskets on white backgrounds and call it Blackberry Baskets. It would be all hand appliqued little 5 or 6-inch baskets. I made two blocks. One is blah; the other is cute. Don't know if I'll make any more. It was really just a need for some handwork that drove me to do those and they are really nice little baskets, but I'm working too many hours and getting pretty tightly wound and the prep for applique is more than I can handle at the moment. So, I took out some counted cross stitch started back in the days of Fred and Wilma and thought that would give the calming effect sought by handwork. And it probably would if I could see it. Honestly, my eyes at one time could discern the 2 threads that make one stitch in 28-count linen. That was then and this is now.

Still no acceptable handwork to calm me and it's just too hot to knit which leaves me just a tightly wound working machine. Not good. Paul called me at work last night to say that the fruit I ordered from the neighboring Amish bulk foods store had arrived. NOW??? Yes, now. Not only that, Eli understood my order for a box of peaches to be a bushel of peaches. Thank heavens, the box of blueberries is only a box of blueberries. So boy howdy do I have handwork.

There are cookie sheets of blueberries freezing as I type and I will pop a couple of blueberry cobblers into the oven soon. One for work and one for home. I made blueberry cobbler a couple of weeks ago with our own berries. It was one of those I Love Lucy baking experiences. The recipe begins with melted butter in the pan. I always used the same red fluted pie plate for this recipe because it looks so pretty on the table. No more. While the butter was melting in the pan in the heating oven, the pan cracked in half and the oven had a perfectly browned butter bottom. My plans for waking my dear one with the aroma of fresh blueberries baking on a Saturday morning turned out to be the stink of burning butter and the blue smoke spewing from the baker.

But here I am, trying it again. On a work day. Trusty old Pyrex this time. This recipe is from an old Habitat for Humanity cookbook. Try it. It's easy and delish.

Mama's Easy Blueberry Cobbler

1/4 c butter
3/4 c milk
1 c sugar
1 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 c sugar

Melt butter in 8-inch round baking pan. Combine milk, 1 c sugar, flour and baking powder in bowl. Pour into prepared pan. Top with blueberries. Do not stir. Sprinkle 1/4 c sugar over berries.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Hot enough to melt butter

If you don't have air conditioning, even the light of the sewing machine can add an unbearable amount of heat to the already intolerable heat and humidity of our recent weather. That's why this butter-colored quilt has been at a little standstill again. That, and the fact that August means long work hours for me. Today is slightly better. Good enough for me to finish piecing the 350+ triangles needed for the border since I decided a solid border was just too dorky looking. Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit cooler, so with any luck I may just meet my goal of having this quilt top pieced by Alyssa's birthday. She's doing a triathlon to celebrate her day. A sewing marathon might just be the most appropriate way to celebrate along with her.

Groovin' with a good read

I belong to a book club. A very small book club. There are only four members, all of us former or current co-workers who sometimes share the same taste in reading. Sometimes not. At any rate, we meet once a month or so -- usually for breakfast -- and discuss our most recent book, a few bad apples we know, and life in general. It's a good time and a good way to keep in touch.

We recently celebrated our second anniversary with breakfast here (veggie quiche and bundt coffee cake). We are big on rules. Well, some of us are big on rules. (Like not knowing who submitted the book title as if I can't guess who threw the most recent big old lemon in the pot.) The rest of us go along with the rules to avoid the evil eye, but that's really of no consequence. So anyway, we celebrated our anniversary with a gift exchange (we don't do other occasions during the year) of items we made for each other (one of those negotiable rules). Gifts carried the theme of our recently completed book The Little Giant of Aberdeen County (Yes, read it), which was filled with plant lore. A quilt was also at the center of the novel, but I wasn't up for making 3 quilts, so decided to ignore that and stick to the plant theme.

My gifts were decoupaged pots filled with edible or beneficial plants. They turned out to be pretty cute and the real kick came when I got to go into a store and ask for Modge Podge. Talk about a blast from the past. Surprisingly, Modge Podge is still a happening item in the craft store world. In fact, there are all kinds of Modge Podge to be had. It's still, as it turns out, just white glue with a groovy name, but that name took me back to the late great 70s and that's not all bad. Not all good either.

The pots turned out great. Photocopied pages from the book were coffee dyed because they were just too white and the edges torn to give them a softer look, and decoupaged first. Then pictures of edible flowers that were downloaded from the internet were decoupaged on top of the print. The best part of the whole project came when Lynn noticed the printed design was actually text from the book. Being clever is so much more fun when it's noticed.

I'm not certain how the pots are holding up, but if they last one summer, that will be good enough. I did use outdoor Modge Podge, which I thought was a great find until I read the fine print that instructed frequent re-application to prevent damage to the decoupaged item. That's when I knew I'd been had by a brand name when Elmer's probably would have done the trick. But Elmer's wouldn't have brought back all those memories of skirts that were too short under a coat that was too long and never ever owning a pair of go-go boots. Still, decoupage is fun and inexpensive and unlimited in possibilities. And Modge Podge is still a groovy name.

When Alyssa was in college we decoupaged a bookshelf with leaves. It was pretty darned cool. I'm thinking of doing the bookshelves in my sewing room, if that ever really comes to pass, with patterns from quilt books. It might be kind of funky; it might be dorky. There's often a fine line between the two. When I decide on which side of the line this scheme falls, I'll let you know.

A day off

Nancy and I last saw each other at our 20th high school reunion, which was a long time ago. We've known each other since grade school and kept in loose touch over the years, noting family changes and promising to get together sometime. Today was sometime. And what a wonderful time.

We met this morning at Mill House Quilts in Waunakee, which seemed a good middle ground between her sister's in Milwaukee, where she is staying for a few days, and Milladore. We spent a considerable amount of time in the shop and and an even greater amount of time across the street in the Main Street Diner catching up over lunch and a lot of iced tea (diet soda for her).

Nancy was very impressed with the shop -- it is a beauty -- as we took our time checking out every nook and cranny and nearly every book and swapping updates on projects we've made, are making, or plan to make. And once again I was reminded how lucky I am. I have lots of friends who share my quilting and sewing, knitting and crafting interests. I can't imagine loving something as much as I do quilting and not being able to share it with someone.

Just a few weeks ago I spent a great quilting day with friend Sandy. We visited the Heart in Hand quilt shop in Neillsville and The Quilt Yard in Osseo in her shiny convertible. Thelma and Louise go quilting. Sandy had never been to either shop and enjoyed a close examination of all that was offered.

Going to a quilt shop with a friend who shares your interest is a chance to try out ideas -- even dreams -- with someone whose judgment and understanding you trust. It's not just looking at fabric; it's sharing and planning and encouragement and inspiration interspersed with talk about kids and parents and brothers and sisters and friends and old days and future hopes. It is friendship.

Catching up

Summer is flying by whether I like it or not. Our Waupaca craft debut was a bust. Very few sales, but luckily, Karen and I always have fun so all was not lost. In fact, the best part of the day, after realizing that we had made (barely) enough money to pay for our booth and dinners, was finding the reflective "sweet spot" of Karen and Tim's Airstream where we both looked great as our tall and slender selves. We may have felt short and down in the dumps, but Airstreams don't lie.

Our slow sales did not deter our craftiness permanently of course. When aprons throw you off, you just hitch your sewing skills on another project and keep moving. That project is a certain yellow and white quilt that is coming along very nicely, thank you. The proof will appear soon. In the meantime, just sharpen your pencils and calculate the pace of piecing 48 triangles into each 12-inch block to construct a queen size quilt. Divide that number by about 10 years and you'll have the rate of progress on this baby. Now add a hour or two of inspiration with a pencil and piece of graph paper to design a border that will look impressive yet decrease the total number of 12-inch blocks comprised of 48 triangles each and you'll know exactly where I am in this process.

Saturday is just around the corner

The Waupaca Strawberry Festival craft sale is on Saturday in beautiful downtown Waupaca. I'll be there with cake plates and aprons with my friend Karen who will be there with lots of her handmade goodies.

Karen caught the apron bug from me a couple of years ago. She made an apron for a gift, people oohed-and-aahed and she was hooked. It's a familiar story. Unfortunately there is no 12-step program yet, but there are craft shows, so that's where you'll find us.

The picture shows some of Karen's wares. In addition to aprons -- she even makes these groovy little sunflower pins to go with hers -- she makes these dolled up kitchen gloves and cute-as-a-button cupcake potholders. Did I mention that Karen is retired? Oh, and she didn't get them in this picture, but she also has these funky insulated fish water bottle holders. All in all, she makes me feel inadequate.

I have a dozen or so aprons made and cake plates. I could whine on about my demanding high stress job as an excuse for falling in her production shadow, but no one wants to hear it, so I'll spare you. I could also ramble on about my recent wedding reception feat -- a production in its own right -- but that seems as it might be bragging, so I'd better let that go, too.

Instead, I'll just admit it: Karen is a production phenom. Come to Waupaca on Saturday. The craft show is bound to be great. We'll have aprons and cake plates and tote bags and pot holders and kitchen gloves and, and, and ... Plus, they have other people there, but you'll have to use your own judgment on their worthiness of your attention. You can buy all types of yummy fresh strawberry treats from local vendors, too.

And no kidding, Waupaca does have a very nice downtown. At bare minimum, a visit to the lovely little city on the Chain of Lakes will give you the perfect excuse to scope out their yarn shop which is fantastic. Oh, and there's Goodwill on the way out of town (or in). Anyway you look at it, Waupaca is the place to be on Saturday, June 19. I know I'll be there!

Blue Ribbon Brownies

For each of our kids, the first year's 4-H entries into the Central Wisconsin State Fair included brownies. They had to be plain. Frosting and nuts, both of which could be used to hide a multitude of brownie sins, were not allowed. The recipe used by all has now become known in our family as Blue Ribbon Brownies because it earned each of them just that. It worked for their friends, too. And I just took a pan out of the oven and they smell sooooo good. The original recipe came from a box of Baker's unsweetened chocolate -- I think. I know the recipe by heart and have gotten old enough to throw things in without much exact measuring, but I'm quite sure I still come up close to the original.

We were at a picnic this afternoon with way too much good food. One of the many dessert offerings was a pan of delicious looking brownies. The thick frosted kind. I took one (and a piece of carrot cake and some kind of pudding-ish thing and two forks) to share with Paul. It was good. It wasn't a Blue Ribbon though. A couple of hours later, I couldn't stand it any more.
So, here's what I did about it:

Blue Ribbon Brownies
Melt 10 TBSP butter and 4 squares of unsweetened chocolate together
Gradually mix in 2 cups sugar
Beat in 4 eggs, 1 at a time
Add 1 1/3 cups flour and 1 tsp salt.
Stir in 2 tsp vanilla

Pour into greased 9x13" pan.
Bake at 350 for about 22-25 minutes.

These are not the thick frosted kind of brownies. They are just delicious plain brownies.
No mixer. No fuss. Just a wooden spoon, some simple ingredients and a great big chocolate thrill.

The Wisconsin celebration

We hosted a picnic to celebrate Kit and Violet's marriage on Saturday. The preparations for the actual picnic started in earnest on Thursday when Alyssa came home and we headed out with her Honda wagon (Gigi, the grocery getter) for party supplies and some groceries -- a lot of groceries. My car was serving as a mobile party storage facility by Thursday as I struggled with the constant conundrum of where to put all the party stuff. In fact, one of the where-to-put-it problems revolved around Alyssa's arrival since I had been storing the cake pedestals on the bed she would now occupy. That problem was solved by locking the front door and stacking the plates in the entryway.
Thursday evening was sweet potato time as Alyssa, Violet and I worked to finish peeling, dicing and freezing the sweet potatoes for Saturday. (Blanch them, cool in ice water and toss them in a Ziploc with a little sugar, flour and ascorbic acid. They keep beautifully. Then just put them in a pan -- or 22 quart Nesco -- with some salt and pepper, maple syrup and a bit of butter and bake them until tender.)
Friday was a big day. I had ordered many of the meal supplies from our local grocery in Milladore. Bob held them for me until I needed them. I picked up 50 lbs of red potatoes, 20 lbs of shredded cabbage, and assorted other supplies and headed back for the potato salad and coleslaw production. And what a production with friends Mary and Sandy on hand to mix our 10lb batches of salad. Lots of hard work and, of course, fun. Alyssa mixed the coleslaw in a 20-qt storage tote and took that back down to the store where Bob allowed us to store it in his cooler. The 3 punch bowls of potato salad fit nicely in Ned's fridge since he was kind enough to empty it of everything else. We also boiled the 3 bags of Kluski noodles for the sauerkraut on Friday. One less thing to do at the last minute turned out to be a lifesaver since I wouldn't have had the water source to pull that off on Saturday, but that's another story.
Kit and Violet and Evan helped bring in the cakes from the freezer on Friday night. We set each on its plate, covered it loosely with foil and left to thaw over night. (If you ever decide to make a variety of bundt cakes ahead of time, please remember that the 2-gallon Ziploc bag will be removed from the cake and label the inner wrap. I experienced a bit of last-minute frustration to realize that the only identifying information was on the bag -- live and learn.)

At 4 a.m. Saturday, I was making Jell-O jigglers for the kids even though Ned suggested that Jell-O shots might be more appropriate for a couple of them. By 10 a.m. we were working in earnest to get everything ready by the 4 o'clock party time. Sister-in-law Lynn brought out all the last minute pick-up items -- buns, flowers, cheese trays -- from Point and Rudolph. Karl and Alissa arrived to help with the set up at about the same time that the tables arrived. Lights were hung, tables and chairs arranged, table cloths put on and flowers, arranged by Janell in blue mason jars, were put on every table along with a pint jar holding a knife and cake server and a jelly jar holding a candle. They all -- Kit, Alyssa, Ned, Karl, Alissa, Tony and Janell -- did a fantastic job.

In the meantime, friend Lynne and sister-in-law Lynn were helping to get the Nesco roasters loaded with calico beans, sauerkraut and sweet potatoes while I mixed icings and Violet applied them to the appropriate cakes and labeled each one. (Did I mention that through much of this crazed meal preparation for 150, we couldn't use running water? Another story.) Cousins John and Betsy arrived and helped haul roasters out to the tent to get everything cooking. Naturally, because it was a Ruesch event, it had to meet with some minor disasters (like the water issue wasn't enough) and John and Betsy hauled roasters into the house and garage because the power to the tent kept blowing. No matter. Things were cooking and finally -- at 3:30 for a 4:00 party -- I was able to shower and prepare to meet our guests. Pictures of the day document the fact that I never did get around to doing my hair, but the day wasn't about me anyway.

At party time, the cakes were all lined up on the dining room table, the food was cooking, the bar (a hay rack attached to a tractor) was fully loaded and we were ready to go. Paul wisely suggested that we hold off on taking out the cakes until close to meal time. Just before 5, we removed the screen from the dining room window and Alyssa passed cakes to me through the window as I garnered volunteers who paraded them out to tables. I didn't remember to ask anyone to take pictures of the cake parade, but I'm sure it was quite a sight.

The cakes served exactly the purpose I had hoped: In addition to being dessert, they got people moving around to visit other tables in pursuit of tasting another flavor. The maple bacon was by far the novelty hit of the day. I never saw the carrot cake again after setting it out and the Red Velvet was selected by my niece Leah as her birthday cake. I really wanted to try the Bailey's cake, but never had the opportunity. My personal favorite was the Cabernet Chocolate with Blackberry glaze. The best cake recipes came from the Kiss My Bundt Cookbook -- an absolute godsend when you need to bake 23 different bundt cakes!

After hayrides around the farm, games of bean bag toss, horseshoes and of course, plenty of lubrication, the evening culminated with fireworks to celebrate Kit and Violet.




















And the plates? Their next appearance will be at Waupaca's Strawberry Festival on June 19 where they will be on sale along with the aprons Karen and I make. They've served their purpose well, but it's time to have a bed be a bed. So, come on down to Waupaca. $10 will get you a great cake pedestal. And really, who doesn't have space for one cake plate?

Violet River Woods and Christopher Paul Ruesch are Married!

I don't think I'll find anything more thrilling to write about from here on Blueberry Road, than seeing my son dance with his bride on their wedding day.
Paul and I left home a little after 9 last Thursday morning and drove to Minneapolis in pouring rain reminiscent of our own wedding day to pick up Alyssa. Evan and Ned left about an hour earlier for Karl and Alissa Diane in Eau Claire. From our appointed first destinations, we all headed toward Oklahoma for Kit and Violet's wedding.
Much to Alyssa's chagrin, we left our road atlas and lodging confirmations on the dining room table, but thanks to the wonders of cell phones, the boys and Alyssa orchestrated a meeting point with Kit near Kansas City (Violet flew to Tulsa the previous week). We all went out for a dinner (melt-in-your-mouth barbequed brisket for me) and stayed at the same crappy motel and had a good time.
Friday morning's breakfast confirmed our opinion of the crappy motel and reassured me that baking up a batch of Smooth Move Bran Muffins for the trip was indeed a good idea. It was a pretty cold, gloomy day, but our spirits remained high as we made the last leg of our journey to Oklahoma's Keystone State Park near Tulsa for Saturday's wedding. Even the point of interest sign at the rest area where we stopped to make sandwiches from the cooler didn't dampen our spirits. The lengthy history of a bloody local family isn't what we'd normally expect as a roadside highlight, but this trip was about a wedding, not sightseeing.
Keystone State Park is beautiful. We stayed in a very reasonably priced, well equipped and nicely furnished 3-bedroom cabin that offered most of the comforts of home. Other than some absurdly squeaking bunk beds in one room, the place was great.
Saturday was, of course, the highlight of our trip with Kit and Violet's 2 p.m. wedding. Held in the park's community center, it was a lovely ceremony. The sun even decided to make an appearance for the wedding. In fact, the afternoon of the wedding was really the only non-gloomy weather period of the entire weekend. Now, there's a good sign!
And how could it be gloomy with a wedding cake like this?
Violet's great aunt made this little lovely. The lemon cake was just as delicious as it was cute. And, she claimed, it was her first attempt at a wedding cake.
The same aunt also made a masterpiece of a groom's cake with a delicious chocolate cake that honored Kit's dedication to his favorite past time, disc golf. You'd never guess that this crafty lady had never seen a disc golf course from the cake she created. She even made the basket and monogrammed the discs. A truly talented lady who added delightful flavor to the day. Violet's mom, aunts and friends did a wonderful job with the wedding. The meal was good, their company good and of course, the bride and groom were perfect.

When there's nothing new under the sun, look at the old in a new light

Sometimes it's the little things that bring the biggest thrill. My little basket chair quilt is a good example. It was created during a non-quilting zone much like the one I'm experiencing now. One of those times when nothing seems to come out right, or feels overwhelming or ... or ... or ..., which of course breeds hesitation in all quilty undertakings. Then, just a little spark of an idea can turn it all around.
I made this quilt a couple of years ago and forgot all about this spring. I just brought it out again a couple of weeks ago and have to admit --- I love this little gem.
Chair quilts, by their very nature, are very talented little creatures. They keep furniture clean, add a spot of brightness and provide just enough quilt therapy to put a squelch on the most severe quilting drought. This one happened bit by bit over the course of a weekend. First the plain little baskets with appliqued handles. Then, the whimsy of a few eggs. Then, a bird to watch over those eggs. Finally, a thin red border to frame it and I had it all: A spark of creative juices, a little applique fix and a bright new quilt for everyone's favorite chair. And, best of all, a reminder that putting things away for a while means you can rediscover them and fall in love all over again.

Take the zest

Saturday was a big baking day. Five cakes. One, a Raspberry Lemonade, from the Kiss My Bundt cookbook, required the zest of several lemons. Another, Blueberry, required the zest of one lime. Both cakes looked and smelled wonderful, but into the freezer they went in their well marked packages. Then they were logged into my little red book with notes on the glazes they will receive just before they put on their Bundt Cake Extravaganza show.
In the meantime, I had several naked citrus items. The most obvious use of the lime would, of course, be a gin and tonic. But since the juniper berry turned on me several years ago and returned my longtime dedication with a miserable case of hives, that seems to be not only the obvious, but also the most unlikely use. No, that one little lime will be added to the lemon juice for a pitcher of lemonade. Lemonade, then, is proof, that you can take the zest and still have good stuff left. Pretty good lesson for a rainy Saturday.

To the nines

By the end of the day Thursday my throat hurt more than I imagined a throat could hurt. My eyes were watering like little face faucets and I felt generally crappy. I called in sick on Friday and agreed that book club should be canceled for Saturday. Crap. Who has time to be sick?

The worst part is that somehow over the years, being sick makes me want to start quilts. Not work on a quilt -- I'd have a few possibilities there -- start a new quilt. Showing more restraint than I thought possible, I resisted the urge only because I knew starting something new would, in the end, not make me feel better. It would simply add to my anxiety over the myriad of other things I really need to get done. Plus, I was too sick to get beyond the thinking about it stage. If I had, however, actually put my inclination to use, I would have made 9-patch blocks. 3-inch nine patch blocks of blues and golds, I think. (Still have plenty of golds and a sufficient amount of blues to get by.) My feverish vision included 9-inch blocks made of nine 3-inch nine-patch blocks arranged with alternate blocks yet to be determined. I love the simplicity of the nine-patch.

Wisely, instead of starting yet another project, I decided to trade out my quilts today. Put the wintery looking ones away and bring out the brighter ones. In the process, I gave myself a little back yard clothesline quilt show. Interestingly enough, I noticed that my exhibit (notice, too, how I've elevated myself to an artist with just one word -- or, downgraded this to a courtroom scene, depending on your point of view) was a perfect example of the versatility of my friend the 9-patch. It also stands as testimony to my quilt starting urges. On the far right is Evan's quilt, which is a 90" square made of six-inch 9-patch blocks. Started on a whim similar to the one I am currently fighting, it is one of my all time favorite quilts. At the far left is the maple syrup quilt that has the trusty 9-patches serving as the corner stones of each maple sugaring scene. Even the quilt in the middle has uneven 9-patch squares playing the background role to the stars. It's not one of my favorites, with the exception of the border, which saves the entire quilt from the mundane, but it is a reliable companion to the couch nappers all winter long. It, along with several others, will be packed away in the trunk for fall, when I'll take them all out and wonder why it is that most of my winter quilts seem to be 9-patch based. Maybe I'll have to make a summer 9-patch just to throw myself off. Maybe some golds and blues ...

The glass cupboard

We will be hosting a party to celebrate our oldest son's marriage over Memorial Day. The thought of that event has me traveling between excited to overwhelmed and back on a regular basis. The important thing is that I always come back to excited. This party will be a picnic on our farm for lots of people. The planning has evolved since we first made the offer to host the Wisconsin celebration of Kit and Violet and has settled happily on a manageable (I hope) level of simplicity. Simplicity, however, multiplied by over 100 becomes a little less so. It falls further out of the realm of easy when I allow myself to fall prey to good suggestions from my overachieving older sister.
My original plan was to have a table of cakes. All bundt cakes (because their shape alone makes them pretty). A table of cakes requires a table of cake plates. And naturally, since cakes look prettier still on pedestals, a table of pedestal cake plates is in order. All good and all manageable. Until my sister planted the seed of a cake for every table (or as she said, a table for every cake). Baking the cakes is not the issue. I can be a baking machine, especially since I found this great blog by the Food Librarian who made a bundt cake a day for the entire month leading up to National Bundt Cake Day (Really! who could make up stuff like this?) The discovery of this woman's journey through a month of bundt cakes gave me more than enough inspiration for the baking. It's the plates.
Think about the concept behind a pedestal serving piece. It is to raise an item up for presentation, right? Well, if all items are raised to the same height, the whole idea of showcasing one item becomes moot, doesn't it? That's my thinking on it anyway. So, when imagining a table of cakes, I had to imagine each cake on its own pedestal, but the pedestal has to be as unique as the cake to make an impact. So, I started collecting glass plates and objects to use for pedestals. I have decent collection and enough for a table of cakes. (All parts will meet the miracle bonding E6000 glue just before the event. Who has enough space to store this many cake pedestals?) Now that the plan has changed a bit, I need more. And, of course, this need flies in the face of my vow to swear off thrift shops.
I found myself at Goodwill twice in the last week and found a few little gems. At this very moment I am feeling anxious over the possibility of not getting to a thrift shop at all this weekend. Even though I am fully aware of the fact that they will still be there next week, it is a bit unnerving to think the best plate yet may fall into someone else's hands. I only need a few more since I went a wee bit overboard on the first hoarding-er-collection of plates. And, it occurred to me yesterday that the number of cake servers is highly inadequate. I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to find more of those, which, of course means that swearing off thrift shops is simply inconceivable.
I'm off to a conference for work on Monday and Tuesday. Karen, my always dependable thrift shop patron saint, tells me that there are some great ones I have not yet discovered. She, in fact, called me from Goodwill this week to tell me she found a great plate, named the price, and asked if I wanted it. In addition to acting as the guiding light in my thrift shop hunts, she also taught me the valuable lesson that you buy it if you think you like it. Leaving it there while you think about it is a certain guarantee that you'll never see it again. (That lesson was learned the hard way when I left Goodwill at 8 on a Thursday night to think about the black Scottie Dog cookie jar that I really loved, plus it reminded me of Aunt Mary's bathroom black cat, called Karen at 9 the next morning to ask her to go and pick it up for me -- she is conveniently located about 5 minutes from the store --and learned it was gone. "You always buy it," she scolded. "They'll take it back and give you store credit and you can always find more junk at Goodwill.") Karen bought the plate for me and I'll see it next week sometime. In the meantime, I'll be at a conference in Wisconsin Dells this week. My way home may very well be dotted with stops in Baraboo, Portage and Wisconsin Rapids. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that people far and wide have seen fit to donate cake servers to thrift stores along my path. And, that they haven't donated too much other junk I can't refuse.

Spinning straw into gold

Just because I'm not blogging, doesn't mean I'm not busy. But it might very well mean that I'm not busy with the handwork I like most. Last weekend we went on a little trip to watch my niece Sarah perform in her school play. It was an excellent performance; Sarah seems a natural on the stage. But the 3-hour trip, although planned for weeks, caught me unprepared knitting-wise. I was simply at a loss for some good car knitting. There are uncompleted projects aplenty, but nothing that could be easily packed and ready to go with little or no attention to pattern details. By the time the return 3-hour trip was completed, I was really gnawing for some undemanding handwork. (I hesitate to use the term "mindless work" because I find it demeaning. But traveling work cannot be demanding, or it interferes with the scenery and pauses for conversation and Garrison Keillor and the like.) Lucky for me, I had a quilt to bind when we got home.
Remember the gold quilt that gave me problems a few weeks ago? Well, I bit the bullet, put it all together, and took it to be quilted. Yolanda, the longarm (not her ... the machine) quilter I rely on, listened and questioned and listened some more when I explained how I envisioned the quilting. In the end, I decided it was wiser to acquiesce to her vast experience and left the quilting to her judgment. She did a marvelous job. She always does. The quilting emphasizes the diamonds created by the seam lines in the monochrome quilt, just as I requested. Much to my surprise, stars appeared on the finished quilt top. I explained that I didn't want those to appear prominent; rather, since they were unintentional, I wanted them to remain as little surprise discoveries among the diamonds.
I bound the quilt in a red and metallic gold plaid, which acts as an outline of the golds against the wall. I am pleased with the results, even though I question whether the red should have more of a cherry red. But I can't obsess over everything or nothing would ever get done. One of my favorite quotes -- I will put it in embroidery some day -- is "To be creative you must lose the fear of being wrong." That's what I need to remember when getting caught up in the right or wrong of a quilt or knitting or whatever else. What is important is that I enjoyed making the project -- whatever it is. And I did enjoy this tremendously.
Evan helped me hang the quilt tonight. Insufficient light and skill did not stop me from taking this picture. The quilt is, in my opinion, a soft background for the spinning wheel. As Evan said, "it's nice the way everything blends together." Admittedly, my goal was not to have everything blend together. But seeing my golden diamonds as the backdrop for the spinning wheel makes me smile. The 72-inch square softens the wall behind the spinning wheel whose only real use is to be dusted, but I've always loved it and making this quilted stage for it brought back memories of pretending I was the captain of some ancient vessel sailing across the seas, or the famous miller who could spin straw into gold, or the inventor of the world's next greatest ferris wheel, or even the original owner who actually knew how to spin wool into yarn. All that imagining carried me through many Saturday dusting mornings. The imaginings of a monochrome quilt whose pattern is determined by seam line rather than color carried me through many hours at the sewing machine. Seeing both the source and the results of all that imagining together in my living room gives me great pleasure indeed.