bee creative

what I'm learning from my pillow quilt and "what if..."

Things I’m learning from my pillow quilt:

• Sewing with a machine is just a means to an end for me.  I don’t mind the process (especially while listening to music), but it’s not something I really love doing.  I just love the results.

• Thread for hand sewing is divine.  Why didn’t I discover this sooner?  It has turned sewing by hand into a meditative, enjoyable process for me.  This I do love doing.  It’s soothing and I can feel the texture and weight of the fabric.

• There is a time for sewing by machine and a time to sew by hand.

• That combining a fabric that is just so-so with another fabric that is "just right" can make the so-so fabric much more interesting.

• That I really do love peonies as an element in a design.  It was surprising how many scraps of fabric I had included a peony in the print. 

• That it would be good to have a plan in place for scraps while cutting out larger projects.  For example, decide to cut all scraps into  3 inch squares. 

I've been creating a lot of smaller scraps as I've been cutting out six inch squares for the quilt.  One of my "what ifs" is "What if no scrap is too small?"  To experiment with this idea a little bit, I sewed a few strips of fabric to another piece of fabric that I had pieced for another project that did not work out. 

As I was sewing I discovered the addictive quality of "what if?"  I started thinking, what if I gathered up the strips a little bit as I was sewing them down?  I'm very happy with the results and am going to make this into a pillow.  I also want to try it again and sew the strips together very closely.  And I also want to try it out on a t-shirt that I want to salvage.  More projects....

what if I played with my fabric more?

A month or two ago I discovered a wonderful blog called “Spirit Cloth.”  Not only do I think Jude creates beautiful things, but I love the questions she asks, I love the thoughts behind what she’s creating.  When I read yesterday that she was broadening the theme of a challenge that she’s been doing (“What iffing”), I decided I really wanted to participate. 

One of the things that I struggle with is that I often have so many ideas of things I want to make and do.  Sometimes I get bogged down in my ideas.  I’m hoping that the “What if” challenge will give me a little structure to push forward.  What if I spent a couple hours each week just playing with the fabric stash?  What would I create?  Where would it take me? 

Yesterday I sat down and started a list of “What ifs.”  I doubt I’ll be exploring something that has never been explored with fabric, but I think we all need to make our own journeys.   And if we follow our own train of thought, even when we use the same techniques, we ended up in a different destination.

Here’s a beginning list of questions that I have:

• What if I played with my fabric more?
• What if I made my own fabric?
• What if I found away to use fabrics I don’t like as much?
• What if I only used reclaimed fabric or sustainable fabric?
• What if I used fabric pieced or embellished by me for clothing?
• What if I chopped up old quilts?
• What if I combined old (traditional) and new techniques? 
• What if I only hand sewed a piece? 
• What if no scrap was too small?
• What if I mixed different textures and weights of fabric?
• What if heirloom fabrics stopped being “precious” and were used?
  

My goal is to post at least once a week a response to "What if...?"  I already have one done and will share tomorrow. 

shopping for clothing: what one-third of a pound of pesticides looks like

A month ago I bought the first article of "new" clothing I've bought in almost two years, a pair of jeans.  I desperately needed another pair of pants for work and just wasn't finding anything second-hand.  So I gave in.

I wasn't happy about this purchase, but I wasn't going to worry about it a whole lot either. That is until I tried to remember how much pesticide it took to grow enough cotton for a t-shirt and did some research.  I may have purchased my last pair of new "conventional cotton" jeans.  It takes  one-third of a pound  of pesticide to grow enough cotton for a t-shirt. 

This quince weighs one third pound:

  A pair of jeans is two-thirds.  Now I kinda regret that purchase.

I wasn't going to post all this until I'd finished a few projects with reclaimed fabric and organic cotton that I've been working on, but this morning I found an article via Red Thread Studio:  "Making Good:  A plea for Slow Fashion."  It just seemed timely to put this up now....

While doing the research for the pesticide info I found a few links of interest:

"How to Go Green:Wardrobe"   and "Eco-Tip: Choosing Green Clothing."    

"Getting to know you..."

Lisa at Flying Colors tagged me with this list.  Here's my response.  I'm horrible at passing things on to others, so if you want to do this consider yourself tagged.....  Oh, and I'm horrible at favorites too, so I just don't choose anymore. 

A. Attached or single? I'm attached to many things, places, and people.  It's a problem. 
B. Best friend? :) 
C. Cake or pie? both
D. Day of choice? Saturday
E. Essential item? tooth brush
F. Favorite color? so many....
G. Gummy bears or worms? neither, yuck! 
H. Hometown? several
I. Favorite indulgence? books, yarn, chocolate, flowers (plants, not cut)
J. January or July? January
K. Kids? Many in my life :)
L. Life isn’t complete without? a moment to sit in the sunshine, walking in the rain, time to read, hugs....
M. Marriage date?
N. Number of magazine subscriptions? 0
O. Oranges or apples? Oranges  Edited for my mom:  The answer to this should be apples because that's what I can get locally, but I love the flavor of a really good orange...
P. Phobias? matches, ladders, 
Q. Quotes? Love them.  The current favorite:  "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men, and among these fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects."  Herman Melville
R. Reasons to smile? I find them everyday. 
S. Season of choice? That magic time between spring and summer when all the plants are growing like crazy but it isn't too hot yet, and the end of summer when it's still nice and there are still garden fresh tomatoes,  but the evenings start to get crisp. 
T. Tag 7 people:
U. Unknown fact about me? Blog wise?  I knew how to row a boat before I could ride a bike. 
V. Vegetable? Sugar Snap Peas
W. Worst habit? ear swabs
X. X-ray or ultrasound? neither
Y. Your favorite foods? Immmmpossible!   
Z. Zodiac sign? Leo

Albert Einstein-Inspire Me Thursday

For Inspire Me Thursday.

honoring the season and living in the moment

This past weekend I sat out in the sunshine with my knitting thinking that I should be doing more in the garden while the weather was nice.  (Oh there is always so much that needs to be done in the garden....)

But the knitting needed to be done too. And there were pears and quince that needed to be preserved.  And a quilt to work on.  And a little of this and a lot of that.   
This is where I started thinking about cycles and seasons.  I reminded myself that this is the season to stop working in the garden so much and to focus on other tasks, other things that need to be done.  Spring will be here soon enough.      

coffee break-for Inspire Me Thursday

I learned something new from the Inspire Me Thursday prompt this week, the term "fika,"    which is a Swedish word.  I did not know that the Swedish were some of the heaviest consumers of coffee in the world. 

What I did know was that I live in the community that was ranked third highest for the amount of coffeshops/ espresso stands per capita for the United States last year.  That means you can buy a cup of coffee pretty much on every corner.  Hmmm...there are a few people of Scandinavian heritage around here. 

I grew up with self employed parents who regularly take coffee breaks.  Now I take coffee breaks.  Sometimes I'm a bit of a rebel, I like tea too.

Today there was a small handful of raspberries to snack on along with my coffee.   I sat outside and enjoyed the late autumn sunshine.  I thought about coffee breaks I've taken with my family.  About my grandmother telling me about her Finnish grandmother who would hold a sugar cube between her teeth and then sip her coffee.  And then I went back to work.      

highbush cranberry ketchup and the strange workings of Typepad

Something strange happened.  When I published a post last night that I had started in October and had saved as a draft, it published with my October posts rather than last night.  Here's a link if anyone is interested in highbush cranberry ketchup. 

Open topic-Inspire Me Thursday

A few photo transfers in response to the prompt for Inspire Me Thursday.  I'm still enjoying the change of the seasons.  More info on Persephone here. 

quilting without a rule book

Quilts have been on my mind a lot lately.  This quilt in particular, because it’s the first one that I threw the rule book out and did what I wanted to do.

Some of the rules I broke (at least according to my how to make a quilt book):

1. I made it up has I went.
2. It’s a mixture of machine piecing and hand sewing.
3. The back and the front are both pieced.  A reversible quilt?
4. I did stitching with yarn.
5. The batting is a flannel sheet.  Flannel sheets make wonderful, easy to work with batting.   
6. The binding is a cut fringe.  I sewed around the edges of the quilt and then started snipping away.

It took me over five years to make this quilt.  A lot of that was thinking and waiting for the right idea to come. 

The first time I put it on the bed, Lola (the Chihuahua) chewed a small hole on the front.  Although I don’t recommend this as a technique for adding texture to a quilt, somehow it seems just right for this one. 

P.S.  "Give Me land, lots of land and the starry skies above, don't fence me in."  is Cole Porter. 

does this mean I should turn the heat up?

eating local: tomato leather and a few other experiments

It's a tomato pancake!  No, not really.  It's tomato sauce dried to a "fruit leather."  It can be added to a soup and will dissolve or it can be made into sauce by reconstituting it with water.  I haven't tried it yet, but I'm very excited to see what happens.  When I shared with my grandmother what I was doing, she told me that one of her aunts used to make tomato sauce and then dry it in the sun this way.  If it tastes good it will be much more efficient than canning tomatoes.

I'm also experimenting with sauerkraut for the first time.  It's fermenting away right now.   

And then there is the liquor experiment:  One jar contains pears, the other pomegranate.  And vodka for both.  More info on doing this at Chile Chews .   I've done raspberries this way and had very good success.  Very curious to see how this turns out.   

another cycle begins...

My favorite photo that I took this past weekend.  Sunday was incredibly stormy.  With such dark skies, the last of the fall leaves just glowed. 

It's change in progress.

It's new every time, and yet part of a cycle. 

eating local: Pane Dolce di Zucca (Pumpkin Bread)

This past weekend I decided to try something new.  I cooked my own pumpkin for puree. I really don't know why I haven't done this before. 

I made the puree for a pumpkin bread recipe from The Italian Country Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.  She noted in the recipe that it is a bread that is commonly made in areas of Italy for All Souls' Day.  Seemed like an appropriate time to try this recipe out. 

The recipe called for the pumpkin to roast in the oven.  When I took it out the edges of the pumpkin had become crisp and a little caramelized.  I decided to trim the edges off before I went on to the next step in the recipe (which I did follow-mostly).  It was so incredibly good.  I will most definitely roast pumpkin again. 

The bread turned out very well and I will make it at least once a year I'm sure.  I used raisins that I made myself from the grapes from the garden.  So good!  Other local ingredients:  the pumpkin, honey, milk and flour (milled in my community, wheat from the Pacific Northwest).  The lemons, well, they were from California. 

One recent thought I've had about cookbooks.  Vegetarian and ethnic cookbooks tend to be very helpful when it comes to eating in season.  I've also discovered that my library has an incredible collection of cookbooks.  I'm going to be exploring that section more.   

P.S.  Mom, I left that last pumpkin in the back seat.  I want it, but if I were you I"d roast it and eat it.... 

Inspire Me Thursday-Dia de los Muertos

Dia de los Muertos is a holiday that has always fascinated me.  I was happy that it was the prompt for this week for Inspire Me Thursday, but it's taken me a long time to decide just what I wanted to do.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about people I love this weekend, about how I am surrounded by the history of my family.  Very few of the things that fill the spaces of my home are new, but rather things that have belonged to my family.  About how much I cherish having these connections.   

This week my grandmother sent me some of the lace my great grandmother made.  My mother says she remembers Grandma crocheting lengths and lengths of lace trim.  I've incorporated some of it into the collage I made.  I've also used photos of flowers that I've taken.  Flowers from my garden.  And of course, the skeleton-from my stash of trash.    

eating from the pantry and cooking by the seat of my pants

I love to cook, to read cookbooks, and to not follow recipes.  Cooking is a creative act for me and a meal is often the result of "Hmm...what have I got and what can I do with it?"

I think that eating with local and seasonal ingredients sometimes calls for some risk taking, seat of the pants combinations.   

This started with some tomato sauce.  The container that I had froze the sauce in had fallen out of the freezer and an edge on the corner (one of my few remaining plastic containers) chipped.  I popped the sauce out, put it in a bowl and let it defrost in the fridge.  That was on Thursday. 

Today's shopping included a trip to the farmer's market and to the local fish store.  I ended up with some sole, some Oregon shrimp, cauliflower, and the tomato sauce.  I decided it could work together somehow, and it did.   

Here's a very flexible recipe in case anyone is interested in trying this.

Ingredients for one person:  1/2 cup bay shrimp, 2 small fillets of sole, 1 cup cooked spaghetti, 1/2 cup roasted cauliflower (cauliflower was roasted in a 375 degree oven and was coated with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper), a pinch of herbs, 1 cup tomato sauce,  a little less than a tablespoon of butter and enough pepper, salt, and flour to coat the fish.

Here's what I did:
1.  First I started the spaghetti and put the cauliflower in the oven. 
2.  Next I coated the fish with flour, salt, a pinch of herbs (mine's a mixed blend of Italian) and cooked it in the butter.  I baked mine in the oven 'cause it was on for the cauliflower.  If you want to try this, melt the butter in the pan and then add the fish to the pan.  My fish cooked in about 5 minutes. 
3.  When the spaghetti was done, I drained it and returned it to the cooking pot.  I added the sauce and another small pinch of herbs.
4.  I then added the shrimp and heated the mixture until everything was hot and the sauce had cooked down a bit.
5.   The cauliflower (hot from the oven) was stirred in just before I decided the sauce was where I wanted it.
6.   Then I placed the pasta mixture in a low shallow bowl.  I put the sole on top and broke it up just a little bit.  And finally, a little sprinkle of parsley from the garden (that I ran out to get in the dark and the rain, 'cause it just needed something more when I put everything else in the dish).

I'll do this again.  At least, some version of it....