Fiber Arts & Furry Critters

Applique (almost) in progress

Finished the vinyl overlay for the Flowering Almond design.  I have my fabrics selected (and washed and folded); I have made my templates, for cutting out the pieces I need; and now I have the overlay created - that allows me to make sure I'm putting the pieces where they need to go.

I had to tape it to the wall so the sharpie marker lines on the clear plastic would show up.

Next - once I'm done with whatever piecing I'll accomplish on the double wedding ring - I'll cut out some background squares and some applique pieces and get started!  For now, though, I'm happy with my progress.  The double wedding ring will accompany me, to be worked on during DS's new twice-weekly karate lessons.

Lost and found

Just as it is with my knitting, so it is with my quilting - I have multiple projects in every stage waiting around.  Sometimes parts and pieces get separated, and sometimes things actually get lost.

A few days ago I spent some time cleaning out a corner of the dining room.  I was gathering all the bits and pieces of fabric that have collected there - some are future clothing items (I have some great lightweight denim, with purple flowers on it, that I plan to use for a jumper dress for myself!), some are quilting fabric.  At the back, on the bottom, I found a piece of a quilt that I had thought long gone!

Thisi is four blocks, assembled (sorry the top right corner is folded over; I didn't notice that when I was taking the picture) of a Double Wedding Ring quilt that has been in progress for many years.  It's being hand-pieced, and every now and then I'll pull it out and piece a few parts together.

After assuming the above four-block section lost a couple of years ago, I had gone on to complete this portion.

Now I can't wait to piece all of these together!  With this section, the newly-found section, and the parts I'll need to put them together, I'll have a double row totalling 12 rings finished!  It was one of the few days I was thrilled to have done some cleaning!

I am also working on beginning the set-up for a hand-appliqued "Flowering Almond" quilt.  I've seen pictures of this quilt and variations on the pattern in quite a few places, but I've never found a pattern.  Finally I looked through a bunch of my quilting books (I have at least a library's worth), and folders and files of pictures on my computer, and came across a picture of an antique quilt that I took somewhere at some point:

 

Unfortunately, I can't read the tag to figure out where I took this picture.  I did have a close-up of a block and a portion of the border, though.

I used these to come up with templates for this pattern (more or less).  I'll be starting this one and/or the Vase Applique Quilt Pattern from Vintage & Vogue, sometime very soon.  (And the double wedding ring will go back into hiatus.  That's just the way it goes.)

Done!

My proof that everything gets finished eventually.  This quilt has been in progress for years - literally.  It started with the gradual acquisition and accumulation of black and white prints (black prints on white, white prints on black) with the idea of doing a black-and-white quilt.  I eventually came across this design on  Bonnie Hunter's website, and started working on this quilt two or three years ago.  Last year I got it sandwiched with the backing, and got most of it quilted.  It still needed the borders quilted, and needed the edges bound off.  I finally finished that yesterday, tossed it in the wash (you should have seen how much dog hair came out!) and handed it off to my eldest child, 27 year old DS.  I hope it keeps him and his dear wife warm.

Now I'm working on piecing a backing for a quilt I made for my niece Amanda.  This quilt was begun as a stop-and-start project to be worked on during the Deerfield Fair.  While I'm sitting and spinning at the fair, the room I use shares space with an old Singer "Red Eye" treadle sewing machine.  I had a box of scraps pre-cut to 2" squares, and I started piecing those at the fair 2 years ago to demonstrate the treadle sewing machine to those who had questions.  These blocks were the result.

 

They were assembled into this quilt top.

 

This morning I'm working on piecing together fabric strips for the backing using my favorite treadle sewing machine

 

and hopefully will find time this weekend to get it pin-basted and ready to begin quilting.

Banana Bread Recipe

My friend Jenna asked for my banana bread recipe, and I figured this was a good way for her to get it.  I originally copied this recipe from a church compilation cookbook when I was a young mother, some 27 years ago now.  I no longer have that cookbook, but I've managed to hold onto this recipe since.

Banana Bread

1-3/4 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup shortening or butter (I melt it in the microwave before adding)

1 cup mashed bananas (I never measure the bananas, just use 2 or 3 overripe bananas)

2 eggs

OPTIONAL ADDITIONS:  add in a cup of raisins, or 1/2 a cup of chopped nuts, or up to a cup of chocolate chips

Recipe can be doubled

Grease & flour loaf pan(s).  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix first 5 ingredients; stir in bananas, butter & eggs, add additional ingredients last if used.  Do not overmix; mixing by hand produces better results than using a hand or stand mixer.  Bake 55 to 60 minutes at 350.

Caterpillars are unco-operative

I saw a caterpillar in the cat food dish outside.  He had a very wide center stripe.  Folk tales say that a wide stripe indicates a tough winter to come.  I tipped it out onto the porch rail to take a picture, but it curled up & wouldn't uncurl.  I waited several minutes, went over & snapped a picture of some baby chicks, came back, it was still curled up.  Finally came in the house, started typing a new blog post, went out to check on it - it was gone! 

I don't know if you can tell the stripes from these pictures, but this was the best I could do.

 

My bread recipe, & canning

I wanted to share this bread recipe, in case it will help anyone else.  This came to mind while watching an episode of the 100 Mile Challenge on Planet Green.  On this particular episode, the people participating in the challenge had found wheat, but not wheat flour - whole wheat berries.  Someone had managed to locate a wheat grinder (I use a NutriMill) and made a loaf of bread - or what passed for one!  The "thunk" as the bread came out of the breadmaker pan really had me laughing!  Been there, done that!  Making bread from freshly ground whole wheat definitely does not employ the same recipe as making bread with grocery store flour!  That said, here's my process/recipe:

I start by milling 3 cups of hard white wheat and 1/2 cup of hard red in my Nutrimill.  While that's running, I add the following ingredients to my breadmaker pan:

1-3/4 cups warm water (can use 1 cup water & 3/4 cup milk, or thereabouts, as long as the total measurement remains the same)

1/4 cup local honey

1/3 cup olive oil

1 egg (local if possible)

Optional:  1 TBSP each granulated lecithin & vital wheat gluten.  I'm not sure if these additives make much difference, but I'll use 'em while I have them on hand, and re-evaluate when I run out.

Then add the freshly-ground flour, followed by 2 tsp salt & 1 TBSP yeast.

I let the bread machine run on "dough" cycle, making sure all the flour has been incorporated into the dough.  When it's done, I take it out, divide it in two, knead and shape two loaves, & let it rise in my (gas) oven for about 35 minutes.  It should rise until the loaf is about and inch or so above the rim of the loaf pan.  Bake at 350 to 375 for about 30 minutes.  This gives a loaf similar in texture to a whole-wheat organic loaf from the grocery store.  Be aware, though, that these loaves have a fairly short shelf life - less than a week.  I should try keeping the un-sliced loaf in the fridge until we're ready for it.

In canning news, yesterday I went to Apple Acres in Windham, NH.  They have "drops" (less than perfect apples) available in half-bushel bags for $7 a bag.  I got 1-1/2 bushels of apples for a total of $21.  Today I took the first bag & made it into applesauce.  From 1/2 a bushel, I got 12 pints and one half-pint jar.  I would have liked to put them all up in half-pint jars, but I'm running low on that size and I'm trying to save the ones I have for the upcoming batches of apple butter and pumpkin butter!

Farmer's Market finds & knitting

Yesterday we went to the Exeter Farmer's Market.  I love going to the farmer's market!  Fresh, local foods are wonderful!  We brought home some fresh pollock (fish), some turnips (that will be a new thing for me), a spaghetti squash (yum!) and two different kinds of locally-grown potatoes.  One is red, and one is a very dark blue (or so I thought).  This led to the following photo montage:  Red, White & Blue Potatoes!

Now, I thought those potatoes were blue until I cut one open - behold, *purple* potatoes!  How cool is that!!

 

In knitting news, I have finished the Not-Quite-Straight Scarf (Ravelry pattern link) done in the purple variegated merino yarn, although I still need to run in the ends and block it.

 

Now I'm working on the Sharon Miller "2-ply Gray Shawl" (Ravelry link).  I have just finished my first skein of the gray shetland yarn, and I'm almost done with the center square.  After that, I have to pick up stitches all the way around and knit outward circularly.

 

I came across a bag full of Paton's Merino yarn in the cellar yesterday, and I'd really love to be starting a cabled cardigan right now.  Back to work on the shetland square before I start a new project!

Fair yarns

Today was spent plying up the yarns I spun during my demonstrations at the Deerfield Fair.  I got three skeins from the huge lofty batt I bought at NH Sheep & Wool.  If I remember correctly, the batt was about 10 oz, and the three skeins measure approximately 160 yards, 155 yards, and 102 yards.  Then I plied the laceweight yarn, which was spun from a 4-oz braid of Sakkina Needles hand-dyed roving (blue-faced leicester) in the colorway "Blood Orange".  That gave me about 345 yards of laceweight.  I would have liked to have gotten more yardage out of that, but it's a very pretty and nicely balanced laceweight yarn, and I honestly think I did the best I could, considering the wheel I was using (the Canadian Production Wheel) and that I was demonstrating at the same time.  I'll have to try that again with some raw blue-faced leicester I now have - it makes a lovely, silky yarn.  Speaking of silky, maybe I'll blend that BFL with white alpaca...

Anyway, here are the yarns hung to dry after washing.  I think the orange skeins are pretty good, but the laceweight skein (to the right) is a little more orange and less melon (it actually looks pinkish to me), but such are my photography skills.

Next projects

I have some orange laceweight yarn from NH Knitting Mama (Etsy link), and I've been going back and forth about which pattern to make with it for quite some time.  I had it narrowed down to a couple of different shawls, but finally gave in and downloaded the Emily's Firmaments shawl.  I believe this was my original intent when I bought this yarn, so I'm quite pleased with my decision.

So naturally, this morning I cast on for the Heirloom Knitting Shetland 2-Ply Lace Shawl.

Makes perfect sense, right?  LOL!  I made that decision mostly because I wasn't ready to deal with the center circular cast-on for the Firmaments right now.  After all, the Heirloom Knitting shawl has only been marinating in the stash (it's actually a kit) since June 2008 - a mere 1-1/4 years.  I still have several projects older than that.

I also need to work on my Dad's socks (currently one done, about 1/4 of the way through the 2nd)

and some spinning projects - orange fiber from NH Sheep & Wool for a friend,

and an alpaca/wool blend (still need to make up the blend!) for one of my sisters.  I may yet decide to blend the batts (a dark gray wool with black alpaca roving) and use that for my spinning project for the Deerfield Fair - which is less than a week away now!  Yay! 

Finished!!

I have finally finished the Flirty Ruffles shawl!  OK, technically it's not entirely finished yet - I have two ends to weave in, and it needs to be washed and blocked, but I did do a photo shoot -

Now for the math -

This uses Jaggerspun Zephyr.  You can buy it on a cone, but some yarn shops will rewind into individual balls.  I believe there are about 5,000 yards on a cone, and not many people need that much.  Mine came in 2-oz skeins, as this shawl was in kit form. 

Each skein of Zephyr was 2 oz (58 g), approx 630 yds (576 m). I used up two complete skeins, and part of the third. The third skein, now that I’m done, is 1.535 oz (43.6 g), 469 yds (430 m). That means I used 0.525 oz (14.8 g), 161 yds (146 m), or approx. 4.6 oz (131 g), 1421 yds (1298 - oh, let’s call it 1300 - meters) all together - if anyone needs to know totals for the shawl. Your gauge may vary, naturally!

Now, what is it about finishing one project that brings on delusions of grandeur?  All of a sudden I start thinking about finishing all of my started WIPS, or about starting at least two new projects, neither of which is small and/or reasonable!