Christmas Cheer at Needle & Foot

I'm popping in with another quick post (two in a row, that's unusual for me, the long-winded blogger I tend to be) to let you know of a really fun little event that Bernie of Needle & Foot dreamed up. She's invited several of us to share a childhood photo of ourselves which she has posted on her blog today. Then your job as a reader is to match up the kidlet to the quilter! You can find more details on her blog. Just click the blog button below.

Here's a hint for my readers: I'm almost four in the photo.😉

Minestrone

Seems rather odd to share a terrific soup recipe in the lovely Spring but there are days where the lovely Spring weather still has a bite in the wind and it feels like a soup day.  Such was the case here during the first few days of April, and again of late.  This is one some very dear friends in Alberta shared with us, both in edible and recipe form.😋

Italian Vegetarian Minestrone Soup

2T olive oil
2 c shredded carrots
1 large finely chopped red onion
2 c sliced zucchini
1 c sliced mushrooms (I subbed cauliflower)
3 c fresh spinach (stems removed)
2.5 c shredded cabbage (red or green)
1 - 28 oz can diced tomatoes (not drained)
1 - 19 oz can chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
1 - 19 oz can red kidney beans (or your choice of beans, rinsed and drained)
1 c uncooked noodles (such as small shell noodles)
10 c vegetable broth
2 T brown sugar
2 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp pepper
dash of salt

In a large soup or stockpot, sauté onion and carrots in olive oil over medium heat until onions are soft but not brown (5 min).  Add remaining ingredients except for chickpeas and beans.  Bring to boil and simmer covered over medium-low heat for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Add chickpeas and beans and simmer 10 more minutes uncovered.  Serve with a garnish of Italian cheese.  This soup freezes well. (It makes a LOT!)
Add cooked Italian sausage or chicken if desired.


Speaking of dear friends, I had the opportunity to meet up with Cindy of Stitchin at Home this past week!  I am so very thankful for flexible people; she said yep, to the approximate time and day and location...

The Canadians who are reading this know in a heartbeat that this is Tim Horton's!  It worked for us! 😉  Too bad this location hasn't had the facelift they are all getting to a more 'sit and visit, coffee house' vibe much like Second Cup or Starbucks.  It didn't matter though: we could've been standing on the side of the road for our meeting place; we'd have still loved every minute of being together in person.  Julie, Tish and Beth were with us in iMessage and spirit too! Sadly the wifi, as it is in a lot of public places, was pretty pathetic, so we couldn't FaceTime as planned. This will be the first of several get-togethers, we know it.
I spied several of these

as we worked our way back south along highway 3 that hugs Lake Erie coastline.  We went up on the 401, a major highway, aka interstate, aka motorway, so you don't see much but other vehicles.  This, now, is much more scenic:

I was waving madly to Julie 'just' on the other side of Lake Erie, lol. Doesn't it look like the ocean? It's 92 km/57 miles in width.

I am still not feeling very successful in the finding time to sew department.  I'm a creature of habit, routine, order (not obsessive order but still) and it is quite not that way as you know in my life this past while.  I'd hoped to be entirely caught up with the 150 Canadian Women QAL, but I am not, so here are the only three little blocks I've got to show in about two weeks.  As always, these women's stories absolutely amaze me.

Clockwise from bottom left: 67-Molly Kool: she waited 3 years(!) to get permission to take the coastal master's certificate (women weren't allowed) and became captain of her father's ship. Note the ship, the lighthouse, and the anchor in the tone-on-tone I used for 3 of the 4 centre 1" squares. 68-Leone Norwood Farrell: biochemist in 1933, quite an accomplishment in itself because of her gender, but developed 'The Toronto Technique' which enabled mass production of Salk's polio vaccine.  69-Frances Oldham Kelsey: scientist, earned her PhD in pharmacology in 1938 from the University of Chicago where she taught for the next 20+ years, 1960 began her career with the FDA. Her first assignment? Testing a pill for morning sickness, which she feared could be harmful to the fetus. Despite pressure from the drug companies (some things never change) she refused to approve it, thus ensuring not one thalidomide-deformed child was born in the USA.

I loved the Moda Marbles soft pink so much in Molly's block that I used it again in Leone's, and then found the softer-yet pink floral in my scraps, which I believe is a bit from a skirt of my sister Wendy's. I was able to used several small pieces for the ivory background of that block too.  These three blocks were intense!  All are based on a 36-patch grid, so 36 @ 1" finished squares!  Here's a tip for Molly's block, which is the one on the lower left. Instead of making 32 HSTs that finish at 1", make flying geese units the no-waste way (see tutorial here) using these measurements:
For the pink 'goose' or 'peak' part of the unit, cut a square 3 1/4"
For the 'wings' aka side triangles, cut four squares 1 7/8"

Those five squares will yield you four flying geese.  Yeah yeah you have to do a partial seam to sew them around the 1.5" squares, but it's simple.  Here's how:

The top part of the photo shows the first seam, sewing not quite half of the flying geese unit to the centre square. The lower part of the photo shows the second seam, sewing the pink flying geese unit to the left side of that unit.

The top part of this photo shows the red flying geese unit sewn to the bottom of the unit from step 2, and the lower part of the photo shows you how to line up the final pink flying geese unit to sew onto the fourth side.
You will have

this!  The lower part shows you what it looks like after sewing the fourth side.  All you have to do is fold down the top red flying geese unit, matching the seam with the side of the pink flying geese unit, and finish that partial seam from the first step! It's a bit tight because these are tiny units but the top section of the photo shows you what you end up with!  Four less seams and no wasted fabric from the connector corners method.

You're welcome!

Wouldn't the centre of the last block make a beautiful block in and of itself? Might have to try it in perhaps double the size...

Those are cherubs in the four corners, a nod to the babies she saved from being deformed

Soft pink!

Spied this gorgeous girl a week ago on a very early morning walk. The photo, of course, does not do her justice. These pale pink magnolias are pretty much finished now, but the deep pink ones are still in their finery for the most part, and the yellow ones should be out soon! I can't wait to get one for our new house.

NOT done is Craftsy with their class sales.  Beginning tomorrow, May 4, all classes yes ALL of 'em, are on for less than $20! Might be a good idea to snag one you've had on your wishlist, just sayin'.  I am an affiliate, so yes, I do get a small compensation if you click through and buy using my links!  Thank YOU!  It goes right back to Craftsy usually LOL, or, in the case of my latest purchase, to Connecting Threads (do I have some deals to tell you about...and yes I finally got my approval to be an affiliate with them, but my show 'n tell is from pre-affiliation, so plain pure unadulterated passion for fabric you will be shown...stay tuned. :-)  OMG and such good and welcome news from them I will share for my Canuck readers!

Linking up
Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Fabrication

And uh, yes, if you were looking for Sunday Stretch on April 30, it wasn't there.  I forgot.  😖 I hope to have one for you tomorrow(?!)  I will try my best!🙏

Some Blocks and A Quiche

I've been doing a little pattern-testing for a couple of friends and here is another of Stitchin At Home Cindy's appliqué blocks for her Canada Quilt for her guild's BOM.

Isn't it a fabulous design?  And how about the Moda Grunge as a fabulous ice fabric?? Who knew...

I used Lara's (Buzzin Bumble) Crafted Appliqué method and it works like a damn!  (Sorry, but it really does, especially on fine details like those trees, gulp.)  Sidenote: check out that link to Lara's blog where she is having a giveaway of her book, and also is offering a beautiful free pattern she designed for a Christmassy tabletopper.

This hasn't been stitched down yet, but there's no lifting going on.  I thought the embossed flowers white fabric that has the palest of mauves mottled here and there on it would effectively replicate the blue-whites and mauve/pinky-whites of real snow as well as provide a contrast to the white of the ice.  I'd like to say I planned that white 'blob' area to land there to evoke the glare of the sun on ice, but nope, a happy accident!  This is an example of what Lara calls the need to back-coat some fabrics; see how the snow fabric became sort of opaque or see-through where it overlapped the mountain fabric?  I was really pleased with how well the brown fabric did work for the mountain.  I had chosen another grey/black denim-look fabric but then thought, hmm, I wonder if the white blotches here and there might evoke thoughts of snow... Yep!  Goes to show to try fabrics you would think would not work when doing appliqué.  This fabric has sketched-in-black flower shapes with bleached-out-looking areas and even has glitter on it!

I've also started a quilt along called 150 Canadian Women...150 blocks to be made which finish at 6".  Hope I can do better than I have been doing with Tula Pink's City Sampler blocks (gulp).  I need to do blocks 1-3 yet, but here are blocks 4-6:

From left to right: Major Margaret C. MacDonald, (first woman to attain the rank of Major in the Britsh Empire), Nellie McClung, (one of the Famous Five, one of Canada's greatest women's rights activists) and Alice Wilson (Geologist who was not granted a car to do her field work, but a bicycle, because women 'shouldn't drive' -- she went out and bought her own Model T!)

I get overwhelmed with emotion when I read about the accomplishments of these women in the face of incredible chauvinism, racism, and a multitude of other obstacles.  This is a BOM from The Next Step, a quilt shop in Calgary, Alberta.  I first saw it on a blog belonging to another Sandra, Quilting at the Cro's Nest and was intrigued by the symbolism and educational component (shocker, I know).

Tip Time!
I've mentioned this method before, but when I showed Beth and David at our retreat at Julie's in October, they hadn't seen it, and thought it a cool method for cutting your HST squaring up time in half.  So here it is again.  Two at a time!  Note that this method means you're going 'to the dark side' as Angela Walters does... one more day until her show, squeal!  In other words it requires pressing your seams to one side, the darker of the two.

1.  Lie two HSTs atop each other, nudging the seams together so they nest.  Peel back the top HST if you want to check, but you will soon develop a feel for the nesting with your fingetips.  You don't have to, but in order to not touch the nested pair, set them on a small rotary cutting mat which is on top of your larger one, or on a revolving rotary mat too if you have one.

2. Lay the 45-degree line along the seam, leaving a little wiggle room to eventually cut all the way around the HSTs.  I'm going for 2.5" squares, but you can see I have my left and bottom marks at about 2 3/8". Cut the first two sides, as I have done if you are right-handed.  It will be the opposite two if you are left-handed.  Rotate the mat.

3.  Now line the 2.5" marks on the ruler with the just-cut two sides, and the 45-degree line again along the seam. Trim both sides as before.

4.  Lift off the top HST and voilà!  (not viola, that'a a flower, or a musical instrument) you have two 2.5" HSTs.

The other day I had a hankering for quiche and decided to use a tried and true recipe that I've had and used for decades.  It was a hit, and I am very glad I doubled the recipe and made two!

Yum!  Enjoying another year's use out of my Snowman placemats. ⛄

Below is the recipe in case you'd like to make one! Now I cheat and just buy a pie crust (sorry Mum!) as I can't be bothered to make that part from scratch.  I omitted the bacon, making mine with cauliflower and broccoli.  We had a Caesar salad on the side.

Linking up with
Freemotion by the River
and woo hoo! Beth still has Main Crush Monday open at Cooking Up Quilts
Quilting Jet Girl for Tips and Tutorials Tuesday

Quiche Lorraine
May be frozen.  Line 36 muffin cups with pie pastry or a 9x9“ pie plate.

6 slices cooked (crisp) bacon

2 oz natural Swiss or cheddar cheese

2 eggs

1 c whipping cream or Half & Half

½ tsp salt

pinch of pepper

pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp sugar

Heat oven to 400°.  Shred cheese.  Combine eggs, cream, salt, sugar, nutmeg and pepper.  Beat to blend well.  Sprinkle bottom of pie plate with chunks of bacon and then cheese.  Pour filling over.  Sprinkle with nutmeg.  Bake 30-40 min at 400° or until egg mixture has solidified.

A Little Greens For You

MacGyver found a great website, Blue Zones, a couple of weeks ago, after seeing Dan Buettner interviewed on Bill Maher.  Buettner is, among other things, a National Geographic writer who has studied people with longer life expectancies, who live in certain areas, called "blue zones". He has a TED talk I plan to watch. There are so many great, easy to make recipes on this site!

At my first perusal, I saw this salad and right away knew I had to make it.  I had everything except for an avocado in my fridge.

That was an easy enough fix, so we whipped it up in no time and was it ever good.  You can find the original recipe on Blue Zones here.

But here it is with notes as to what we did:

Quick and Easy Lemon and Dill Bean Salad

two 15.5 oz cans of beans, rinsed (equal to 3 cups) (I just used garbanzo, aka chick peas, as that was all I had)
1 medium tomato, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped
1 T olive oil
1/2 T lemon juice
cilantro, dill and pepper, all to taste

Optional ingredients:
8-10 cups greens of your choice (I used spinach; they say also arugula or kale)
1 cup broccoli (I had none in)
1/2-1 cup blueberries
1 avocado
1/2 c walnuts (I used pecans)

Directions
1.  In a bowl mix together all of the main ingredients.
2.  Add in cilantro, dill and pepper, all to taste.
3.  Put the greens and any or all of the optional ingredients in a large bowl.  Toss in the bean mixture. Serve.

I've been a bit otherwise occupied for the past few days, so I haven't been sewing as much.  My daughter, Brianne, and my beloved grandson, Brady, are here from Alberta for a 10-day visit.  Yesterday we went cruising on the Detroit River in our boat.  What a great way to spend a few hours on a very hot and steamy sunny afternoon.  We were cool cats though... Brady especially.

Last Fall when I visited them, Brady "commissioned" this quilt:

Jack in the Box quilt

He studied several pages in my quilt magazine, American Patchwork & Quilting, spotted this, and asked me to make it for him.   So I collected a few Halloween prints over the winter in Florida at Alma Sue's Quilts.  They are the jack-o'lantern print, the purple owls (love this one) that you see below, and a white with black bats that I haven't used yet.

Tentative layout, evening of September 7

I added in some Halloween-coloured fabrics from my stash and found a few scraps of very old Halloween fabric to use for some alternate centre squares.  The red "Skulls on Fire" fabric is an Alexander Henry I also got this winter, a quilt for MacGyver in mind.  It's a tad scary for a 7-year-old, so I just put one in.  It's been on the back burner, with the wheelchair charity quilts pushing it even more aside since I have to do a demo at September's guild meeting.

Think I may have mentioned that I work well under pressure...

Here it is from last night; a few tweaks occurred:

I'm making it bigger, as it is only a 32" wallhanging with the 9 blocks.  I plan to add two or three borders so he should have a lap quilt about 40X48.  They are here for another week, but we are busy doing stuff every day.
Wish me luck!

Linking up with:

Chickpeas and Stars

I made this recipe, another one from Pinch of Yum, two weekends ago, and have been meaning to share it on the blog, as it was soooo delicious.

It is called Roasted Veggie Pitas With Avocado Dip. She doesn't often have a short and sweet name, but the recipes are often just that: short, as in easy to make, and oh so sweet as in delicious. This was no exception. I will type out the recipe below just so you have it in one place, and let you know what changes I made, but click on the link I provided to see that it turned out pretty much exactly as Lindsay's photo!