Futzing, Part 2

July 08, 2006

I'd originally written 961 words for this post. Really. How much information do you really want? I'm thinking not that much. You've probably already noticed that I find it easier to go on (and on and on) rather than being succint. You're not the only ones who get this special treatment.

Geez. Another 66 words about trying to be less talkative. Let me start again.

The Vancouver (quilting) group decided that they wanted our next Saturday project to be the Hidden Wells block/quilt. This is a cool pattern. Wait. It's a cool finished project.

The thing about the Hidden Wells project is that it's important to press certain seams one way and others the other way. You cut and cross-cut and label and switch sections. In theory, it all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, seam-wise. The problem that we all found on that Saturday was that no matter how much you labeled and paid attention and held your mouth right, somewhere between laying it out and getting it off the sewing machine there is a huge probability of screwing up. That happened a lot on Saturday.

Now, don't get me wrong. It was a fun day, nobody was spared the use of a seam ripper (misery loves company, you know!) and most people, at the end of the NINE hour day, went home with an almost-done wallhanging or at least a really good idea of what it was going to look like.

---

Side trip:
Strawberry Rhubarb Clafouti

In a food processor or blender, combine until smooth:
1/2 c. non-fat milk
1/2 c. cottage cheese
2 large eggs
1/2 c. sugar or Splenda
1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray. Fill the tins about halfway full with a mix of
1 1/2 c. rhubarb, cut into 1" cubes
1 c. strawberries
(sometimes this means 2 bits of rhubarb and one strawberry!)

Scoop about 1/3 cup of the batter mixture on top of the fruit to fill the cups.
Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Good warm or cold.

The whole recipe is 1,012 calories when made with sugar, 620 calories with Splenda; 13% from fat, 17% from protein, 71% from Carbs, 684 mg sodium)

---

Sunday I was exhausted. Monday I ripped out ALL of the seams on the Hidden Wells project (except the stripsets, of course). I placed the components I had wrong-side-up on my design wall and twisted and turned and re-pressed and cut more components until I had the equivalent of a wall hanging. Sewed everything together very slowly... still had to stop and re-think the seams and re-arrange the blocks. Okay. Got the wallhanging together.


Oops. I did, at least admit my error to the group by sending this picture with a "in case you thought I never used a seam ripper" comment. Oh. And then I went to bed, because I had been working on it ALL DAY. (You can see what it should have looked like here.)

Next day, I fixed the wallhanging and began laying out the outer rows to enlarge it to a lap quilt. Some of the remaining components, though they worked in the initial layout, just wouldnt play nice, so they're having a time-out in a stack on the edge of the sewing table.

During these two days, I listened to two entire books on cd. Yeah. 20 hours.

Here come the bullets:
*I finished piecing the Dreams and More Wishes tablerunner from last month's Woodland class. Stripes in the border. Corners look funky. Need to applique something onto each of the corners to cover up the funky.
*I marked and machine quilted two other tablerunners.

I began the sample and instructions for our new project, Hunter's Star. I had a great plan. Drew it up on the puter, even scanned my fabrics to see how it was going to work. Gorgeous, dahling, just gorgeous. Realized that I didn't have enough of the beautiful focal fabric that I planned the entire quilt around. Plan B. I want to use That Fabric. Must. Find. More. Fabric.

I need a nap.

Labels: quilting

permalink 0 Comments:

Want to Post a Comment?

Home