I have a project...I am happy!

I found this small chest of drawers at Goodwill in Georgia and have brought it home.

I didn't get a photo of it with the drawers....but after chalk painting and finding pretty knobs...different ones for each drawer...it has a new life!

I am also painting to be ready for another outdoor art event, Art in the Park!

September 17th at Dave Peel Park in Bentonville. 8:00-3:00.

Also working on 5x5 small paintings for Art Center of the Ozarks.

 

 

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One thing I found this summer that I love is coconut shrimp from Mojito's Grill!

 

It is the dipping sauce which is amazing! Coconut milk, coconut, mango and cilantro!

I make this at home too, sometimes. I bake the coconut shrimp on a rack in the oven! [ My last blog post showed my "girls" enjoying the shrimp from the oven!]

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This past Saturday I went to a quilt workshop. It was about diagonal design in quilts. I started a fun scrappy, strip pieced quilt.

My friend, Paula Mariedaughter was our teacher. Her quilts are exquisite, and she is a good and patient teacher!

Lori had this beautiful antique machine which I enjoyed seeing! A New Home. The company is now called Janome!

This was a wall hanging one student was working on! Bright batiks!

Another friend worked on this split 9 patch block. Fun, lots of small pieces!

I chose something fast and scrappy....it will take about 5 or 6 of these chains, sewn together with contrasting strips,to make a quilt top....

 

Since Paula's birthday was the following day, I made some carrot cake cupcakes! Carrot cake is Paula's favorite! The recipe was published just this week by Susan Branch on her FB page...

http://www.susanbranch.com/carrot-cupcakes/ ( this may not be a live link...but the recipe is below)

Here are a couple of the ones I baked....

Here is one of Susan's beautiful handwritten recipes...for Carrot layer cake...which is exactly the one I made but baked in cupcakes! [ and I added chopped crystallized candied ginger! To her recipe]

 

The latest current project is rearranging and decluttering my sewing space...doing this is like doing an archilogical dig...through 2-3 generations of my family who sewed and saved scraps!!!

The view from the basement stairs, at the moment....my sewing and painting....the big bookcase is headed out to the yard sale!

That's enough for tonight...

 

Almost through April...sewing and baking...prom time too!

My grandson (who made his first soccer goal...and then played goalie...)

 

asked for an outfit...Naturo, some kind of Ninja anime character...

So I set to work to collect some orange durable, but inexpensive fabric(s).,,and to find a pattern which I could adapt...

Cut and sewed...to get it to him before he outgrows it....

He got it today....and I got this photo!

Looks like it fits!

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Granddaughter went to junior prom...beautiful!

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I tried a recipe for Japanese cheesecake....

Soft as a cloud, but still has the cream cheese, butter and egg taste! Oh, and I used coconut flour so it is gluten free! Not too sweet, either!

 

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This quilt came back from Sonja Koch the long arm quilter!

It is for my great nephew, Lane also a junior in high school! Blocks were started by Mom. Lane is her first great grandchild!

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Check my painting blog to see how I am struggling to do a double portrait....her is a rough sketch...

And a background....

 

Saffron pumpkin buns and winter quilts!

With cold winter weather, I felt like baking today! These were a big hit!

A friend had given me some saffron, then I saw a chef making pumpkin buns with saffron on P. Allen Smith's show....I found a similar recipe.

In my pantry, I also had this specialty flour from Italy. The flour is made from an ancient wheat called einkorn.

I got it at our local Natural Grocery store and was anxious to try it! It has a less offensive protein than the gluten found in modern wheat!

I do not have a stand mixer, with a dough hook so I "kneaded" the dough in the big crockery bowl with a wooden spoon for quite awhile...until it was ready for it's rising time. ( watched some TV while doing this!)

After rising and being rolled up around their filling, the rolls baked up perfectly, very moist with the canned pumpkin as an ingredient!

Here is a link to the recipe: http://www.thekitchykitchen.com/?recipes=/pumpkin-saffron-rolls/

These will be our breakfast tomorrow, Saturday!

I plan to sleep in, so it is nice to have the breakfast all prepared!

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A couple of quilts have been finished lately, crib size! This (above) is a scrappy 16 patch with turquoise lattice.

I used a bright busy fabric for the binding! See a small piece of the blue background binding fabric in the lower left of this photo...(below).

It gives a very nice effect!

The other recent quilt is this one for a baby girl who is coming into the world this March!

It is called "Baby Bricks" and can be made using a fabric "jelly roll"! Mine is just from my scrap bin of 2.5 " strips!

Above our fireplace I now have a favorite wall hanging. Inspired by Sujata Shah's Cultural Fusion book!

These blocks were being tested before sewing together.....

This is Sujata's original called "Winter"! I love the soft grays, but the pink just "makes" it for me!

Here is Sujata hand quilting on another of her wonderful quilts! She is coming in October to do a lecture and workshop for our quilt guild!

I am so excited!

 

Time to find my quilt/covers for tonight...the heat is turned down and it is time for a long winter's nap!

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Sunday update.

I finished knitting my "Queen Street Sweater" using a pattern in Knitscene magazine (above) Issue winter 2015.

Mine is in yarn by NORO a blend of silk and rayon. A tweedy green as that was the only color with enough skeins at the local yarn shop!

The unusual pockets were what caught my eye in the pattern....

It actually fits nicely and I am very pleased with. It's the appearance and the feel, soft comfy and not too warm...just right! (Silk is a good insulator against cold winter days!)

 

Matcha again....a magic matcha custard cake---gluten free too

This is a cake sort of like the impossible pie idea. It makes 3 layers when baked. A soft crust on the bottom, a custard like middle layer and a foamy soufflé like top layer.

I found the recipe which I had to try...from Yummly via Little Accidents in the Kitchen blog. It was her photo, above which made me want to make this....but as I had been making greener mug cakes, I used a little more matcha maybe....3tsp.= 1 tbsp. is how I measured the matcha powder.

 

I used coconut and almond milk for the 2 cups of milk in the recipe. AND I used gluten free flour, part of which was almond flour and part coconut flour.

Real butter and good eggs....a little honey for part of the sugar which is called for.

Making it was not hard, the directions are good. One ends up with a butter, egg, flour and matcha batter in one bowl and and stiff egg whites in the other.

Then fold in the egg whites...help, I need larger bowls at this point...but I managed.

 

Then there was more batter than seemed right for the size pan she called for. So I baked a wee pan on the side rather than overfill my 8x11 pan. 45 minutes at 325 (I upped the degrees a tiny bit too..). And "Voila"...it was ready

This photo is after it cools and collapses down a bit like a soufflé ....I accidentally touched that one spot on the top...very soft and spongy.

It cut easily and came out of the pan nicely too. The cake is pleasant, vanilla and matcha green tea, not overly sweet!

 

Snowy weekend! Still sewing...and dreaming...

Last week I made small quilts using natural linen lattice and background.....I love the zakka look!

 

I am hand quilting this lovely pink and taupe quilt with pink perle cotton, and sashiko needles. As much as I love pink, this is one of my favorite!

It is too cold in the sewing studio this morning, so I have set up one of my machines on the breakfast table. This is a 3/4 size Kenmore 1040 which is a little workhorse! And cute too!

 

 

Some natural light from the snowy world outside will add to the joy of working here! This is what I will be making, a crib quilt from a charm pack, plus more 5" squares from my stash.

Of course, I may add borders if I need to enlarge the quilt top!

I am really trying to get lots of my sewing and quilting projects well underway. It is discouraging to see the fabrics and patterns stacked in their bins. So much more fun to see them come into "being"!

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I have always made things! And I come by this trait from my mother. She is gone now, but she left this quilt top which she pieced from a Kansas City Star pattern in the 1940's. She was in college and probably pieced it in the summers at home. It is no small undertaking, lots of small pieces, using purchased lavender and gold cotton along with family scraps.

I have now taken it to be quilted. Then perhaps it can be a wedding gift for her namesake great granddaughter...when that day comes?

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For a while in the late 1970's, I was learning to weave. I took tapestry classes from a wonderful teacher...... we had a shop in Little Rock with many fibers and yarns to chose from.

I still have this wall hanging from those days, and am delighted that my daughter now wants it to hang in her newly painted dining room!

And to think, I almost donated it to a thrift store in my decluttering!

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A couple of knitting projects I would like to do....this sweater!....and this one...madelinetosh "Creature Comforts Cardi", pattern available on Ravelry.

A show I have enjoyed watching....it can be streamed onto the iPad ...

Of course it makes me want to bake instead of sew, paint, knit ......makes me very hungry indeed, LOL!

 

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A book I have on reserve at our library....so there is no end to what can make life enjoyable!

[not to mention a granddaughter's first track meet, and a grandson's first soccer practice!]

 

 

Now to post this and get back to making things!