It's Back

Well here's Christy in her dress. It's still too loose on top, & too long, so ...
here's what it looks like now. Oh well, I knew I was likely to need to do a bit more work on it, & the deconstruction was easy.
I've already taken the top in, & raised the seam on the shoulders, now just need to get cracking on the skirt. I'm also going to add more stabilizer & more lining to make the skirt stiffer.

The seam ripper in the above picture shows where I'll be cutting it shorter.

That also means one of the back snowflakes will be removed, but I'll use it to make a tiara for her to go with the dress.

Tuesday I took a Sashi ko class from Carroll Jones. It was very nice of her, as she didn't charge us a cent for the class. I haven't taken a picture of my project yet. Maybe later, I've had other things on my mind.

On the way home from the Sashi-ko class, I stopped down by the creek at the bottom of our road & snapped these images.

I saw my doctor Wednesday & will be going back to work next Tuesday. My shoulder is making perfect progress, now my #$!@darned knees are hurting. Getting old aint for sissies!

More Autumn & My Bread recipie

It was a glorious autumn day today. The sun was shining brightly, & the air felt crisp & cool. I helped Warren out on the deck, just holding the t-square for him in place so he could clamp it on the posts, then, use it as a guide to cut the tops of the posts off level & at the correct height. After they were all cut I went around picking them up off of the ground, & started noticing plants that are changing color, so of course I had to go in & get my camera.
I loved this leaf (from a wild raspberry plant I think).
& this little weed too, but I really got excited when this group of sandhill cranes flew over head. Oh they make a wonderful racket! We could hear them long after they'd flown out of sight. I had hopes that they may have taken a respite at Potters Marsh, so we hopped in the car & buzzed down there,

but alas, all that was there were a few little ducks.

Oh, and a few fish.

We could see more termination dust from here too.

I decided this stump looks like a water dragon.

Back at home I had to admire the vignette of fruits & veggies that I have on the kitchen counter, along with my latest Susan Branch cookbook that my sister Em sent a while ago. The sun made my peppers glow. Why is it when I'm trying to stick with a good diet (i.e. Weight Watchers) all I can think about is food?

Speaking of food, a couple of you asked about my cranberry cinnamon bread.

It turned out delicious. I was taught how to make bread by my friend Lori DeWitt, in Grand Haven, Michigan. Lori & I both worked in the ICU at Hackley Hospital in Muskegon, & she was passionate about cooking & baking. One day she decided to take me & 2 other nurses, & teach us the art of bread baking. It was an extraordinary day. She had 4 batches of bread started in different stages, & took us through each stage until we all had sore muscles from kneading dough, but at the end of a long day we went home with about 16 loaves of bread & a new skill.

Bread made Lori's way starts with

the sponge:

3 1/2 c bread flour (or whole grain if you want-I always use Spelt flour)

1/2 c sugar (or honey, but cut down your liquid if using honey)

1/2 oz fresh cake yeast or 1 pkg dry yeast

2 c water warm

1 c milk warmed

You dissolve the yeast in 1/2 c water from the (2 c above). I dump a little of the sugar in this cup too to jump start the yeast. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, water,milk & the yeast once it's doubled in the cup (should be ready in a couple minutes, if not you need new yeast). Stir this well, about 100 strokes, then cover with plastic wrap & set in a warm spot to rise. About 1 -3 hours.

Dough & 1st Rise

1 Tbs salt

2 Tbs melted butter

4-5c Bread Flour

Sprinkle the salt over the top of the sponge. Let it melt a bit, then add the butter, stir this up [now is the time if you want to have all over nuts, raising or other stuff you can add it (Lori's way), or just wait & do it at the end (my way), & you can make 3 different kinds of bread from one batch]. Now add the flour. I do this pretty much 4 cups at once, then mix with a huge rubber spatula until the flour is mixed in well. Next I dump about half of a cup of flour on the counter top, dump on it the ball of dough (it's pretty sticky at this point), & then the other 1/2 c of flour on top & start kneading. I knead for a full 10 minutes, adding more flour as I go to keep it from sticking, & making it become a big cohesive squishy ball of dough. Lori's big tip here was, you know the dough is the right consistency when it fells like you're pinching your earlobe, when you pinch a bit of it between your fingers.

Spray your large bowl with Pam or grease it up, & put your dough in & cover it back up to rise some more. It should double in size in about 2 hours or less, depending on how warm the room is.

Punch Down & Second Rise

Flour the work surface lightly & dump the dough on it again. Knead it well to get out all the CO2 bubbles, about 6 minutes this time. Return it to the bowl & cover & let rise again about 1 or 2 hours until doubled again.

Shaping the Loaves & Final Rise

Turn the dough onto the lightly floured surface again, & knead it well (about 3 minutes). Make one round ball, then cut it into 3 equal wedges (I picture a clock & cut it at noon, 4, & 8). Set 2 of the wedges aside then take the 3rd & flatten it with a rolling pin. Roll it out into a rectangle about 8 inches wide & 18-20 inches long. Now if you want a plain loaf of bread just roll it tightly, pinching & tucking the ends until you have a loaf shape, & put it into a greased bread pan to rise.

If you want to make a flavored bread, like the Cinnamon Cranberry this is where you add the flavors. For the Cinnamon Cranberry, first I melt a couple Tbsp. of butter & spread it on top of the rolled out dough. Then I sprinkled on Orange peel, cinnamon, a hand full of cranberries, & a drizzle of honey, or a little brown sugar (both are good). Roll it tight as you can, tucking & pinching the ends so the goodies don't fall out. Put it in a greased pan. Cover it & let it rise again until it's rounding above the edge of the pan.

Other flavors I've used that are good are herbs & cheeses, several different combinations.

Baking & Cooling

Bake in 350 degree preheated oven 25 - 30 minutes. Now the hard part. You must let it cool for 2-3 hours before slicing it or it'll be doughy in the middle if you cut it sooner. So, let me know if you try it!

Termination Dust

I got up early this morning & went to rejoin Weight Watchers. I've gained weight this summer from my inactivity. After the weigh-in & went & sat down for the meeting. I hadn't paid any attention to what the weight was, I knew about where I was, & didn't need to look, but then as the meeting started I glanced at the booklet... Holy COW! According to what was written down I had gained about 40 pounds since I last weighed myself a couple of weeks ago! Well, I sat there having this strange conversation in my head.."this has to be a mistake, ...I wouldn't fit into my pants if I'd gained that much weight... but what if it's right, & my scale is wrong? Oh how humiliating to demand to be weighed again because I just can't possibly be THAT heavy,

so I went & bought a pedometer, & just stepped up on the scale while I was there...PHEW!

Yep the gal had made a 40 pound mistake. I told the lady 40, & she said "you mean 4, right?", & I said "No, look...40". So during the 1/2 meeting I made it way past the 10% goal that was written. It was a new record for Wgt. Watchers. We all got a good laugh, except for the girl who weighed me the first time, she just hung her head & continued to work on paper work (rechecking her numbers I suspect).

Finally today, there is a little termination dust on the mountain tops! It's always exciting to see that first dusting of snow.
Warren finished of his "Quilt top deck" today, now he just has to finish the side rails. We've decided on steel cable to keep it visually clean. We want to see our surrounding woods & wildlife.

Inside I decided to make bread. It's the first time I've made it since we moved back into the house. Before we did the addition I used to make bread every weekend. A new exercise in my Physical Therapy made me think of it. It was the same motion as when I knead bread, so today I did. The one on the left is plain Spelt bread, the other 2 are my cranberry cinnamon bread that Warren likes to eat with peanut butter. It also makes great toast, & french toast. It made the house smell wonderful.

I also had a fire going in the living room to help the bread raise faster. Broccoli was enjoying the heat, but was a little annoyed at my flash. I can just hear a Morris the cat voice in my head saying,"Must you really?".

Greek Salad & Fruit Fly Traps

It was my turn to host my Calendar Girls group today. These woman are so much fun. Mary , in the middle there was getting teased & given some gag gifts because of an unfortunate typo on the auction quilt list at our quilt show last weekend. The person who typed the list of auction quilts, typed the name of the quilt, then who made it. For one of Mary's quilts, the name "Cherry Blossom" was substituted for Mary's name. Well you can imagine that led to all sorts of fun.
We managed to squeeze 12 women into my living room! I wasn't sure we would all fit, but we did OK.

I served my favorite Greek Chicken Salad, with garlic bread, & Jello Pretzel Salad in 2 different flavors (the usual Strawberry), & I also tried it using peaches & sugar free peach Jello, & Splenda instead of sugar in the crust. It turned out really good, I think I liked the peach best, & so did everyone else.

Now here is an odd change of subject for you. Did you know that Fruit Flies love Port Wine? I first discovered this when Aunt Ethel was living with us, & every evening she would drink a glass of Port. Well it must be Fruit Fly season here, because they are every where we go lately, & we seem to have just a few here in the house, so I asked Warren to buy me a bottle of Port so I can trap the fruit flies. This is a trick my sister Vicki taught me (only she uses vinegar, her fruit flies aren't boozers I guess). Place plastic wrap over the top of a glass or jar. Place a ring or elastic to hold it tight.

Poke a hole in the top of the plastic. The flies will fly in, & get drunk, & drown themselves.

Oh, & here's the Greek Chicken

Place Chicken breasts to marinate in a glass dish, with Italian Salad dressing (about 1/2 a bottle for 4 to 6 breasts, enough to cover them). They can marinate a couple of hours to over night in the fridge.

Prepare salad ahead: 2 or 3 cucumbers seeded & diced

4 -6 ripe tomatoes seeded & diced

1 or 2 large Sweet onions peeled & diced

lemon juice (about 1-2 tbsp)

Feta cheese crumbled 8 oz or more. (the herb & Garlic Feta is really good in this).

some fresh ground pepper & a pinch of garlic salt

toss it all together & pour on more Italian Dressing.

I've used Good Seasons, & Kraft, & a couple of others, even one with Parmesan cheese in it, they are all good. I cook creatively & it still seems to always turn out good.

Grill or broil the chicken breasts 20 to 30 before you want to eat. For a family meal we put the chicken on the plate, then spoon the salad on top. Today with the group, I just cubed up the chicken & tossed it into the salad. It was great like that, & Warren & I had the left overs for supper, & it still tasted wonderful.

Autumn is in the air

I'm in an Autumn frame of mind. The weather has been more autumn like here, though a little warmer than usual for this time of year. No termination dust falling on the mountains yet, but leaves are turning gold, & nights are definitely getting longer. I love the smell of autumn. It's such a spicy fresh scent. I've been switching out the quilts around the house, hanging all the Fall quilts. It's my favorite time of year & it shows. I still have quite a few, even though I sold one of my favorites this past spring.
I brought Portage Paulene, & Crowpass Corrine out from the guest room today.
I also hung "Why?" on the door in the corner, & set an up light on the floor behind it, so that it shines through the window of the door at night. It makes a nice nightlight. This is our winter door, so it'll be switched out soon, & the summer door will spend the winter in it's place.

Below are the 3 small quilts I won at the small quilt auction at our quilt show this weekend.
It was funny, when I first saw this purple hearts quilt hanging in the auction, my 1st thought was "Oh, I like how that's quilted", rapidly followed by, "gee, it looks familiar", then "Oh, no wonder! I was the one who quilted it!"Well I decided I wanted it, so I bought it! The original quilt maker was unknown, the block was found in our guild stash.
This little blue star quilt was made by my friend Kathy Harte. The quilting was done from the reverse side, following a printed panel, what you see here is bobbin thread. I think I may turn this into a throw pillow.


This last one is by my friend Jackie Carley. It was hand painted & stamped & machine quilted. I love the colors. It puts a nice punch of color on my wall.

Have any of you noticed the changes in Quilters Newsletter lately? I was thinking seriously of discontinuing my subscription until these changes came about. It seems to have more news now. I'm liking it better again.

Speaking of news. The La Conner Quilt Museum, in La Conner Washington, is having a special 10th anniversary celebration at the end of September, & they notified me today that they want to use my "Oh! To Dance With a Dolphin!" quilt for their publicity for the "Blue Ribbon Quilts" show that it'll be hanging in. I am honored!

Weekend at ALCQ Quilt Show

It's been a very full weekend for me. Friday evening we set up for the quilt show. I stayed with Mona & helped with the wearable arts, as it was easier that reaching up & making the shoulder sore . I realized tonight that I really didn't take very many pictures. I spent time helping with the small quilt action ( I came home with 3 new little quilts), white gloving, & working on embellishments on one of our Calendar Girls quilts.

Mindy & Christie stopped by at the end of set up, just to see the Irish Dance Dress completed. Christie's "Oh, WOW! & big smile was all the thanks I need. Now I sure hope it fits!
These are some of the auction quilts, being hung by my friends Libby Ballard, & Cathy Shultz.

The photo below shows my favorite large quilt in the show. It's the red white & green "Rose of Sharon" quilt, made by a new member & second man in the guild James K. Something, (sorry I didn't keep a program & can't remember his name.) It was all hand appliqued & hand quilted.

This little quilt was part of the Calendar Girls weird purple fabric challenge. Betty Bivins made these wonderful flowers with hers. I find it interesting that Jan Wills bought this fabric, & gave it to us as the challenge, & she never made anything from it!

Speaking of Jan, she won the raffle quilt today, so I dropped it off to her on my way home. She just lives a short distance from me.

I am very pleased & honored to tell you that the Irish Dance dress also got viewers choice.

My good friend Mary lee (the lady at the raffle table above) made this gorgeous ribbon.

I'm off to bed, Monday is early to rise & out the door.

Freaky Friday

Thanks for all you cheerleaders on the progress & finish of the Irish Dance dress. It's a relief to have it finished. I took it to ALCQ for show & tell today. After guild I stopped in to Three Sisters Fabric Boutique to drop off some fliers. My friend Karen Smith was working, & I snapped her picture standing next to a picture of her award winning doll. She got FIRST PLACE in the Hoffman Challenge for dolls! Karen is the best doll maker in Alaska. She never even told anyone she entered, because she had never entered anything before. & Thank you Mary (comment on last post) for making the clouds go the right way. Karen's joke about it being Australian fabric was cute, but I hate upside down clouds!This was in regards to a fabric display in the window. This evening I was going to go see HP Order Phoenix of the one last time on the big screen, & I had a $20.00 bill in my hand, but when I got out to my car I couldn't find it. I backtracked looking everywhere. I thought I'd tucked it into my purse, & I took everything out of my purse 4 times rechecking. I looked everywhere, even stripped out of my clothes, & put my pajamas on thinking it had to be SOMEWHERE. I was also on hold on the phone trying to get my computer back on line. The DSL has been blinking for 2 days. It literally took hours to get my last post posted yesterday. So anyhow... after I got the PJ's on, I went back into my studio (wearing my phone headset waiting for the nice Brandon kid from ACS), picked up the newspaper section with the movie listing & shook it out for a THIRD time, when the $20.00 bill fell out & on to the floor. 5 minutes after the movie had started. Then my DSL stopped blinking & I was back on line! WHEW!

So, I'm staying home & my money is in my wallet where it belongs, & this is my silly blog for today!

Visitors from GB

I've had a very busy past few days. On Saturday I spent over 5 hours on the computer loading an update on my Adobe Acrobat, so that I could open my first issue of Fiber & Stitch. It's is on line now, & is really beautifully done.
Unfortunately I bought the same program from Adobe twice (accidentally), so this issue has cost me something like $206.95. Well, $99.00 will eventually get refunded from Adobe, & i needed the program anyway. I'd been limping along with Adobe 5.0 for way too long.

Once I finally got the new program loaded, I had no problem getting the magazine to load so that I could print it out & actually read it.

I realized there is an advantage to printing this way at home. I really liked the way articles were organized so that they were all together chronologically, so I could staple each section separately. Now they can be filed according to subjects, & saved or tossed according to need, instead of having half an article in the front, & the other half in the back along with other mixed up ends. I LIKE it! It was very full of lots of interesting & unique techniques. Sue B you all did a fabulous job! I am honored to be contributing to the February issue.

Last evening a quilting cruise from the British Patchwork & Quilting Magazine landed in Anchorage, & they asked some of us to come have a Show & Tell with them at their hotel downtown. There were about 28 of them, & around 18 members of our guild showed up. We had a great time visiting with this group, & sharing what we brought. A few of them brought small items, as the were told to only bring 1 piece of luggage each (they all are buying another to fill & take home with them).

Margaret & her husband sat by me, at the table, & she brought the sweetest, smallest Round Robin quilt I've ever seen! 8 quilters worked on this teeny little quilt! It's sooo cute!

Here were a couple more of their show & tells. We from ALCQ brought a whole bunch of show & tells, in fact we managed to show until 9 p.m.

Christy's Dress is finished, ready for the show this weekend. Here's the front view,

& here's the back. I think it was the hardest thing I've ever made. I sure hope it fits well now!

I had to go for Jury Duty this morning, but luckily didn't get picked. Tomorrow is Quilt Guild, & Warren goes back to work. The deck borders are slightly less than 1/2 done, but now it'll have to wait until next week. There never seems to be enough hours in a day, or days in a weekend!