Fathers and Daughters

The design for this quilt was inspired by the complex relationships between fathers and their daughters. I started working on this project in February 2012  when I received word of my father’s brain cancer. The complexity of the piece helped  me to deal with news and to work through my feelings about our relationship. Many of the colors represented in the piece were among his favorites – especially the reds and greens. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish it before his passing, but the work on the project provided me with an opportunity to “sew in” a lot of the things that we talked about during hospital visits and design considerations gave much to ponder on the frequent long drives from New Hampshire to the hospital in New Jersey.

All of the block were created by folding fabric and layering the folded pieces on top of each other to create a 3D design and then set into the quilt on the point. The wall hanging was machine pieced and quilted by both hand and machine.

 The joining squares were hand quilted and have a bead in the center of each of the units. The sashing strips and top of the wall hanging were quilted by machine.

Over 300 Beads have been hand sewn into the border pleats, and hearts representing many of the conversations that I had with my father were hand quilted around the edges. I have named the quilt “Fathers and Daughters” and will be entering it into the Blogger’s Quilt Festival.

Wolf Quilt Design

I am so happy that this quilt top finally made it out of my design book. I have created all but the left eye of this wolf. I hope to get her eye and the left side of her face done sometime this week, then I will move on to stitching down the applique pieces before stitching all of the units together.

The challenge on this piece will be deciding what type  of quilt design to use. Does anyone have a recommendation?

New project started…

I started a new quilting project, or should I say pulled one off of the UFO shelf to continue to work on. One of my goals is to make a quilt for each bed in the house. The problem is I have a tendency to choose really complex patterns. The one that I am working on at the moment is more than 3,000 pieces and contains 800 flying geese in the top.

Units for the sashing between blocks

I cut most of the pieces of a year ago and started to work on some of the flying geese units, than got tired of all the little pieces so the project got moved to shelf and others took its place. As I was sorting through and re-arranging my sewing room I ran across the project again and desired to start working on it.

Strip units for blocks

The blocks assembly are not for those who are afraid of working in the bias, but the effort is well worth the time that it takes to put the units together.

portion of block units

I have managed to finish all of the center and corner blocks.

12 Center and 4 corner blocks

And started on the dozen edge blocks.

Start of the 12 edge blocks

Once the edge blocks are done I need to work on the sashing and all of the y-seams that will be required to attach the sashing and block together…. hopefully I will not get overwhelmed with the assembly and move the project back to the UFO shelf.

Hazelnut Muffins

This weekend is filled with gardening and yard cleanup, so I got a quick start on our two days of outside fun by making gluten-free English muffins for Sunday and hazelnut muffins for today.

Hot herbal tea and a couple of hazelnut muffins high in nutrients and fiber were a great way to start the day.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup teff flour
• 3/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 2 eggs or egg substitute (to make it vegin)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2/3 cup unsweetened apple juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray a 12 unit muffin pan with oil.
3. Combine sugar, flours, tapioca starch, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nuts and raisins.
4. Mix eggs, oil and apple juice and add to flour mixture, mixing quickly.
5. Fill prepared muffin 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.
7. Serve at room temperature and freeze all leftover muffins to keep them fresh.

Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Kale

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup green lentils
• 1/2 large carrot, peeled and diced
• 1/4 onion, diced
• 2 large cloves garlic, mashed
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 bunch kale, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs fresh rosmary
• 1 pinch hot pepper flakes
• sea salt to taste
• 1 sweet potato, chopped into small cubes
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 cups vegetable stock

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium sized pot. Once hot, add onions, celery, carrot and sweet potato and cook about six minutes, until softened.
2. Add the garlic and kale and continue cooking until kale wilts.
3. Add the lentils, bay leaf, rosemary sprigs, pepper flakes and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until lentils are tinder ans have absorbed most of the liquid.
4. Season with salt to taste and remove the bay leaf and rosemary sprigs before serving.
5. Serve with savory gluten-free scones with olives and rosemary.

One less UFO to complete

Another gilt has made it out of the UFO pile. Rainy days are good for many things — one which is finishing up projects that have been hanging around for a time.  I spent a few hours today finishing the quilting on a wall hanging that I started last fall.

Now I just need to come up with a name for this one and then work on finishing up the dozen or so started projects in my sewing room.

Quick and Easy Rice Pudding

We are having a really rainy weekend, so we have set our hands the finish work for our basement remodel. We got some of the top molding painted and the last of the mud on the final wall. As a reward I made the two of us some rice pudding from the leftover rice in the refrigerator. … it was a really nice way to end a labor filled day. The great thing about the rice pudding recipe is that it is low in sugar, gluten-free, totally vegan and can be made in 10 minutes or less with leftovers.

Ingredients

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup cooked rice (brown or white)
• 1 tablespoon of agave, or maple syrup
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder
• 1 dash of cinnamon

Directions

1. Add the coconut milk to a small pot. Bring the coconut milk to a simmer over medium-low heat.
2. Add the agave, vanilla powder and cinnamon, and stir to combine.
3. Add rice and raisins, and continue to stir until it is evenly distributed.
4. Let the mixture continue to simmer in the pot for about five minutes. The liquids should boil off and the mixture will become thicker.
5. Divide mixture into two small bowls and serve.

Based on recipe found on Glow Kitchen blog