Good morning, my friends. I'm suiting up for a day of mostly sewing. I have a couple of easy housekeeping chores, and then I'll sew my guts out. The kitties spent most of their day in the Clubhouse yesterday, and so I'm surprised I was able to get anything done at all. I spent my hour's allotment on my challenge piece. It's coming along, and I'm happy with what I have so far. Here's today's peek.
These might look the same from day to day, but trust me...I'm making progress. Today I believe I'll reach the secondary subject of the image I'm working from. I'll be happy to start working with some colors other than red.
But I suppose I'm stuck with red for a little while longer. Next up, I moved upstairs to begin quilting the Chicken Feed quilt. As I mentioned yesterday, I was inclined to choose a red thread for that quilt. Looking at my wall of thread, I found a nice bright red with a nearly full bobbin already wound. Well. I took that as a message from the thread gods that this was the color I should be using.
And when it comes to quilting, who am I to argue with the thread gods? I believe this was another gift from my quilting fairy godmother, Ila. Thank you, Ila, for always keeping me in thread.
I decided to do the center of the quilt in a straight-line grid. For this, I have a great tool known as a "
Line tamer ruler." I have trouble quilting with rulers since I can't seem to stop myself from sewing away from the ruler. This ruler has a channel that fits around the foot of my machine, and so there's no sewing away from that bad boy. If you're interested in learning more about this tool, you can see a little video at that link I've given you.
So I changed my needle, oiled my machine, checked my tension, and off I went. When I stopped for the day, I had all the vertical lines stitched, and I was about halfway finished with the horizontal lines.
It should be quick work today to finish the rest of the lines, and then get to work on the inner border. As usual, it's hard to see the quilting from the back, but here it is. Is that a perfect backing fabric? I was so happy to find that.
Earlier in the day I spent about an hour and a half making all the component parts for this Cauliflower and Caramelized Onion Tart. This is so yummy, but it takes some time to make it. Fortunately, the crust can be baked (I used Pillsbury), the cauliflower roasted, and the onions caramelized one day ahead. Then, it's just a matter of putting it together, and the remainder is pretty simple. Here's how it looked when it came out of the oven.
I had some leftover Gruyere cheese I wanted to use. When we were getting CSA shares, this was a go-to recipe for using the cauliflower and onions we received in abundance. I served it up with some summer squash, and that was a tasty way to end the day. It's a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, and
you can find it right here.
It's good for breakfast too, and I think we'll have it again this morning.
So today will look much like yesterday. I'm hoping to start adding more color to my challenge piece, and then to get well-along with my quilting. We've heard conflicting messages about the weather coming our way. Some say snow...some say no. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
5 comments:
If one says ‘Red’ – the name of color – and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different. ~ Josef Albers
I've not seen that line tamer ruler, but I may have to do a little more looking to see if it will work for my longarm (foot size and all that). The challenge piece is intriguing and today looks like a brake light - so much so that I wondered if there was some sort of unexpected vehicle repair you were going to share - until I looked closer. I sewed a bunch today, too, but only had the supervision of Smitty's twin. Must be the cats day off?
Nothing makes me happier in my sewing room than finding an already filled bobbin in the color I need, so I'm happy for you - haha! I cannot wait to see what you are creating for the challenge!
We've been eating on an onion pie this week too - sans cauliflower though.
I like red so I'm enjoying your latest quilt and have to admit I'm intrigued by the ruler (better, perhaps, than using strips of painter's tape).
Whenever you do a red quilt, I am drawn to the quilt. Perhaps it’s the boldness. Perhaps it is the shot of red creates happiness in my soul. Whatever it is, your chicken trashy quilt is a stunner.
Post a Comment