blempgorf

A baby quilt of rectangles and squares

So I made a baby quilt.

In the giant wonderful stack of fabric Nanette sent, she included a charm pack of Japanese fabrics. I love cute Japanese fabrics, and I've never used a charm pack before, so I was inspired to try to do something fun with them. I ended up making up a design inspired by the Strips and Bricks quilt I saw on the Red Pepper Quilts blog.

Here's the result! (Not the best pictures, but the sun was not cooperating today. This one's at least a little easier to see than the one of the quilt in the direct evening sun.)

A close up of some of the fabrics - the cream colored ones are from Nanette (and some from Kim too!), and the blues and oranges are from my stash mostly - picked up a few solids to blend in. Normally I would go for bright versions of orange and turquoise with white accents, but I've been trying some to break out of my usual color habits. I think moving toward the darker teals with the rusty oranges and the creams turns out to be an even more appealing combination of colors.

The backing fabric is from Heather Ross. I bought it on clearance from equilter a while back, and the colors are a pretty good match for the front color scheme. A pieced binding, since I couldn't decide which color to use.

cookie of the week

I made some cookies Thursday night.

Oatmeal coconut chocolate chip. Halfway through, I threw in some golden raisins.

oatmeal coconut raisin chocolate chip cookie

I used this recipe. It's probably not one I'll save but people seem to like them. The recommended bake time was 10-14 minutes, but the first pan of cookies was very crispy after ten minutes of baking, so I had to pitch them. I ended up dropping the temperature 25 degrees and baking for 9 minutes and future pans were fine.

cookie time!

I was struck by the impulse to make some coconut cookies this afternoon. I used this recipe, doubling it and adding a half teaspoon of almond extract. I like them - they are a nice combination of crunchy and chewy.

pickled peas

On some things, you take after your father and others, your mother. My sister takes after my dad in a shared affinity for pickled things, while I take after my mom in loving everything sweet. My dad will say that a cupcake has too much frosting (as if this were possible), while my mom and I see cake as a great vehicle for a mountain of sweet shortening-based frosting.

But here I find myself following my recent jam-making with a bout of pickle-making. I found this recipe for pickled sugar snap peas, and I decided I needed to try it. It took three stores to find some decent looking peas, but I finally did and put together the batch last night.

It's too early to give a definitive taste test report, but early tastings seem promising. While I've been generally intimidated by true canning, refrigerator pickling is surprisingly easy.

the plan backfires (in a good way)

So I recently offered up some of my surplus fabric stock, offering a 3 for 1 trade in the hopes of cleaning out my closet.

The plan has backfired.

Not only did I receive a lovely package of fabric from Kim, but I also got a gigantic package of swap fabric from Nanette of Freda's Hive. I've read Nanette's blog for a while now. She's got terrific fabric taste - both vintage prints and cute Japanese prints. And she makes some wonderful quilts as well - a version of this one is filed away in my list of future quilts. Nanette (who blogs with her daughters) also follows my mom's blog, so she's like a mutual friend for my mom and I that we have never actually met.

The package from Nanette was totally mind-blowing. For one, check out how huge the stack is. (Also note the jumbo rick rack. heart.)

And the package was filled with so much amazing fabric. I've been like a kid at Christmas - stacking it and restacking it, putting some pieces next to others in my collection, daydreaming about what I could make from it all.

Nanette sent so many lovely things.

Some wonderful kitchen fabrics. I am already envisioning some hot pads for that red, green, and yellow one at the upper right. And the pears! Love it.

Beautiful florals - the color scheme for the one on the right is so interesting.

And there is still more! I love adding some orange to my collection. The rick-racky zig zag one is a terrific print - I can imagine a lot of uses for that one. And the mod swirl print has a future possibly as an accent in a skirt project, or maybe a place in a mustard-colored quilt I have been stockpiling fabrics for.

Some juvenile prints - a reproduction print (featuring doughnuts!) and a large scale cat and mouse print. I love the colors and the gingham cats.

And there is still more! Some mod prints - a wonderful grid print (love the color scheme here) and a green print (the kind of fabric that gets cooler the more you look at it - an interesting and surprisingly successful color scheme). The bottom left fabric is a green and gray color combo - awesome - and a mod abstract print.

It's all so fantastic. I love it all.

There was also a charm pack of absolutely incredible Japanese fabrics, but I've already started cutting up these for a quilt. After buying some more fabrics to go with them of course. Fabric begets more fabric, it appears.

Thank you so much, Nanette! You are too kind!

vintage fabric

It's a natural conversation topic for a post office worker to ask what you are sending in a package, but I swear they only ask when I am sending something random or unusual or odd, as if they know it's not a book or some paperwork. And it can be hard to explain in shorthand that you are sending a package of vintage fabric to some internet friend you've never met. I think that if you do not follow blogs it seems a bit hard to believe that you might just send someone some fabric.

The kindness of bloggers is still pretty remarkable to me, as I was just delighted to receive a package of fabric in return from Kim of Niesz Vintage Fabric (her shop/her blog). I was introduced to Kim's vintage fabrics first through another Kim - at True Up. She responded to my earlier fabric swap post. I sent her a few of my surplus scraps from my closet cleaning efforts, and she sent me an absolutely amazing package in return. She did a great job picking fabrics that I would like.

I love the gray one - I have been collecting vintage grays for a few years for a special quilt - as they are hard to find. The blue flowers are one of those cute practical small prints with a million uses. And the garden fabric? swoon. I love those colors together.

Oh, wait, that's not it! There's more!

An adorable turtle print! A wonderful little floral! (mental note: yellow looks great with a pink and brown combo.) And the last one is my very favorite of the lot. I love those colors together. That green background is a terrific color - so hard to find in quilt fabrics! I've looked for it before, and there is just very little in that hue.

(It was wonderfully packaged with some cute fabric buttons too, but I was too eager to see the contents that I neglected to take a picture before I tore into it.)

Thank you so much, Kim! I love it all! And fellow fabric fans reading the blog, be sure to check out her store!

all jammed up

so I made some strawberry jam. the grocery store was out of Sure-Jell, so I couldn't use the family recipe. I got some Ball freezer jam pectin, which I think is mostly the same, but it comes in a pouch instead of a box and requires much less sugar.

I think it should be good.

It was inspired by this:

I always like the patriotic food, but it's also tasty - blueberry and strawberry swirl in vanilla. even better with some strawberry freezer jam ladled on top.

the evening energy that has eluded me over the past weeks is apparently back at least for a night - as I also made some cookies - mini chocolate chip from my favorite recipe.

mod applique baby quilt

I finished a baby quilt. It's my own design, animals appliqued on a stripe background.

featuring a baby koala, bear, bunny, and cat:

the color scheme is roughly inspired by the Kellogg's backing fabric I posted about earlier.

mod applique baby quilt - with Kellogg's backing fabric

I quilted it very densely using thread that matched the stripe color. Polka dot binding, since I am awfully fond of polka dots.

(Ang, let me know if I should save it for you for any potential progeny.)

vintage fabric swap

It's time for some spring cleaning! I have too much fabric - in particular, yards and yards of some fabrics that are just taking up space in my sewing room. I rarely sew with large yardages. I'll use a yard for a back of a baby quilt, but mostly I need smaller pieces for quilt fronts.

So I'd like to propose a "3 for 1" fabric swap with my blog readers - I send you a three quarters of a yard's worth of fabric, and you send me a fat quarter in return. We could do this in multiples too, i.e. if you wanted to swap a yard and a half for a half yard. I thought about setting up an Etsy shop to sell this stuff, but I thought this sounded more fun.

Here's what I would like to swap for:
1. Flea Market Fancy in gray
2. Vintage fabric. Gray would be especially nice, as would orange, but beyond that, just something neat. Here's a sample of my fabric collection on Flickr to see what I like.

My list of available fabrics is below. It's all vintage, picked up at garage sales or thrift stores or antique malls. Comment on the post in a way that leaves your e-mail address for me, and I'll e-mail you to find out your shopping list.

A. oranges and other fruits