blempgorf

"fame"

2012-01-29T15:49:00.000-08:00

As you might suspect, I write this blog mostly for the great fame, wealth, and notoriety it offers. (ahem.)

So when I ever get any recognition for what I do in my spare time, it is pretty fun.

Last year, my blog work made it to print, when two of my cupcake designs were published in 1,000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies & Cakes.

My second "appearance" in print is a product of accident and coincidence.

So you all remember the first quilt I ever made, right?

I had it stuffed away in my closet for years, so when I saw last year that eQuilter was collecting quilts for victims of the earthquake in Japan, I decided to donate it to the cause.

Flashforward to December, and I am reading magazines from my mom's massive supply of quilt magazines, and in an issue of Quilt...

there's my quilt on the far right.

totally counts as getting your quilt into a magazine, right?

owl pillow!

2012-01-10T20:29:00.001-08:00

so I think this is my 600th post, and it is going to feature not one of my craft projects, but one of my mom's.

for Christmas, my mom made me an awesome owl pillow!

he didn't fit in my luggage, so my parents shipped him to me.

here he is, unsquished.

the flower eyes were my mom's innovation - very cute. the wing details are also very smart.

thanks, Mom! I love him.

fun to watch

2012-01-09T21:59:00.000-08:00

totally awesome Christmas present

2012-01-07T23:23:00.000-08:00

I got a wonderful present from my aunt at Christmas.

a while back, I posted on Blempgorf about these rad carpet tiles from CB2.

after seeing them on the blog, my aunt offered to make me an afghan based on the design.

and here it is!

it is so wonderful and I just love it. the colors are great with my couch + my loveseat.

I am so impressed by all the work that went into it, since I would have no idea how to make something like it. I don't have any yarn skills whatsoever. the layout of squares is great too.

here's a closeup of it:

I test drove it today in an afternoon nap and one nice bonus is that provides the perfect level of warmth for napping, superior to my previous napping quilt.

thanks again to my aunt! I love this so much!

2011 quilt retrospective

2012-01-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

in 2009, I posted a quilt retrospective of all my quilts from the prior year - a year I made ten baby quilts.

the following year, I noted that I had "only" made seven quilts.

last year, I patted myself on the back for raising that number to eight.

this year, instead of lamenting the production of a mere six quilts, I am instead going to celebrate the fourth year of thinking to do an end of year retrospective on a blog that generally doesn't have much of an agenda.

1. plaid quilt, 2. weiner dog baby quilt, 3. owl quilt, 4. owl pincushion, 5. mod baby quilt, take 2 (licorice allsorts color version), 6. fair isle baby quilt, 7. back of Plain Spoken quilt - Albers inspired, 8. Plain Spoken quilt

I slipped in a nonquilt photo to have a symmetrical layout - an owl pincushion I made for my mom for Christmas (since she apparently THREW OUT the last pincushion I made her*).

I used Moonstitches' tutowlrial. I like how it turned out. and the pattern comes together pretty easily, and I'm not one to really like a project that requires hand sewing. I think my mom liked it too.

normally I round out my Annual Quilt Retrospection with some forward-looking remarks about what new projects I hope to take on. I haven't really made any grand plans though, other than ordering a fatty stack of Kona cottons from Fabric Shack for another half-square triangle quilt.

* technically, she deserves credit for keeping it over twenty five years even though it was a Girl Scouts craft monstrosity made out of painted popsicle sticks and some styrofoam.

plain spoken quilt, second time around

2011-12-17T23:33:00.000-08:00

Today I finished the quilt I plan to take to this year's family Christmas gift swap.

It's the Plain Spoken quilt from the Modern Quilt Workshop book. I made the pattern once before - it was actually the first large quilt I had ever made (over five years ago?!). This one is made entirely out of fabric from the stash. (We were supposed to spend $20 on the gift - I wonder if this means I should throw in something else with it?)

I thought I was going to finish in time to photograph it in the sunlight, but no dice.

the back is loosely inspired by some Anni Albers designs. the strip on the bottom is because I ran out of fabric.

I quilted it in basically the only way I ever do, because it's about all I am really able to do:

cookiepalooza

2011-12-13T21:27:00.001-08:00

Is that Hungry or the Cookie Monster?

I've been on a run of making cookies.

First up, rugelach using the recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Baking cookbook.

Potato chip cookie from the King Arthur cookie book.

Chocolate cookie with peppermint and dark chocolate chips, recipe adapted from the King Arthur cookie book.

Apricot almond thumbprint, recipe here.

oatmeal cookie, with dried pineapple, golden raisins, and coconut (King Arthur cookie book):

Pretzel cookie with chocolate chunks, recipe here (he's a mean lookin' one)

Maple meringue, recipe from the King Arthur cookie book.

Monster cookie, recipe from the King Arthur cookie book.

Oatmeal whoopie pie with cinnamon cream cheese filling:

Gingerbread cupcake with carrots and raisins inside, plus cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Not pictured: chocolate cookies with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.

eats

2011-11-25T17:54:00.000-08:00

it's not as good as a family Thanksgiving meal, but a pretty good representation of a turkey dinner.

even better is the posole I made with the leftover turkey:

here's the recipe, because you should make it. don't forget the cabbage and radishes. I skipped the cilantro and didn't miss it.

no photo, but this spaghetti squash gratin from the same site was also pretty tasty.

stupid good

2011-11-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

File under "Yes":

Blue Bell Christmas Cookie ice cream: Sugar cookie flavored ice cream with chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and sugar cookies, sprinkles, and an icing swirl.

As a person who has never found a dessert that could be called "too sweet", this is a magical wonderland. It is so awesome. ICING SWIRL.

See also:

Blue Bell Chocolate Almond Marshmallow.

Of my top ten favorite foods, I can't find most of them in this backwards hippie health-conscious state that I live in. I can't find my favorite pop here (but thanks to my rad dad for the Pepsi One care packages), nor do they sell the basics of fried foods (fried chicken, hush puppies, doughnuts). I can't find anything that resembles a good pizza nor a store that sells my favorite flavor of ice cream (chocolate marshmallow). So this chocolate almond marshmallow ice cream is a pleasant surprise. I don't approve of the chocolate almonds inside but I can eat around them. Of course it is a seasonal flavor too but maybe I can stock up the freezer.

owl quilt!

2011-11-02T17:00:00.001-07:00

I made my mom a little wallhanging for her birthday. She got it today in the mail so I can post pictures now.

the color scheme comes from the backing fabric - a fun owl print that has some of my mom's kinds of colors in it.

The design is from Dare to Be Square Quilting. I made it half scale and didn't follow the instructions. (They are slightly illogical, where the solid borders are constructed from multiple strips instead of one big piece, and the internal pieces look like log cabins but are constructed from many small pieces.)

I really like the final product, and I think my mom does too!

homely bear cupcakes

2011-10-30T00:25:00.000-07:00

I made some cupcakes to take to the birthday party for a coworker's twins.

they are homely little bears, in blue. they are cute only in the sense you feel sorry for them as they stare earnestly at you.

this is what happens when you don't really think through a cupcake plan and just buy some random things and then figure out what to do with them once you get home. I bought yellow candy melts too, which could have made for some nice yellow bears but I didn't have any yellow food coloring.

I made a second batch of cupcakes, pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting.

they look more presentable.

mod baby quilt, take 2

2011-10-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Finished that baby quilt I was working on...

It is a version of one I made before - I don't usually do the same design twice, but...I really like the design. My sister said that it was the best quilt I have ever made, which she has said only once before - in regards to its predecessor.

This is the licorice allsorts color version, which was inspired from the colors of the backing fabric, a happy vintage elephant fabric I bought on Etsy several years ago.

I quilted it simply in stripes.

the binding is a black polka dot with many of the same colors of the quilt. (I love Lecien dot fabrics.)

getting the colors right in my pictures was challenging with this quilt - made a couple of attempts at photos but the colors are a bit more vibrant in real life than they look here.

kitchen success

2011-10-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

this is the best thing I have cooked in some time - za jiang mian. (similar to dan dan noodles).

my coworker who knows how much I like this dish on the secret menu at the local Chinese restaurant picked me up a jar of the sauce that underlies it.

super easy to make:
cooked up ground pork with garlic and ginger.
added spicy noodle sauce and cooked down.
layered udon noodles, sauce (sparingly), and topped with scallions and cucumbers.

yum!

ridiculous(ly awesome)

2011-10-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

people in blogland seem to be big fans of supporting your LQS (local quilt store), but I'm not a fan of any of the nearby fabric stores due to their rude service and general failure to have any of what I am looking for.

I make an exception for the one that isn't officially a store - and that is the eQuilter warehouse where I can pick up my online order. (I heart them.) They sent me a rad $5 gift certificate for completely a short survey, so my first thought was to see if my mom wanted anything, and then my second thought was maybe I could find something I ~~needed~~ coveted. It didn't even take me a minute before I found this one, which actually made me giggle out loud. Love the yellow dude in front of the ice cream shop.

And PANDAS.

And I have been quilting, just super sporadically. Tomorrow will be day three of the quilt laid out in the middle of the dining room for pinning, so the sheer practicality of getting it out of the walkway should motivate me to start quilting it tomorrow, work be damned.

oh, I also really want to make myself a quilt out of Richard Scarry fabric. I wonder how I can do this in a way that looks like I haven't stolen it from a child.

kitchen highlights

2011-10-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

Lately, the kitchen hasn't been my friend. I keep making terrible dinners that I end up tossing and desserts that either don't turn out or aren't worth saving the recipe for.

So here are some of the more successful ones out of this recent string of kitchen failures.

I tried to replicate my mom's chicken soup recipe. it's close, but not as good as hers.

I made strawberry freezer jam. I love the pectin that comes in a jar, so that I can make small batches of jam in about the time it takes to wash and cut the fruit.

I made a marble cheesecake from the recipe in the America's Test Kitchen baking book, along with a raspberry sauce and strawberry sauce. I didn't love it but I think other people liked it.

The sleeper hit was the maple meringue. I bought some maple sugar at the King Arthur store earlier this summer and hadn't yet tried it. So I used the leftover egg whites from the cheesecake to make these. I usually make my meringues in a hot oven for short times, which gives them a crunchy exterior and sticky interior. I did a lower heat/longer bake on these, which gave a better texture (though they didn't hold up as well over time). But on the first day, right out of the oven, crazy good.

hello giant vintage fabric haul

2011-09-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Today is that magical day that comes once a year, where I play hooky from work and drive to Longmont for Quilt-a-fair, a fabric and quilting market held at the fairgrounds.

And then I buy a giant stack of vintage fabric that I don't need for crazy low prices. Seriously, when fat quarters of brand new fabrics are $2.75, a fat quarter of vintage fabric for a buck or buck and a half is totally awesome.

here's the overview.

while I often try to constrain my fabric shopping to Things I Actually Need or Fabrics That Go With My Next Project, I decided this year to just buy Stuff That I Liked, as buying stuff I like generally means that it goes with my stash, and I actually have been doing a pretty good job using my stash in quilts lately. So it was kind of rad when I got home and laid out my haul and realized that not only did it fit in with what I already own, it also kind of all went together.

Six or seven yards of vintage fabric for about $25? Totally awesome.

travelogue, Seattle edition

2011-09-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Seattle for work. I had Saturday off so I spent it walking the entire length of Seattle's downtown.

The morning started at Top Pot doughnuts. Just looking at the picture makes me hungry for doughnuts. Very good and in a cute shop, though a little pricey. The cinnamon blueberry cake doughnut from the prior day's trip was probably the best one.

From there, I walked to the Space Needle, which was not all that impressive though admittedly better than Knoxville's World's Fair craft project, the Sunsphere. Here's my obligatory Space Needle picture.

The surrounding architecture and design is interesting too. I saw the cutest car wash sign on the walk over:

Wandered around the Experience Music Project, which was not open yet and mostly blocked off for a concert later that day. What I could see was neat.

the nearby science museum had the most intriguing pavilion area. I think it was also construction for the World's Fair in the 1960s, though the dinosaurs seem like they must have been a later addition. It was closed (for some reason I was up and out before 9 that day) but it might have been even worth the $20 admission to walk around and check out had I been closer to the opening hour.

there was a fun outdoor sculpture on the grounds too.

next on my walk, the sculpture gardens along the sound. here's a nice Calder sculpture in front of the water landscape.

more or less the same view, sans sculpture. the water is such a bright blue here.

and very clear water too - very neat to look over the railing and see the details on the algae and sea plants.

more scenery, closer to the Pike Place Market. presumably Mount Rainier there.

It was too nutso busy to stop for lunch there, so I just walked through. From there, I walked to Pioneer Square and then the International District, where I bought cute Japanese school supplies at the Kinokuniya bookstore. Then I walked up to the Capitol Hill neighborhood to visit a disappointing fabric store. At this point I've walked close to five miles and probably more, so I was more focused on walking up some mammoth hill rather than taking pictures.

But after a return to the hotel and a nap, back to Pike Place Market for piroshky (a hot Russian roll filled with potatoes, onions, and mushrooms). (very tasty)

This is actually from the prior night but it seems a good picture to signal the close of my walking tour.

procrastinating

2011-08-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

I made another iteration of my totebag pattern, this time in linen.

I like it better than the two prior ones, but still think I can make a better one.

My buddy Andrea sent me the best office accessory ever, a Lego White House for my mini presidents.

LBJ had to explain to Jeero that it wasn't for him.

Hungry was looking forlorn...

So I baked an apple cake, from this great recipe my aunt recommended to me.

fair isle baby quilt

2011-08-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this baby quilt for months, slowed down by the smaller piecing and general distractions. the design is improvised; I made up the plan for each row as I went. the idea for a Fair Isle sort of quilt with different designs on horizontal rows is one of those ideas I've had rattling around in my head for a while. Like since 2009.

I switched up the colors halfway through too, though I don't entirely love the final combination. That khaki background is too dark. I have gobs of this fabric, since I ended up not using it in the project I originally bought it for. but I think it just is too murky for the kinds of colors I usually work with.

the backing fabric is something I found in my stash that not only goes pretty well with the color scheme, but was also exactly the right size to fit the front.

Quilted in my usual haphazard horizontal wavy lines.

you should bake these

2011-08-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

I have had mixed success with making raspberry oatmeal sort of bars. they are usually too crumbly and not particularly delicious. this week, I tried again, this time using this recipe from Epicurious.

I used blackberry-raspberry freezer jam I made earlier in the summer. the coconut in the recipe adds some very nice flavor and also helps keep the bar together. they were super good. this is my new bar recipe.

more vacation

2011-08-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

I made it about two weeks at work before I took another vacation. This time, Sarasota for my cousin's wedding.

I haven't been on the beach on the Gulf side before. I missed waves but the water was so warm, still, and clear.

they were having a bird convention down the shore.

Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes

2011-07-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

I don't make cupcakes much anymore, but when the three year old son of your coworker takes your hand and tells you he wants Cookie Monster cupcakes like the ones you made for his second birthday, you can't say no.

Where's Waldo? Boulder edition, part 3

2011-07-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

So I have become a bit of an authority on Waldo in Boulder, having been contacted by three different newspapers about all of these Waldos. The Westword was even nice enough to give a little mention of the blog in their write-up - here's the link.

So the total known Waldo tally is 8 9!, though at best only 6 are still in existence.

1. Waldo at Diagonal Plaza
2. Waldo at Brewing Market
3. Waldo along Boulder Creek Trail between 30th and Foothills
4. Waldo at Broadway and the Boulder Creek Trail (other pictures here)
5. Waldo at 29th Street Mall (according to the Daily Camera) - painted over
6. Waldo at Baseline behind Goodwill - painted over (or I couldn't find it)
7. Waldo at pedestrian overpass along Foothills - painted over
8. Waldo at 28th and Colorado - his days are probably numbered
9: NEW! Waldo at East Boulder Community Center

Here's the Waldo at 28th and Colorado, picture from the Westword:

The city is taking a hard line on Waldo - not just painting over and removing the ones on city property, but also threatening to ticket business owners who do not remove Waldo, even if they like their Waldo and don't want to remove it. I hope some of the Waldos manage to avoid the city's paintbrush - it is fun to find them about town.

Update! Waldo #9 at East Boulder Community Center, photo from the Daily Camera.

And he is making new friends!

fruits and veggies

2011-07-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, I went to Boulder's Farmers' Market. I thought it would be fun but really it was just annoying to waste my time fighting crowds for the opportunity to pay 400% markup for vegetables. Seriously, a bunch of beets was $6. I can buy locally grown beets at the grocery store for a buck or buck and a half.

On Saturday, I was in neighboring Longmont and decided to stop at the farmers' market. Apparently I don't learn from my mistakes. But I figured that maybe the folks that sell cabbage rolls (not the traditional Polish kind but close) might be there, so it seemed like it might be worth a stop. I found the vendor I was looking for, but then was lured over to a vegetable booth that was closing up for the day and offering a bag of as much produce as you wanted for $10.

Awesome!

Here's the haul:

I am making good progress on it so far.

I used the cukes to make some refrigerator pickles using my mom's recipe.

I made a yellow beet and carrot salad:

At the grocery store, a bag of plums was a buck so I picked up a bag and made plum cake using this recipe.

It is a fine little recipe. I don't believe that something can really be too sweet, but with a cake like this I can see the merits of Just Somewhat Sweet. I did top it with a streusel instead of the melted butter topping in the recipe which I think was a good move.

Where's Waldo? (continued)

2011-07-24T22:18:00.001-07:00

Two more Waldo sightings to report, bringing the Waldo count in Boulder up to 5!

I got a text and an e-mail over the weekend about Waldo from two different co-workers - one new sighting and one that I had featured in my prior post. This is a fun game. And I have great co-workers that they will play along.

Here's a picture of Waldo along the Boulder Creek Trail near Broadway - via MK.

I was driving today to run some errands and there he was again - this time along Foothills Parkway. Up close, he looked like he got caught in a rain shower...

Where's Waldo?

2011-07-18T20:50:00.001-07:00

Answer: Boulder.

So Boulder is many things, but rarely would I say it is charming. But here's the most charming thing I've found so far.

A few months ago, I noticed someone had painted Waldo of "Where's Waldo?" fame on the top bricks of McGuckin's Hardware in town. Maybe next time I am around there I will try for a picture. They've been doing some renovations around that strip mall so I had guessed that it was some sort of mall gimmick or something.

Update! Here's a picture!

That is, until a week or so ago, when I saw another Waldo - this time along the side of the Boulder Creek Trail. Not sure what those walls are even supposed to be, but there he is again. It's not the best picture but it is off the trail a ways and I wasn't wearing the right shoes to try to amble closer. (Does he have a mustache there?)

Tonight I decided to go for a walk as my exercise for the day, and I found a third Waldo. It's another cell phone picture, and in the dusk, but here he is hanging out above the DMV in this sketch strip mall.

Update! Here's the daytime shot:

A quick consult with Mr. Google reveals nothing about why Waldo is strolling about town, but for now, I think it is super charming to find surprise Waldos as I walk about town. All three of them are in hard to get at places, which for me suggests that they are placed intentionally (with permission) to avoid additional graffiti, or that the Waldo graffiti artist is especially enterprising.

more travelogue

2011-07-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

So I took another vacation. This time, to South Carolina and the beach.

the view from our condo:

I overcorrected this photo from the prior cloudy day but liked its menacing look:

these are good colors together.

we stopped at the gardens at a nearby plantation and saw:

cool cypress knobs:

scenic lake:

a giant spider:

bird in a lake:

critters in the pasture:

Andrea wouldn't let me take my new pet Lil' Cricket home with me:

afterward we stopped at the Saffron Cafe in Charleston. how can you resist a dessert case like this?

I bought some rugelach and an awesome s'mores bar, but I thought this was this coolest thing - the potato dessert:

Spain!

2011-06-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a trip to Madrid to see my sister and her husband.

my mom came along, and we stayed in an apartment with this view:

we walked around the city a lot and saw....

the palace:

gardens nearby:

a cathedral with a rad ceiling:

a delightful candy store:

world's cutest barber chairs:

we took a day trip to nearby Segovia, which featured:

a historic aqueduct

a castle:

a scenic landscape:

thanks to Ang and Austin for showing us such a great time in Spain!

photo post

2011-06-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

so here are some photo updates.

from Hanover, New Hampshire, the highlight was the baked goods.

across the border in Vermont is the King Arthur store, stocked with all the most obscure baking supplies and housing a delicious bakery. everything was delightful, especially the lemon meringue lemon curd filled cupcake.

from a general store in Vermont, super adorable Table Talk mini pies. tasty too!

from Kentucky, some groovy fungi outside my hotel.

also, Kentucky, a quilt barn:

the view of the lake:

blackberry raspberry jam, made via the brilliant jar o' pectin for small batches of freezer jam.

and yes, someone has been trying out her new camera.

someone else has been too, as I found when I downloaded my pictures - another crafty party took a glamour shot of my camera case...

updates

2011-05-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

so here's some of the stuff I never got around to posting in the last month...

I have been traveling the Midwest for work and to visit the fam, being sure to pick up on some of the finest things the Midwest has to offer.

I made a tote bag:

I love the fantastically ugly mustard color, which is awesome and hard to find. (a linen blend found at Joann Fabrics and originally intended for a skirt)

the perfect gray and yellow accent fabric for the pockets, via a swap a while back with Nanette.

and "enjoying" "springtime" in Colorado.

weiner dog baby quilt

2011-05-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

So happy blogiversary to Blempgorf which is seven years old this month. Time flies. In no time we'll be getting this blog her driver's license and sending her off to college.

I have been working on this quilt for a couple months but finished it up this week. It is the first quilt I have made from a pattern in years, which is to say that I looked at the measurements for the cuts and never bothered to read the written instructions. The pattern is from Boo Davis's Dare to Be Square, a book that I posted on before and that my sister gave me for my birthday. I doctored it a little to stitch on a smile and make a more cutesy eye. (The author's website makes clear that she prefers heavy metal quilts to the cutesy, so I sort of like the idea of making her too-cute patterns even cuter.)

The quilt is for my cousin (who is preggers). Green because it is close to her college's colors as well as one of her favorite colors, the dog because she loves dogs, and the orange and brown colors to evoke Snog, the stuffed snake-dog draft blocking critter that we both played with at my Grandma's house.

Quilted in wavy horizontal stripes because I lack the skillz to do anything more impressive. Polka dot binding because I love polka dot binding.

the backing fabric is a giant panel print, Jomo Jungle by Alexander Henry. I love it.

Sweet!

2011-04-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

So my house was visited yesterday by the Easter Panda.

Check out the sweet Easter basket that came in the mail from my parents. I am by most accounts older than the average Easter basket recipient, which means that I must be either quite an exceptional kid to still get an Easter package or my mom must be especially wonderful.

My mom made the cute potholders on the right - I love the fabrics on them. So cool! Thanks, Mom!

Mail from the parents

2011-04-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

I got some rad care packages in the mail from my folks a while back.

One from my dad included the elusive Pepsi One, no longer sold in town.

My mom sent me some more vintage wrapping paper for my collection:

fabric acquisitions

2011-04-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

I drove down to Colorado Springs and stopped at a fabric store that was stocked almost entirely with novelty fabrics. I bought two random prints because they were awesome.

This one is from "Wild Things" by Moda, reminds me of an illustration from a children's book.

This one is "Bow Wow Chow Mein" by Alexander Henry. Love the colors, and the large scale of the print.

springtime

2011-03-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

Another 70 degree day in the forecast but I have a long day at the office.

Even my office pets want out to enjoy the day.

daily dose of adorable

2011-02-27T21:44:00.000-08:00

This is perhaps too much cuteness all in one spot.

via Etsy.

happy plaid quilt

2011-02-14T22:46:00.000-08:00

I've been puttering along on a baby quilt for several weeks now, but decided to take some time away from working on Sunday to try to finish this up. Lost interest after quilting it up but finished it up by binding it last night.

the quilt is an entirely different design than I had intended to make. I had this random block design in mind, but after laying out a dozen blocks I decided I hated it and decided to try to come up with something new.

The fundamental problem is one I've been thinking about for a while now. I got a jelly roll of Kona cottons for Christmas in 2009. I love working with solids so I thought it would be the great jumping off point for a quilt. But when I eventually sliced into the roll and tried piecing with it, I hated the results. Here's the terribly lit picture I took before I seam ripped the whole number.

I think the block design has potential but the colors kill me. Even though the colors are all similar hues in the roll, I think they look crazy if you just dump them all together. The same issue came up with this quilt. I had a charm pack of bright solids, but there was too much color and hue variation to just jumble them together.

Solution: Use the color pack in an intentional way rather than randomly combining colors.

The result: my plaid quilt. Or maybe it is a gingham quilt.

Because each block has four squares of four colors, I was able to use the quartered charm squares I had already sliced up. I then used some of my Kona roll (which is handily the same width as a quartered charm square) and ended up buying another Kona roll in some brighter colors as well. That way I had enough color variation so that no two blocks needed to be the same.

I'm thinking this is the kind of quilt my mom will especially like, in part because it is Happy Colors and in part because I put fabric from the newest Hungry Caterpillar collection on the back, which is one of her favorite children's books. I love how Eric Carle's illustration style works with the color variations on the front of the quilt.

The quilting is a random plaid grid design in yellow thread. Green binding because I wanted to pick out the green shade of the pickles + the caterpillar in the backing fabric.

Overall, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I've been making baby quilts in sad colors and contrasting colors mostly lately so the color choices on this one seem particularly happy and harmonious.

hee hee hee

2011-02-09T16:49:00.000-08:00

Is it my birthday yet?

From Betty Crocker.

more cute stuff I don't need

2011-01-27T18:21:00.001-08:00

From Superbuzzy.

cute stuff I don't need

2011-01-26T15:18:00.000-08:00

anthropomorphic=adorable.

cutting board/worktop savers from Joseph Joseph.

happy flower cupcakes

2011-01-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

I made some cookies and cream cupcakes, using the recipe from Cupcakes from the Cake Doctor.

Dumped a bunch of candy on top to decorate as happy flowers. Dots + Mike and Ike's + icing smiles.

the year in quilts

2011-01-01T12:07:00.000-08:00

So I am back in Colorado after two weeks in Michigan. Had a great time with the family, and overindulged in hobby time, reading five novels and baking cherry shortbreads, peanut butter blossoms, oatmeal whoopie pies, chocolate whoopie pies, a chocolate cake, an apple cake, and banana cupcakes. Nonetheless, my thoughts today are not on getting back to work, but on what I should sew in the new year.

First, a retrospective:

Last year I made four baby quilts and four throw-sized quilts, which is up from 2009 where I managed only seven quilts (and mostly baby quilts).

Last year, I posited some quilting resolutions, most of which I managed to accomplish. I finished the four quilts I had planned, including finishing my quilt bee quilt. I had vowed to do less wonky and more geometric quilts, which I did. I took a few more risks with color in some of the baby quilts I made. I still am inspired by antique quilt patterns more than modern, so let that be the first item on my list for this year:

Quilting goals for 2011:
- Revisit antique quilt patterns
- More quilts inspired by artwork (like the Bauhaus quilts I made last year)
- Pixel art quilts
- More solid fabrics; especially black.

a quilt for Christmas gift swap

2010-12-22T09:55:00.000-08:00

On my dad's side of the family, we swap gifts on Christmas Eve, and last year, I decided to take a quilt. This year, I made another quilt to bring, though this one I ended up finishing just in the nick of time, rather than in September. Thanks to my mom for the sewing machine loaner.

The pattern is just quarter-square triangles set on the bias. The color scheme is inspired by the main backing fabric, a print from the Petit Village collection from Timeless Treasures that I featured in a previous post. The other print is from the Farmdale collection from Alexander Henry.

I had bought some Kona cotton for the front in a champagne color, but it read too yellow, so I ended up buying some ivory Kona cotton last minute at JoAnn Fabrics instead. A khaki might have been better but this works well enough. Quilted it in horizontal-ish rows.

cookie post

2010-12-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

So I haven't posted yet this month, having never gotten around to putting up any pictures of the batches of cookies I have made over the last weeks (chocolate-mint, chocolate-peanut butter, oatmeal-dried fruit, chocolate-toffee, and raspberry jam thumbprints).

I do have a picture at least of the cookies I made this morning: peanut butter blossoms. The recipe (or something pretty close to it) can be found here.

Tasty!

another Bauhaus quilt

2010-11-30T22:07:00.000-08:00

So I finished a quilt tonight.

Another Bauhaus-inspired piece. My last effort at translating Bauhaus into quilt was based on a glass piece by Josef Albers. This one is inspired by an Anni Albers tapestry.

The back is my own design.

Mostly Kona cottons, but the gray is a Quilters' Linen to give just a smidge of texture.

Quilted with simple horizontal stripes. Basic gray binding.

At least one more quilt on my list of projects to finish before Christmas. We'll see how that goes...

baking

2010-11-22T19:50:00.000-08:00

Hmmmmm....why is Hungry lurking about?

There must be baked goods around.

Indeed. I made some oatmeal whoopie pies with a maple bacon filling.

The recipe is from this book:

Which was a birthday present from my folks. It was the first non-vegetarian dessert that I have made. The bacon blended well with the other parts but didn't add all that much, so I ended up making most of them sans bacon for the sake of any vegetarians at the event I took them to.

I also made pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese filling, recipe via King Arthur. I added mini chocolate chips to some; they were good either way.

I also bought a pomegranate a while back, and lacking a better vision for what to do with it, made some chocolate and pomegranate cookies.

They were fine out of the oven, but by the next day were mushy and meh tasting. I put them out in the main office at work and pretended that I didn't make them, so as to not damage my baking reputation. Some people liked them, but I didn't think that the end product was worth the hassle of picking out all those arils out.

from the kitchen

2010-10-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

I made this beef and rice noodle salad today. Super delicious. It reminds me of one of my favorite dishes, Vietnamese beef bun. I edited it just a little by doubling the cukes and using red pepper flakes instead of the habanero.

Also baked these chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, or as they are known in the family vernacular, caffeine cookies.

Also made some apple cake last week from this recipe my aunt sent me. It is super good and just looking at the picture makes me want another slice.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown cupcakes

2010-10-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

I made cupcakes last night for a Halloween potluck at work.

Cupcake theme: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Technically there probably should be some Linus cupcakes in there too, but piping Charlie Brown's face was tough enough.

Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, cupcake liners are Halloween Peanuts theme even.

quilt book

2010-10-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

While my mom has one long shelf of quilt books, I have three.

Not three shelves. Three books. (Usually find my inspiration in other places than in patterns or books.)

But I might have to get a fourth because this book looks rad:

It's Dare to Be Square Quilting by Boo Davis of Quiltsrÿche. The designs play on pixelated style images. It is both modern and different (and something I wish I had thought of).

Cute.

Love:

Smart.

(Please consider this the start of my birthday/Christmas list, Mom.)

choosing fabrics...

2010-09-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

So here's the fundamental problem I face with sewing.

Here's the kind of fabric I love:

But here's the kind of fabric I actually use in my sewing.

I found the black fabric on a fabric shop detour during a vacation with my folks, and knew immediately it was the kind of fabric that would be super useful in my sewing. The shop owner asked what I would use it for, and seemed a little skeptical when I said it was for a baby quilt.

But I think that the final product reads more as "baby quilt" than most of the baby quilts I have made.

The color scheme is inspired by the backing fabric, the design is a play on a charm squares design, but with sewn stripes, half square triangles, and hourglass blocks mixed in.

The backing fabric is a fun plaid from Rainbow Gardens by Prints Charming, another piece I picked up for just a few bucks a yard.

Quilted with a grid pattern with a red polka dot binding.

I'm pretty happy with the design and the final product. Hopefully the recipients like it too!

awesome cookie

2010-09-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

I doctored up the chewy oatmeal cookie recipe from the King Arthur Cookie Cookbook by adding dried apples, golden raisins, and roasted cinnamon. Straight out of the oven, crazy good. Like almost the best cookie ever. The next day they weren't quite the same, but still tasty.

Also, a camera question for the knowledgeable among my blog readership:

Most of the pictures I take are blurry, presumably from my shaky hands. If I want to spend $100-$200 on a new compact digital camera, what features should I look for to ensure fewer blurry pictures?

baby quilt!

2010-09-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

One of my friends is expecting twins. I made a quilt for the boy a while back, and finished up the quilt for the girl yesterday with about a half hour to spare before the baby shower.

I had thought about the design plan and had a couple options in mind, but at the last minute decided to use the same pattern as the boy quilt so that they would coordinate together.

I worked on the color scheme a lot in that I am trying to get better at choosing colors that go well together but are not traditional color combinations. Brown+magenta+yellow-green+amber isn't that risky but I think it reads as interesting yet pleasing which was what I was going for.

Half square triangle pattern set on the bias:

Quilted in a wavy stripe pattern:

Orangey binding:

With a Rainbow Gardens fabric back from Prints Charming that I picked up for $3 a yard (and that I love):

The quilts for the boy twin and girl twin together:

I think they were a hit with the mom-to-be.

vintage fabric from quilt-a-fair

2010-09-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite Colorado events is Quilt-a-fair. It's an event where fabric and quilting vendors set up booths at the fairgrounds. Having gone for several years now, I know to make a beeline for a vendor in the back corner that offers up pieces of older fabrics.

From this booth, I bought a yard of this gem for $4.

A piece of bird fabric in awesome drab colors.

A sweet print of candy jars drawn on plaid grid background ($3 for a yard)

A floral in a shade of orange that can be hard to find (half a yard for a buck)

I like all these together too:

Some daisies on a blue background (fat quarter for fifty cents)

A polished cotton in gray and pink:

A yellow and black house print:

One of my favorite booths is an adorable mom-and-pop booth (actually a grandma-grandpa booth) where she sews on a featherweight while he handles the fabric transactions. It's a well curated booth of sweet vintage prints and I always buy a little something from them. This year, a pink plaid with avocado/berries:

And a sweet stripe:

I bought two yards of a bicentennial Declaration of Independence print at another booth:

I don't need any fabric of course, but vintage fabric is hard to resist when it is only a few bucks.

random rad

2010-09-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

super fun fabric - Petit Village from Timeless Treasures

wonky plaid potholder

2010-09-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

Spoonflower recently had a free swatch day.

I picked out a bear print from m.patrizio, one of my favorite illustrators in the cute genre.

I sewed it as the back of a potholder. (I decided I needed a potholder for when I reheat lunch at the office, and didn't want to break up one of my sets of hot pads at home.)

For the front, a wonky plaid in aqua, orange, and pale yellow.

some baking

2010-09-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

I made some whoopie pies again.

And raspberry brownies with a chocolate raspberry ganache. Crazy rich. Super tasty.

lovely fabric

2010-09-09T15:23:00.001-07:00

I think I could come up with a post everyday of a great new fabric. (Which probably means I spend too much time on the web.)

Here's a gem from the Winter Forest collection from Avlyn Fabrics.

more sky views

2010-09-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

The fires in Boulder remain in the mountains west of town, but it remains quite smoky here, especially depending on the winds are blowing. We managed to get a little bit of rain today - not sure how much it helped but it couldn't have hurt.

As the skies cleared, there was one of the most striking rainbows I've ever seen (maybe something do with the smoky air?). It's just a cell phone picture so it doesn't quite capture it, but it's even a double rainbow.

the usual: cookies, fabric

2010-09-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

I made some Salty Oatmeal Cookies from the King Arthur Cookie Book.

They are odd but good.

Like yesterday's post, also file this under "Stuff I Want But Don't Need AT ALL." I bought a couple yards of this fabric on Etsy despite having no planned use for it, because it is rad and it reminds me of Orla Kiely, though probably a knock-off of this print. (Didn't realize quite how similar it was until I googled the link there or else I might have actually paused before purchasing. Boo to copyright infringement.)

completely wasting time

2010-09-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

File this post under both "Stuff I Want But Don't Need AT ALL" and "Really, I Need to Stop Procrastinating on Work by Blog Posting."

World's Fair fabric.

This is the All-Star of the lot. From the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. Purchase salvaged yardage here.
(Selvedge: "Come to the Fair" by Millworth Converting Corporation)

And in another colorway:

Also from the Seattle World's Fair, via Flickr.

From the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Purchase here.

Via Flickr - more 1939 World's Fair fabric:

Also from the 1939 World's Fair:

Labor Day views

2010-09-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

The sky to the south:

The sky to the north:

Scary wildfires in the mountains northwest of Boulder. The air smells smoky miles away.

this and that

2010-09-05T18:03:00.000-07:00

I bought some tenugui fabric while in DC for work. It's Japanese cotton towel fabric. More about it here.

Before I left, I put together a new totebag. It's quite similar to its predecessor but I made a few tweaks, including adding piping. I now think piping is awesome. Easy to add, and makes a more professional bag. It makes it almost look not homemade.

The lining is vintage daisy fabric. Special padded pocket to perfectly fit my netbook.

cupcake time

2010-08-15T19:47:00.001-07:00

I made some cupcakes.

Orange pineapple cupcake with orange pineapple cream cheese icing, topped with some crushed Lifesavers.

I didn't have enough eggs so I ended up winging it, adding this and that (including pudding mix and pineapple puree) and they turned out surprisingly tasty despite this.

new Denyse Schmidt fabric line=rad

2010-08-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

I don't know why this hasn't popped up elsewhere in my blogroll yet, but here are some pictures of Denyse Schmidt's newest line of fabric that I found on her website.

The collection is called Greenfield Hill.

According to her website, the fabric line is:

Inspired by Ladies' League luncheons and Preservation Society socials, Greenfield Hill evokes afternoon teas, polite gossip, the faded wallpaper in Mrs. So-and-so's drawing room, the slightly musty library on the green, and motoring on a perfect, crisp and sunny day.

It will be available in three colorways:

Green

Blue:

Rose:

Scheduled to be available in November in both cotton and voile.

Sweet!

whoop-de-doo!

2010-08-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

I decided I needed to make whoopie pies.

The cake is boxed chocolate cake mix, prepared according to directions except with only half of a cup of water. Dropped on cookie sheets and baked for 5.5 minutes at 400 degrees.

The filling is a nutritious cup and a half of shortening, a small jar of marshmallow fluff, 1 t vanilla and 0.25 t almond extract, and about three cups of powdered sugar, mixed together with enough milk or cream to make a spreadable consistency. Put some raspberry jam on one, should have added it to some of the others too.

I also made Brown Sugar Cookies from the King Arthur cookie book. They are basically a shortbread with a chocolate frosting. I don't know if it is the altitude or user error but whenever I make shortbread it is always unmanageably dry. Added a second egg yolk and a few sloshes of half and half to make the dough have a workable consistency. Didn't care for the cookies on first tasting but liked them more the next day,

BUNNY!

2010-08-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

I made a big-footed bunny for a two year old who's celebrating his birthday today.

I've made one before in pink, not sure I like this color scheme quite as well but it's fine. It's from this pattern. It's a great pattern too, super cute and easy to put together.

C is for Cookie

2010-08-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

I made some devil's food cupcakes with chocolate chips and buttercream icing.

Oh, and I decorated them to look like Cookie Monster.

They are slightly crazy looking but cute enough.

some new old fabrics

2010-08-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

I am a fan of black fabrics lately...picked up this piece at an antique mall recently for a buck.

when I was visiting my folks, I bought this curious fabric at a craft/clutter store. It looks like a rice sack but it's actually yardage with a selvedge and such. I suspect it is old but don't know much about it. I think it could be fun used in a quilt back or use some of the text in a pieced quilt.

here's a fabulous piece of vintage fabric I don't think I've ever posted before - I think I bought it on Etsy. the colors are rad and so is the illustration style.

Quilt bee quilt!

2010-07-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

three posts today, and the best for last.

drum roll, please...

that's right, after a mere year and a half, I have finished my quilt for the Common Threads quilt bee!

My design plan was to combine a bunch of sad gray solids with a touch of coral red. I really like dreary sorts of color schemes lately, combining muted colors with dingy solids as opposed to the bright colors on white backgrounds that I used to work with a lot.

I think about 65% of the blocks are from the members of the quilt bee, and then I added in a few more to make a throw-sized quilt. I really like the blocks made by all the bee members.

I had pieced together the top last year, but lost interest in making the back or putting it together. But I hauled it out a few weeks ago and decided to finish it.

Since I first started it last year, I ended up getting a new couch that matches that red color quite well...

the grays go well with my gray loveseat - plus it appears to be the perfect width for laying over the back of the loveseat.

I quilted it in long vertical wonky stripes. I had planned a solid light gray binding, but on the last day of quilting it, I realized how awesome a striped binding would look.

My favorite part is actually the back.

It is another design inspired by glass artwork, this time the fused glass work of Klaus Moje that I saw at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York when visiting my sister.

I like the vertical quilting against the horizontals of the back pattern.

For being a sad-colored quilt, I'm pretty happy with it. :)

the magic of vinegar

2010-07-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

This summer, my idea of cooking is to buy random vegetables that are on sale at the grocery store and then plop them in some vinegar and oil.

I bought some radishes, which I don't recall ever intentionally eating before. So pretty!

Added in cucumber, green onions, vinegar, sesame oil, cilantro, a few red pepper flakes. Good, not great.

Tuna salad with a vinaigrette instead of a mayo dressing. Good the first day, but it didn't hold up at all as leftovers.

Here's the vinaigrette salad all-star though:

It's a modified version of this recipe. I skipped the peppers, the cheese, the lettuce, and the olives. I substituted Greek seasoning for the oregano and garbanzos for the black eyed peas. For the orzo, I subbed in Trader Joe's Harvest Grains blend (couscous, orzo, red quinoa, baby garbanzos), a gift from my aunt since there are no Trader Joe's out here. It's my second go at the recipe and I think it's a keeper. The variety of textures in the grain mix is quite nice with the other ingredients.

baking update

2010-07-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

so I am working from home today, which means that I am bored to death. Actually, that applies when I am at work too. So I guess the main difference is that when I am bored while working at home, I screw around cleaning my kitchen and updating my blog.

So here's my weekly baking post.

I've been auditioning "bars" as the next thing in baking but I'm not convinced.

First, raspberry oatmeal bars using my homemade raspberry freezer jam. This recipe, I think. Generally tasty.

It's not the most glamorous picture, alas. I need a new camera, one with shock-guard or something so I don't end up with so many blurry shots of things. Bars are also a little tricky to photograph in an appetizing way, both due to their form and construction. This broke in half shortly after taking this picture, falling to its death on my kitchen floor.

Next attempt at bars: strawberry lemon bars. They sound delicious, right? Not very good. I ate a few but didn't really feel they were good enough to bother to drag into work. Pitched half the pan. I come from a family lineage of excellent lemon bar making but I clearly still need work on this front.

So I was going to make more bars, but blueberries were on sale and I couldn't resist making another round of blueberry buckle, this time in muffin form.

vintage Golden Book fabric

2010-07-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

So while squandering time searching fabric auctions on eBay a while back, I was surprised to find that the recent releases of Golden Book fabric by Quilting Treasures are not the first releases of fabric featuring Golden Book illustrations.

There are several different vintage fabrics featuring illustrations from various Little Golden Books.

They are marked on the selvage usually with the name of the book and/or illustrator, the note "A Little Golden Book," "Made in the U.S.A." and "S&S A&W." The last part could be the manufacturer, or S&S could be the Golden Book publisher Simon & Schuster.

One of the great things about this fabric is that vintage Golden Books feature the work of just wonderful illustrators, like Mary Blair and Martin and Alice Provensen and Richard Scarry. I would love to have a stack of Mary Blair fabric.

Here are some of the prints that were made:

Mr. Noah and his Family (illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen)

Not sure which book this was from...

The Color Kittens (illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen)

The Circus ABC (very pricey, but some for purchase here)

Mother Goose

Pirates, Ships, and Sailors, illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren (he illustrated The Poky Little Puppy and the Shy Little Kitten, among others)

Baby's House (by Mary Blair!) (an even better picture here)

Five Little Firemen, illustrated by Tibor Gergely

Five Little Firemen

The Little Fat Policeman (illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen)

Richard Scarry?

Little Golden Book of Words

Here are two more that may be authentic or may be "inspired" by Little Golden Books, via True Up:

animals reading books.

probably not licensed Color Kittens

Research on Golden Book forums suggests that there are at least twenty or more different vintage Golden Book fabrics, most or all are marked as such on the selvage.

On the whole, the fabric seems exceptionally rare, but not necessarily stupid expensive. Some of the pictures above are from eBay auctions ending last month - and I'm not sure any closed much over $10 a yard. But finding some on Etsy or eBay is pretty tough.

jenny want

2010-07-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

If it were under $30 or if I were under 30 years old, I would definitely get this.

Temped nonetheless.

random stuff

2010-07-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

It's not like I don't have enough quilt stuff in my life, given that my office has without a doubt shifted from a workspace to a sewing room and the fabric closet is chock full, but nonetheless, I apparently want more. Like to decorate the rest of my house in quilt patterns.

This rug is rad.

It's actually FLOR tiles, so you can make any shape rug you want. Exclusive to CB2.

Heart.

baking!

2010-06-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

I made some brownies last week, doctoring a box mix (Pillsbury, because it is the best brownie mix). Instead of the water, raspberries (mashed and strained). Then a chocolate, vanilla, cream, and raspberry jam ganache. They were really decadent and delicious.

The picture is not the most appealing though. I should add a picture of a more photogenic dessert.

How about this?

Raccoon cupcakes!

Chocolate cupcake with chocolate chips with cream filling and buttercream frosting.

The ears are cut-up strawberry sandwich wafer cookies. Crumbs used for crooked smiles. Chocolate chip pupils and nose. The eye patches are chocolate wafer cookies cut to ovals. The rest is icing.

I told someone last week that if I didn't get tenure, I might become a cake decorator. I take that back. I like decorating cupcakes but it's more of a couple times a year sort of fun than something to do every day.

a baby quilt!

2010-06-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

I started this quilt in March, inspired by these fabrics I got in a fabric swap. The design is half square triangles on the diagonal. It's a traditional sort of design that I've saved to my inspiration folder a couple times now.

I quilted it in wavy rows, which is I think my favorite quilting style because it is super easy and very forgiving. (And I like how it looks.)

The back of the quilt is stripes of a striped tie print:

I thought about lining up the stripes to make more of a chevron pattern but it didn't really work with the nature of the prints.

Navy blue polka dot binding. I love polka dot binding.

from the kitchen

2010-06-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

So I actually have a sewing post in the works - I finished a baby quilt but lost the sunlight before I could snap some photos.

So instead, kitchen pictures.

I made caffeine cookies - technically, chocolate cookies with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, but renamed by my dad for the pep they provide. my favorite cookie of all time. it's the recipe on the back of the Reese's chip package. now that I am more cookie-knowledgeable I appreciate that part of the goodness must come from the crazy amount of butter in the dough.

I am terrible at planning a menu for the week, so I go to the grocery store five times a week, where lacking ideas, I buy random things that I then need to somehow combine when I get home. It's like a Top Chef challenge. Today, I bought strawberries, pork, tomatoes, and an English cucumber.

The results: marinated grilled pork and a Korean cucumber salad. They didn't especially go together, but the cucumber salad is surely a keeper. The description compares it to kimchi, which I love (and oddly, when I tell people I love kimchi, they always think I am joking).

from the kitchen

2010-06-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

Raspberries were on sale, so...

Raspberry freezer jam

Raspberry blackberry muffins. I used the same recipe as the blueberry buckle. It was a little better as a buckle than as a muffin, but the muffins were pretty darn good.

Plus coconut oatmeal chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

blueberry time

2010-06-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

I made blueberry buckle. It's the family recipe, but basically the same as this recipe with the add of a powdered sugar-milk-almond and vanilla extract icing.

It's crazy good.

five years

2010-05-31T20:28:00.000-07:00

So I actually sewed a little today, working on a baby quilt I started in March or so. But no pictures yet.

Instead, pictures from the kitchen.

Blackberry banana muffins. Recipe from Cupcakes from the Cake Doctor cookbook. Delish.

Corn and tomato salad. From Epicurious. I subbed basil for cilantro, white balsamic for white wine vinegar, and skipped the mint. I always think I will like fresh vegetables in vinaigrette dressing but often don't. This combination in the dressing is great though, definitely a keeper. The sweet corn was great too.

Blueberry almond oatmeal cookies. Doctored from a basic oatmeal cookie recipe. I don't like nuts in cookies much so I think I would like these better without the almonds. But I think they are pretty good on the whole.

As May winds down, I should probably demarcate the fifth anniversary of Blempgorf. Five years of randomness. Woo.

this and that

2010-05-20T20:41:00.001-07:00

I made some monster cookies, using the recipe from the King Arthur cookie book. they were very good.

I am posting a picture of the Kleenex I bought to make my mom envious, the latest volley in our Kleenex throwdown. the top pattern would make a rad quilt.

I went on a shop hop with my mom and bought a bunch of fat quarters. the animal print is a gift from her.

I made some blueberry muffins, using this recipe. Hungry approves.

mum bag for Mum

2010-05-10T18:21:00.000-07:00

I made my mom a bag for Mother's Day.

I made a felt flower using the template from Amy Butler's snow mum pillow, edited to have rounder petals. The rest of the bag is improvised.

I ran out of time so the pockets inside are a bit simple. But I really like how the outside turned out.

cookies

2010-04-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

Cookies!

Peanut cookies, to use up some peanuts from the cupboard. I used this recipe and they were good, very buttery.

Chewy chocolate chip cookies from the King Arthur cookie book, using a mix of semisweet and dark chocolate chips. ~~I haven't tried one yet.~~ The dark chocolate chips go great with this dough.

No sewing, but I am following my usual model of buying more fabric when I don't have time to sew.

I had a $5 coupon at the Fabric Shack, a $25 gift certificate from the Fat Quarter Shop, and couldn't resist some of the $3.50 a yard prints from Whittle's Fabric. So I had to get a bunch of tiny Lecien prints, Rainbow Garden fabrics, and Katie Jump Rope and Hope Valley prints from Denyse Schmidt. Now I just need to get some free time.

Side note, I biked another 1000 miles since my last indoor bike update.

cookies and taxes

2010-04-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

I made some almond-oatmeal chocolate toffee cookies to take to work for a really boring meeting.

I made up the recipe doctoring an old favorite oatmeal cookie recipe, adding a little almond extract, Heath chips, and chocolate chunks. very tasty!

also, a public service announcement - don't forget Schedule M! I did my usual forty-five minute tax form completion via the paper forms, and then thought to ask my folks if I might have missed anything. So thanks to my dad for alerting me to the sneaky "making work pay" line item ($400 for working folks, prorated if you make too much dough).

this and that

2010-04-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting the blog, mostly because I've been neither crafting nor baking. So what else has been going on?

This.

Ugh. And more of the same in forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday.

I haven't had much of an appetite lately, so I've been trying out some new recipes for inspiration. I cooked some asparagus for the first time - they have the pencil thin kind in season at the grocery store right now. I used the instructions from Bittman's How to Cook Everything - saute with oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes then add some soy sauce at the end. Very good.

I made this turkey sausage and garbanzo bean soup. The recipe is definitely a keeper.

And I tried this recipe for an Asian slaw, trying to emulate a recipe from a co-worker. I used half the oil, twice the peppers, and added sugar snap peas and two cloves of garlic. It was too much dressing at the end but with some more tweaking, I might get it perfect. This was close.

But here's the main reason I'm posting. I know my mom is eager to see Hungry modeling his present in my Easter basket. He was promised a bunny suit, but this is pretty good too.

There was some other great stuff in the Easter basket too, like candy and quilt mags and a lovely homemade cupcake apron. But I'll leave that last one for my mom to post on her blog.

a few updates

2010-03-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

First, I figured out what Hungry does while I'm at work - it appears he's got a side gig at the mall.

I made some cookies last week. Peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips and peanuts from the King Arthur cookie book again. I used King Arthur flour as Rossie suggested. The cookie dough was a top 5 cookie dough - so tasty uncooked. I baked them far less than suggested, but they ended up a little dry and overbaked anyway. I wonder if peanut butter cookies are more sensitive to the altitude than other varieties of cookies.

I started a baby quilt, inspired by these fabrics:

It's looking a bit traditional but lately I've been really liking traditional sorts of quilts anyway.

Other things I am liking:
- the dill yogurt barley salad from Mark Bittman's cookbook. I've made it eight times, because that's what I always end up doing when I find new recipe that I like.
- American Pickers and Pawn Stars on the History channel
- my care package from my folks, including new old animal friends my mom always put out as Easter decorations

a post on baked goods

2010-03-05T23:08:00.000-08:00

I made some cupcakes a week ago - I hadn't made any for a while. They were white cupcakes with lemon flavor + lemon buttercream + raspberry filling.

Last time I made them, I made the filling from scratch. This time I used a can of Solo raspberry pie and cake filling that I bought on sale a while back. The homemade version was better of course, but this was much cheaper and easier to make. It tastes like a doughnut filling.

But I think I'm still a bit tired of cupcakes, and instead plan to continue funneling my baking interests into cookies.

I got this book as a gift for Christmas...

First, I made a batch of old-fashioned raisin sugar cookies from the book.

They were good but not great, though both the folks at work and Hungry seemed to rate them higher than I did.

Next, I made a batch of chewy chocolate chip cookies. It's an interesting recipe - with vinegar and corn syrup in it. Very soft, though not all that chewy. Better than the average chocolate chip cookie. I think I should read the high altitude section of the cookbook more closely before I make these again.

The baked good I have around the house now is the Kringle. My mom bought me some in Milwaukee and sent me a pastry care package. It's basically a danish but the pastry is more buttery.

bauhaus quilt

2010-02-22T19:24:00.000-08:00

I made my sister (and her new husband!) a quilt.

The inspiration was a picture I tore out of my Time magazine last year, from an article on the Bauhaus exhibit at MOMA.

It's a glass piece from Josef Albers. I tried sketching my own interpretations of the design, but as it turns out, I'm not a famous Bauhaus artist and none of my versions were nearly as cool. so I did a pretty literal take.

I chose a blue as the accent color, using my big Kona color card.

the back design is my own. it's not quite what I had in mind when I started, but it's close.

I debated about what color to quilt it with as I didn't want to mess up the color blocking of the design. After consultation with my mom, I decided to use invisible thread on the front and black in the bobbin, in a parallel line pattern.

Inspired by a deadline (the wedding!), I also managed to put it all together in four days. Finishing it in time is good motivation to tackle some of my other works in progress and try to finish them up.

the wedding animal

2010-02-22T05:59:00.000-08:00

After a running joke about making my sister stuffed animal centerpieces for her wedding, she relented and asked for a wedding animal for her gift table.

I found a version of White Rabbit in one of my stuffed animal books. It was kind of ridiculous to make - incomplete instructions and wrong sized pattern pieces, plus some user error and last minute size modifications. But the end product is pretty cute. He sports a gingham shirt, bow tie, lined silk vest, and lined wool houndstooth jacket.

cookie time

2010-02-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

so apparently Hungry thinks we are breaking up.

No, Hungry, not true! I just broke my stand mixer and had to order a new one.

Dulce de leche sandwich cookies? Thanks, Hungry!

I pickled some mushrooms as well, which was so worth my ten minutes of time to do. Not the most appetizing picture, but quite tasty. I made them from this recipe, which I doctored a little.

ha! another fabric post

2010-01-31T22:20:00.000-08:00

The more time I spend at work, the more I seem to window shop for fabric - to try to fill in for the crafting I don't have time to really do, I suppose.

Here's my latest faves - designs from Hoodie from Blank Quilting.

Great colors...

A great retro feel...

Another vintage sort of style...

A more subtle but quite interesting print...

another fabric post

2010-01-28T21:47:00.000-08:00

More rad fabric...Shelburne Circus by Windham.

The kind of fabric you would need the right kind of project for, but a neat illustration style.

a fabric post

2010-01-27T17:28:00.001-08:00

Some fabric love...

Alexander Henry has the rad 2D Zoo print in two new colorways + a smaller scale version.

a sad-colored baby quilt

2010-01-24T11:58:00.001-08:00

I have been working on a baby quilt for a couple months now (I know), and I finally finished it.

The starting point inspiration was this circus fabric I picked up from Etsy, which I used as the back:

For the design, I wanted to make a string quilt, but in a less orderly style - more like the Any Way You Slice It from the Denyse Schmidt book.

Because I am into sad colors lately, I used the mustard from the circus fabric plus a putty color. It was a little too dark, so I ended up adding in a tan color too. It turns out to still be kind of bummer colors for a baby quilt, but in the end I think the circus back and movement in the front design keep it from being too dour.

I foundation pieced the blocks on paper.

I don't recommend five inch blocks for a string quilt. they take forever to make. I cursed that choice the whole time I was sewing it, until I realized just at the end that I had done that intentionally to have an even block layout to just fit the (narrowish) width of the circus fabric back.

I quilted it as a diagonal cross-hatch.

rainbow things

2010-01-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

My job has a way of really cutting into my leisure time. So just a little update.

My first rainbow thing:

A roll of Kona cottons I received for Christmas...love the colors.

My second rainbow thing:

Another Christmas gift - a Kona color card. Love.

My third rainbow thing:

Rainbow Jello! I need a better Jell-o mold now I think. I used a silicone Bundt cake mold, and it came out in pieces that I (mostly) reassembled. (Silicone cake pans have absolutely no virtues as far I can tell).

vintage wrapping papers

2010-01-05T06:04:00.000-08:00

When I was back in Michigan, I did a little shopping with my mom at the thrift store and the antique mall.

I did resist the adorable Playskool sewing machine.

But I couldn't resist a stack of vintage wrapping papers:

More of the new additions here - the last three or four rows.

Quilts of 2009

2010-01-03T23:42:00.000-08:00

Here's my retrospective on quilt-making in 2009. (Here's my 2008 review.)

So I made fewer quilts in 2009 than 2008 - only seven. Six baby quilts and one throw sized quilt. I did some other patchwork as well - some blocks for the Common Threads quilt bee, some baby bibs, a wallhanging.

Projects planned for 2010:
- A mustard colored baby quilt (in progress)
- Finish my Common Threads quilt (front done, need to do the back)
- A baby quilt in reds and blues (may opt out and gift something from the baby quilt stash instead)
- A black and white quilt (ordered a bunch of Kona fabric)
- ?

Quilting goals for 2010:
- Less wonky, more geometrics
- Traditional quilt patterns in modern fabrics (like a version of this super rad star quilt)
- Design more of my own quilt patterns
- More risks with color

(Of course, I'm also hoping to be more productive at work, which could prove to be incompatible with these quilting goals.)

Favorite Fabrics 2009

2010-01-01T21:40:00.000-08:00

Last year, Kim asked me for my picks for the best fabrics of 2008 on her awesome True Up fabric blog. She's opening up the list-making meme this year, and I decided to once again round up a list of some of my favorites from the past year.

Favorite overall designer:

Denyse Schmidt.

It is probably a predictable choice for me, but I find her latest fabric collection, Hope Valley, to be quite inspiring in terms of colors. It makes me want to use hues and combinations that I would not otherwise be initially inclined to use. Her quilts and her fabrics are always an inspiration. (Be sure to check out her website for a cool free pattern for a Scotty Dog pillow as well as pictures of her new quilt patterns.)

Favorite New Designer:

Momo.

I really like her Wonderland collection, for the colors as well as the designs. Like the Hello Betty collection last year, it's a line of fabric that wish I would have bought some of before the good prints became scarce. But my fabric closet thanks me for the breathing room, I suppose.

Favorite novelty fabric:

This number print from the Call Me collection from Luli Sanchez for Timeless Treasures is so rad. Love the 80s colors and I have a soft spot for number prints. I bought a yard or two just to have, with only the vaguest idea of what project to use it for. Also a contender for the sleeper/under the radar category.

Favorite collection of fabrics:

Rainbow Gardens by Prints Charming for Marcus

This is a group of fabrics where there are not really stand-out prints, but a lot of interesting prints that work well together. I have almost bought a stack of yardage of this fabric a couple times, because I really like the colors and designs. I just don't have any projects to use them in at the moment. I like that they are bold and bright, but not busy. I think there are a lot of possibilities for larger scale prints in quilting.

Favorite juvenile print:

Ring around the Rosie by Michael Miller

I love the illustration style on this as well as the unexpected black background on a children's print.

Runner up for favorite juvenile print:

My Kingdom, also by Michael Miller

Fun to look at, great colors.

Favorite floral print:

Pretty Bird Singing in the Garden by Sevenberry.

I think this is a great design. Sevenberry fabrics are an import from Japan, but they have a more traditional flair than a lot of imports, plus more subdued colors. Their fabrics are hard to find (Etsy's the best bet) but usually quite neat. This tree print from Sevenberry is great, and I stocked up on a bunch of these over the summer.

Favorite solid/nonprinted:

Linen Textures by P&B Textiles.

I ran across these earlier this year and thought they had a lot of potential. I tend to like solids and small scale prints for my sewing, and avoid those with hue variation like batiks or 'tonal blenders'. These fabrics make me reconsider my avoidance of textured fabrics - I love the linear printed linen look.

Favorite under the radar/sleeper collection:

Germania by Jay McCarroll for Free Spirit.

When I first saw this collection, I didn't really think it was my style. There are a lot of contrasting colors and jangly prints in the collection. But upon later inspection, I realized there is also a lot of awesomeness to be found in some of the smaller scale prints, and the larger scale circular prints are pretty neat.

Favorite trend in fabrics:

Fabric designs from scrapbook paper designers.

Many of the designs from Riley Blake are from people who specialize in scrapbooking paper designs. These are from the Sublime collection by Doohickey Designs. (Simple and striking.)

Cosmo Cricket has done a couple of collections for Andover - these are examples from the Hey Sugar and Girl Friday collections. (That graph paper fabric has a lot of potential for applique or embroidery.)

Besides for vintage fabrics, I have a small collection of vintage wrapping papers. And every once in a while, I'll run across an overlap - a vintage illustration that was produced both as a gift wrap paper and as a fabric. So it is neat to see the same cross-over today, where illustrators are producing designs for both textile and paper media. I like the aesthetic of scrapbook paper designs for fabric as well - many feature the kinds of small scale prints that I like to use in my sewing.

Biggest fabric news of the year:

(Arbitrary picture from Joel Dewberry's fab new Modern Meadow collection)

A responsive fabric market. The rise of interest in sewing and crafting has been met with a rapid rise in the number of interesting and modern fabric prints. I've been blogging here for almost five years, and I think this year more than ever before, I've been surprised at the number of great fabrics that are available - not just imports, but also stateside. You used to have to really hunt for neat fabrics - as the market tilted toward traditional sorts of prints. It's part of the reason why I became really interested in vintage fabrics - to find the kinds of designs that I couldn't find in quilt shops. Today though, it is much easier to locate just the kind of fabric you are looking for. An abstract plaid? Sure. A dot with yellow and orange? Yes. A simple print in spring green? It's out there. (What remains surprisingly hard to find, however, are diverse colors - there are quite distinctive color trends that remain in fabric sales and it can be hard to find modern kinds of prints in atypical colors like mustard, peach, mint, jade, putty, etc.)

Christmas pie

2009-12-31T15:08:00.000-08:00

So here's my holiday project - piemaking. I decided to take a lemon meringue pie to Christmas, because that's what my grandma always used to make.

and then to use the second pie shell, a coconut cream pie:

I bungled the first round on the coconut cream pie - couldn't get it to thicken, and then burned it. The second round was more successful, but I don't think I'm a pie maker - cakes are a lot easier to make.

with the fam in Michigan

2009-12-22T21:28:00.000-08:00

..where my mom made me grilled cheese for lunch.