At the Table :: Rainy Day Bites September to December

This is obviously mostly for me, but I really wanted to record the last of this year's challenges with the Rainy Day Bites Cookbook Club hosted by Deborah Balint @rainydaybites. Thanks for indulging me!

Note that I linked to each IG post, in case you wanted to read what I wrote about each recipe.

September

Featured book: Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes, and Stories by Nigella Lawson @nigellalawson

fish stick bhorta 

pappardelle with cavolo nero and 'nduja

October

Featured book: A Cook’s Book by Nigel Slater @nigelslater

a quick pancetta and bean soup with spaghetti

chicken and leek pie

parmesan biscuits

September & October baking book: Love is a Pink Cake by Claire Ptak @violetcakeslondon

huckleberry basil sugar scones

 

lemon meringue pie bars 

grey salt, white chocolate matcha blondies 

marble cake

November

Featured book: Veg-Table by Nik Sharma @abrowntable

corn cakes with Sichuan chive butter

orecchiette with asparagus + feta

sweet potato kale caesar salad

December

Featured book: Polska New Polish Cooking by Zuza Zak @zuzazakcooks, with bonus book also by Zuza Zak, Pierogi: Over 50 Recipes to Create Perfect Polish Dumplings

fried avocado and egg breakfast pierogi from Pierogi

crispy-baked pierogi stuffed with pork and pine nuts from Polska

November & December baking book: Knead Peace: Recipes From The Worlds Best Bakers in Support of Ukraine by @knead_peace_project

rosemary focaccia by Andrew Green of @knead_peace_project 

leek, guanciale and pecorino quiche by @mob  

pumpkin spice snickerdoodles by Yotam Ottolenghi @ottolenghi

Unfortunately, I missed our final December challenges due to general holiday busy-ness, but am looking forward to starting fresh with Rainy Day Bites Cookbook club in the new year.

All the Dropcloth Samplers 2023

2023 has been the third year I've been stitching along on Dropcloth @dropcloth samplers! I posted them all at the end of 2021 and 2022, so of course, I wanted to document what I stitched in 2023 as well. This year, I was better at making the stitched samplers into usable items, which felt good. So here are the samplers I stitched this year:

Love

Strawberry Needle Book

Garden Path 

Originally designed to be made into pattern weights, I chose to make small needle books out of mine.

Log Cabin

 

Pencil X 2

As I shared recently, I made my pencil samplers into pencil pouches for my grandgirls, as they were originally designed to be.

I've been stitching on one more sampler, but I'm not going to get it done by year's end. Which is fine. I'm sure I'll find another one or few to add to it in the new year.

Best of 2023

Once again, I'm joining in Cheryl/Meadow Mist Designs' annual 'Best of' blog linky party. I've chosen to base my 'best' solely on reader views of blog posts. So here they are, counting up from #5 to the most viewed post of 2023.

5. Split Second, created for the QuiltCon Windham Artisan Cotton 2024 Fabric Challenge.

4. Midway Through the 100 Day Project - The photos below show just a smattering of the projects made during the first 50 days of my 100 days of using scraps! Several quilts, lots of potholders and mitts, and bee blocks. It was a fun focus, and I anticipate doing it again one of these days.

3. Split Pouch - This was the first of the Split Pouches I made using Carolyn Friedlander's newest pattern. It's a fun one!

2. Split Pouch Sew Along - The first one was so good, I couldn't resist joining Carolyn's sew along. To date, I've made six!

1. Scrappy Sparkle Punch - And here's the #1 post of the year - the reveal of my scrappy Sparkle Punch quilt! From the pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, I started it at the end of 2022, rather than putting all my holiday fabric scraps away for another year. Finished in January, it was waiting all year to be brought back out and enjoyed this holiday season. 

Thanks for joining in throughout the year. Really appreciate all of you who visit A Quilter's Table!

Linking up with Meadow Mist Designs' Best of 2023 Linky Party!

Merry Christmas!

Dear friends....

Wishing you all the joys of Christmas,

a pause filled with wonder and hope, 

and a healthy & happy New Year!

Bee Sewcial Holiday Swap

Bee Sewcial had a fun holiday gathering over zoom this week, where we swapped handmade items we'd sent to each other in the weeks leading up to our 'party.' Let's just say, it was a very good swap!

From Karen @capitolaquilter, I received the most beautiful quilted bucket. I adore her fabric choices - the lining and cuff one of my favorite fabrics ever.

The bucket is machine-quilted, and then along the top, Karen did some lovely hand-stitching.

The construction of the bottom intrigued me!

Lucky for us, Karen has written a tutorial for this darling Beginner Friendly Quilted Bucket Tutorial! I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Aren't handmade gifts just so precious?

Meanwhile, I was assigned to make something for Stephanie @spontaneousthreads. I made her a large Split Pouch, using the pattern from Carolyn Friedlander, with an Essex Yarn Dyed Metallic for the exterior, and for the lining, a long-stashed Suzuko Koseki fabric. 

Just for fun, I made a tiny pincushion and needle book from the quilted pouch scraps. 

And a new touch was to use leather for the zipper tabs.

I quilted the outer fabric onto Soft and Stable with Aurifil 28wt [Wine], and I really enjoyed the contrast, with a zipper to match

Both the snaps and the made bias tape on the interior were in black, to coordinate with the black in the lining print.

The zipper pull was made from leather lacing, and I added a checkerboard label from Sarah Hearts to the pincushion, just another black and white detail.

Well that was a lot of fun. I love the gift Karen made me, Stephanie seems plenty happy with the gift I made her, and we had a very enjoyable zoom. I'm grateful for creative friends, that's for sure.

Triple Trees + Evergreen Trio

I told you I might squeeze in some more fun sewing! When Kristy @quietplay offered up her free Triple Trees pattern, I took her up on her kind offer, not really knowing what I might do with the little trees. But over last weekend, I had a couple of hours to play, and decided to made them out of scraps. 

Striped Tree

Braided Tree

I thought they would make great little holiday coasters, and wouldn't it be nice if I could come up with a fourth? It came to me to check Kristy's shop, and wouldn't you know, she had another pattern, Evergreen Trio, which coordinated perfectly with the Triple Trees. So I made all six!

Evergreen Tree

Geometric Tree

The trees were, indeed, made completely from my solid scraps, with the backgrounds and backings from a long-stashed (2015!) piece of original Cotton + Steel Sprinkle by Sarah Watts @wattsalot in a light gray. The sprinkles reminded me of snow, which I thought was perfect as a backdrop for the colorful assortment of trees.

Branched Tree

Slanted Stripe Tree

Unexpectedly, I had a little more time that evening to sew, and was able to nearly finish the coasters, all but the topstitching around the edges. Of course, that took just a few minutes the next day. They're super cute, don't you think?