ABC Swirl

I think it was the end of May when I received the latest Dropcloth alphabet sampler, ABC Swirl. So that means I stitched on it for several weeks. And honestly, it was most enjoyable, as all the ABC samplers have been. 

I thoroughly enjoyed mixing up the thread colors and stitches as I went. Then I chose a fun variegated thread to do a seed stitch 'border.'

It's been ages since I've shared the back of a project, so here you go! I honestly don't pay much attention to it as I'm stitching, so it's wild and colorful. How fun is that?

Improv: Inspired by Nature

Vicki Conley @vicki_conley_art_and_seattledesign and her work were new to me when I first heard of her workshop being offered by Seattle MQG, Improv: Inspired by Nature. But I liked what I saw very much and signed up. Well it took place on Saturday, and gotta say, I'm very glad I took it.

We were asked to choose a subject and share several photos with Vicki before class. My chosen subject was inspired by the goldfinch pair we'd seen at our bird buddy lately. Of the photos I shared with her, Vicki let me know it would be good to start with the one below, with wings outstretched.

Photo credit: Creative Commons

So mark the moment. I created my very first foundation paper pieced pattern!

Here are the fabrics I had pulled...yellows and a bit of black for the bird; and a range of grays and white for the background. 

SO, I made my first block, which measured 5.5" x 6.5". Encouraging us to make a range of block sizes, Vicki helped us by providing another size of our block - mine being 15" x 13". It felt pretty big, but I was happy to try.

So below are the two blocks I was able to complete during the workshop. Honestly, I don't love them for a few reasons - my use of white, period. Also, I don't like the shape of the head or the right leg/tail. BUT they're made from my very first FPP pattern, and I learned a lot. I plan to refine my pattern, as well as my fabric pull, and try again. Meanwhile, it was an excellent workshop, and my interest in the design process has definitely been piqued. 

Patchwork City Revisited

Cleaning out a cupboard of quilting books a few weeks ago, I found 8(!) quilt blocks stuffed into my copy of Patchwork City by Elizabeth Hartman @elizabethagh. Apparently, I'd started a BOM in 2015(!!) but didn't keep up and stashed them away for another day. I no longer have any of those Tula Pink fabrics, so I wasn't sure what I might do to use the blocks. Maybe something together, but maybe not.

But over recent weeks, I've been thinking I might like to continue making blocks, and was looking at scrap bags of Tula's fabric for sale, though I hadn't yet purchased any. And then..... last night at our guild meeting, I was shocked to see a good sized bag of Tula Pink fabric scraps on the free table! You bet I snatched them right up.

So I've pressed and sorted them all, and discovered that they are basically from two lines - True Colors (Wildflower, Mineral, Pom Poms, Hexy, Fairy Dust, Tent Stripe prints in a variety of colorways) and Homemade (Busy Fingers, Seed Stitch, Getting Snippy prints, also in a variety of colorways). There were more of some prints than others, but it all added up to 1.5#, or approximately 4 yards of fabric if measured by weight. And you can see that there's a stack of solid scraps also. I have no way of knowing if they are Tula Pink solids or not, but there're certainly welcome, no matter. I'm also not 100% sure the colors and prints will mix well with the blocks I already have, but I'm going to try. SO, I have a couple of quilts to finish, and some bee and BOM blocks to make, but one of these days soon-ish, I'll dig into these fabrics and see what I can do.

Garlic Scapes

Up for the random food post? If not, I'll be back soon with quilty-content, but I had an experience over the weekend that felt worth documenting for my food-loving self.

"Garlic scapes are the curly, twirly, green flower stalks that emerge from the tops of garlic plants as they grow. They can be eaten cooked or raw, and they’re as fun to look at as they are to eat! Garlic scapes have a mild and subtle garlic flavor, softer than the bite you’d find in raw garlic cloves. This makes them exceptionally versatile anywhere in cooking where you would normally use garlic."

- heartbeet kitchen

Often found primarily at farmers' markets, I was fortunate to find freshly cut garlic scapes on my kitchen counter over the weekend, thanks to hubby harvesting them from his herb garden.

Though I knew what they were, I didn't really know what to do with them. So I put out a call in my IG stories asking for suggestions, and I had several suggestions within minutes. Pesto was the overwhelming favorite, which sounded great to me. I tried the Garlic Scape Pesto recipe from NYT Cooking, substituting walnuts for the suggested sunflower seeds, as that's what I had on hand, and it was SO good. 

Note: Charles @feltlikesweets told me he blanches scapes for 5-6 minutes before using in his favorite pesto recipe, replacing the basil. So I did blanch mine too, though the linked recipe above included both the scapes and basil in it. Just fyi.

That night, I served it over grilled chicken; the next night with rustic herb bread. I can't imagine anything it wouldn't be delicious on. Some of the other suggestions I got were:

• sauté in oil or butter
• use in soups or salad
• serve over firm white fish
• use on pizza in place of red sauce
• pickle them
• stir fry with other veggies

Now that I know, I may try them a different way next time, but meanwhile, I used all of this year's crop in that pesto, and I'm definitely not sorry.

Tonal Strings

Ready for another scrappy improv quilt, I turned to Free Form Quilts & Patchwork by Jessie Cutts @cuttsandsons for inspiration. While perusing the projects, I was drawn to the instructions in step one of Project 1, "I start by tipping out my scrap basket...." so that's where I began.

Even though it's not that visible in the photo above, as I pawed through those scraps, I felt like there was quite a bit of brown. And I quickly settled on a palette for my next project. I'm not sure if it quite fits the 'tonal strings' theme of the project in the book, but this is what my scrap basket had to offer me.

Per Jessie's instructions, I began by piecing the smallest pieces together. 

And before long, I had a quilt top, about 25" square. As you can see, I tried hard to use even the tiniest bits - those were cut-offs from piecing the other strip sets. Not my norm to even keep those, but I like what they added to this piece.

I pieced together what was left on the cutting table, included the three smaller improv blocks below.

All that didn't make a large enough quilt back, so I pulled some Kona Punch from stash to bring it up to size.

I'm sharing this part of the project now, because it'll be a while before I have a finish to share. I'm going to hand-quilt this one, and I know that will keep me busy for days (weeks?). I'm already a few sessions into it, and I don't even have the center blocks done. But it's looking good, so I'll be back to share it once I'm done.