Friend Vicky

   Today we said good-bye to our Friend Vicky.  We said good-bye to our friend, a fellow quilter, a good and giving soul.
   I met Vicky when she joined our retreat group.  How surprised was I to learn today that she had only been quilting for about 6 years!  She was a sewer but became a quilter when she retired.  Immediately upon discovering quilting she became a quilter and found a community.  But that's what it's like to say "I'm a quilter."   
  One of the communities Vicky discovered and became devoted to is called Love Sews.  These people make quilts for people who badly need a quilt hug.  Vicky, being a good and giving soul found her niche here.

When it was Vicky's turn to need a hug this group gathered themselves in their grief and made this part of saying goodbye easier for her husband and daughter.   This is their work space and for today they lined the walls with some of her quilts and transformed their sewing space into Vicky's space.  

 Walking in here took our breath away, we could point to many of the quilts we saw while under construction, we could attach little notes to the quilts (with baby clothespins) and share our memory of that quilt, we looked at the pictures of her life spread out on more of her quilts (table to the left),
we could fill a plate with the abundant lunch and visit with a room full of  friends.

    You couldn't help but keep looking up!

   We could go into this quiet curtained corner and say our final good-bye to her.  Her remains were in a box decorated with a quilt pattern.

    

Vicky didn't want a sad funeral, she wanted people to be happy in their memories of her and while we are all still shaking our heads that she got sick and left us so quickly,  today we let her have it her way.

Recipe

Question:

   If you change a recipe so much the original owner of it doesn't recognize it, is the recipe still theirs or is it just inspiration?
    A few years ago a chef told me I am an old world cook.  Recipes are just suggestions.  I tend to open the cupboard doors and refrigerator and think, "hmmm....this might be good in there" and stir it in.   I've written down on napkins ingredients for an appetizer I had in a restaurant and then come home and replicate it.  A friend once asked, "how do you know how much to put in?" and I said, "you add it till you can taste it."  That's when the chef I was talking to said I was an old world cook.
    The other day I made a gingerbread cake.  The recipe didn't call for the golden raisins, orange peel, candied ginger, dates( all soaked in rum,) pecans and apricots I put into it, but I did.   

 Cranberries are showing up by the truckload in grocery stores and I love, love, love the tart little things.  While wandering around Pinterest one evening I found a recipe someone said was from her 95 year old Grandmother from Germany.  I love recipes from 95 year old little old ladies so I printed it out and today I made a double batch.  Some for Thanksgiving and some for us.

    I changed it mightily.  She said to cut the cranberries in half.  Really?  I asked PH if he thought this was something he could see me do, "can you see me cutting all of these little buggers in half?"  He said no.  I dumped them in the pan with the orange peel, the cut up oranges, the water and almost a cup of raisins.   I've found that if you use golden raisins you might be able to hide them better in things you make for people who would rather die than eat a raisin.  I've hidden golden raisins in oatmeal cookies and they never knew.  Golden raisins give a chewy texture without the raisin taste.
     So.  Her recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of sugar for a bag of cranberries.  Well.  That's not going to happen, either.  I want the tart, not the sweet. I want to taste the berry not the sugar.  So for one batch I used 1/2 cup sugar and it's just right.  There's enough sweet to be there but the tart is perfect.

Here's the original recipe:

4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, halved. 
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
2 oranges peeled, sliced, chopped
1 cup raisins
1 1/4 cup water
1 cup chopped pecans
2 1/2 cups sugar
     Cook the berries, zest, oranges, raisins, water till the cranberries are soft.  Add the sugar and pecans and simmer for 10-15 minutes.   Cool. Store.

OK,  here's what I did:
 
4 cups fresh berries,
the zest of a large orange
2 oranges peeled and ground up in my mini-food processor
1 cup raisins
1 1/4 cup water
no pecans
1/2 cup sugar  (yes, just one half cup)
     Cooked per instructions.

For the second batch I didn't add raisins but did add the 1/2 cup sugar so the total for the double batch was 1 cup sugar.  I combined the two cooked batches in a bowl so there are some  raisins not a lot of them.
No pecans because nobody would eat it on Thanksgiving if there are nuts in it. Nobody but me.

So, I think 95 year old grandmother's recipe was inspiration.   My moms is just as delicious but very different.  I love it!

My mom's cranberry relish:

Grind together in a hand cranked meat grinder (I use a food processor)
1 whole orange including the peel - just dump it in
1 whole apple
1 bag fresh cranberries
Done!  No cooking.

Stitchin' stuff

     Checking in with projects.   I'm determined beyond all determination to use the fabric I have.  A trip to the quilt store is on an absolute needs only basis.  Like for batting.  So, with that in mind, I decided to stop hoarding the embroidery squares I had my mom work when she still had the eyesight to do it.  I think I've had these stored for about 10 years.  I'm starting to get to the age when I say to myself, "What are you saving that for?? The estate sale after you die???"

   So. These three quilts are for the grand girls at Christmas.  My mom did the embroidered squares and I put the quilts together for the girls. A little bit of Grandma love.   They are simple for two reasons:  I had to finish hand quilting three of them by Christmas (or well before) and I wanted the embroidery to be the focus.

 This one is for Ceci.  When she was born I enlarged a Sunbonnet Sue for her baby quilt so these Sues were a natural choice for her.

 The green one is for Elizabeth.  She likes quieter colors.  The embroidered pieces are tea pots and tea cups.  Theirs is a tea drinking family. 

    This one is Adelaide's.  She likes brighter colors.  Again, the tea pots and tea cups.  She is a huge tea lover.
    And, there are MORE embroidered squares in other designs to use in other projects. 


Have you ever noticed when you are trying to use up scraps that they never really go away?  Using scraps doesn't diminish your stash either, does it?  Using scraps sounds like a good idea but in reality, I can't see much depletion of the reserve.

 These strings were sewn onto batting when I didn't know any better, again, at least 8 years ago. Because I used batting for a foundation, I had a hard time trying to come to terms with backing them, quilting them and making a real quilt out of them.  Friend Dodie showed me how to do quilt-as-you-go but it's just been on the back burner so I've been moving these squares from one place to another, either in house moves or room moves.  I'm finally tired of moving them so last week I sat down with a pile of bigger scraps for backing and sewed (with the machine...ugh) a backing onto each of them and added a binding.  Now they're coasters or pot holders for a tea pot or a place to put that hot teapot down or whatever.  At least they are going to be used instead of moved.   I plan to hand them out to people everywhere I go.

 There are certainly enough of them!  I am turning the bindings while watching British mysteries in the evening.  We're hooked on those.



Sheepbunnies.  While on retreat and at a quilt shop (I know, I know...no shopping anymore) I was telling Friends Barb and Sally that I would consider a border fabric for the sheep squares I was working on.  When I described them to Friend Marilyn and I got to the part about their ears I realized they are bunnies, not sheep.   I knew that.  Really.

 Again, these are from scraps, big and small and blue.  Some still need their little sheepbunny tails stitched on.

Still with me?  Recently I sent to Friend Susan in Australia an envelope with maybe 300 or so yo-yos.  I had done a project with some 300 more and after realizing I was moving them from one storage place to another, from tote to jar to box I remembered Susan expressed an interest.  So, into an envelope they went, I walked it down to the post office and sent them on their way.    She was surprised (I do love surprises) and excited and happy with her windfall.

A couple of weeks later she threw down the gauntlet and challenged me to take on something that SHE had been staring at and moving from place to place in her sewing room. Here is my challenge from her.  I'm still thinking but ideas are starting to percolate.

You're all caught up now.  Phew!

Orange

    We woke up to slushy snowflakes this morning and Facebook was all abuzz with it.  You'd think we've never seen snow on Halloween before.  We have.  It doesn't stick because the ground is still too warm, but if there was ever anything to scare the tuna salad out of you, it's the forboding that snow on Halloween brings. 
     Orange isn't my favorite color.  I can take it only in small doses but this time of year even I have to admit it's pretty.

But never fear, Christmas is near!  Last night we met friends for dinner at a tiny neighborhood dive bar in the city that goes all out for the holidays, especially Christmas.  This place starts booking spots in March for December.  We, being old now, got there early last evening and it's a good thing because we were there 3 hours.  When we get together with Friends Richard and Marilyn we all can't talk fast enough and all together at once and punctuated with laughter.  If you were at the next table watching us you'd need a stop watch and a score card.
Now, this place might look like they're done decorating since it appears to the novice that every wall and ceiling surface was covered, but we were assured they were still in the process and had much more to go.  In fact, this year they skipped decorating for Halloween because so many people book to see Christmas decorations the workers said they had to keep pushing Christmas bookings earlier and earlier.   Happy Halloween!

Catching up

Hopefully, now that I am hearing  that people do indeed read this blog but are just not able to comment, I'll try to do better about posting more often.  I missed it, but really felt like the Lone Ranger out here. It would be nice if Blogger would just leave us alone.


The big news for me is that I've joined the world of smart phone owners. I've never had one so while learning to use it I've been taking stock photos of what's happening around lately.  Not much in earth shattering news, though, and on one level, that's good news.

 The forest looks like this and it's glorious.  The gold is so gold it makes the inside of the house glow, too.  PH and I stand at the back door and stare into the forest.  All too soon the ground will be white.

 We had a beautiful weekend, warm and windy and if you stayed indoors you missed what may be our last really warm one.  We took a drive to the lakeshore and had a nice lunch and watched this out the restaurant window.  Brian, we decided you would have loved this!

 After a summer hiatus we've begun our monthly stitch days again.  Once a month Friends Marilyn and Jan and I get together to stitch and visit. Marilyn is working on big stitching her latest project.  Marilyn quilts with the stab stitch method.

 Jan is trying to learn a different technique for casting on stitches for a hat.  Apparently there are different cast-ons for hats to make them easier to stretch.   Who knew?

 

And I am still dragging the stars around with me.  They get worked on only as a portable project so it's slow going.  But slow is good sometimes. 

 When the days turn colder it's time to bake - these are lemon curd pecan rolls.  Oh, my.

And if you aren't baking and eating pumpkin bread in October and November then when are ya?

 And finally, last night PH and I had my brother and sister (seated) and in-laws over for dinner.  Nibbles and wine and we didn't get farther than the kitchen for the first hour.

Slow cooking, slow quilting, slow reading, slow days.

We Were Enough

   I didn't mean for so much time to lapse between posts but things started happening and then it was retreat time so I waited to show you some things we did together.
   First of all, our together was greatly diminished this fall.  We kept telling ourselves, "we are enough," but we did miss three of our group.  One was nursing her husband who was in a catastrophic accident a few weeks ago.  She did manage a little R & R for herself and joined us on Saturday evening for a couple of hours.   One had family/work/stress obligations.  One, our dear Friend Vicky was diagnosed with a brain tumor and the outlook isn't promising. 
    One of the things we did was make banners for a prayer flag for her.  Something to her from us so she knows we are thinking of her.   I made mine at home because, you know, I don't travel with a machine.  But the others worked as we kept Vicky forefront in our minds.

 Friend Marilyn was tracing a sailboat pattern because Vicky lives near the lake and recently made a stunning sailboat quilt.

 Hearts

 Some wool work

There were twelve flags, Friend Barb strung them on a cord and she and Friend Sally will deliver it to Vicky.  And we know when she can focus she will know we are thinking of her.



We also had a pottery challenge to return this fall.  Last fall we exchanged a bit of pottery and the receiver was to make a small piece that was inspired by the pottery, come back this year and give back to the owner.  Well, because we were missing three people, and by Saturday night, a fourth because Nancy took a very large piece of her finger off when she maneuvered a chair and so went home, a few of us didn't receive theirs - hopefully soon.

 I had Vicky's little red truck pottery piece and so did this.  I delivered it to Vicky in the hospital before retreat so only had this picture to share.

 This is Friend Nancy's piece, she's trying to smile but was in pain. Marilyn made this for Nancy.

 Friend Jan did this for Lisa, who wasn't there, and Jan's partner wasn't there so Jan didn't get hers...yet.

 Sally gave this little bell from Switzerland and the colors are reflected in this piece that resembles a snowflake in blues.

 Barb gave a piece of blue splatterware and received this piece.

I gave a Polish Pottery bird scoop - I like birds and I like blue - and Joyce made this piece and included as the focal point a replica of the bird.  It's beautiful and perfect!


So, once again we had a wonderful five days and while we were a smaller group, we were enough.

Cilka's Journey

  Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris

Have you read yet The Tatooist of Auschwitz?  It's the story of Lale and Gita Sokolov's survival in Auschwitz. Of course, to survive many other people needed to be trusted and included.  One of those people involved with Lale and Gita was Cilka. Cilka was just a teenager and she was beautiful so of course she attracted the attention of the commandant. Cilka was made his mistress and given unbelievable power over the other female prisoners.  But, when you are in her position, you do what you need to do to survive.  These things you do are not easily forgotten.
     When the war was over and the camp liberated by the Russians Cilka's journey was not over.  She was accused of collaborating with the enemy and forced to exchange one prison for another, she is sent to Siberia along with anyone else the Russians didn't trust. 
     But Cilka already knows how to survive.  You dig deep. And even though she is once again forced to be someone's mistress and work and live in a cold that can only be imagined she knows she has brains and spunk and heart and you keep your head down.  A female doctor in the camp sees this and takes Cilka into her world of healing, however that can happen in a place like this. Healing can happen in many ways.  Cilka forms friendships,  shows heart and compassion to the sick and injured and eventually she discovers she has even more strength than she ever knew. 
    The Tatooist of Auschwitz is a true story and so is Cilka's.