Month: October 2018

Turkey Tracks: More Mt. Battie Tula Pink Quilts in Our October 2018 Meeting

Turkey Tracks:  October 30, 2018

More Mt. Battie Tula Pink Quilts

In Our October 2018 Meeting

Tula Pink’s 100 Modern Quilt Blocks were a challenge started in, I think, 2016.  Quite a few Coastal Quilters and Mt. Battie Modern members made these blocks.  Here are a few more:

Linda Satkowski set her blocks in dark grey—in the city scape format and with color groups together.  I am a bit nutty over dark grey these days, so of course I love this quilt top!

 

Becca Babb-Brott’s top was finished in early spring, but she had a really busy summer, as did I.  So we finally slowed  down and got her quilt on the long arm a few weeks ago.

She chose to do a simple wavy line—not wanting to take away from the setting and blocks.  The wavy lines are like wind blowing against the buildings of the city scape format.

Tori Manzi opted to set her blocks without sashing and with color blocks.  Wow!  What a pretty quilt!

 

Tori used Carolyn Friedlander’s new text fabric that has big letters.  Boy do I like that fabric.

Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie October 2018 Show and Tell

Turkey Tracks:  October 30, 2018

Mt. Battie October 2018 Show and Tell

Roxanne Wells visited our meeting and brought a quilt to show:  “Screech.”

Oh my.  How glorious is this quilt?  But Roxanne’s quilts always are…glorious works of art.  She used machine decorative stitches extensively in this one, which inspired us all.  Thanks, Roxanne, for sharing.

Becca Babb-Brott has finished this big hexie quilt for her daughter.  We are holding it sideways to keep it off the floor.  I like the puce green binding too.  This one will be snuggly for a long, long time, which is it’s purpose.

Becca quilted very loosely—going around the big blocks and putting two stripes down the center of each.  I should have taken a picture of the back, as the quilting pattern looks really nice there.

Linda Satkowski bright her hand-made hexie flower quilt top to share.  We saw it in progress some time back, but here it is all done.  We will look forward to seeing it totally completed.  What a fantastic quilt!

 

A number of Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks quilts also came to the meeting.  They are in a separate post.

Turkey Tracks: Another Knit Top

Turkey Tracks:  October 28, 2018

Another Knit Top

I am really loving the three knit tops I’ve made from Simplicity 8529.  I finished this last one the other day.  It and one other are Cortton+Steel knits.  The third is a fleece top, pictured below.

I like that there are side slits and that the back is longer than the front.  The collar has a self-facing.  It’s easy to put a  t-shirt underneath it for more warmth.

I cut out this navy one last summer, but only just slowed down to sew it.  I have three other garments cut out, but have gotten a bit side-tracked with quilty projects.

 

 

Here’s the fleece top.  I put it on two days ago and stil have not changed it out for some other clothing.  One reason is the totally yummy pants I got from LLBean.  They are so soft—a cotton/stretch mixture.  They are kind of like a sweatshirt fabric, but are plain on the inside.

 

Turkey Tracks: Yummy Soup!

Turkey Tracks:  October 27, 2018

Yummy Soup!

I roasted a chicken the other day.

Roasted chicken always means making soup broth.  With the Histamine Intolerance, I can’t make bone broths that cook for 24 hours any more—long cooking equals too much histamine in the food.  But I’ve been able to make a quick broth with the bones and carcass that cooks about an hour.

I am so happy because I really love soup!

This soup is filled with local veggie goodies and two boneless chicken breasts cut into pieces.  I had some cooked kate to add, some peas from the spring pea crop I blanched and froze, carrots, red peppers, leeks, cauliflower, the tiny last baby zucchini from my garden, and fresh garlic.  These veggies all cook really quickly after being sweated for a bit in the pan to add more flavor.

I added some rice noodles that I cooked separately in the bottom of my soup bowl.

Yes, a yummy soup dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day.

Turkey Tracks: This One’s Ready to Sew Together

Turkey Tracks:  October 27, 2018

This One’s Ready to Sew Together

This scrappy quilt is my own design.  I’ve been working on it for some time now.  I bought the sashing material from Becca Babb-Brott at least three or four years ago.  (Becca has the Etsy store, Sew Me A Song.)

The 4 1/2-inch block centers are “made” fabric from my smaller scraps.  Both Bonnie Hunter and Victoria Findlay Wolfe “make” fabric in this way.  Along the way I began adding in some novelty fabrics to sprinkle throughout the quilt.

I used the Companion Angle ruler to cut the flying geese—but in a novel way to get the top flat edge—which I learned from Bonnie Hunter while making one of her mystery quilts—the Italian-inspired one I think, Allietore.  I used the Easy Angle ruler for the flying geese small triangles.  And all pieces were cut from 2-inch strips.

 

I’ve got the cutest backing for this quilt, and I can’t wait to longarm quilt it.  That day is coming up fast now.  I’m not sure what I’ll use for binding yet.  I might use either the sashing or the backing fabric to bind.  The quilt has not told me what it wants yet.

 

Turkey Tracks: Vicki Fletcher’s Mt. Battie Modern Traveling Quilt is Done!

Turkey Tracks:  October 25, 2018

Vicki Fletcher’s Mt. Battie Modern Traveling Quilt is Done!

Wow!  Vicki’s Traveling Quilt—a project last year for the Mt. Battie Modern Quilit Guild—came out so pretty!

It’s the FIRST of these quilts to be finished.

To remind, those of us who took on this challenge started with one block.  We each made a little book or set of instructions telling everyone what we liked and disliked.  Then, as each of us got the developing quilt, we added to it, using the original information and what other people had done.  Gradually, the quilts began to come together along their journey.  There were eight of us, and the project took about 18 months.

Here’s a closer view:

Stacy Hallowell at Mainely Sewing, owned by Marge Hallowello, quilted the quilt.  I really like the choice of the Bishop’s Fan for this veryl modern quilt.

The backing choice is awesome!  And the royal blue binding is just perfect.

Vicki also just finished this quilt for a family member.  We held it sideways so it would not get dirty.

Stacyl quilted this one, too.  Love the circles!

And look at this great backing!  It’s perfect for this quilt.

GO VICKI!!

Turkey Tracks: Marsha and Me

Turkey Tracks:  October 25, 2018

Marsha and Me

Here’s a FIRST COUSIN I’ve never met until she visited in my area recently.  My goodness, what a loss I’ve had in not knowing her before now.  She visited Maine for a wedding and went out of her way to come and meet me—along with her husband, who was equally as charming as she is.

My dad had two brothers and a sister.  My Aunt Jean was the youngest sibling.  Marsha is her daughter.  Aunt Jean married an Air Force man, and the two families were together in Hawaii, during the Viet Nam war.  So, my sisters knew Aunt Jean’s children, but I had married just before my dad went to Viet Nam and my mother moved the family to Hawaii to be nearer to my dad.

Now, like many families today, Aunt Jean’s children are scattered across America.  Marsha and Tom live in Colorado. So I am grateful for that wedding and the chance to meet Marsha and Tom.  They liked Maine.  Perhaps they will come back some day…  They will always be welcome in my home here.

Turkey Tracks: Becca-Babb Brott’s Latest Quilts

Turkey Tracks:  October 16, 2018

Becca Babb-Brott’s Latest Quilts

Becca’s “Long Time gone” quilt top, designed by Jen Kingwell, is done.  This quilt was a challenge in our Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild.  Note that Becca used a variety of neutral strips to piece her blocks together.  She is not going to add a border.

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Becca took an improv piecing class with Denyce Schmidt this past summer at Alewives Quilt Shop in Damariscotta Mills, Maine.  The quilt top emerged the other day—all finished.  It’s colorful and fun, and Becca really enjoyed the process she learned.  Denyce Schmidt’s web site is as follows:  http://dsquilts.com/

I am really intrigued by quilts made with the gorgeous solids on the market these days.  There is one in my future for sure.

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Turkey Tracks: Yummy Dinner 2

Yummy Dinner 2

SIL Maryann Enright visited this past weekend.  We had grilled lamb chops for dinner Friday night.  It poured rain Saturday, so we settled for an inside easy meal:  creamed fresh haddock–local and so fresh–with vegetables and rice.

We also saw some sweet peas at the Belfast Coop, so we picked up a few handfuls.

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This meal is so easy and so delicious and cooks in about 25 minutes.

Lay fish in a flat pan with sides:  I use a pyrex glass pan.

Salt the fish.  Add whatever veggies you have on hand or buy.  In season ripe tomatoes are yummy with this meal.  I can’t eat them though.  I had some leftover sautéed chard from last night’s dinner, so scattered that about.  Then I added some THINLY SLICED onion, red pepper, tiny baby zucchini, and carrots.  Slice thin to cook fast, especially with firm veggies like the carrot.

Salt more and scatter lots of herbs over everything–fresh if you can, dried if you can’t but not so much as you would fresh herbs.

Then, the magic, spread LOTS of raw heavy cream over the layers.  I used about 1 1/2 cups.  The fish will make a sauce with the cream.  You could add a dollop of white wine if you like.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes in a preheated oven.

Serve in a kind of bowl plate so you can add lots of the sauce.

Leftovers are delicious gently reheated in an oven.

PS:  you can do a similar casserole with chicken.  Lay raw rice on the bottom of a thick pan you can cover.  Lay boneless chicken cut into pieces over the rice.  Add in whatever veggies, cheese, and herbs you might like.  These veggies can be a thicker cut as the dish will cook longer.  Add the cream and a little more liquid as you have to have enough to cook the rice.  Bake longer–more like 40 or so minutes.  See if rice is cooked through.

Or cook rice separately, use the cut up boneless chicken, and keep veggies sliced thin for a quicker cook time.

I have used whole, bone-in pieces of chicken, too.  That would have a 45 minute or so cook time.

Enjoy!