“Sprinkles”is made from 1 1/2 inch squares cut while I made other quilts from the Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics I cut up at least 4 years ago now. These small squares were cut from what was left when I made other quilts.
I sewed the light/dark 4 patches back in Maine when I was all packed up and waiting for moving day. I also have 2-inch squares from this project which I started sewing into 9 patches. Someday I’ll do something with those.
I couldn’t get a good picture inside of the actual colors in this quilt, so I took “Sprinkles” out to the porch into daylight, and that worked better. My inside lights cast a yellow light.
I quilted with a medium grey thread with the pantograph “Bayside,” which is a favorite of mine for laying down a nice texture without overwhelming the quilt.
And I love, love this backing.
Honestly, I’m not sure I’ll ever save 1 1/2 inch squares again. But I do like this little quilt a lot. The big squares are 16 inches. And the sashing is NOT C+S/Ruby Star, but was in my stash.
We had a really big storm that kept us pinned down all day Tuesday–very high winds and tornado alerts but not a whole lot of rain here on the coast. Schools were cancelled and most activities just…stopped.
I cooked. And I sewed.
Here’s more “rainbow” eating:
A bit of beef tallow, carrots, red pepper, and asparagus. I can’t think when I have pan sautéed asparagus, but it was lovely.
Locally, lately, one can buy beef hamburger where about 25% added is liver/heart/other organs. Americans have stopped eating liver. And that’s too bad as liver and other organs are so full of nutrients we need and that we don’t get anywhere else.
I made some hamburger patties and cooked them in the air fryer, along with a russet potato cut into four parts–so with the beautiful rainbow dish above, I had food for two main meals.
*Liver with heavy cream added at the last cuts the strong liver taste. Don’t overcook liver as that makes it tough. Slice it into strips and add after your veggies have softened–at the last, add the cream. A lot of cream.
I’ve been playing with the new block that arrived from Tara Faughnan’s online block class on January 1st. It’s a method created by Dale Fleming called “the 6-minute circle.” Tara is calling this month’s block “Squircles.” It’s a fiddly block until you get the method–and then one is off and running and having lots of fun.
I started with Tara’s recommendation of starting small–5-inch blocks–and then went on to 6-inch versions. Will try an 8 inch block today or tomorrow.
My rainbow versions are too narrow I think. But this is a very fun and addictive method. One person online called it the 60-minute block, which set me to laughing. I’m down to way less time, but it is a learning curve. However, the online community for this class is off and running, and their creativity and where they are taking this block is, as usual, awesome.
I do think these blocks WILL go with the others on my design wall. Pics to follow when I’m done.
Ah, air fryer sweet potato fries are so, so good–and so much easier and quicker than baking a sweet potato.
I’ve walked 3 days this week–and did 2 miles twice and 1 1/2 miles yesterday. And I’ll walk today.
We are getting another storm late today and into the night, but it is said to be not as strong as Tuesday’s storm which caused massive coastal flooding in Maine, including in Camden.
How pretty is this veggie mixture that I sautéed the other day?
Very pretty I think.
And it was delicious too.
I started with the firmer veggies and with beef tallow as I was also cooking a leg of lamb: onion, carrots, red peppers, garlic, dried herbs, salt and one small Granny Smith apple.
When these firmer veggies had started to wilt well, I added the chopped red cabbage–a small head. Cabbage will melt down quickly in heat. But I also wanted more green, so I had some frozen chopped kale in the freezer and added it.
The apple and sweet red pepper produced bits of sweetness that were a kind of surprise to the tongue. And cabbage in all forms is very, very healthy.
Note the big frying pan. The mixture made rather a lot of food. It kept well and reheated well. I thought at one point that it would also be good added to a soup one defrosted or started from scratch.
Here’s another post I wrote and didn’t send some days ago. Now “Sprinkles” is done, and I’ll post more about this adorable little quilt soon. Meanwhile, I have a nice link below that gave me a really good method to match backing prints.
Look at this awesome matching of this backing print!
I saw a method in the October 2023 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine done by Maria Brooks. However, I don’t think I can put a picture of that page here without violating their copyright rules.
So I googled “How to Match Prints for Quilt Backing” and came up with this same method by Suzy Quilts. Note: using one of the thicker, cheaper glue sticks is a better bet financially for this method instead of the Sew Line glue stick (which I also love) which is more expensive.
I’ve always argued and thought that many animals are way, way smarter than we humans realize. AC Slater had a huge vocabulary he understood–probably because I talked to him all the time. Miss Reynolds Georgia and No No Penny did too, but they were not out in the woods with me as much as AC Slater. Or ball fixated like AC Slater was.
If I ever get another dog, I may try to use a small version of these buttons.
Bunny is also featured on the Netflix program “The Hidden Life of Pets,” and maybe Bunny is easier to see there. I think she is on episode 2 of 4 episodes.
“Bonanza” was inspired by a quilt made by designer Tara Faughnan, for which she does not yet have a pattern. I kept seeing it on a wall behind her head on her website. Her quilt is different than mine–she has, in modern fashion, disrupted some of the secondary patterns that will form in a more traditional placement of units. And she does not go out to the edges like I did with the dark blue/purple sashings. So, this quilt did not start so much as a way to use up solid fabrics, but because I loved that quilt Tara Faughnan made.
I don’t think I’m done with these half-square triangle units in solids–with the resulting secondary patterns that emerge. I’m still fascinated. But who knows?
I quilted with the Bayside pantograph, using a medium grey thread. Bayside gives really nice texture, with some curves, but does not overwhelm.
I love the backing.
Here are a few more up-close pics.
Here is the center of the quilt–showing its secondary patterns.
And now, back to the rest of the quilty pack in development.
Louisa Enright's Blog 