Category: Recipes in SC

Yesterday I noticed that the carpet of brown Centipede grass is starting to turn green–after our last few rainy days.

How fun is that?

So now I’ll have to take just a little bit of time to remove the few weeds that have gotten purchase in my carpet of grass–which means joyful and contemplative time in the sunshine and warmer weather.

I’ve been in enjoying a batch of GRITS I made the other day–something I have not made in about a year. I make mine with raw milk as the liquid, and I soak them in said milk overnight. And I add raw butter when they are done–and an extra pat on the top when fresh or reheated. Leftover grits are also great made into patties and pan fried in a good fat. Here, I have a leftover Mahi fish fillet and various veggies and freshly cooked spring sugar snap peas. So far, no weight gain either, but I have cut fruit consumption back to 2 cups a day, per the new food MAHA guide.

Here’s the design wall now–there is ROOM again.

“Flower Pop” will have 9 blocks and 3 rows, which will make it 63 wide by 60 long. These blocks will likely move around as this quilt grows.

The colorful, bright solid fabric pineapple blocks are also growing. And that’s a whole “Pinwheel and Patches” Bonnie Hunter quilt on the bottom left ready to put on the design wall when I, again, have space. “XO” is ironed and ready for the longarm as soon as my nameless improv quilt is finished.

The quilt of valor is finished. Here’s a final picture so you can see the relative size of it at 64 inches square. Those are Cat’s Cradle ruler blocks.

I bound with the backing fabric, Marcus Fabrics “Liberty Island,” R261661D. I had enough to cut binding on the straight of grain, unlike the bias binding I usually make. And I discovered a whole new reason why I like bias binding–the raw binding edges don’t come undone in long strings until I encase the binding edges.

I won’t buy this maker again–Marcus Fabrics. There is something stiff about this fabric that did not wash out when washed–and this brittleness caused little white runs here and there with my longarm needle (a sharp, newly installed needle), my domestic machine needle while installing binding, and my very thin needle used to hand quilt the binding down.

Add in that I also had a similar problem with a stiff feeling Moda crimson wide back that would not stop shedding its dye. I washed it FOUR times (an hour each, but with soap only the first time), and it still shed its dye in a volume that made it impossible to use it in a quilt. I use color catchers when washing new fabrics, so I can easily see if there is a problem. So now I’m wondering if some fabric makers are using some new technology to make thin cottons stiffer? And if something about that stiffness can cause the little runs in the fabric or the shedding of some dyes????

From now on, if a fabric is stiff, I’m not buying it. I returned the Moda wideback to the shop owner, who was horrified and immediately refunded my money. She is investigating now.

I also finished hand quilting this 14-inch stretched canvas block and gifted it.

This pattern is “Best Buds” by Pen and Paper Patterns–and we talked about it some months ago. It is a cute block, and I think it would make a handsome quilt. Maybe that will happen…??? BUT, note that there are some errors in the cutting directions, so if you go this direction, make a trial block first. It isn’t hard to sew otherwise.

Have a great next week everyone.

My neighbor spoils me on a daily basis. Look what she brought me the other day!

These falls colors are just so gorgeous, and I love the little bit of frilly white that breaks up the density of the fall colors.

For the past year, and maybe a bit more, we have shared “the traveling flower vase.” She started it! She gave me flowers, and I returned the vase with flowers in it for her. Now this vase goes back and forth between us. We each enjoy the flowers the other puts into the vase, and sometime after the flowers have faded, the one with the vase puts in new flowers and delivers it to the other.

It’s so much fun!

One of my favorite meals is best done in the fall when the butternut squash is nice and ripe. I cut one into cubes, add lots of chopped garlic and fresh rosemary, some REAL olive oil (not the kind with mixed seed oils added), and a bit of rough salt. I roast on a fairly high heat (375 or so) until the squarsh starts to carmelize a bit–which makes it so so sweet. I usually turn it all over once with a spatula as the bottom will burn if you don’t. Don’t cook it too long as you don’t want it to get mushy.

This month’s Tara Faughnan Blocks3 class is “Garnish,” a pickle dish quilt block form. Tara gave us extensive instructions on how to improv cut this block AND many templates of different sizes if we wanted to have a bit more precision.

Here’s where I am now–with blocks ready to be sewn together. Each “flower” will finish at 8 inches, for a 32-inch square…something? A table topper maybe. I’m going to hand quilt it.

I could keep moving around blocks forever I think, but I’ll stop here. I love how the warm black is working with the other colors in this month’s palette.

What interests me also is the pattern where two big blocks come together and form a circle. So I made one of those which I’m now hand sewing and will put on stretched canvas if it comes out ok.

How did it get to be Friday already?

It’s still very dry, and I’m going to have to water the flower beds again, as I don’t see any real rain on the horizon. I’ve given up on the grass for this year.

Have a great weekend!

How did it get to be November already?

We had a lively Halloween here in my small subdivision, which is filled with small children who delight me with their laughter most days as they play outside. It is so fun to see them growing up–but they are growing up so fast. In no time at all, it seems, these children leave their strollers and are pedaling small tricycles.

It’s time now to do the fall outdoor clean-up chores, but the roses are still blooming, so it’s hard to get the motivation to cut back those bushes for the winter cold that is coming.

I can still have my noon dinner on the porch most days, but often need a sweater. Yesterday I had baked cod and for a real treat, some delicious Carolina “gold” rice. I had some crunchy fresh salad veggies, so I cut those up as an addition and dressed them with some leftover homemade mayonnaise.

I’ve spent the summer cutting starchy carbs as I’m trying to drop a few more pounds, but all the summer fruit got in the way of that goal. I can, apparently, eat good fats or fruit, but not both outside of about an 80-20 ration for one or the other. LOL. Still I have dropped a few pounds, and the rice didn’t show up on my scale this morning, but eating only a half of an apple illustrates this truth.

I am ALMOST done with the blocks for the leaf quilt sewalong with Rachel LaBour of the “Stitched in Color” blog. Maybe today I will be able to start sewing that quilt top together.

There may be more moving of blocks around. But I’m really loving this quilt. I ordered a Tilda fabric for the backing that will work with these fall leaves, and it will come Saturday. As for binding… Maybe the gold fabric? I don’t know… Yet.

This little quilt is done. It was to be a donation quilt, but I’m holding it for either a family baby or a neighborhood baby. (My neighbor’s baby is due any minute now, and I’ll gift the finished pink quilt when she arrives and will share pictures here on the blog.) All the fun neutral fabrics are so fun.

The backing is a cheddar color from my stash, and the pantograph is “Bayside,” which lays down lovely texture without dense quilting. (When in doubt, pull “Bayside” out.) I used a pale peachy orange from Signature cotton threads, which does not draw attention on the front.

The other little donation quilt is getting its binding sewn down, so a final picture for the blog and my archive will happen soon.

Meanwhile, we have our November block for Tara Faughnan’s Blocks3 six months sewalong. It’s “Garnish,” a curvy orange-peel improv block, though I may make mine via precision cutting. I have a batch of block parts cut in all the colors, so will carve out some play time to try out various combinations.

Here’s Tara’s sample of one idea.

This month’s palette (13 colors) is so pretty too. It’s “dustier” than I would normally choose these days, but rich and very “Tara Faughnan.” I love it.

Of course, as usual, Tara has given us MANY ways to manipulate this block and the colors involved.

Quilty “play” is…everything. So fun!

“Spring’s Song” is off the longarm, and the quilting in lime green looks so pretty.

This quilt is now trimmed and bound, and I’ll start sewing the binding at night. Look how pretty the backing is with its trees in spring green.

The design wall is once again…FULL of fun projects–organized from the piles on my cutting table: strips of bright solids, a pile of fabrics and a quilt pattern, and print strips waiting to be cut for desired blocks.

On the left is the almost finished top made with Bonnie Hunter’s 2025 Leader/Ender block “Four Patch Fun.” More stash scraps are getting used. I am aiming for 60 by 60. The light and dark braids that form are visible now.

Here’s a link to Bonnie Hunter’s 2025 leader/ender block pattern–scroll to get to the printer friendly link.

2025-leader-ender-challenge-four-patch.html

The long rows growing in the middle of the design wall are from leftover fabrics and cut block parts from a Tara Faughnan early The Color Collective quilt project called “Stacks.” I had a lot of leftovers that I put in a big plastic sack when I moved from Maine. This project goes back to the first Color Collective, in 2019 I think. I’ll make a smaller quilt and then call it a day on this project. The first quilt was big and was gifted as a family wedding present. *It feels good to be moving this bag of fabrics out of the stash.

The solid bright improv log cabin type blocks are 14 inches and are using up solid strips and fabrics. It is so cheerful! A lap quilt would need to be at least 4 blocks wide and maybe 5 long–which I will do as I don’t need another wall hanging.

The 4 rectangle blocks above the log cabins are just improv play with the leftover solid log cabin pieces–and longer ones too. Who knows what will happen here, if anything. I’ll just keep on playing.

It’s been hot here off and on, but overall this summer has been cooler than summers for the past two years. July is the hottest month here. I would have thought August would be hotter, but data says no.

I’ve been able to eat on my wonderful screened porch for all but a handful of these summer days. And the other day I had some hamburger and thought I had not made a stir fry in some time.

So this pan of goodness happened–and fed me for two days.

As you all who read this blog know, I cook by what I have on hand. And this stir fry contained summer sweet onion, sweet red pepper, some carrots chopped into small chunks that will cook quickly, some garlic, and a mixture of “Italian” dried herbs. I added my bunch of kale torn off its stalk and roughly chopped when the firmer veggies were soft. I added the handful of frozen peas that were the last in a bag with the hamburger.

I sauteed in beef tallow and added the kale when the veggies were getting soft. When the kale was wilted, I added the frozen peas and the hamburger and just turned the mixture until the hamburger was lightly cooked to pink. (I don’t like overcooked meat as the nutrients get killed.)

This day was an indoor eating day, sadly. The fruit is ripe canteloupe.

I’ve been trying to lose weight to hit a long-term goal for me, so I’ve cut all starchy carbs for the moment. And I seriously control the amount of fruit I eat twice a day. This morning I saw a number on the scale I have not seen in years.

I was very excited!

And here we are. It’s Thanksgiving.

I will start cooking my part of our meal in an hour. Dinner will be around 4 at my younger son’s house, and I’ll go over early afternoon. My cooking part will be roasted Brussel sprouts and a platter of garlicky roasted carrots and sweet peppers. I’ll bring the green salad ready to assemble. Bryan is going to cook the turkey on his fancy wood chip grill that smokes things. There will be also mashed potatoes with raw butter. And pies for dessert, to include the family chocolate chess pie which is super rich and which I can’t eat due to the gluten in the pie shell. (Yes, that is sad, but life is messy, isn’t it?)

It is overcast and hopefully it will rain as it is very very dry. So likely, there will not be a walk on the beach today.

I went to Whole Foods to get the organic veggies, and the Christmas trees are in place.

I stood for a moment or two and inhaled the smell of green fir trees–which I do miss here in South Carolina. Hiking in the Maine woods was always filled with this wonderful scent. But here the tall pines sway over the woods. They are long-needled and quite spectacular.

I also bought a butternut squash for one of my favorite dishes, which is to roast skinned chunks with fresh rosemary, garlic, salt, and good olive oil.

The ” Pot Pourri 5: Crosses” quilt is off the design wall and ready to go on the longarm. The backing I ordered (also Ruby Star Society) is adorable. It’s washed and ready to be ironed and organized.

AND!!! Ta da!! Here’s this month’s work from my online Blocks 2 class with Tara Faughnan. I could have gone on and on, but…

I hung the grey piece in the front hall next to the alarm system box. My walls are a soft grey. The rest are all installed on stretched canvas frames.

I’ll hang the big blue one in my quilt room. But the rest will be gifts. I’ve really enjoyed learning how to wrap a block around stretched canvas and am pleased with the outcome.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!