Our Life in Maine, My Craft Projects, Quilting, Recipes, Book and Media Reviews
Turkey Tracks: December 28, 2014
I hope your Christmas holiday was as nice as mine!
Friend Gina Caceci came on Monday the 22nd, and I picked her up in Portland at noon.
We played and walked and talked for five days.
We gave each other experiences, not things, which was lovely.
I miss her already!
Turkey Tracks: December 18, 2014
I mailed this quilt to sister Susan Heath this week.
It’s one of the prettiest quilts I’ve ever made, and it was made in memory of my beloved grandmother Louise Phillips Bryan of Reynolds, Georgia. I had the most amazing relationship with her, and to this day, I can hear her big hearty laugh, see her twinkling brown eyes, and know that she “had my back” no matter what. I spent a lot of time with her growing up, and one of my fond memories is sitting in her back yard one afternoon, our feet propped up on a pole, singing old songs together. She was so much fun. She was a gardener, a seamstress, a knitter, made sure the table in her dining room held nourishing, delicious food every day, and was a savvy and successful card player. I could go on and on about her, as like many others, I loved her so dearly. Brown was my grandmother’s favorite color–she had dark fine curly hair and brown eyes.
Susan fell in love with this quilt as it grew on the design wall during her last visit. So I gave it to her.
This quilt is a split nine-patch, and I started it as Bonnie Hunter issued this block as a leader-ender challenge a while back. A leader-ender project is where one works on a block whenever one needs to cut thread while working on another quilt. You can see Bonnie’s version of this quilt easily as she has it on the banner of her web site, quiltville.com, at the moment. Or, it’s on the blog, which you can get to from the main site. I LOVE Bonnie’s version–it’s more modern and uses a different setting.
With light/dark blocks, setting possibilities are endless. I adapted a setting used by Lynn Roddy Brown in the Jan/Feb 2014 (#155) issue of Quiltmaker Magazine.
Here are some close-ups of this quilt that was made with dozens of different fabrics out of my deep stash:
I quilted with a gold/brown thread, using a pantograph called “Arcadia” from Urban Elementz.
Here’s the backing:
And the label:
Turkey Tracks: December 17, 2014
Before I left for Charleston, SC, for Thanksgiving, I bought three amaryllis bulbs and left them, each in a brown paper sack, on a counter downstairs.
When I got home, this amaryllis had grown out of the bag by about a foot.
I put it into this glass vase designed for amaryllis, and soon it straightened itself out and grew tall and straight.
Here it is in the kitchen.
The drama of an amaryllis bulb never fails to fascinate me…
Sister-in-law Maryann Enright and cousin Ann O’Callaghan were here for Christmas By The Sea weekend in early December.
We did some shopping, and I came home with this little tree–made of wired and shiny glass beads. I added the little finches for decoration, and the whole thing makes me smile every time I pass by it.
My little flock has come together nicely now. That’s rooster Pumpkin with the grand tail. The three (red) Buckeye hens remain unnamed, but loved, as I cannot tell them apart. The darker Cuckoo Maran is Chocolate, or lotte, and the lighter one is Cocoa. The Americauna on the far side of Pumpkin is his beloved, Ginger, who lays blue eggs. She’s older and was so not happy to shared her coop with upstarts. These young hens are starting to lay now, but only a little. They won’t lay fully until the days grow longer again–or unless I extend their day with added light in the coop, which I don’t do.
Chickens are master beggars and know how to hang out at the kitchen door for a handout:
On the J&E Riggin this summer, Jeanne Gervais gave me this little green bag for my knitting when she determined that my plastic sack was way too prone to being blown away in the wind. Here it is at Camp St. Christopher. It carries my handwork with such style:
The HUGE/TALL amaryllis fell over, and the glass vase broke all over the kitchen. I cut off the bloom stems and put them in another vase. I don’t know if the bud will open or not…
Books, Documentaries, Reviews: December 18, 2014
Daughter-in-law Corinne has cooked several meals for me now out of Judith Finlayson’s book, THE HEALTHY SLOW COOKER.
Each meal has been delicious.
So, I ordered this book when I got home from Charleston, SC, after Thanksgiving.
Now, I do not have a slow cooker at present. My last one cooked way too hot–a familiar critique if you start reading the “reviews” of slow cookers. I threw it out after it seemed to burn the bone broths I was trying to make using a slow cooker. Bryan and Corinne have a large-size Faberware that was given to them for their wedding, ten years ago now. Faberware seems to have disappeared. And, it also seems that all of our appliances have taken such down turns in quality that even if I could find a Faberware one now, there would be no guarantee that it bore any resemblance to a product made ten years ago now.
I can’t find a slow cooker I’m willing to buy. I did find a 10-quart one with a crockery insert, but at least one reviewer surfaced the fact that slow-cooker crockery inserts contain lead. Apparently there is a web site that can reveal how much lead, etc., but…
Cuisinart is ranked currently as the “best” slow cooker of the moment, but I’m never buying another Cuisinart product after having their expensive toaster fail and being grossly disappointed in their food processor, which is an expensive piece of junk. This week, the shaft that the grating disc sits atop bent while grating carrots:
Look at the metal curling out of the stem. Anyone with half a brain can tell you that this piece of equipment is not going to stand up to grating carrots, turnips, potatoes, etc. I ordered a new shaft, and the motor seems ok, but… A PIECE OF JUNK and SHAME ON CUISINART.
Some slow cookers have aluminum inserts. Aluminum is toxic and should not be used around food. (Substitute parchment paper for aluminum if you need to top something in the oven.)
Some slow cookers have teflon lining, which is also toxic.
So, I am going to cook the slow cooker recipes in my Creuset pot with a lid–in the oven. The whole thing will cook faster anyway.
I tried the black bean and squash chili (with hamburger) this week, and it is DELICIOUS. (I’m allergic to hot peppers of any sort, so substituted cumin, tumeric, coriander, and a bit of cinnamon for the hot peppers.) I covered the whole thing with a layer of grated cheese at the last minute and let it melt. Delicious.
Turkey Tracks: December 16, 2014
Ailey loves lighthouses.
We have to go visit as many as we can whenever she comes to Maine.
Here’s how her lighthouse quilt came out–thanks to Denise Lanier for this set of blocks given to me about ten years ago.
I kept the quilting simple–meandering on the long arm with a light green thread and outline stitching of the lighthouses on the domestic machine in a darker blue thread.
I had enough of this great fabric for the backing:
It works well with the front:
This quilt will hang in Ailey’s bedroom–to remind her of Maine, of lighthouses, and of her grandmother’s love.
Turkey Tracks: December 15, 2014
The mystery started on Black Friday.
I was in Charleston, SC, at a family retreat for Thanksgiving–more on this quality experience later.
I left my fabrics ironed and ready to go when I got home on Tuesday after Thanksgiving–FIVE days after the first clue.
I finished the first and second clues last night. Here’s what I have so far in terms of units made–which includes 400 bonus half-square 2-inch triangles made while making the pile of units on the left. This method of making bonus triangles was, I believe, pioneered by Bonnie:
Clue 3 came last Friday, and it’s got GREEN, which I had thought might happen:
I’m on the job as soon as I finish posting to the blog!!!
120 units to make…
Turkey Tracks: December 15, 2015
I made these this morning!
They are delicious!
The recipe came from Jennifer McGruther’s blog, Nourished Kitchen:
Sprouted Blue Corn, Buckwheat and Blueberry Muffins — Nourished Kitchen.
And she got it from the Shiloh Farms online VERY INTERESTING store.
They have a whole range of SPROUTED gluten free flours and will ship them.
There are other products as well, and I will be taking a much closer look at what they have to offer soon.
Next step: try to get our local coops to carry these flours.
What a treat to start the day!
Turkey Tracks; December 6, 2014
Awake!
Beyond the window
Crystal blue winter sky.
A line of wild turkeys,
Each picking its way down the hill
Over the still-bright carpet of leaves
And patches of snow.
The dogs emerge from beneath
The bed covers and nuzzle my face.
The rooster calls from the coop.
We are all hungry
On this winter morning.
Louisa Enright
December 2014
Turkey Tracks: Camp St. Christopher
Thanksgiving this year has been a family gathering Thanksgiving Retreat at Camp St. Christopher in Seabrook, South Carolina.
We are 11 strong this year, with Tami’s brother Joey, his wife Meghan, and their son Meyer joining us for Thanksgiving day.
Seabrook is one of the coastal communities south of Charleston. It’s very near Kiawah, which is home to a major, very nice resort. We are on an estuary formed by the North Edisto River, and there is a nice beach along the river. The estuary is teeming with sea life. There are, of course, lots of live oaks dangling with hanging moss.
Speaking of kayaking. My burning question when we were signing up for events was “are there alligators where we’ll be kayaking?”
The answer: “Yes, but…”
“No,” I said. There’s no “but for me.”
The woman went on to explain that as it was cold the alligators were hibernating.
Guess what we saw right near one of our walking paths?
This alligator is at least six feet long and moves around.
Big enough to get a child…
Fortunately, the weather is really too cold for open kayaks where you sit on top and in water…
Turkey Tracks: November 18, 2014
Here’s a picture of the wool dryer balls that live in my dryer year round:
And, of the additional handkerchiefs I tuck into a pocket of my pants instead of using a paper product.
The wool dryer balls replace any chemical you’ve been using to “soften” clothes. These balls never wear out. They knock lint off our clothes and make everything in the dryer soft. They also facilate drying so that your clothes dry faster.
I LOVE THEM!
I love the handkerchiefs, too. Once they’ve been washed a few times, they are soft against your skin. They are sustainable and sturdier than paper products.
Louisa Enright's Blog 