A Quilting Finish - The House Quilt

So this WAS my oldest UFO (unfinished object) quilting project. I think I started this the second year or so of quilting, so about ten years ago. I did the piecing at the first Wadhams quilt retreat. I worked on the applique off and on for a couple years after that. Once that was done I did find a backing and then spray-basted it all together. But as I was a much less experienced machine quilter using my own home machine, I folded it up and waited till I was more confident. I will  say I am impressed with the spray basting (I used the 505 spray) it kept it all together, didn't get gummy or sticky, and kept the fabric from any major, serious wrinkling for the few years it sat there. I did a basic wandering free-motion quilting on it.

I call this 'The House Quilt' as this quilt represents many aspects of our current house. First I used reproduction fabrics, our house is old -built in 1876 so there is a nice tie-in there. The applique represents other aspects of the house. We live in the foothills of three mountains in the Adirondacks, I plant red impatiens in the flower boxes every summer, and ladybugs are a part of life around here. The property is full of maple trees, which is stunning in the fall, this far north of course winter and snow is a big part of life. And finally a paw print, one of the main reasons we picked the house we did is that it has a big enough yard to have both a garden and a couple of big dogs.
The plan is to hang this quilt on the wall in the enclosed porch.    

Chrusciki (aka Polish Angel Wings)

Later in her life my grandmother had me help her make Chrusciki whenever I was home visiting. I was never a big fan of it, I preferred her apple pies. But the idea was that I was to be the keeper of the Chrusciki for the family. I preparation for a visit home I am making Chrusciki this weekend. I don't think grandma ever made it the same way twice. I wrote it down a couple of times and for this round I used an amalgamation of those recipes along with consulting some others I saw online.
My version uses 11 egg yolks and 1 full egg. I am happy to report the the skill of separating eggs is like riding a bicycle, I was able to jump right into it again. You will also note that the vodka I used was also Polish - trying to keep with tradition. Damon suggests that the reason for vodka to be in the recipe is less for the food product and more for the convenience of the baker to have it handy while cooking, as I don't drink its kind of a non-issue.
The 'fun' part is the cutting and twisting. The second photo is the first half of the batch - half cut and the other half already twisted.
After they are twisted they get tossed into the oil. One recipe called for the oil to be 375 degrees F, but my stove only managed to get it up to 325.
Anyway the seem to have come out OK. They are a bit browner then I recall, but they have a good flavor (pre-powdered sugared).

For the record here is the recipe I followed:
11 egg yolks
1 full egg
1 shot of vodka
2 T sugar
2 T sour cream
1 t salt
1 t vanilla extract
2.5 c flour (sifted)
Additional flour for kneading and rolling out
Crisco - 1 inch deep in a pan for frying  at about 325 degrees F.
After they are done you sprinkle powdered sugar over them.

Garden Update

 So the flower boxes around the porches are doing great this year. We looked a bit bare last year as no one was selling impatiens, but as you can see we are back to the red this year. As one of the front trees was chopped down this spring the ones on the front the porch are getting a bit more sun, but so far they don't seem to mind.

The second photo is of one of the tomato plants out in the garden. Since June was so cool and cloudy they didn't make much progress. But starting this week we are having a run of hot (for us - in the 80s) and sunny weather this week so they are starting to take off.

Also at the moment three of the five roses I planted this spring have buds on them.

The only thing that appears to be having trouble are my sunflowers. something is chomping them off about mid-stem. I have a dozen planted and now I am down to about eight.

They sunflowers may also be in jeopardy due to our now fairly frequent deer visitor. While it is not unusual to see a deer in the evenings, this one has been hanging out most of the day. I took this picture around noon yesterday. 

Two Quilt Finishes!

I haven't done much on my own quilting projects this past year. But thanks to a spring quilting retreat I did make significant progress and this spring I did get a couple of quilts done.
This first one is is official called "The Ugly Brown Quilt." I want to state that I don't actually think it is ugly. I found the "Skylark" pattern in the 2013-2014 International Quilt Festival magazine and when I was deciding what fabrics to use I decided to use a large pile of brown fat quarters. I have no idea how I ended up with so many brown fabrics. I only remember buying a couple of them. And as I tend to use bright colors, the odds of using up the browns was slim. The quilt turned out so well Damon asked to have it. So you know it looks cool, this is the first quilt he has asked for. 
The other quilt was inspired by a quilt and a fabric bundle at my friend Carole's shop Fibre Junction. She also used nine-patches, but I also included center squares in the alternate blocks. The colored squares and the back of the quilt are homespuns.

Got my Narrative Clip

I came across the Narrative clip/camera online about a year or two ago (originally it was called Memoto). I ordered one in April and it arrived this weekend. Think of it sort of like a trail camera for humans. It is small - less than 2 inches by 2inches, and it has a clip so it can be worn. The  camera takes a picture every 30 seconds. You can also double tap it for an immediate photo. You can set it down and it will document what it happening in front of it. These shots are from my sewing room yesterday. I  had it set on the bookcase while I was sewing on the binding of a quilt. Then I moved it into the corner when I switched to ironing the binding. I also have documentation on my mowing the yard yesterday. The photos range and its brightness and clarity are not always great but given that it is taking so many - odds are high at least a few of the shots are good. At the end of the day you plug the USB into your computer and it re-charges and downloads the photos.
This would be great for get togethers and parties. Place it somewhere and it will take the pictures of the event. How many times do we get caught up and forget to take pictures?

Springing ahead with spring

Even though spring is still reluctantly making an appearance, the gardening is moving forward. Some of the tomato seedlings were doing well enough to transplant them into individual pots. I also have a egg carton that has sunflower seedlings that are also doing well. Of course now I am running out of sunny windows to keep all of these plants. It won't be safe to put out the plants for a couple more weeks, especially since we are staying below the average temperatures.

I did risk it and plant the flower boxes on Friday. Since these are right next to the house and there is an overhang from the roof they should be safe unless we get a really hard freeze. I was able to get impatiens this year. Last year they were not available.



On the quilting front I did get a couple quilt tops done in April and sent them off to the long-arm quilter. The photo here is some of the "Ugly Brown Quilt" blocks (which actually turned out really cool) before they were pieced together.

Roses, One day I hope

Easy Does It Rose

The roses I ordered arrived this week. The weather is still cool and cloudy and generally depressing, but better to plant them as soon as possible then to let them sit in their shipping box.
I had already prepped the former oregano bed. But I hadn't had time to prep any others. I figured three of the roses would fit in the prepped bed. I ended up hastily tilling the bed to the west of the greenhouse. I did check a number of rose growing websites and many suggested including coffee grounds and banana peals. Conveniently we had both this morning. 

Easy Going Rose

The forecast was for increasing chance of rain during the day so I was determined to get an early start. Unfortunately so was the rain. It wasn't really rain - more like a heavy mist the whole time. 
The roses pictured here are what the roses should look like if they grow and thrive. I have them listed in the order planted from West to east.

Hot Cocoa Rose

Julia Child Rose

Livin Easy Rose