Coming in January 2010 from American Quilter’s Society. No need to spend your life savings on the first edition any more. I’m so excited!

Turkey Pumpkin Chili

That was one weird cold that I had last week.  The first few days acted like a cold and the last couple of days felt like I was recovering from the flu (no flu symptoms to speak of in between).  And I’m SO glad to be over that!  All that I accomplished last week was to knit about 15 inches on the back of my sweater vest and read the book “C is for Corpse” by Sue Grafton. The rest of the time I lied around on the sofa watching movies.  A friend turned me on to the Sue Grafton series and I diligently started out with “A is for Alibi”.

Pumpkin is creeping into everything around here!  I had some pumpkin left over in the fridge and decided to use it up in some Turkey Pumpkin Chili.  Loosely based on this recipe, doctoring up the spices a bit and adding black beans instead of kidney beans and chicken stock instead of water.  Use at your own risk.

UFO Challenge

And did you see that Jacquie is hosting a UFO Challenge?  Count how many UFO’s you have hiding in your closet and start out the New Year with as many as possible finished!  I hear she’s giving away some great prizes.

I’ve got to go see how many I actually want to count. And now that I’m feeling better, I am starting to get the urge to purge.  I definitely need to catch up this week and then…  who knows?  I think I’m going to take on the challenge so that there might be a little more Joy in the New Year in my sewing room.  How about you?

Tunic Vest with a Cable

Between intermittent downpours of rain outside and my sniffly nose cold inside, I think an afternoon of knitting and catching up on blogs might just be what the doctor would order.

Home Sweet Home

Thank you everyone for all your wonderful comments lately!!  I apologize for not responding to very many of them.  I have to admit, I haven’t much felt like being on the Internet, blogging, or even sitting at my computer.  I’m not sure what my problem is…  burnout?  Some kind of slump, for sure.  And I’m mourning the loss of our annual beach vacation. Maybe that has something to do with it?  Every year for the last 3 or 4 years, we have taken at least a long weekend, if not a few more days, and hung out at the beach.  We sleep in late, schlep around in our pajamas until we feel  like getting dress, eat only what we want when we want, read, knit, nap, and generally give ourselves some time to be completely, guilt-free lazy.  Well, we just couldn’t fit it in this year.  Here are some photos and a post from previous years.

Placemats for Natalie

The dogwood in the front of our house was in peak autumn glory over the weekend.  And I sent off these spiderweb placemats to Natalie for the Placemat Swap.  Just soaking up the autumn color before it’s all gone.

Birthday Books

I know I’m a wee bit late in acquiring these books. But I got to use some Birthday Bucks to buy some books!

Inside Kaffe Fassett’s Quilt Romance is an article on Kim McLean that I found really interesting.  She says, “I think I am a person of contrasts. Whilst strong vibrant colours appeal to me in artistic designs, my home environment is calm and sedate.” She goes on to say that her home in Sydney is rather neutral and her home by the beach is white.  She likes to dress in sedate colors navy, black and white. And she is a clean freak yet her hobbies generally produce a lot of clutter.

For some reason I found that completely fascinating. Maybe because I know many people who believe that an artist’s home is a messy home or a messy desk is the sign of a brilliant mind. Or maybe I have some strange expectation that what people do or make is reflected in how they live or who they are.  Colorful art = colorful homes & colorful clothing.  Obviously this isn’t always the case.

I have to admit that I dislike clutter in my home.  Not that our home is completely clutter free, but that when it starts to get cluttered I find it hard to think.  And some days I like colorful homes. Other days I’m really drawn to the cool, calm white of the shabby chic or Scandinavian designs.

What do you think?  Clean or clutter?  Bright or sedate?  I’m curious. Everyone is different.

A little peek

And… just because a picture of some books is sort of boring, here is a sneak peek at the placemat I made for my partner in the Placemat Swap.  I can’t show the rest until it has been received. I hope she likes it!

Brilliant autumn color

seems to be infinitely better in the mountains.

Cool mountain air and warm color.

Orange leaves & blue sky.

Leavenworth Lederhosen

And polka bands.

Ah, autumn!

We found a wee bit of time for a much needed weekend get-away. Gary and I met his sister in Leavenworth for Oktoberfest.  The mountain pass air was crisp and the color on the hillside was amazing!  Bratwurst, pretzels and Bernese Mountain Dogs. Ah, autumn!

One of the earliest quilts I've made

Amy has pulled off another amazing Blogger’s Quilt Festival.  Go check out all the other quilts!  Thank you Amy!

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This is one of my earliest quilts. And this is the story about how I became addicted to quiltmaking.

In 1995 my husband wanted to move back to his home town to be closer to his family.  Near the end of the year, he accepted a job in Spokane, the other more brown and less green side of the state.  And so, between Christmas and New Year’s Day we packed up our apartment and moved all of our belongings.

Our new home was a HUGE one-bedroom apartment that was one of five in a large home built around the turn of the century.  Back in the day, the wealthy mining moguls built these huge houses that could no longer be maintained as a single family home when the mining industry waned.   In our apartment were two large walk-in closets and one small one.  The large walk-in closet in the living room became my sewing room.  I put my banquet table (which I still use today, but now painted white) in the closet and set up my sewing machine.  Up to this point I really only sewed clothing and home deco items.

From cozy flannel fabric

While Gary was at work, I was home alone and bored. I didn’t know my husband’s family very well and I had only one other friend who I had come to know through him.  We had been married only 2 1/2 years. Through a series of temporary jobs, I finally found a mornings only part-time job. In the afternoons I would sew.  Besides JoAnn Fabrics, there was a really nice quilt shop on the edge of town.  Eventually, I discovered that there were several quilting book authors living in Eastern Washington and they often taught classes at this quilt shop.  Watercolor quilts were really popular at the time and the authors of Watercolor Quilts were teaching a class. So I signed up.  Cool huh?

My best friend now owns the quilt I made in that class. I have only a  poorly lit photo. It was prior to the popularity of digital cameras.  (But I can visit it any time I want.)  That quilt led to another quilt which my sister-in-law now owns.  And then these really cool floral flannels were starting to be manufactured. Not just plaid flannel shirtings, but flannels with flowers!  And nice heavy flannel, not brushed cotton. Thick and heavy.  Perfect for a cozy quilt.

And easy 4-patch blocks

This pattern is from Marsha McCloskey’s book Quick Classic Quilts.  This was before I knew all about quilt math.  Before I really understood free-motion machine quilting.  Before I knew anything about Electric Quilt. And before Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler and all those fabulous fabric designers that are now blazing the trail for new quilters today.  But I have to say, this is  probably the quilt most often used in our home. We have taken it on ski trips and to the beach. We’ve piled it along with other quilts on top of our bed when the power goes out. We have crawled under it in the dead of winter and watched sappy old movies on the sofa. It’s warm. It’s cozy.  And it’s seen us through the ups and downs of another 14 years of marriage since then.  Even though the fabrics of today have changed, I still love this quilt.

One of our most often used quilts

Well, Gary’s job lasted only a year and then we moved back to the Seattle area.  But that foundation of quilting has continued on in my life.  Three or four years after our move back, I started working in a local quilt shop, which led to a job in a different quilt shop, which led to my tiny little pattern company, which led to this blog. Who knew that one quilt class so long ago would take me down this road in my life!

Frankensocks for my hubby

Socktoberfest has started!  Are you knitting any socks during the month of October?  You could always knit the Through the Loops Mystery Socks.  I am but I haven’t been able to get any decent pictures yet.   Here are the Ravelry links for Socktoberfest and the Mystery Socks.  I’ve also finished a pair of socks for the month of September. Again, the photo issue.  Let’s see if I can keep knitting a pair a month from my Sock Summit Stash.

Amy’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival starts on Friday. Eeeks, I almost forgot!  I think I’ve shown you nearly every quilt around the house.  There might be one or two quilts from my early years when I first started quilting.  Have you chosen your quilt to share?

And… to my placemat swap partner…  I’ve started!  I can’t believe some of you swappers are already finished.  What? Finished?  Over-achievers!

Oh, and these socks above are the latest pair for my hubby.  Four different leftover yarns blended together using Heather’s Blender Sock recipe.

Fermenting cabbage

I’ve been trying to slow down, do a little less, enjoy the season more… but it’s been hard. It seems like there is always more that needs to be done and not enough time.  The summer flew by with lots of  activity and I don’t want autumn to do the same. This is my absolute favorite time if the year.

But I have to say that the color of the leaves have been disappointing this year.  Most seem to be going from green to brown. There are some yellow and red, but not many.  In a couple of weeks we’ll be heading across the state to visit my in-laws and I’m hoping to see more color!  There is something about the combination of colorful leaves, both on the trees and on the ground, the smell in the air and the sound of our feet shuffling through the leaves that just makes me feel so… I can’t even put it into words.

Thankful. Hopeful. Satisfied. Bittersweet. Snuggly. Wool socks. Crisp air. Pumpkins. Soup. Handmade quilts. Candlelight. Porchlight.  Sigh.

It will become sauerkraut in another 2 to 4 weeks

I’ve been dying to try my hand at making sauerkraut. Both of my grandmothers had large crocks but I don’t ever remember any sauerkraut being made. I asked my mother about it and she said she never had any good results.  So I poked around on the internet and we came up with this solution.  A glass jar with a plastic bag of salt brine on top. One web site mentioned doing this just in case the bag broke, it wouldn’t dilute the brine on the cabbage.  Our solution to the need for a cool, dark place in a 1970’s rambler (no cellar) where it needs to ferment for 4-6 weeks was to put it inside our canning pot and set it under the stainless steel work table in the kitchen. It’s been two weeks so far. We’ll see what it looks like in another two to four weeks.

Pretzels - Batch 3

The whole pretzel experiment over the last couple of weeks was for our Supper Club. This is Batch 3.We used this recipe with a few changes.  Considerably less baking soda in the water bath. And we put a cast iron pan in the bottom of the oven and poured some water to create steam just as we were putting the pretzels in the oven. (I forgot the salt in Batch 2. Fortunately,  Batch 2 was still an experimental batch!  And you remember Batch 1 with the whole wheat flour? Yeah, not good.)

Oktoberfest dinner with friends

Our Supper Club theme this month was Oktoberfest. A group of us get together every other month or so and share a meal. Each couple brings one portion of the meal based on the chosen theme.  We’ve been doing this for nearly two years and it is great fun. There were lots of different kinds of sausages and mustards, red cabbage, and potatoes.  The pretzels were a hit.  And dessert was a black forest cake. Yum!

I don’t think my workout at the gym made up for all the indulging!  We are eating simple tonight – roasted Swan White acorn squash a’ la Michael Chiarello.

It’s autumn!

The Leftover Pillow

It’s ANOTHER anniversary of my 29th birthday.  Cough. Cough.  We aren’t counting years anymore.  Let’s just say that I’m old enough, thank you very much.  Chocolate and flowers were waiting for me this morning.  (Thanks, Honey!) What could be better than chocolate for a birthday gift?  And I think all my friends conspired together this year, because I now have several REI gift cards burning a hole in my pocket. I think there may be some shopping going on later today.

Machine stitched binding...

This is what I did while the guys went hiking on Saturday.  They are the leftover bits from my Handkerchief Corners quilt, which STILL  hasn’t been quilted, by the way.  One of these days…  I AM chipping away at my pile of unfinished quilt tops, though.  The back of the pillow is linen.  And I have learned my lesson about zippers or buttons or leaving some sort of opening to remove the pillow insert for future laundering of said pillow cover.  Especially if you have pets or kids!

And a zipper.

By the way, the boys had an exciting hike.  They hiked up to Snow Lake which is 4 miles in and 4 miles out.  Just as they were starting down the mountain they were stopped because someone had slipped and fallen over the ridge.  Two hours later a helicopter air-lifted the injured person out.  They heard that the injuries included a broken wrist and some head lacerations.  I’ve been on this trail before and there is a section that is a ton of switchbacks with lots of loose rock.  It’s not a hard hike but can be tedious in that section of switchbacks.  It’s a reminder to a) NEVER hike alone, b) ALWAYS be careful, and c) LISTEN to you body. There is nothing wrong with taking lots of breaks and resting.  Accidents often happen when we are tired and not paying as careful attention as we should.  And that’s my soap-box speech for the day.  Stay safe everyone!