The octagons revisited

In October of last year I took this quilt to the US to be quilted. I was in Chicago at the time visiting relatives and I dropped it off at the post office myself.  After quite a saga – which I will not go into here – it eventually ended up at my new quilter Margaret Gunn’s home in Maine.

The quilting is finished – but I have not seen it yet. Margaret will be shipping it to Virginia this week and in two weeks my brother will hand carry it with him when he visits Panama. So I can’t post more pictures until then.

Go to Margaret’s website and scroll down to the 5th picture. That is my quilt – at least a tiny detail from the center of the 144 blocks.

I sent Margaret’s website link to my Jacksonville friend Carol yesterday and she scrolled down as I told her and immediately wrote back saying that she didn’t see my quilt – then a minute or two later I got another email and she said OMG I didn’t even recognize it. When I first saw it I thought wow that’s a bright quilt – then I recognized it as MY quilt! I cannot wait to see it in person.

I have recently discovered that for a show the quilt MUST be blocked. That is quite an undertaking – but I am certainly going to do it. Margaret says you can tell an unblocked quilt at a show a mile away – they just don’t hang nice and flat – they are always wavy.

Here are the instructions should you ever want to block a quilt.

http://quiltsoflove.blogspot.com/2011/02/quilt-blocking.html

I will blog about it when the time comes – I have to make some changes because we don’t have any carpeted floors or a bathtub.

Crunchy Granola recipe

I have made this recipe since it was published in the  Whole Earth Catalog in the 60′s. I have made a few modifications over the years. If you want to see the original recipe – just Google Whole Earth catalog granola recipe – it’s still out there and people are still making it – it’s the best!

4 cups whole rolled oats (I use Bob’s Red Mill Organic Extra Thick)

1 cup raw (not toasted) sunflower seeds

1 cup raw (not toasted) pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup flax seed (or flax meal)

2 cups shredded coconut – I coarsely grate mine from a fresh coconut – but I live in the tropics and coconuts are readily available – if you can’t get fresh use the bagged kind.

2 cups nuts – I used slivered almonds and coarsely chopped pecans.

1/2 cup Bran Buds cereal

1/2 cup oil (I used coconut oil)

1/2 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven the 325 degrees

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine oil, honey and vanilla and heat until bubbly in a saucepan

Pour over the dry ingredients and toss until well coated – make sure the oil/honey mixture coats all the ingredients. I squish it around with my hands. Squeezing and rubbing to make sure everything is coated.

Spread half of the mixture out evenly on an 18″ x 13″ baking sheet with 1” high sides.

Bake on a shelf in the middle of the oven  for 15 minutes, take it out and stir well – put it back and continue baking  – turning it every five minutes until the granola is lightly browned. It can go from golden to burned very quickly so you must check it and turn it every 5 minutes – or even more frequently at the end.

You can repeat with the rest of the mixture – or just freeze it and bake it later.

Mine usually takes a total of about 25 – 30 minutes.

I have a  large professional restaurant stove so I can use a full sized baking sheet which is 18″ x 26″ – I don’t have to divide the recipe – I can make it in one batch.

Don’t try to fit it all on one sheet – it needs to be thinly spread out so it will brown evenly.

Cool the granola on the cookie sheet, it will crisp up as it cools.

Add two cups of finely chopped dried fruit to the cooled granola. I used 1 cup of sour cherries and 1 cup of dried apricots. I don’t add the fruit in the beginning because it gets too hard.

When it is completely cooled store in an air tight container at room temperature.

A Mason jar is a great way to store it. Tie a ribbon around it and makes a great gift!

My favorite breakfast is 4 ounces of plain Greek yogurt mixed with whatever fruit is on hand (this morning I finely chopped 1/4 of a large Granny Smith apple) – top with 1/2 cup of the granola.

Patchwork Of The Crosses in progress

I started this project on August 24th, 2009! I made all the blocks – then put it away and went on to something else. Years later I added the white background patches and again it went into storage.

I have a list of UFOs to finish this year and this is at the top of my list – next in line is the Alabama Beauty.

I have joined the five rows and the top two are stitched to each other.  I made 16 white nine patches for the filler squares – but decided to substitute plain squares.

When the rows are sewn together I am trimming all the white background bits sticking out on the sides and adding a 6″ plain white border.

As usual I have agonized over the borders – and have decided (for now) that any more color would be too much. The blocks are 12″ and they are bright!

I have a new quilter – Margaret Gunn . I am sure she will be pleased to have some white space to work with – normally my quilts are prints from edge to edge – not the best for showing off  beautiful quilting.

Summer Days

Finally – here it is – all I have left to do is piece the backing and it is off (along with the mini Drunkard’s Path) to my new quilter Margaret Gunn.

I am not totally convinced the blue border was the best choice – but I am done with this quilt! It’s just a little kids quilt – and I am not going to mess with it any longer.

It measures 38″ x 48″ – 172″ total for all sides. the “Small Quilt” category at Quiltfest Jacksonville is maximum 180″ total sides. Just made it!

Alabama Beauty revisited

Eighteen down and eighteen to go – The other blocks are already printed and cut out – so it’s just a matter of sewing them together. I don’t even remember why I abandoned them so long ago. This is on my list for Quiltfest Jacksonville 2014.

Kaffe Challenge quilt finished!

I have decided to call it Besos Y Abrazos – which means Kisses And Hugs in Spanish.

I need a new camera – the one I am using is at least 10 years old! The quilt does need a bit of blocking – but it is not as skewed as it looks in this picture!

Quilted (by Pam Burnham of Quilter’s Needle in Canton, CT) bound and the sleeve sewn on. Now I have to make a bag to protect it on its journey. The challenge rules allow only the contestant’s assigned number and not a label on the back.

The Challenge show is in May. My German quilting friend Beate will be hand carrying my quilt and her quilt ( a lovely hand pieced Drunkard’s Path) to Germany when she visits her mother next month.

When the show is over they will return it by Fed Ex or DHL. Instead of sending it back to me in Panama I will have them mail it to my friend Carol in Jacksonville – she has kindly volunteered to sew on the label before Quiltfest. I’m flying up for the show but I won’t be there for the quilt turn in.

The website for the Kaffe Challenge is http://patchwork-stoffe.de/?p=963

Mini Drunkard’s Path

Borders attached:

With the binding on it will measure just under 30″ square – the maximum size for the Mini Quilt category at Quiltfest Jacksonville 2013 in September.

Many of the minis I have seen at the show are smaller than the signs hanging next to them with the description. It’s as if it is a competition to see how small you can make a quilt. They end up being mug rugs or coasters. I want this to be a doll’s quilt some day – so I went for the largest accepted size.