Roasted Peppers

We have not had our first frost here. It is imminent, and the garden has been on my mind. It is no longer warm enough for veggies to ripen, so I decided to pick the rest of the peppers and eggplants today. I filled a 5 gallon bucket with choricero, banana, and jalapeno peppers. A smaller tote held all of the remaining eggplants.

A  lovely group of nightshade fruit.

I roasted all of the peppers, except the jalapenos, by broiling them for 5 minutes per side on baking sheets. Then I wrapped them in waxed paper and sealed them in zip lock bags for winter cooking. A fast and easy processing method. And, the house smells delish!  Tomorrow I'll roast the eggplants for baba ganoush. The jalapenos will be strung to dry.

Hand appliqued and embroidered (not by me!)

For my October goal for the finishes group, I will turn these 8 inch blocks into a quilt top. I am using yellow tone on tone for the sashing. After I get the top and back pieced, I am sending it off to my sister Pam to be quilted. Mom won the blocks in a quilt group drawing. It is a sweet, old fashioned collection. Can't wait to see the finish!

Best Gift Ever

Sew... my Uncle Pat's companion, Sonja Mann, is a fabric rep for Moda, and she sent me a giant box of wonderfulness.

13 inch squares!!

 I spread it all out and just glowed with the possibilities!! I am full of exclamation points just now. I thought I'd share it with my sister, Pam, but now I don't want to. Luckily, Sonja and Pat said I don't have to, because they are sending Pam her own box of wonderfulness.

I have been working mostly from fabric gifted by a shopaholic hoarder friend, who favored Thimbleberries. Her gift was bought about 8-10 years ago. Lots of nice stuff, though not my first choice. I do have my own purchases, albeit on a shoestring budget and often from thrift shop finds... sew this gift rocketed me into the 4th dimension!!!

I have spent a little time browsing scrap quilt ideas on Pinterest. I allow myself 30 minutes a day to surf the mighty web. Then I need to get back to reality and create epic cuss. (My 4 letter word for s***.) When I combine these yummy fabric samples with solid contrasts, I will have a plethora of quilt loveliness. I got up excited at 4:30 this morning to finish taking the staples and cardboard off of the samples, and folding them into neat order. I already cut one set up, for a block of the month project for the quilt club. After that, on to holiday and December birthday sewing. I am SEW EXCITED that I am standing beside myself. 

When I looked up from the fabric all over the design floor, this is the view I saw out the window:

Sunset on the mountains with clothes line, viewed out the window from my loft.

mokuroku (journal)

I love heavy cotton fabrics with rich, dense colors printed in big designs. The fabric for this project is "morukoru (journaling)" The Alexander Henry Collections 2004. I instantly thought of Diane, and her love of red, and journaling. The other fabrics are Funky Monkey by Erin Michaels for Moda, and a blue polka dot, part of a holiday line called "All Wrapped Up," by Maywood Studio from Huckleberry Patches in McCall. I included the knit print to curtsey to Diane's avocation, knitting. Here are her new pillowcases:

Close up of the fabrics.

I finished my September goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. I used Hoffman Batiks to frame the paper pieced Christmas Trees. I machine quilted this piece. :

25" x 37"

Close up of the fabrics.

Catching Some ZZZZZ's

I made up some sets of pillowcases for gifts. What a fun and easy way to make a thoughtful gift that is sew nice. I used this tutorial and highly recommend it. If you have never sewn a french seam, you will after this. I like to make the cases long, so they will fit a king size pillow or cover a regular pillow modestly. I always include laundering instructions with my gifts. Happy Sewing!!

Wedding gift for Ruthie Hennings Traxler and Ben Traxler.

Get well gift for Uncle Pat Holbrook's companion, Sonja Mann.

Christmas cases for the Pinehurst Guild Quilt Auction.

Thank you gift for Aunt Ann Holbrook Rousselot.

Close up of the fabrics.

Retro Visions

 September is a busy time of changes, whether you are going back to school or back to work after summer off, or harvesting and preserving and moving the beauty of a garden into the pantry.  Our local quilt guild takes the summer off and now is gearing up for the annual quilt auction ~ our big fund raiser for community benefits and our spring retreat. My UFO for this month is a set of batik paper pieced pine trees, made by guild members at last April's retreat. They need to be made into a table runner or wall hanging for the auction.  It will probably take a day to complete this little project, if I skip the avoiding and staring dreamily and just get 'er done.  Here are the trees:

These trees remind me of aluminum Xmas trees of the 60's, with the rainbow lighting.

One thing I have learned about paper pieced blocks: don't remove the paper until they are sewn to their lattices or adjoining blocks. They have lines that make joining super simple. 

Crossing the Bosphorus

   I have finished a wall hanging that has been a UFO for 80 years. I first wrote about the blocks here.    This month I decided to make this my finish, and I got 'er done. I am selling this wall hanging to a good friend who commissioned a piece for her office. She appreciates hand piecing, and likes avant garde art. This swagged out piece is for her!
    Thanks to my brilliant daughter, Diane, (who was the National Geographic Geography Bee State Runner-Up for Montana in 1994, at age 11,) I know that the water the elephants crossed from Persia to Morocco, was the Bosphorus Strait.  In Wikipedia it explains the historical changes and importance of this waterway which connects Asia and Europe. Incidentally, the phrase  "crossing the Bosphorus" is used to indicate religious conversion to the Eastern Orthodox Church.    Here are the finishing pictures:

The little "Made in Persia" label is the center triangle.

Blue and white porcelain beads, Turkish style, with Jade beads.

Carmel lozenge beads.

Wooden beads and striped glass geometric beads. Variegated wool strands.

Tiny buttons.

Jet black beads couched over multi colored wool strands.

Silver rings.

Elephant border. See the baby elephant on the left side? Miniature red and black rick rack. Skull and cross-bone binding was the right color, and symbolizes the extinction of the north African Elephant used in ancient times.

Elephants Crossing into Morocco

Researching Marrakesh, Morocco I came upon images of elephants crossing the Zambezi River. Historically, the north African Elephant (now extinct) was used for travel to Morocco on ancient trade routes, as well as for war. Daydreaming about the images of morocco and spice markets, I imagined merchants traveling on elephants, rich and earthy tones, veils and tassels, embellishments. I pulled out a pieced top I started earlier this year, that was waiting for a border... and dug out some elephant fabric from my stash. Eureka! Now, to quilt this and embellish it with trinkets to recall Moroccan spice markets. This is the quilt story that I will illustrate this month.