Imaginarium, a Scrap Baby Quilt

Imaginarium, a charm quilt for baby

This is a baby quilt, made from leftovers from a quilt which I am making for myself.  It is a little fancier than most charm quilts.  Charm quilts are named for their 'charm' because they are made from scraps which sometimes do and sometimes do not blend well.  Charm quilts tend to be more funky and campy than their sister-quilts-- matched piece quilts.  A unique feature of this quilt is that it has some of the prairie points and flat trim from the big quilt, and it adds interest and detail. 

There are some jokes or funny parts to this quilt that will make you laugh if you're a quilter.  I'll let ya in on the secret.  A beginner quilter might make borders such as the stripe and print here, and might attach one edge backward or going to same direction as the other side as I have done.  Experienced quilters would never do that because it violates the rules of symmetry.  However, Fluffy I am and Fluffy I do, so here the borders on both sides are going in the same direction.   It was a conscious choice. 

Another quilter's joke is that in places you'll find prairie points or flat trim, and not in other places that one would expect to see the same thing.  So happens that I made up some extra length of these and attached them to sashing, only to destine them to the cutting-room floor. 

Here I have followed the old legal maxim of equity, known to law students throughout time from Black's Law Dictionary (or Prosser on Torts) "You take your victim as you find him."  In law, it means that a tort defendant is liable for the outcome even if a tort Plaintiff or victim is extraordinarily impacted.  If you trip a waiter with brittle bones simply in revenge because of poor service, you must pay the price of the damage you do, even if an average waiter would not suffer greatly from being tripped.  Likewise, I've 'taken my victim as I found him' in my scrap pile.  Some strips with Prairie Points don't have a full row.  Well, tough cookies.    My goal was to quilt up that mess in the floor.  The result is that you have a few unexpected things happening on this quilt.

This juvenile quilt top is for sale as a top ($100) or fully custom machine quilted, batted and backed with the contrast or match fabric of your choice ($300).    

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

This recipe is adapted from one I found at Allrecipes.com.  Did you know that the old fashioned way to cook a pumpkin is to put it in the oven?  Just rinse it, and put it in the oven, about 350 for an hour or so.  This is also a good way to cook squash.  No fussing over cutting... and this method gives no worries about some of the pumpkin being too done while other parts remain uncooked.  In about an hour, go back and turn it off.  Leave it there.  Let it cool for an hour or half a day.

You can make your own pumpkin puree, and it will taste fresher and more pumpkin-y than canned pumpkin (although the latter is really convenient and less messy).   I use a TV tray for cleaning pumpkin, because it might be too messy for a regular cutting board.  Just slice it into fourths, and use a spoon to scoop away the seeds and strings.  Then pare the skin off easily with a knife.  Cut into chunks.  If you have a food processor, you can whiz it, but don't add liquid.  Another way to puree the pulp is in a mixer for a long time. 

Gingersnap Crust:
Crush and whiz (in a food processor or blender) 1/2 cups of gingersnaps and 1 cup of graham crackers.  You want a fine mix, and I sift mine thru a sifter, because the gingersnaps sometimes don't chop up.  Add 2-3 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 to 3/4 of a stick of butter.  I like to put my butter in the microwave for 15 seconds because I rarely have it at room temp when I begin.  This, you press into the bottom of a springform pan.  I don't have a springform pan, so I use a square 9x9 pyrex glass baking dish, a round custard dish or a 9x14 glass pan.  Just put it back in the fridge till you add the filling, and it can be hardening.

Mix 16 oz of cream cheese till creamy, and add 1/3 cup of brown sugar.  Here's where my recipe is a jazzed-up version of the online classic:  While my cream cheese is getting fluffy, I use authentic whole spices that I grind, crush or grate, myself.  I just put those on top of  the pumpkin puree that I will be adding.

I use about a teaspoon of cloves, taking just the buttons off of the top.  (Toss the 'forks' into your simmering potpourri, as they are tough.)  I crush them on an old Cherokee grinding rock using a round Cherokee stone that I found in the woods.  You could use a bowl and pestle. 

I use about a tablespoon of cinnamon that I got when travelling in the Carribean.  If you go South, don't miss a chance to visit a grocery store or town marketplace somewhere like Montego Bay.  You can get amazing fresh spices, whole, and they'll keep for a year or more if you don't refigerate them and leave them whole till ready for use. 

I crushed a fourth of a nutmeg.  That would be about 1/2 teaspoon.

I used fresh ginger root, grating it on a grater... about a tablespoon and that is a lot.

Add a cup of pumpkin puree and these spices, scraping down your bowl edges to incorporate all the cream cheese.

Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Or, you could also use a spoon of Frangelico at this step instead.

You'll get a creamy mix, richer than pumplin pie mix.  Gently pour it into the crust, and pop that into the oven.  Turn the oven to 350.  Add a big pot of water to the bottom to keep your cheesecake moist and avoid cracking.  Cook for 30 minutes or until the edges are puffy and the middle still jiggles.

There's a trick here:  You want to keep your oven steamy, so don't be opening and closing the door a lot.  Treat it like a souffle.

After 30 minutes, turn the heat down to 325, and set the timer for 15 minutes.  Make this topping:

1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon Frangelico

You can use Vanilla if you don't happen to have Frangelico.  (Frangelico comes from the liquor store and some people use it as a coffee flavoring.  It is rather expensive, and has a flavor of hazelnut and berries.)

When your topping is made, gently take the cheesecake out of the oven and pour this evenly over the top.  Avoid moving it around with a spoon if you can, so it won't break into the cake which is still cooking.  Then put it back in the oven, turn off the oven at the end of the timer above, and just leave it there for an hour, in the oven, still cooking but at an ever-lower temp.  After an hour you can take it out, insert a knife around the edges so it will shrink without splitting, and put it back into the cooling oven until both oven and cake are at room temp.

Now, for the hard part.  Cover it with foil and stick it in the oven to chill and set up overnight.  Next day, Eat It.

This is a great upscale recipe for holiday visits, but the cream cheese makes it dangerously rich and fattening.    Once in a while, it won't hurt ya.  Enjoy!  And do post any variations that you try.

The Talking Potholder

"Ouch, This is hot!" said the talking potholder, when she used it to take nice cinnamon bread out of the oven, so it could be drizzled with orange glaze and a handful of chopped almonds.  But really, the Talking Potholder didn't mind too very much, because after all, being a potholder was the only life it had ever known.

Stripey Potholder with Pink

Stripey Potholder with Pink Thingy

Potholder of the Day Club here, delivering your Potholder Eye Candy for Tuesday November 23rd.  For a week now, I've been featuring my hand-dyed funky potholders.  These are little utilitarian jewels of art, ready to take a center stage in your kitchen.  Or, if you kitchen doesn't have a stage in it, then I guess you could hang one of these on the Spoon Drawer Handle.

One-eyed Panther Butterfly Lemon Berry Potholder

I guess this potholder sorta looked like a face, so I added an eye.  The berry-colored fuschia is hand-dyed fabric, and the whole shebang is lined with not only nice cotton but alsy a heat resistant barrier.  You cannot tell it, but it is oversized for easy cookie retrieval.  A potholder in the series called:  Potholder Series.

The Potholder Series: Moccasin Nose

The silliest potholder you've ever seen is this "Moccasin Nose" potholder, made of hand-dyed fabric (by me) and then sillied-up with a reproduction Depression-Era flour sack print. So atypical that Google will have a hard time figuring out what advertisements to put on the page with depression-era moccasins, noses and hand dyed fabrics.  The Potholder Series continues, so stay tuned for tomorrow's mystery.

Color Burst Paris, a Funky Potholder

Today's wee little piece of fun artisan potholder is called Color Burst Paris.  Or, if you wish, Colorburst Paris.  The Paris print at lower left is a reproduction fabric from the Drepression Era.  And that gorgeous piece of color in the middle is one of my hand-dyed pieces.  These are for sale at my Etsy store, so stock up in time for The Cooking Season.

Potholder Of The Buena Vista Social Club

Here's a cheery unique potholder from hand-dyed cotton and lined with heat-resistant batting, for your next meeting of the Buena Vista Social Club.  But you do not have to play salsa in order to enjoy it. 

Blue Pool Potholder

Today's delicious lil artsy potholder looks like a black and white striped air mattress on a cool pool.  Visit my Etsy store:  Island Retreat to see more.

Berry Leopard Curl Potholder

The Potholder Series

Someone has asked to see my potholders.  Many are online at my etsy shop.  For the next few days, the daily blog will be simply Potholder of the Day. 

Steam Punk Quilt Top

Today's post is a fun quilt top that I made in late October.  I found steam punk image fabric and designed the remainder of the quilt around these nice pieces with themes of time and travel.

I was attending the Governor's Water Conference and took my sewing machine, so I would have something to do in the evenings.  When I travel without Dennis I miss him, so quilting is something I can do while I am alone.

This fun quilt is just a top thus far, and can be made up with any solid or print backing in Standard, Queen or King for $400.00 complete.  It can be custom quilted with names, initials, secret messages and the like, in any color(s) of thread.

Riley White Painting - Jingle Dancer

Riley White Jingle Dancer

Today's post is just a memoire.  It is of a treasured painting that hangs on my office wall.  Here I have taken a digital picture of it, and cropped away the frame.  You can see it is slightly distorted because it was photographed at an angle.  I did not remove it from the wall to snap a pic.

It is special for a couple of reasons.  I just like it.  Riley White was my father in law and I keep this painting for my son Justin, so he'll have one of his grandfather's artworks.  I also like the colors and the iconic historical angles... which to me are evocative of the 1930's and 1940's public art industrial movement paintings.

Riley White was a contemporary (age mate is perhaps a better term) of Woody Crumbo and the Kiowa Five.  One or more of his works are at the Museum at Bacone.  He was a prolific painter and his works are still found from place to place.  I think this one was either purchased at Cherokee Gift Shop or gifted from a co-worker, Mrs. Louise Covey aka Louise Ballard.  She taught Home Economics at Sequoyah High School and in the very early 1960s my mother was her intern teacher at Sequoyah High School in Home Ec.  Riley taught Arts and Crafts at Sequoyah High School and many gifted artists still living were his students.

Sunny October Saturday

Today's post is just a nice photograph of my favorite close nearby side yard landscape--- the pond by my house.  It is from a sunny Saturday about 2 weeks ago.

Kai's Fuzzy Quilt

Here on his daddy's Ju Jitsu mat, is a fuzzy soft quilt made for Kai Brinkley.  The fake fur looks wrinkled, but its actually colored and napped like that.  This was a joyous fun campy utility quilt, made in the spirit of grandmothers of days gone by, who would piece together warm flannel scraps with no particular pattern.  This one, I've seamed on the outside.  After washing, these seams will fuzz up and add a bit of loft to the quilt.  Then if it is laid on Baby Kai with the cozy flannel side down, it will give a little bit more room for an air layer.  It is larger than crib size, smaller than a sofa throw, and designed for playing on the floor or snuggling at night.

Note:  Shopping for fabric I noted that 3 of the most popular main chain stores are selling novelty prints with childrens' themes in fabrics that say "Not suitable for sleepwear."  You may have to look on the bolt end, the selvedge or inside the flat card to find the warning.  Don't use such flannels for quilts because they are flammable, even if these stores seem to theme the flannels for childrens' bedwear and bedding.  In my opinion, these should be removed from the shelves or the warning should be prominently displayed.

Making Flat Trim

Flat Trim is a dressy, crisp 3-D insert that will give your quilt some interest.  It looks hard to do but it is easy.  See my hand under this striped piece?  There is also a flat trip piece on the other side of the turquoise strip which can be lifted up.  It is as easy as Prairie Points, only easier.  Here's how:

1.  Get a length of fabric and square it up by doing this:  Snip and rip off the selvedge.  Now go to the fold and snip it about an inch from the edge.  Rip.  This should peel off any bad angles.  You can always do it again if you can't rip all the way to the end.  Tip:  Always rip fast and hard with plenty of Oomph.  This will prevent warping the weave.

2.  What Size?   Whatever size you want your trim to be, double that and add the width of your seam.  So, if you want a 2 inch trimpiece, make each strip 4 inches wide plus as wide as the seam will be.

3.  Measure, Rip.  Measure your distance at the fold.  Snip in an inch.  Measure your distance at the fold.  Snip in an inch.  Repeat.  I just save the last strip in my 'bone pile' as it may be crooked, yet I have it if I am running shy.

4.  Seam Them.  Gather up all those strips and sew seam, sew seam, sew seam.  I don't even bother to cut the thread each time.  I cut all threads after I've sewn the seams.  See?  That's how they do it in the factories, so they don't spend so much time.

5.  Fold and Iron.  Or Not.  I am not much of an ironer.  So, I just foldover the OUTSIDE showing, and zigzag down the whole long snakey trim piece, at the edge.  Just like store-bought!

6.  Now you're ready to sew your trim to the border.  You can either take a minute to actually sew it on before sandwiching the seam, or try to hold it all together.  Tip:  If you are just sewing some lightweight piees together, skip sewing down the trim as a first step and go straight to the sandwiching.  But if you are working with 2 pieces of vastly different weights (ie, a big quilt top you have fabricated already), then sewing the trim as a first step will give you a neater outcome.

Thereya Go!  These flat trim pieces are so tailored and smart-looking for a custom artisan look.  And they are easy enough to make, that they're great even for a beginner's quilt.

How To Make Prairie Points

Prairie Points are these showy little triangles peeping out of the seam on a quilt.  You'll find them most often along the edges of quilts.  Unliked scalloped edges, these are easy to make.  Here's how:

Select your fabric.  A dramatic contrast or stark stripes might give your project some punch.  If you choose something that 'matches' too closely, your prairie points may seem like a lot of work for very little visual impact.  (Here, I've used birch tree trunks, with batiks and a festive print.)  You can buy and yard and go back if you need more. 

Snip and rip off the selvedge piece with the fabric's name on it.  Now rip a straight line...  You do this by finding the fold of the fabric, and snipping about an inch in from the edge.  You will rip it from the middle to the edges in both directions at once.  Now you have a true straight line.

Cut Strips... Using a tape measure or the ruler on a cutting board, snip in about an inch on the fold, every 4 inches.  When you get to the last one, it might not be square if the fabric was not cut precisely, so I always throw the last piece into the 'bone pile' in my sewing room floor.  You will have it there if you need it, and if not you may use it later for potholders or pillowcases.

Make the Strips Square... Lay your strip longwise and make a snip every four inches, then rip each into a 4 inch square.  Tip:  If you are precise, lay 2 or 3 strips atop each other and cut multiples all the way thru instead of ripping. 

Stack and Fold... Stack them up on your ironing board.  Get one.  Fold into a triangle.  Fold into a triangle again.  Iron.  Stack 'em in a finished pile.  Repeat till all are done.  Tip:  If you use a stripe, you *might* prefer to fold them with the fold going the same direction.  If you're making horizontals and you get a vertical, turn it over.  Its magic!

Zigzag them Down... Sew these down onto your sashing or border strip using a zigzag stitch.  You'll hide that when you sew the quilt top seam.

Finish and Admire... Now lay your border strip under the quilt top.  Eleanor Burns, author of Quilt In A Day Series, gives this tip and it makes your project move more smoothly in the machine.  Quilt your regular size of seam.

I love these!  This is my first quilt with Prairie Points and they're so easy plus fancy.  When you quilt your top, you may wish to seam along whichever side you wish in order to lay them up toward the top of the bed, or down toward the edge of the quilt.

Tuscan Memories

Here's a sassy bright big quilt top that I made to match those new plaster and glaze terra cotta walls.  And its easy.  Pick out 9 pieces of fabric that pick up the colors in your room. 

Tip:  Shop some place like a quilt fabric store, so you'll get square cuts.  Often the bargain and discount stores are rushed or don't have employees trained to cut fabric on a square 90-degree angle.  Why does that matter?  You'll want to rip some strips, and you will lose the use of a lot more than just an inch if the cut is off.

Get a half-yard of fabric from each bolt, and get thread. 

At home, snip the selvedge and strip that off of each piece.  Now go in about an inch from the edge of fabric, and snip it at the fold so you can rip right down the edge to give yourself a true and straight ripline.  Measure four inches in, and snip/rip again.  Measure four inches and snip/rip again.  Do this till the last one... it might not be square.  Start yourself a "bone pile" in the corner of the floor in case you do need part or all of it later.

Repeat this step for all 9.  You'll end up with a bunch of piles of strips, so sit down at the machine and randomly seam them together, about as long (or about as wide) as you want your middle "bricks" to be.

Do you want bricks going across?  Or down?  Choose your direction and start sewing the strips together.  You'll end up with a rectangle about the size of the middle 'brickey' part of this quilt.  If your edges are not square, trim those neat.

Now go back to the store.  Pick 4 contrasty colors.  I got 3 yards, 2 yards, 1 yard and 1 yard, but that's too much.  Why did do that?  Because 3 yards is longer than any quilt stirp and saves me from having to seam the longest pieces.  Call it lazy.  Or call it 'adding to my stash of fabric.'  You never know when you'll want to make matching pillow cases.

There are 2 tricky advanced techniques on this otherwise super quick and supersimple quilt....
1.  Prairie Points
2.  Flat Folded Trim
You can skip these if it is your first quilt, or read tomorrow's blog for more "how to."

Have I given you enough basics to set yourself free to just start sewing pieces together till its big and beautiful?  That is how I quilt... with little regard for standard sizing.  I want a quilt big enough to cover the edges when we are snuggled in on a cold winter day.  I want a quilt that is not so very long that its weight would pull or work its way to the foot of the bed if we're underneath it.

These are basic instructions for a quilt top in a day or two.  More later on the details, such as batting, backing, binding, etc.

Making Do

Plaster and Glaze Wall Treatment

Since 2005, we've lived in this small country cottage in rural Adair County, Oklahoma just outside town from the county seat of Stilwell.  Stilwell has under 5,000 residents.  Our bedroom walls were done in 1970s wood veneer panelling of fine quality.  But there is something about those panelling stripes that made us feel like we were sleeping in pinstriped pajamas.

Last week with the help of a friend, Dave Holbrook, we plastered over the panelling with plaster-looking texture, and primed it with a pinkish terra cotta colored paint.  We added a dark green glaze to knock down the starkness.

This photo shows one of the finished walls.  It was taken under incandescent light, and has an amber tint to the photo which is actually more salmon or peach in color.

I was happy to 'make do' with new texture and color rather than moving to a bigger newer house.  We paid off our mortgage this Spring and do not have a hefty mortgage payment burdening us during these uncertain times.  Sometimes little pleasures are the best.



Sweet Gracie Piddlewhiskers

Sweet Little Gracie Piddlewhiskers, Selkirk Rex Breed

Sweet Gracie Piddlewhiskers has an announcement.  She will be having some darling little grey blue curly babies, about the second week in December.   Gracie is registered with CFA and the father is Route 66 King Arthur of Piddlewiskers & Snugglesworth.  He's a big lilac British Shorthair of international grand champion ancestors.  This is her first litter, and she's sort of clued-in to the fact that something is brewing in her tummy.  She's very affectionate.  She's always looking for yet another nest, and has about 5 ideal suitable locations scoped out for December.

Kittens will be sexed and typed by Christmas, but will be ready to leave home around Valentine's Day.  If you would be interested in a show, breed or pet kitten, contact me at ktibbits@lrec.org , so I can let you know more as the news develops!