Gracie Discovers Mudme

 

It makes a world of difference to be able to create hand-dyed fabrics during the day, when natural light helps with color decisions.  Last week I was preparing  fat quarters for a custom order, and found that I had stockpiled some white cotton squares.  It was news to me.  I'd forgotten that I was prepping them for the dyebath.

When I had leftover chemicals that I didn't want to waste, I made up these great cheery color squares.  They are not sewn together... they are just laid out in a possible pattern for a quilt top.  Buy all 9 for $40 and sew them together yourself as a weekend project.  Or pick out which one you'd like for a quilt focal point, just $4 and mailing costs of $1.75.  Note that these are not fat quarters... they are squares, about 21 inches.

My cute lil model is Gracie Piddlewhiskers, our Selkirk Rex female teenager cat and art muse.  She's always nearby to help with art projects.  Your squares will be again prewashed before mailing, so you don't have to worry about allergies.

Look for these squares at Island Retreat or via Oklahoma Food Cooperative, or email me about purchasing.

50's Style Ultimate Kitschen Apron

 

Here's a length of extra skirting that is similar to something I featured in my blog before.  Check out the wonderful stripey waistline piece that extends a bit into the ties.  It is long enough in back to make a bow.  This apron features a convenient left-hand pocket, banked to the inside, because if you've really got a pocket full of snow peas from the garden, you don't want them tumbling out when you bend and stretch.  Its an old physics trick that I learned from trial and error.

When I was a child, my grandmothers were big on aprons.  One grandmother wore an apron as the top layer of her clothes whenever she was at home.  She wore full aprons of the top and bottom kind, usually, and would take them off when going to the store.  They were handy for popping grease as she fried morning bacon and made gravy.  They had big huge pockets for holding lots of clothespins for hanging laundry on the line to dry in the outdoor sun.

My other grandmother wore aprons also.  She wore frilly aprons for serving lovely vanilla sugar cookies.  These cookies were usually pressed out by a granddaughter and sprinkled with white sugar, then served with coffee or milk.  

Both of my grandmothers sewed.  My maternal grandmother, Bigmom, had a dry cleaners and tailoring service.  She had the most amazing interesting things she made from fabric scraps.  She had woolen quilts made from pant-legs of the mens wool suit pants that had been cut off.  She had raggedy towels sewn together in layers to make pads the size of a fat quarter.  These were little footstool or ottoman pads, or to step out onto from the bathtub, or for wiping feet inside the back door, or for babydoll blankets.  When my daughter was a little baby, this grandmother is the one who made me promise not to use disposable diapers, saying they were gross and miserable for babies.  When she passed away, I inherited a wonderful twin sateen quilt top that she had made in pastel blocks in mint, pink, dreamsicle orange, baby blue and lemon yellow.  In her aprons, she looked like Lucy Ricardo... perky and frilly.

My grandmothers' aprons are my inspiration for making fun aprons.  I've taken quite a few to the stomp grounds for kitchen use there.  This style of mixed calicos and pinch-pleats is new.  In old times, our corn dance was performed with the women wearing aprons of simple thin 60-thread or 100-thread count plain white cotton.  These aprons were scant and tailored, and they reminded me of when I was a little girl and my mother would put a bowl of  starch (and sometimes the whites to be starched and ironed) in the fridge.  (Starch and bluing.  Do people even know what that is today?)

There is something practical about an apron.  You drag in from a tough mind-numbingly cerebral day at the office sitting in a chair for eight hours.  You're hungry for something delicious, but still in a black or navy colored suit.  If you cook in it, you'll have more work ahead at laundry time, making sure there isn't any gravy on the tummy.  So, throw on an apron to break the serious mood.  Voila!  You're Samantha, making perfect barbeque sauce from scratch and whipping up something divine in quick time.  Remember... when you are too tired to fix dinner, a magic apron will give you the strength and energy to cook up some strength and energy.

I'm listing a few new things in my online shops, so this apron will be showing up in one of my etsy storefronts for $18 or you can email me if its the perfect match for your cooking and entertaining adventures.

Join the Oklahoma Food Cooperative

Several years back on a snowy winter day we held a startup meeting in Tahlequah for Oklahoma Food Coop members who might join in the NE part of the state.  Now today Coop has thousands of members and once a month, from all across Oklahoma, producers deliver to OKC where goods are sorted and go back out to several thousand folks who ordered fresh Oklahoma-made goods.  Producers offer a vast variety of foodstuffs and other useful things.  You can get buffalo, lamb, and in the past you could get rabbit, deer and tilapia.  Great free range chicken is available, plus nice organic meats and veggies in season.  In Summer, feast on soft fruit from peaches to figs.  In winter, you can still get squash and prepared foods which have been put up all year round in waiting for the lean season.

 

Co-op Instigator, Bob Waldrop Checking the Bread at one of our very first Co-op Board of Directors Meetings.  Food is a big part of the Co-op-ing that we do. 

One of the most amazing things about the Coop is that it runs on volunteer labor.  Volunteers do the sorting in OKC and they do the sorting at the delivery sites.  The producers prep their goods and enter their own products online, and consumers buy online a week before delivery.  It is exciting when orders first open, because everyone tries to get there in time to get some of the first dozens of eggs or a limited quantity of fresh butter or heavy cream, greek yogurt, or cowboy cheese, washing powder.  So, I'm opening it up to ongoing discussion, and maybe some of the coop members will drop by and post his or her favorite item.  Today my fave is the shampoo soap, because it makes my hair so soft and curly!  I used to get very expensive nice Aveda hair products, but I can't leave this soap alone.  Today I cooked chocolate bread with the organic chocolate from one of the coffe companies in the coop.  It made for rich bread that is not sweet but very sophisticated in flavor.  I love the coffees too, and shop from all 3 coffee producers each month to stay in stock.  The statewide Annual Meeting is a food and friend-making extravaganza, taking place soon.  If you join in time, don't miss it.  

Details:  Visit www.oklahomafood.coop  Members join for about $50 (one time) and pay each month for their buys, picking up at the closest location of which there are many statewide.

At Oklahoma Food Cooperative, find Fluffy's Compleat Boutique listings for tees and clothing in sizes for adults, children and babies.  You can find quilt tops and quilts made of hand-dyed fabric by artist Kathy Tibbits which are not available any place else.  Some hemp and hemp/cotton tees and skirts are sold via the co-op.  Organic cotton shirts are occasionally available there.  Gourmet kitchen goods from Fluffy's can be purchased at Oklahoma Food, from time to time.  This usually includes potholders or hot pads, and sometimes chef aprons, kitchen towels and dinner naps, placemats, and refrigerator magnets.