2knitwits
Two sisters, Nancy and Mary, exchange family news and photos and dream about knitting, quilting, books, birds and life in general.
Friday, July 29, 2022
Hollyhocks
Monday, July 4, 2022
J. D. Salinger's popcorn salt recipe
I was listening to NPR one day several months ago and they were talking about J. D. Salinger and at the end of the bit they gave his popcorn salt recipe. Since I was driving I couldn't write it down but later I looked it up and listened to my very first podcast. It was on Christopher Kimball's Milk Street.
If I was a true blogger I would write all sorts of lovely prose about it and post a fancy picture. But I am not so here is the recipe.
1/4 Cup Diamond Crystal Kosher salt,
4 t. garlic powder,
2 t. onion powder,
2 t. Curry (I used Penzy's NOW Curry),
2 t. paprika,
2 t. marjoram,
2 t. dill.
The directions were to grind it with a mortar and pestle but I don't think I remembered that.
Sunday, March 20, 2022
Embroidery on my new (to me) Willcox and Gibbs handcrank.
My first piece sewn with the Willcox and Gibbs. |
I ordered an antique sewing machine on the internet. I have heard all the horror stories but Wolfegang's Collectibles has a sterling reputation and I felt safe.
I have been wanting a Willcox and Gibbs handcrank chain stitch machine for a while. When I saw Michael had a selection I was first in line.
This is what the box looked like when I picked it up at the post office.
The box with the machine in it. |
Really? There is a sewing machine in there? |
I started removing the grey stuff. It is fairly stiff foam. Lots and lots of foam. |
Cling wrapped box. |
MORE FOAM! |
This was what was in it. I had to remove one piece to even see the machine.
Anybody need some foam? |
Eventually, with much careful foam removal, I uncovered this little beauty.
More cling wrap! |
So pretty! |
Hugs,
The Lunch Box mayonnaise recipe
The Lunch Box book |
Mary makes her own mayonnaise. She has been coaching me on making it also. I've made it once.
I wanted to share this recipe I found in a 1946 cookbook. I think I will try this recipe next time. There isn't a lot of variation in the recipes but I tend to get "creative" and need to dial it back a little.
This is the cover page of the book. Maybe I should read more of it. I just found the mayo recipe when the book opened to that page as I was moving it.
And here is the recipe.
I'll probably lower the sodium. |
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Playing with a miniature block
The finished 5" block |
A friend challenged several of us with a tiny little block that she found somewhere online. I don't know where so can't credit the quilter.
The Challenge |
I figured the small blocks finished at an inch. Since I was bored with the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt I was supposed to be sewing it looked like a fun challenge. I already had most of the quarter square units waiting for me to do something with them, so I dug them out.
The tiny quarter square units cut down to 1.25 inches. |
I didn't want to work with block as small as one half inch finished so I decided to make them one quarter inch larger. I had to trim the already made quarter square triangles down to 1.25 inches. That was no problem. (Some were 1.5" and some were 1.75".)
They were all made with beautiful hand dyed Cherrywood fabric that another friend had passed on to me when she finished cutting for a quilt.
pinwheel layout |
As I worked on the layout I decided to make as many pinwheels as I could without sewing any more color combo's. (That was three pinwheels.)
sewing on my Singer 99K handcrank. |
So I sewed them together and thought they were beautiful
My initial 16 patch. |
However it seemed very unfinished and small. It was 3.5 inches.
It's too small. |
I had more of the Cherrywood fabrics so I chose four of the colors and did a square in a square block design. That made it finish at 5". That was much better.
Looking for backing and binding |
I was happy with this size and searched for a fabric for backing. I think I found the perfect fabric and got to work making a sandwich and quilting the tiny thing.
I drew the quilt design on the top with Clover's water erasable blue marker. That was a mistake. When I was done quilting I spritzed the piece with water to make the lines go away and discovered I used too much water. Some of the fabric dye bled into the yellow fabric.
I was not a happy camper.
I put on the binding anyway and tried to decide what to do.
After brooding over it for a day I decided that I might be able to hide the worst of the bleeding with an embroidery "design element." Thus you have the little floral accents at the start of the quilted flower.
It was fun to make this little block. However I do not need to make any more right now. I am back to working on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.Hugs,
Nancy
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Too Cold for TOGA
This is the second virtual Too Cold for TOGA that TreadleOn has hosted. It was a two day event with only one class on Friday evening for machine maintenance. That was taught by our brave leader Mea Clift.
There were two classes on Saturday January 29. I taught the color class and Helen Howes of Helen Howes Textiles taught an amazing class on quilted postcards. She taught this class using her darling pattern called Counter-Change Cats. It is available as an e-pattern from her at helen@helenhowestextiles.co.uk
Here are my cats. One quilted and one waiting to be quilted. Then I trim them to size, back them and put the postcard info on the back. I loved the class. Of course I love cats so it was a given.
My color class was fun too. I had the devil of a time deciding how to teach it until Dawn Beckwell herded me into deciding that the best would be actually working through how I choose colors for a quilt. We used a picture of a monarch butterfly on Zinnias that I had taken in my garden as the inspiration.
I had a huge pile of fabrics that were possibilities and as a group we worked through them and came up with a lovely set of fabric. I am tempted to actually use the fabrics to make something.
Don't you think we did a great job?
Hugs,
Nancy
Thursday, January 13, 2022
Where do we put the snow?
Looking out the second floor window to the south. |
Looking out of the front porch to the southwest. |
Looking out the upstairs spare bedroom window to the east. |
Looking out our North window from the second floor. The fenced in garden is 40' X 40' and the woods is 70 feet away. |
Looking out the kitchen window to the South East. |
Looking out the front porch door to the South West. |
Looking out the second floor window to the south. The pillow is for the cats. They like to snooze in the sun, when there is sun. |
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
TreadleOn HOUSES block exchange quilt
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The finished quilt top |
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My 10 exchange houses and some scrappy squares. |
Then I had to wait for 10 different blocks to be mailed to me.
When they came I decided that 10 blocks was a difficult number to work with and that even if I went up to 12 it would still be a tiny little quilt. I decided I would need 15 house blocks. Then I decided that I would add some trees to make it more interesting. And THEN I decided I would put some sashing between the houses to make the width a good size. Since there was no color cohesiveness in the quilt the sashing had to be black and white. Freddy Moran says so!
I really wanted to have some of the blocks that I had mailed away in my quilt so I decided to do my best to match them for the finished design.
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I liked the cat house I sent so this is the replacement |
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My dog house block |
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The beach house |
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I do not have a detail picture of this house. Another cat in the window. ;-) This is also the only detail of that tree. |
I wanted to have the snowy house in my quilt also. I did a little tweeking with a lead pencil to make a track through the snow instead of a sidewalk. I also did some enhancement of the smoke coming out of the chimney.