Project Quilting

Posted on January 8, 2023 by murrayewv

Project Quilting is a challenge that Kim Lapacek of Persimon Dreams sponsors. I have participated in past years, often only finishing one project. This year (2023) I am excited to try again.

My goals for the challenges are

To finish all the challenges and actually post the results

To use materials in my stash where possible,

To learn new methods, and

To improve my web abilities

I am just adding these posts to my family food blog, but I will probably rearrange things as I refresh my understanding of Word Press.

Project Quilting Season 14

Project 1 January 8, 2023

Here is my completed miniquilt.

The prompt for this week’s challenge is One. I thought of One Block Wonders, a way of making spinning hexagons. I have enjoyed looking at these quilts, but honestly didn’t understand how to make one. This fit my criteria! I did a little searching on the internet and learned about how to use 6 fabric panels to make the 60 degree triangles needed.

I recalled that I have in my stash 7 balloon panels that are some of my oldest fabrics, purchased in about 2010 when I lived in Huntington WV. I bought this fabric “by the pound” from a store West Virginia Quilters in Barboursville. The store owner used to offer sales samples which were put together for fabric stores to select from on piles on tables in a back room. I loved rummaging around and I found lots of pieces of sample fabric from the balloon fabric line. I actually made a charming baby quilt for a friend using the fabric, but I somehow moved on without making more projects. The fabric has a strong blue, gold, and maroon theme. I had a great time playing with software and pictures of the panels, and I had a Creative Grids 60 degree diamond ruler I purchased and hadn’t used. I started cutting up the fabric and sewing together hexagons. I made a lot of progress and a few mistakes- In my desire to fussy cut the fabric for the best swirling hexagons, I lost some precision and my blocks were not very uniform in size.

I love the Project Quilting flexibility though. I decided to pick out one block and play with adding some additional triangles and diamonds with scraps from the same balloon fabric line. In the end, I made a 17″ complex hexagon quilted piece with one of the One block Wonders in the center. I made use of the Y-seam method I learned in a Minnesota Quilters online retreat in 2021.

I am under a time crunch to post this project, so I will look for the name of the fabric and it’s designer later.

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Project Quilting Season 14

Posted on March 19, 2023 by murrayewv

Project 14.6 Conquer a Fear

I am not afraid of sea turtles, but apparently, I am afraid of following a complicated bag pattern. I saw this cute Annie’s pattern and thought it would be easy. I purchased and downloaded it a year ago and then, nothing.

I decided to make a large turtle for this challenge. I love the result, but there was a lot to figure out three dimensionally in the pattern “Shell Shelters” by Java House Quilts copyright 2018. I had everything in my stash, but it required some messing around to accomplish this.

I used a recycled fabric print and some batik scraps.

Super cute final turtle, 14″ size. I liked the goofy eyes, but they took a bit of time. I think a stretch fabric would work better.

The zipper pocket worked well. Much easier to do. I made a ton of bias strip binding- that worked well but again, took a while to overcome the three-dimensional challenge.

Project QUILTING
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Project Quilting 14.6

Posted on March 19, 2023 by murrayewv
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Project Quilting 14.3

Posted on February 5, 2023 by murrayewv

54-40 or Fight Block Due February 4 at noon.

This is my Green Comet miniquilt. Once again, I am too close to the finish line! My goal for the next challenge is to finish sooner and use the web page link properly.

This week’s challenge was to use the 54 -40 or Fight block as the inspiration. I was aware of the slogan and it’s history, but I had never seen the block. At first I was very uninspired by the block itself- then I looked at some of the versions using the colors in imaginative ways to highlight different aspects of the star.

This image came from the challenge announcement.

I thought hard about fussy-cutting- something I love doing. I decided to highlight the little spikes as a star and used the astronomic phenomenon, the Green Comet of 2023 as my theme. The Green Comet was visible February 1-2. It was -18 degrees Farenheit here in Minnesota during the best viewing weather. I looked out the window but it wasn’t possible to see it. However, I had a very vivid dream that I had seen the coment.

This is an in-process shot of the quilt.

I had some lovely blue to yellow ombre fabric (1/2 yard) and I used the freezer paper method for cutting the ombre stars on the yellow/green border for an intense color. I used this grey DNA fabric that I love (retired molecular biologist) and fussy cut out the matching spikes of DNA. There are some (including Francis Crick) who think DNA could have traveled through space to our planet from distant galaxies.

I fussy cut some dinosaur fabric for the 4-patch block in the center to highlight comets/asteroids resulting in dinosaur extinction. I included the chemistry set because a lot of chemistry is used in figuring out the color of the comet being green (traces of copper). For fun I included an astronaut in a space suit, representing NASA and other scientists excited to study comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF).

The first 12 inches of the block are the 54-40 block and then there are an additional 9 4-patch blocks, some with half-square triangles representing the sparks flying off the comet hitting the atmosphere. My process is cut out a lot of blocks from a lot of fabrics and then assemble them on a design wall or table. I rummaged through the stash and found the fabrics, including the slate grey batik fabric with silvery clouds that made great space- I used all of that up! The final project is 24″ x 12.”

I did the quilting with the lovely yellow green Aurifil thread (50 wt) with lots of free motion swirls. The backing is a black and white “Constellation” fabric from my science fabrics and the binding is a lighter yellow green print. I was on target to beat my “under the wire” when the machine needed about 30 minutes of adjustment.

Close-up of quilting.

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Project Quilting 14.2 Pink Tint

Posted on January 22, 2023 by murrayewv

The Prompt for Project Quilting 14/2 was Pink Tint. My first thought was to pull out all my pink fabrics and make a pink string quilt in an X and O design. Why this quilt? My Quilting Group, Ladies of the Lake, has been doing a quilting for others project based on string quilts and I have been organizing the strips, muslin and other aspects of the project. I have string quilts on my mind! So here is Pink Strings- a 40″ x 48″ finished quilt.

I had some back-up project ideas for smaller projects, but I decided to start by pulling out all the predominantly pink fabrics. I noticed I seem to prefer peachy pink and raspberry pink shades. I also acquired a new spool of Aurifil 50 wt. thread from my local quilt shop. I also realized Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild was having their monthly meet-up via Zoom on Thursday and a virtual retreat called “Game On.” I signed up and decided to crash the challenge!

I cut up strings into a variety of widths- from 1.5-2.5 in width. I knew from previous string quilts that I should make some half-square triangles to finish blocks, to avoid a tiny strip added at the end of a block. I had a few squares of fabric remnants that were valentines themed that I included. I used tear-away papers cut into 8.5 inch pieces. Then the piecing could begin! My goal was to make 10 blocks a day and then finish putting the blocks together. I actually made blocks and rejected 3 as a little too different. I kept the papers on until the blocks were joined into a 5 x 6 array. I sewed a quarter inch edge to keep the strips sewed together when removing paper. I often use muslin for these blocks, but paper makes a softer quilt. I used Quilters Dream batting and a solid cream fabric for the back.

I made a free-motion heart pattern that came to me in a dream. It turned out great. I applied a sturdy machine binding as well! I was on a deadline and actually finished by 11:55.

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I snapped a picture of Jack holding up the quilt and then went to do battle with WordPress. I enjoyed the company of my virtual retreat to keep me company on this real challenge. Looking forward to 14.3.

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Baked Fudge Pudding

Posted on February 27, 2011 by murrayewv

This is another family favorite from the good ladies of St. John’s Guild in West Bend Wisconsin.  This is a gooey rich baked pudding cake which makes its own chocolatey sauce.   We ate this warm with vanilla ice cream.

Step 1.  Sift these ingredients into a Pyrex baking dish (at least 2 quarts).

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

To the dry ingredients add

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine 

1 cup nuts (walnuts)

Stir until blended into a brownie like batter.

Next mix the following ingredients in another small bowl.

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

Sprinkle this over the batter.

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla to 1 3/4 cups boiling water and pour over the mixtures.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes. 

The cake floats above a pool of sauce.  Serve a scoop of cake with some of the sauce.

Original much used recipe

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“Our Favorite Recipes” for German Potato Salad

Posted on February 27, 2011 by murrayewv

One of my mother’s oldest and most favorite cookbooks is written by the Ladies of St. John’s Ev. Lutheran Church in West Bend Wisconsin in 1949 and is titled “Our Favorite Recipes”.  This cookbook cost $1.50 and 15 cents for mailing and went through several editions.

Cover picture of a much loved cookbook

One of the most stained versions is the German Potato Salad recipe with handwritten in changes to the recipe to increase the amounts of the dressing.  Mom made this with young potatoes which were available in the early summer.

Ingredients

18 small potatoes

3 slices bacon cut in cubes

2 rounded tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup vinegar (cider)

1 1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 diced onion

Instructions

Boil the potatoes in salted water and cook until soft.  Peel and slice.

Fry bacon until golden brown.  Remove from pan.  To the bacon fat add the butter and onions and cook until onions are softened and browned.  Add flour.  Stir well and cook the flour to a roux.  Add the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pepper and mix the flour until there are no lumps.  Let come to a boil and cook until it loses the floury taste.  Pour the dressing over the potatoes and fold in.  Sprinkle the bacon over the top.  

We ate this potato salad warm or at room temperature often in the summer.

Photo of the actual page

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Pork Stew (Ragout de Porc)

Posted on January 2, 2011 by murrayewv

This stew was a great favorite of my brother Joe.  I believe my parents often substituted saurkraut for the red cabbage.  The recipe comes from a cookbook my father labeled as his favorite- The Ethnic Epicure published by the Wauwatosa Junior Women’s Club  in cooperation with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in 1973.  When my dad liked a recipe in a book he added little paper bookmarks and this one is studded with them.   This recipe is from the Belgian section of the cookbook.

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds pork shoulder or loin roast (cut into chunks)

2 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, minced

1/2 tsp celery salt

2 cloves

6 crushed peppercorns

salt to tast

2 cups meat stock or broth

1 cup shredded cabbage (red or white) or saurkraut

1 diced apple

1/2 – 3/ cup heavy cream

Instructions

Melt the butter in a heavy casserole dish (enameled metal) and brown the meat and onions slowly over medium heat.  Add seasonings, broth, cabbage and apple.  Bring to the boiling point.  Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 2 hours.  Remove the cover, increase the heat and reduce the liquid by 1/2 volume by boiling.  Add cream (depending on consistency).  Taste and adjust salt and pepper.  The stew has a white appearance with little trace of the cabbage, apples and onions.  The authors suggest adding a colorful accompaniment like acorn squash.

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Swedish Apricot Nut Bread

Posted on December 29, 2010 by murrayewv

This is another great recipe from Mimi Sheraton’s great Christmas cookbook, “Visions of Sugarplums”.

I have made this bread (which is more like a blonde fruit cake) almost every year for 25 years.  I regularly double the recipe.  The cake is good sliced with marscapone cheese spread on it for a treat.

Ingredients

1 cup dried apricots

1/2-1 cup brandy (enough to cover the soaking fruit)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter

1 egg, lightly beaten.

grated rind of 1 lemon

1/2 cup strained fresh squeezed orange juice

2 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking sode

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cups chopped walnuts

Instructions

Soak the whole apricots in the brandy for 2-3 hours.  I often cover the bowl tightly and let them soak overnight.  Then slice the plumped up apricots in six small pieces.  Reserve at least 1/4 cup of soaking brandy for the bread.

Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.  Add egg and lemon rindand beat until mixture is smooth and well blended.  Add the 1/4 cup of reserved brandy and orange juice.  Mixture will look a little curdled.

Sift the flour with the leavening agents (baking powder, baking soda, salt) and slowly add sifted mixture to the batter, stirring well between additions.  I use the mixer on a slow speed.

Fold in the nuts and apricots without the mixer.  Place mixture in a buttered 8 inch loaf pan.  I often double the recipe and place it into 5 of the small loaf pans.  Mimi recommends lining the pan with buttered brown paper, but I skip this part and spray pan with Baker’s Secret.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Let the bread batter stand for 20 minutes in the pans before placing in the oven.   It will rise slightly. Bake the big loaf for 1 hour or until a tester comes out clean and the bread is golden brown.  Take bread out while hot and let it cool before wrapping tightly in aluminum foil.  This cuts better if you rest the bread for 24 hours.

The bread is supposed to be made with all white sugar to be authentically Swedish, but I don’t make it that way.  Both are probably delicious.

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Bornmueller Butter Drops

Posted on December 29, 2010 by murrayewv

Making Butter Drops are a beloved Bornmueller Christmas tradition.  The original recipe comes from the Butter flavor Crisco Cookbook.  These cookies taste a little like a chocolate chip cookie without the chips.   Yum.

The Chocolate coating provides a custom chocolate touch.

The authentic Bornmueller Butter drop is an elegant cookie with a simple dip. The easier to follow recipe is below.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Butter Flavor Crisco

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tablespoon milk

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Bornmuellers use parchment paper, but Crisco recommends using more Crisco on baking sheet (of course).

Cream the Crisco and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.  Stir in the tablespoon of milk.

In another bowl, mix the flour in with baking powder and salt.  Stir in the flour mixture into the creamed liquids.  Mix well.

Drop the cookies onto the prepared baking sheet in 1-2 tablespoon measures.  Bake at 375 degrees F for 7-9 minutes.  Original recipe tells you to brush with melted Crisco, but Bornmuellers skip this step and just dip the cooled cookies in the following chocolate glaze.  This recipe makes 3 dozen cookies and could probably be doubled successfully.

Chocolate Glaze

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips with 1 tsp Butter Flavor Crisco on low heat of in the microwave.   Stir well to mix and transfer to a custard cup or other deep narrow container.   Dip cookies halfway into chocolate glaze and place flat on a piece of waxed paper for chocolate to cool.

The Finished Product.

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