I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Thursday, April 6, 2017

Roasted Radishes and Other March Projects



Hi! I suppose I should tell you all about the roasted radishes first? I mentioned them last week, and was so intrigued! I had to try.
The verdict is: ''interesting''.
They are pretty and pink, they are pleasant, and as my dad always said when we'd be ooohing and aaaahing over the first artichokes of spring---"Anything is delicious if you put enough lemon butter on it." 




The roasted radishes are translucent and bland, rather like  peeled over-steamed zucchini? On the other hand, the roasted parsnips were delicious, almost caramelized and quite tasty, think plantains. Verdict? Radishes are best crisp and cold with a smidge of salt, maybe some goat cheese to go with.


....
Oh no! I lost the photos of one of my big quilting accomplishments! I finished piecing [not quilted!] Dotty 365. She went together so easily and well. It was very fun.


Here I am auditioning borders. I used the black and white Pencils, as originally planned.


Even my daughter said Dotty is cool! She enjoyed finding her birthday circle and other dates like 4th of July and Mo's adoption day. The backing will be a very large scale text print. I love everything about Dotty, really was a great project.


Then I also finished When the Wild Geese Fly. [top only, not quilted]


Just as planned I sat there on a few rainy days and sewed the 147+ Wild Geese spacer blocks.


This is a new to me method. It makes four Geese at a time with almost no mental effort. If you pay even a smidge of attention you can sew many chained together, it was wonderful! Addicting!



But then.
To put the top together. Never in all my sewing years have a seen a commercial pattern so badly planned--or  maybe just unplanned.





Nothing went together entirely, it was exhausting. The good news was, the parts mostly did fit, in their jigsaw puzzle kind of way.


Here I'm again auditioning inner borders but in the end I went with scrappy plaid borders, no inner border.


The Basket will be embroidered with  my name.


Date on top of Cottage roof. My good friend L does my necessary embroidery for me because I hate doing embroidery and she is so good at it.


The original pattern quilt was very brown. I'm pleased with my orange and blues instead.

Where Wild Geese Fly
book cover but not quilt
You can see the original colors though here.

I enjoyed this project so much--- especially the searches for and utilization of the needed plaid shirts, and the no pressure, no deadline, no race to the finish-ness of it---everything except the final assembling, which , though annoying and odd, wasn't as bad as designs that don't fit together.


So okay. Another top done.


I ordered a brown and blue flannel plaid for its backing. If I decide I don 't like it, I'll go with my first, too $$$ choice Fireflies in Mason jars, navy flannel. here

Dear Stella Nocturnal Dreams Flannel Mason Jars Navy



Both will go to my quilter in a few months.
I did not get anywhere with Westering Women! The Corn and Beans block has me stalled. And Monday when I saw my Pineapples, for Fall Festival, online I realized they are crooked. A redo may be in order! The pattern also has crooked pineapples, so I'll draft my own pattern and sew one up, see if it's an improvement or not. I also made my swap doll quilt but I will wait to show it to you til the swap reveal day, I think. Fingers crossed! Hope its recipient is pleased...

love

lizzy

gone to the beach


PS We has heavy rain and fog today again, couldn't even see the beach from the house. Mo wanted to stay in bed all day.






But poor baby had a  spa date in the groomer van. He loves the groomer because she gives him wonderfully disgusting chicken jerky as a reward.
Clearing skies at sunset.........