100 POSTS

A celebration - 100 posts for The Daily Fiber.   I don't make attachments easily, but this form of journaling has wrapped its arms around me and held on.  And, unlike all of those beautiful notebooks that I've collected and partially filled over the years, THIS story telling 'vessel' provides the photographic illustrations so that you can 'see' what I see.  The small victories and defeats - the little details and profound events - the many layers, real or imagined.  Your "following" is important to me and my story.  I value each and every comment.

 I have been knitting - my perennial Blue Sky Alpaca "Silk Alpaca" in a color that defines spring for me.  It is almost willow-green - a twin to those first tender shoots that are emerging now.

Airing out the batik 'biscuit' coverlet - old fashioned tied and pieced in those spring greens, caribbean blues ...

The morning began with baking.  My BFF is having family in for the weekend and I volunteered to bring over a cake.  She works so hard during the week that there isn't much energy left by Friday night - and since I am a free agent, without restriction for the next few weeks, I have enough get-up-and-go for the both of us.   I decided to make my 'Bishop's Cake' which is easy and delicious and if there are left-overs - they are sensational to toast.  Basically, it's a glorified pound cake.  I won't tell you how much butter goes into this bad boy.

Out of the oven, sans frosting.  The thing is - this little beauty will never see a frosting.  While I was preparing it, I did something that I have never done in 30+ years of baking; I dropped an eggshell into the batter and before I could turn the mixer off, it incorporated the shell into the mix.  There was no turning back - I fished out what I could and threw the rest into the bundt pan to bake.  I'll set this out, in the form of crumbs, for the birds.  This cake calls for 5 eggs, so I had to go to the little farm up the road and buy more eggs.  Starting over ... but this time I'm in the mood for something a bit more dramatic, and I happen to have some nice oranges waiting in a bowl.

Orange Poppy-Seed Bundt Cake w/Orange Glaze - from the Silver Palate Cookbook


8 TBS sweet butter
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 c flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c milk
1/2 c poppy seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract
grated zest of 2 oranges
orange glaze


Preheat oven to 325, grease a 10" bundt pan
Cream butter with sugar until fluffy and light
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each
Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture alternately with milk
Fold in poppy seeds, vanilla and grated orange zest
Pour batter into prepared bundt pan
Bake 50 - 60 minutes, let rest in pan for 30 minutes before turning out
When cake has cooled on rack, prick holes in it with a toothpick and pour glaze evenly over the top


Orange Glaze
1/4 c fresh orange juice
1/4 granulated sugar


Combine in a small saucepan and simmer gently for 5 minutes, until a light syrup forms


Enjoy!

The daffodils were asking to come home with me this morning.  I picked them from my friend Louise's garden.  Louise is not living in her house any longer, but her spirit remains behind, informing all who stop by that she is far from gone - that she has simply moved on to the next level.  I have a lot to say about Louise and I will, in time.


So I have sent 100 posts out into Blog World.
Before I actually hit my first Publish Post button, I was hyper-aware of my language.  I spent a lot of time editing these short posts.  It was important to me not to bring the sorrow and darkness that I had been experiencing in 2009 to this journal.  I mean, really.  Who wants to 'follow' the posts of a sometimes maniacally depressed individual - one who can be needy and despondent, crazy and depleted, but always, and I mean ALWAYS, willing to pony up the good stuff?   I limped along, dropping little slices of my fiber life and some of you decided to follow me into the woods.  You love to create as I do - to stupid excess!!!!  I think that we are grand.  Thank you all for helping me to be more courageous and authentic.

HAPPY 2010

Happy New Decade to us all.  How did you begin your first day of this new year?  I briefly considered some vigorous housework, but decided to go into the sewing cave, shovel a path to the machine tidy up a bit, and get busy!  

Good progress made on the Christmas Tree quilt - I am nearly ready to begin the first border.  I vowed not to put this piece away unfinished as I do each season.   This is a GOOD resolution that I won't regret, one that I can actually achieve!  I stopped to take a few images of a small banner I made for my daughter last year.     

This is a seriously cute panel-

There was a package from Williams Sonoma that I forgot to open - it arrived after Christmas and was hidden by some of the holiday clutter.

 I cannot bring myself to open this delight - I've seen blogs featuring homemade marshmallows, but never had the opportunity to sample any .... I just want to LOOK at this bewitching treat!

Mary Anne, if you're reading, won't you PLEASE send me a recipe?  Home. Made. Marshmallows.  Yum.  I've been thinking a lot about food lately as another resolution is directed at my waistline, my poor disappearing waistline.  My ideal diet would consist of what I consider to be the four basic food groups:  King Crab, avocado, coconut and creme brulee.  Oh - I almost forgot - brie.  Softened to room temperature.  And artichokes.  In oil.


I've also been considering a new pieced quilt - the inspiration comes from Wanda over at Exuberant Color.  She is so brave and creative with color - she just knocks my quilting socks off.  And she was nice enough to send me her personal calculations, which I appreciate so much.  Have I ever mentioned that math is not my strong suit?  Or how many years it took me to 'grasp' Algebra?  Fugly stuff - you don't want to know.

And, believe it or not, there has been knitting.  I am galloping toward the end stretch of two sweaters, neither of which I have photographed today.  This quiet evening spent knitting gives one pause - and time and space for reflection.  2009 was a turbulent year.  Not my favorite year.  But much good managed to show its face in this past year.  


Beginning this blog was an achievement - a high clear sign that when you love something, things develop.  It's helped me to chronicle my creative life and it's connected me to people who are as passionate about fiber as I am. When I bring up little details or small photographic slices, you all GET it.  The inner truth of this wonderful huge sprawling addiction to fiber brings us together - allows us to sit with our figurative knees pressed together as we push forward with our knitting, our quilting, our families, our lives.  Thank you all for being an important part of my extended family.  I wish you all a happy, healthy, joy-filled new year.  

SILLY SEASON

There are ways to avoid the raking of the leaves - hiding out in the sewing room is a really good choice. This one got a really really REALLY long and good walk first -

And then I got busy. Pulled out the Christmas project that wants to be completed, but never makes it. In me there exists a sentimental place that envisions Christmas quilts on every bed in the house. So far, I've only ever accomplished one, but that is about to change. This piece is moody - just as those deserted gas stations are at night, with their Christmas trees bundled together under the cold lights, forgotten. I hope to enliven it with those old fashioned colored bulbs, stranded around the borders. I saw this quilt in a magazine quite a few years ago and want to attribute it to Alex Anderson, but I hesitate - I'm just not sure about that.

What I AM sure about is that the "silly season" is upon us and it already feels like a stone in the shoe. I am beginning to understand how desperate people become even more so when the holiday tugs at every fiber - sending that message that one HAS to be jolly - that peace on earth is a possibility, etc., while their own lives tell a very different story. I know that this sounds morose, but it has to be said:

When I was walking Harley in the orchard at dusk, he suddenly threw himself forward and started baying at something between the rows. Frankly, I froze. And then, in that half light I saw movement - and something in me panicked because one NEVER expects to see anything other than wildlife out there unless it's picking or pruning time. It was a man, shabbily dressed, coming toward me with a strange expression - I asked him not to proceed as the dog was now foaming at the mouth. He explained to me that he was picking up the 'drops', and that there were so many. I could see that the pockets in his old coat were bulging with apples and I suspect that the smile I offered was churlish, at best. (In that moment I lost my manners, my civility, almost my bladder!) I was frightened and like a tour guide, walked backward until I couldn't see that man, and then Harley and I both ran the rest of the way home.

People are hungry. People are having difficulty feeding their families. There is a lot of poverty and suffering all around us. It's hard to view the Christmas decorations (BEFORE Thanksgiving, for Godssake) with this knowledge so present. The only thing that I know how to do is to knit warm hats and sew warm quilts for the homeless. That's what I do. I am without the kind of discretionary income that would make a difference, but I know that being warm on a cold December night is a comfort to a homeless soul, so that is what I do. There's a great group out there called Margaret's Hopechest CHECK THEM OUT, and maybe you'll want to help, too.

CUCURBITA LOVE

Musquee de Provence, Long Island Cheese, Lumina, Rouge Vif d'Etampes, Atlantic Giant, Connecticut Field, Jack Be Little, Winter Luxury Pie, Kumi Kumi, Yokohama, Futtsu, Paw Paw .... the names are every bit as fascinating as the pumpkins and gourds that I adore.  It's a long love affair, I assure you, and one that never fades.  Ask the Can-Do-Guy about the year that I 'encouraged' him to roto-till half of the property to plant pumpkins!  Or about the time that I brought the last 'cinderella pumpkin' of the season in to grace the Thanksgiving table and it stayed on through April - never even hinting at rot or softening!  (we really MUST turn the thermostat up this winter!)


Pumpkins make me happy.  I love their dependable and robust growing habits - how they trail all around the garden, visiting the rhubarb, making their way over to see the cabbages ...  the way their leaf foliage stands at attention and holds the pose up until frost ... the unexpected pleasure of their orange skins, or the ghostly white luminas, shimmering under a harvest moon.


No small wonder that when I first laid eyes on this Moda fabric, I squeaked with happiness!  I held onto these panels for a long time.  Last year I started pulling my favorite fabrics for Chinese Coins and somehow the coins and the panels came together.

Some favorite reading with the favorite quilt ...

And because I NEED for you to understand what a truly exemplary machine quilter Linda Hibbert Silver Linings Originals is - I give you the flip side of this piece ...

Choosing which side to show is always a problem.

BUBBHA, DO YOU MISS ME?

My daughter moved south in January and took my four-legged 'grandson' with her - Bubbha.  I have an uncommon love for him and I miss him almost as much as I miss his mistress!  Mothers know that their children will leave the nest, it's the natural course of things.  But what I didn't expect was that I would miss Himself so much!  He is a dear gentle soul and the whitest boxer you've ever seen!  (I'm told that he has to have sunscreen applied because he is so fair.)  Bubbha, I miss your huffing and your prancing and the way you gaze at me so lovingly.  I miss how you stand and lean against me and wag your funny stump of a tail.  I hope that you are loving the warm weather and that your parents are taking you on many runs.  Until we meet again, I'm sending you hugs and kisses.  Many!  And I'm taking good care of your quilt until your momma says she has the right place to display it!

SEPTEMBER WEDDING

I always wanted to make a Log Cabin quilt in neutral colors - here is its debut!  It is called September Wedding as it was created for my nephew's fall wedding.  And someone else wanted to step into the blogging limelight - please say hello to my best friend - Mr. Harley Tucker!  This beauty boy actually 'owns' my son, but has been staying here with us in the country.   I think I'll keep him!