What's cooking?

I decided to cook up a few more gathered clutches.  

I prepped to make five, 

but only had enough interfacing to finish three of them -- for now.

It's fun picking out the fabrics for the bands,

and linings.

and choosing fun colors for the zippers.

Zippers, as it turns out, are not that difficult after all.

The free tutorial for the gathered clutch pattern is here.

I also recently got to learn how to cook up some deliciousness in the kitchen.
Every year for a Father's Day gift, my sister and I treat our father to a cooking class.  The class can take place at any time of the year, we just all have to be available and interested in the menu.  It is always a very special evening, and Tuesday night's class was no exception.

Chef Dave Martin, Top Chef Season One

The class was End of Summer Entertaining, taught by Dave Martin, who graciously provided lots of interesting tips and techniques as he demonstrated the recipes.  The class was held at In Good Taste, a wonderful cooking store and cooking school.

In Good Taste (Pearl District location)

You may remember my class celebrating Julia Child back in March.  Well, Cindy (Live A Colorful Life) did and reminded me to show up at the right location this time and to enjoy wine after my "home invasion" Wednesday morning.  I can happily say I accomplished both of those tasks. and learned to make some tasty dishes.  I can't wait to try these myself.

White Bean, Poblano Chile and Artichoke Spread

served with homemade Crispy Pita Chips

Asian Chicken Salad with

Dave's Killer Ginger & Sesame Vinaigrette

Coconut Curry Chicken Skewers 

with Sweet Chili Sauce

Pan Roasted Shrimp wrapped with

Prosciutto, Basil and Gorgonzola

served with Sherry Cream Sauce

For a simple dessert Dave made fabulous shortbread cookies and some old-fashioned peanut butter cookies.  

Say what you will about the quality of the iPhone camera pictures, but the discreetness can't be beat -- photos to share without disrupting the flow of the demonstration.

And then there were wines....

Louis Perdrier Sparkling Wine

Arancio 2007 Grillo

Les Jamelle 2009 Cinsault Rose'

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

From defeat to victory

Wednesday I wrote a blog post that I never posted.  I had been trying to figure out how to put in a zipper on a gathered clutch for a flickr swap, and gave up.  I went to the computer and poured out my frustrations, then suddenly stood up and went right back to the sewing machine for one last attempt.  Success!  I finally got that zipper in.  I went back to the computer and changed my post to a Wordless Wednesday, showing off my partially completed clutch.  I can't tell you how many times I opened and closed that zipper in awe.

A few of you noticed the seam ripper in the photo.  Yep.  That's because when I tried to do some topstitching on either side of the zipper, I paid no attention to the status of the lining on the other side, defeating the purpose of the zipper since there was no longer an opening to access.  No matter.  The hard part was over.

Clutch #1

Molly and I started working on this clutch at the end of June, but stopped when it was time to put in the zipper.  I was originally stumped by the fact that the pattern calls for an 8" zipper, which is not an actual zipper size.  Although I was afraid to shorten a zipper, Penny (Sew Take A Hike) provided the encouragement and I was able to accomplish that.  However, I still could not figure out how to install the darn thing.  Last Sunday afternoon, I packed the whole thing up and took it over to a friend's house.  Kathy sews a lot, took one look at it, and explained my obvious problem.  I was trying to use directions for a regular zipper to install an invisible zipper.  She did some figuring and finally sewed the invisible zipper in for me.  So, I never actually did any of the sewing on this one.  It looks pretty good in the photo, but is a little flat (no interfacing on the back exterior piece) and is ever so slightly wonky.

Clutch #2

Much better, but the little pouch that was almost never finished.  This is the one I thought had completely mastered me, only to go back and conquer it on the last attempt.  The tabs on the zipper ends slope down a little, giving the top of the pouch a slightly rounded look.  But it looks like it was intentional, so I'll say, as I always tell other people to say: "I meant to do that."  This one was supposed to be for my gathered clutch swap partner, but I think I'll make another one for her (also with Good Folks fabrics), because I now know I can do better.

Clutch #3

Not perfect, but getting pretty darn close!  This one is for my poor hexie swap partner.  I hope she believes in "better late than never".

I'm so pleased with myself, you'd think I had invented the zipper!
Now I'm off to practice by making clutches for a few more victims -- I mean friends!
And to remake the one for my swap partner.

With wishes, true and kind for zippered perfection -- Joan

Wordless Wednesday

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Hexie swap

I have a new obsession: English paper piecing tiny hexagons!  I joined the Handsome Hexies Flickr group, which is a great place to go for a little hexie inspiration, and then joined a swap that is a spin-off from that group, Handsome Hexies - The Swap.  The swap involves basting 25 hexies for a swap partner, and I hope my partner likes these Anna Maria Horner Good Folks hexies.

If you look closely at the basting stitches, you can see that initially I took more and smaller stitches.  I really wanted them to be crisp and neat and not fall apart.  After making several and going back and looking at other photos online, I realized that I could take bigger stitches and still make sure my corners remained snug.  I made two stacks -- one for my partner and one for myself.  I think I have made at least 70 so far in all!  My little packet of 100 1" hexagon paper pieces from Fabric Depot seemed like so many at the time, but now I'm trying to figure out when I can make a trip back over for more, more, more.  Yes -- I definitely have a new obsession.

Coming attractions

Thank you so much for all the well wishes.  I am feeling better -- if not 100% -- and well enough to sew, which is always a good thing!  I am far from any finishes but keep plugging along on three quilts.  I finally have enough blocks today to spread them out randomly for sneak peeks into the quilt tops they will (hopefully) soon become.

Three very different quilts.  To me the hexagon quilt has lots of sass and energy, while the cross quilts are subtle and calm.  Who knows how they will evolve as I still have so many more blocks to add.

Be sure to stop by on Monday as I will be participating in Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day!

A few days after that:

And in June I hope to have another giveaway to celebrate a pretty big month for me -- my birthday, my 25th wedding anniversary, and my one year blogiversary/one year Flickr anniversary.  I'm hoping to come up with something fabulous!

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Mini show and tell

I thought I would finish a quilt back or two today for the Spring to Finish challenge, but that never happened.  After spending a lot of time looking for good deals on fabric online without ever actually pressing that "buy" button and then grocery shopping, I didn't find any time for sewing until late in the afternoon.

I finished this Hope Valley 36 patch for a bee,

and these gnome homes for another bee,

and I finished a few more cross blocks.  Believe it or not, I'm actually running out of fabrics for each cross quilt and need to get more.  I still just can't make myself hit that "buy" button.

You should probably know that my beautiful daughter looked at me with her big eyes and flashed her movie star smile, and she will now be the happy recipient of the Nicey Jane + Essex cotton linen cross quilt.  It was only a matter of time really.

Actually, I did buy one thing online today -- the first issue of Fat Quaterly.

Seventy-eight pages of information, inspiration, patterns, articles, and giveaways! 

On Wednesday you saw that I am joining the Pillow Talk 3 Swap, and I am very excited about it.  I love the pillows that have come out of that swap in previous rounds.  Maybe I should make a practice pillow.  The only pillows I've ever made were the ones to match Molly's half hexagon quilt from last summer.

 I recently completed my first swap in a Flickr swap group.  This is what I received from Melanie (Crandons):

The swap was for the 1/2 yard of the Amy Butler fabric and the 1/2 yard of the FMF vines, but Melanie tossed in all these precious scraps!  Opening the package felt like Christmas morning, and I am convinced that no one could love or appreciate these scraps more than I!  And -- another believe it or not moment -- my first FMF ever!  It's about time!

And last, but not least, I prepped just a few more hexagon blocks for the ORBC quiltalong.

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Springing ahead

I spent some time on Sunday preparing packages to send: quilt blocks for bees and fabric for a swap.  It always feels good to tie up loose ends!  And that's why I knew I just had to join Jacquie's Spring to Finish Challenge 2010.  And I decided to set reasonable goals for myself (for a change).  I decided that I could probably handle one task per week for a total of 6 loose ends tied up.

* Finish this (very) mini quilt made with leftovers from cutting triangles for my hexagon quilt.

*  Finish this mini quilt with Jennifer Paganelli fabrics.

 * Finish this Dollies Online quilt top, perhaps making it into a pillow sham for my daughter.

* And prepare backs for at least three of the quilt tops that are piling up at my house and Karen's.

Of course, now it occurs to me that I have seven quilt backs to make -- so one per week, plus one more for good measure.  Maybe I should do these first and then have fun with my little projects without the pile of quilt tops hanging over me.  Opinions?