Pink House

Off to California!

We're leaving on a much needed vacation to California today! It's SNOWING here (yes, the end of April) and so it's even more appreciated. The weather in northern Cal and central coast is looking good and I could use some sunshine.

K is going to attend a 2-day continuing-education conference and I'm going to tour a couple universities. But after that, the rest of the week is all about vacation and hanging out with our two sons.

Our itinerary:

Friday - Sunday: in Berkeley area at conference

•  Saturday night we'll celebrate our 28th anniversary at Rivoli in Berkeley (chef is one of Food & Wine's best new chef awards)

Sunday  - Tuesday: in San Fransisco hanging out with Sean

•  some good meals at cool restaurants are on the agenda
•  a SF City Guide walking tour with Sean, maybe some neighborhood exploring too

Tuesday - Thursday: down to San Luis Obispo to visit Chase

•  We'll hang out at a hotel overlooking Pismo Beach and see Chase in college town

•  Stop at Justin, L'Adventure, Chateau Margene, and maybe Jada while driving back and forth through Paso Robles area.

Thursday - Saturday: back up to The City

•  Celebrate my Birthday on Friday with a day in the city, followed by dinner at Anchor & Hope with K & Sean.
• Back home on Saturday morning.........

Lots of photos of our adventures will be posted here later!

Chase McBride Music Video on You Tube "1937"

Giving props today to the Chase McBride band of San Luis Obispo, California, and the Brooks Institute of Ventura film crew who shot and edited his latest music video. Released in late April 2009, you can see it here by clicking on the link: Chase McBride "1937" music video  (It's on You Tube as well as his website)

Also - here's a TRIVIA QUESTION: Watch the video and see if you can figure out WHAT MAJOR MOVIE WAS FILMED ON THE SAME SET?? (It's in a sound stage of a movie studio). I'll post the answer in a few days!

Also - his EP debut album is released this month and you can download it on Amazon Mp3 downloads or on iTunes as well.

 

Other band members: Austin Mello - Bass, and Jonathan Withem - Drums

 Chase McBride Music Website

Quilt Class with Kim Diehl

So about a month ago there was a bi-annual quilt retreat here in town sponsored by the guild I used to belong to. I talked a friend of mine into taking a quilting class with me - just for something new and different and FUN in the midst of our long Montana winters when I get a bit weary.

This is the quilt that we were going to learn how to make called "Mocha Stars" by Kim Diehl. I have a few of her quilt books and I like her traditional cozy style (I also like contemporary quilts too). Anyway, the particular reason why I wanted to take this class is that she taught a new style of applique that is half by-hand and half by-machine but apparently looked like it's all by hand. So I was intrigued.

We received a supply list ahead of time and spent a couple of days making sure we had everything on our list to be ready for class day. This was the palette that I selected - which is mostly from the "Meadow Sweet" line that I got at Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe in West Linn, Oregon. I completed the needed fabrics back home by buying the two background fabrics and the dark browns for the border and binding.

I've done the quilt retreat thing before and so I knew that we needed to have all of supplies gathered, loaded in the car the night before, be up early to arrive at the moment they open. All this just to get a seat/table together in the classroom. We also managed to stop for a latte on the way and packed in our stuff, claimed a table and two chairs and set up. All went well.

Kim Diehl, the quilt designer and class instructor was well-organized and did a good job of presenting. We progressed in an orderly fashion, step by step she would demo and then we would work. The technique was interesting and I liked the end result. It was somewhat time-consuming and tedious especially if you like a more free-style and quick approach. But we had a good time. Lots of nice gals in the class that we chatted with.

Midway through the day, they served lunch in a large room just next door, and so we went and ate, and then came back in and got right back to work.

Shelley's colorway

At the end of the day, I had two of my large star blocks for the center of the quilt completed. Lots more work to do! We knew that as a quilt takes a lot of time - you can't just make one in a short day.

My friend, Cheryl's colorway using all batiks

As you can see we have a lot more work to do! We usually try to get together once or twice a month to sew together. But this month following the quilt class has been so busy for both of us that we haven't gotten together yet. So the blocks and supplies are still sitting in a box waiting until our lives settle down so that we can have fun again. Hopefully soon.

Kim Diehl's colorway

Italian Wedding Soup

(I finally uploaded a month's worth of photos, so here we go sorting through them for the next several posts.)

A few weeks ago I made Ina Garten's (Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and TV shows) Italian Wedding Soup. It turned out great. It's from her latest book: Back to Basics. I've always liked Italian Wedding Soup (yes, even the kind from a can) and yet, I'd never tried to make it from scratch. Her recipe caught my eye especially because she uses ground chicken (rather than beef or pork) for the meatballs.

So I gathered the ingredients and on one of our spring snow days (so many this year!) had some fun in the kitchen cooking this up. I'm not going to post her recipe her because if you'd really like to know it you can just buy her cookbook (I believe in honoring copyrights) or perhaps see if its on her recipes on Food TV Network's website. Or her website?

Anyway, I changed up a few things like usual - in this one I didn't find ground chicken or chicken sausage at the grocery store and so I substituted ground turkey and sweet Italian sausage instead (You use these for the meatball mixture). They turned out really well - I'll use the meatball recipe again.

I also used fresh mushroom instead of carrots and used fresh kale instead of fresh spinach as the recipe calls for. I didn't have fresh dill either. I used orzo for the pasta in the soup. So it seems I had to change the recipe quite a bit perhaps.

I really like her method of BAKING the meatballs on parchment paper rather than frying them. You use a small cookie scoop to form them. They turned out great. The meatballs were quit lean but still tasty. My baking sheet of meatballs look exactly like the photo in the cookbook too!

When serving, I put four meatballs in the bottom of the soup bowl and ladled the soup on top of them. Then I sprinkled grated Pecorino Romano on top of that. Very tasty! 

Yoga pose by Rocco

The Downward Dog performed perfectly by Rocco!



Ha ha! Just uploaded new photos and spotted this one.
(perhaps his head should be dropped just a little lower though?)

How to deal with a quirky dog

This is Rocco, the Italian Greyhound. To say he's a character is an understatement. (I asked him to look up at the camera but he wouldn't. This was the best out of six pictures. Notice the "not happy" ears).

Lately, I've been SO BUSY (probably working 50 hour weeks including Saturdays and Sundays too) that Rocco hasn't been getting much attention. While I work away on the computer, he sits in the chair, watching me and looking bored. If it's nice weather I take him for a walk. So that takes care of 20 minutes. He still spend most days looking a bit forlorn and like he's wishing for some action. So today I took him to Doggy Daycare which I liken to preschool for dogs. I expected him to have some fun while I had a few appointments with students. But no - he cried all the way there, and apparently whined and jumped while there, and cried all the way back home. (Someday I'll video him crying and upload it here. You won't believe the sound).

So my Rocco problem-solving conclusions are:

1. He's a wussy whiner and needs to man up. (Chase already knew this)
2. He needs a brother or "sister" dog to keep him entertained and occupied.

Finishing Quilts

I've been on a kick lately to finish a bunch of old quilt tops. In the whole quilt-making process, my favorite parts are at the beginning....choosing fabrics, cutting the fabrics, and sewing. I like all of that....and then I get sewing those rows together and there it is - the quilt top is done.

Next comes the part that actually makes it a "quilt" - which is putting together the quilt sandwich - layering the quilt top, the batting, and the backing. Then you select a quilting design, choose the quilting thread color (so many choices these days!) and quilt it. Then trim to square up, and make the binding and sew the binding on. Turn and hand sew.  The finishing parts after making the initial quilt top is actually quite time-consuming and quite costly too. Why costly? Because the batting and backing (fabric that is sewn together to be larger than the top which is usually a lot of yardage) and the quilting thread are all expensive now. If the quilt top is more than a small wall-size one I can't manage the free motion quilting on my home machine, and so I also rent the long-arm machine at my local quilt shop to quilt it on and I pay by the hour to rent it. All that adds up. And so, over the past 24 years of quilting, I have folded and stacked quite a few of the quilt tops that I've finished into my studio closet to finish "later". Except time goes by, more quilts are sewn, and the "later" almost never comes.

 

And so, early this year, I made a plan that I would FINISH more quilts than I started this year. Seems simple enough. And so I've been going through that stack on the shelf in my studio closet and uncovering all kinds of quilt tops that I'd forgotten completely about. Then fortunately, my LQS ran a special for the month of March to rent out the long-arm quilting machines for half-price per hour ($10 per hour instead of the usual $20). That was an added incentive to get the supplies pulled together, reserve a day, and get in there to quilt. And so since January I have finished three old quilts - which is one a month so far. The strange thing is that I'm working with color palettes and quilt ideas that I had originally put together years ago.....and my tastes have changed. Last week I quilted on the long-arm a navy blue batik quilt that I had started 8 years ago at a quilt retreat in Washington! As the day went along quilt shop visitors would come by and watch and admire the quilt. I felt that I had to keep apologizing for the quilt...saying "It's an old one". Not sure why, but it just felt like I was working on someone else's quilt rather than mine. The colors and fabrics were just dated enough.

The photos here are of another quilt that I pulled out of the closet. The top still had some applique work to finish before I can quilt it and so I've been working on that. Fortunately, I had put all of the extra leftover fabric in a clear plastic bag with the pieced top, and so I am able to finish it with the appropriate colors. But still, the pinkish rose and sage green and burgandy colors date this one too....I think its from 2000 or 1999. Almost like finding an antique quilt in an estate sale. It's kind of a strange feeling. But still...this will be my fourth one I've finished in 2009 so far. Feels like an accomplishment. Kind of like your using up your leftovers instead of just going out to buy more. And that's a good thing.

I'll show photos of the others I've finished soon - need to take photos and do some uploads.