Quilt Reveal: U S A

 I finished a small quilt today. I started it in July, but it took me a while to get it done. Lots of little pieces to sew down.

 

I am calling it USA for obvious reasons. It uses the trimmings from the Jazzy Blues quilt. I trimmed off seams but I basically left the trimmings the way they were and arranged them on the quilt. This means some pieces are skinnier and some are thicker. Some are shorter and some are longer. I glue basted the pieces on the sandwich, randomly without regard to the fabric design, and sewed them down, combining the quilting and the applique.

A patriotic quilt looked like it needed some red, so I added this dotted ribbon. I like how the zig zag stitch adds to the design on the ribbon. I also added a star motif on the edge of the white to help secure the white background.

 

At the last minute, I remembered to add a corner triangle for a label. I usually put it on the bottom left, but any corner will serve as a label.

 

I'm  participating in The Constant Quilter Wendy's Monthly Mini link-up.  Visit her blog for links to other quilters who have made small quilts.

Week 31

 I made the USA quilt this week. I didn't get a chance to trim the Jazzy Blues quilt. As usual the baby quilt gets the attention and gets "born" before the parent.

15 minute days this weeks --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 167 out of 212 days

Success rate  = 79%

 

This week I changed up my recipes. Usually I make a lot of a one pot meal and freeze them in single serving portions. I can then defrost something frozen for each meal, and even though I only cooked one or two things each week, I can defrost something I cooked in a previous week for variety.

This week, I basically made some quick and simple mixes and combined them in different ways to have something different to eat each meal. Nothing was frozen.

 I want to document it here so I remember. I found a recipe for Bombay sandwich.  It is a very flexible recipe, basically a simple sandwich using a chutney for flavor, and vegetables for filling.  It usually uses potatoes which I think is interesting for a sandwich. The recipe I have linked shows a recipe for onion jam, and I made it for the first time. I think it is delicious although some of the mustard seed was bitter the first day. It mellowed out over time. I don't know why it is called jam, but the recipe makes plenty of "jam" so you can keep using it for more sandwiches, but also other foods.  I just baked the potato in the microwave, so it is really quick and easy to put together.  I cut just enough vegetables for the sandwich so they would be fresh (tomatoes and cucumber) and saved the rest for the next meal. I didn't have white bread so I used tortillas, which worked great. Sometimes I folded the tortilla like a taco and grilled it. I also had some leftover rice, so a couple of times, I made the ingredients with rice instead of a sandwich.

Then I had the bright idea to just have a baked potato with the onion jam. I added some black beans for protein.

When I ran out of the onion jam, I pulled out my recipe for pita and combined it with another recipe that used cabbage. Basically coat some chickpeas in flour (I used chick pea flour) and roast them. Then lightly cook the red cabbage with onions and tomatoes with some spices. Spread hummus on the pita and add the roasted chickpeas and vegetables. I didn't have pita, so I used rice and tortillas again. This tastes great with feta cheese.

I also had some enchilada sauce. I used the leftover chickpeas and used that as a protein for enchiladas. I also added leftover black beans. So mostly I could mix and match all of the ingredients and have something different to eat every meal. I was able to use up the things I had made, and by adding something different to it, or omitting something, was able to keep each meal tasting different.

15 Minutes to Stitch Recap

I haven't done much stitching this week. I put the binding on the Star Spangled Banner this week. As usual, I didn't remember to take the reveal photo until it was dark and haven't set up a light to brighten my bulletin board.

Mostly I spent this week cleaning up the living room where I sew and other parts of the visible areas of the house. The living room was clean enough to invite a gathering of relatives. Since then, I also spent some time cleaning up the Cave of Wonders, where the supplies reside.

 

Faced with what seems like an impossible task, a group of folks will do well to remember the African proverb: When spider webs unite they can tie up a lion.
Johnnetta B. Cole 

This spider web is close to the outside hose, and this spider web got wet while I was watering some grass seed I am trying to grow in the back yard. I liked the sparkly suspended water droplets and the shadows they made.

15 Minute sessions of stitching these weeks:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  182 out of 196 sessions
Success rate: 93%

Last week, I said that cleaning up sewing areas counted as stitching time, and in that regard, I had a successful week of "stitching," and with the help of rounding, was able to bump up my yearly success rate.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

Flag

Today's offering from the treasure chest is the flag. Since I was able to free motion quilt on the last quilt, I decided to try again and follow my idea of writing something on the flag. My stitches are really way too close together, and I'm not sure if it will all be a jumbled mess if / when this gets washed, but it looks good for now. I had to skip the commas, and still need to dot each i. I wanted to keep the continuous lines, so it does look a little strange, but I'm good with it. Some letters, especially the s, feels wrong when sewing it as opposed to just writing it. I wrote it out in pencil first so I could space it. I realized that I would have extra room on the last row. Instead of spacing the words out farther, I decided that the quote seems fitting to start all over again. Of course, anyone younger than me won't be able to read cursive writing anyway! The quote:

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, the pursuit must go on. John F. Kennedy Jr.

When Helen came up with the prayer flag quilt challenge, I am sure she had a completely different idea of a prayer flag. But she did want to see different ways that this idea could be represented. Since she didn't make up any rules, I decided to make up my own. I think a prayer flag quilt would be one that followed the three criteria:

• contains a prayer
• is flag-like in some way
• is a quilt

I certainly pray for peace, this is a flag, and it is a quilt. This one fits, and I am hereby submitting it for the challenge. I have two other ideas that might be closer to what she had in mind, and hopefully I will get around to making those as well. Be sure to visit AmyLou's blog to see what other crafters have been doing.