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Sunday

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Stash Report - week 37

I finally got this top layered and pinned!!

Used this week:    05.50 yards
Used year to date:                     176.25 yards
Added this week:  00.00 yards
Added year to date:                     32.75 yards

NET USED 2018:                                          143.50 yards

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Friday

Today was the final installment of
 Temecula Quilt Company's

1880s Sampler Sew-along.

We've been making these little 4" blocks each week for eons.  Assembly turned out to be quick and easy once I looked carefully at the layout diagram.  This is a small quilt -- only 30" x 40" -- and I may decide later to add more borders, but at this point I'm done according to the 'official' instructions.  Meh, it's OK... but it's not my favorite quilt. 

I presently have two other sew-alongs in the works: Barbara Brackman's Antebellum Album BOM, and Moda's Blockheads 2 series.  They're both fine, but I'm feeling kind of samplered-out these days.  In the case of the Blockheads project, it seems to me that some of the block styles don't especially coordinate with some of the others.  Some are modern and only have six pieces, and others are traditional and have 40, so the 'texture' of the blocks seems off.  I'm picking  and choosing which ones I want to include, and may very well decide to end that one early.  And at one block a month, the Brackman project continues to drift along … I'm afraid I've lost momentum on it, sigh.   I'm not quite sure where to take my quiltmaking efforts and attentions next.  Maybe something Halloween-y?  Or maybe one of the cross-stitch projects I was daydreaming about last week?
  

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Roasted Vegetable Tart

ROASTED VEGETABLE TART

1 zucchini, cut into 1/4" thick slices

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1 bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3/4 cup ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

black pepper if desired

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Refrigerated pie crust for 9" pie

Preheat oven to 425*

Prepare a baking sheet pan with nonstick spray.

Spread vegetables onto baking sheet pan.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle basil and oregano over all.

Toss gently to combine and coat vegetables.

Roast about 15 minutes until vegetables begin to soften.

Remove from oven and set aside to cool while preparing crust.

Combine ricotta cheese, egg, salt and pepper until smooth.

Unroll pie crust onto a different baking sheet pan that's been lined with parchment paper.

Sprinkle half of the Parmesan cheese over pie crust dough.

Spread ricotta mixture onto dough, leaving a 2" bare border around perimeter.

Arrange roasted vegetables over ricotta.

Fold bare edges of dough up over filling toward the center, and pinch to gather as needed.

Sprinkle remaining Parmesan over tart.

Bake at 425* for about 25 - 30 minutes, until crust is brown and filling is bubbling.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing into wedges.

About 8 servings.

(Note: consider including other vegetables also, such as slivered onions, cubed butternut squash, sliced mushrooms, halved Brussel sprouts, etc.)

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Blockheads 2

#18 - Mishmash

#16 - Texas Puzzle

#13 - Variation of Patchwork Flower

I'm starting to think about layout and color balance.

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Tuesday

My September 11

In 2001 it was a Tuesday also.  I used to lay there and close my eyes and mentally send myself to a 'happy place' -- North Pole Fudge Company for taffy apples :)  We weren't living here full time yet, but it soothed my soul to visualize being here.  Much has changed since then, but we still go to North Pole Fudge every year on this date, as kind of a personal commemoration.  Seventeen years is a long time!

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Better late than never ...

For the past several weeks, Julie at Julie K Quilts has been running a quilt-along challenge called LOG CABIN LOONIES.  Her suggested blocks are very small, and she's making approximately a million or so of them.

Lots of bloggers have been admiring her progress, and have been sharing their own versions of the challenge.  I was too preoccupied last month with family activities to participate, but now that September is here, I've been inspired by others' log cabin progress, and have been hankering to do some log cabin blocks of my own.

After sorting through that scrap bag I mentioned the other day, I've settled on 10" half log blocks for my own log project.  My blocks all have the same light center.  The logs are random widths and colors, with no rhyme or reason.  The final logs are always solid red, but also of varying widths.  My goal is to deplete the scrap bag, so it remains to be seen how many blocks I'll make.

Log cabin quilts are my all-time favorites, and I've made several dozen of them through the years -- some of the more recent ones HERE.  I made many earlier ones before blogging also ... and here comes yet another one :)

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Apple treats

We're heading into my very favorite time of year now, and starting to enjoy autumn flavors. Today we had APPLE PANCAKES WITH CIDER SYRUP for breakfast!

And I tried this new recipe for APPLE-CINNAMON MONKEY BREAD as dessert this evening.  I used two apples instead of the one called for in the recipe, and we felt that three might be even better next time, more apple-y. 

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Stash report - week 36

While sorting through a scrap bag today, I got 'squirreled' and started some random crumb blocks :)  When I get more done, I'll start thinking about a plan for them.

Used this week:     02.00 yards

Used year to date:                     170.75 yards

Added this week:   00.00 yards

Added year to date:                     32.75 yards

NET USED 2018:                                           138.00 yards

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