I’ve had the pleasure of quilting several embroidered quilts over the years, but the one I just took off the machine was truly special.  I’ll give you the details first, then serenade your eyeballs with pretty photos!

• I used Isacord tri-lobal poly thread, in a cream tone; I wanted a thin thread that would stand up to dense quilting patterns, while taking a backseat to the outstanding embroidery.
• Hobbs 80/20 batting
• Hours.  Hours and hours and hours.  Chiropractor AND massage therapist.  Worth it though!
• Pat chose Fairy Frost fabrics for the blocks, sashing, and borders (I forgot to ask her what kind of thread she used for the embroidery– sorry!)
• UPDATE:  Thread was Robinson-Anton.  PATTERNS:  some of the patterns came from Zundt and the circles in the middle Jenny Haskins
• The quilt is king-sized, so I wasn’t able to get a photo of the whole quilt.  Pat plans to enter this in several shows, so when she has it photographed, I’ll ask her for a full quilt shot.  I’ll also let you know where the quilt goes, so you can look for it at a nearby show!

And now, enjoy the show!

Late breaking news!!  Pat just called with the exciting information that her quilt “Seven Dysfunctional Sisters” won Best of Show at the Denver National Quilt Festival VI!  Congratulations Pat!

The recipient requested a fleur de lis motif, which I was able to quilt freehand within each block:

The quilt ships out to the freezing mid-West.  I hope it keeps Kate warm while she waits for the snow to thaw!

Don’t love boring shoes.

What does a crafty shoe-lovin’ gal do when presented with some comfy but boring brown shoes?

Jeanette first backed the hankies with white cotton before applique’ing them onto the larger white blocks.

Even the back of the quilt is pretty:

Jeannette’s hankies belonged to her grandmother.  What a sweet reminder of this special person!

I’ve made 3 of Angela’s recipes in the past 2 weeks, and while the Lentil/Walnut burgers probably won’t thrill my boys (I made them for some girlfriends, and we gobbled them up, so I’m hoping to slide them past the kids next week), the Guacamole Pasta and the Garbanzo Bean Soup are definitely in the Wild Onion mealtime rotation!

Here’s the Garbanzo Bean Soup recipe (adjusted up to 5 servings), with my twists (marked with a *):

• 2 chopped onions
• 4 – 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 Tbl smoked paprika* (original recipe calls for cumin, which I don’t like)
• 2 large bay leaves
• 1 box  (48 oz) of chicken stock* (original recipe called for vegetable stock and water, but I had chicken broth on hand)
• 5 cans (15 oz) garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 Tbl tahini
• 2 lemons, juiced

Saute the onion in olive oil until translucent, add garlic, paprika, bay leaves.  Saute 2 minutes to warm the garlic.

Add stock, tahini, beans.  Stir well, bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer and cook 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes (note:  the soup was more flavorful when served hot/warm, not piping hot!)  Remove the bay leaves.  Use a stick blender to blend the soup until smooth OR pour soup into blender in batches, blend until smooth.  Stir the lemon juice into the cooled soup.  Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.

I served the soup with a yummy brown nut bread.  The dinner was a major success with all the Onions.

My goal has been to add more vegetarian recipes into our week, which I have done rather seamlessly.  With Angela’s help, this should be even easier.  Yay for Meatless Mondays and Vegetarian Vednesdays!

I then enlisted the aid of my knitting guru Mary, to help me write a simple sweater pattern so that I could use the yarn I spun from the batts.   I used large needles, as the yarn was purposefully chunky and textured:

Ta da!  Here’s the finished sweater:

More Tree Bark batts are available in my Etsy shop.  Spin thick or thin (or both)!

Second time around?  As painful as the first!

Miki and I sponsor a forum on Ravelry (we are “FunOnion”– come visit!!).  I take my moderating job very seriously, and thus use the forum to advance my own knitting or spinning needs.  Sometime in December, I decided that I would publicly announce my sock knitting determination.  Luckily, we have several willing  and super-able members, who were fantastic cheerleaders and advice dispensers.

Ta da!  Not just one, but two whole socks.  Done and done!

Currently, I am happily knitting a pair of bright purple cotton socks to keep my tootsies warm at night.  I also have some more sock knitting scheduled.  Who knew I’d love to knit socks?!!

I saw an organizer on tv the other day which seems promising:  it’s a big “blanket” (not really, but that’s the only way I can give you a quick visual) with 9 pockets or straps for keeping paperwork together.  When you need it, you unfold it (which assumes that you have enough clear space to unfold the thing), when you are finished, you fold it up and tuck it in a drawer.  The reviews on Amazon were uniformly crummy due to the construction quality, but I wonder if this isn’t a good diy project.

More importantly, if I build it, would I use it?  Or would I resort back to the piles?

I read an organization book (trying to get tips to help my hopelessly disorganized son) and learned that some people (me as well as DS) work better with horizontally sorted paperwork, as opposed to the more universally useful vertically stored paperwork.  If you are reading my blog, you are probably a horizontal-storage type person; it is more predominant in artistic people.

I have a shallow space for a desk, but it is out in the open– i.e. in my living room/kitchen area.  I bought one of those desks which folds down to provide a writing area– score!  always a clear writing surface– and folds back up to hide the piles– score!  However, the storage is so shallow that I can’t put my laptop inside, nor can I really store much beyond paperclips and a few pens…and a pile of paper that needs to be gone thru, now that I look at it!  The desk, in retrospect, was a good idea in theory, but the space was so shallow that the desk which fits isn’t all that useful, beyond the drawers underneath which are useful.  So the desk stays, as do my problematic piles.

I have some ideas for myself, and though this post is getting really long-winded, I thought I would keep you for a few more minutes while I share my ideas.  Who knows– maybe you’ll find my ideas useful, or you’ll have new better ideas (SHARE!!) or you’ll write to me and help me figure out this issue!

First, I think that the pile to the right of my computer is here to stay.  It’s the only place I have for “business”.  To make it more manageable, I’m thinking of re-purposing the vertical file holder that currently gets used for envelope storage (what a silly use!!)  I think I would feel less chaotic with a cleaner storage solution, and the verticality would take up less space on my table.  I’ll check in with you and let you know if this works for me.

Second, I took over a shallow but large drawer in my kitchen island to hide some of the clutter.  The clutter on the island drives DH crazy– and I see his point.  My house has an open floor plan, so when you walk into the house and look through the living area to the kitchen, that edge of the island is the first thing you see.  Short of putting a nice red bow on the pile…. I sweep it into the drawer.  In going through the drawer, I see that much of the paperwork consists of cooking magazines and a few files full of clipped recipes.  Since that’s counter-productive (I punned!!) I decided to order some of those sticky backed photo pages to hold the recipes in a binder.  I can still use the drawer, but perhaps you all can help me figure out how to use the drawer better!  Hmmm.  More food (I punned again!) for thought over the next few weeks….

OK.  I’ll let you go.  I took the month off from quilting for customers so that I could concentrate on my family over the holidays.  It was the first time in 7 years that I not only scheduled the break but actually stuck to my guns and kept the break cleared of last-minute quilting!  It was wonderful, and I spent some of the time working on my own little projects.  Photos and sharing to come!

Although I have taken the selfish knitter’s pledge (having learned my lesson over and over again through my quilting gifts), I will only knit for the one who gave birth to me and the one who shared the same womb as me (altho not at the same time). Those are the only 2 in my life who are knit-worthy*. Even with this short list, I feel swamped.  Gift knitting always has a time stamp on it, which kind of stresses me out!

I’m a slow knitter.  For me, it’s about the pleasure of sitting still for a while, enjoying the fiber.  I cannot multi-task while knitting– it uses both of my hands, and both of my brain cells.  So there I sit, knitting away, probably have my tongue caught between my teeth in concentration.  But I’m getting there, one stitch at a time.

notes for spinners:  baby alpaca roving from Upstream Alpacas, plied with commercial rayon boucle, spun on my Lendrum

notes for knitters:  an easy scarf, which is my own pattern!  I’m currently test knitting it, and will publish it on Ravelry as soon as I’m able.

*yes, my boys and my DH are knit-worthy.  But none of them wear sweaters, or hats, or scarves.

Ok, this is just more than a Mommy should have to bear. First, one kid pukes in my car (technically, only a little bit on the running board. Still– all over the driveway) Poor baby, yadda yadda. Get him back to speed and back to school.

Next day:  I’m getting ready to pull out my new old spinning wheel to play and the phone rings. Yup, second kid.

He pukes all over the INSIDE of my car. I probably scared the bejeesus out of him when I was screaming “open the door, open the door”!! Luckily, I  stopped the car so he COULD open the door. He was covered in vomit, and had to strip nekkid right in the street (I had a terry bathrobe in the car from water aerobics).

Needless to say, there’s been no spinning chez Wild Onion. Lots and lots of cleaning and gagging, tho.