FALLing in love...

Isn't it amazing that when you set forth to cook all day, suddenly it's three and you realize you haven't eaten a 'real' meal yet? You nibble on this, test that, drink a glass of wine (just to make sure it'll add the right flavor to your pot roast of course) and just feel stuffed with aromas.

This is just that day. Waking to a quiet cup of coffee with a little knitting, followed by a walk around the garden harvesting herbs and then chop chop!  I roasted a chicken with rosemary, sage & thyme butter, am marinating even more chicken for my uncles favorite dish and put a pot roast in the slow cooker with tons of fresh herbs, veggies and secret ingredients to pop the flavor. Oh yeah, also, a cooks illustrated banana bread variation that is delicious! I'm eating it right now and it's the most of one thing I've eaten yet today.

Fall always pushes me toward the kitchen... to roast, stew, or bake things, which I meet with pleasure. I'm happy to be here. I'm just in love with the way things are right now. Except for tea-parties that don't involve stuffed animals and imaginary friends (or do they??) but that's a story for a different blog!

Adding to the FALLing in love... an adventure to the county fair. I've already decided that next year I want to submit items and try to win so many ribbons!

New Project: Quilt Restoration

Thank goodness for friends of your mom who cast off treasures like this:

A finished quilt top in need of a little love... Oh bliss! I love quilts that are mostly white with all these cute little pattern pieces. Now I can get right to my favorite part which is hand quilting the layers together.

First I'm going to iron the top piece so that all the petals are flat and take out the old ties. Then I'll get some cotton batting to make the 'sandwich' with the backing fabric. I haven't quite decided about the backing fabric yet. Should I go simple and get a nice quality, whole cloth back that's just white? Should I get a cute little patterned fabric, like flowers or polka dots? Or should I piece together a back using the old fabrics I have downstairs at my moms house? Part of me thinks that piecing the back together would be the most resourceful, 'quilterly' and congruent with the style already set forth. There aren't too many non-cotton fabrics, so I don't think the maker was cutting up old shirts and dresses or anything! I'm not sure if these are feed-sack fabrics, but they certainly point that way. Perhaps she got a bag of scraps from the fabric store?

I think I'll investigate the fabrics downstairs first, to see if any would match, then go from there. I also want to add borders on all sides of the quilt top, since the motifs are currently quite close to the edges. I don't want anything too distracting though, no patterns. I would go with white, but trying to match the current color would be impossible and would probably look terrible. So I'm thinking a subtle, muted solid color like a light green, gold or coral. Something unusual to satisfy the artist in me. This is so exciting!

I plan to quilt around the outside of each motif and at the same time, tack down any loose tips. This is probably not the 'right' way of doing it, but I thought it would conserve time and thread. If I'm going to be going around anyway... why spend hours tacking down loose tips before hand? Not to mention tying all those knots?

Any suggestions for what I should do in the center of the flowers?

City Escape

Thank goodness for friends who invite you to their cabin for the weekend! Leaving New York City is always amazing, regardless of the extra time you spend in traffic.

Having just broke up with my boyfriend the day before, I'm sure I was not the most effervescent guest... but still, they entertained me and made me smile. We took walks in the woods, swam in the pond and sipped wine late into the evening. At night I got to disappear into my own private room in the tree house.

The best part was watching my six year old pal Luke do all this big kid stuff. Excellent cannon balls into the pond, wiggling his first loose tooth and spying his first shooting star! So cool.

I was able to snap a few photos with my newly repaired camera (hallelujah!) but honestly, sitting around doing nothing was my primary activity. Much, much needed and enjoyed.

Oden couldn't wait to wake me up in the morning. It was so sweet to see him looking up at me, tail wagging, from the bottom of the tree house stairs.