Now What?

I love this block - if you would see the component fabrics individually in all likelihood you'd probably not think of putting them together in a quilt. The inner fabric of the square, the dottie fabric, has been in my stash for years - it is a Jennifer Sampou fabric. As far as I can tell, Jennifer is no longer designing fabric, although I wish she was. The dots on the fabric look like they have been painted. The fabric surrounding the center dot fabric is my hand-dyed, from a gradation kit. The kit produced a beautiful array of fabric suggestive of autumn leaves - I didn't use any of the greens in constructing the blocks. I made 83 blocks - and then they were retired to the "now what" corner of my sewing room - you have one too, admit it, we all do. Enter the Kaffe Fassett Venetian glass fabric in the gold colorway - it is a perfect compliment - it makes all of the colors and patterns in the blocks come alive. I love the moment of finding the perfect fabric.
Look at the colors in this Kaffe Fssett fabric - it can compliment so much - it's just beautiful.

Now what??? - I've made a total of 12 blocks of 9 squares - every square having their own personality based on the color of hand-dyed fabric and the section of dottie fabric coloration. As you can see, I mixed up the hand-dyed colors in each 9 patch grouping - including 2 squares, middle of the top and bottom row - with a different hand-dyed color to add interest to the arrangement. Here they are hung on my daughter's bedroom wall - it's purple, and I'm toying with using a purple - darker than the wall - as sashing for the blocks - what do you think?
I'm definitely going to use a solid for the sashing - here are my solid swatch cards from Kauffman and Moda - tantalizing! I'll likely go with one of the darker purples on the Moda card - but I'll admit I'm starting to like the wall color - suggestions?

Yummy, quick dinner tonight - vegetarian - compliments of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, the January / February 2010 issue - Quick Chick Pea Curry. I made some changes to the recipe so I've included it below - give it a try!

Quick Chickpea Curry
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 sweet potato, cubed, 1/2 inch cubes
6 dried apricots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 TBSP curry powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup frozen soybeans
3 TBSP ketchup (yup - really adds to the flavor)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro or parsley
In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and cook to brown. Add the sweet potato, apricot, garlic and spices, stirring to distribute. Add the chick peas, chicken stock, soybeans, ketchup and stock - stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, stir in the cilantro or parsley. Serve over brown rice. Makes 4 servings chockful of fiber and vitamin A.