Boston or Bust!

Time to catch up.

Visited Boston 2 weeks ago - for snow!

And to deliver the "stache" apron to Mike - my daughter's boyfriend.

Here it is - grid quilted and complete with faux leather pocket

He loved it!

- Let me explain -

This is Mike in costume - his Halloween costume

That thing on his head is his moustache "costume"

He made it - out of yarn!

I told you he was proud of his facial hair.

Looks fitting with the apron.

We had a perfectly gorgeous snowy day the Saturday I visited

Roamed all over Cambridge

I was on a mission

Find "Gather Here"

My new very favorite store 

I love it!!!!

A full line of knitting supplies

 An eclectic collection of fabric

including Malka Durbrowsky's collection

Kokko, Enchino, and so much more

And nothing makes me swoon like a great window display

It had it all!!!

Can't wait to return!

Mission #2 in Cambridge - 

Follow the Honey

A honey store - everything honey

I manage a farmers' market in my free time - hah!

Always on the look out for interesting foodie fodder

 

Follow the Honey had it all - lots of fodder!

A honey store complete with a tap

 Grab a jar

And fill'er up!

 We bellied on up to their "honey bar" to taste honey from around the world.

Guess where this honey is from - love the giraffe on the label

And, yes, we even tasted honey from killer bees!

The shop was full of everything honey,

Balms and butters,

Lotions and creams,

Candles and candies,

Bee inspired jewelry

and these great neck ties!

Love the graphic!

Sunday we headed to SOWA Winter Market

I'm forever exploring every farmers' market I can find 

Always looking for new ideas.

!!! Pasta !!!

My Market - East Goshen Farmers' Market - doesn't have pasta

Look at these offerings!

Yum - now I'm on the hunt

Need ... to... find ... pasta .... maker ... for ... summer ... market!!!

Closing photo

On Harvard's campus

Do you see the face

His bow tie is crooked!

- Side story -

I bought yarn - twice - on my trip to Boston.

Bought a sock project Friday night at a cute little shop on Newbury St.

Left it in the cab!

Arghhhhh!

Bought another sock project at Gather Here

Finished one sock today  - YEAH!!!

Need 2 to post - 

Give me another week, probably 2!

Seeing is Believing!

On the way home from the Goggleworks last week I stopped at Ladyfingers Sewing in Oley - this is the building - it sits in the middle of corn fields. It was an old road house - my soon to be 90 year old Mother remembers going to hoedowns here when she was a teen. Ladyfingers is owned by Gail Kessler, who in her spare time is also marketing director for Andover Fabrics - over-achiever!


I've posted a few times in the past about the incredible thread selection at Ladyfingers, but I thought I'd let the pictures show you the extent of Gail's thread obsession. Oliver Twist - love it!

Superior Threads.

Presencia - love this thread but hate the spool - please Presencia get rid of the embossed spools!

Ahhhh! - the infamous YLI Soft Touch bobbin thread - Gail- we're running low.

I love Madeira colors and the rayon sheen.

Aurifil is fantastic!

Full collection of Mettler.

I think this is more YLI.

More.

Full color range of Presencia.

Denise - Gail's right and left hand while she is in NYC all week at Andover, assures me that all of these threads are going to be added to their on-line purchasing site. Until then, all you have to do is call and they would be happy to ship anywhere.

In addition to thread, the store is chockful of fabric and fantastic notions. Gail keeps the entire line of Dimples from Andover in stock. Believe me now???

Pita Perfect

No - that's not my thread collection - but a girl can have her dreams! I was out shopping today with friends - the only way to shop. I love to shop for fabric - and I have many favorite fabric shops. I've decided to list all of my favorite fabric shops at this blog - one list, no playing favorites - they are all great - long live the independent fabric shop! Stay tuned for the listing.
I picked up this lovely little collection of fabric while I was out today - I'm hoping to have time tomorrow to create a table runner for my dining room table - big dinner party scheduled for Saturday and I'd love to have something new on the table - I cannot wait to share the menu with you for the dinner party!
For tonight's dinner it's vegetarian - Greek Salad Pita Sandwiches and a Celery Root, Carrot and and Beet Salad. First things first - I need to make pitas - yes - homemade pita - it is so easy. You can find the recipe at the King Arthur Flour website. Here are my ingredients all ready to go - I used 2 cups of all purpose flour and one cup of whole wheat flour. I love SAF instant yeast for all bread baking.
Meet my baking center - my favorite part of the kitchen!
I use my Kitchenaid mixer to mix and knead the dough - it comes together nicely.
Into the oven for an hour of proofing - my oven has a proofing setting - love it!
The magic of yeast - after one hour my dough has more than doubled!
The dough gets divided into 8 pieces,
and rolled out into 6 inch circles.
Here they are in the oven after 5 minutes of baking - beautifully puffy.
Mmmmm, yummy, puffy pita.
The dinner of many veggies - and, yes, we really eat like this.
Yes, this is edible - it is celery root, or celeriac. I love the mild celery flavor. It can be a bit challenging to peel, but it's well worth the effort.
Here is the salad - Celery Root, Carrot and Beet Salad - I used the leftover Kumquat dressing instead of the recipe's vinaigrette. I stuffed the pitas with a salad of cucumber, onion, radicchio, kalamata olives, radishes, parsley and feta cheese; and, topped everything with homemade tzatziki. I made the tzatziki using 1 cup of 2% Greek yogurt, 1 cup of diced English cucumber, 2 tablespoons chopped sweet onion, 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon chopped dill, and 1 chopped clove of garlic.
And now for the best news of the day - the snow blower came home from it's visit to the snow blower infirmary - yea! Snow prediction for tomorrow - possibly another foot - enuf white stuff!

In a Bind

I needed to make binding today for I quilt I made for my friend, Cheryl Lynch - she asked that I make something for the gallery for her soon to be published book - can't show you a photo of the quilt, but I can tell you I used all Kaffe Fassett fabric from Glorious Color, Liza Lucy's on-line resource for all things Kaffe. I'm using the Venetian glass pattern for the binding - I only use bias binding - I love the process of making the binding. I start with a square of fabric large enough to give me the needed 236 inches of fabric.

Woops - mistake sewing my binding triangles together - need to seam rip. Here I go living on the edge again. I know a lot of quilters are content to pick stitches out when they've made a mistake. Sorry, that just takes too long for me. We are using a tool called a seam ripper, not a seam picker. I slip my seam ripper into the seam and, very carefully, slide it along the seam, ripping it open. You need to stop every couple of inches to clean the ripper of thread. Warning - you want to get proficient on this method before you try it on a project. If you are not careful you run the risk of slicing the fabric. When you get good at it you can open up a 2 foot seam in a few seconds - I'm good at it!

Once I get my binding tube together I use a smaller cutting mat to slip into the tube to cut my binding. This is not a great photo, but hopefully you understand. By slipping the mat inside of the tube you can simply spin the tube as you cut your binding.

Once my binding is cut I iron it - as I iron the length of binding I roll it onto my can of spray starch - that way it's not all over my sewing room floor picking up loose thread and getting all messy. When I sew the binding onto the quilt I put the "spool" of binding on the floor and unwind as needed.

Here are two important tools I cannot live without when it comes to binding. The red laminated paper, called the "Strip Ticket" is invaluable - one side has an illustrated step by step instruction of how to make continuous binding, and the reverse side has a chart listing the amount of fabric needed according to your binding width and desired length. You can find a version of the Strip Ticket in most quilting shops. The Fons and Porter Binding Tool is a relatively new tool for me, and I don't know how I lived without it - take my advice - you need it - you will get a flat final seam every time.

Too close for comfort - today I calculated that I needed 236 inches of binding. That was a loose estimation - my border is scalloped - oh no, I cut exactly 236 inches. I like to have a few extra feet of binding. Panic - slightly - I didn't have any more fabric left! I could not believe it - 4 inches of leftover binding - way too close for comfort!

Tonight's healthy dinner is vegetarian, actually vegan - we are having Sauteed Greens and Cannellini Beans accompanied by a slice of wheat berry bread topped with carrot and fennel bruschetta. You can follow the beans and greens recipe as written - it is only 270 calories per serving. Instead of using canned cannellini beans I used dried calypso beans - aren't they beautiful? I like making something with dried beans on a Monday - makes me feel like I'm back in Louisiana where they make red beans and rice on Mondays, giving the women time to do their laundry - I didn't do any laundry today! The kale is from the West Chester Grower's Market - kale is so beautiful - I've been known to use it in bouquets on the dinner table.

I'm not a real gadget person in the kitchen, but I do love these small 2 ounce measuring cups from OXO - great for portioning out oil - at 100 calories per tablespoon you really need to watch portions.
Here's dinner - served in and on gorgeous pottery from Willi Singleton, an amazingly talented artist who resides at the base of Hawk Mountain. To make the carrot and fennel bruschetta I simply sauteed in 2 teaspoons olive oil - 5 sliced carrots, 1/2 cup chopped fennel, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1 minced clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon capers, 4 diced dried apricots. I finished the bruschetta with a handful of chopped parsley, and then spread the mixture onto the bread - loaded with whole grain goodness and a powerful blast of Vitamin A - it's all good for you!