Lemon Merinque Pie

It's not only the baked goods contests I like to enter at the fair. There are also daily contests you can participate in, and get a free entry into the fair for participating.

A contest they've had for a few years is the Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk Challenge. I haven't had much luck with it, although I thought my coconut milk flan last year was really tasty. Last year there were only nine entries too, which was a little disappointing for me, as with such limited numbers I thought I had a chance. The flan needed to bake in a water bath, which I think was maybe too complicated for that particular contest's aims.

I think I've found a good recipe for this coming year though, if they have the contest again. The link is here. It's an approximation of a lemon meringue pie. I think I can change it up enough to make it unique (it needs at least three significant changes to be on the level) by using a pre-done chocolate crust, lowering the sugar in the egg whites, and adding a few more whites to the mix.

I would make a homemade crust, but the goal of the contest is to make it as simple as possible. The egg white bit worries me as it is a more complex and time consuming step, and I'll have to try it again to see if I can get it done without the meringue weeping, but I think the recipe has real potential. Looks pretty too!

On the quilting side, I finally got a new sewing machine. I went for the Janome MC 6600, which I was lucky enough to find used. Consumer Reports rated it very highly, so I have high hopes. I haven't really gotten down to business with it, but I finally finished cutting out all the pieces for the Barrel of Monkeys quilt so I'm ready to go. 

I'm also considering taking a block of the month class at the great local fabric store. It might be nice to meet some other quilters.

Snowpocalypse 2008

Okay, so I live in Oregon, and snow is pretty rare for us in the Willamette Valley. It usually happens once a year for a day or so,  and then it's done. This year it's lasted at least a week and half and it suuuuucks. I just want to drive my car. I got a holiday job at a department store, and am lucky I can walk there,  and to stores for minor provisions, but I have things I need a car to do.

Like drive to Salem and get my cutting system and sewing machine. Or drive to a store and buy a better sewing machine. Or drive to a store and buy heavy groceries. I'm being a huge baby about the snow because I hate it, and am seriously glad to see it leaving. I thought I'd be able to get my table runner done by Christmas, but lack of a sewing machine really put a damper on that. I'd just about finished stitching in the ditch (poorly I might add), so it's almost there. It'll be ready way in advance for next year!

I've been plotting my next quilt. Quilt Pro has been driving me a bit crazy with their triangle measurements, but I'm just going to have to work around it. It's taken me a while to find a color combination and style I like, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with this.

I think it looks like rows of dancing monkeys, or monkeys holding hands. It also looks easy enough that it won't drive me completely crazy, but interesting enough that I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

Molasses Cookies

When I was a little kid, my mom worked for the State Fair. She worked for the Wine Pavillion, or something like that, and we got a lot of free passes to the fair every year. We used to go almost every day, and I have a lot of strong memories of those experiences.

I also spent a long time perfecting a chocolate cookie recipe, and love to bake. In 2006, I decided to combine State Fair and baking, and enter some baked goods. I entered berry pie tarts, and chocolate cookies. I got red ribbons for both, but I don't think that was necessarily impressive. The pie was 3rd out of 5th, and the cookies were 3rd out of 8th. Don't get me wrong, I was very pleased with the outcome, but my competitive nature called out for more.

This past summer I entered again, with the same pie, cookies, and also banana bread and peanut butter cookies. I was working at a summer camp at the time, which hampered me a bit. I didn't have my own kitchen, or supplies, but I did a bit better in the showings. I placed second out of 15 for the berry pie tarts, and got 2nd out of (I think, I'll check my records) 18 for the peanut butter cookies. I was beyond delighted! I had some ingredient issues with the chocolate chip cookies, and forgot to pick up muffin tin liners for the banana bread muffins, so I felt like I didn't have my best showing there.

Now I'm on the hunt for blue. I'd like to enter molasses cookies, but I haven't found a recipe that I really love yet. I really enjoy a cake like cookie, and my molasses have been coming out kind of flat.

I tried out a new recipe this weekend, which blogger isn't letting me cut and paste, to mixed results. They were fine, didn't have much loft to them, and needed a little vanilla I think. They also came out crisp on the bottom when fully cooked, and undercooked other wise. I'll keep trying.

This is not to say that I didn't eat them anyway!

It's Christmas Time!

Okay, so, BBW was driving me crazy, and not in a good way. I realized that one of the things I like about quilting was the repetition and ease of it. It's not that it doesn't engage the brain,  but there is a rather soothing quality to the clear destination a quilt can provide. BBW was too much work, so I just wasn't working on it, which was no fun. I have a lot of ideas I want try out, and spending time not working on something fun was no good. 

So I started my Christmas Placemat plan.

And I got Quilt Pro 5, which doesn't seem as cool as Electric Quilt, but what can you do? I ran into a few pitfalls. I looked up placemat sizes online, and made the above pattern at 12 x 18. More on that later.

I also got the Alto Quilt-Cut system, which takes a part of quilting that I'm not to good at and made it a lot easier. All of my cut pieces came out uniform, and it took less than half the time. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than what I was doing before.


And here is one "placemat" finished. I found out some things along the way, the first being that the initial double square I had planned for the middle wasn't really the best thought out. I took a pre-planned block from the Quilt-Pro, and stuck it into my layout. I checked the yardage requirements and thought I was good to go. Turned out that the middle square bits didn't fall into 1/8th inch increments. That was no good, as I couldn't really get a consistent cut between the pieces. I settled for just a plain square, after I cut out the bits for the more complicated middle square. The second issue was that I still am not getting a good consistent 1/4 inch seam.

I'm going to blame my sewing machine. :) Oh, it's probably me, but this machine isn't exactly top of the line. It's something my mom bought, so I have no idea when or where it came from. I taped a piece of paper to mark where the 1/4 inch seam is, but sometimes I make and sometimes I don't. I would like to get a new machine, but the Internet isn't being very helpful. I'm wary of going to a sewing machine shop, because I don't know which machines are rated well (there isn't a clear consensus online as to how brands compare) and I don't want to get some salesman who is working on commission. Consumer Reports is coming out with sewing machine ratings in February, but I don't know if I can wait that long! My friend Leslie has a Janome, so maybe I'll test hers out.


Oooh, another problem. 12x18 really isn't big enough for a placemat! I should have just looked at one I already had! This photo is my "placemat" on top of a correctly sized placemat. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself at this point, with all the cut out pieces I didn't use due to poor planning, and a wrong final size, due to poor planning. It was almost enough to make me give the whole thing up. But when the goings get tough, the tough make table runners! I used my original design idea, and sewed them together for a table runner. Which may or may not be how table runners were invented in the first place.

Here was another issue I should have thought of. I've made sawtooth blocks before, for my first quilt, and they involve flying geese. I didn't really think about it when I was cutting out the triangles in the photo. It was what Quilt-Pro recommended to cut out, so cut I did! I forgot that last time I made these, you use rectangles, and cut them down to the triangle part. It seemed like a lot of extra work at the time, but making them with the triangles already cut was more frustrating. The points were very flimsy and harder to pin and get through machine than if I had done them correctly.

This would make any long-time quilter laugh, and it's for posterity, but here's my stash. That's all I've got so far. If I'm still doing this in 20 years, I'll look back at this photo and laugh.

The Process

I got a lot of work done on BBW during the election coverage. I didn't realize how stressed out the entire process made me, until CNN called the election and I burst into tears. I was standing at the ironing board, trying to keep ironing and just crying. I couldn't stop! It was such an epic moment.

This is work I did tonight, in a step by step fashion. Here I've laid the elements I want to sew together. See that white slab above the cutting mat? I've been using that as a long ruler to cut long strips of fabric. Maybe I should get a real ruler for that...

And there are all the individual blocks waiting to be sewn together, and the layout they need to be on the computer screen. I've sewn them together the wrong way more than once, so I'm double checking now. 

I think it's starting to get pretty cool. And I'm over half way done! Surprisingly, after yellow and white, gray is the most used color. If you had asked me what colors where in this painting before I started this project, I don't think I would have even remembered that gray was a color in it. 

Slow Goings

Well, here's the next layer of BBW. This project can feel really tedious at times, as every piece of it is unique. I think there is something soothing in repetition, and this project doesn't exactly have it. I do enjoy seeing segments finished though, so it's not a total wash. I would like to revisit this theme someday, and see if I can't get some sort of "inspired by" quilt pattern created. Something with the same color scheme, but with more repeated elements, and actual blocks! I might need some distance from this particular imagery for a little bit, assuming I ever get it finished. I'm pretty sure my next project is going to be something small and Christmasy, like placemats. I think that would be pretty fun.

I don't have much family background in quilting, or really any sort of crafty activities. I do have, however, two antique quilts in the house, made by someone in the family. I know they are from my mom's side, and I wish she was here to tell me who made them, and how they are significant! I'll ask my one of my aunts, I hope they will know. This first one is an applique, and I like a lot of the fabrics used.

Look at those pretty red flowers!

And look at those misshapen circles! 


More interesting fabrics.
This quilt is amazing. Everything is perfect, and stitched so nicely. The fabrics are gorgeous as well.



I love the blue and orange flowers.


The quilt above has been sitting in my linen closet for years. My mom would never let us use it because it was too special. This is the first time I've ever actually looked at it, which is a shame because it is so pretty. I'll have to figure out some way to display it. Someone put a lot of work into it, and it deserves better than hiding on the bottom shelf of a closet no one ever looks in.

Much Nicer

Okay, I added the smaller triangles, and I think it really takes it to the next level. Now I just have to figure out how to make it! The flying geese portion worries me, as the triangles on the side aren't standard, as does the pointer looking bits. I think I'll have to divide them into two triangles, and then I'll have to figure out how to attach the lower triangle.

Ah, but here it is with the new addition.