Friday Favourite - Spirals

This past summer I took the kids to the M.C. Escher exhibit at the Glenbow Museum. Cool enough for them, but they were more interested in the glowing rocks in the Minerals room and the crafts they always have in the ARC Discovery Room. And when we discovered that one of the activities was these Spiral Draws from Klutz I could hardly blame them.

A kissing cousin to the original Spirograph, this drawing toy pretty much means hours of fun. Seriously, we can all sit and create and colour for a long time. It brings back so many childhood joys for me, and is creating them in the girls.

And just look what they did with them at the Museum! You totally change the look when you selectively colour. I so love this. And then there is the bigger installation. Volunteers took each image drawn and coloured, cut them out, and were pasting them together.

Must try this in fabric...

Oh, and another note. M.C. Escher? Absolutely, insanely, incredible. My only experience with Escher was the posters every 18 year old boy put on his dorm wall in my university. But to see the original prints, woodcuts, and linocuts in person was phenomenal. I had no idea that most of the work was actually a woodcut or lithograph. Completely impressive.

Friday Favourite - Molasses Butter

There are a ridiculous number of happy moments and miniature squeals of glee in my head on repeat since my latest trip to Nova Scotia. They keep me happy. One moment, one memory that I've acted on nearly daily since then is the molasses butter.

Never heard of it? Neither had I. Pictou Lodge served up little bowls of molasses butter with their biscuits instead of your average, boring bread basket. And it was awesome.

So awesome that I accosted the Chef Thomas one morning on his way into work and begged for some at my breakfast in an hour and he kindly obliged me. So awesome that I've made it three times in the 10 days I've been home. So awesome that it takes all your power to not eat it straight from the bowl with a shiny spoon.

I have no idea how they made it, but here is what I've been doing.

Molasses Butter

1/2 cup salted butter (unsalted if you prefer, but I like it better with salted)
1-2 TBSP Blackstrap molasses (use fancy if that is what you have, but you will probably want more molasses then)

Whip the butter. Add the molasses. Whip until evenly incorporated.

So far our favourite way is indeed on biscuits. But I can tell you that it tastes just fine on a muffin or some fresh bread. And, in case you were wondering, it makes a wicked grilled cheese sandwich. Substitute for regular butter on the outside of your sandwich. The edges caramelize and the molasses bring a depth of unreal flavour to the table.

Friday Favourite - Maud Lewis

Cleaning up my studio this week I found a card I framed years ago and hung when my writing desk was jammed in a closet. The smile on my face was instantaneous and the sigh that passed my lips more than audible. I found my picture of Maud Lewis.

Maud Lewis was a Nova Scotia artist. Her style is much copied and the whole lot generally called Nova Scotia folk art. The diminutive woman, crippled from childhood polio, lived in abject poverty but appears to have found incredible joy in painting. And for decades now that joy passes to nearly every single person who sees her tiny paintings.

Her paintings depict rural Nova Scotia life. Snippets and details captured in saturated colours on tiny canvasses, boards, cookie sheets, and more. They glow with life. Click here for a snippet of her work (I don't have permission to share the images.)

For me, there is phenomenal inspiration from this woman. Her house sits in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. It is about the size of my sewing room. The entire house is the size of my sewing room. Covered in her paintings with nearly every surface accentuated by colour. It is nothing short of a happy place. I can only imagine what it was like when her energy truly filled the place. It is the perspective of joy in such a place, in such poverty, that smacks me on the face when I need it. (It truly was serendipity that I found the photo this week.)

One day, when I am rich I will get my hands on one of her tiny paintings. I will put it on a large white wall so I can sit and stare at it all day long. And it will make me think of my alternate soul in Nova Scotia, an inspiring woman, and the perspective I constantly need slapped across my cheek.

Friday Favourite - The Kwik Klip

My least favourite part of quiltmaking is basting quilts. It really is the reason quilt tops languish in my closet. I think I'm slow at it, that's part of the problem. And now, with our TV in the basement, I can't rope Hubby into helping me anymore! I baste on the living room floor. When the TV was up here he had no choice - watch me get in his way or get on the ground and help me. Now he runs away to the TV as soon as he sees me pull out the masking tape and pins.

Loving me is not enough, the only reason he was willing to help me is that he was allowed to use the tool involved. Men and tools, right? Man oh man, he can wield a Kwik Klip like the boss.

Honestly, if it wasn't for a Kwik Klip none of my quilts would get basted. I am a pin baster, and I use a lot of pins. (I didn't think it was a lot, but then I saw people commenting on an IG photo of someone else's basted quilt. So many pins! Wow, you sure use a lot of pins! And there I was thinking that it looked totally normal. But I don't get puckers with my quilting. Happy for that trade off.) So the Kwik Klip makes very short work of closing all those pins. And it saves both what is there of my nails and my fingertips.

You simply hold the tool in your dominant hand, lift up the straight part of the pin, and clip it into place. Done. I've heard of people using an old teaspoon to the same effect. That, however, is not as fancy as the tool. And seriously, if a tool is what it takes to get your man to help you with the basting then a tool is what you should get.

I'm sharing this post as part of National Sewing Month, brought to you by The Sewing Loft. Check out a month long list of sewers sharing their favourite tools.