More Catch-up

Managed to get a little naptime sewing in.  Actually, I think it might have been Friday night sewing while Hubby watched Inside MMA. (Side note - I can't wait until I have my own sewing space!)

So I cranked out some bee blocks, a quilt top (to come later this week), and a binding. And no major mistakes at that hour!

This is Jess' block for our Mid Mod Bee.  It seems simple, and I really, really wanted to do a funkier block.  But if you look at her inspiration sketch she has a number of blocks like this. I was worried that she wouldn't get any of the simple ones because the others are too fun to make. Hopefully I'm not the only one who thought this way.

This one is a Valentine's themed block for Samantha of our Pieced Together 2 bee. I could have done hearts, but it seemed boring.  Or maybe I needed a challenge after the previous block? I chose some pieced letters a la The Unruly Quilter. And this was loads of fun to do. I see more letters in my future...

Backseat Adventure - Columbia Icefields


It was a day trip turned into overnight. It was a long weekend turned into a very, very long weekend. But the girls are in bed and I can pore over my photos of our trip to the Columbia Icefield.

Can you believe that as a lifelong Alberta girl I've never actually been to the Icefields? Only one drive by as an adult, in the middle of winter, where we were mostly concerned with merely safely arriving at our destination. So when Hubby suggested a road trip I couldn't really say no, could I?

Poor planning on our part led to a frantic search for mittens and boots, a stop at the mall, and not enough snacks. But we grabbed the last Ice Explorer monster bus and got our canned tourist experience. And it was so worth it! The mechanical geek in Hubby was quite enthralled with the monster bus, as was the Monster. (Guess what her new career aspirations are?) And all of us were blown away by the expanse of the glacier. 

All I could think was, "Holy Crap! I'm standing on a glacier!" And it makes me want to reread Icefields by Thomas Wharton. We had the pre-packaged experience, I know, but it was still awesome. And despite my, I'm struggling to describe it any other way.

While I don't think the girls could grasp the immensity of what was in front of us, they could grab the ice, lick it, and ask why the mountains were so big. Soon enough we'll have them hiking and maybe even backcountry skiing to grow up as good mountain girls.

Sunday dinner was at 9:00 pm. After a day of road tripping and exploring we landed in Banff. it was late, we should have grabbed something easy and put the girls to bed.  We should have done that.


Instead, we ventured out to Maple Leaf Grille and Lounge. After a day of nothing but mediocre snacks Hubby and I decided we wanted a good meal. While I'm not sure the late night with the girls was worth it (it was close to midnight when they finally fell asleep), the food was pretty damn good.

But the best thing we ingested all day was the water, running in a stream, over a thousand feet of ice.


Inventory

Now that I am home full-time I thought it best to take inventory of the projects on the go. This pile represents what I would call active UFOs. That is, as opposed to the ones that have long since been abandoned... From the top to the bottom:

The crayon rock inspiration quilt. I now have the top done and backing cut. On to basting. I might get to it this weekend, if my knees are up for it.

My Slaveship quilt. Inspired by the novel The Book of Negroes it got to this point and I stopped. Then I picked up some African fabrics to add to the top at Quilt Canada, but I haven't put it together.

Water quilt.  Oh the water quilt. I haven't touched this in a year, but I think about it constantly. As soon as I get a semi-permanent design wall up and a full day to myself with no interruptions I plan to get the top done.

Values quilt. This was my first values quilt using HST, a la Katie. I love, love, love it and really wanted to get it basted. I already know how I'm going to quilt it.

Improv Sampler. This is one that should be at the top of the pile. I want to teach Improv again and this quilt should be finished. To be honest, I might bite the bullet on this one and get it done by a long armer.  Maybe.

The Low Volume Circles. This top came together so quickly in the late winter, and I even got it basted quite quickly. And I know how I'm going to quilt it, but I just need to actually do it.

So, now what? I refuse to pressure myself to finish, nor do I give in to the pressure to have something new to blog about. If you've read here for a while, you know that I like to talk about quilting as much as I like to quilt!

I do believe that it is good to stop, take stock, and prioritize every now and then.  Considering that I'm doing that in the rest of my life's activities, it only seemed appropriate that I do it here too. And I'm happy with where I am.  Sure, I wish the pile was a bit smaller or I had the ability to get through the basting process a bit easier. But it is what it is.

And really, it means a little time to stop and savor the process along the way.

In My Dreams

When I started blogging I had only in mind a medium in which to practice writing, something I hadn't done regularly since I was a teenager. My on-line presence was a chance to share my creativity, getting it out there in the hopes that someone else was inspired. 

About a year ago, however, things changed for me. Writing, creating, and thinking about those things became a compulsion. I attended the Okanagan Food and Wine Writers Workshop last September. And while I was blown away by the food and highly entertained by the company, the experience gave me a clarity and focus to my future. I was driven to find a way to change my life to make this my work, not designing energy efficiency programs. 

Today marks the first day of that life full-time. Over the past 8 months I've been building up a freelance writing base. Have you seen me at What's Up Family yet? Or at Simple Bites?  What about Babble? But it is time to do more, to be more. I've quit my job and my networking chops are already being tested. I will now call myself a freelance writer.

But not only this, I also be home with my girls. You could call me a work at home mom. (In all honesty, I hate that term.) In between bed time and morning, and during the naps that still occur you will find me writing, creating. When my girls are awake you will find us in the kitchen together, or around the table creating, reading, chatting, living.

To celebrate this momentous morning I turned to another of my dreams. Quite literally, this was a dream.  The more I've been on line the more I've found myself dreaming of people I've never met. It seems I'm some sort of unconscious stalker. The last dream I had involved Kim, her in-my-dreams-only rooftop garden in NYC, and these peach basil pancakes.

It seemed only fitting that I pull out everything from my dreams on a day when my dreams are becoming a living reality.

Peach Basil Pancakes
Makes 12 small/medium pancakes

3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup corn flour or light corn meal
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp chopped basil
1 peach, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 cup butter
1 egg

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Toss the basil and peaches in with the dry ingredients.
2. Stir together the wet ingredients. Mix the wet into the dry. Stir until just combined.  Let rest while your griddle or frying pan heats up on medium/low heat.
3. Pour the batter into the griddle 1/3 cup at a time. Cook until the bubbles on the surface form and start popping.  Flip and cook on the other side for another minute or so.
4. Serve with cherries or syrup of choice.

Stew

It all started with a few turnips. After a number of attempts last summer to like the turnips we got in our CSA delivery I was looking for another way to try them. Gail gave me the motivation after she shared what she did with our CSA delivery. And the weather has made a decided turn towards fall, being chilly and rainy today. A perfect day to have the oven on all day, with meat slowly cooking inside.

In short, a perfect day to make stew. And this is how I did it.

Get some meat. My entire family purchased a cow this summer. Well, my parents bought it and shared it with all of us. (Thanks!) So the beef stew meat came from that cow. And somehow I thought to defrost Italian sausage with it. Not sure why, but it paid off. And I was lucky, our butcher cut the meat into chunks for us.

Spoon a couple of tablespoons of flour in a bowl.  Season it with salt and pepper. Today I also added some ground Ethiopian Berbere spices I have. Go with what you've got. Sometimes it is thyme and oregano, sometimes paprika, sometimes it is nothing. Stir it all together.

Toss your meat in the flour and spices to get well coated. Do it a handful at a time. About as much will fit in your pot without crowding. Make sure all sides are coated. Not only does this help the meat brown, but as the stew cooks, the flour helps thicken the sauce.

Heat up some olive oil or vegetable oil in the pot you will use to cook the stew. For this, I always turn to my trusty dutch oven. In small batches, so the meat isn't crowded, brown the pieces of meat. Most recipes will say to brown on all sides, but some of my pieces were more rhomboid than rectangular. Quite frankly, I can't be bothered to turn my meat 6 or 7 times. So as long as the big sides had colour I was happy.

As your meat browns, put it in a bowl. That way, if any juices run out you capture them.

While your meat is browning, chop up an onion or two. How much depends on the size of onion and how much onion you actually want in the stew. I also chopped up some garlic, roughly.

Because I'd defrosted them, I decided to add the sausage. And because I was lazy, I cooked them whole in the stew. (When I added the veggies later I took the sausages out, sliced them, then tossed them back in with everything else. It beat taking them apart raw.) At this point I browned the sausages and softened the onions and garlic. This is all still in the same pot I where I browned the beef.

By now you can see that stew is about layering flavour. The next step is to deglaze the pan. More than anything I use beer, but sometimes wine. This beer was leftover from a party we had the other night. So I took a sip from the beer, then poured the rest in the pot. When you add alcohol to a hot pan it bubbles wildly and with a few scrapes of the wooden spoon, all those brown bits that look like burnt stuff came off the pot and to flavour the liquid. To this I added two cans of tomatoes. Not the juice, just the tomatoes. And I squished them in my hands as I added them.

After that, the meat goes back in the pan, with any accumulated juices. Then the whole thing goes in the oven at 200 or 250 degrees F for a few hours. Yes, hours. You could also cook it on the stove, but I find the oven requires less attention. And frankly, stew is supposed to be about hands off cooking. Well, once you do all the stuff before this step.

After a few hours it was time to add the veg. You could add it all at the same time, when you first put it in the oven. Perhaps, though, you need to go to the farmers' market and pick up the carrots and potatoes because all you have are turnips in the house.

Cut all the veg into about the same size - 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Throw them in the pot and let it all cook for a few hours more. At some point you should taste and season it. To mine I added some dried thyme as well as salt and pepper.

When Hubby and I first started dating we actually argued over the best way to eat stew. I was firmly in the with bread camp, and he preferred his over rice. Well, the day he makes the stew he can have it over rice. Today we had it with a loaf of wild rice and green onion bread from The Bakery at the Market. It was a fantastic compliment.

The stew was gently flavoured, with perfectly cooked meat that even my 2 year old could cut with her spoon. The sausage lent a sweetness and another texture. And the turnips? They softened slightly sweet, with just a touch of peppery bite. Just different enough from the potatoes, and about the best way I've ever had a turnip.

Pink

I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I'm kind of digging pink lately.  I find myself drawn to pink images, and especially pink fabric. Maybe because it feels indulgently girly? Or simply because it makes me smile.

Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream, courtesy of David Lebovitz. It tastes exactly like my summer berries and cream.

Binding one of the last doll quilts. Thrilled with that Amy Butler as a binding.

Hanging on to late summer evenings and celebrating Smilosaurus' new obsession with a pony tail (this is as good as that gets).

Baking pies with my girls, still in their PJs on a lazy weekend morning.

Experimenting with some new low volume ideas.

In love with my new, custom necklace from SuLu Designs. In love more that the girls notice it when I wear it and tell me how much they love it too.

And where do you see pink today?

Blueberry Maple Ice Cream


Today I'm over at Simple Bites. It's all about taking a moment to just stop. No canning, no thinking ahead to apple pie now that the weather is turning, no worrying about Sunday dinner. Just stopping to take a look around and enjoy what we've got, right now, in front of us.

And right now I have blueberries. Plump BC blueberries are still all over the markets. My girls eat them by the handful. Me, on the other hand, I can be rather indifferent to blueberries. I enjoy them when added to other things or baked, but I'm not an out of hand girl when it comes to the orbs.

My favourite to enjoy blueberries is actually cooked down with a bit of maple syrup, to be served on pancakes, waffles, or yoghurt. I was making a batch of my blueberries when it occurred to me that it might work really well with ice cream. Not on ice cream, mind you, but in ice cream.

It's a good thing I am addicted to making my own ice cream because it means the canister for my ice cream maker is always in the deep freeze when not in use. And, I always keep cream in the house now. So this recipe came together in just a few minutes. And for dinner, we were licking our bowls clean.

Blueberry Maple Ice Cream
Makes 4 cups

2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 cups cream
2 tbsp cup maple wine/maple liqueur/creme de cassis.

1. Cook the blueberries in the maple syrup over medium heat until the berries just begin to pop - 3-4 minutes. Put in the fridge to cool, if you've got the time.
2. Blitz the berries in a blender, adding the cream and alcohol. Alternatively, mash the berries with a fork then combine with the cream and alcohol.
3. Churn in an ice cream maker and freeze until firm. Serve drizzled with maple syrup.

Catch Up


The reality of dealing with a medical issue, a husband on the road constantly, and some major life changes means that my actual sewing got behind. Yeah, old story, right?

So, I told Hubby to leave me alone during naptime on Friday and I banged out a couple of things. Namely, I caught up with some bee obligations.

These are the blocks for Jody. She is making a quilt for her stepson, in the Drunk Love Style of Denyse Schmidt. I'll admit, that I wasn't all that excited once I saw her choice.  Solids? A pattern for a wonky log cabin? Neither are me.

But I embraced the solids, partially thanks to Cherri. And I ignored the pattern, only acknowledging the Courthouse Steps piecing versus the Log Cabin Piecing. Seriously, people use a pattern for this? Okay, calm down, Cheryl. Not everyone is comfortable with improv style work. In the end, I LOVED the blocks. Seriously, I adore these blocks and it is taking all my willpower not to keep them.  Well, whatever willpower I have left after not making pie, again.

(And yes, I know they aren't squared up, I left that for Jody, to determine the final wonk.)

The next block was my first for the Mid Mod Bee. Rossie was up first with her orange kelpie inspire block. I think it is awesome that she went for a row, rather than a block. And more awesome than that? She dyed her own fabric for this. So, so cool. This was so easy to make, but fun to think about how to make it my own compared to the other submissions.  This is going to be one stellar quilt.

For a girl who was really reluctant to sign on to a bee, she is sure having a good time!  Even if I am late most of the time. And thanks to the bees I feel ready to tackle piecing again. I think I've got some mojo back.

Whispers and Screams



Sunday dinner this week was a victory on all fronts. The girls ate soup for dinner and Hubby ate zucchini without knowledge/complaint. Woohoo!

We spent the weekend in Edmonton, visiting family and taking in Alegria by Cirque de Soleil. Surprisingly, we got out of Edmonton at a decent hour so we were actually home to enjoy part of the afternoon. Unfortunately, a storm hit the second we arrived. There went the plan to take the dogs for a walk. So, it was into the kitchen instead.

Smilosaurus and I set to dealing with the two ridiculously large zucchinis we had from our CSA. Rather than go with the typical chocolate zucchini cake, I pulled up this recipe for zucchini cake with crunchy lemon glaze. We grated, we cracked eggs, we sifted, we stirred, we baked with the thunder as our soundtrack.

While the cake baked I had to figure out what the heck to eat for dinner. Standing in front of the deep freeze the last bits of last years summer - slow roasted tomatoes, chard, white beans were staring at me. So I grabbed some frozen stock, the veg, and set to make soup. Except that I didn't look so closely. I actually grabbed soup, not stock. So, dinner was souped up soup.

One of the soup additions was some leftover diced zucchini. And Hubby ate it and didn't complain. I realized when he told The Monster to eat her soup, and pointed out that it has potatoes in it, that he didn't have a clue he was eating zucchini.  Shh, no one tell him.

Nadine's Bookcase Quilt


With the last stitches going in this morning to the strain of Dinosaur Train and a hot mug of black tea by my side, this commission baby quilt is finally complete.

Made for an old book club friend - can you tell my inspiration? - to welcome her new baby girl. My instructions were simple: very bold, very bright, modern, and girly. We collaborated on the main fabric selection, but otherwise she left it up to me.

Although I've long been a fan of the Fun Quilts design that mimics Library books, and the subsequent one in The Modern Quilt Workshop, it was a design that I was never motivated to make. Perhaps because I felt it to be too popular, or the fact that it simply isn't my own? But when my friend asked me to make her a quilt it was the only design I could see myself doing.

With her request for a bold fabric on the quilt though, I had to rejig the concept. Instead of bright/dark on a light background, I went for low volume fabrics for the books on a wild background. It makes me think of a bookshelf backed with wallpaper. 

The quilt measures at a slightly odd baby size - 40 by 60. But I felt the size was necessary for the overall effect I wanted. And to show off that amazing fabric. but it will transition well to a toddler bed and a child hood nap quilt. I do hope her sweet girl cherishes this for a long time.

Commission quilting is still new to me and I did learn a valuable lesson here: pick an easy quilting pattern! A fellow modern quilter at the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild helped me decide on a pattern of overlapping rectangles. I loved it and it really is perfect for this piece. But boy, was it time-consuming.  All that stopping and started! Worth it for the overall look, but not smart from a financial perspective.


When we were picking fabrics I had three choices for the front. We both loved the final choice the best, but the 2nd and 3rd place choices were also well loved. Needless to say, I decided to showcase them on the back. Two Kaffe Fassets with that strip of cherished Denyse Schmidt barbells. 

And now the quilt is washed and packed up, ready for it's journey across the country.

PS  If you are joining me from Amy's Creative Side, welcome! I was honoured to be nominated for a Blogger's Quilt Festival Feature.

Realizations

The Monster is a temperamental child. She will be fantastically fine, happy and cheerful 95% of the time. But then you tell her no to just the wrong thing and not only is she upset, like any 4 year old, but the world ends for her. It is infinitely frustrating and one of the biggest challenges of parenting for me.

Up until a certain point today we were all enjoying a lovely, late summer ease. A quiet morning with bread and jam for breakfast. Our normal Sunday morning jaunt to the farmers' market for coffee and a few groceries. The girls napped while Hubby and I sat on the porch swing chatting and petting the dogs. It was all good.

Then I had to go to the grocery store. And another, and another. And I spazzed, yelling at people in traffic and getting right cranky. Then I had a scary moment of clarity. The Monster is me. Yikes, I made her that way. (I'm sorry Mom and Dad.) 

I was still spazzing when I got home, but then I started cooking. I had tomatoes in the oven, slow roasting. I added some peaches, then popped a pork roast in. Smilosaurus helped me tear kale for kale chips. And my bad mood dissipated as quickly as it came.  Just like we send The Monster for a quiet time when she is being unreasonable, I found my quiet time in the kitchen, making Sunday dinner.

A little while later we welcomed an old friend to our home. We cracked some beers. We caught up on travels, the farm, and the challenges and smiles of parenthood. We devoured the meal in front of us. And when The Monster lost it when Hubby took away the cheetah babies after she hit her little sister with them all I could do was hang my head in laughter at the realization that I indeed made my kid.


Pork Loin Roast with Roasted Tomatoes and Peaches

2 pints cherry tomatoes
4 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
3 peaches
2 pound pork roast, boneless rib end
1/2 onion
1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
2. Wash and dry the tomatoes. Cut in half. Place cut side up on a large cookie sheet. Drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and season well. Grind 1/2 tsp of the coriander seeds and sprinkle over the tomatoes as well. Place in the oven.
3. After an hour cut the peaches into quarters. Tuck them in among the tomatoes.
4. Pat dry your roast with paper towels, keep it tied up as you bought it. Season well with salt and pepper. Get the remaining 2 tbsp oil hot in a roasting pan or dutch oven. Brown the pork on all sides, leaving it for a couple of minutes each time to get good colour. Move the roast to the side, add the onions and remaining coriander seeds (left whole) to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes, then move the roast back to the middle of the pan. Cover and put in the oven. Increase the heat to 325 degrees F. Roast for 1 hour.
5. Check the internal temperature of the roast. It should register at least 140 degrees F when you take it out of the oven. Keep it covered in the roasting pan, it will continue to cook a bit more as it rests.
6. Place the tomatoes and peaches on a serving dish, top with chopped mint. After the pork has rested 10-15 minutes remove strings and slice. Serve with tomatoes and peaches.

Introductions


A photo essay on my first conscious gluten free baking experience. Lauren from Celiac Teen came over this morning, a date arranged shortly after we realized we only lived blocks from each other. Through a rainy walk she brought with her a backpack full of flours. We were going to make pie. 

The girls took to her immediately, probably assuming she was some fantastic creature known as the babysitter. Their excitement was no less once they realized we were all going to bake together. We donned aprons, we measured flour, we drank tea while our pastry chilled. Then we cut up peaches and plums to mix with blackberries and tonka bean. And while our galettes baked the little ones chased us around the house. It was comfort and chaos all at once. Welcome to our home, Lauren.

And the pastry? Fantastic. It tasted great raw, and even better cooked. It was a tender dough to work with, so I worried that it wouldn't be very flaky. I was wrong. To be honest, you would be hard pressed to pick out out from a conventional pate brisee.

We filled it with our fruit, a touch of sugar and millet flour and a whole tonka bean grated in. The crust we brushed with cream. The galettes baked for 30 minutes. And after our conversations we sat silently with our tonka bean sweetened cream on top of our galettes. Silent only as the four of us devoured an entire galette for lunch.












Big News For Me


It may not be all that exciting to the rest of you, but it is damn exciting for me. In a little over 2 weeks, I'm retiring. No, I'm not suddenly getting a pension and nor did I call in rich. 

Hubby and I have done a lot of thinking and talking and planning and more talking over the summer. We've decided that life as we've living it isn't sustainable for us, as individuals and as a family. So I am leaving the desk job to be a full-time mom, part time writer. I've been writing professionally on the side for just under a year now (see me here!) and it's time to take it one or two or three steps further. And Hubby's business is booming, but that means he is spending less time at home. We realized that the girls saw the nanny more than us!

This is a huge step for me, personally and professionally. I'm terrified that we will devolve into a very traditional wife/husband thing. The only thing I want from the Mad Men era is the furniture, thank-you very much. There is great comfort in knowing Hubby wants it about as much as I do.

I've also never seen myself as a stay at home mom full-time. I admire the folks who can do it, but I know it isn't in me to do. That's why I will still write part-time. I'll be truly taking advantage of all sleepytimes, but I'm sure I can make it work for me.

Professionally, this is pretty big. I'm putting myself out there. I'm stepping out as an entrepreneur essentially. That is also something I never saw myself doing with life. But to be successful you can't just write well. You need to sell yourself, you need to run a business. I won't be doing this half-assed, that's for sure. I've already made great strides and I can see a lot of work and success in my future.

I want, I need to do it. I'm making the change for me, I'm making my life what I want it to be. No one is doing it for me. And I'm damn proud of myself.

Freedom 35, baby!

Concept Evolution

One of these days I will actually have some quilt stuff to share with you. Just haven't felt much like playing with fabric lately. But I have sketched. Afterall, I have those wonderful markers to play with.

I wanted to share with you the evolution of a design today.

We live rather close to the Rocky Mountains, I can see them if I'm in the right part of the city and the weather is right. And they are less than an hour's drive away. Sadly, though, we only get there every couple of months. But they are there, taunting us with majesty and the possibilities of fun (I used to mountain bike and until recently, ski).

On a trip to Banff last year, for work of all things, I snapped a couple of photos. The colours and details on that trip were very inspiring in the face of a boring work trip. In the 9 months since, ideas and colour and shape percolated though my head. That trip may have also started my fascination with grey and the accumulation of grey fabrics in my stash!

The Rocky Mountains are young mountains, formed when shifting continental plates pushed the layers and layers of sedimentary rock up. As your drive through them you see, literally, folds and thrusts of rock. You can see layers, where millions and millions of years ago there was once water flowing, depositing the silt to create the rock.

Up close, you can see the shards of shale, the moss growing, the bits of life that emerge from a rocky landscape. From a distance you are awed and made to feel miniscule in the grandeur. Up close it is a slow fascination with life.

So those ideas bubbled around and I finally sketched them out on our recent road trip. Strong diagonals, layers, loads of grey and that little bit of orange. To be honest, I don't know when I'll ever get around to fabric with this, or if I ever will. But the concept evolves.

Just Playing

This has been a rough few weeks for our house. As a result, not much quilting is getting done. I just can't motivate myself. I'm picking away at commissions, but I hope the recipients understand. Did I mention its been a rough couple of weeks?

Two weeks ago we had to leave town for a funeral and that necessitated a 2 day road trip, in each direction. Just prior to leaving, feeling the need for some retail therapy, I went shopping at an art store. I'd decided it was time to get some dedicated sketching materials that were all mine. Up until now, if the notion of a quilt came into brain it was usually sketched in black pen on whatever paper I could find, or with my daughters' markers on their craft paper. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it will still always happen. But it was time to treat myself a little.

And boy, could I have treated myself. I had no clue that fancy markers cost so much! I had it in my head that I would be able to get a set of about 50 colours for a pretty reasonable price. Uh, no. At least not at the store I went to. I had to settle for a set of 20, decent quality markers for a good price. I really wanted more colours, but I couldn't justify the expense, no matter how bad of a week I was having.

In the end, this was a good purchase. A smaller set means that it it all transportable. And all I really want to be able to do is to capture a notion of the idea in my head, not a precise pattern. Besides, nothing can replace actually playing with the fabric.

Then, this week, I was at the grocery store and saw a pack of 50 markers for less than $10. At first I sighed in frustration. But I've realized that the best part about my markers is that they are mine and all mine. The girls know they can't play with them.  That means I will never run out of the red.

Making Do

We are 4 people and 2 dogs living in 1100 square feet. Out of our dining room we run the home and two businesses. In theory, there is a basement reno underway. It moves in fits and starts, but it still generally moves forward, sort of.

Last year I was using my fence as a design wall. But to be honest, that's rather annoying when you are trying to actually sew from it. So when Hubby gave me the day off weeks back I rigged up this temporary design wall.

This is the wall between our kitchen and dining room. Since I sew at the dining room table this set-up worked great.  Well, except for one large detail - I kept walking into the chandelier.