Sourdough Biscuits

 What can be more warm and satisfying on a cold winter wet day than a fresh batch of sourdough biscuits and a pot of tea?  I could have this all day everyday.    My sourdough discard is ready to use after 5 days of feeding.  I love its subtle tanginess.  Here's a recipe to try.  These biscuits are delicious with a little jam and clotted cream.  They were gone in minutes.  

Sourdough Biscuits

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

6 TBSP. unsalted cold butter

1 cup starter, unfed discard

1-2 TBSP. whole milk (if needed for dough to come together)

Preheat oven to 425°F.  Grease an 8-10" iron skillet and set aside.  In a mixing bowl, measure all the dry ingredients, stir.  Cube the cold butter into the flour and work in until pea size bits remain.  Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the starter.  Stir together until dough comes together.  Add milk a little at a time if needed.  Turn out onto a floured surface, pat down to about 1" thickness and cut into circles.  Place next to each other in the skillet.  Bake for 18-22 minutes.  Brush with melted butter and serve warm.  

My wrist has begun to feel better, so I am hoping to get back to sewing tomorrow.  Our guild has put out a challenge called "just initial it".  Using only 3 initials from your name, 2 for colors and 1 for the pattern, creating a quilt no larger than 160" total parameter measurement.   I chose "Shaded Trail" pattern and my colors are Purple and Linen.  The pattern is paper pieced and I've never had so much trouble with pp up until now.  I think it's because I cut my strips slightly too narrow.  I am using commercially dyed purple in dark and my hand dye light purple.  If I can get it right, I'll make a table runner.  

Valentine's - not just cards

Happy Valentine's Day!  Some may consider this holiday a "non-holiday".  Just a consumer based card holiday, that is, when people used to send cards.  Well, whether it is or isn't, to me it doesn't matter.  I love Valentine's Day.  I always have.  My parents married on 12 February and I always thought that was such a sweet time of year to get married.  I would spend my own money to buy them a box of Valentine chocolates every year through my teens and the first year or two I was married.  It never went over well in the end.  Hoping this gesture would bring some love and/or happiness to either or both of them.  It didn't.  But, that didn't break me from the hope Valentine's day brings.  To me, it's the opportunity to show the person you love that you care for them, admire them and appreciate them for who they are.  Where did I get these lofty ideals?  Especially coming from such a morose family dynamic. I digress.

When I made this quilt, I didn't know where it would take me.  I started out loving the idea of using "conversation hearts" like the candies.  Using sherbet like colors, not just a pink and white color palette. Each of the heart applique blocks have a conversation line, like "hug me", "be mine", " you're sweet", etc... I also wanted to add the words, "Be My Valentine" using a free piecing technique as described in Tonya Ricucci's book, "Word Play Quilts".   Fifteen years ago, there weren't a lot of options to add words to quilts using piecing or applique, but now there are several books and resources to do that.  I like the free pieced look.  It's not perfect, and that's what I like.  Non-pattern quilts are my favorite quilts as they tell a story of what the artist is saying, thinking, or feeling.  Start somewhere, add something or take away something.  See where your ideas will take you.  

My wonderful DH brings me roses every Valentine's day.  He would bring me roses everyday if he could.  He is a true sweetheart.  He knows how much this means to me.  It's not just a motion to take on Valentine's day, that that is the thing to do.  During our poor years, he would bring me a single rose because it was cheaper.  I would dry the rose and keep it in my journal or in a vase.  It would remind me how much he truly loves me... that he would take his last $3 to buy me a single rose.  Back in those days $3 was a lot of money, especially for us.  

Paper pieced hearts made into small mats/mug rugs

Applique block made for a donation quilt

Quilted needle case using some non-traditional colors.

"Blue Without You" postcard

"My Heart" postcard

"Love Letter" postcard

Multi-medium postcard

These are some of the quilted Valentine postcards I've made over the years.  It was so much fun using some non-traditional materials for these.  The "Blue Without You" postcard was a challenge submitted and pictured in a Fabrications textiles magazine issue in 2009 or 2010.   

Paper pieced table mats using glow in the dark threads, FMQ

Sourdough Pizza

 

After a couple of unsuccessful days in my sewing room, I decided to do the second best thing.....bake.

My sourdough starter is only in its second day, so maybe it wasn't quite ready by a sourdough snob's standards.  But, I figured WTH!  I used the discard to make my pizza dough.  It turned out so awesome!  The full sourdough flavor profile was not there, but the crust was better than any pizza I've ever had.  It was chewy and crispy at the same time.  I used the King Arthur Flour sourdough recipe along with some semolina flour.  I baked one on my pizza stone with some "just OK results".  The second one I baked in my Chicago Pizza pan and it turned out perfect.   The first one had salsa, ground turkey, onions and spinach with cheese on hand (gouda, pepperjack and parmesan).  The second one had tomato sauce, onions and spinach with the cheese.  They were both good, but the one baked in the Chicago pan was awesome.  

Pizza Dough recipe:

1 cup sourdough starter or unfed discard

1/2 cup warm water

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (KAF)

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. active dry yeast 

In a small measuring cup, bloom the yeast in a small amount of warm water and 1/2 tsp. sugar.  Set aside for about 5-10 minutes.  In a mixing bowl, measure all other ingredients and finally add in the yeast mixture.  Stir together until all flour is moistened and leaves the side of the bowl.  Knead by hand for 7-10 minutes.  Place the dough back in the bowl and cover loosely with a towel and set in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until doubled in bulk.  Punch down and divide into 2-3 portions for the pizza crusts.  Sprinkle the work surface and pizza stone with semolina flour.  Shape each dough portion into a circle.  Bake for 7-10 minutes at 450°F.  Remove from the oven and top with cheeses, vegetables and meat (if desired).  Bake 15-18 minutes to brown the crust and melt cheese.  

It's starting to get nicer outside.  We've had sun all day.  My Camelia's are blooming and I should be out doing a little yard work.  I cut back our two fence monsters and our 7 Crepe Myrtle's a couple weeks ago and my hand still hurts from the pruning.   Having said this, I think I'll stay in and do some reading instead.  

Anger Musing

 

Over the last 45 years, sewing has taught me a lot of life's lessons.  Today, I've had to rip out too many seams due to sewing angry.  Never sew angry.  I stopped in time to keep myself from sewing right through my finger....time to take a breather and cool off.  I don't think sewing releases stress either, it just makes you more stressed and causes aches and pains in the joints, in the nooks and crannies of the body.  Yep, I gave up on sewing today.  Had to escape these walls.  Get out.  I put my gear on and headed out the door for a nice long walk, by myself.  To think.  Reflect.  Breathe.  Stay silent. 

Like the seam I sewed angrily and had to rip out.  How do I take away what was said?  Sewing a new seam is easy.  Faintly recognizing the minute holes left behind by the bad seam.   Words are like that, they resonate even though they were said an hour, month or years ago.  Words are the tools when distance separates.  Two words like "I'm sorry", isn't enough and certainly doesn't address the problem.  It's a start to a calmer conversation, you hope, but is trust lost?  Is confidence and respect lost?  If, that is, you ever possessed it?  

Trust is something you gain.  Respect is something you earn and give.  Confidence, however, is built.  To build it, you have to be seen, put yourself out there, be vulnerable.  Learn from failure.  Surrounding yourself with like minds, being open to critiquing criticism and growing from it.  Tools to ply both physically and mentally.  Confidence is a hard thing to build and can be torn down in an instant and sometimes on a daily basis.  In my experience, women of my generation have trouble with confidence and it's due to several issues.  Mine is congenital.  Suppression was a daily struggle in my childhood household.  Unfortunately, I carry this baggage around with me even today.  Whenever I speak to the last surviving parent I have, it comes flooding in spewing negativity and vile puss all over again.  These three things; Trust, Respect and Confidence...I've never possessed with direct correlation to this parent. 

Like a child, I retreat.  I become numb.  Silent.  Submerging myself in myself.  

I want to create;  expressing my emotions.  Not fully knowing where it will take me or how hideous it may become.  Facing the scary.  The horror.  Can I conquer the monster in time before I lose time?   If I create from the anger, will I finally be rid of it?   Getting it out away from within.  My hope is to embrace what remains.  Beauty.  Calm.  Peace.   

Glass Birds

 Last night I finished the yo yo runner for my DS.  It always feels good to finish something, even a small table runner.  

Moving on to another UFO on the list.  This one has only been in the UFO basket for about a month.  The famous glass artist, Oiva Toikka (OT) of Finnland, produced many beautiful works of glass art during his lifetime.  I came in contact with his work while living in Germany.  He had a way of making the bird look simply shaped, but adding metallic accents and color for texture.   One day while window shopping, I spotted a beautiful glass bird made by the artist.  It was a fat red bird with a metallic head and spotted with metallic glass in the body. Of course, I couldn't afford to purchase it.  That was over 15 years ago and I still remember it.  About a month ago, I saw an article to challenge yourself making a small piece interpreting your favorite artist (not necessarily a quilt artist).  So, I chose OT and his glass birds.  

I've been saving silk fabric pieces and silk threads for years, so I chose some of those.  I also wanted to use the foiling technique again, so added that to it.  The background fabric is a dyed piece of cotton I did last year.  I had a piece of Angelina fiber that looked metallic, so I wanted to use that for the beak.  All these bits came together and I went to work on drawing out a bird representing OT's work.    

This is as far as I've gotten.  I may do some altering (ripping out).  The pieces are simply appliquéd using monopoly thread, but I don't like the look, so I may try the silk threads.  I also want to do the trapunto technique.  When finished it will just be the size of one of my post cards.