Several months ago I came across I came across an unfinished project at my quilt group that needed a little help. When I picked up the bag out of the UFO bin, one of my fellow quilters said, "Don't go there! It is too ugly!" Well, I couldn't resist a peek and had to concur that it wasn't very pretty, but I felt challenged to see if I could redeem it somehow. I decided to name it The Ugly Duckling.
Here is the before picture:
Six blocks created an imbalance and there was way too much of that red fabric. To tone it down, I removed the solo block at the top and added a couple of borders between blocks and the outer border.
Next came the quilting. The pattern on the red fabric is leaves, so I echoed that motif in the three rectangles. I outlined the pattern in the plaid block and did a sunflower in the light green square. For the red fabric I did fill quilting, roughly following the leaf pattern.
While I wouldn't give this quilt the status of swan, it turned out to be a pretty decent little duckling.
I have lost my culinary mojo. My rhythm has fallen apart. My recipes are dying like flies. Why? Because my hubby's stomach and mine have decided to take diverging paths and don't want to share. He cannot eat dairy and has other diet restrictions because of IBS. I am off gluten and corn. He can't eat butter. Margarine is out for me. Apple vinegar is now a mainstay for me. He can't eat apples. That wonderful soy cream cheese and sour cream that was the answer to several recipe challenges is off the list for me. Argh! When I am putting together a meal, I am constantly forgetting to get all the parts and pieces going at the right time so that the meal is ready on time.
Sometimes lately I feel like my conversation with my digestive system goes something like this:
Me: "What? Are you really going to be particular about this, too?"
Tummy: "Yes, I believe I am."
Me: "You have been rather a pain lately--literally. And you are starting to cost me a lot of money."
Tummy: "Sounds like a personal problem to me."
Me: "No kidding."
My goal at this point is to go a week without a reaction to anything. Once I go a month, I will feel like can finally get my grocery list settled. Maybe one day I will have a post entitled "How Elzbee Got Her Groove Back."
Well, an interesting week.... Things are generally going well, and I am overall doing pretty good, but I a couple of times I hit the wall of pain recently and have had some minor lingering issues. I decided to start writing down what I was eating with a key code of symptoms after which I would evaluate at the following meal time. With a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being best, I was hovering between 3 and 4 for most things. One thing I had eaten was some tortillas chips and, while I didn't have pain, I had a definite reaction. They were a gluten free brand, so that wasn't it. Hadn't felt well after eating some Mexican food as well. Hmmm.... That leaves corn.
Off to Google last night for several hours of research. Well, what do you know! Corn is a common binding in medications. It is also used in asthma inhalers. Light bulb moment! This explains a lot. As I looked into it more, I find that corn truly is everywhere and in the most unexpected places. I thought going gluten free was overwhelming, but this is like Mount Everest. At the same time I feel like, "I've found it!" Yes, I think gluten is still an issue, too, because I have see a change. This morning my cheeks and nose are a nice shade of normal skin color instead of red, in spite of a tummy reaction to some salad dressing in a local restaurant yesterday which was probably the corn.
So, along with this discovery, I am making an appeal to my family for some help. There are going to be quite a few things in my pantry that I can't use any more (Goodbye, Celestial Seasonings tea. I am going to miss you so much!! ), so I need to be able to pass them on. I will publish a list after I get things sorted. If you can use anything or know of someone who could, please let me know.
The journey continues....
The new containers arrived. The pantry is rearranged and the kitchen re-zoned. My poor hubby is now lost in the kitchen and I find myself opening several drawers or cabinets in my effort to find what I need. That will all settle with time. In keeping with the color theme, my new leftover containers and baking utensils are red, making them easy to keep separate, though I have moved my small whisk and my 1/2 tablespoon measure spoon from my old set over to the GF side, since I use those quite a bit in my GF baking.
Thursday mornings are now my main baking time, and I have printed out a calendar to help me plan what baked goods need to be restock. The kitchen will have been thoroughly cleaned in between, so the likelihood of cross-contamination is minimized. So far I have had one regular baking session and one GF, and I find I like having a dedicated time to bake.
As I had my first regular baking session, I realized after baking a couple of things that I was getting a headache and my hands were aching. Ahh, flour dust--should have figured. My husband said that he should see about getting me a haz-mat suit to wear. :-) Well, we don't need to go that far, but I am prepared for this week's baking.
Some might pose the question of why not just go gluten-free totally. It would make things easier, but my husband has already had to eliminate all dairy from his diet, and I don't want him to have to give up bread, too. Besides, even though I am challenged in a good way with the GF baking, regular flour can't be beat as far as results. And there you have it.
Now that Squared is finished (and hanging above our fireplace), it is time to get going on the next project. I am switching from bold, bright, and contemporary to bright, old-fashioned 1930's reproduction fabrics. A few months ago I gave a fellow quilter some fabrics leftover from one of my small wall quilts to help with some color challenges she was having on a project. In exchange she gave me several fat quarters of some 1930's style fabrics. I have to admit that the depression-era quilts are some of my least favorite in style, but it would give me opportunity to make a quilt very different from what I have done in the past.
In tandem with this Bernie and I have been in this battle with each other about what thread she is willing to use. The only one that has worked well comes in small spools and is rather expensive per spool, so I have to either try to guess which color I will need next and buy it on sale, or buy as I need it and pay a premium. There was one last thread brand I had yet to try, and in their recent catalog they had a sampler of 1093's style fabrics that would work really well with what I already had. I ordered the fabric and one spool of their thread to see how it would do. A quick initial trial indicates that Bernie and I will both be happy with this thread. Hurrah! It is extremely reasonable in price and comes in spools of 1200 yards, enough to do at least a couple of quilts. They have great colors, too. Finally!!
Here is a sneak preview of "Starry-eyed Grandma":
A few weeks ago our son and daughter-in-law were up for a visit, and she mentioned that she had found a great scone recipe. I had a rather sad, "poor GF me" response. A couple of weeks later she issued a challenge to me on her blog to come up with a gluten-free scone. Here is the link to her blog with her challenge and my response:
Chocolate Stitches
Of course I accepted the challenge not only for the problem solving aspect, but also for the yarn incentive. :-) In my GF baking, I have come to realize that GF flour works best when I can make it as light as possible. Scones are by their very nature dense, so the question is whether I can reach a happy medium of good taste and texture without the scone settling like a brick in the old tummy. I printed out the recipe she used and will do some research on GF scone recipes. This will be a good opportunity to try out some experiments I have been mulling over, so as my DDIL says: "Game On!"
Last Thursday my gracious husband stopped by the grocery store on the way home from his travels that week because I had forgotten to get enough bananas at the grocery store. When he walked in he not only had bananas, but he also had these:
"For the 4th", he said with a smile and a wink. What a sweet, wonderful hubby I have!
