A recipe

When I already have frozen bananas for Banana Nut bread, not interested in making banana walnut pancakes, or the banana is just too soft/old for eating out of hand, I bake it like my Puerto Rican Abuela taught me.

1.  I line a tray with foil and place my banana on it.

2. I bake it in my toaster oven set at bake, 350 degrees and place on "stay on" setting. 

3. Bake for about 5-8 minutes until it is brown all over.

 4.  Place on a plate and slit the top side of the banana.

5.  Spoon out the warm, custard like banana and enjoy.  Tastes like Banana Creme Brulee.  And for decadence, put dark chocolate syrup on it.  Yum.

Quiltathon still on - go to sidebar for day 3.

2017's First WIPs Be Gone

See this bag:

 It was stuffed with fabric scraps from St. Anne's.  I brought it home and challenged myself to make quilt tops from it for our workshop.  I made three:

 The green monochromatic that I sewed on my treadle machine.

 The word quilt using letter squares from the June Parish Festival (colored by children).

And the really way out one with blocks that had been donated to us (the ones with the buildings).  It includes a Chinese garden, high rise apartments, urban forest, a Chinese restaurant inspired by the gardens, suburbs and aviation sightings in the sky. I started this last one Dec 27th, but just finished it  earlier in the week.  Below is what is left in the bag - not enough to make another top. But then maybe I can make a center and then add borders from some other bag - hmmm.

Three WIPs ready to be sandwiched, tied and donated.  What have you been up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by to see.  

January's Quiltathon

Day 4 of Quiltathon

Yesterday was spent getting ready for today.  It was busier than I thought, but I did make a small start on my next applique block.  Here it is as the final photo from my first Quiltathon weekend.  

Day 3 of Quiltathon
Started 8th block of Anna's Garden - 6 done years ago.  There are quite a few steps to getting to prepped stage.  The first is making a copy of the pattern.

Then I cut out all the pieces very carefully from the copy leaving a placement page (Zena Thorpe technique).

Then I prepare the freezer paper for making my templates (Pearl Pereira technique)
Take out your TEFLON ironing sheet.  Place paper shiny side down on the TEFLON sheet and iron with a hot iron for about 15 seconds - the paper will shrink a bit.

 Do this to a second piece.  Now place the second paper on top of the first with shiny side of second to the dull side of first.  Iron to fuse together. This should not take more than 15 seconds as you don't want to use up all the stickiness of the piece on bottom, but you want the two pieces to bond.

Let cool and peel off TEFLON sheet. Ready to use for templates.

I then start to pick fabric for the various pieces.  I let the original quilt be a guide to what I choose. After all, it was the photo of the original quilt that enchanted me to want to make mine.

Hopefully, more later - have to go dust and vacuum for tomorrow.
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Day 2 of Quiltathon

6:53 PM
Finished prepping a block of Anna's Garden (my #3 project in January's UFO challenge).  Tomorrow I'll start on another.

Dinner was easy as I took Judy's advice and cooked ahead.  Made meat loaf and pork stew (aka Goulash) in the days before the quiltathon.  Tonight I'll work on hexagons again.  See you in the AM of Day 3. 

9:27 AM  DH threw a diversion last night so no buds were prepped for the applique block.  He wanted to watch Dark Matter on Netflix, so of course I had to watch with him.  So I hand stitched a hexagon instead.  Doesn't sound like much does it?  It had six pieces and 8 seams so it took a while.

I also finished a green and print one - just not sewn on yet.  Can't do too much sewing right now, have to go to the grocery store for the Sunday event.  When I get back hope it will be warmer in the sewing room. Then I can get to that applique. 

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I signed up for Judy's UFO Challenge for this year.  Today is our first monthly Quiltathon where we sew like mad for a few days to give us a boost in whichever UFO we have to work on.  This is my post for the next few days of my progress - latest report on top.  You can read about this event here.

Day 1
5:09 PM

 Ah, after two batches of cookies and the delivery of a gift to a neighbor, I'm back in the sewing room - clean cutting table!  Got the flowers on my block (it's not so pink - see first photo at 1:13 PM.  After dinner I hope to do the buds, and it will be all prepped. Since I have 18 to go I think I'll prep as many as I can this month and save them for hand appliqueing while watching TV.

1:13 PM

I walked into the sewing room after lunch and realized what my next task was and that was to clear the cutting table after all my En Provence dithering and sewing.  The applique on the right is what I'll be working on next once I've straightened.

11:19 AM

Missing units made.  As soon as I'm off the computer, I'll pack it up.  I'll make the border units another day.  Now going to have lunch and work on the kitchen.  Need to make my grocery list for the luncheon Sunday.

8:18 AM

This is my En Provence units I laid out this morning.  I need to finish some units so I can take it off  my design floor.  I'm hosting this year's Three Kings Day family celebration, so the parts need to go in a box andout of the way.  I chose to make only a fourth of the blocks at each step.  Here they are laid out.  I'll make the missing units and stack them in a container for another day.  Mine is going to be a table topper about 33" square.