One Piece at a Time

Off to the Denver Quilt Show

Check out the information here.

Quilt Lady Cooking: Arroz con Pollo

Welcome to a new part of my blog I’m calling Quiltlady Cooking. It’s mostly for those of us who like to cook but don’t LOVE it. My idea of the perfect type of cooking is the kind where you can through a bunch of ingredients together go away and quilt and come back to a yummy meal. Needless to say I have quite a few of these recipes. You might too and it would be fun to share them.

My first recipe is a modification of a recipe my friend Maurice made for me back in 2003 when I needed surgery. I will never forget the day I opened my front door to find him standing on my porch covered in spices and tomatoes holding this dish. It is my definition of comfort food.

WARNING: for the squeamish among you…there will be pictures of raw chicken…I’m just saying that because raw chicken had a bad effect on me when I was pregnant. Very bad if you must know.

There will be a printable version of the recipe to download so I’m just going to channel Pioneer Woman and show you how to cook it.

First measure your rice into a heat proof bowl and cover with HOT water and let soak.

Next take your chicken breast and cut them in half, they’ll cook faster that way.

Next measure out all the spices and just dump them on the chicken. Make sure to rub the spices all over the chicken.

Next, heat the oil in a large dutch oven and place the chicken pieces in. Brown them lightly on both sides, this usually takes me about 2 minutes per side.

The next step is to puree the purple onion with some garlic, a food processor works well for this but a blender will get the job done.

Then I add my can of diced tomatoes and puree some more.

When the chicken is browned remove it from the pan and set aside.

Drain the rice and add it to the pan you just took the chicken out of. Stir the rice around until it becomes golden.

Now add the pureed tomatoes and onion and stir. Cook until liquid is absorbed, about 2 to 3  minutes.

While this is cooking I chop my cherry tomatoes.

I add these to the rice.

Then I throw in my frozen peas and stir.

Now place the chicken on top of the rice.

Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Once it’s boiling put the lid on and stick it in the oven for 45 mintues and GO QUILT.

Well you might want to clean this up first.

 

For a down loadable pdf of the click  here.

What Kind of Dog is THAT ?

About a year ago my family convinced me that we really needed to get a dog. A puppy to be specific. This puppy to be even more specific.

We got him from Western Border Collie Rescue because he’s, well, a border collie mix. At the time we didn’t know exactly what kind of mix he was. As the winter set in we got an idea. We’re pretty sure it’s some kind of terrier. People are always asking me what kind of dog he is. I glibly say “Wire Hair Border Collie” as if that’s an actual breed. They usually believe me which is kinda funny.

Anyway, the winter coat finally got to me last week when he looked like this.

So I called my local groomer thinking anything would help. Well look at the magic they performed.

Not only that but he is actually SOFT. I can’t stop petting him.

Block 4 Alternate Colorway

Here is Block 4 in the alternate colorway. Kinda reminds me of a chocolate dessert.

Block 4: The Specifics

Hi Everyone. I’m sorry I didn’t get these specific directions up on Friday but I ran out of time.

First of all, for petal 1 (P1) I used the method I described in this post. Here’s a picture.

For the other petal you will need to only turn under small amounts at a time in order to get a nice smooth curve.

These flowers are complicated so I recommend pre-assembling them before you put the whole block together. I wrote about it in this post.

Hope that helps.

Florabunda Block 4

As promised here is Florabunda Block 4.The pattern has two formats. The first is a full size pattern (12” square you can download here) that you can save to a USB drive and take to a copy place to have printed. The other is a ¼ size drawing (download here) that should print on a regular printer. You can make 4 copies of this one and tape it together for a full size pattern.

For all you who like to share pictures you can join our FLICKR group at

http://www.flickr.com/groups/florabuddies

Have Fun and

Happy Friday

Florabunda Block 4: Preview

Hello all

I'm still busy finishing up Florabunda Block 4. Look for patterns tomorrow provided I don't have ANOTHER nasty computer crash.

Here's a peak

Washing Fabric

I’m in the process of getting Florabunda Block 4 ready so this week’s posts are a little short. Can you believe that we are already on block 4? YIKES. Hopefully I will have a preview on Thursday.

I sometimes get asked whether or not I pre-wash my fabric. My answer is always YES YES YES.

When you do the type of appliqué I do it is important to pre-wash. The sizing that is on new fabric makes it very hard for starch to soak in and very hard to makes my appliqué shapes. In the past I used to serge the edges of all my fabrics before washing to keep them from getting all tangled. But then I found this

And now I just trim the cut edge with this and wash away. This saves a BUNCH of time.

A Sneak Peak

Look what came in the mail this week.

Here’s my favorite page.

What a thrill…sorry if you think I’m bragging.

These are for sale at The American Quilter’s Society.

Putting all Together…in Fabric

So now that I have an idea what I’m going to do with the border it’s time to start making flowers and leaves. Here is a look at the fabrics I’ve picked for my leaves and flowers.

The first thing I want to do is to attach the stems of my border. To do this I pin my pattern down to my ironing board. I then place the quilt on top of the pattern so that the pattern design is behind where I want my appliqué. The next step is to glue down the stems using Roxanne’s Glue Baste. Here’s a somewhat blurry picture of this step in progress.

Here is the quilt with all the stems. I want to note that when I started putting my leaves on I had to move these stems out a little because things were getting awful crowded on the inner edge of this border.

The next thing to do is attach my flowers.

And finally here it is with the leaves.

Note: Once this is done and quilted it will be a pattern in my shop, complete with directions for the feathered star.