Archive for February, 2010

Remember this stack of fabric?  They are for a quilt for my son’s bed.

Although I sew quite a bit, I am not a quilter.  I am lucky enough to have a mom who is a very talented quilter.  She has taught quilt classes for years.  And it’s always so tempting to let her “help” me… with her accurate seams and points.  And her flare for color and fabrics.  Her talent for color is quite wonderful.

But this time, I want it to be my own project.

Choosing fabrics for a quilt is more than just putting together a stack of fabrics that you love.  And knowing this, I called my mom and asked her for her best advice in choosing the fabrics for Ben’s quilt.

She stressed that she really doesn’t believe in hard and fast rules.  She thinks rules are often meant to be broken.  But that said, these are the precepts that guide her creative process:

1.  Start with a fabric that you love.  This can be a starting point to build the rest of your fabric collection around.

2.  Choose fabric that have contrast in:

• Color value- the degree of light and dark
• Scale of the print – large and small
• Intensity
• Color

3.  Every quilt should have “blender” fabrics.  These are the fabrics that might not be as exciting, but they work to harmonize the rest of the fabrics.  A blender may be a fabric that has all the colors in the quilt.  It may be a “chameleon” fabric that looks good with all the other fabrics.

4.  Every quilt needs a few “zinger” fabrics.  These are those intense, maybe unpredictable fabrics that really stand out.  A zinger to me maybe isn’t to you.  Let your own style guide what you choose.

5.  She tries never to make a quilt using fabrics from the same collection.  The fabrics may be harmonious, but the quilt will often feel predictable.  She loves to bring in fabrics that are unexpected.

6.  Once you have your fabrics.  Stack them together.  Stand back and look at the fabrics as a whole.  What do you need?  More light?  More dark?  More contrast?  Now is the time to add what you need to the quilt.

7.  My mom usually waits to buy her sashing.  She makes some of her blocks, and then chooses a sashing, by laying the blocks on her top choices.  A sashing can change the whole look of your quilt dramatically.

8.  She follows the same process when choosing her border.  Once the whole quilt is put together, she chooses the border.  Again the border can have a dramatic impact on the look of the quilt.

I know my mom would say, let your own style be your guide.  Do what you love.  In the end the quilt be yours, not your teacher’s or your friend’s or the quilter’s from the quilt shop, or even your mother’s, it is yours and you are the one who must love it.  Choose fabrics that make you happy.

My mom shared this quote with me, that I want to pass along:

How much piecin’ a quilt is like livin’ a life! You can give the same kind of pieces to two persons, and one will make a “nine-patch” and one’ll make a “wild goose chase, ” and there will be two quilts made out of the same kind of pieces, and jest as different as they can be. And that is jest the way with livin’. The Lord sends us the pieces, but we cut them out and put ‘em together pretty much to suit ourselves, and there’s a heap more in the cuttin’ out and the sewin’ than there is in the caliker.  -Eliza Calvert Hall in “Aunt Jane of Kentucky”

I haven’t been feeling well, and I really wanted some comfort food for dinner last night.

Homemade bread sticks and easy tomato soup were just what the doctor ordered.

These bread sticks are so quick and easy, you only need a fork to mix them.  And Lily, who is 7, loved to help me roll them out last night.  This is the perfect recipe to get the kids involved in the kitchen.  My kids have “helped” roll out bread sticks since they were toddlers and now at seven and nine, they are downright good at it.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. dry active yeast
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• lemon pepper (or seasoning of choice)

Mix together warm water, sugar, salt and yeast.  Allow yeast to activate (about 10 minutes).  Add flour and stir in with a fork until dough holds together.  Turn out onto floured board.  Knead lightly into a ball.  Divide into 32 equal portions. On floured board, roll out into bread sticks.  Dip into melted butter and then into Parmesan cheese.  Place onto greased cookie sheet (16 per bakers half sheet.)  Sprinkle with lemon pepper.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  This gives the bread sticks about 10 minutes to begin to rise.  Cook at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

May be made in the morning and kept in the refrigerator unbaked.  Remove from the refrigerator about 30 – 45 minutes (depending on how warm your house is) before baking.

They can also be heated on a cookie sheet then next day at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes.

Mix together warm water, sugar, and salt.  Add the yeast.

Give the yeast a gentle stir and set aside to activate (about ten minutes).

Yeast is active when it’s nice and bubbly.

I always start my yeast in my measuring cup.  Once active, I transfer to the mixing bowl.  Add the flour.

This is a low tech recipe.  All you need is a fork.

Stir together until the dough pulls together into ball.  It’s not going to be pretty.  Don’t panic, it’s perfect.

Turn onto a floured board.  Knead it lightly into a ball.  It still will be a little imperfect. You’re right on track.

Cut into half, then quarters.  Cut each quarter into eight pieces by halving, and then again and again.

That way your pieces are roughly equal.  An you will have 32 little pieces of dough.

Roll each piece out into a bread stick roughly 8-9 inches.

Dip each bread stick into melted butter.  If you want garlic bread sticks, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt to the butter and mix it well.  We love the bread sticks with lemon pepper which will be sprinkled on later.

Dip into grated Parmesan cheese.  If you want to save on cheese, you can also sprinkle it on.

Line them up on a greased cookie sheet (2 pans/ 16 bread sticks per pan).  And sprinkle with lemon pepper.  (Or seasoning of your choice.  Salad Supreme is popular, or you can use herbs… for garlic, it’s best to add garlic salt to the melted butter.)  We love lemon pepper because of it’s peppery spiciness.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Set the bread sticks and allow to rise for about 10 minutes, while the oven preheats.  Don’t let them over rise.  If you want to make your bread sticks ahead, make them in the morning and refrigerate until ready.  Remove from the refrigerator 30 – 45 minutes ahead of time to take the chill off and begin to rise slightly.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, until golden brown.

They are rustic and delicious.  Don’t aim for perfection.  It is their imperfection that lets you know they are homemade and wonderful.  I love the ones my kids make… they are sometimes long and skinny or fat in the middle.  It’s all good.

Served with a bowl of soup, chili or even pasta… these bread sticks are easy peasy and addictingly good.