Design Wall Monday

Well, I finally have the top finished for the Buck a Block quilt started years ago.  This is the closest I’ve ever come to chucking the whole thing and pretending the project never existed.  I still love the fabrics used, but the rest, ick.

We’ve all heard the stories, sometimes attributed to the Amish, sometimes to Middle Eastern cultures, of humility blocks/rugs, whatever. The premise being that one must include a mistake in one’s work so as not to risk offending  God, since only God is able to make something perfect. The Amish have laughingly denied this is their thing, rightly pointing out the arrogance of thinking one’s work is so perfect that it is necessary to be purposely imperfect.

I must say I agree. This quilt doesn’t have a humility block, it is a humility QUILT. Not only did I not purposely include an error, I can’t even figure out exactly what went wrong in so many different places to cause the problems. Well, except for one error. As many times as I studied this quilt in person and in photos as I worked, I never spotted this  big one. Nope, that problem didn’t reveal itself until just now as I was looking at the photo to include in this post! No way am I ripping back that far now.

So, here it is, my Humble Rose quilt. 

Silver lining?  I just received the 2 disc DVD by Myrna Ficken “Beginning Longarm Quilting”. I’ve been using my robotic quilter for years, but have recently added features so that I can also do free motion. I was hoping for some instruction in doing free motion designs, but this is much more getting things right from the start=squaring, spotting problems, how to deal with problems. Who’d have thought I’d be able to use all these techniques in one quilt, and so soon!?  Best way to learn is to DO what you are shown. Hmmm, maybe that should be my story….made all these mistakes on purpose,  in order to try all the fixes Myrna teaches. Yeah…….I like that. 

Meanwhile, go over to Patchwork Times to see lots of great quilts that others are working on.

After dinner follow up

Both turkeys turned out well, very flavorful. The pink one was especially moist, pronounced ‘perfect’ by one of my sons. Here are the finished, deeply colored smoked birds.

And of course, there is the inevitable post-turkey slump – *sigh* I remember when he napped with a stuffed animal…….

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday, filled with the many blessings for which we give thanks.

I was up at o-dark-thirty this morning to start dinner. This year we are trying something new. A month or so back, we bought a small electric smoker, so far we have enjoyed everything that we have made in it. Today, we will be smoking the turkeys-yes, two. I usually get a 22-25 lb turkey, but the smoker is too small for a bird that size, so we have two smaller ones instead. That will take less time to cook and allows a little more experimentation.

I am also brining the turkeys, first time doing that as well. One was brined in a buttermilk brine and then an herbed/roasted garlic butter was put under the skin. That is the larger of the two, so it had to go in earlier so they can both be ready about the same time. It was still so dark out that  had to get out the flashlight in order to use the controls and load up the smoker.

The second turkey received a cranberry juice brine. It’s PINK!!!  Too funny, hope the other birds don’t tease it!

Here it is, loaded and looking pretty. That is quite a contrast-wonder how different it will look when they are finished cooking?

Counting my blessings……