Quilter’s Fruit Cobbler

 

Aren’t quilters the best cooks ever? That has certainly been my experience. Almost every memory I have of a special gathering with my quilting pals is sweetened with the image and taste of a heavenly treat. How fortunate I am to call these ladies—and sometimes gentlemen—friends.

I don’t get to spend as much time as I would like with my artist and quilting friend, Lynne Lee. But when we do get together during the summer, she always pulls off some fabulous culinary creation. Most are incredibly straight forward and don’t require any special ingredients.

My favorite is her fruit cobbler recipe, which I have tried with variations of fruits and toppings. All are good in their own way. I do try to use less sugars and fats than Lynne’s original recipe. That means less margarine, and using frozen fruit from my trees instead of canned pie filling. I occasionally add a crunchy oat topping, which is completely optional. Finely chopped nuts work just as well. It’s all a matter of whether you are shooting for a decadent dessert or something that is a little more healthy.

Ingredients

1/4 to 1/2 cup of margarine, depending on how much of a buttery taste you enjoy.

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

1 can pie filling, canned fruit drained, or quart bag of frozen fruit drained. You may not need the entire amount.

Optional crunchy oat topping

3-4 tablespoons of margarine

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup Quaker oats

1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

Soften or melt the margarine and put in the bottom of a 8 X 8 X 2” baking dish. The pan shown here is a little larger and results in a thinner cobbler. Lynne makes hers thicker with the cobbler spilling over the sides of the dish a bit.

Mix sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and milk with a wire whisk. Pour evenly over melted margarine. DO NOT STIR.

Spoon pie filling or fruit on top of the batter. DO NOT STIR.

Bake in the oven at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes. If you are adding the oatmeal topping, bake the cobbler for 20 minutes. Remove the cobbler from the oven momentarily to sprinkle the topping over the cobbler, then return it to the oven for another 25 minutes.

The cobbler is finished when it pulls away from the sides of the pan and the cake has a spongy feel to it.

Garnish with a light dusting of cinnamon if desired. This can be served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy! The corner pieces where all the margarine collects are the best.

My Bohemian “Oops” Bag

 

Some of my readers tickled me when they made nice comments about designing my own pattern for my yoga bag. Obviously. they did not see the first dry run that I scrapped in midstream because I just hadn’t taken the time to think things through before I began. The overall pattern design was just not working. And although I liked the colors, they just didn’t seem right for what I had imagined.

This is basically how far I got. I have replaced the two strips of fabric on the ends with what you see in the photo. Originally, it was a darker mauve pink. The color looked fine, but when I got the fabric sewn on and stood back to take a look, the fabric’s printed design was off-kilter. Up close the fabric did not read as having a stripe or strata, but from a distance, it sure did.

My original thought on this pattern was to somehow put darts, tucks, or gores at the bottom of the bag rather than sewing in a separate inset circle. I am fairly sure it can be done, but the solution escapes me at the moment—especially when figuring the logistics of also attaching the carrying strap and finishing the seams.

I really did like the playful fabrics in the piecing.

The large semi-solid square has tiny little crabs on it. The color blended perfectly, so I threw it in the mix.

But as much as I liked some of the elements of this work, a yoga bag was not going to happen.

Not to worry. I soon came up with another idea.

My friend, Corey, had brought a quilted tote bag to our Sewful Sisters meeting one night to share. It starts out as a small quilt, then is folded and stitched a certain way into a sort of a duffel bag.

Corey is on the right, and our friend, Janice is on the left.

Cloth handles are then sewn onto the bag for carrying. This one will be large enough to carry 2-3 quilts inside. Perfect for toting quilts to and from a show. Mine will be about half as large.

This photo shows Corey with a finished tote at her feet. I wish I would have gotten more pictures because it is truly an amazing creation. If I can’t recall exactly how she did it, I might have to give her a call. Or I might just wing it and come up with something of my own.

I will let you know how it goes.

Pink and Green Are Quite the Thing

 

Yesterday I was quite surprised when no one asked where some pink might fit in among all those green and blue prints I was auditioning for my yoga bag. I guess you are all too polite.

As fate would have it, I inadvertently laid this bright pink dotted fabric next to the green kind words, and I think I heard a “pop”—or at least a bell. That was it. Just what was needed.

Inspired, I shuffled things around in my stash until I found something that was pink and green but was not dotted. Small feat since I have almost as many dots as Little Dot, the vintage comic book character that some of you may remember. Her closet was so full of dots that there was really no room for anything else.

I am excited about getting to use the wavy material. I thought it was a big online shopping mistake when it arrived in the mail one day, but maybe not. It will be fun to quilt along the lines.

I Want a Yoga Bag!!!

 

After over a decade of practicing yoga, I am still without a yoga bag. Terrible. Not even a bag lady. I have been very content with my extra thick cushy mat. It has attached Velcro straps that wrap around the rolled mat and keep it secure when I am not using it. My friends even occasionally cast a jealous eye toward it. Not that yogis will ever admit to envy.

I now want a quilted bag for my mat. I can directly blame my yoga teacher for that. If I hadn’t made a bag for her, I would have been happy to remain bagless for the rest of my life.

These are some of the fabrics that I am considering. Most I got on sale in the $3 to $4 range between Black Friday and Christmas. I am still amazed at some of the fabric sales that go on during that time of year.

To the right is a green version of the pink fabric I put inside Francine’s yoga bag with the “yoga words” on it. I might put the words on the outside of my bag.

I am thinking I like this combo, but I have plenty of time to ponder my choices.

I still have a quilt show deadline looming over my head. Drat! I could be without a bag for months.

Quilted Yoga Mat Bag

 

Now that Christmas Day has come and gone, I can finally post a picture of the gift I made for my favorite yoga teacher. She reads my blog, so it’s a little difficult keeping any secrets from her.

Francine was thrilled with her gift. She especially liked the lining fabric that was printed with what she called “yoga words”: Kindness, love, and caring.

Due to time limits, I had to work quickly on this project and didn’t have time to take photos of the work as it progressed. In my mad dash, I just made up my own pattern--so heaven knows if I will be able to recreate this. I sure hope so. I want one for myself!

Flowers In Your Hair

 

If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there

Songwriters: Kahn, Gus / Kaper, Bronislaw / Jurmann, Walter

I am actually running out of room to embroider on my Peace, Love, & Haight Ashbury quilt! I had started to stitch the second line of the stanza above in the yellow rectangle, but there was not enough space. I think I will end up having to do it by machine so I can make the letters a little smaller.

Seems miraculous that I am nearing completion on embroidering this quilt top. Here is the first image I ever posted of it. I have to laugh because in the process of deciding where the embroidery motifs would best fit, the left side of the quilt became the top. I did not even realize I had done that until just a few weeks ago.

Well, like I said, I did not start out with any intent to make this quilt. I just got my box of batiks scraps out and began piecing.

This is the link to the original post: http://quiltedtimeposts.blogspot.com/2013/02/peace-love-and-haight-ashbury.html

Winter Break in California

 

Today was the last day of school before winter break. The trees and flowers don’t seem to notice that it is December. Most of my fruit trees still have leaves. The apricot tree that is tucked safely between my house and the neighbor’s is still green. The guava’s big leaves are toasty brown.

The roses are not about to go to sleep.

 

 

 

I wish that I could show you what I have been working on as far as quilting goes, but Santa has sworn me to secrecy.

That Time of Year Again?

 

It can’t possibly be one year since I first posted the recipe for this addictive treat made with Fritos, peanut butter, and chocolate.

I can’t believe how fast that year went.

Today I received an email, which was a reminder to all of the Sewful Sisters: Our annual Christmas meeting takes place this week. And don’t you know, our fearless leader, Lois, had added a note at the bottom: “Maybe Kay can pull herself away from work and join the party.”

Yup, it has been several months since I have attended a get together with the Sewful Sisters. In the words of the late Gilda Radner, “It’s always something.”  Work, appointments, and colds that I did not want to share with friends. Then there are the quilt show committee meetings.

I have also been trying to squeeze in as many hours as possible on my own quilts for the Cotton Patch Quilters featured artist display. I can blame the Sewful Sisters for that. They were the ones who nominated me.

Of course, I can’t go empty-handed to the party. Not after the enthusiasm this recipe generated last year. This time, I added festive M & Ms to the top..

It’s chilling in the refrigerator as I write. That makes it easier to break apart. Sort of like soft peanut brittle.

The complete recipe can be found here:

http://quiltedtimeposts.blogspot.com/2012/12/fritos-peanut-butter-chocolate-recipe.html

Spinach Before Ice Cream

 

Lots of work to get done today. Next week will be one party after another.

Zee doesn’t mind at all that I sit on HER bed while I am doing some handwork.

With Zee’s comic face and some Alison Krause bluegrass playing in the background, I think I will get through all this work in good order.

Of course, somebody I know isn’t about to do a lick of work. Unless she decides to take a spit bath.

Rotten Tomatoes for Vampirestat

 

Has anyone else had their Blogger statistics skewed in a major sort of way? Gosh, I was thinking I was really popular since my blog was logging close to 200 pageviews on some days. Well, maybe not so much.

There are many bloggers who could probably care less. But you know me—the math and measurement geek. Any questions about why I revel in the exactness of piecing quilts? My boss at work loves the fact that I will crunch data for hours on end and even smile while I am doing it.

Apparently, there are spammers sites which show fake traffic to other people’s sites only to attract traffic to their sites. The best way to stop the nuisance from these sites is not to click on these sites, but it is not a cure. There is no way to effectively block the traffic on Blogger.

Not even rotten tomatoes.

Spam referrals like Vampirestat, Villainstat, Uglystat and Zombiestat sometimes lead web surfers to web pages containing malicious pieces of software that can affect your PC. Difficult not to click, though, huh?

The good news is that most commercial statistic counters that can purchased for Blogger don't include traffic from these sites. Their technology seems to be savvy about ignoring those fake pageviews. But Blogger does include all those spam-bot hits on our blogs. I—and probably thousands of other bloggers—have complained to no avail.

Admittedly, it is difficult to block such websites--even for Google. There are thousands of them out there.

I guess I will just have to stick to rotten tomatoes.

Addendum: Interestingly enough, the spammer sites left my blog alone when this article was first posted. I thought they had decided to leave a poor boring blogger alone. Several days later I posted “Spinach Before Ice Cream”. Within minutes, Vampirestat and 7secretsearch hit my blog almost 100 times. I guess they really liked my cat’s pictures. She really is quite a looker. Haha!

A Season of Secrets

 

Since Christmas is coming, I am setting a little time aside today to begin pulling fabrics from my stash for the makings of gifts. I have been anxiously awaiting this glorious box of fabric to arrive in the mail so I could get going. It was my only Black Friday indulgence and comes from Sauders Fabrics in Denver, Pennsylvania. I couldn’t resist their huge selection of fabrics that were on sale for $2.97 per yard. Of course, I threw in a few others.

I can’t tell you which fabrics I am using for gifts because the recipients occasionally visit my blog. I don’t want to spoil their surprise!

Last night the weatherman said that there is a chance of snow for California’s Central Valley. Well, today it is raining, but I am happy about that. My gardener put winter rye grass on my lawn and told me to water it every day. Oops! I forgot yesterday. Let it rain!

I will stay inside and sew.

Almost Around That Funky Corner

 

As of late, I have been hearing a few suggestions that I post a full view of this quilt—like I might be keeping something a secret. Well, I can assure you that there are no surprises here.

It’s just that the quilt is a very busy one, and the embroidery doesn’t show up too well unless I snap close-ups. There is a quilter and self-proclaimed critic in Orange County who is going to have a field day talking smack about this one for all its chaos. And, no, it is not anyone who reads my blog. At least I don’t think she does.

Here’s the most recent embroidery I have been doing. I am almost around the corner of Haight & Ashbury Streets. Can you see the letters on the top right corner of the quilt? Probably not. That’s why I am showing you a close-up.

Where the Turkeys Run Free

My Thanksgiving retreat was located on 355 acres of open meadows and redwood forests in the Santa Cruz mountains. It is not only a sanctuary for peaceful but stressed out yogis, but is a haven for wildlife as well.



There were no turkeys on our vegetarian tables, but there were so many wild turkeys on the property that I had to wait for them to pass before I could drive out the gate.

The birds obviously knew that they were perfectly safe.



The deer must have gotten the same memo. They weren’t particularly worried about the people, either.



I thought there were just these two grazing in a field that is located directly below a terrace where guests were enjoying the fresh autumn air.



Then there were three.



A few minutes later, five.



Looked like Deer Heaven to me!

Breakaway!

 

Out of the darkness and into the sun
I won't forget all the ones that I loved
I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway

Written by GERRARD, MATTHEW R.T./BENENATE, BRIDGET/LAVIGNE, AVRIL RAMONA.

 

What a workaholic I am! I had to force myself to take a break for the holiday. Ultimately, I decided upon a trek to the mountains above Monterey Bay to spend time with some fellow yogis. That turned out to be a very wise decision. I feel so blessed to be able to partake of the wonderful fellowship and peaceful surroundings—not to mention the terrific vegetarian Thanksgiving feast.

A Slow Drive Down Ashbury Street

 

I believe I could have made many trips up and down Ashbury Street in the time that it has taken me to embroider just these three letters. I have actually started on the “b” as well, but it is not particularly visible in this photo. Calligraphy is not one of my passions, but this little task is tolerable since the lettering needs to be on the funky side. No need to worry about exact measures here.

Thank goodness for Thanksgiving. I have five glorious days away from work and will be able to indulge myself with some fine hours of embroidery…when I am not indulging in other Thanksgiving treats.

Flower Power

 

This is just the first of several freeform flowers I am using as a filler on my Peace, Love, & Haight Ashbury quilt. These are a little easier to make than the lotus blooms—and a whole lot easier than lettering.

Country Windows

 

Yesterday I finished laundering the last of the quilts I will be including in my Featured Artist display at the Cotton Patch Quilters of Kern County Biennial Quilt Show on February 8 & 9, 2014. I thought I had better take advantage of one of the last sunny weekends we will have as we head into winter.

This quilt, “Country Windows”, has always been a challenge to wash because of the intense rusts and adjoining creams.

Every time I have laundered this one, the rusts have immediately began to bleed into the water—even yesterday, although the quilt is seven years old.

Thank goodness for Synthrapol! I put a few tablespoons into a bathtub full of tepid water, then let everything soak for about 20 minutes. Then I rinsed with cool water, and finally, blocked the quilt on a flannel sheet spread on my back lawn.

Sorry I was unable to get a full shot of the quilt. I decided not to put it up on the hanger above the couch where it usually resides.

I want to keep it clean for the show.