Friday Favourite - The Family

Seems rather silly, after the week the world is having, to post something about a favourite tool or gadget or pretty thing. I know we all need those things and they are a welcome distraction.

I also know that many of us create in times of stress and distress. We take comfort in our pretty things in progress and made. They give us hugs right back when we embrace their beauty, their imperfections. They are the shoulder when no other shoulder is available for the cry. They are the moments in time where peace - even when there was a struggle to make it - is readily available.

After last week and this one, both ups and downs I am sharing my ultimate  favourite thing today. My family. These 4 people make me smile more than anyone else can, while also infuriating me more than anyone else can. And I wouldn't trade them for the world. So, I'm holding them close.

We are likely to be found under a quilt. Send popcorn and scotch.

Announcing My Craftsy Class - Inset and Applique Circles by Machine

Do you remember my necklace inspired quilt? It is now finished and I can share it with you. I can also share with you the rather exciting reason I was making the quilt. 

I am thrilled to announce that I am now a Craftsy instructor! Have you heard about Craftsy? The fastest growing craft community on-line is full of courses from top instructors on everything from cake decorating to knitting, from costumes to quilting. My class - Inset and Applique Circles by Machine - is now available. Sign up now with a 25% discount!

The Craftsy platform is quite cool. Once you purchase the class it is available to you at any time forever. The HD video quality is great. They've filmed so many close-ups so you don't miss a thing. And you can take the classes from the comfort of your home - no lugging a machine across town or missing out because you can't find a local store or babysitter.

One of the best parts about a Craftsy class is the interactive forum. You can ask instructors questions, participate in class discussions with other students, and share your projects. I will be there the whole time, encouraging and helping you along the way. Stuck on a particular technique? You can ask for help and share the problem and we'll make sure you get it sorted.

And that necklace inspired quilt? It is a free pattern that comes with the class! Incorporating all the techniques learned in the class you can make this bold sampler. I've made it here with prints in colours pulled from the necklace itself and a mix of text prints for the background.

I do hope you'll join me over at Craftsy!

Austin Circle Sampler

76' by 96''

Quilted by Andrea Harris from Urban Quiltworks

I've got more that I want to share about my Craftsy experience. Look for that in the coming weeks. It has been an incredible experience so far. Now that the class  - Inset and Applique Circles by Machine - is available I'm looking forward to seeing circles pop up everywhere!

How Do You Finish Your Quilt Bindings?

Okay, I've got a question about binding. In between finishing up my daughter's quilt and some surfing I've been thinking about binding a lot the past few days. Plus, it was a nice distraction from the real world.

Machine Binding
- Can finish on the front or the back.
- Very fast.
- Clean look, but with a very visible seam.
- Great for quilts that live primarily for trunk shows.

Hand binding
- I actually enjoy hand finishing.
- It feels like a very personal touch on a quilt.
- More or less no seam line on a finished edge.
- It does take some time.


Personally, I've tried a few methods for finishing binding. My preference is for hand-finishing, but I've got nothing against a completely machine bound quilt. I do machine binding on quilts that are not gifts - class samples, trunk show quilts, even some book quilts. Hey, when faced with a looming deadline a girl does what a girl has to do!

Let me be clear. I do not feel guilty about machine binding, nor do I judge anyone's method for binding.

One thing I have noticed, however, is that for those who hand finish, stitches seem really far apart. I see these perfectly flat binding edges that are stitched down. It's one thing to not see any stitches because the quilter is just that good. And there are many, many techniques for hand stitching a binding. But people, you need to put a stitch closer than every half inch! When we quilt we call those big stitches in the quilting itself "toe catchers". On a binding I would call that a disaster. That is the place a quilt wears the most and having large, maybe loose stitches is asking for a finger to pull it out at the first chance it gets caught.

I'm perfectly willing to admit that I'm rather anal about my own hand finishing  - having my stitches come in between 1/4'' and 1/8'' apart. So yes, this takes me some time. But I've also never had a binding come loose. This is my most common method for finishing, but I've used the ladder stitch and been pleased with the results. And I recently tried switching up my needle in placement - through the binding instead of the quilt back and liked the look and stability of that.

What about you? How do you finish your bindings?

Friday Favourite: Dido's Salsa

My Dad was world famous for his salsa. Well, locally famous. As in, all of our family and friends would beg for jars of his usually just the right amount of spicy and a bit smoky salsa. In a family such as ours it is no surprise that the recipe for pyrohy dough is a treasured possession. We'd be bad Ukrainians without it. But the salsa is what we all were afraid would get lost when he died.

As the end was becoming abundantly clear in my father's lung cancer we all gathered at my parent's house. I sat and spoke to my Dad about his salsa. We started with the first recipe, the first batch he ever made. He told me where he got his tomatoes and peppers. I photographed each ingredient as it was chopped so we would always know just how fine or chunky it should be. I photographed my Dad as he  stirred, sipped, and stammered through making salsa.

A week later he was admitted to the hospital and 6 weeks later he died.

Two weeks ago my Mom and I gathered to make a batch of salsa, only the second time we've done it since his death. Somehow it's fallen to me to be the guardian of the recipe. I don't mind at all. We do a good job with it, but of course it isn't the same. It lacks the smokiness - maybe that infiltrated from him and his nasty smoking habit. And I chopped things a bit finer this time because I wasn't paying as much attention. I could hear his criticism in my head as I stirred the peppers into the tomatoes. But we came out with jars and jars of salsa that we still call Dido's Salsa. I still top my scrambled eggs with it, my daughter fills her tortilla with it, it sits beside a plate of nachos when friends come over and they ask where we got it. It will always be Dido's Salsa, even when I chop the onions too fine.

Today is the 2nd anniversary of his death. The 4 am phone call from my brother. The sobs of my Mom as I woke her, the stupid red car stuck in a giant puddle on the way to the hospital, making tea while I called the funeral home, telling the girls in the midst of a date, the washing machine repairman who came and had no clue what had happened. It's all so vivid. Perhaps even more so this year as last year I was focused on the new baby.

My Dad was a man with many faults and our relationship was far, far, from perfect or even good. But he had a story and a heart in there somewhere. And damn, he made fine salsa.