June's Indian Eggplant

I made up recipe:
1 med yellow onion - diced - simmer in chicken broth
1 can fire roasted tomatoes - put in bowl
1 eggplant - slice and put in rotating microwave for around 4 minutes
transfer cooked onion to bowl
Put eggplant in pan with more water. Add curry, tumeric, vegetable seasoning, dried red pepper, and diced chili. Turn to be sure it's all cooked. Add around 1/2 cup frozen peas and keep cooking - add more water and Garam Masala and cumin.
Remove eggplant - chop and mash.
Use fork to mash peas in the pan.
Return eggplant, onions, tomatoes so all in one pan. Add water.

Served with Tasty Bite Madras Lentils.

I put in individual bowls - a little lentil then about 2/3 cup of the eggplant on top.  Very pretty.

Made 5 or 6 servings.

Usually one would char the skins but our oven isn't fixed yet so this is an all microwave and cooktop recipe!

FBP Week 21: Gay Two-Patch

I finished this week's Friday Block Party block!

I can't figure out why my little pieces were too big to fit on the 4-patch - in the end it measured 10.5 inches square so I'm happy!

Liberated Round Robin: Initial or Center Block

The Liberated Round Robin has started!  People are starting to post photos of their initial block.  It's so much fun to see the new posts.

I was going to have people sign up to describe a row - but after discussing with M - decided to have it just be the two of us post the rows.  Hopefully there will be more Lib RR and once people see how the directions are posted, they will step forward to do.

Some of the ladies are using blocks they received in the World Wide Swap.  I have been thinking about that too.  But instead of just using a block as is, I'm going to remake it so it's easier for me to add on fabrics that I have in my stash (or she sent me).

So my newest plan is to make a circle or oval block for my Lib RR.  I will first need to sew some of the unfinished blocks together, then will make the block so there is grey on the outside of the circle or oval.  Well, I don't know what the shape is called when it is a square or rectangle with two half circles on the ends - like a race track shape.  An oval would be prettier but I'm not sure I can do that shape up...

It's been years since I made my first circles in fabric.  I was making a sun for a sampler and planets for A's quilt.  I did them one quarter of the circle at a time, then joined to them together.  I found a website with directions on on how to do this.  I don't remember started at the center and sewing out, but it worked when I did my sample test piece!

I decided to not use this tutorial, but it's another way to do a circle.

Sophie has a page with links to several ways to make cirlces - think I'll look at these links too:
http://blocklotto.blogspot.com/2009/12/decembers-block-is-polka-dot.html

FBP - 2011 Week 19 - Mother's Own

This block was quick to cut and sew.

My little strip organizer is really helping me with the Friday's Block Party project.

Expenses

Today I mailed my Block Lotto Modern Clovers to England.  Included some extra pink fabric.

$3.45

FBP - 2011 Week 15 - Fish

I finished another catch up block for Friday's Block Party.

It's sort of hard to do the math for a block that is supposed to be 10.5 square when done....

I made the nine patch out of 3.5 inch square sections.  I actually paper pieced the two square with quarter triangles.

I added a 2.5 inch strip to the end and 1.75 strips to the top and bottom.  I will trim so it's 10.5 square when I put the quilt together.

When I quilt this block I will add eye and gills - will be fun!

I just have a few more blocks to do to get caught up with the blocks for Friday's Block Party - soon will be able to plan sashings and borders!

FBP to do:
17 - Easter Lily
14 - Pieced Tulips
13 - Bee Block
12 - Scrappy Butterfly

SKIPPING BLOCKS:
11 - Flying Squares - skipping (# of colors)
05 - Fading Star - skipping (size and # of colors)

FBP Done:
18 - Tangram Rabbit
17
16 - Alaska Homestead
15 - Fish
14
13
12
SKIP
10 - Leaping Frog
09 - Scottie
08 - Camel
07- Heart
06- Chicken
SKIP
04 - Standing Cat
03 - Fool's Square
02 - Elephant
01 - Marion's Choice

BL-2011 May 2011 - Pineapple Blossom

 Here are my two blocks for May.

The guidelines are here:
http://blocklotto.blogspot.com/2011/05/mays-block-is-pineapple-blossom.html
The example blocks are here:
http://blocklotto.blogspot.com/search/label/May%202011%20photos

The directions said we needed to use white for the center part and the triangles - then we had to use 2 strips of yellow/gold and 2 strips of grey.  The remaining 4 strips could be any color.

But I think even looking at all the other blocks, when half the colors are random it didn't make any difference that we had grey and yellow in the other parts.  This will look like a scrappy quilt (except for the white in the center). 

Bet it will look great as part of a quilt - but when half the colors are random the look of the blocks will look like random colors are used.

FBP - Week 9 - Scottie

One more Friday Block Party block done!

This one was for week 9 - the Scottie Dog.

There were several variations done of this block...  Click here to see posts from that site.  The most recent will appear first so probably will be my post....  Scroll down to see more!

I just realized that I was waiting for an email from Sophie with the directions for the May Block Lotto challenge, but because I didn't get my April blocks in time I have to go to her site to get the directions.  Duh!  No wonder she wasn't emailing me!

FBP - Week 16 - Alaska Homestead

Starting to get a little caught up with my Friday Block Party blocks - this one is Alaska Homestead from two weeks ago...

I organized myself a little and cut the strips I thought I would need to finish up my blocks that I'm behind in - and put them in a little container I got at the dollar store.  It sort of looks like a little sock drawer divider - with 8 spots for me to put strips.  I labeled each spot: 1.5, 1.75, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4.5, 5, 5.5.

Along with the little chart I made to describe the patterns it made this block at least get put together very easily.  I'm skipping the blocks that are not 10.5 and the ones that have more colors than I'm using now for the quilt.

http://fridayblocklotto.blogspot.com

Tomorrow I'll get the May Block Lotto pattern - so hopefully will get caught up with FBP and BL - then I can switch to do planning things for the Liberated Virtual Round Robin.  I had planned on starting it in the summer - which to me is June - but I'm getting the feeling some people think it's summer now!  It's going to be a fun project.

April 2011 BlockLotto: Modern Clover

If I were lucky enough to win the blocks I would use the on point setting idea from Lyn Brown.

Directions:   

• http://blocklotto.blogspot.com/2011/04/well-be-in-clover-in-april.html

Example Blocks:  

• http://blocklotto.blogspot.com/search/label/April%2011%20photos
• http://blocklotto.blogspot.com/search/label/April%202011%20photos

I had a lot of WOW collected for BlockLotto, but then Sophie threw me for a loop (or is it threw me a loop?)  and said cream was to be used for the background.  After going thru some boxes, I found the fabric I needed.  These were easy to put together.  I like the bolder (rather than light) colors for the flowers.  Would be nice to add a third fabric in the flower for a non-BlockLotto block.

The directions Sophie provided are so clear!  A long time ago I made some Eleanor Burns Tulips (so old she doesn't seem to carry the pattern now) where we folded pieces of fabric and sewed down each side to applique the stems on.  Sophie's way of cutting slightly smaller squares of background and then sewing them to the full size stem fabric is much slicker I think!

While I was sewing I started my small tumbler project as a leader and ender. I picked a color and matched it with some muslin - so I have 19 pairs of those sewn up too! It made it so nice to pick up a pair of those to sew when I was at the end of a doing a certain part of the modern clover blocks - it feels great to think I'm working toward a quilt instead of just using up scraps of material....