One Dozen Leap Frogs

 

The Internet is devilishly good at guessing what you’ll find tempting. Lately, it’s been showing me something called Quilter’s Decision Dice. It’s a single wooden cube (shouldn’t it be called Quilter’s Decision Die?) with a choice written on each of the six sides: clean sewing space, organize stash, buy fabric, start a new project, finish a U.F.O. (unfinished fabric object), and bind a quilt. None of the sides say “stitch a quilt block,” how I spend most days. I try to tidy my work space every day. “Organize stash” happens every five years or so. I try to limit fabric purchases, because there’s a real danger of being buried in cotton. Lately, I’ve only been buying fabric that will help me finish U.F.O.s. I bind roughly a dozen quilts of varying sizes per year, and donate or gift most of them. Clearly, I need to “start a new project” less often, because the backlog is growing.

Evening Star

 

We fell in love with this dessert years ago, when Bangkok Thai restaurant was at Foothill Village.

 

Mango Sticky Rice

 

1 1/2 cups glutinous rice (sticky rice)

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 ripe mangos, peeled and sliced

 

Place rice in a sieve. Rinse several times until water runs clear. Soak rinsed rice in water at least an hour; drain. Line bamboo steamer with cheesecloth, add rice, and steam over simmering water until grains are translucent. In a small saucepan, heat coconut milk over medium heat. Stir in sugar and salt and continue stirring until sugar dissolves. Do not boil. Remove from heat. Transfer cooked rice to a bowl. Slowly pour coconut milk mixture over rice, stirring gently. Let the rice sit 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and slice mangoes. Scoop rice onto small serving bowls and top with mango slices.

Mini Flying Geese

 

“Your origin story is divine, and so is your destiny. You left heaven to come here, but heaven has never left you!” – Dieter F. Uchtdorf

“Let us genuinely welcome, acknowledge, minister to, love. May each friend, sister, brother, not be a foreigner or stranger but a child at home.” – Gerrit W. Gong

“New beginnings are at the heart of the Father’s plan! Fresh starts are the mission of the Son! New dawns, new chapters are the simple core of the gospel’s good news!” – Patrick Kearon

“I give you my absolute assurance, the Savior knows you and loves you. Reach out to Him. He is your comfort and strength; He will send His angels to bear you up. When will your pain be gone, your grief subdued, the unwanted memories forgotten, I do not know. But this I do know: He has the power to bring beauty from the ashes of your suffering.” – Neil L. Andersen

Spooky Moon

 

Luis Albino was born in Puerto Rico in 1945 – one of six siblings. When Luis was five, his family moved to Oakland, California. About a year later, Luis and his older brother, Roger, went to play in the park. Roger came back alone, saying Luis had left with a strange woman who’d promised him candy. The police didn’t believe Roger’s story. They assumed the boy had fallen into the San Francisco Bay and drowned. Luis’ family never stopped hoping. In 2020, sixty-nine years after Luis’ disappearance, one of his nieces took an Ancestry DNA test that matched with a man living on the east coast. Luis had been raised by a couple (both now long deceased) he’d always assumed were his biological parents. He’d been a firefighter and served two tours in Vietnam in the Marines. He had children and grandchildren by the time he was finally reunited with his birth family.

Another Sweet Snowman

 

I make mistakes all the time, especially while quilting. Most of them I catch and correct before I press the seam. Some elude me until I take a photo. The seam ripper comes out, and everything is put right. If you think this snowman looks familiar, you’re right. I posted one very similar last November. He was part of a series of monthly door banners that kept me entertained (and mostly out of trouble) a full year. After I got that snowman back from the quilters and bound it, I set it on top of the stack of other finished door banners. And it was NOT THE SAME SIZE. April through December were all 20x36” and January was 3/4" shorter. I hadn’t noticed until the quilt was completely finished, but once I saw my error, I couldn’t UNSEE it. So, I’m making another one. The “short” quilt will be donated to someone who won’t see my mistake.

Turning Leaves Top

 

I made these blocks in 2020. I didn’t visit a quilt shop. I just downloaded the pattern and printed it. The fabric was all in my stash. Some prints were gifts from other quilters; some were my own scraps. The original pattern called for 48 blocks: eight rows and six columns. Paper foundation piecing is time consuming, but that year I had time on my hands. I stitched the first leaf in September, and by Halloween I’d made thirty-six. Then I began to find the autumn colors tiring. I noticed when I removed the foundation paper, some of the stitches pulled loose. The seams were lumpy. I realized assembling the blocks would be neither easy nor fun. I almost threw the thirty-six blocks away. Instead, I stuffed them in a grocery sack in the back of the closet. I pulled them out a few days ago. If they have to wait until I’ve done another dozen blocks, they might wait forever. Do I want a 36x36” table topper now, or a 36x48” sofa throw maybe someday?

October Door Banner

 

The first of October is National Pumpkin Spice Day. It isn’t so much about the round orange winter squash as it is the spices themselves; a blend of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg and mace. Cinnamon is ground bark from certain tropical trees. It’s thought to improve blood sugar control, reduce heart disease risk, and preserve brain function. Ginger, from the same family as turmeric and cardamom, aids in digestion and helps with osteoarthritis pain. Cloves are the dried flower buds of a tree in the myrtle family. They’ve been used since ancient times for toothache. Allspice tastes like a combination of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and pepper, hence the name. Nutmeg and mace are actually from the same tree. Nutmeg is the seed, and mace is the aril or seed covering. Pumpkin spice is a uniquely American blend, but it resembles poudre-douce (sweet powder) which was popular in Europe during the middle ages.