Monday, October 18, 2010

Weekend Highlights: Whole Wheat Pear Chocolate Chip Bread and New Sewing Projects

I made a very important realization this weekend: when I'm stressed with too much work (or wedding planning or trying to decide whether or not to install hardwood floors or just new carpet upstairs), baking is an excellent way to restore balance. I had an overwhelming urge to make quick bread, so I did a variation on this one with 2 grated pears, walnuts and chocolate chips. And, just because I thought of it, we had this as French toast on Sunday morning. It was moist and rich, just the thing to start the day with a side of Greek yogurt. 


I also spent a good chunk of time getting two new sewing project in order. The first one is another small quilting project with a purple block that was the only one of it's kind in a stack of blocks I picked up recently at an antique mall (the rest are below), paired with remnants including some Liberty of London fabric that I had once used as a curtain, and lovely voile from Anna Maria Horner as the backing and edge. This one should quilt up quickly and I might try to save most of it for the Alabama wedding dress road trip.


The second project is one that will take a bit longer, but it's a quilt that I plan to use in our house, which is really exciting. I haven't made and kept a full sized quilt for myself since the first one that I made way back in 2002, and I just love the colors in these vintage blocks. Plus, I know that the size of the pieces on each block will lend to dense quilting, which will give the overall piece the texture I love.

I keep looking at the stitches, wondering about the woman who originally put these blocks together. It's a fascinating experience to work with a quilt that someone else started‚ humbling really, given the amount of work that went into these. There are 20 blocks, so I've arranged 5 rows of 4 blocks, and I'll do a border around that when the time comes.

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