Quarantine UFO Series # 18, Letters from Kitty Quilt

 

SO long ago, an amazing friend was cleaning out her fabric stash and handed a bunch down to me. One of those collections included this super cute, absolutely adorable fabric. It had butterflies and flowers… and cats jumping around. It also had a fabric that was a series of letters from kitty telling the owner various things like only a kitty would.

 

 

I had this fabric for years, thinking about how best to use it. But it never got pulled out. Even when my quarantine series began, I looked at it but chose other projects to do instead. It was time to tackle the kitty quotes.

 

I decided the best approach for the quotes was too fussy cut them out. I cut as many as I could out of the 1-yard piece I had, making sure they were all the same size.

 

 

I found a pretty green and blue in my moms stash that matched the greens and blues in the other fabrics, and thought it pulled them together well. I had more green than blue, so I made more in that color. 

 

 

Once that was done, I broke them up into 4 equal piles. I had 4 fabrics in the collection to work with and decided to have floating blocks, so the corner the quote was set in would change. It worked for the most part, but sometimes it feels a little clustered or too organized. 

 

 

I played a lot with the layout. Checkerboard, stripes, random. I decided a diagonal stripe worked best. It created some variety without being overwhelming. Once they were all sewn together, I realized it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be.

 

 

I had fabric leftover, and I was trying to avoid that so I added the green border and the flower border to tie everything together.

 

I used the last of the leftover fabric in the backing, and completed the backing with a backing piece I found at the LQS.

 

 

On a quilt like this, it seemed the basic meander was the best approach. I used a pretty blue thread that matched the solid blue borders used on some of the quote blocks.

 

 

Finally, the binding was completed with the very last of the floral fabric, and I added the tag.  All done!

 

 

This quilt is so cute! My daughter was in love immediately! The fabrics are so soft, and it offers tons of funny entertainment.  I’m pretty sure it’s what my cats are thinking. This was a fun pattern to try as well. Something new and different for sure. And another UFO completed.

Chili Verde

Funny story, during the Covid lockdown of 2021, we had a wedding anniversary. I Know, I know, a lot of people did, but ours was at a time when restaurants really couldn’t have guests so everything was takeout. I could handle that, except this particular night was supposed to be a “special” night for us.

 

 

I placed the order and made the drive to the restaurant to pick it up. It was a quick transaction and I was out the door heading home. When I got there and pulled out our dinner, I quickly realized…

This was NOT our dinner!!

I was so upset. I called the restaurant and explained the situation. They told me to come back for my order and said to keep the first one as they couldn’t do anything with it now that I’ve had it. 

 

I went and got the correct order and we enjoyed a yummy dinner. And then we enjoyed a second dinner that had items we’d never thought to order… including green chili verde.

Oh My Goodness!!! It Was Amazing!!

 

 

I had to figure out how to make this at home. It was such a great blend of flavors, and a little heat but not enough to get the kids to dislike it. The trick was; it was made with hatch chili’s from New Mexico. They are only harvested at a certain time of year, and the rest of the year they’re not available.

 

 

I began practicing with different chilis to find the right blend as I waited for Hatch Chili season. I even tried using can hatch chili’s of various varieties. It was a lot of fun playing with so many different flavors. I was finally able to come up with a recipe that hits the mark. I loved this dish. I could eat it every week…

 

 

Chili Verde

 

3 Tbs oil

2 lbs beef roast or pork butt, chopped to 1-inch pieces

3 tsp salt, divided

½ lb tomatillos, peeled and chopped

2 Hatch Chili’s, deseeded and chopped (1-4.5oz cans diced hatch chilis)

2 Anaheim (Poblano) Chili’s, deseeded and chopped

1-2 Jalepeno Peppers, deseeded and chopped

½ medium yellow onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic

1 Tbs each of ground cumin, ground coriander, oregano

2 bay leaves

3 T corn starch

2 c chicken broth (one can)

1 ½ c water

Salt and pepper to taste

 

In a large stock pot (I like cast iron enamel), Heat oil until it’s just smoking. Add half of the meat and 1tsp salt. Cook just until there’s a good sear. Remove and set aside in a bowl.  Repeat this with the other half of the meat. Sprinkle the seared meat with cornstarch and set aside.

Reheat the pan and add another 1tsp of oil. Brown the onions, then add the garlic. After just a minute, add the cumin, coriander, and oregano. Stir that for a minute to enhance the flavors, and then add the chicken broth and deglaze the pot. Finally, add the water, peppers, and tomatillos. Bring it to a boil, and then turn it down and allow this to simmer for about 20 minutes.

Once it’s had time to soften, use an immersion blender to puree everything. We like a smooth sauce, but if you want to keep some pieces, you can do less blending or no blending if you prefer.

Next, place the meat back into the pot. Add the bay leaves and taste for any additional salt or pepper needs. Put the lid on the pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 2-3 hours, until the meat is soft and tender, stirring occasionally. Serve with tortillas for soft tacos.

Store extra sauce in a Ziploc bag or half-pint jar in the freezer for up to 6 months. Use for stewing future meats, and making other recipes like the Chili Verde Enchiladas.

Floral Christmas Diamonds Quilt

 

I tried to switch gears to Christmas quilts, but I struggled because I only had a little bit of the fabric I wanted to work with. I have been trying so hard not to buy new fabric, so I decided to work with another collection my mom had in her stash.

 

Now, technically this is not Christmas fabric. However, from afar, it has the look of the holiday season because of the pattern, so I’m going with it.

 

 

 I had come across this neat diamond pattern on pinterest that had a solid color square in the center. It made it look like jewels to me, and this set of fabrics fit the mark perfectly.

 

 

I started cutting the diamonds out and sewing them together, and true to half-square triangle struggles, the points didn’t come out right. Oh well, that was the way it was going to be. This was my first time I’d tried this particular elongated half-square triangle so I wasn’t going to let myself stress about it.

 

 

I was working with a series of fat quarters, so I cut all the fabric to reduce leftovers and use as much in the quilt as possible. I set it on a white background so they’d really pop.

 

 

Once I got all of the diamonds done, I had to figure out layout. I played with positioning a bit before settling on the diagonal stripes. When I laid them out though, I realized the fact that their points weren’t great was going to be really obvious if they’re touching each other.

 

 

So…I decided to add strips of white sashing between the blocks so there was some separation. This helped make the points look a bit better… not so obvious.

 

True to a modern style, I did not want to add any borders to this one. The diamonds spoke for themselves. I found a nice green tone-on-tone floral fabric for the backing at the LQS, and pinned everything together for quilting.

 

 

At first I wanted to quilt a pattern in the diamonds, but I was avoiding the project because of that, which bothered me. I decided to use a basic meander on the white and leave the diamonds alone completely. I think it worked. I really like how the diamonds puff a bit from the quilt.

 

 

I rarely have the backing bunch, but somehow I had one incident on this quilt backing. Such a bummer, but it’s done and it’s not too noticeable so it’s all good. I used the last on the backing fabric to make the binding and declared this project done.

 

I like it a lot more than I thought I would. The colors are so rich, and the diamonds turned out really nice. Almost fancy. More importantly, I learned so much from working on this quilt. I am sure the elongated half-square triangle pattern will show up again in future projects.