More bread

I've been trying to perfect my bread baking.  The loaf right out of the oven is great but by the next day it is too crumbly.  I have read that is due to having too much flour in the dough and not kneading enough.   So today I gave it another try.  I made one loaf and a bunch of rolls, half of which we devoured at lunch.  The rest of the rolls went into the freezer, and tomorrow we'll test the bread!  Our car is making odd noises underneath, so we are driving as little as possible.  At least the weather is sunny so we can walk to the store if we need more bread!

Storm at Sea

My scrappy Storm at Sea quilt (60" x 60") was accepted and is now hanging in the local Studio Place Arts gallery show, Deep Blue!

 This photo came from SPA's website and shows the quilting which  I did on my trusty Elna.  It took a steady hand and good eye, so I'm glad they focused on a good section.  This quilt includes some dark blue scraps from my late friend Ann's stash, nice mementoes of a good neighbor.

We stopped in to have a look Thursday, and the other pieces in the show are great, especially two paintings with the most gorgeous blues.  My former colleague Frank has a couple of paintings in the show, and it's fun to see what he's been working on in retirement.  The knitted fish dangling from the ceiling are fun, too.

Getting a jump on "Dear Yve"

In honor of my friend who passed away last year, I have named my Splendid Samper Dear Yve.  Since July, I've been making 12 6" blocks each month, sashing them, and quilting them in sections.  In June I'll have 12 sections and will put them together.  At the beginning of March I quilted the January and February sections, and earlier this week I quilted the March one.

Now I'm about to embark on the blocks for my April section.  I'm trying to make some, if not all, of the four blocks per week chosen by the quilt along organizers, Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson, but some weeks four blocks have been too many for me to make, especially if they are hand appliqued.  I do like the mix of traditional and modern designs, and I am enjoying using low volume backgrounds.  I suspect I'll be using more of those in the future.  We woke up to snow and it looks fairly serious,  so  I'll be sewing today.

"Founding mothers"

Thursday is the monthly meeting of our local genealogy club, which Tim and I started a couple of years ago.  There are about a dozen regular participants, but about 30 on our mailing list and Facebook group.   Everyone has an interesting story to tell, and we have several experts as well as many dabblers like me.   Many of us proceed in fits and starts, as I do, and we get side-tracked sometimes.

Many of our group members are of French-Canadian descent and can trace their roots to les filles du roi, 768 French women who were sent by King Louis XIV between 1663 and 1673 to strengthen his hold on the New World.  Their sole mission:  marry and have children.  Many a young man had gone to Quebec to seek his fortune, including many second or third sons, and many became voyageurs.  The King wanted them to settle down, farm, and have families.  

Something Paulette said at our last meeting piqued my interest (even though I don't have a drop of French-Canadian blood), and I thought the women's stories would make excellent historical fiction.  Lo and behold, I found several series available, including one by Aimie K. Runyan.   The first book of the Daughters of New France series focuses on three women from different circumstances who meet aboard the ship which, after three months at sea, landed in Quebec city.  The details of their voyage, training, courtship, and marriage make interesting reading.  I'm not sure if I will read more in the series which is based on thorough research, but I will pay closer attention when members of our group discuss their forebears.

Blessings

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
The rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
     

I have always liked this old Irish blessing for its simplicity, even though I am not religious or Irish.  I love the image of a higher being holding us in his/her palm.  In a topsy turvy world, full of divisiveness and hate, it is well to remember that, to paraphrase Anne Frank, most people are basically good at heart.  

Double churn dashes and challenge

Because the next few months are a bit uncertain with our planned house sale and move down the street, I thought I'd better get a jump on making this year's Friendship Block Swap blocks.  They aren't due until Sept. 30, but as hostess I can't hold everything up.  Ten people have joined the Double Churn Dash swap, and the blocks finish at 20".  Even the nine blocks we'll receive will make a nice-sized throw.   I plan to have 12 blocks, including this odd one, so my finished quilt will be 60 x 72" without borders or sashing.

Above is my first sample, made last fall.  Later, we decided to make all the half-square triangles in dark blue and the center square in the cream background also.  It's a stash-buster so we can use whatever accent fabric we like.  The sheer size of these blocks makes cutting a bit daunting as I worried I'd run out of the scraps of cream background.  Tuesday I cut all the pieces out (unusual for me as I like to cut as I go) and was pleased that I had enough cream background to finish.  Yesterday I started putting the blocks together and found them easy to sew with a little juggling around due to their size.  Chain piecing really helps.  Another UFO done!

Because it was sunny yesterday, I took a picture of the panel challenge piece I made for one of my local guilds.  Each person bought the same panel at $8 and is to make something quilty out of it.

The panel is pretty generic and a bit too nostalgic for my taste, so I jazzed it up a bit with some mythological creatures.  You can find Big Foot, Pegasus, the Loch Ness Monster, and more here and there.   And Elvis is driving the truck!  All that grass made deciding on a quilting pattern difficult.  I tried big stitch quilting with embroidery floss but it didn't show and I took it out.  In the end, I simply followed the contour of the land using variegated fall-colored thread.  It's due in April (I think).  Next on my agenda:  the guild mystery quilt.

Bread class

I've been baking bread for about 50 years, so why would I take a class?  Our library is offering a series of cooking classes on Tuesday nights this March, and I thought it might be interesting.   It was that - and fun, too.

Our instructor, Laura, who makes all the rolls for community dinners in Marshfield and who has six children (more or less?), started by showing us how to shape the dough.  Usually, the instructors talk about mixing the dough first and then never get around to how to handle it.  I liked Laura's techniques for various shapes of rolls.  She also said that she has found that baking round rolls in pie pans helps them bake more evenly.  Laura uses "Craisins" in her cinnamon rolls, which I need to try.  Because Laura uses more oil than I am used to, the dough is very soft and elastic, and the equal amount of yeast and sugar makes it rise fairly quickly.

I was pleased that this program attracted a completely different group, and I was by far the oldest person there.  We had fun together, passing around ingredients and measuring tools.  We each went home with enough dough for two loaves, 16 rolls, or whatever we wished to shape after the first rise.  This meant, of course, that during the course of the evening (I got home at 7 pm), I had to fuss with the dough and then cool the final products, but it was well worth it.   I made a loaf of bread and 12 cinnamon buns.  Next time I'll try to make 8 slightly larger buns.  

Here's Laura's recipe:

Crusty White Bread (Laura Mulligan)

Add to room-temperature bowl in this order:
     2 T. dry yeast
     2 T. sugar
     2 t. salt
     1/2 c. oil
     2 c. very warm water - usually the hottest tap water you have.
Stir with a whisk just until the yeast begins to dissolve.  Then wait 2-5 min. for the yeast to "proof."  It will form a design on the top when ready.  If it doesn't, throw it away and start over.

Add 2 c. of all purpose flour and whisk until smooth.
Add another 2 c. of flour with a spoon until well blended.
Sprinkle surface with a little flour, dump out dough, and knead until smooth and elastic.  Depending on humidity, you may need to work in a cup or two more flour.

Place in greased bowl and cover with a towel to rise until double (about 45 min. at room temperature)
Punch down dough, shape into 2 loaves or multiple rolls, put into greased pans, and allow to rise until double (about an hour)

Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 min. (loaves), 20-25 min. (rolls).

The quilt and the banquet

I'm not sure how long the Friends of the Library have been holding an annual winter banquet - 20 years?  The first year we lived in Barre we wandered down to the Unitarian Church basement for a delicious Chinese banquet cooked up by our late, dear friend Chet and his friend Henry.  All of the dishes were amazing, especially the giant "squirrel" fish that Paul and I still talk about with wonder.

We soon joined the Friends and helped with the banquet and its accompanying silent and live auctions.  Because it was so popular, the event was moved to the Knights of Columbus hall and, then, to the Elks Club.  After Chet passed away, we felt we couldn't offer Chinese fare up to his standard, so the Elks has been cooking up beef tenderloin for the group of about 100.   It is always a very nice community event during the dull, cold days of winter.


Last night's banquet went without a hitch, and I'm hoping it raised as much as always.  We were pleased that old and new friends could join our table.  People throughout the hall seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.  Our local legislator certainly looked happy with his dessert donated by Ben & Jerry's!

In the background, you can see my scrappy quilt on display with the other live auction items that our new mayor and his girlfriend are reviewing.  The quilt did well but I couldn't see who "won" it.

The auctioneer was just about to begin, and he was very entertaining, as usual.  We didn't get any winning bids in the live auction, but did go home with a pair of lovely crystal earrings for me and a nifty plant holder for Chris from the silent auction.