Neutral Fusion awaits binding

Reminder: I live in Maine. It is winter. And it is January. The thermometer guy from 6 days ago should be a reminder of how bone-chilling winter here is, usually. Then it was mearly 40F below freezing. Today it is more than 20F above freezing. Mother Nature is on a serious dose of something. It is projected to be in the 30s the rest of the week, which sounds warm for January. I took advantage of the nice day. Most of the snow was melted off the sidewalks. With the kids due home in an hour, I went out for a nice walk. Sounds like spring fever, but until the custom work I am getting Friday is here, I have little to do except hand-stitching, and I am getting sick of that!
I took this small quilt off the blocking boards today. It is part of MQX's Neutral Fusion exhibit. It's not judged or anything, and is not specifically secret, so I suspect there's no harm in showing these. The quilt is only 30"x36". They sent the people participating 8 fat quarters of all neutral fabrics (AKA "uglies"!). I added a few more of my own. They range from a white-ish batik to heavily painted beiges to tan modern prints. As I said, Uglies. Then, they were (the center of all quilts will be pieced the same) cut into pieces to make 6 9-patch blocks and 6 snowball blocks, to form the center of the quilt. We were allowed to do whatever for the 1" inner border. Pieced or not, colorful or not. Our choice. The 5-1/2" outer border piecing was our choice too, but it had to be from the neutrals. I do not know why I did what I did for either border. I'm not thrilled with my choices.

Then, we are instructed to quilt it however we want. All neutral fabrics must be quilted with coordinating thread though. Drat! Do you know how hard the painted fabrics are to see anything on?? Really hard. Blindingly hard.

Once again, I have questioned my logic for the quilting in the corners. Don't really know what I was thinking there. The thought of the pumpkin seeds on the diagonals sounded better before I densely quilted around them, turning them into obnoctious "x"s. Oh well. It's a learning experience every day. All of my quilting is obviously freehanded. No computers to smartly quilt even and symmetrically for me. I love the feathers and the rays - they are very much my style.

I had a little fiasco with the narrow pink inner border. In spritzing the blue marker out, I discovered that one of the darker pink fabrics ran. This quilt is so small that I did not plan to wash and block it. It would have been just fine for an exhibit. But runny pink on white looked rotten, so it went through the washer 2x with color catchers. I have learned in this project that I like Superior's Lava thread. I received a sample cone of a variagated rose. I had no idea how many yards were on it so I never used it on any quilt. I assumed that this border was small enough that I stood little chance of running out, and gave it a go. Lava is 30wt polyester. It will go on my must get list when I go to MQX. Another pretty obvious learning that I found the hard way: Feathering that 1" border was too much work!

The back is interesting. The rose bobbin shows, but the rest of the bobbin was cream. This is a busy (and kinda ugly) sage print. From a few feet away, it blends to a neutral. Hey, it's the back!

So I have no idea how many mini quilts will be a part of the Neutral Fusion exhibit. Hopefully many. Go to MQX to see.

Tune in later this week to hear about my Tales of Quilting with my DSM...another chapter in my "What not to do" book.

Feline Neutral Fusion Gumbo

No, that is not the ingredient list for the Gumbo. Just the order of this post. The new kitty has adjusted perfectly. It took under a week and he is now sleeping with our other cat, and both are happy. He's so sweet when he's asleep, it is hard not to wake him up to snuggle!
Before I get to the requested Gumbo recipe, I'll show some of the quilting I am doing on a smallish quilt - 30"x36". It is for the Neutral Fusion exhibit that will be at MQX in April. They way this quilt works is we were sent 8 fat quarters of these kind of hideous neutral fabrics. The same pattern will be done by all people - it's alternated snowball and 9-patch blocks, and then a colored 1" border of our choosing, and a 5" outer border of our choosing, but from the neutral fabrics. The neutrals are seriously hideous. Many have more paint than my walls and are SO hard to quilt because you cannot see anything. Oh yea...the thread has to be neutral and coordinating as well. I will be blind when I am finished. I have chosen to ignore the piecing and treat the smowballs and 9-patches as a single unit for the quilt's center. I think that this is looking ok, but I waffle on this each day. Just as I question why on earth I chose to make the narrow 1" border from many pieces of yes, pink, fabric! Seriously, my other 2 quilts going to MQX are much better! ...but this is a fun process anyways (even if this small quilt has already wasted 7 hours of quilting time!)

So, I was born in Maine, but never lived here until 15 years ago. I spent my formitive years in the South, and aside from the 3-toothed rednecks that are there, I relate to the culture well, even still. So my love of Gumbo, fried shrimp and other things like Jumbalaya all stem from having lived the Southern life for a long time.

Gumbo...

This is my 5 quart dutch oven, and it works perfectly. First make a roux...1 stick of butter, 1/4C olive oil and 1-1/4 C flour. You'll need to cook this, stirring constantly until it is brownish like this. It will take nearly 45 minutes.

In another pan, saute 1 chopped green pepper, 1 chopped sweet onion, 1C chopped celery, 2 cloves of garlic. Remove from the pan. Saute 2-3 chopped chicken breasts, 2-4 Andouille sausages (more will make the Gumbo more spicy). Drain off the sausage fat.

Chop a pound of fresh (preferably) okra. I have used the frozen bag variety too. It worked just fine.

Add 6-8 cups of chicken stock to the brown roux. Add 1t of crab boil, 1t cayenne, 2t of each parsley and thyme, 2 bay leaves, 2T tomato paste and however many shakes of hot sauce you like. Add the drained meat, cooked veggies, and 1 large can (or 2 if you like) of lump crabmeat. At 30 min from dinnertime, add the okra. Continue simmering . Five minutes before you want to eat, add a pound of shrimp (peeled), and turn off the heat.

Serve over white rice with chopped scallions on top and garlic bread. Yum! Ya'll enjoy, now, ya hear?!