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Ruffled Roses January block

Join us on our new 12-month journey as we present another stunning quilt, Ruffled Roses, designed especially for TQS by Sue Garman. We begin our lesson this month with the appliqued center block.  Have you always been intimidated by applique?  No worries, Sue is providing clear and concise directions to teach her method of needle turn applique. 

Are you still not sure about applique, Sue suggests substituting a 15" block of your choice.  Remember, this is your quilt and you can always modify the instructions to suit your personal taste and skill level. 

Come and join in the year-long learning the fun with us. For the Introduction and January pattern click here.

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Photo by Gregory Case Photography

Meet Sue Garman, the creator of our fabulous 2011 TQS Block of the Month quilt Ruffled Roses.  Sue grew up in the aerospace industry, was trained as a CPA, and started her career by negotiating multi-million dollar contracts for NASA.  She married a NASA engineer that she met in Houston's Mission Control Center during a simulation of the first trip to the Moon.  While she loved working for an agency focused on exploration and discovery, she retired three years ago as Associate Director for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, having also served as Deputy Chief of Staff for NASA in Washington, DC. She is dedicated to supporting her community and serves on the board of directors of several local foundations.

Sue's years with NASA and its contractors never separated her from quilting, though.  She always regarded quilting as her daily "therapy".  As soon as she could thread a needle, her grandmother taught her to make crazy quilts; she literally does not remember a time before quilts.  Her quilting career started long before she left NASA - a local quilt shop had seen several of her quilts back in the 70's, and invited her to make patterns and teach.  That's where it all began - and where she continues today.  Her favorite venue is applique, but she also loves making complex, intricately pieced quilts.  You will rarely see her without a needle in hand - which explains how she finished over 20 quilts a year ago.  She simply has a passion for the art of quilting!

We have been absolutely amazed at the amount of work and detail she had put into each and every project for our TQS members.  Hats off to a great quilt artist!!

To learn more about Sue Garman click here.

Check out the new 2011 BOM Sue has designed here.  The January pattern will be available January 1, 2011.

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Michael Hinton of Gammill Systems found this magazine cover for the Jan 2011 Rural Missouri.  Do you think he plays piano???

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Annemarie hand quilting in her kitchen.  Photo by Jim Burt

A tiny, picturesque village in Burgundy might seem the least likely place to find a woman who, while fine-tuning her French language skills, has also become passionate about quilting. However--as we all know--quilting has a way of finding us, no matter how distant (or circuitous) the journey. Over the years, TQS has featured many guests--including John Flynn, Pat Holly, Rami Kim, David Taylor--who have pursued entirely different careers before they discovered quilting. Shortly after leaving a recent European Patchwork Meeting, our roving reporters, Jim and Melinda Burt, were surprised to discover that the owner of the B&B where they were spending a few days just happened to be a "newbie" quilter!

Read more here.

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There is a new temporary exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  Margaret and Christine Wertheim, co-founders of The Institute for Figuring, combined mathematics with crochet to create a beautiful "underwater" land full of atolls and clusters of crocheted corals.  Using yarn and other found materials their complex crocheting techniques gave shape to quite natural-looking forms.

While this is an "art" exhibit, it also encompasses a social project as noted on the Smithsonian website:

"The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef is a traveling exhibition that not only displays these artworks, but also incorporates an ever-growing social project—teaching others around the world how to crochet hyperbolically and make their own reefs.  By working through this process and viewing the art, one can see the correlation between the crocheted reefs and living corals, such as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.  The fragility of the coral reefs is echoed by their crocheted counterparts."

To learn more about the reefs and to learn what "Hyperbolic" actually means, click here.  The exhibit runs from October 16, 2010-April 24, 2011.

This video is worth the effort.  Hang in there and your mind will expand.

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Merry Christmas Everyone!  Today Alex and Captain John share their tasty treats with all of TQS.  It turns out that Alex is not really a cookie baker, but not to worry, Captain John's sister makes a killer cookie and sends them on to Chez Anderson every year.  Adair thinks these are absolutely the best, what do you think?

Magic Cookie Bars - makes about a dozen.

Ingredients

Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
1 2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 cup (6 oz. pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup (6 oz pkg.) butterscotch chips
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Instructions
HEAT oven to 350°F. Spray 13 x 9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.

COMBINE graham cracker crumbs and butter in small bowl. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with fork.

BAKE 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Loosen from sides of pan while still warm; cool on wire rack. Cut into bars or diamonds.

For perfectly cut cookie bars, line entire pan with foil, extending foil over edge of pan. Coat lightly with no-stick cooking spray. After bars have baked and cooled, lift up with edges of foil to remove from pan. Cut into individual bars.

You can substitute chocolate chips or nuts with candy coated pieces, dried cranberries, raisins, mini-marshmallows or butterscotch chips. 

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The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is currently running a fabulous exhibit of quilts.  It is Yvonne Porcella: Bold Strokes.  Curated by Deborah Corsini, the exhibit features 21 of Yvonne's quilts spanning a 25-year time period.  Included are three examples of her kimono-shaped quilts, as well as many of her graphic appliqued quilts with their interesting cartoon-like characters. You'll also see an abundance of black & white checks which adds the signature touch to many of her designs.

This video is just a taste of the exhibit which runs from November 16, 2010 through January 30, 2011 at the museum.  Do yourself a favor and go see it in person before it closes.

If you can't get to the museum, make sure you watch Episode 713: TQS Quilting Legend with Yvonne Porcella to learn much more about this fascinating textile artist.

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Are you done with Holiday shopping and just kicking back?

If not, how many presents left to go?

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Just about a year ago, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles had a great exhibit called Still Crazy which featured glorious Victorian crazy quilts from the Museum's permanent collection.   According to the museum a crazy quilt is "A purely decorative art object that fused a 16th century Japanese patchwork tradition with the fine embroidery revived by the British Arts & Crafts Movement, the late 19th century crazy quilt presaged modernists' use of abstraction and collage techniques, and was a forerunner of the contemporary art quilt."  It is truly a visual treat for the eyes.  Enjoy!

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Sparrow has been making the most of her time waiting for Santa, but she didn't want to be left out of the holiday fun.  So here's a recipe you can make from home for all of your kitty friends to keep them occupied while they wait for the jolly old man in the bright red suit.

Savory Cheese Treats for cats

• 3/4 cup white flour
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 5 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
• 1/4 cup cornmeal

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine cheeses and yogurt. Add flour and cornmeal. If needed, add a small amount of water to create a nice dough. Knead dough into a ball and roll to 1/4 inch. Cut into one inch sized pieces and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

Recipe from www.petplace.com.