A gnocchi lesson from an expert!

Years ago I tried making gnocchi and they were  little hard wads and had no taste... totally disgusting. Recently I searched the Internet for the gnocchi recipe with the most favorable reviews and tried again...  Since I knew I had used too much flour last time...this time I used too little... They were passable but not anything like my friend's Cristina's yummy gnocchi... She invited us over Sunday to have a gnocchi lesson and dinner.  I arrived at her door with my yellow shirt, yellow apron and a big bouquet of daffodils (upper left) from my garden...eager student indeed...

Cristina and her husband Max are from Milan and so their cuisine is not the tomato sauces and pasta of southern Italy but the wonderful risotto, polenta and creamy sauces of northern Italy... Everything in their kitchen is made from scratch with great reverence for not only the cuisine but also for the quality of ingredients and for time-honored traditional  methods of preparation.

She laughed and shook her head when I told her my recipe called for an egg.... only in America would they put an egg in gnocchi.. She boiled the potatoes and peeled them and riced them piping hot onto a small pile of flour (about 3/4 c.) and a little salt and commenced to knead vigorously, adding additional flour as necessary... Cristina assured me that having the potatoes hot was the secret.. All during the kneading process the dough stayed very warm.

She kept working and kneading and adding flour until the dough was smooth, glossy and elastic... no longer sticking to her fingers.  Being able to see and feel the dough gave me an idea as to where I had gone wrong. And since it is only potatoes and flour combined, it is the technique that is critical. And once it was perfect she rolled it into long ropes and cut little pillows of dough and here Max became involved..

It was his job to artfully arrange the gnocchi on floured trays to freeze or refrigerate.  Max  is also an excellent chef and most of their dinners are combined efforts.. I like to watch them working as a team in their kitchen and love it when they revert to Italian as the pace intensifies  ...

When served, the gnocchi was light and perfect and was swimming in a rich Gorgonzola sauce. The dinner included not only gnocchi but pork loin with an apricot glaze and Max's wonderful zucchini and cheese casserole. It was finished off with Max making  zabaglioni cream served hot over fresh strawberries..    Dinner at their house is always eagerly anticipated and long remembered. They return to Milan often and return laden with delights not available here in the states.

So we had a lovely day of playing bridge followed by a fabulous dinner.  To make it even more perfect I went home with a large bag of frozen gnocchi and the  secrets necessary for me to try again.. I was feeling very blessed indeed.....

p.s.. as I typed this post I was nibbling on some little biscuits Cristina sent home with me.  They were very similar to biscotti but made with corn meal. I must have that recipe also.

Mother's helper or who chewed the lid off the glitter bottle?

Mother's helper or who chewed the lid off the glitter bottle? Does the name Morris pop right into you mind?  Well it should....

Came into the living room one day and a long trail of gold glitter  was on the rug along with an empty glitter bottle missing a lid....   Morris was innocently sitting on the couch with a gold nose...  Who Me?

I have no end of material to finish this CQ book  for my CQJP..  Some I will not even use since I intend this book to be read to my great-grandchildren.  I will leave out a page on his obsession with my bra and another page on his eagerness to consume anything dead and disgusting..

I have tried a few options for the cover for the peek-a-boo on this block but so far nothing has excited me so will think on it for a while and add it later...  BUT when there is a cover to lift up this is what will be seen...

The first thing my Wednesday "CQ-in-training gals" learned was to guard their supplies...

Stitching time is scarce...but I'm making great strides with overgrowth in garden... Sending DH off this am with a pickup load for our clean green program... Goldwork is still resting and I should finish CQJP this weekend... all detail stuff so brain is thinking ahead...  One of the next blocks I'll be getting is Barbara's with her aunt's vintage postcards as images...  I'm fourth in the rotation so there were only three choices left...

I'm going to go with the shoe with the holly in it....for two reasons...  First I like the simplicity of the image and second I just love what is happening with the patches... there's a lovely rhythm to it. Janet still has them but I know she will be sending them soon...

Also I need to think ahead on my Morris book for CQJP and print off enough images to fill a sheet of transfer fabric.  I hate wasting even an inch of that expensive stuff... In looking through photos for the next 2/3 months I ran across this fantastic photo for the last cover of the book..
If you look closely you will see they are watching wild turkeys gobble up the sunflower seeds.. May's block will be Morris and friends (skunk, porcupine and raccoon) and June will be Morris and Molly...and it will really be hard narrowing down choices for that block as I have so many great loving photos...

Hummer done and a little break.....

The hummer is done and the piece is being blocked while I take a little break from it. I revise what I said last post because you can see all the richness of the fancy fabrics when it is photographed.
I like seeing the patches behind the crazy "patchy" pattern of the leaves..

  The beads were 15s and that plus all the couching has given me eye fatigue... a good time to work outside and on my Morris block before I do the final finish work on this one..

 I am happy with this piece so far as it is always a pleasant surprise when what I envision and what emerges are in sync.... and it is definitely GOLD!!!!

Spring  has finally arrived in Spokane and I had my first hummingbird at a feeder yesterday..  A family of noisy raccoons  were at the pond at 5AM and woke the dogs...who went  into a barking frenzy defending the farm.  Not my favorite way to start the day... Molly had her turn making friends with a porcupine yesterday... Not too friendly though as luckily she got only a very few quills.

Finally!!!!

I didn't think I was EVER going to finish the leaves... the couching is so slow going... I certainly have developed an appreciation for the goldwork pieces which are all couching... But the leaves are done on this piece..well I might add or adjust a bead  or two...

The initial planning and subsequent stitching have all been focused on letting the lovely fancy patches show through and  I'm succeeding..  I think the best analogy is a brick wall behind a tree.. I wanted the design and the structure to work in harmony.. The patches are various shades of soft-white satin and brocade... They create a under-glow to the composition.  I scanned this so everything has a bluish tinge but even when I photograph it will be hard to capture.  You will have to take my word for it..... it IS working...  I just have a needle tucked in to establish the angle of the beak.

Now I can start on the hummer. I fiddled a bit with it in photoshop this morning.... It will be a combination of beads and  edmar stitching and I have the fabulous iridescent, teal-colored beads (15s) but I need some additional 15s for the ruby throat and since that means a trip to town it may be a while...

The very last step, and  I feel the most important, will be the couched tendrils which will pull it all together... Right now the flower is hanging out all by itself....

First bunch of leaves

I have the first bunch of leaves done... Sorry the focus is a bit wonky.... You can see I'm trying to achieve a balance between white and gold on them... enough gold to make them "goldwork" and enough white to make it airy...  The sequins are bigger than I like and as soon as I can get to town I will replace them with smaller ones. We've always been careful about combining our errands to town but even more so now with the price of gas...

It is very slow going couching the small  cord...so this is going to take a while... but I do love the look and I have some extra time on this because Janet sent it early... bless her.  She also enclosed some yummy gold fabric that I have a plan to use on Cathy L.'s block.. It looks like gilded leather.

I only have 4 more goldwork blocks left to do and I haven't done anything with the tulle and most of the braid... But when I have the next 4 done I will have goldwork out of my system...  I don't see it replacing CQ anytime soon. ...but I will be incorporating more gold and lots of these techniques in my CQ...

Goldwork Progress

Today was another day of grabbing 15 minutes here and there to stitch... while waiting for sheets to dry, timer on oven to go off, the plumber to call... etc..... Then I couldn't stand it anymore and told DH to get soup out of the freezer because I was finishing the outlining TONIGHT! and I did... It's not the most interesting part and mostly tedious so I wanted to be done and get on to the fun part... I tried to keep my couching stitches even at 1 mm but if my mind wandered so did my stitches...

Actually the gold cord was very good about not fraying which had been my concern...  So I was able to bind the cord at the ends and cut it cleanly.. You will notice it if you look closely but by the time I finish I doubt if it will be noticeable at all.

The fun part.... putting a different pattern or design in each leaf with the very small cording like I used at the base of the flower.  I plan on incorporating gold sequins and beads at this stage also... As you have probably guessed I will start with leaf #1.

After the leaves are done I will finish the hummer and the very last step will be the tendrils which will hold it all together...

And a big thanks for all the tips on using the slippery thread... I gave it a try today and it worked great..

Quick Post

Just a quick post before I head out the door for the day... The photos do not do the satin cord on the hummer justice as it is variegated peacock colors and yummy... I am using rayon machine embroidery thread for couching and it is the right color and right sheen to blend well.. But the &#$%## stuff is so slippery that the needle is continually unthreading...  It takes me a bit to get in a rhythm with the couching to keep it even...

As I started going through the gold cording.  The gold satin I had intended to use is a bit large but I have lots of it.  The one the right size I have very little of... so as I start outlining the gold I may use several kinds and sizes of gold cording... The color is on so from now on it is gold, gold, gold and lots of it...  I stayed up wayyyyyyyyy too late last night stitching away...

April CQJP - Mother's Helper

I've also started my CQJP project for April... It not that Morris likes to chew up the thread.... he likes to chew up the spool  the thread is on...but the thread always ends up looking like the thread at the left.  He waits very patiently for me to drop something on the floor and quietly spirits it away.

In my continuing quest for authenticity.....if this thread were subjected to DNA testing they would find traces of Morris's saliva on it..

Amazing life after 50...

Dick Byrd, 82, a dear friend of 30 years, a practicing physician and  adventurer died last week after suffering a blow to the head in a fall while hiking a rocky area on the coast of Cuba.  He and his wife were part of a  group led by National Geographic Expeditions.   He certainly did not fit the sterotype of an athlete as he was not very tall and had a slight sinewy build.

The most amazing part is he did most of his adventures AFTER the age of 50. 

He and his wife paddled kayaks off the Galapagos Islands as well as northeastern Greenland.   He climbed major peaks all over the world including such as Kilimanjaro and hiked to the base camps of Mount Everest and K2.  He'd trekked in Nepal, India and Buton, an island in Indonesia. He  canoed Alaska’s Noatak River into the Bering Sea, kayaked the Strait of  Magellan in Chile and rode out 400 miles of whitewater in a canoe, with his wife, on the Nahanni River in Canada’s remote Northwest Territories.  In his late 70s he trekked 200 miles across England, walking an average of 20 miles each day and then wondered if he was in good enough shape to run a marathon. He proved he could by finishing the Portland Marathon, just before he turned 80.

This was the second death of a friend in a week... The other was DH's closest friend and partner of 20 years in keeping things running smoothly at the senior center with countless hours of volunteer time.. They also solved the problems of the world over coffee several mornings a week... Friends are so precious and losing one really makes one  treasure the friends still alive.

Transfer and Baste

As I always like to do, I transferred the design to the back of the block and basted the major outlines through to the front... I usually use a basting thread close to the color of the block but this time I used colored threads so you could see the stitches better.. I do NOT like making marks on the front of the block and I do NOT like working through tissue paper.

Before I put any cording on at all I start thinking about where to start and stop the cording as hiding the ends is always a problem..(see pink arrows). especially if it is something like the satin cording which frays... Making these decisions before I start save headaches and anguish later.

I use three methods.. I use an awl and make a hole to send the cording to the back..  I stitch the end of the cording securely BEFORE I cut it off.... or I hide it with sequins, beads or buttons.. I'll be using all three techniques on this block and will point them out as I go along.

The base of the petals of the flowers and the tail feathers are the most critical because several pieces of cording converge.

Speaking of satin cording, it is one of my all time favorite materials...  In 2009 I bought 10 yards of gold in Colorado and use it to the last inch...  I found more in CT last fall at the bead store and they only had a limited amount but I bought it all...

Design for Kerry's goldwork block

Here's my rough sketch and it's nearly what I'll transfer to the back of the block and baste through (sometime today hopefully...) Once I put it on the screen now I see a few changes I want to make to the flower. You can tell by all the eraser smudges I am struggling with the flower... I want to use satin cord (which is good sized)  on it so it has to be very simplified...

I know the hummingbird pose will look familiar as I use it often on blocks and on buttons.  I love the wings up and the tail tucked under as when they're hovering..  I'll be using lots and lots of cording.....  both gold and colored satin ...and  both straight and chain stitching...Since I don't want to lose the block itself there will be considerable white material showing through the design... sort of a romantic, goldwork, crazy quilt, lacy, mola look if that makes any sense.


I followed my usual steps in creating a design.. First I traced the patches on this block  because I had a particular patch I wanted the flower to be in. Second I positioned the bird and flower where I wanted them to be...  Then I scanned that into photoshop and used digital "cutout" leaves and moved them around until I got an approximated "mola" look I wanted.

Brain madly working......

I'm between Goldwork RR blocks and know Janet has mailed Kerry's and I'm watching for it everyday... but in the meantime... I know Kerry has asked for romantic and both Janet and Flora have filled the bill  beautifully but since I am practically falling out of my box here anyway I may push the limits.. romantic colors but scads of gold techniques I want to try... and hope Kerry will forgive me.

My first and favorite goldwork book is "Goldwork Embroidery" by Mary Brown and all of the geometric designs using of gold cords and braids such as on the left inspired me...

My second favorite goldwork book is Beginning Goldwork by Ruth Chamberlain and especially these pieces using almost exclusively cording to create movement within a design...  I love love love this technique...

Finally I want to show you an example of mola design similar to needle work done by the Kuna women in Panama... The designs are all-over   and semi abstract using everything in their lives.  I'm particularly drawn to ones using flowers and birds....

So I am thinking this type of mola design  would translate itself beautifully to goldwork using braids and cording... This design would be absolutely spectacular done in gold materials.. The problem will be doing something like this and having it still be romantic.

So my brain will be mulling this over while running errands today and will take time this evening to do some sketches and hope the blocks come in today's mail...

To sum it all up I want to create a ROMANTIC all-over abstract design involving lots of movement and using lots of gold braids and cordings... I've always been a fanatic about working DYB blocks in harmony but I just love the concept of all I've described above and may just fall out of the box on these RRs.

Hope you check back and follow along...

Meanwhile we had another big blizzard Wednesday and my poor daffodils are desperately trying to bloom in 4" of new snow.

Probably my find for the year!!!

Indeed probably my find for the entire year and how timely and appropriate.  One of our local thrift stores has an "ethnic" rack which I always check because it occasionally has saris and various silk garments.  This was my find the other day.  With my coupon it was only $6.

It was two pieces.... a tunic and a pair of baggy pantaloons... It is all silk and all lined with silk.  The garment itself is completely hand stitched and the gold work sections look as they must have been  purchased  as panels. There are tucks at the bust line so I'm assuming it is for a women.

I have no idea from whence it came...  Can anyone help me with this?? I wish the photos could do it justice as the goldwork is breathtaking.  Except for the largest motifs at the bottom all the rest is very usable and I want to use some of the leaves in this RRs... Heck it it weren't so small I'd probably wear it!!!!