Thursday, June 04, 2009

Feathering & Canning

Feather, feathers and more feathers. Once I get started with the feathers, I can't stop! It's like eating potato chips - you can't just try one! Here is one of my demo pieces which I am still working away on. The feather quilting class yesterday went really well. These are the brave souls who were willing to try something new and put their machine quilting skills to the test.  They practised for a while with pencil and paper, and then progressed to quilt sandwiches....trying to convince their eyes and hands to cooperate together, and determining how fast they could drive the machine and still get some nice curves on the feathers.
In the class I took with Hilary Rice 2 weeks ago, she promised that anyone can be a good machine quilter once they've put in 1,000 hours of practise! So this group of quilters have already put in 4 hours and are well on their way!
Today I didn't have much time for quilting...I focused on tending to the "garden"...if you can call it that! Does this look like a vegetable plant to you?!?
Some green things are starting to appear...slowly, reluctantly. I'm still hopeful that I will actually have a vegetable garden this summer!
I spent a while pulling rhubarb (which I recently learned is not a fruit but is technically a vegetable!) and then worked on canning that rhubarb. With supervision from my friend Joanne, I managed to tackle 3 recipes - a rhubarb
 jam, a rhubarb blueberry jam, and a rhubarb relish, which I have wanted to try for a long time. It's a very old family recipe from a friend of mine and it is delicious. Once we recovered from the agony of peeling and chopping 5 quarts of onions, it was fun! It doesn't look very appetizing here in the cooking  pot, but believe me, it's amazing!
And here is the evidence of all that labour. No one can eat any of it for a while - until I am done enjoying the sight of it!

5 comments:

Clare said...

Oooh - rhubarb relish. Recipe please!

Bonnie said...

I just had a rhubarb- cherry pie. The recipe as given by the gal who made it: pie shell - top and bottom. I can of cherry pie filling -- you know the gloppy type? rhubarb is mixed with the filling, add 1/4 c sugar. Pour into prepared pie crust, put the top crust on and bake at a rather high temperature for a while. It was very tasty. If you like rhubarb and you like cherries this is the recipe for you! I would have preferred it slightly sweeter so I will put a bit more sugar in. She said she checked other recipes for temp and time. Now to find rhubarb. B.

Jean said...

Sounds good. I don't have any rhubarb, but do like it.

Your feathers look good and it looks like they are doing well.

Libby said...

Rhubarb - yummy *s* I wonder if I could slip some past the family. If they don't know what it is - they'll try it.

Greenmare said...

oh the feathers are GREAT!!! I just harveted all our rhubarb too, mine is in our tummies and some is cut up and in the freezer for later. now I'm waiting sooooooooo patiently for it to grow back