Quilt gallery in progress

I’ve been working on a piece called “My Dream Quilt Gallery.” I did not make the Quilt Art deadline – April 15th, due to major distractions in my life. However, I am having such fun working on this little quilt and I will keep on going.
The quilt will feature some of my favorite quilts by my internet friends. From left to right: Terry Grant’s “Patron Saint” (above), Tanya Brown’s “Imp,” Diane Hock’s “King Tut,” Gerry Congdon’s “Growing Season,” my “Delta Sunset,” Del Thomas’ “Calm in Chaos,” and Kay Sorensen’s “Colors of My Life 7.” The quilts are printed on fabric and are ready to be appliquéd on the walls. The quilters all gave me permission to reproduce their quilts in this small format.

The gallery part of the quilt is only 15 inches wide. It will have a ceiling above and a wood floor below. I am thinking about making it a circle quilt.

On March 9 I posted an image of a gallery I found on the web where you can insert your own art work. That was the inspiration for this idea.

Jam session

It was the day to hand down a family tradition. Robert has been making strawberry-pear jam for many years. We first tasted it in a little restaurant in Nevada City, California and loved it. They didn’t have any jars for sale so Robert came home and invented his own recipe. A year or so ago, our grandson, Spencer, pronounced it “the best jam I’ve ever tasted in my life.”

Spencer and his brother Victor came to visit yesterday. Robert had baked fresh bread in the morning and we needed jam to go on it. The boys helped chop up the strawberries and pears. They set the pot on the stove and Robert poured in the sugar and turned on the heat. They stirred it and watched the candy thermometer climb up slowly.

Spencer took notes and wrote everything down in his cell phone. The boys tested the jam frequently to see if it had thickened to the right stage.

It is a refrigerator jam. It is kept covered in the refrigerator, not sealed in a jar. We eat it up so fast that it would be a big waste of time to go through the sealing process. Spencer took a small bowl home with him. Now he is the official keeper of the jam tradition.

I put up Robert’s recipe for a very similar jam on my blog in August, 2007. Click here and you can use the recipe, but substitute strawberries for the blackberries.

Quilted Easter egg

You can make an Easter egg with your own quilt or block. It’s fun. Go to http://www.dumpr.net/ and pick out the egg shape. Upload a photo of a quilt or block and they will make it into a decorated egg for free.

I used my Sun Rays block from last September. You can use it for your egg if you want to. Click here.

Happy Easter to you.