Quilt Design II

This is one of my favorite designs for the quilt squares that we're coloring for our wall-hanging, paper quilt.  It's also one of the most difficult to explain.  But here goes.

The name of this design is called Rick's Paradox and is done within a triangle.  The first four triangles in the example show the progression of the design, while triangle #5 shows the finished design.  You begin, as shown in triangle #1 by drawing a straight line from one of the sides down to a corner.  Next, turn the triangle and draw another line from the next side down to the corner.  The red lines in the drawings show the line that's added.

Turn the triangle once again and draw your third line, always bringing your new line to a point against the previous line.  Continue turning and drawing lines until you come to the middle.  As you can see in sketch #5, the design looks as if it is a swirl design in spite of the fact that the entire design is made up of straight lines.

A nice size for the triangle would be about 5x5 or larger.   While some residents might become proficient at drawing the design, others might color it in a two or three color pattern.  A great addition to a wall-hanging quilt.

Cork Trivets

Three Trivets

In the past we've made cork trivets for our arts and crafts group.  The first time we purchased the wooden frames, which were a bit pricey.  The second time we had a generous volunteer, handy with woodworking, who said he could whip up the frames in no time.  That he did but declared that the job was a bit tedious and required way too much time.


But being the recipient of a multitude of corks from a local restaurant I knew there had to be an easier and less pricey way to do the project.  So I got out my favorite adhesive, gloss gel, and wondered if I could simply stick the corks together without a frame.  Voila!  It really works.

Trivet Done in a Pattern

I simply put a nice dab of gloss gel on the parts of the corks that would be touching and they stuck together quite nicely.  Next I let the trivet dry for a few days.  As I final step I'm going to gloss gel them to a base of cardboard, perhaps covered with a nice wallpaper scrap.  I also have some thin pieces of cork tile that might work as a base and give the trivet a little more stability.  An easy project and a delightful way to spend some time together!

Fennel, Optional

First I'm going to give you the original recipe, which is so delicious and easy.  Then I'm going to give you the options.  The reason that there are options is because I went to the produce department of our local grocer and asked if they had any fennel.  The person in charge looked at me as if I had just asked for the head of a walrus on a platter.  No, you won't find fennel in every produce department.  When you do, however, it makes one tasty summer salad.


Ingredients:
  1 bulb of fennel, sliced thin
  1 small red onion, sliced thin
  olive oil
  balsamic vinegar
  1/2 to 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Simply place the thinly sliced fennel and red onion on a plate, sprinkle with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and top with the Parmesan cheese.  I have made this original version as listed above and it's delicious.  But not every dish works out as planned

One particular day I couldn't find fennel, or the head of a walrus, so I used napa cabbage.  You could also use regular cabbage but I like the mild flavor of napa cabbage.  Also, I had planned to make a meal out of this salad so I began with a layer of lettuce from the garden before I put down the napa cabbage and red onion.  And finally, to give the dish a bit of color, I added some slices of tomato, which look amazingly like red pepper in the picture.  Actually, almost any veggie would be lovely.

For the non-vegetarians a bit of chicken or tuna or crispy bacon could be added.  

Enjoy!


 

Thinking Inside the Box

Here's another group of designs that can be used for a paper quilt wall hanging.  All of them are based on a checkerboard design with slight variations on that simple pattern.  These variations can create more interesting and sometimes challenging patterns which allows for participation at various skill levels.

The most basic checkerboard design shown is made more complex by doing an X pattern with a second color inside the uncolored squares.  For even greater complexity sections of the X squares can be colored in, which was done in some of the sample squares.

The dark blue pattern is simply straight horizontal lines intersected by wavy vertical lines.  The green and blue design has the vertical lines going off at a slant.  Both of these designs provide larger spaces for coloring in but could be made more challenging by drawing the lines closer together.

The orange designs has both the horizontal and the vertical lines drawn on a slant, with the white space decorated with a circle.  Triangles, squares, stars, or simple stamps could also be used to decorate the uncolored squares. 

The sample shown is simply a piece of card stock divided in four with designs made with markers.   Remember to keep it simple, create community as you create your designs, and sometimes know that it's alright to think inside the box.

2011.5

Yes, it's half way through 2011 and many of us have conveniently forgotten our New Year's resolutions.  So maybe it's time for a 2011.5 resolution.  I was inspired along this train of thought by a TED video.  Have you discovered Ted.com yet?  Give it a look.

This week on TED a video by Matt Cutts urges viewers to try something new for 30 days.  Cutts goes through his own list of new adventures.  He wrote a novel, which is basically a 50,000 word book, which comes out to less than 1700 words a day for 30 days.  Cutts says that his novel is no good, but he now has the right to introduce himself as a novelist rather than a computer scientist.

Other adventures on Cutts list included riding his bike to work for 30 days, not eating sugar for 30 days, and taking a picture every day for 30 days.  The gist of the presentation is that small changes are sustainable, so it's possible to do just about anything that you've always wanted to do for a period of 30 days.

My 30 day goal?  I also watched a TED video that said that people who announce their goals are less likely to do them.  I'll let you know in 30 days.