Last October I shared here about an opportunity to make a quilt top for Hoffman Fabrics for their display at the upcoming Fall Quilt Market 2011.  I think I had about a week to get it done and mail it to their offices in Mission Viejo, CA so they in turn had time to get it quilted and bound before it left for Texas.

Latte Quilt

Here are the details:

I could tell by how it felt that it had a pretty thin hull and upon cutting it open I confirmed that thought but what caught me by surprise was the white inside.  Unfortunately I must tell you that the Lilac bell pepper didn't taste like much of anything.  No sweetness but no armpit taste either so the idea of using this raw in a salad was out, it would need to be cooked and seasoned.


Next up was grilling my chicken.  I wanted the chicken to cook evenly so I sliced each boneless chicken breast in half horizontally so I could have pieces that were all the same thickness.  The uniformity of the chicken makes grilling indoors so much easier as (theoretically) all of the pieces should be done at the same time.

Into another pan went onion, garlic to sweat for a while and then I threw in the bell peppers.  I let all cook together for about 10 minutes.  I was going for a modified ratatouille so I added in some tomatoes just before I plated my dinner.

I served my Cast Iron Grilled Chicken with Cavatappi  (a corkscrew shaped pasta with ridges) that had been lightly seasoned with olive oil and a bit of Parmesan cheese, and then covered with my Lilac ratatouille and a basil chiffonade from my garden.  Chiffonade is such a fun word - sounds so pretentious for thinly sliced basil.

Cast Iron Grilled Chicken with Lilac Ratatouille

Dinner was a success all around as it was light, well seasoned and contained a multitude of textures and flavors.

One last item for today  ~ my Latte Quilt came back to me yesterday via the UPS man. This was the quilt I made for Hoffman Fabrics  for Quilt Market in Houston, TX last year.  I'll have more on a future post about where it has been and where it is going (Giveaway opportunity!).

Latte Quilt 42" x 39"

I'm linking up with Debbie at her Tuesday at the {summer}Table feature today.

Enjoy your Tuesday!
Susan

For a friend

For me

Works in Progress: 
T-Shirt Quilt - earlier this week I was ready to start stitching up the t-shirt quilt.  The t-shirt blocks were squared up and ready to go and I decided to go through the solid Kona Light Grey fabric just to make sure those were squared up as well.  Well....they were NOT.  I had cut the Kona squares while I was sitting on the floor - big mistake.  (If you are a Stash Resolution Podcast listener - my title is respectfully taken from one of her segments in her show.)  All of the Kona squares are at least 1/2 inch off.  What the heck was I doing that night while cutting?  Must have been a rare night that I was actually watching what was on TV.   That project is back on hold until I have time to go buy more fabric.

Quilt for my best bud - Minimal cutting and no sewing.  Her birthday is coming soon so this needs to be first on my list for next week.

Latte Quilt update:  My quilt top has now been quilted by Nena of Nena's Quilt Shack and is now in Houston, TX!  I pulled this photo off the FB account Nena.  You can see the binding she sewed on the front.

Latte Quilt

I'm so anxious to see photos of the Latte Quilt up in the Hoffman Fabric's booth at Quilt Market.  

Please visit Lee at Freshly Pieced to see what others are working on this week.

Have a super fun Wednesday evening - wherever you are.
Susan

Earlier in October I posted a finished photo of Supernova to my Facebook account just for fun.  I received  great comments and congratulations on the finish from my friends and family but then was completely surprised by a comment from an old friend who works for Hoffman Fabrics. She asked if I would be interested in working on projects for Hoffman and if so would I come down to their headquarters to meet with them.

It could have stopped right there and I would have been fulfilled.  Seriously.  I felt so validated that my friend had thought enough of a photo on Facebook to ask me to work on projects for them.   Of course I said yes.

Last week I visited their headquarters in Mission Viejo, CA and had a tour of their warehouse full of fabrics - oh my goodness what a treasure trove of fabric.  I had no idea how gorgeous batik fabrics really were as I had not had any previous introduction to them.  As we walked by bolts and bolts of fabrics I kept thinking to myself how various fabrics could be made into skirts, bags and of course, quilts.  I was in heaven.

After viewing different "color stories" of fabrics, we chose a mixture of batiks and screen prints for me to make them a quilt  *drumroll please* for them to take to Quilt Market.  They are going to take my quilt and use it in their display for Quilt Market at the end of this month.  Well...first they have to like what I made:

Latte Quilt for Hoffman Fabrics

So what do you think?  I did not use a formal pattern but just took elements from what I see on blogs all the time to come up with a way to focus on the Hoffman screen prints with the batiks providing a highlight and frame.

While finishing up the Latte Quilt this morning I made Nutella Scones.

Nutella Scones

Thirty six wonderful comments...36.  All through the week I have enjoyed reading the comments as they have rolled in with descriptions of how you all discovered quilting.  Although the inspiration seems to come from many different sources, the common denominator was mother's and grandmother's and because I'm a total sucker for mother/grandmother connections I had to go with Allegory's comment:

For me, it was all my mother's fault. She would quilt while I was sewing clothes when I was in my teens. Fast forward 7 years and I'm bored sewing clothes so I call mom and ask her what it was she used to work on next to me.
I got a rotary cutter and some handwritten starter notes in the mail that week. ;)

Congratulations to Allegory for winning the $50.00 Fat Quarter Shop Gift Certificate.  Please visit Allegory at her blog {sew}Allegorical to see her quilting/crafting projects and to read about her hunt for Count Chocula cereal.  Too funny.

To continue on with the mother/grandmother theme, sometimes I have tea in the morning with my grandmother:

My grandmother's china cup with a Mr. Hunky Fireman mug rug that my mother would have LOVED.

Holiday Happy fabric by Happy Zombie