Finally Finished!

Well, it's been a long time coming, but my Easy Street quilt (Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery) is finally finished.  100% finished.  As in, going through the washing machine so I can sleep under it tonight FINISHED.

Woo hoo!!!

I'm so happy!  And it's done just in time for our hot weather.  I used plain cotton fabric for the backing and wool batting.  Wool is great for summertime quilts as it is lightweight and breaths well, it's not really hot at all.

Whoops, there went the buzzer on the washing machine.  Time to move this baby over to the dryer!

2013 Hippie Chick

Today, I ran in the 2013 Hippie Chick all womens' race.  There are Half and Quarter Marathon options, I ran the Quarter.  That's 6.55 miles for any non-runners out there.  :)

It was a great day for a race.  It started out on the cool side with a bit of cloud cover... a day made to order for a race.  It was nice to not be too hot while running.  The race course was also very well planned, over mostly flat country and on roads that offer at least some shade from time to time.  Towards the end of the race, as the temperature was rising, one of the volunteers even had a hose out and was spraying runners as they ran by.  I took advantage of that myself, and it felt good!

All the ladies were so supportive of everyone too, which was awesome.  I got a high-five from someone I didn't even know!  We were all cheering for each other and encouraging each other... which is yet another reason why I love this race.

Except for the three water stations where I walked (so I could drink the water instead of spilling it all down my front LOL), I ran the entire race.  I didn't have any IT band pain either, so my Rumble Roller (a.k.a the Medieval Torture Device) plus all the stretching and cross training are doing their jobs.  Towards the end I could tell they were getting a bit tight, so I did some butt kicks and that stretched them just enough to ease the tension I was feeling.

So, now for the important parts:  Times and statistics!  The race was timed with chips, these are the official numbers off the race website.

Finishing time (per my chip): 1:07:36
Finishing place overall (for the Quarter Marathon):  207th out of 1056 participants
Finishing place for my age bracket (for the Quarter Marathon):  41st out of 166

I really want to do the Half Marathon next year.  Hopefully my good luck with training, cross training, and stretching/rolling will continue and I'll be able to get there without injuring myself again and setting my training behind.

Iced Lemon Pound Cake

I used to love going to Starbucks to get a mocha and a slice of their iced lemon pound cake.  Lemon is one of my favorite flavors.... right up there with chocolate LOL.  But when I had to go Gluten Free for my health, that meant no more iced lemon pound cake.

Or so I thought.

Last year I stumbled across a Gluten Free buttermilk pound cake recipe that is so good, you would never know it wasn't "normal".  And just recently, one of my favorite Gluten Free cookbook authors posted to her website her version of a copycat recipe for Starbuck's iced lemon pound cake.

From Elizabeth Barbone at Serious Eats: Gluten-Free Tuesday: Buttermilk Pound Cake
From Nicole Hunn at Gluten Free on a Shoestring: Gluten Free Starbuck's Iced Lemon Pound Cake

I had a lightbulb moment.

Could I combine these recipes to get the texture I'd come to love from the first recipe, with the flavors promised by the second recipe?

I decided to give it a try.  And I am VERY pleased with the results.

I used the pound cake recipe from Serious Eats, adding the zest from one Meyer lemon and 1 Tbsp of juice from the lemon, and reducing the amount of buttermilk by 1 Tbsp to keep the amount of liquid in the recipe constant.  The result is a moist cake with a wonderfully light texture.  I decided against using the True Lemon crystalized lemon used in the Gluten Free on a Shoestring recipe because I wanted the lemon flavor in the cake itself to be subtle.

I then used the glaze recipe from Gluten Free on a Shoestring, but for whatever reason it just wasn't turning into a glaze.  Maybe it just was too dry in my house, because I ended up with a lump of sticky stuff in the center of my whisk and a lot of dry powdered sugar left in the bowl.  So I added some milk to it, just added a splash here and there until I could finally get the lump in the whisk to dissolve and the powdered sugar all incorporated.  At this point the glaze was too loose, so I added more powdered sugar a little at a time until I got the consistency I wanted: thick!  Heck, it was so thick I thought I was going to break my whisk!  But I wanted the icing to stay put and not run off the top of the cake, so this was perfect.

Here's my modified version of Iced Lemon Pound Cake!

Cake Ingredients:
* 5 ounces white rice flour (yes, weigh it out!)
* 2¾ ounces sweet rice flour
* 1½ ounces cornstarch
* 1½ tsp baking powder
* ½ tsp salt
* ½ tsp xanthan gum
* zest from 1 Meyer lemon
* 1½ sticks butter, at room temperature
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 2 eggs, at room temperature
* 1 cup buttermilk, minus 1 Tbsp
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 Tbsp juice from Meyer lemon

Cake Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Prepare a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust with white rice flour.  Set pan aside for now.

Note: I actually used a pan that is 8½" x 4½" (not 9" x 5") because gluten free baked goods have a hard time holding their shape... due to lack of gluten.  The slightly smaller pan size allows the cake to hold its shape better.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the rice flours, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, and lemon zest.  Set aside.

3. Using the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.  Stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once or twice during this process.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl after each egg is incorporated.

5. Set your stand mixer to its lowest setting and add half the flour mixture, and once incorporated, add half the buttermilk.  Once they are completely integrated, turn up the speed to medium for about 1 minute, then stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Repeat this process with the remaining flour mixture and buttermilk.

6. Finally, add the vanilla extract and lemon juice.  Start with the mixer at its lowest setting until loosely incorporated, then mix at medium speed for 1 minute to fully combine all ingredients.

7. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan.  Bake for 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.

8. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack.  Allow cake to cool completely before icing.

Here is my lovely cake, fresh out of the pan and cooling on a wire rack.  I just LOVE that golden brown color!

Glaze Ingredients:
* 1½ cups powdered sugar
* 1/8 tsp salt
* 3 to 4 tsp juice from Meyer lemon
* 1-2 Tbsp 2% milk

Glaze Directions:
1. Combine powdered sugar and salt in a medium bowl.

2. Add the lemon juice and 1 Tbsp of milk and whisk together.  Add additional milk until glaze reaches a thick yet spreadable consistency... it should not want to drip off your whisk.

3. Spread the glaze evenly over the top of your lemon pound cake.  Allow to set (if you can) before slicing.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.  Happy baking!

Making Easy Street: I'm done!!

 

Woo hoo!  I prevailed!  I am finished piecing Easy Street, which has a new nickname: "The Bohemouth" LOL.  Honestly, this project reminded me why I don't do many King quilts.  The borders alone took longer to make and attach than assembling the center did.  :)  That said, however, I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out and I can't wait to finish it and put it on my bed.

But it's done.  Yay!  Backing is ordered.  Yay!  It'll go to the quilter sometime in February.  Yay!  Now that it's pieced and ready for quilting, I don't have it hanging over my head.  And now I can move on to other projects that need doing.

I loved the unexpected pop of color with Bonnie's choice of red-violet inner border, so I kept to that idea for my quilt, though my inner border is more of a magenta.  I knew that I wanted to add in a pieced border, and since we had used 4-patch blocks in the center of the quilt, I thought I'd use them again in a border.  The final border is a print that I fell in love with as soon as I saw it.

Isn't that fabric just gorgeous?  It has purple and teal in it, so it works beautifully with the fabrics in the center.  And it has just a bit of that magenta as well, so it ties in nicely with the inner most border.  It's like this fabric was designed specifically for my quilt.  I love it when that happens.  :)  Can you believe it took almost 3 yards of material for that outer border?  Whew!

 

Here is a close-up of the borders.  I'm really liking how they play together.  I was originally going to use my leftover grey for binding, but now I'm thinking teal would fit the bill better.  What do you think?

And now, it's time for my machine to go to the "machine spa".  She's squeaking from all the work she's done... then again, she's due for her annual cleaning and oiling anyway.  She's been my trusty quilting companion for at least 12 years, and all she's ever needed was regular maintenance.  I do most (all) my piecing on my Juki TL-98E.  She only does straight stitch, but she does it very well... and I can't live without my automatic thread cutter!  :)

Making Easy Street: Clue 8 Day 3

I did it!  I managed to assemble the center of the quilt.  I'm sorry, this isn't the best photo in the world, but I don't have any place to lay it out and get the entire quilt pictured.  And the lighting is terrible too, but what can you do?  I live in Oregon, it's grey and dreary most of the winter.  :)

Next step: shop for border fabrics!  I've designed borders to bring this sucker up to a King size quilt.  Yes, I'm crazy LOL.  One of the borders will be pieced, so it will keep the spirit of the crazy busy center.  The other two will be plain and simple fabrics, but I'm hoping to find ones that will be able to stand on their own against the center.  I do like the pop of red-violet that Bonnie added to her quilt as an inner border, so I'll be keeping that idea. You can see her finished quilt here.

I'll also need backing.  I hope to find a WIDE backing material that will be big enough, wish me luck!

And while I'm waiting for the border fabrics to be washed, I will begin on my next commission quilt.  Honestly, I should be able to piece it in a day or two, so there's no big pressure there.  :)

Did you work on Easy Street?  How are you coming along with it?  I must say, I don't like assembling on-point quilts, though I love the way they look once finished.  I'm glad I "suffered" through this one LOL.

Edit 01/03/13 4:13 pm:

I went shopping today for border fabrics.  Here's a photo of the quilt center laid out with the fabrics I chose.  The second border will be pieced with teal and green (at least that's the current plan LOL), and the pink is mirrored in the outermost border fabric... the tips of the stamen coming out of the flowers are the same pink.  More photos to come as the border is created and added!  :)

Making Easy Street: Clue 8 Day 2

More progress has been made on Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Easy Street!  Yesterday, I managed to finish all 16 of Block A.  Today I started in on making all 9 of Block B.

Like with Block A, I began Block B by laying out all the pieces I would need.  I needed to cut more of the green 3½" squares, I was short by 24, but that was easy.  :)

Then I got to work.  This block went together quickly (relatively speaking).  There were fewer blocks to make, plus I already knew the order in which I wanted to sew the units together, so there was less head scratching and more sewing going on.  Even with a 2-hour break for lunch and other obligations, I was able to finish all of my B blocks while there was still sunshine!

Of course, I had to see how my A and B blocks played together, so I laid one next to the other.

Oh wow.  There was still sunlight, and after seeing this, I couldn't just pack it up for the night.  So I began to assemble the top.  I decided to make it in two halves and then join them in the middle, like Bonnie recommended.  These blocks are huge, but that makes them come together pretty quickly.  This is as much as I was able to complete before it was time to cook dinner.  I have two of these units, only one is pictured.

I'm liking this more and more!  Originally I was going to make this for my daughter.  But she has two (or is it three?) quilts that I've alread made for her... which she doesn't use.  She prefers the zebra print fuzzy blanket she found at Target.  OK well, since this is going to be pretty big already, I'm just going to make it BIGGER so it will work on my King bed.

Tonight I will design up some additional borders to increase the size of this quilt to a good sized King quilt.  Tomorrow I will finish assembling the blocks, but then I need to take a break to do a commission quilt.  That one will be SUPER easy, especially compared to this project LOL.  Once it is done, I can get back to finishing up this quilt.  Don't worry, I'll share photos once it's done.  :)

Making Easy Street: Clue 8 Day 1

Clue #8 is the final clue in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Easy Street.  She wasn't kidding that we'd be having a rapid-fire finish!  Whoa.  Yesterday she published Clue #7, and I managed to get that done.  So was I totally wrong in thinking I could finish Clue #8 in one day?

Well.  Either I underestimated the amount of work in this final clue, or I overestimated my ability and speed at which I could assemble these blocks.  Probably a good helping of both LOL.  I had originally wanted to finish this clue today.  But as I got started and began to understand the true amount of work involved, I thought I would just finish all 25 blocks (16 of Block A and 9 of Block B).  Around lunch time I realized that I'd be lucky to finish just the 16 of Block A by the time I had to cook dinner.  I was right!  After starting at around 9:00 am, I finished the last block just before 5:00 pm.  Whew!  And I promise I didn't goof off.  Much.  :)

I began the day by laying out the units needed for Block A.  We had to make 16 of this block.

Here are the pieces for all 16 blocks, all laid out.  If you take a moment to consider the size of these blocks, you'll understand why it took so long.  Each block is comprised of 25 units, requiring 24 seams to finish the assembly.  Yes, I counted.  I'm a geek that way.  :)

I started sewing.  I sewed and I sewed, taking a breaks for lunch and the bathroom as the need arose.  I checked my email a few times (there wasn't much) and my Facebook account (things were pretty quiet there too).  Mostly I just sewed.  And sewed.  And pressed.  And sewed some more.

But I did it!  Here is one of my finished "A" blocks.  I was hurrying to get this one finished so I could take a photo before the daylight had faded too far.  The photo at the top of the blog shows the pile of all 16 blocks.

Whew!  I'm liking how this is turning out, even though it is a lot of work.  I was going to make this for my daughter, but now I'm thinking that maybe I should just add the borders, make it King sized, and use it for myself.  I mean, every bed in this house EXCEPT mine has a homemade quilt on it.  I think it's time my husband and I had a quilt of our own, don't you?  :)

Tomorrow I'll begin working on the Block B units.  There are only 9 of those... but as I was laying them out tonight, I discovered that I'm short on green squares.  I'll need to cut 24 more before I can assemble those blocks.  That's OK, I'll do it in the morning.  Right now, I'm pooped.  Have a great night!