Quilted Fabric Coasters

Pieced Quilted Fabric Coasters

With the two big cross country moves the past two years I misplaced my lovely fabric coasters. Oh, they are somewhere. Most likely they are in a box in the storage unit that ended up being used far longer than I anticipated. So it felt like quite the score when I found six front pieces and a dozen flannel pieces cut and ready to be made into coasters once I cut the backing pieces.

The finished coaster is about 4" square. These were a way of using up scrap fabric. They could also be made with whole 4" squares for front and back with some quilting done to them. That would actually be a great way of practicing free hand quilting.

This dresser is in front of the window and despite my putting a folded blanket on top, I see a lot of cat claw scratches in the wood. I can picture him sliding across the top as he leaps from the bed. Silly cat.

I really do like these fabric coasters though. They work really well to protect furniture from cold, sweating glasses of iced delight. They can be tossed in the washing machine if they get dirty or spilled on.

I used flannel for inside. It's got a nice weight and still wicks away the moisture. If the coasters are too thick they might wobble and make it easier for a glass to tip over.

Cut 4 1/2" squares of backing fabric and 4 1/2" squares of flannel. For the top cut 4 1/2" square of a fun fabric or piece together a fun design, trimming to 4 1/2" square. The design pictured is a log cabin style piece.

Place piece of flannel down, put pieced (or front) piece right side up (wrong side against flannel), and backing piece right side down. The two fabric pieces should be right sides together. Sew around all sides, leaving about 2-3" gap for turning. Trim corners. Turn (stick finger between two pieces of fabric to turn.) right side out. Close gap while topstitching around. Quilt as desired. With this pattern I just wander along the edges of the pieced parts.

My Biga Bread

Living in the Midwest for so many years I did not realize that there are so many foods regional to certain areas, after all, we live in the era of national brands. So I was bummed that I could no longer find my favorite artisan Portuguese bread. Or even any Portuguese style bread. So I had to learn how to make it.

This bread has a crispy crust (without need of a water reserve in oven) and a delicate, earthy, firm, and airy inside. It's the best!

It take some time with the biga forming and dough rising but hands on work is only about 10-15 minutes maximum. So I consider it an easy recipe. Since the biga takes 10-12 hours and there's 3 hours rising time plus another half hour rising time, it is not a candidate for a last minute thing.

First, you will need a stand mixer to make this dough. The dough is a bit too runny and sticky to knead by hand and it's the stickiness that makes it good bread.

After much trial and tribulation, I came up with a great bread and this recipe makes a bread that is consistent. It does turn out better in the summer than winter but if your house or apartment kitchen is a bit chilly it will still work if you set the bowl somewhere warm to rise or allow extra time for it to rise.

Proofing yeast is always a good idea. Better to give the yeast a few minutes to prove it's viable than to go through all the time and work and find out it's not. It usually starts getting bubbly within a minute or two and then you'll know it's good.

Biga
1/4 tsp yeast
1/4 c lukewarm water
3/4 c flour

The biga is a bit like sour dough starter but only needs 10-12 hours to ferment to the right product.

To make the biga, mix the ingredients the night before baking. I usually make it Friday or Saturday night before going to bed or when I think of it before bedtime, so around 9:00-9:30 at night. It can go over 12 hours if needed.

In a glass bowl, add 1/4 tsp yeast to 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Proof yeast and stir in 3/4 c flour. It will be a bit stiff, like a scone batter. Cover tightly with Saran wrap and set on the counter overnight.

For winter biga, you can use 1/2 cup lukewarm water in the biga but then account for that extra liquid in rest of process.

In the morning (or whenever 12 hours later is) when you lift the saran wrap the big should be bubbly, be more liquid than solid, and smell fermented. It reminds me of the smell of beer the most. If it has that fermented smell then it's ready to go. If it doesn't, give it a few more hours. In the nearly 100 times I've made this bread the biga only failed once. I didn't even have to smell it before knowing that it had failed because it was still almost a solid clump and it had no bubbles or fermented smell when I lifted the saran wrap.

Bread
1 tsp yeast
water
1-2 tsp salt
3 c flour

Put 1/4 c lukewarm water in mixer bowl. Add 1 tsp yeast.
At this point you can proof the yeast by giving it 3-5 minutes to see if it starts activating. If it's viable and active it will start to bubble and move around a bit. By the time I prepare the biga to add it's usually long enough to see if it's viable.
Add 1/4 c water to biga and stir fairly well. (if you did the winter version with 1/2 c it will be runny enough not to need to add more water.)
Add biga to mixer bowl with 1/2 c water and 1-2 tsp salt
Add 2 c flour
Use paddle to mix. Start at low. Once flour is worked in, continue mixing on medium for 3-4 minutes.
The dough will look elasticy, long strands visible as the paddle moves through the dough.
Now switch to dough hook and add 1 c flour. Mix another 3-5 minutes. As the hook moves the dough it will grab the flour along the sides of the bowl. Once the sides are fairly free of flour and/or dough, it's done.
Coat a large bowl with some oil. I use olive oil but vegetable oil will due in a pinch. I use a big metal mixing bowl. Transfer dough into oil lined bowl, give it a flip so both sides are coated in oil. Use the Saran wrap from biga to cover dough. Let sit for about 3 hours until dough is tripled in size.
Start oven now. 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sprinkle some flour on baking sheet. Shape dough into loaf shape. Set on floured baking sheet and let rise for about 30 minutes. Oven should heat for that half hour so that it's hot when dough goes in.
Score top of loaf with knife. Two or three cuts across the top are good.
Bake for 35-40 minutes.
Bread will be golden brown and sound hollow when giving it a knuckle tap.
Let cool on rack.
It's tough to resist cutting into it too soon as it smells so good but wait at least an hour. It will still be warm enough to melt butter after an hour.

I have been meaning to share this recipe here for a long time and I always missed the whole loaf photo opportunity. So, here it is with half the loaf already eaten. :) Still looks good. It was another perfect loaf.

Adorable Owl Pattern Weight, Pin Cushion, or Door Stop Pattern Creation

This little owls are so adorable and so hard working in several roles. They are awesome pattern weights. They can be used as pin cushions. They make great door stops when sized up.

Let's start with creating the pattern for the pattern weight size owls. Any other size can easily be tweaked from this basic pattern with just a ruler.

The pattern pieces are simple to design yourself. You will need a 1/4th and a 1/12th piece of a 10" circle as well as two circles, one of 3" and one of about 1 1/2". That's all there is to it!

So, 1/4th of a circle has a 90 degree. That's a right angle. The 1/12th of a circle has a 30 degree. That's a little more complicated than 90 degrees but don't worry if you don't have a protractor handy, we can get there with some easy steps.

There are a couple ways to create the 1/4th and 1/12th of a circle pieces. Let's start with the one that requires little to no math and no figuring out angles.

Draw a 10" circle on an at least 12" square paper or card stock. I used a compass but you can use anything that is round with a 10" diameter. There's also the fail safe of tying a pen or pencil at one end of a piece of string or yarn and using that to draw a circle. It doesn't have to be exact, just close enough.

See the fold lines? Fold the paper in half. Unfold. Fold along the other half. This will give us our center point to put our compass or string/yarn at and will also provide cutting guides.

Use the fold lines as guides and cut out 4 quarters. Set aside one of the quarters. We now have the 1/4th circle pattern piece, which will be the owl's back and sides.

Now we need the piece that will be 1/12th of the circle. If we fold 1/4 in half we will have 1/8th of a circle. Fold the 1/8th size in half and we will have 1/16th of a circle, which is a step too far, since we want 12th. So will cut that small, last fold section off and we have 1/12th of a circle.

Now cut out a 1 1/2" circle and a 3" circle. These are the pattern pieces for the cardboard and the fabric that will wrap around the cardboard for the bottom of the owl.

You now have the 4 pieces necessary to make the owl pattern weights or a small pin cushion.

Mark down the center of the two body pattern pieces to note the fabric grain.

We can tweak the pattern a bit more.

You can fold the 1/4th of a circle in half again and cut along the fold line then mark one side as fold side and cut along folded fabric. This gives you a smaller pattern piece for storage and helps keep grain straight.

This will make small owls. Aren't they adorable? And so handy!

Other options using some math: use a protractor and make the sides as long as you want with a 90 degree center for the 1st pattern piece and 30 degree center for 2nd pattern piece. Use a compass or hand draw a circular edge between the two sides. So for the back owl piece, mark 5" up on the right side from the bottom right corner of a piece of paper and 5" to the left on the bottom of that same paper and draw an arc between the two. For the front owl piece, mark 5" up on the right side from the bottom right corner of a piece of paper and 5" 30 degrees to the left. If you don't want to do the math, don't worry about it, do it the easy way with some folding to get to where you want to go.

These little guys are easy enough to super-size.

Option 1: Create bigger circles to use as base for cutting the 1/4th and 1/12th of circle. (You only have to make 1/4th of a circle pieces with longer legs instead of a whole circle to save on paper.)

Option 2: Lay finished 1/4th and 1/12th of a circle pieces on larger paper or tissue paper and use ruler to extend sides to length desired. Just be sure that the legs are the same length and that the line connecting them is an arc.