brrr...

Yesterday, I took a pic of flowers that I noticed during my trip to acquire a plier tool set. The temperature has dropped under 40°F. I made sure to bundle up with 3 layers and a big fluffy scarf! During my walk I saw these Japanese Anemones (thank you, google lens search.) The white lacey petals standing so tall and proud, reaching bravely for some warmth from the sun. I had to stop and admire.

This morning, we woke up to a dusting of snow. It felt so magical. And I enjoyed a few peeks at the neighborhood kids trying to gather up the snow with a shovel. It’s not even an inch high, they didn’t get much 🥹. But they were out there for the better part of an hour, scraping up as much as they could.

All the snow had melted by noon. We went out for lunch at a Mexican restaurant that’s new to us. 

I got a pic of my Heartbeat’s lunch, but I had already started eating mine by the time I thought to get pics.

The food was delicious authentic Mexican. 

The song  "Volver Volver" was playing. I always want to sing along on the chorus... 

"y volver, volver, volver, a tus brazos, otra ves..." 

For some reason I think it was one of my mom's favorites, but possibly it's really one of my favorites!

I felt so comfortable in this restaurant, that I talked to the staff about my difficulty finding lard. They gave me suggestions were to look. But then the chef offered some of the manteca that they save from cooking. I don't know if it will be good for the biscochitos, but it will be great for tortillas!! I feel there might be homemade breakfast burritos in my near future!! 

I have a little sad news today. 

I had started knitting this scarf years ago and found it again when organizing my studio to be packed up. I thought it would be perfect to carry in my luggage and be one of the projects I work on while waiting for my stash to be delivered. 

I needed a break from knitting the zig-zag scarf, so picked this one up and knitted 2 repeats of the pattern. I just couldn't go any further. I now realize why I probably stopped stitching on it in the first place. 

first, the pattern uses the stitch "p2tog tbl" 

oh, I don't like that stitch. It's just breaks the knitting rhythm because it's very awkward. Though, it does get easier with use, so a pattern with that stitch isn't an instant deal breaker.

It was the bumps in the texture of the knitted fabric. Even imagining it stretched and blocked couldn't convince me to continue. So I frogged it. I removed the needles and "rip'it, rip'it" was the sound it made as the yarn was pulled from the fabric. 

This weather has me wishing for a soft fluffy sweater to wrap myself in. I'm going to go look for a sweater pattern. 

Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you are warm where ever you happen to be. See you soon!!

Sometimes it's the little things that you take for granted...

Hello!! Wow! I can't believe it's been the better part of a year since I last posted a blog update!

2025 has been very eventful for my little family. The biggest news is that my Heartbeat and I traded in our cowboy boots for wooden clogs. We now live in the Netherlands!! (Well, I am bringing my boots and the wooden clogs that my Heartbeat gave me 8 years ago are for decoration and not to wear. So it's a figurative trade. I like saying it.)

Usually the first question people ask when they hear we've made this move is "How do you like it?"  However, I don't feel I can give a solid answer. 
I love it here, but I have a lot to learn!

We moved into our new house about 2 weeks ago. It's a 3 level townhouse. I love that one of it's features is floor to ceiling windows on both the front and the back. And there is a fairly big terrace on the top floor, right next to where my studio will be. I can stitch out on the terrace once I get it set up! How lovely does that sound?! (When it warms up though, the temperature has dropped in the last couple days.)

The house is completely unfurnished. We have some things being shipped to us from the U.S. but not much furniture. Most of the electronics were left behind because of the different voltages. What I am bringing is my 30+ year curated fabric stash, sewing machines, and a few kitchen things. The expected delivery is mid-December. That's still a month away!

If you have ever furniture shopped, you know that it's going to take some shopping around! We are slowly getting a feel for the furniture that we want. Items are ordered from different stores. Some get delivered in a just few days, some items won't come until February! I feel like we are camping out in our house. We started out with a mattress and two lawn chairs from the thrift store! The house was really bare for the first week or so. 

The spiral stairs is pretty neat too 🥰.

Anyway, to make a long story short, setting up house is going to take some time. I know this. I knew it when we packed up. However, I am just beginning to realize it now. I really didn't consider that we wouldn't have utensils, plates, pots.... Well, you'll see. Here's the story that inspired me to log into my blog again...

Making biscochitos has been on my mine. On the first day that my Heartbeat went to work, his co-workers welcomed him with a basket of favorite Dutch treats. There was a bag of ginger cookies, a chocolate "V" (for his name) that is a traditional holiday treat, something similar to a fudge bar (I'm sorry, I don't remember what it was), a bottle of really good beer, and these very popular Drop candies (pronounced with a long ō sound), that tastes like licorice.

It's the Drop that had me to wanting to make these particular cookies, Biscochitos are made with anise which has a similar licorice taste. We are having lunch with the boss today, I thought I might bring a little treat for him and his wife... And so, here is my biscochito making journey:

I ended up making 3 trips to the grocery store today. Here's a snapshot from the walk on the first trip. It's about 1:30 in the afternoon, a nice cool day. Not many people out and about in this part of town at the momet. I like how the street looks with the church at the end.

I found most of the items on the ingredients list. However, biscochitos are made with lard, which isn’t as popular here. The first store didn’t have it. Back home to unload groceries.

Around 4 p.m., I went to another store and found “frituurvet” which is frying fat. Looking online, I figured that’s gotta be fairly close to lard. When I got home, I opened the package to get a better idea. It is a bit more solid than the Crisco bars I used in the states. I decided that it'll do.

After dinner,  about 7 p.m., I get all the ingredients out and noticed that I was missing vanilla. So back to the store for the third time. 

Now, with all ingredients, I had to use a wok and a pan as mixing bowls because I have two sets being shipped with our house hold stuff and I don’t need to get more! (Yes, I’m being stubborn like that. I think I can wait it out!)

But then… “cream lard and sugar until smooth”… omg, I don’t have a mixer yet either 🤦🏽‍♀️. I creamed hard lard and sugar with my hands. and mixed all ingredients the same way. It was tough but I eventually had the dough to the right consistency.

Next, it was time to roll out the dough and guess what?!? I don’t have a rolling pin (also in the shipment) or a cookie cutter!! 😂🤪 omg, I’m a mess. But I’ve already gotten this far. 

Rolling the dough into individual cookie balls and smashing them is the only option. Smashing the ball made the edges crack but a few taps around the edge got them back together. 

Then I sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on top the cookies and popped them in the oven. While the first batch baked I smashed the next batch of balls. Then while the first batch was cooling down, I started cleaning up the mess and putting the ingredients away.

Guess which ingredient was on the table still wrapped with its store packaging?? … the vanilla! The ingredient I had to make a third trip back to the store. Yes, that one! I didn’t add it to the dough! Good grief!! 

In the end, these biscochitos are still tasty, good enough for me and my Heartbeat, but I won’t be sharing any with our Dutch friends tomorrow like I had hoped.  And it was a good run through. I learned a few more Dutch pantry items. And I believe my next purchase will very likely be a mixer or a blender. I am NOT going to “cream lard and sugar until smooth” by hand again!!

Thanks for sharing my biscochito making journey with me and reading this far. Here's the biscochito recipe that I have used for at least 30+ years during the holidays.

And I hope this update has broken my blogger dry spell. See you soon!!

A Piece of Whimsy

Wow! It is at the end of January already! Where does time go?

In 2024 I had been posting a picture on IG/FB every day of what brings me joy. Most of my photos focused on stitching but I did sneak in a few personal moments as well. Four months had been dedicated to hand quilting a special quilt. That took priority over all other stitching activities. I did manage to make some quilt tops and try out new techniques. But I think the hand quilted quilt was the only one that was completed with binding and label!

My intentions for 2025 is to be blogging more. Post what I'm working on. I intend to figure out and draft patterns for myself.  I want to share my process with you.

I'm excited to start with A Piece of Whimsy! Neither the technique nor the design is original. I saw a pattern by Christine Vlasic called In The Red. I believe that pattern is for hand piecing and uses octagons and squares. I love to hand piece but I needed this quilt top much faster than I could piece it by hand. I haven't read the In the Red pattern, only the description of it. If you are craving some hand-piecing you should look it up and purchase the pattern! It lends itself well to having scrappy background squares!

But like I said, I needed this quilt faster, so I drafted the blocks with snowball units using the flip and snip method.  I wanted to start with 5" squares, then settled on 2" squares for the flip and snip corners.

I wrote a pattern that doesn't included diagrams (because I don't know how to make diagrams for patterns easily yet) however, at the moment that gives me incentive to write a blog update and here we are! 

Here is the PDF version: A Piece of Whimsy PDF

A Piece of Whimsy

by Naomi Perry

finished size: approx 36.5" x 45.5"

Fabric requirements:

(20) 10” squares assorted prints and colors
(or equivalent to (4) 5” squares of same print)
1 yard accent color

Cutting:

(4) 5” squares from each of the assorted 10” square
- for a total of 20 sets of (4) 5” squares
(320) 2” squares from accent color

(Each block requires (4) 5" squares and (16) 2" background squares.)

Instructions:

(Press all seams open to reduce bulk.)

Mark a diagonal line on all 2” accent squares.

Snowball method for blocks:

Working with 1 set of (4) 5” squares -

Place a 2” square on a corner of a 5” square with right sides together and with diagonal line across corner.

Stitch just to the side of the drawn line on the corner side to account for fabric folding over the seam.

I may have stitched a touch too far, but I wanted you to see the stitching is not exactly on the line.

Test for accuracy by folding 2” square to the outside corner, creating a corner triangle. 

• If the folded triangle overlaps the corner too much, restitch closer to the diagonal line. Test again before trimming.
• If the folded triangle is too short to cover the corner, unstitch and restitch a little more to the outside corner. Test again before trimming.
  

If it covers the outside corner just right, unfold the 2” square, then trim the extra fabric to a 1/4” seam allowance. 

Repeat on all corners of the 5” square. Press seams open.

Repeat for remaining 5” squares.

Assemble block:

Arrange sets into a 4-patch block.

Stitch 2 together matching seams to make a top row.

Stitch 2 together matching seams to make a bottom row.

Then stitch the rows together doing your best to match seams.

I felt matching the very center intersection was the most important seam to match. Don't fret over the diagonal seams too much.

Assemble quilt top:

Arrange blocks into 5 rows of 4 blocks.

Stitch blocks into rows.

Then stitch rows together matching seams.

And there it is! Make a sandwich with backing and batting. Quilt as you like!

Thank you for having a look. I have not had a tester yet. If you make A Piece of Whimsy, would you let me know how it went? Or leave a comment if you have any questions.