Crunchy Chili Beans

After both Buck and I had our gastric bypass surgery, we ate a lot of chili. One cup was a meal and left us feeling satisfied for a long time. I made a big batch of chili in the slow cooker about every week to ten days and we ate it one to two times a day.

That all changed when I managed to get hold of the crunchy chili beans. I was buying my pinto beans at Costco--25 pound bags at a time--then filling every empty food storage container I could find. I tried to keep two bags ahead, part of that food storage thing. However, one bag I bought was full of beans that would not soften when cooked. Even after twelve hours of cooking, when everything else that made up the chili was cooked to death, the beans were chewy.

Buck does not like the crunchy beans. He kept telling me to cook them longer. It made no difference. Then he  insisted that they were too old and I need to throw them out. I was tempted to do that until I made a batch of chili with beans I found hidden far back in my cabinet that were marked as having been purchased months earlier than the crunchy beans. Those beans cooked up nice and soft in no time at all.

I made chili a month ago and the beans were crunchy. Dang! Thought I already used up all those crunchy beans! After the first night, Buck wouldn't touch the chili. I ended up eating the rest of the batch by myself.

Monday I pulled out beans to soak, thinking Hooray! now all the old beans are gone for sure because I used the last of them a month ago. Buck looked at the beans and announced that they were awful dark. Must be too old. He wanted me to throw them out. I retrieved another container of beans. They were less dark and were dated for three months earlier. The more I thought about it, the "too old" theory did not add up for me. I insisted that the beans were not crunchy because they were too old but because we got a bad batch of beans. Maybe they were harvested too soon or something.

Besides, I was pretty sure I already used up the last of the crunchy beans. Then again, maybe this last jug of crunchy beans escaped my notice last month and had since jumped to the front of my cupboard. To appease Buck, I put the less dark but older beans on to soak.

Buck didn't like the idea of using the older beans. He was sure I was soaking more crunchy beans. He proposed a contest. He suggested I take two cups from the darker beans that are dated more recently and put them on to soak, too, and cook up two batches of chili at the same time.

Throughout the day, the beans from the newer, darker in color batch, the ones I suspected just might be the last holdouts from the crunchy beans, soaked up to double their size. The other beans, not so much. Buck was sure the ones that swelled up the most were non-crunchy beans. I suspected just the opposite. I wanted the opposite to be true because I found about 10-12 pounds of those beans tucked away in the back of another cupboard.

Yesterday I cooked both batches of beans into chili. The older beans, the ones I still have lots of, cooked up nice and soft within 5-6 hours. The newer, darker beans I cooked and cooked and cooked ad nauseum.  

The good news is, the bulk of the beans I have left cook up to be soft. The bad news is, I won the contest by demonstrating that it was not because the beans were too old; they were just destined to be CRUNCHY!!! --the bad news part being that I have a choice of throwing out that batch of chili or, once again, eating it all by myself.

Yes, I kept the crunchy chili separate from the chili with the soft beans, and yes, I will end up eating the crunchy chili all by myself because I am too cheap to toss something that, other than being a little chewy, is perfectly good food. However, I think the rest of the beans that cook up crunchy are going to go into homemade heating pads for my back and neck.

Going Batty

No, I am not referring to my mental state. Nor am I gearing up for Halloween.

Last Monday the Gateway Quilter's Guild hosted Denise Mullenix from Fremont as our guest speaker. Her topic was quilt batting. I took copious notes, but hope the other member who said she would write a recap of the information for our next "Threads That Bind" newsletter comes through, because I know there were a few details I missed.

One issue Denise covered was shrinkage after washing. Her research shows that the Warm & Natural and Warm & White that is 80% cotton-20% polyester averages 3% shrinkage. A 100% cotton bat averages 5%.

With that news about the shrinkage, I started sweating bullets about the bat I have already cut for the quilt I am making for the wounded soldiers project the guild is sponsoring. The dimensions are to be 48" by 68" to fit a gurney or hospital bed. I already preshrunk some of the fabric I plan to use and I already cut out a section of the Pellon 100% cotton batting 50 inches wide because I know that the quilting process often takes up the width and height by about a half-inch to an inch. So, if there was going to be 5% shrinkage in that cotton batting, my width might end up only being 47-1/2 inches and my finished quilted width even less.

Denise quoted the "manufacturer's recommended" instructions for pre-washing batting that included putting it in a bathtub with hot water, gently wringing it out and then laying it flat to dry. She also mentioned that a wet king-size bed quilt batting is a lot of weight to wring out plus she personally has no place in her house big enough to lay flat something that size. (Join the club, Denise.) She uses a commercial steamer-pressing machine she purchased to shrink her batting. I can't help but wonder how much space that baby takes up.

A guild member who has been quilting for years spoke up to say that she pre-washes her quilt batting in the washing machine on gentle and then drys it on gentle and they turn out fine.

To find out if my batting would shrink and be too small for this project, I washed it. In the washing machine. Actually, I let it soak for five minutes in hot water, let it wring out, and skipped the rinse cycle. While I was at it, I also threw in the rest of the cotton batting which is enough for two more large quilts. Then I dried it all in the dryer on warm/hot for about 55 minutes. There were a few damp spots where the bat clumped together, so I loosely folded the big piece in quarters and the small piece in half and left them on top of my bed (on a clean sheet to protect them from any Archie fur that may be on my bedspread) to finish drying.

And the final results were -- drum roll, please -- no shrinkage that I could tell on either piece. I make no claims, and pre-washing batting may produce different results for others. But all I got out of the exercise was slightly softer batting and two nice little piles of the softest, whitest fluff balls that you would ever want to see from my dryer lint trap.

So, my 50 inch wide piece is back with the fabric I am collecting for the wounded warrior quilt and the rest of the fabric that I pre-washed today is sitting on my sewing table next to the gigantic tote bag I threw together the other night which is currently holding the rest of the washed quilt batting. Now that I have the batting situation worked out, it is time to get that fabric pressed, folded and ready for cutting.

Sharon's Sweet Summer and Cheerful Quilts

My friend Sharon keeps busy taking care of her household as well as being involved in helping others. Although she is just barely on the south side of eighty years old, she goes to the rest home in Turlock once a week to sing for the old people. She had been doing this for forty odd years.

Sharon also makes lap quilts for the rest home residents. She uses fabric scraps of all kinds and stretches her quilting budget by buying cotton sheets to use as backing. She and another friend Celeste, who considers Sharon to be a second mom, get together once a week to pool resources and sew either baby quilts for the new mothers in Atwater First Ward or lap quilts for the rest home. I do not meet with them as often, but I occasionally offer fabric and batting. Now that I have the Brother on the quilt frame, using that to quilt the layers on some of the quilts is starting to be part of my contribution.

Sharon asked me to machine-stitch two quilts she has put together. We pinned them together two weeks ago and I brought them home. Friday I set up my two six foot tables, putting one table on risers to  turn it into a pressing table by covering it with an old mattress pad and a heavy beach towel. I pressed the quilt I have named Sweet Summer (blues & pinks, etc.) with the pins in, using the second table to hold the weight and keep it from sliding off the pressing surface.

 

Sweet Summer being pressed

The second quilt had a lot of uneven seams and puckers when Sharon and I pinned it together. I took it apart and pressed and trimmed the backing and top separately. It still is a little uneven, but was much easier to quilt with a minimum of puckers once I pressed the quilt top on the big table.

Sharon claims she deliberately does not make her quilts really pretty because the pretty ones often get stolen by the staff or family members. However, I think these two are beautiful scrap quilts. Sharon has an excellent eye for color and balances her light and dark blocks to be visually pleasing.

Cheerful

Sharon says she likes to use cheerful colors for the lap quilts intended for the rest home. The one quilt with a lot of yellows and pinks is definitely uplifting, which is why I named it Cheerful.

These two quilts are larger than lap quilts and are to go on twin beds. Sharon is making them ahead for Christmas. She knows there are always a few rest home residents who do not get a gift or a visit at Christmastime. She plans to present these quilts to some of those residents.

After pressing Cheerful, I removed the risers so the tabletops were even. I clamped the backing fabric to the two tables pushed together to keep the fabric from puckering and bunching up when I added the batting and the top. I used safety pins to baste the pieces together and to hold the edges in place. Then I used the flat butterfly pins to attach the top to the leader for the quilt frame.

Cheerful on the quilt frame

Since I had my smaller leader already in the quilt frame, I attached my lap quilt, "Dogs and Cats at the Beach" (more later on that quilt when I finish the binding) and stitched it first. After all, it was the first quilt in the queue to be stitched. Then I did three rows of Sweet Summer before calling it quits last Saturday.

This morning, starting at about 7:00a.m., I worked to finish Sweet Summer. Sharon gave me her pink thread -- cheap stuff from Walmart -- and never again. What a mess! I had at least one break each row, broke two needles and fought to remove at least two major rat's nests (and countless minor ones). Fortunately, I used light blue Gutermann's for the bobbin thread, so I was okay there.

Because Sharon used a 100% polyester batting, I used a loose freehand meandering pattern to help bring out the loft.

Sweet Summer with meandering quilt stitch

After a break, I put Cheerful on the quilt frame and  completed that. I used some of the Coats & Clark polyester wrapped polyester thread that I had left from an earlier project for both the top and bottom. I had a couple of breaks and one rat's nest, but much better. I used a combination of freehand meandering plus a lot of loop-de-loop on Cheerful.

When I use cotton batting, I do not usually need to secure the bottom edge until the very end. However, the polyester batting is not as heavy. In order to keep these quilts as straight and smooth as possible to avoid puckering, I used claw clamps (lined with strips of batting) to secure the fourth side.

I finished both quilts by 5:00p.m. Keep in mind the temperature rose to about 108 degrees today. Although I ran the air conditioning unit in the studio, it still was in the eighties inside most of the day. By 5:00 o'clock, I was hot and tired, but finished.

Cheerful finished with meandering loop-de-loop stitch

Okay, not quite. Later in the evening I tied off loose ends and clipped threads. But, now Sweet Summer and Cheerful can go back to Sharon so she can trim the edges and add the binding.

Christmas in August is always fun.

Leaves

 Can you see the kitty in the garden hiding under the leaves of my overgrown broccoli plants? This is where she chose to hide out from our triple-digit heat days, especially the one where it got to 106 degrees. She got mad every time the sprinklers came on.

We tried to explain that the water in the ground was what helped her stay cool. She was not buying it.

 Finally finished with the redo of the hall bath -- such as it is. I designed a valance to coordinate with the leaf design in the shower curtain.

 The back, showing how I stitched in the vein design for the leaves.

 Ta-dah!

 I am glad I swapped out the old aqua blinds for these white blinds.

 Not my favorite color palate, but fun. I like how these colors brighten up all that white.

 I unloaded the contents of the old sink cabinet into this office box when we started the project. Since I have not yet purchased a new cabinet for the side of the new pedestal sink, I put the box in the corner. At least it is color-coordinated. Precious thought we did it just for her. This is where she hid out during our two triple-digit heat spells, although she moved to the bathtub two days ago.

My sister gets the credit for this idea. She suggested converting our "You might be a redneck if..." photo to black and white to hang in the bathroom. I gave this to Buck for his birthday. He loved it. If anything in the bathroom draws a comment, it is this picture!

Sea the Scrappy Quilt

Finshed size was 48" x 43".

I finally finished my scrappy quilt with the remaining nautical and pirate theme fabrics from previous projects. I have several projects in the works, but kept getting motivated to finish this in order to get one UFO (unfinished fabric object) completed and the project box freed up. Plus, this fabric is FINALLY gone except for a few pieces I stuck in a baggie and will keep for awhile in case I need some of it for an applique embellishment (kind of wish now I had embellished that red box in the lower right-hand corner before I stitched the layers together. Oh, well.)

I also used up several miscellaneous leftover strips from other projects. I probably would not have chosen some of them if I had to go to the fabric store and pick out coordinating fabrics. But, as I pulled them from my strip collection, they worked.

A few people I showed the quilt to were more impressed with the backing. That is the only piece of fabric I bought especially for this project. I also like this particular design. The rest was stash reduction.

I decided after my quilt I made for the California Rural Letter Carriers' Association PAC that I would use a letter with an applique stamp motif for my name label. I need to get black fabric paint. I do not like the way the fine-tip Sharpie bleeds.

Friend Celeste and I took turns stitching the center section in a freehand meandering pattern. I started a loop-to-loop design on the top outside sash, but did not like how the sides were turning out. I picked out the stitches on the sides and pinned my take-up lead on each side of the sashing, one side at a time, to do the loop-to-loop design. I still am not real thrilled with it.

CaRLCA PAC Fundraising Quilt

I'm using an over-sized freehand pebble pattern.

 Except for a little practice quilt that I did for our Relief Society group that makes baby quilts for new moms and lap quilts for seniors in rest homes, this is my first serious attempt to use my new Brother sewing machine and quilt frame. (See post for 14 Jan 2012, "My Brother's Been Framed" )  It was a learning experience. For one thing, I thought we followed instructions correctly, but turned out we had the take-up pole on backwards. The fabric should have been rolling onto the pole from the underside so that the stitching area stayed flat. I had a lot of skipped stitches and tying off on the first half of the quilt because of the upward slope going over the pole.

The auto-stitcher on the arm is touchy, but worth it--a lot easier than using a foot pedal.

YES I am gritting my teeth! It took me at least half the quilt before I started to feel comfortable quilting on the frame.

I did this quilt in two halves, removing the take-up lead cloth from the one side and attaching it to the other side for the second half of the stitching. Buck and I also swapped the take-up pole around so that the quilt stayed flat. What a big difference! I have decided that this machine quilting, even without it being a long-arm, is the only way to go. I may never hand-quilt another piece again, except for my Civil War Sampler quilt that is still in the works. Even the blocks I have stitched together by hand, trying to keep it fairly authentic.

The finished quilt.

Fabric design has both a beach and stamp theme.

Miss Bootsie had to check it out.

 I hurriedly stitched on the binding Friday in an effort to get pictures of the quilt before I lost all my light. Unfortunately, it was still late enough there was quite a bit of shadow.

I liked my name label so well that I cut out a bunch of stamps from the scraps to make more to put on other quilting projects that I finish. They say every quilter should put something on with their name and the date finished so that generations down the line, people will know who created the quilt. I have been a little lax on that score. I even sent my sister's quilt to her without a name label. Either that, or a part of me is smart enough to know I am probably better off if no one can connect the quilts with me.

The Hall Bath - Amost There

Down through the layers to original redwood siding

#1 reason why the redo--leaking pipe.

That yucky PG&E-promo insulation is gone.

Original linoleum--aqua splash original wall color.

Buck after he got the tub and shower insert installed.

Installing the new tub. faucet on inside wall.

I was the designated painter.

Here I am painting baseboards and trim

Down on his knees--praying the grouting will be done soon.

Finished.

 Floor, commode & sink in--starting to look good.

Had to replace old sink cabinet to have passing room between the sink and the tub.

Per Buck: "A person should be havin' as much fun as this."

You light up my life -- and my bathroom!

I'm getting down to the nitty-gritty with caulking and touch-up painting.