Pickles!

Here's my favorite pickle:

OK, technically not really a pickle. How about Pickled Cucumber Salad? or how about simply Frozen Cucumbers which is this recipe's real name. Its from the TGYF Cookbook "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" compiled by the Tabor-Goessel Youth Group from the Goessel, KS area, copyright 1982. I sure wish I could find another copy of this cookbook because the pages are falling out of mine!

One year, my garden produce a lot of cucumbers so I made several batches of this recipe:

FROZEN CUCUMBERS

2 quarts cucumbers, thinly slilced

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 Tablespoons salt

1 1/2 Cups sugar (can decrease this amount)

1/2 Cup white Vinegar

Prepare first 3 ingredients and refrigerate in a covered container for 24 hours. Drain.

Add sugar and vinegar. Let stand 24 hours in refrigerator again. Then put in freezer containers and freeze. These are simple and delicious.

Contributed by Ruth Woelk

My note: Be sure to rinse and drain off the salt after the first 24 hours. I also add 1 Tablespoon celery seed with the sugar and vinegar mixture.

This cucumber salad is great to serve all winter when fresh produce isn't as available.

Here are the 5 1/2 pickle dish blocks I've made so far. I finally got the points to come out more or less even but I'm not sure I like the fabrics I chose. My favorite is still the the one on the far left, top row.

Here's another project I'm working on. Notice anything wrong?
Butterflies do sometimes fly sideways but normally trees and flowers do not grow horizontally. I've corrected the problem but I've got to find a way to keep from stitching the blocks together wrong!

Pickle fabric and paperwork

Pickle fabric choices.

Actually I have a lot more so this is just a sample. These may or may not make it into the quilt but I'm trying to challenge myself by using combinations I wouldn't normally use. Something I've noticed about my stash - hardly any light value fabrics.
Pickle paperwork
After having some problems with the accuracy of making my own pickle dish templates, I've been trying to draft a pickle dish paper piecing pattern. This is the most accurate I've gotten so far and will finish the pattern tomorrow. Unfortunately, I've strained my right elbow and shoulder so progress is slow.
Next time - my favorite "pickle"!
Mayleen

Please pass the pickles!

While I'm gathering the last few fabrics for my wallhanging, I've started hand piecing project#2. This is my very first curved piecing block, Pickle Dish, for a quilt by the same name from Kathy Doughty's book, "Making Quilts ... the promise of joy", published by Quiltmania.

Unfortunately, I wasn't very joyful as it all came together. You can probably see the wrinkle about half way down the football shape. I had made my own templates and somewhere there's a problem. I have never done well with templates so I've decided to try paper piecing this block and have drafted my own pattern.
The Pickle Dish quilt block is also sometimes called Indian Wedding Ring. Two different looks - one more modern and the other traditional. I'd really like to make both! The Pickle Dish quilt is in the "Making Quilts ... " book and the Indian Wedding Ring quilt is in the Quiltmania magazine, issue #89.

And then there's Pumpkin Peel on the cover of this book, "Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts" by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms. Its another one on my Someday List!

Mary Elizabeth Kinch has started a blog about quilts made with small pieces. Here's a link to it.

Too many quilts, too little time!

Until later, Mayleen