Throwback Thursday: Radish the Great is Not a Role Model

From 2003, when I still made things bigger than a postcard.

Snow Day Brew Day

Trying out a Dunkelweizen kit from Great Fermentations. This is batch #5 of my homebrew career, first batch of 2015, and first Dunkelweizen.

Flavoring grains steeping.


Assistant Brewmaster FUZZ* watching some CatTV while the kettle comes to a boil.


Almost there!!!


Chilling the wort! WINTER IS AWESOME!


Ok, chilling the wort outside took a lot longer than I thought it would. Shoveled my driveway and it was only down to 140F. Shoveled my sidewalks and my neighbor's sidewalk and it was down to 120F. Went inside, watched Iowa State get their 20th win of the season. It took about 3.5 hours for the wort to get down around 75F.

Into the fermenter:

Easily the darkest-looking beer I've made so far.

Assistant Brewmaster Smokey* says "Hurry up and pitch the yeast so you can get my supper!"


My previous beers have all fermented in the front closet, but I'm leaving this one in a bathtub for easy cleanup, as I know from experience this yeast knows how to have a good time.


And the sun sets on another successful brew day.


* All my beers have a "less than 1% cat hair by weight" guarantee.

Throwback Thursday: Snow Dyeing

A long time ago, and far away, in a different and better life, there was snow*, and I used it to dye fabric.



Fiber-reactive dye is poured on snow piled atop scrunched-up fabric. As the snow melts, the dye comes in contact with the fabric; different rates of melting and different concentrations of dye create patterns.



I still haven't used these fabrics. I should.


* Last Saturday it was so warm I sat Outside in a tailgate chair to drink a beer. Sigh.

They're Still Heeeee-re

Still making the aliens.

Throwback Thursday: Off-Color Valentines

I think these are all from 2005 or 2006--I didn't keep much paper documentation and the laptop I bought in the fall of 2005 time died in spring of 2006 and took all my photos with it. All hand-dyed fabrics, probably from 1999-2003.

Next time I feel like I haven't made any progress with design or color, I need to dig these out. Woof.

In Which I Remember I Have a Blog and Finish Some Quilted Pieces

I'm attempting to spend less time on the internets and more time stitching, at least 15 minutes a day (except Tuesdays when I have a printmaking class). I'm starting with some things that have been laying around unfinished, but I have a queue of new things as well.

First one is an interrobang, which I began in spring 2012 when I had a short fascination with obsolete typeset characters. It's comprised of two quilted layers--the background and the symbol are quilted and edged separately. They just had to be attached and beaded (the pins are not part of the quilt, it's too big to fit in my scanner so it's photographed on a wall).

The character was made using the technique of fusing tiny (less than 1") scraps, layering chiffon over them, and stitching the layers together to create a new fabric. I'm still looking for a snappy name for this technique so I can sell a book about it--but you can't copyright technique so please use it your own work and show me the results. :)

I also beaded this bit of bottle-cap shisha:

Mailed it to a dear friend last week. After 3.5 years here, I finally found a post office Friday before work. It wasn't open at 8 a.m. (who does business on a weekday during normal business hours, amirite?), but there was a self-serve kiosk, so in theory no problem...but the postage for the envelope was $0.98 and the minimum purchase was $1. I had a second envelope (an EBE going off to Minnesota), which would have made a total of $1.98, but the kiosk wouldn't let me weigh it for postage until the first envelope was paid for. I had to buy a 49¢ stamp that I did not want and have no need for to mail my envelope. Twice. Yay, government.

In other news, I'm thinking about my personal branding for future projects. "Still Life" is a great name for living alone in Indiana and working interminable overtime, but I'm starting to believe I won't be here forever (beer and cats? I'm keeping those!).

In Which I Finish Something In UNDER SIX YEARS!

So here's some aliens I made shortly after I got laid off in 2009.



And then I got a job and put them in a box.

So now, three years into the second job since that lay-off, they are finished!



I took it to my quilt guild last week; we didn't have a full show-and-tell so I didn't have to say anything, but a couple ladies asked me about them, and, "Well, they're aliens. We can't really understand them." They're still letting me come to the retreat.

Beer and Cat

Smokey guarding my FUZZbräu from its namesake.

FUZZbräu is the beer I make. This is my second attempt, a German-style wheat I call Fuzziwheat. My first was a Belgian wit style I called FUZZiwit (my German beer-drinking expert pronounced it "süffig" which I believe translates to "I did not go blind"). Currently in the fermenter is a second German-style wheat I will call FUZZirazz after I add three pounds of raspberry puree.

OK, naming things is not my best talent, which is why FUZZ named himself. OTOH, I am good at slogans. "FUZZbräu! Taste our disdain!"

[Obligatory promise to blog more instead of just tweeting.]

Mixed-technique Valentine

Only two weeks late! Good thing the cats don't care (not to mention I could work faster if they didn't insist on sitting on my hands every time I sit down to work).



I need to devise a name for the technique where I fuse little (about 1/2") scraps from another project to a backing fabric, then layer with a sheer fabric and machine stitch. It's not original, but if I give it an original name I can sell it (except I will never make a critical mass of these things, because I really only use scraps from other projects--I don't want to turn a yard of good fabric into 1/2" scraps--and it takes an astonishingly long time to fuse them all down flat with no background showing).

But I like this mixed-technique look, and love the flower sequins.


And The E.B.E. Project rolls on. This one says his name is Melvin.

Scrapbag 10-in-10 Challenge: Münchner Ausländer

In December, my Local Quilt Guild announced the 2014 challenge would be to create a list of 10 UFOs (UnFinished Objects) numbered 1 through 10, and for each of the first ten months of 2014 they would pick a number and you have until the next month to finish the project. The random number makes it harder to work ahead on something big, or schedule something small for vacation.

Once I applied the "this project has 11951 hand-sewn pieces and was designed to take the rest of my life to complete" filter, I did not have 10 UFOs (although I hope there's a box in the garage because I thought there was a table runner...), so I had to fill in a few months with new things and a charity quilt.

First up for February is Münchner Ausländer, a mutation of The E.B.E. Project. Why should the Münchner Kindl get all the Bier und Radieschen?



I'm not entirely certain how to explain this to a group of ladies who mostly make table runners and baby quilts and wedding presents (and I have to practice pronouncing "Münchner" because it kind of sounds like a hairball).


1 down, 9 to go. I wonder where I left my list.

What's for Dinner: Bratwurst Meatloaf

While looking through assorted meatloaf recipes in printed cookbooks and online over the weekend, I noticed most are covered in a sauce comprised of ketchup, sugar, and vinegar. Extra-sweet, extra-acidic ketchup? Secret Stadium Sauce!!!  And what goes best with Stadium Sauce?  Bratwurst!!




I adapted this recipe from a 1986 church cookbook from Iowa.  I get the Bratwurst Seasoning from the Spice House in Milwaukee.  The onion will be crunchy.

Bratwurst Meatloaf

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 small white onion, chopped finely
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 2 TBSP Bratwurst Seasoning 
• Dash or two of Worchestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Mix well and form into loaf and put in oven-proof dish.

• 1/4 cup Secret Stadium Sauce
• 2-3 TBSP sweet pickle relish
• Squirt or two of yellow mustard

Mix well, smear over loaf.  Bake loaf for 60-75 minutes (pork should reach 145°F in thickest part of loaf).

Pair with a Milwaukee craft brew if you're lucky enough to live somewhere you can buy them, Leinie's if you aren't.

Makin' Pie Like a Samurai

Thursday was National Pie Day.  I never know about these things ahead of time, but the important part is I have pie now. Mit Schlag.