Happy Pi(e) Day

On March 14, 2018March 14, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn BakingLeave a comment

In honor of National Pi Day (March 14 or 3.14), I made two pies for my birthday treat to take to work.

Peach Pie with Pecan Crust

Pastry Dough

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup ground pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream together shortening, butter and sugar.
3. Sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder.
4. Combine creamed mixture with dry ingredients and ground pecans. Dough will be crumbly.
5. Chill dough for 30 minutes.
6. Press dough into pie plate and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Peach Filling
5 peaches, peeled and sliced
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs corn starch
1 small pkg peach jello

1. Place peach slices and water in a microwave safe bowl and cook at high for four minutes. Drain water into a separate bowl.
2. Mix together sugar, corn starch and jello.
3. Slowly sprinkle mixture into hot peach water.
4. Heat to a rolling boil.
5. Remove from heat and stir in peaches.
6. Pour mixture into pecan crust.
7. Refrigerate until set.

Almond Pear Tart

Pastry Dough

1 1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1 egg, beaten

1. Place flour and sugar in food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
2. Scatter butter pieces over the dry ingredients and pulse to coarse mixture.
3. Add egg and process for about 10 seconds, until clumps form. The dough at this stage will be very sticky.
4. Wrap dough and freeze for one hour to make dough easier to handle.
5. Press dough into pie plate and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Note: a removable bottom tart pan would make serving easier since the crust tends to stick to the pan.
6. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Custard Filling
2/3 cup almond flour
1/3 cup sugar
6 Tbs butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 large egg

1. Mix flour and sugar together.
2. Add butter and flavoring and blend until smooth.
3. Mix in egg. Pour into crust.
4. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

Pears
2 pears, peeled, halved and cored
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice

1. Bring water, sugar and lemon juice to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
2. Add pears and allow to sit in hot syrup for 30 minutes.
3. Remove pears and place on paper towel to remove excess moisture.
4. Cut each pear half into thin slices and arrange atop the filling like spokes of a wheel, pressing down into filling.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

If you try these recipes, I hope you enjoy them.

Contentment… Chasing an elusive goal.

On March 12, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn LifeLeave a comment

CometDuke1

Nearly every day while perusing through social media, we see the best of our friend’s lives. I am guilty of only posting happy things that make it appear that my life is always great. I write my blog to display the crafts, cooking and family activities that turn out well. I avoid showing my mistakes and failures. Perhaps one of these days I will write a blog postings about these “Epic Failures” to show that not everything goes as planned.

But, when things are not going well, viewing these happy postings on social media can make a person feel down. Friends vacationing in fun, exotic places – why am I not with them? Friends buying new retirement homes in warm sunny locations – why am I living in cold and snowy Minnesota? Job successes – why do patients (actually make that parents of patients) complain when I try to provide the best possible care for their child? And many more examples.

Last Wednesday, I was frustrated to be dealing with the second migraine in five days that did not respond to my prescription medication. If you have every experienced an intractable migraine, you will understand the discomfort I was in. And to top it off, around mid-day abdominal pain started. I was like – oh great migraine induced nausea, I haven’t had to deal with that for a while. After a couple of weeks of many unexpected, less than ideal events, I had a few tears of frustration that afternoon.

Overnight my abdominal pain became much worse, prompting a trip to urgent care in the morning and Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) later in the day. Being in too much pain to even be able to knit, I had a lot of time to stand around (it hurt too much to actually sit down) and think and realize that I needed to change my perspective on my life.

I needed to embrace contentment and gratitude for what I have been given. Rather than being concerned about my parents’ health, I should be grateful that they are settled into a senior housing center that has nursing staff available when they need the help. Rather than being jealous about the fun vacations my friends are on, I should be grateful for the vacations I may be able to take in the future. Rather than complaining about the snow, I should be grateful that spring will be here in just a few weeks. I should be more grateful for my loving husband, four wonderful sons, warm home, etc.

But more importantly, I should be content in the grace given by my heavenly father. Through God’s grace, I have been given much and should seek contentment and anchor my joy in God himself rather than trying to change my circumstances. I need to take to heart the statement in Erik Raymond’s book, Chasing Contentment: Trusting God in a Discontented Age (Crossway, 2017), “If you want to be content, think less about yourself and more about Christ.”

Dresden Village Fused Glass Clock

On March 5, 2018March 5, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Fused glassLeave a comment

Wanting to add some color to my sewing room, and make something functional, I decided to make a fused glass clock. Actually, I just needed an excuse to work with glass again .

Looking at ideas on-line, I found lots of pictures of clocks that other people had made (see photo below for some of my favorites). While all of these were great, and any one of them would have been fun to make, I really wanted to come up with an idea that was unique to me.

So, one day while I was looking at some pictures of quilts, I came up with an idea for my clock. The quilting project I saw was called “Dresden Village”. This pattern involved using the Dresden Plate pattern to make a center table mat that depicted houses around a circle.

Since the Dresden Plate pattern involves pie shaped pieces sewn into a circle, I thought it would be an ideal pattern to use for a clock. The circle could be divided into 24 pieces each with a 15 degree angle. Pieced together, the taller houses mark the hours and the smaller houses mark the half hour. To further differentiate the time, I made the doors of the taller houses with black noodles and the smaller houses with red noodles.

The house numbers were printed on photo transfer paper and the windows were dichroic slide paper. Black glass was used to add a roof to each house. Glass Frit of various sizes and shades of green were used to create trees and shrubs in the “Central Park”. The clockworks were added.

Now I have a colorful clock in my sewing room!

Two weeks in three trips = four scarves

On February 25, 2018February 25, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Crochet, Knitting, Scarf, Travel1 Comment

Living in Minnesota, the thought of hopping a plane on the weekend to go someplace warm is very inviting. This year, I planned two trips to get away to warmer weather. These trips, one to Clearwater Beach, Florida and one the San Francisco, were on two consecutive weekends. Then a few days after the planned second trip, I had to make an unexpected trip to Houston. So, that meant that in fifteen days I had three trips, including seven flights (totaling almost 2,000 miles) and numerous hours in airplanes and airports.

For me, this was a bit more travel than I would prefer. To pass the time, I brought along some knitting and crocheting. As a result, I was able to completed four scarves to donate.

Scarf One – Queen Anne’s Lace Crochet Scarf

Trip One – Clearwater Beach, Florida

Scarf Two – Eyelash Yarn Knit Scarf

Trip Two – San Francisco

Scarf Three – Cashmere Knit Scarf

Trip Three – Houston

Houston

Scarf Four – Varigated Yarn Knit Scarf

I am looking forward to a few weeks with no need to travel!

“Throwing a girl fit”

On February 17, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn TravelLeave a comment

Being a mom of four boys, I have flown with my children at various ages. The youngest age was when my second son was only two weeks old and I needed to attend a meeting at the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta. But, other trips included a four week old to attend a national pediatric dental meeting, and various trips with the boys at ages younger than one year old.

So, I understand the anxiety of a mom having to fly with a young child and the worry about the unpredictable behavior that that children may exhibit when flying.

Yesterday, I was returning from a stressful unexpected trip out of town and experienced a very sweet gesture by a new mom traveling with her daughter. Before the flight took off, this mother came through the entire cabin of the plane and handed out baggies to every passenger (yep – everyone). In the baggies were some gum, candies, ear plugs and a note. The note read:

“Hello,
My name is Alice Rose. I turned 4 months old on February 5, 2018.
I am flying with my mother and grandmother to Minnesota to surprise my great grandmother who turns 92 years old this coming week; and whom I have never met and who has never met me.
I promise that I will try and be good. But my mother is afraid that I will find the plane ride uncomfortable – and that I will be unpleasant – (as she says…”throwing a girl fit”). I will try my best not to “throw a girl fit”. But, if I do, please forgive me.
Thank you so much
Alice Rose”

This was a very kind gesture by a mom, and a very smart way to preempt any complaints about her child. Everyone on the plane was very kind back to her and some sitting near her even offered to hold her daughter if the flight proved to be difficult.

Happily, little Alice Rose slept for the entire flight and we arrived in Minneapolis without even one complaint.

Color Burst completed piecing.

On February 12, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Batik, Quilting, Scrap QuiltLeave a comment

After several more hours of sewing, the piecing if finally done.

But the result is awesome!

Some statistics:
Number of blocks sewn:
Red/Orange Blocks = 8 small, 4 large
Yellow/Green Blocks = 16 small, 8 large
Blue/Purple Blocks = 24 small, 12 large
Cream Blocks = 24 small, 12 large
Total = 72 small, 36 large

Number of Piece in Large Starburst:
Red = 36
Orange = 32
Yellow = 56
Green = 80
Blue = 144
Purple = 156
Cream = 156

Number of Piece in Small Starburst:
Red = 40
Orange = 32
Yellow = 48
Green = 96
Blue = 192
Purple = 168
Cream = 212

Total Pieces (not including background) = 1453!

I also pieced together a Doll Quilt – this one has 680 pieces in a 18″ x 24″ miniature quilt.

The background quilting design for each of these will have a different for each cream section in the design. The quilting will take me many hours to complete. With everything else I am doing, it may be a few month before I post the finish pictures.

Color Burst, continued

On February 3, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Batik, Quilting, Scrap QuiltLeave a comment

After piecing together the individual blocks, the fun part began. Combined to make the starburst rays, the true vibrancy of the fabrics started to show.

The rays were then combined to complete the Burst. Being a scrap quilt, there were many different fabrics used, but very little of each fabric. Tally of different fabrics:

Red: 9 fabrics
Orange: 8 fabrics
Yellow: 7 fabrics
Green: 10 fabrics
Blue: 11 fabrics
Purple: 12 fabrics
Cream: 13 fabrics

Color Burst

On January 29, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Batik, Quilting, Scrap QuiltLeave a comment

It has been several months since I posted about quilting. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been sewing, just that I have been working on some time-consuming projects.

One of the projects I am working on is another scrap quilt, this one made with various types of long cabin blocks set into diamond shapes. The quilt idea was rather easy to design in EQ8, but has proven very tricky to actually sew.

The idea behind the quilt was to make an asymmetrical starburst with half of the star on one side of the quilt and overlapping bands of off white making up the other half of the quilt. The color scheme incorporated the transitioning through the colors of the rainbow for the starburst.

The log cabin blocks are completed. There are four red/orange blocks, eight yellow/green blocks, twelve blue purple blocks and twelve cream blocks.

Three of these were not too difficult. But, the blue and purple blocks were rather challenging with the corner inserts on each side. This block is also called a Pineapple block, which I have done before in a square form in a Christmas Bed runner. In the square form, this block just takes a bit more time than a traditional log cabin block. However, in the diamond form I found this to be very tricky. Each block had 45 pieces, and I needed to make twelve of them.

I like how the color transitions turned out. Now on to piecing the quilt blocks together.

Suncatchers for year-round flowers

On January 17, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Flowers, Fused glassLeave a comment

Another gift recently given was to my younger brother. He grows Dahlias in the summer and they are gorgeous.

Living in Wisconsin, these beautiful blooms are only around at his house for a few months each year. With his birthday coming up, I thought I would make him some sun catchers to bring some color to the winter months.

The background was a single sheet of clear glass, with strips of the same glass used as the hanger. The stems were green noodles, the leaves were scraps of transparent green glass, and the flowers were various sizes of glass frit. The project was fired following a Contour Fuse schedule. Quick and easy project with a lovely outcome.

Prior to firing

Finished project

Glass Votive Candle Holders

On January 14, 2018 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Fused glass, TreesLeave a comment

Now that Christmas and a few January birthday gifts have been given, I can post some recent projects. Today, I am showing some votive candles that I made for two in my extended family.

In November, I completed a four panel fused glass project for my sister-in-law. After making this four seasons picture, I decided to make a matching votive candle that had the four seasons depicted on sides of the glass.

First, I fused together two pieces of clear glass to form the main part of the votive. Next, was to add the trees. Since the votive candle was small, the trees would need to be made from something other than traditional fused glass – that glass would be too thick.

Option 1. Bend brown stringer to look like a tree. I tried this but never could get two trees to look alike.

Option 2. Draw trees with Glassline paint I thought about it and wanted to try something that would look better than hand drawn.

Option 3. Cut trees out of fusible transfer paper.

This is the option I decided to go with. A few years ago, I had used transfer paper to make a sign for another sister-in-law’s kitchen. While printed black, the iron oxide in the toner fuses to the glass with a nice sepia tone. This brown color should work nicely for trees.

Using an older model black laser printer (the toner cartridge needs to have a high iron content), I printed a black square on the Photo Transfer Paper.

Then, I used a paper punch in the shape of a tree to make four tree shaped transfers. Each punched image was then transferred to the four corners of the glass and allowed to dry.

Using medium and fine frit in various colors, the ground and leaves were added to the trees.

Around the same time, I decided to make a votive to match the “Cook’s Kitchen” sign. For this I made grape vines using the tree punch but cutting off some of the branches and turning the direction of the tree. Green confetti glass was used for the leaves and medium weight purple frit was used for the grapes.

The glass was then contour fused and slumped over a metal mold.

Pretty gifts to give to a couple special ladies.