French Braid Tutorial

January 25, 2014
I am still amazed at the amount of visitors this tutorial has received since I posted it. You are from around the world and close to home. Be sure to let me know when you have finished your French Braid quilt!
Sherry

August 10, 2012
A Texas HOWDY to my new visitors from Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia.  

July 30, 2012 
WOW! A visitor from Riyadh, Ar Riyad, Saudi Arabia, via bellaonline! Welcome!

June 14, 2012
Hello everyone from www.quiltingboard.com! Thanks for commenting about my tutorial and all the visitors because of the comments!

Thanks to Feedjit, I have noticed new visitors from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland! Howdy from Texas! Thank you for your repeated visits to this tutorial. I hope that my directions are clear. If you have any questions, please just comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Sherry

January 30, 2011:
HELLO GLASGOW! I am excited that you visited my blog. My great-great-great grandfather's last name was Glasgow. I hope you visit again.
Sherry

April 7, 2011
HELLO JOHANNESBURG SOUTH AFRICA! Welcome to my corner of the world. I hope you have found something worth reading. Thank you for visiting!
Sherry

May 5, 2011
Hello Amadora, Lisboa, Portugal and Londonderry, Derry, UK! Welcome to my small corner of this great big world. I hope the instructions are clear enough for you. If you have any questions, please just ask.
Sherry

March 2, 2012
I'm getting a lot of hits from http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/french-braid-pattern-t33758-5.html . Thanks to all of you. Especially kbartnick! So sweet! ;-)
 

I didn't think to count how many different homespuns I had to start with. Sorry.

A few years back Sam told me that he was considering retiring in 'a couple of years.' He retired April 2003, I quit August 2003. While we were both still working, and Joann's still had a store in Lake Jackson with occasional 50% off coupons, I started buying fabrics for quilts. Some I knew what pattern I wanted to use. With the homespuns...I had no idea at all. So, I purchased 1 yard cuts of each plaid that I purchased.

I've always liked the French Braid quilts. So...
Serge or zig-zag the cut edges of each uncut piece of fabric and prewash and dry. Press if necessary. Square the ends
and start cutting 4" x 10 1/2" rectangles.Alternate your fabrics as much as possible...doesn't matter how well you do this, you still have to play around with them as you are sewing so that you don't get the same fabric across from itself. Make two stacks.Hope you purchased lots of your solid fabric because I can't tell you how much I purchased. Sorry again. I tried everything I knew how to do to not purchase this gold fabric. I have yellow skin undertones and can't wear yellow or gold so shy away from it. For purposes of this tutorial, we are going to call this 'butterscotch.' I like butterscotch! ;o)

Cut a stack of 4" solid squares. Note: Because of the loosely woven quality of homespuns and the subsequent raveling issue, instead of using the normal scant 1/4" generally used in piecing quilt tops, I used a fat 1/4" seam...not quite 3/8".
Take one square and sew it to the side of one rectangle. Sew the butterscotch squares to one end of half of the homespun rectangles.Be sure to cut your 4" squares...4x4...not like this... Sew one of your pieced rectangles to the L-shaped unit. Then sew an unpieced rectangle to the right of that...followed by a pieced unit. Continue until your panel measures approximately 90 1/2". Sew two unpieced rectangles to either side of the panel...at the top. Now...let's trim. I didn't have a ruler 14" wide so put two together. Cut through the points on the top, bottom, and both sides, cutting triangles off. I made five panels 14 1/2" x 91" (including seams). 14 x 90 1/2" finished. Take out that butterscotch fabric again. Hope you prewashed and dried it too. Square the ends and cut strips 1 1/2" wide. Sew ends together and cut in strips 91" long. You need 10 of them. Find the center of each panel and the center of the long edge of your sashing. Pin and pin along the long edge if you need. Sew a butterscotch strip to each side of each panel. (See why the butterscotch works so well?!) The top and bottom sashing is cut 1 1/2" x 16 1/2". Cut 10 of these and sew to the top and bottom of each panel. By this time, I've cut all my homespun and needed something between each sashed panel. First I thought more homespun...then I thought solid black. Regardless, I had to purchase another piece of fabric. This time I know how much! 1 1/4 yard. I found some black and cream homespun at Hobby Lobby. Remember to serge or zig-zag the ends, prewash, and dry. Press if necessary. The black/cream sashing between the panels was cut 2 1/2" x 92". You need only 4 of these and sew them on the inside.

Note! Pay attention to the orientation of your panels. They have a definite direction. Generally French Braid quilts run in the same direction. That's what I intended. I made an oops. It was easier to take out one panel and flip it than take out two and flip them. So my panels alternate. Great design change opportunity!
The side borders are cut 3 1/2" x 93". Cut and seam 2 of these. Sew to the two side borders. Top and bottom borders are cut 4 1/2" x 94 1/2". Cut and seam two of these. Sew to top and bottom. When everything is sewn together, serge or zig-zag the outside border to prevent it from raveling away.Closeup...The finished quilt will be approximately 94" x 100" which fits my double pillow-top queen just perfectly!

My backing and binding will be the same gold...I mean butterscotch solid.

Homespun French Braid Top

Finished! With the top at least. Had a 'design' change with this one. The braid panels are supposed to all lay in the same direction. #1, #2, and #4 pointed one direction. #3 and #5 the other. So...I could either unsew and resew #3 and #5...OR just do #1. As you can tell, my panels alternate. ;o)
I've had this one laying around for a few weeks. The homespuns (plaids) are prone to ravel so instead of the usual quilter's scant 1/4" seam, I used a large 1/4" seam...just under 3/8". I have yet to vacuum my sewing room carpet. It's so bad you can barely see the color! LOL
I try to make all of my quilts to fit my bed. It's a queen with a double pillow top mattress...which makes it tall. The quilts aren't quite king-size, but larger than queen. This one measures 94 x 100".

The backing and binding will be the solid 'butterscotch.'

English Muffins

I've been seeing recipes for English Muffins on several websites. So...here's my first batch. The recipe made eight.Yep, here's the missing muffin. ;o) Sliced and lightly toasted...(toaster is having a browning problem)...With an egg inside. Great breakfast yesterday!Today's breakfast...buttered (and lightly toasted) English muffin with homemade pear preserves!Emeril's Kitchen recipe:

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups warm water (the recipe stated room temperature, but my yeast did not foam...so I poured that out and used water at 110 degrees F)
1 (1/4 ounce) envelope active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 1/2 cups bread flour (I used all-purpose)
2 teaspoons alt
3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk
2 teaspoons solid vegetable shortening (I don't keep that...I used lard)
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

Lightly grease a large bowl with the oil and set aside.

Combine water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl, stir well, and let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients except the cornmeal and mix with a large wooden spoon until well blended, about 3 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 15 minutes or until smooth; adding more flour 1 teaspoon at a time if the dough is too sticky. Place in the oiled bowl, cover, and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Dust a baking sheet (or a sheet of parchment paper) with cornmeal.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 8 equal portions. Roll into smooth balls and place evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheet. Cover with a slightly damp kitchen cloth and let rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. (I used a cast iron griddle.) Add the dough balls, non-cornmeal side first, in batches, and cook until golden brown on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Turn the muffins over, press down on them with a large spatula to flatten slightly and cook until golden brown on the second side about 5 minutes longer. (Okay...I cooked over low-medium heat for 6 minutes on each side.)


This was not at my house...but didn't store-bought sherbet with a couple of homemade sugar cookies served in clear punch cups and seldom used white tea cups make a nice presentation for a buffet catered by The Friends of the Daingerfield Public Library?!

Visitors...

I have Feedjit over at the bottom of my right-hand sidebar. It tells me where my visitors are from and how they got here...via HGTV MBs, direct, via a search engine, etc. I try to check it every day. Once I had a visitor from the Vatican! You better believe that I blogged about that.

In the last day or so, I had a visitor from Port Chester, New York. He visited me via Google. This is what he was searching for:

"i got circumsized 2 weeks ago, i have a bubble between some stitches, is that normal?"

OUCH! I hope he got an answer somewhere out there! ;o)

Movies and Quilts

!!!!Okay!!!! Where'd the underlines come from???

I've seen some really good movies lately.

Blind Side... Okay. If you haven't heard anything about this one, you must be living under a rock!

Sherlock Holmes... I LIKE Sherlock Holmes. I watch the weekly series on LPB (my PBS station).

It's Complicated... Hilarious! Yet thought provoking.

Shogun, Have you made the molten cakes yet? Did you notice that the recipe on the box states that EACH cake serves 2?! Carol and I just laughed. They weren't really serious...such a fun-loving company! ;o)

I received a couple of comments on yesterday's post about the ONE hand-pieced, hand-quilted quilt at the quilt show.

I prefer a completely hand-made quilt. However, I have machine-pieced and hand-quilted. I've also learned to do some machine quilting on my regular sewing machine...for small items like tablerunners and placemats...children's quilts...and for people who appreciate my quilts, but may not take as good care of them as I would.

Of my two grandmothers, Daddy's mother was the quilter. She was a shoddy quilter. Everything was done on the sewing machine. Nothing met or matched. Even when she was using the old cotton batting that would ball up if you didn't quilt it close enough, her machine quilting lines were 4-6" apart. At a family reunion back in 2000, I asked my aunt and cousins if they had any of Ma's quilts. No one did. Except for my mother and me. Mama would run rows of hand quilting between the machine quilted rows while she was watching television. The one quilt Ma made for me...this one...
You can see how it twists...and some of the turtle feet don't match up at the intersections...yadda...yadda...yadda...

Mama told me not to get it dirty until I could either hand quilt between the rows, or could maneuver it on the sewing machine. When I was in high school, I did about two or three rows of hand quilting. Right. Row upon row of stitching 1" apart. Nah. I didn't have the patience or the 'want-to' back then. I opened up Mama's Singer one day and started machine stitching row after row after row...then turned it the other way and did the same. So that quilt is preserved. BTW, my other grandmother, Mama's mama...my Little Mama...embroidered some beautiful dresser scarves. That's hers (I think...or Mama's) in the above photo. Also in the photo...the quilt was a wedding gift to Mama and Daddy. The scissors on top of the scarf...Mama's oldest brother Harry bought those for her when she took home ec in high school. I used them in home ec too and have possession now. The little strawberry for needles was Little Mama's.

Little Mama's mama, my great grandmother, crocheted doilies and made quilts. I've quilted a few of the tops she made in her old age. I fingers touched every seam she sewed. Makes me happy just thinking about it.

She made this top for my cousin, Harry Wayne...he's in some of the family photos I've posted.
Mama handed me these blocks one day. I put them together for Jonathan.

Chocolate and Quilts

A much better combination isn't it?!

Carol and I had a blast while Sam and Elton were gone. Carol brought a bottle of wine. We raided my refrigerator for supper while these delicious cakes were baking.
Unfortunately, the interior wasn't molten. RATS!!
But when I baked the second pair of cakes last night...perfection.
After watching two movies...The Proposal and Murphy's Romance we went to bed.

PS...Just one glass of wine each.

The recipe for the Dark Molten Chocolate Cakes is on the back of a package of Baker's bittersweet baking chocolate squares.

1 package (6 ounces) Baker's Bittersweet Chocolate
10 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup flour
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease 6 (6 ounce) custard cups - I used ramekins. Place on baking sheet.

Microwave chocolate and butter on high for 2 minutes or until butter is melted. (I checked after 1 minute then every 20 seconds.) Stir with a whisk until chocolate is melted. Add powdered sugar and flour; mix well. Add whole eggs and egg yolks; beat until well-blended. Divided batter evenly into the custard cups.

Bake 14 to 15 minutes or until cakes are firm around the edges but soft in the centers. If you do this, they will be over cooked. Check after 10 minutes!! My first two baked only 12 minutes and were cooked solid. Let stand 1 minute. Run a thin-blade knife around cakes to loosen. Carefully invert cakes onto dessert dishes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and garnish with raspberries, if desired. I didn't have any raspberries, but a drizzle of chocolate syrup didn't hurt a thing! ;o)

Make ahead: Batter can be made the day before; pour into prepared custard cups. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. When ready to serve, uncover and bake as directed.

To continue...Sam and Elton decided to drive up to Springfield Missouri and back. Knowing me as well as they should (see below post about the .357 Smith & Wesson)...there was no sneaking around when they got back about midnight. Parked the pickup with their goodies in the shop. Made plenty of noise when they opened the door. Went to the appropriate bedrooms and fell in to bed with the appropriate wife. ;o)

Carol and I were up fairly early and thought we might get out before they were up. Didn't happen that way. Carol made sure Elton had some coffee. I told the men that the refrigerator held bagels and cream cheese and a little milk. We headed out to the quilt show in Jefferson.

This was our favorite quilt. The ONLY hand pieced and hand quilted bed-size quilt on the premises! Can you believe it? I have one I intended to enter but never got a hanging sleeve on it. I would've gone home with no less than a 2nd place.

We shopped (looked) a bit. Ate lunch at a really great bistro-type place. Antiqued and junked some. IF I were into collecting old machines AND had a place for them...these two machines were only $75 each!


I also saw a similar treadle machine in a cabinet. I think it was a Minnesota. Never heard of that before.

Food and Politics

What a combo, huh?!

Thanks for the drooling y'all did over yesterday's post. If you all could've come for lunch, I would've used a whole fryer! Even though I cut the recipe down some, I still had sauce left over. It went into the freezer for later use.

After doing a bit of research on the internet, I found out I mispronounced mirliton. It's been a few years since Jerry told me how to pronounce it. me lay taw is what I found - in one place anyway. It is a member of the gourd family, and from what I understood from Jerry way back when, it grows on a vine. Seems he described it similar to a potato, and I guess raw, it is. Very, very mild flavor...almost non-existent. Raw, it also has the texture and consistency of an apple and can be used in salads or even just to munch. Cooked. It is rather bland...neither bad nor nothing good to 'write home about.' It really needed more than just salt and pepper. I should've put some of that Louisiana seasoning on it. But that cheese sauce on top...I'd almost...and I did type ALMOST!!! would consider eating liver. On second thought...NO WAY!

Down to the politic section of this post and if you don't want to read it you won't hurt my feelings. ;o)

We received something in the mail yesterday. A non-lifer politician is running for Congress in my district. He says he will:

1. Vote pro-life
2. Defend our 2nd Amendment rights
3. Fight government-run healthcare and protect Social Security
4. Support our veterans (He is a veteran)
5. Protect provate property rights
6. Defend traditional marriage
7. Support term limits to stop career politicians
8. Oppose earmarks

My stand:
1. I do not believe in abortion as birth control. There are way too many other methods out there that if used properly prevent pregnancy in the first place. And, yes. There are some women out there who have had multiple abortions...using it as birth prevention...because evidently they certainly do not have any control. Unwanted babies...people are lined up to adopt.

I am not 100% anti-abortion as some right-to-lifers are. If the mother's health is in danger, either physically or mentally, if the pregnancy continues. That decision is hers to make. Along with her doctor and husband if there is one...but ultimately it is her decision in that case. In the case of a teenager in the same circumstance, that decision is hers and her family's along with the doctor. In the case of rape, a grown woman has the right to do what she feels is best for the situation. In the case of rape or incest of a minor...that is between that child and if she has no supporting parent, a judge...to make that decision.

2. I have a 30-06, a 20-gauge shotgun, and a .357 Smith & Wesson. Does that answer your question? I have been trained to use them. I have hunted. And I would not hestitate if someone broke into my home, and I was here alone. My life or theirs? No question about it. (I might need counseling later...But forget that, "If you take one step closer" business.)

3. What a sticky-wicket! Health-care needs overhauled. But the government has so screwed up Social Security since LBJ and the then sitting government opened it up to be raided (I could've typed 'raped') consistently. How do you think government-run healthcare is going to fare?

4. AMEN!

5. Developers want to tear down those quaint seaside neighborhoods that are not diseased with poverty and drugs so that new condos can be built?! I think not!

6. A marriage is between a man and a woman. Aren't things backwards when so many men and women are foregoing the marriage ceremony and same-sex couples want to get married?!

7. See my post 2 or 3 down.

8. I gotta look into this. The only thing I can thing about earmarks is when hog farmers notch their pigs' ears in a certain pattern so that they all know whose pigs belong to whom. ;o)

Y'all have a good day!!

Cajun Cooking

I got up this morning and got ready for school. Walked in and the secretary looked at me. "You're not scheduled today." I think I'm the one who made the error, but no problem. I dropped by the library and did a couple hours volunteer work. Stopped by the grocery store for a bell pepper. FINALLY! I spotted some mirlitons. Huh? You ask. In our stores they are called by the Spanish name...Chayotes...a squash. And the best that I can spell the pronunciation of the Cajun French mirliton is: mur' lay tawn Be sure to say it with a Cajun French accent. ;o)

When I got my Cajun cookbooks, I noticed some recipes for mirlitons. I asked my Cajun co-worker and Jerry told me what they were. Anyway, I purchased a couple along with the bell pepper and headed home. When I got home, Sam was in the shop. I called him and told him that lunch would be ready about 12:30. Of course I had to explain what I'd done.

Menu
Chicken Sauce Piquante
Mirliton Au Gratin
Rice
Orange stuff ;o)

Chicken Sauce Piquante
3 or 4 lb. hen, cut in pieces
cooking oil
2 small onions, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
2 buds garlic, minced
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 large can tomato paste
1 can mushrooms, medium size
salt, red pepper, black pepper
1/2 cup wine
Fry pieces of chicken in oil until brown. Remove chicken from pot. Add onion, bell pepper, garlic, and celery to oil and cook until transparent. Add other ingredients and chicken. Add seasoning. Cook over medium heat until tender, will take from 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serve with rice.

Just two of us, so I reduced the amount of ingredients. I intended to use some thighs I purchased, but they were in the freezer, and these two boneless skinless chicken breasts were in the refrigerator.
I put all the vegetables in the oil except for the fresh mushrooms. I'm not much on canned mushrooms. After the vegetables were almost transparent, I added the mushrooms.

Jonathan gave me this seasoning (from New Iberia, Louisiana) when he visited a loooong time ago it seems. It is very good on poultry.
The chicken piquante is simmering on the back burner. Time for the mirlitons.

This
is a mirliton.

Mirliton Au Gratin

mirliton
medium white sauce
buttered crumbs
salted water
grated Cheddar cheese

Wash mirliton and cut into cubes. Boil in one inch of boiling salted water until tender, about 10 or 15 minutes. Drain. Place in buttered baking dish. Cover with white sauce and sprinkle generously with grated cheese and some buttered crumbs. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and bake at this temperature for about 15 minutes.

I kid you not. That is the recipe as printed in the cookbook. I HATED recipes like that when I was learning to cook. At least this one doesn't say "bake in a moderate oven until done." Sheesh.

This is what I did:

2 mirlitons. Sam asked about peeling them but the recipe didn't say to peel so I didn't. I tasted it raw...very, very light squash flavor.

Medium White Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk

Melt butter in a saute pan, whisk in flour and cook a few minutes so the white sauce won't taste like raw flour. Whisk in milk and cook until slightly thickened. (Okay...this is called "white sauce." I'm from Texas and call this gravy.) Add a little salt and pepper. Some people don't like the black pepper flakes in this and use white pepper. I don't have white pepper.

I added about 1/2 cup grated cheese to the sauce.

I haven't made bread lately and have NO bread crumbs. So I crushed a handful of saltine crackers. It didn't brown, but everything was bubbling, so I pulled it out of the oven. Ready to plate.Ready to serve.
The recipes came from this cookbook:
Oh...Almost forgot the Orange Stuff.

1 package of orange Jell-o (Regular or sugar-free) Do NOT make Jell-o
1 carton Cool-Whip (whichever variety of plain that you like: regular, fat-free, sugar-free)
About 1/4 pound cottage cheese
2 cans Mandarin oranges, drained

Pour the dry Jell-o over the Cool-Whip and stir until the Jell-o is incorporated into the Cool Whip. Spoon in the cottage cheese and orange slices. Stir. Refrigerate.

Change

Well...Massachusetts made a change didn't they.

HURRAH!!!

The next change that should be made is term limits in the Senate. Then perhaps those old fogeys who have totally lost touch with reality will not continue to be re-elected 'just because.' Yeah. I know. Don't hold my breath.

Ta-Da!!!

My cornsticks didn't stick! I put about 1/2 teaspoon of bacon grease in each depression. (More in the sectional pan.) Then put them in the oven as it was preheating. The bacon grease was good and hot and sizzled when I spooned about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter in each section of the cornstick pans. I divided the rest of the batter in the sectional pan.

The cornsticks were so crunchy on the outside. Eat your heart out Nancy!

I finished sock #1 of my latest pair and started on sock #2 last night. Got quite a bit done, and worked on it more this morning.

Okay. Y'all need to lock me in a rubber room. I am amazed that I didn't burn myself baking the cornbread. eyeroll I opened a can of fruit yesterday. One of those cans you don't have to use a can opener on. Pull up the tab and peel the lid back. The lid boinged, and I felt a sharp stinging ouch. Looked and blood was pouring. Pure shock! I am right handed. How did I pop a knuckle on my left hand?

Today for lunch I opened another of the same style can (soup this time) so paid close attention. I hold the can with my right hand and open it with my left. I'm backwards. LOL At least it explained the ouch to a finger on my left hand. I am soooo glad I didn't repeat the boing...ouch! ;o)

Of course it is right in the bend of the knuckle. I can press on the ouch and it doesn't hurt, but when I bend my finger or rub it against something...especially rub it against something or bump it. OUCH all over again.

Sam may have to lock the knives away. ;o)