2009 June 21 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Questions for You

June 21, 2009 · by JudyL

In preparation for a new and improved blog, I have a couple of questions for you. You don’t HAVE to answer if you don’t want to but if it matters at all to you, will you please let me know what you think:

Twitter – I’ve been trying it and I just don’t get it. I can’t imagine that anyone cares what I’m doing every minute of every day. I can see how it’s good for some people but I think between this blog and facebook, everyone probably knows as much about me as you care to know (and too much probably!). So, I’m thinking I’m going to do away with Twitter. No one cares, right? What? You’ve never been to my Twitter page? That’s what I thought!
The free patterns – I’m trying to make it easy though it seems that when I try to make things easier, I usually send a few people over the edge. When we do free patterns on the blog – either Quilt for an Hour, Quilt-Along or whatever . . I sometimes do them in pieces on the blog. But, once we’re finished, in the future, I’ll offer it as a .pdf via the Patterns for Free page. I have re-organized that page. Will you please take a look and tell me what you think? Now when you go there, you see a picture of the quilt, most are the EQ drawing. You click on the picture and that takes you to a page that has a little more info about the quilt and if you click on that picture, it takes you to a .pdf page. Is it easy to find what you’re looking for? Does the organization make sense?

What I would like for you all to do is if you’re going to share the link to a free pattern, please link to the Patterns for Free page, not specifically to the pattern. For instance, if you wanted to share the Peaches and Dreams quilt with your online group, would you please use this link – Patterns for Free. If ever I change web hosting companies or make changes in the pattern, the file may not get renamed what it was before so if you wanted to share the Peaches and Dreams pattern, you could say . . the Peaches and Dreams pattern is available here: http://www.patchworktimes.com/patterns/ If you say . . the Peaches and Dreams pattern is available here: http://www.patchworktimes.com/Patterns/PeachesDreams.pdf then they’re going only to that pattern and not seeing anything else that I have for free and in the unlikely event I’ve changed the file name, they’re not going to get there. In the process of re-doing this page, I did change some of the file names from the old names so anyone linked up with the old name is not going to get to the pattern.

Thanks!

Questions? Comments??

· Filed Under: Quilting · 82 Comments

Homemade File’

June 21, 2009 · by JudyL

Want to make your own file’? My guess is that most, if not all of you got up this morning hoping I would post about how to make file’!

What’s file? It’s what us Louisiana folk put in our gumbo. It’s powdered leaves from the sassafras tree. What you may not know is that the world’s largest sassafras tree is in Owensboro, KY, which is where we lived nine years before moving to MO in 2007. Even Wikipedia says the largest tree is in Owensboro.You can see a picture of it here. I think the picture was taken in the tree’s better days. Recently I heard it’s taken a hit from the hurricane that came through and recent ice storms.

Start with leaves from the sassafras tree. Any sassafras tree will do . . doesn’t have to be leaves from the largest tree in the world! When we lived in Owensboro, we had several trees in our yard. They grow kinda wild . . almost a nuisance tree. But we moved away and I haven’t found a sassafras tree around here. This past winter I ran out of homemade file and had to buy some at the store. You can imagine the complaints I got from my family.

I asked my friend, Becky, who lives in Owensboro, if she would gather me some leaves, dry them and send them to me. I was afraid if she sent them fresh off the tree, they’d mold or otherwise have problems while making the trip here via the U. S. Mail. She did. She sent me a ziplock bag full of dried sassafras leaves. Some say it’s best to harvest the leaves in the fall right before they turn brown. I think they have a stronger flavor if harvested in the spring. I believe it’s more common to harvest the leaves in the fall because people begin eating gumbo in the fall and make the file’ fresh when it’s closer to time for eating it. I actually would make it any time I needed it if there were leaves on the tree but my preference is spring leaves.

Strip out the hard veins. You don’t have to be real particular because we’re going to sift the powder and who cares about a bit of stem . . fiber, right?

Stick all the leaves in the food processor. You could also use the blender or a mortar & pestle. Grind it till you get it the consistency desired. We prefer ours to look more like finely ground leaves than powder.

Sift it through whatever size mesh you desire.

Store in airtight jars. When it gets closer to time for gumbo (fall/winter), I’ll transfer some of this to a spice jar with a shaker top. Can you see a bit of difference in fresh ground and storebought?

· Filed Under: Cooking · 17 Comments

Week 25, 2009 Stash Report

June 21, 2009 · by JudyL

Well, darn it! Excel doesn’t seem to be working so well tonight but I didn’t add or use anything this week. I did get a lot done but it was yardage that had already been counted. I’m at a net usage of 207.50 yards. I had hoped to use at least 500 yards net this year. I might can do it but the backings for the quilts I’ve been quilting really helped get my yardage up. Doubtful I’ll keep up the same pace on quilting my own tops. I’ll just be happy if I don’t go on a binge and buy a ton of fabric before the end of the year.

How’d everyone do this week. We’re getting real closet to the halfway mark for 2009. Are you halfway where you wanted to be for this year with your additions and usage? It’s not too late to make a good sized dent in the stash! Please share your report with us: