My friend Barb

Now that I have given the July bag to Barb, it is time to say a little bit about her. I met Barb 28 years ago, just after I was married. Michael and i were living in a duplex near Lake Calhoun and I was an avid runner. A friend from New York, Susah, was visiting us and she introduced to me to Barb, whom she had net in graduate school, and who lived in my neighborhood. I was told that Barb was a marathon runner, so I was intrigued. I think we made a date to run together the first time we met, and soon after we became good friends. We ran together at least once a week and Barb encouraged me to try longer distances, getting me to do a 10 mile run. While we ran, we talked about our lives, our friends, our jobs, and our passion for cooking and good food. Barb introduced me to the neighborhood food coop which I promptly joined. Once a month we would volunteer there together, talking the entire time that we cut, weighted, and labeled cheeses. . We never seemed to run out of things to talk about.

A few years after meeting Barb, I gave birth to twins, and Barb became their official godmother. Soon after she fell in love and married Lon, and I was, a bridesmaid in her wedding. Over the years our friendship has grown and deepened, as well as experienced some challenges. We have shared many life events, celebrating together, and also helped each other through difficult times. During the year of my vision loss and eye surgeries Barb was always there for me, and even encouraged to me to get a second opinion when facing a risky surgical procedure. Thank goodness she did, because the second doctor advised against it.

Barb seems to know everyone in the Twin Cities and wherever we go together, she aways runs into someone she knows. She also has lots of family in town and gives so much of herself and her time to her family, especially "the elders": her mother, mother-in-law, and uncle. She hosts all the major holidays at her house and thinks nothing of cooking for 30 at a time. She is also a very giving person who devotes her time to many good causes and programs.

She is a dedicated, highly skilled, and hard working professional, is extremely frugal, and is a very principled, ethical, and selfless person. I admire her, learn from her, and value her as a friend. I was delighted when she nominated a school for the deaf for one of my bags of the month, and I hope the Farmers Mare kt bag I donated brings in a good contribution to this important educational program. This bag was made in honor of my long time friendship with Barb.

Photos of the July bag

Here is the finished bag. I bought all these great fabrics of fruits and vegetables and had a terrible time figuring out which ones to use and what pattern. I finally chose this cute yellow and blue print that has citrus fruit on it. I added a yellow fabric with blue flowers for the top and a blue fabric with little green flowers for the bottom. I used another blue and yellow floral print for the lining. For the handles, I used blue plastic webbing. The fabric already had a pieced look so I quilted it using criss crossing diagonals. I like the finished result and hope it will be a good bag to tote to a farmers market. I made a second bag for my August bag of the month but that will be in a future blog. Next posting will be about my friend Barb.

The July bag is finished!

The July bag is finished and I am planning to give it to Barb today. Since it is a farmers' market bag, I have filled it with goodies that I bought at the Mill City Market, my favorite farmers' market. They only sell products that are grown or produced in this area, and most of the produce, if not all, is organic or grown without pesticides. It is open Saturday morning and I love to go with my big empty bags and see what has been harvested that week. Last weekend I bought raspberries and blueberries, finally ripe enough to pick. I bought sugar snap peas, pea pods, radishes, cucumbers, kale, mint, spinach, and basil. For the Farmer's Market bag I bought a special jar of clover honey, a bottle o real maple syrup, a package of wild rce soup, some homemade fruit and nut crackers, some of Edna's famous caramels, and a bag of granola. I also bought a frag ant soap. Into the bag I am also putting two cards: one with a recipe on it for Mexican gazpacho, and one is a card made from a photo I took in southern France (shown below). I also put in the bag a new edition of one of my favorite cookbooks. Local Flavors by Deborah Madison, which provides delicious recipes using seasonal ingredients from farmers markets. I was going to upload photos of the finished bag but my batteris are dead and I am recharging them. When I upload them in my next post I will also write about my friend Barb, becuase I made this bag in her honor.

A little setback

I was waiting for my vegetable fabrics to arrive to make the July farmers market bag, and was sewing a black and white table runner, when.....
Ouch, my machine sewed my finger. I don't know how I managed to get my finger under the needle but it went right in and broke off, leaving a 3/8 inch piece embedded in the index finger of my left hand.
My husband drove me to Urgent Care and after an x-ray to verify the location of the missing needle piece, the doctor did a little surgery and this is what my hand looked like. I had two stitches and the wound is healing well so they should come out next week.
In the meantime, the lovely vegetable fabrics arrived and I am playing with them, arranging them in different combinations to try to figure out which I will use in the new bag.

July bag

I will be donating a "Farmers Market Bag" to a fundriaser for the Northern Voices Oral Deaf school fundraiser. This event is in August, and raises money for a preschool that effectively helps deaf children learn to talk and use their hearing with hearing aids and or cochlear implants. My freind Barb reports that they work the kids hard with fun activities so they are about 2 years above grade level by kindergarten. They need to start strong,m and have some slack because with a full active classroom of noise it gets harder to hear when they are mainstreamed with normal hearing kids. This way they come in strong, and have some room to regress as they get accustomed to working and listening in noise.

Plans for the July bag of the month

I can't believe it is already July 11. I am excited to get started on my July bag of the month.

I recently made a little quilted table runner to donate to my quilt guild's annual art fair booth. Each year we make and donate quilts that are sold at the Loring Park Art Fair in August. The money earned is used to give to charities and nonprofit organizations. The table runner is made with burgundy and gold fabrics that have paisley and floral designs. The fabrics had been donated to our quilt guild and were samples from a fabric company. I have never made anyhing using these colors and had a hard time finding a good border fabric, but finally used a plain gold cotton fabric once used in a Japanese quilt. I quilted each section of the table runner separately and it came out rather nice. Here is a photo of it.

Now, back to my July bag. When my good friend Barb saw this blog she suggested I make and donate a bag to a fundraiserheld next month for an educational program for young deaf children. Barb is an audiologist and has very high regard for this school. I will provide more details on it in my next blog. I asked her to help me brainstorm an idea and theme for the bag. We came up with a Farmers Market bag, that I can fill with recipes and food products (but no fresh produce!).

I thought of my huge fabric collection which includes several fabrics printed with vegetable designs. I went and pulled them out to look at them but none of them went together well so I went online to e-quilter.com and ordered a few new pieces of fabric which should arrive soon. One is gorgeous tomato fabric, another is a panel that looks like several pieces that have been sewn together, and another is a cute green and red cherry fabric. When they arrive I will see what kind of idea comes to mind and which ones I will use.

I want to make a big tote that will hold many purchases from a Farmer's Market, with sturdy handles. I an nut sure if I will quilt it or not, as adding a layer of batting may make it too heavy and bulky. I'll determine that as I go along. If it works well, I may make two and give the second one away to a different fund raiser.