lunedì 25 ottobre 2010

Kate-quilt...e 7!

Tulipani!

Non sono del tutto convinta della mia scelta di colori, vedremo quando saranno pronti tutti cosa fare...



Tulip block! I'm not totally satisfied with one of the colors (the sandy one... it seems boring to me)... We will see at the end what to do (perhaps another block with different colors?):


martedì 19 ottobre 2010

Kate-quilt...6° blocco


Eccoci! Oggi uno dei miei favoriti, i papaveri!!


Here we are! Today one of my favourite, the Poppy block!!


lunedì 18 ottobre 2010

Stay at Home Round Robin!

Usually I'm an early bird... the sort of person who don't mind about being up early in the morning for a walk in the mountains, a trip to an exciting new fabric shop ;-) or just to say "Hello" to my husband heading to airport at 4 a.m. and I'm almost ever on time with my appointments... almost...

Kate started in July (yes... I'm "just" 4 months late...) a Stay at Home Round Robin: every person works on a Round Robin, but the quilt don't trip around the group... it just stay at home. It seems a happy mix between a RoundRobin and a Mistery, and I has been fascinated by the moment I see it... but I saw it a week ago and there was already 4 round done! I thought I was too late, but then...
Yesterday in Italy was a very rainy day (well, in Northern Italy was... in South-Center was sunny, lucky they!), a perfect day for a patchwork session, so I decided to give a try and started to work on the Stay-at-Home-RR...
Kate has been so kind to accept my submission and now... here I am!

First Round: a 6" square (finished). I played with triangles and strips, the strips ending outside the border of the block:
Second Round: add a piece 4"x6" at the left- (or right- if you prefer) side of the first block. (Yes it has been simpler to know in advance how the development will be... forgive me...)
Third Round: add a piece 10"x3" (finished size) at the top. This time I played with circles.
Fourth Round (yeufh! I'm catching up at last!): add a piece 3x9 at the left or right of the prevoius blocks. I decided for Flying Geese: the last one I made was ages ago! As you can see, I'm having some problems with measurement, because I'm using my brand new ruler in inches... and just I can't figure out very well how to add the 1/4 for the seams... It seems so strange working with quarter and not with millimeters!
Well, that's all, for now... I'm already looking forward for the next instruction: it will be real fun!

sabato 16 ottobre 2010

World Bread Day 2010



And now, in this very special occasion, I introduce you... the BAGUETTE (sort of...)!
Zorra has announced here the 5th World Bread Day and I'm very proud to partecipate (thank you Cindy for let me know ;) ).
And this is my little contribution for you all:

BAGUETTE con AUTOLISI

(qui trovate l'originale in italiano, thanks to Adriano Continisio: Adriano, you're my baking hero :) )
Ingredients:
250 g Manitoba flour (W300*)
250 g white flour (W250*)
315/350 g water
10 g salt
5 g yeast


Instructions:

At 4 p.m.

Knead 150 g of the Manitoba flour with 95 g of water in the mixer (a "heavy-duty" one, such a kenwood or a kitchenaid or similar) a vel. 1 for 5 minutes. Cover the dough.
Prepare a "biga": mix 100 g of the manitoba flour, 45 g of water, 1 g of yeast.
Let the two doughs overnight at 18°C (64°F).


At 8 a.m.

Dissolve 4 g of yeast into 100 g of lightly warm water, add 100 g of flour, cover and let rise at 26°C (79°F) for 1 1/2 hour.
Add the remaining flour, 75 g of water and mix at vel. 1 with the "leaf" (see the pics below), add the salt.



After some minutes, insert the "biga", at big chunks, and short after the other dough.
When you have a good dough, insert the hook and mix at vel. 1,5 for 3-5 minutes (until the dough will be smooth and shiny). Now, if you think necessary, insert the rest of the water (35 g), slowly.
Turn the dough on a floured surface and knead it for a couple of minutes. Cover for 45 minutes.
Fold the dough in three, as a envelope:



and let stand another 45 minutes.
Divide the dough in three and cover with a bowl (or a plastic film), let stand for 15 minutes.
Flatten very very gently the doughs in a square and then roll them up as you can see in the pics:


Form the baguette and let them rest in a floured dishcloth until doubled (60-90 minutes).
Heat the oven at 220°C with a bowl of water inside , slice the surface of the baguette with a blade and put them in the oven.
After 10 minutes remove the water and lower the temperature at 180°C
Cook for 15 minutes more and let them cool before serving.

Enjoy the World Bread Baking Day!


* the numbers represent the force of the flour, but usually you can find such information only in flours for professional use.

venerdì 15 ottobre 2010

Libri!!!! - Books!!! 2

Ecco cos'altro è arrivato da Book Depository:

Here we are another book from theBookDepository:




Davvero interessante la tecnica di Maxine, che utilizza per i suoi blocchi kaleidoscopio una sola stoffa con stampa di grande formato... per dire quelle sempre così difficili da abbinare...

Thi is a very interesting technique: Maxine uses just one type of fabric with large print (they are ever so difficult to use!)


La tecnica mi ha incuriosito molto e così da questa stoffa:

I was very intrigued by this technique and so, with this fabric:




... dopo alcuni tagli sapienti:

... and after some clever cuts:



ho cominciato a costruire questo:

I started this:



Sono molto curiosa di vedere l'effetto finale, ma direi che decisamente mi piace!

I like it a lot!

martedì 12 ottobre 2010

Fiori, fiori, fiori...

Ormai sta diventando un appuntamento fisso...

Ecco ancora una piastrella della coperta di Kate, questa volta vi mostro un mazzetto di campanelle:



It seems a weekly appointment...

Here another block from the Kate-quilt, this time a bunch of Bluebells:


mercoledì 6 ottobre 2010

Give Away


Do you know Tricia of Frizzelstix?
She's doing an Halloween-theme GiveAway, and her stamps are SOOO spooky cute :-) !
So what are you waiting for? Enter your name and try to win!
Conoscete Tricia di Frizzelstix?
Ha organizzato un "GiveAway" in tema con Halloween e i suoi timbrini sono così spaventevolmente carini :-) !
Quindi cosa aspettate? Inserite il vostro nome e cercate di vincerli!

martedì 5 ottobre 2010

Ancora...

Oggi vi mostro ancora un pezzetto della coperta di Kate! Riuscirò a finirla almeno per il suo prossimo compleanno?? Ecco a voi il blocco delle viole:

Today I will show you another little brick of the Kate-quilt: perhaps I will finish it on time for her next birthday! Here the Pansy block: