that take up our attention. This is a truth that is at once practical and annoying. Practical in the yeah we have to care for our home and other parts of our lives. Annoying in the whole all this other stuff takes time from the place where we find our greatest joy. The taking care of things around the house brings to mind that page from the Singer Manual that goes around where we all wring our hands. And yet I know deep down (she says looking around her sewing room) that taking care of things brings a peace of mind that permits us, mmmm frees us, to pursue the art of quilting in a way that has greater depth. A few weeks ago my Sweetie (as he is forever immortalized here on the pages of this blog) sent an email with a link to the big non-stick skillet letting me know it’s time to replace it for it had lost the very characteristics of being non-stick. Yes friends, food was sticking to our non-stick skillet in the most annoying way.
Well, I had a different idea. I didn’t want the non-stick any longer for a lot of reasons. So at dinner one evening I made an alternate proposal – cast iron. In the conversation I let him know my reasoning for this – not that I needed either permission or to convince him – more to let him know that since that email I’d given serious consideration to the direction that I’d prefer to go in, this matters a lot because I do the majority of the cooking these days.
We all know as quilt makers that sometimes the Why matters. Take for a quick example the quilt block above. I made that block using some of my precious Marcia Derse fabrics and quilted it in a very Teri Lucas way. Oh goodness this was so much fun. I have a deep love for color and have played with it, thanks to the examples of Alex Anderson, Jinny Beyer and so many other fabric & quilt designers, thread manufacturers and mother nature. Quilting like Teri Lucas matters to me, because I’m, well, Teri Lucas and finding/remembering my own voice is essential.
Back to the cookware. (Pauses to take a sip of coffee that needs warming up. Mmm Coffee!) A few weeks ago we were out & about and brought home two porcelain coated, cast iron dutch ovens that I’ve been cooking with almost non stop. So my Sweetie, in typical Sweetie fashion, knowing what I wanted, exercised his mad shopping skills and purchased the cookware and a stand that will house most of the cast iron. I say most because I don’t think the 17” skillet will fit on it. I am still in purge the old cookware mode there are things to keep and things to let go. If you’ve ever purged or moved cross-country you know that some things are kept because of memory. One of these days I’ll be taking a trip over to a local take-care-of-people center and donating for someone else to use. The cast iron and the sous vide/immersion cooker have become my go-to in cooking.
More on the immersion cooker in another post.
In the meantime take a look at the classes through LessonFace/John C Campbell Folk School and I’ll see you soon.
Happy Quilting,
Teri
