Slow Sundays & Stashes

I’m never sure what to do with Sundays – they seem to have so much potential and possibility.  I always want to put so much into them, and it’s pretty much always an exercise in overachievement.  Sometimes, it works out.  I think today almost worked out.  I just needed an extra 5 hours and it would all be perfect.

(The whole stash on the dining room table.  I found it amusing that the striped fabric to the far left was marked “remnant.”  I love search for and buy discount remnants also.)

One of today’s tasks was to sort through and wash a stash of fabrics from the seventies and eighties I got from my mom – a couple of bags from her old fabric stash.  My mom once had a lot of fabric, and this is only a small part.  Today, as always, as I looked at the pile, I am amazed at the skill with a sewing machine she had.  I’m not really sure what my mom thinks of her sewing skill, but I’ve always been impressed.

(Fabric with matching buttons, thread and zipper from a project never completed)

My mom’s the sort of seamstress who can make a lined, tailored suit.  If you’re not a sewer, know that dealing with two layers of fabric, including one of slippery acetate, is not a piece of cake.  Neither is tailoring, which generally means the garment needs to be fitted. Tailoring also means that all the seaming details are perfectly finished – tailored garments often look nearly as pretty on the inside as they do on the outside.

(Brown fabric:  the piece on the left was actually a remnant from something else and sports about 7 feet of a hand slip-stitched border.  The striped fabric had matching acetate lining, probably for an unfinished suit.)

I don’t have my mom’s skill – nowhere near it.  I’ve never had to sew clothes for myself.  Although I’ve sewn clothing, I am still intimidated by it.  I’ve only done the simplest sort of handmade clothing.  Kinda seems silly that I’ve made two quilts, but I remain intimidated by sewing clothing, but there you go.  I guess at some point I noticed the billionth article about how hard fitting sleeves is, and I became unsure whether I was up to the task.

(I suspect these violently colored pieces of jersey – yes, they’re actually this bright! – were from the 80s.  I seem to remember these colors.)

My mom thinks I’ve really become pretty crafty, and I suppose over time I have, but still sometimes the things my parents can do well are the very things I shy away from.  I guess I always had to do the things my parents didn’t do so I wouldn’t be so unsure about how well I might be able to do them.  My parents are both scarily intelligent, skilled people, so trying to follow them in their skills seems like an impossibility.

(Some great blue pieces in here.  The starts are actually more recent from her teaching profession.  I wish there was more of that blue floral.  Great scraps!)

I’m not even sure my mom knows I’m in awe of her sewing ability, but I am.  If I knew half of what she knows about sewing, I would have quit my job and would be able to do this for a living!

(These are two pieces for which I remember the outcomes.  The blue on the left is from a pair of dresses she made when she and my dad lived in Germany and my dad was in the Army.  One dress for someone else, one for her.  However, she told me she made a short dress for herself – but it was actually long with a deep v-neckline.  I tried it on when I was in high school!  Beautiful! 

The white piece on the right is from my flower girl dress I wore when I was seven for my aunt Miriam’s wedding.  I thought that was the most awesome dress I’d ever worn.  I bragged my mom had made it – who else could say that?  It was long, made of this lovely white eyelet, and had a wide blue ribbon for a sash.  Wonderful!)

Craft Brunch

Happy October!!

Yesterday I had the happy fortune of having brunch at a cafe here in Austin with a friend.  After noshing, I provided what I hope was a relatively decent explanation of crochet for a friend who wants to learn the art.  Sunday Brunch is my favorite meal – husband and I often had brunch on Sundays at a cafe down the street when we lived in Manhattan, and I’ve continued to love the idea.  And sharing crafting is one of my favorite things to do.  It was a *great* Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday’s get-together was occasioned by my friend Paula’s receipt of a crocheting kit. Paula would like to make a blanket eventually, but when she wrote me last week all she had was yarn , a hook and completely confusing directions for making a granny square scarf.  It is true that providing directions for crochet is hard:  crocheting is essentially the art of making various types of knots into a piece of cloth using a single hook. And at the moment, Paula is in that really interesting stage of trying to get the feel of manipulating the hook and yarn together while not having the whole thing fall apart.  I remember that stage well, and in fact Paula’s beginning efforts yesterday were a great deal more effective than my own a couple of years ago.  I know she doesn’t think so, but she’s never seen how I started out. Although she now knows my little “secret” that I only manage to create a “real” slip stitch about a quarter of the time, I did hopefully manage to show her how to do a chain stitch and a single crochet.

Jean Railla, in Volume 4 of Craft, talks about how one of the important aspects of today’s crafting movement is how many crafters & artisans are intent on spreading the love of DIY around.  So many of us post tutorials, tips & tricks on our websites to share what knowledge we’ve gleaned about our crafts.  Even on Etsy, in a lot of cases you can not only buy a crocheted object but the pattern as well.

Crafters are usually not a jealous bunch – the point is not knowing but doing: making stuff & creating something, not keeping our proprietary knowledge squirreled away.  When it comes right down to it, someone else’s version of my craft isn’t going to be the same anyway – I’m sure that they will add their own unique elements to it, their own style, their own sense of self.  They won’t choose the same yarn or color, and they’ll probably tweak it, improve it.  I like that, and I do that myself to others’ patterns.  If I provide a pattern for something, I don’t even care if someone else makes it to sell – if it works for them, great!
Crafting is a skill:  something to learn and to get better at, something that provides a medium for expression, something to take pride in.  Crafting is also a pasttime:  something to do when you’re bored, something to spend time doing when you read or watch a movie.  Crafting is friendly:  passing on skills, connecting at craft fairs, reading and writing blogs online.  And hopefully, it’s enjoyable most of all.

Weekend Warrior: 2007 Hot Sauce Festival, Houston, TX

This last weekend I got a rare treat – I attended the annual Hot Sauce Festival in Houston, Texas with my husband, dad and stepmom (that’s us to the right with all the dust in the air). There’s also one in Austin, but we missed it – this one, however, was NOT missed and turned out to be a singular experience in the delights of Really Hot Peppers.

This was real Texas-style event: it was held at the Farm & Ranch Club where rodeos tend to be held. There was also cheap beer – that is, cheaply made but not cheaply sold. And lots of folks with Wranglers and boots, just like you’d expect.

I personally tasted 90% of the hot sauces offered at the event on various chips and crackers. My taste buds were in heaven. The vendors at this place really know what they are doing, and I benefited a great deal. The event wins its way onto a Crafting Blog because I met the majority of the people who actually made/come up with these hot sauces, olives, relishes, salsas and the like. These are Food Crafters, and they know what they’re doing. And they’re trying to make a living at it – more power to them!

So here’s what I bought:

1) The top Prize for me at the event is divided between these two, who coincidentally had just won prizes at the August Hot Sauce Festival in Austin:

1A) Big Daddy’s sauces (Houston) – Jeff likes the original Ass Burn Hot Sauce (no, I’m not kidding) and I favor the Amplified Heat Mean Smokin’ Green Hot Sauce. But we also bought the habanero-spiked High on Fire Hot Sauce. We were lucky enough to get our samples (which burned my face off) from Big Daddy himself, who coincidentally plays in a band called Whorehound. I’m pleased also that Big Daddy uses St. Arnold Lawnmower beer in his sauce – St. Arnold is a local brewery in Houston. No wonder it’s so good!

1B) The Salsa Picante Medium from Rancho Bravo in Peru. I met the son of the maker, who had a t-shirt out front that proclaimed he was sold out. I was lucky. I got a jar anyway, probably because I told him his salsa was heavenly and asked all kinds of questions about it. It turns out his dad was an oil and gas man – he sold his business and bought a tomato farm in Peru. And those tomatoes take center stage in this sauce. It’s sweet and spicy and chunky, with the taste of tomatoes fresh from the garden. And if you’ve ever had a fresh tomato from the garden, you know what kind of great I’m talking.

2) The Sausa from Chile Beach Jams in San Antonio. Jeff also bought a gift pack of their pepper jams to take to his work. The Sausa is sorta somewhere between Sauce and Salsa, hence its name. It’s really spicy, but not so far over the edge that it’s not perfectly edible. I think it’ll be great on grilled chicken, myself. But the nice lady at the company offered me a Bloody Mary made with it, and that just kicked it (add to it olives stuffed with jalapenos and you’re set). Yes, definitely, you can’t forget that many libations are also good with hot sauce, in addition to the beer that all proper Texans use to put the fire out when they’ve had too much spicy stuff.

3) Winston’s Hot Sauce and BJ’s Hi-Tech Habanero Pepper Sauce. Ultimately I bought Winston’s Jamaican Hot Pepper Sauce (Winston was there) based on taste. These two were both really hot and of the same style. I have to say, though, that BJ’s was the hottest sauce I tasted at the show, by far. The t-shirt below is Winston’s, and the other pic is of the very tall guy that was kindly brokering BJ’s Habanero to the crowds.

4) The Texas Gourmet – he and his whole family were there, and were very persuasive! – had the best jellies I tasted (apart from the ever-favorite Austin Slow Burn). I bought some of their Mandarin Orange Serrano Jelly, while the parentals opted for Kiwi Jalapeno. Yum! They also put out pads of recipes for their jellies and BBQ etc., which I thought was a really nice addition. I plan to make egg rolls and dip them in my mandarin. Anyone want to join me?
5) Tony Legner’s CAT-5 Food Polish from Rockport, TX tops off the list. This powdery spicy stuff kicked butt on the nice sizzling sausage they had. Also, I’d been craving Cheetos, and they had a bowl full of them sprinkled with their hot powder. I wanted to run away with the whole bowl, but I restrained myself. Cheetos are NOT on the health food diet, y’know. Turns out Tony Legner’s is a restaurant in Rockport… probably yummy!

In other news, my Dad (hot pepper face below, right), who I believe can eat anything spicy, came up against stiff competition – he munched a raw Tabasco pepper (that innocent plant below) off of some plants that someone had for sale, and discovered that it was just about too much! The woman selling the plants was highly amused, my dad was sweating and swearing … it was crazy.

Below are additional pictures of the Fun To Be Had By All Pepper Lovers. This was truly an independent food artists event, and I was pleased to attend. I think the largest pepper vendor there was Austin Slow Burn, and that’s just because Central Market here in Austin sells them, so they’re a bit better-known. But not by much. It was awesome to see so many people there with their handmade stuff. Oh, and a shout out to Cin Chili & Company, whose chili was featured on Bobby Flay’s Showdown not long ago. I got to meet Cindy of Cin fame and sample her chili – it is indeed awe-inspiring.

Cheers and happy hot stuff! What a great weekend!