Threadbare to Social Fabric- An Illustration in Patience

(This is gonna be a long one, so hang in there.)

This project started out as a flight of fancy for our editor- get an illustrator to use thread to create images and infographics about poverty, the topic of the spring Archways cover story.

Surprise—couldn’t find one.

Take this puppy on myself? With thread? Fabric seemed a little easier to manipulate than thread- so I proposed that line of thought. Ok. Then the cover story was axed, taken over by another author, shortened by half and given to me 2 weeks after the design deadline. I also am not an expert sewer, quilter, embroiderer, etc. Ack!

Luckily, I had a crack team of 2 other crafty designers (Natalie and Krista) who were working ahead with me, preparing for the crappiest embroidery project of a lifetime. You know, on purpose. That was the look. Well-worn and whatnot.

Anyway, here’s how it went:

Fabric. We gathered stuff from store remnants and quilt squares, co-worker stashes and blown-out jeans. I stewed tea for days and had a rack in the kitchen drying stained fabric for a solid week. I even did up the embroidery floss, leaving on the labels in some cases so there was uneven color across the thread.

Sketches. While things were drying, we got to sketching our images. The cover image was the US map, so that was just an internet look-up and printout. There were 2 interior images, 1 that was a comparison of a neat little house with an apartment complex/housing project and the other was a kid getting food put in their backpack, highlighting a food donation program in the city.

We split up responsibilities, and then pulled in finished scans of the sketches into the layout to make adjustments before any fabric was cut. From there we could scan fabric swatches and pull those into the sketches. Then we planned out what fabric went where to make sure there was a general scheme throughout the pages.

Pattern. Like making a dress (or so I hear) we cut out printouts of the sketches and pinned the chunks to scraps of the appropriate fabric we were using. From there we used a fabric glue to lightly glue down the fabric bits to a stiff cross stitch backing. We found out the combo of glue and backing made for a difficult sewing medium, so we tried to keep things “light”.

Stitches. So I’m no expert and I didn’t want this stuff to look like museum pieces. The problem was, Natalie is a bit of an embroidery master and I needed to pull her back. We stuck to simple stitches and even taught each other new ones-which I think helped make these look novice. I even learned one by looking online. Once we chose the stitches to use, we took printouts of the layouts and drew stitch patterns on them indicating placement and sometimes color. We sometimes used hoops for the embroidery process and an iron if the hoops messed up an area when we needed to move them.

Photos. Things change. Nothing could be more true about a project whose quality is expected to be charming but sometimes questionable and 3 different people working with a medium that can morph around. So we photographed it up to see the final product in layout. We were hoping our camera could capture the detail of threadwork we put in, but it could not. Also we are not professional photographers.

We caved and got on the horn with Lane Hickenbottom. We took a trip and meticulously soft styled the heck out of the loose threads and wonky fabric and came up with some nice photos. Which I then burned out and lightened up to make text more legible and images look more old and crappy.

Sweet Mexi-Hash

So I had use up 1/2 lb of leftover ground turkey before it went bad. I had some sweet potatoes I bought on a whim. A few cans of black beans---is there something here? Google it up, yo. Yes. There is something here- lasagna, burritos, casseroles. Something can be done. And it will be done. Here's the recipe I decided to go with since I was hungry and ready to eat sooner than later. (i.e. I made it up)

steamin' hot!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 small onion
• 1/2 lb ground turkey
• chili powder - 1/4-1/2 tsp
• cayenne powder- 1/4-1/2 tsp
• coriander- 1/4 tsp
• cumin- 1/4 tsp
• salt to taste
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled, cubed
• 1 can black beans, drained, rinsed
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can diced chilies
• 1/4 cup cilantro

MAKE IT UP

1. Cook up onion with ground turkey in pan until meat is browned
2. Meanwhile, put sweet potato cubes in covered dish and microwave for 5 minutes. Test for fork tenderness and cook in 2 minute intervals until just right. 
3. Once meat is browned, add beans, tomatoes and chilies. Throw in sweet potatoes once cooked. Add cilantro at end, just to warm up.
4. Serve with rice.

Empty Bowls Event 2011

Well, Empty Bowls 2011 finally came (see February 7 post about the event). The soup was good and plenty and I ended up taking home a bowl that looked a bit like a geode. I'm pretty sure most of the pieces I helped with found good homes. I have evidence of a few.

The group project bowl I worked on with the marketing team, in a tulip motif, went at some early event, so I didn't get to see it off. The photo I'm sharing is of it in a case over at the Lux center. They were good enough to showcase some of the bowls before the event in a gallery in an upper room of the building.

Matt painted a lovely bowl that was part cherry blossom part bonsai. A high school exchange student from Mexico ended up with the bowl. Neat thought- having something you made end up in another country. (Carrie Masters took photos of the event- some here are from her. Check out her site! She does more than take photos.)

The February 7 post with a floral bowl was snatched up by a lady who later sent her husband to pay for it. I have photos of those series of events (via Carrie), so I thought it would be funny to share.

By the way, over $8,000 was raised for the BackPack program organized by the Lincoln Food Bank.

Birthday Bonanza

Celebrating a birthday means making favorite food for the birthday boy or girl. For me, that meant making German chocolate cake, my mom's recipe, and key lime pie, my own recipe/something I found years ago online. To top it all off, I made little ribbon flags on skewers that I shoved into the cake at the last possible moment like you would candles. Blowing on those does not have the same effect as blowing out flaming candles and it left me feeling a little lackluster---until I got to pass out the flags with pieces of cake. Wee!

I should have you know that I did get carried away with the flags. I couldn't stop myself. It looked better on the table- more of a centerpiece- take a look.

I'll go ahead and share the key lime pie recipe. It's pretty short and sweet.

Key Lime Pie

INGREDIENTS:

Crust:

• Go out and buy a graham cracker crust from the store. Don't be a snob.

Pie:

• 4 large or extra large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup fresh key lime juice (12 key limes or 2-3 regular limes)
• 2 teaspoons grated lime peel, green portion only
• whipped cream for garnish

MAKE IT UP

1. Use an electric mixer and beat the egg yolks until they are thick and turn to a light yellow, but don't over mix. 
2. Turn the mixer off and add the sweetened condensed milk. Turn speed to low and mix in half of the lime juice. One the juice is incorporated add the other half of the juice and the zest, continue to mix until blended (just a few seconds). 
3. Pour the mixture into the pie shell and back at 350 for 12 minutes to set the yolks and kill any salmonella in the eggs.

SERVES
8

Mexi Mac and Cheese

I tried out some spicy mac and cheese. I'm dating a guy who can't handle a meal without meat, so we had some simple pork chops on the side, grilled or fried up with some seasoning salt. I can't remember now. I'm playing catch-up with the blog, so there's a chance the meat in the pic was chicken or steak in disguise. I wouldn't know for sure. The pasta, however, has a recipe with notes, so that-I know about. And here it is.

(Also- I wanted to include a photo of the pasta as it came out of the colander- it looked like a brain. And I think that's pretty great.) 

INGREDIENTS

• 4 poblano peppers or 2 ancho chilies (not sure what I ended up with)
• Salt
• 1 pound bow-tie pasta
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 cups milk
• Freshly ground black pepper 
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I added this- the peppers I got weren't super hot)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 1/2 cups grated Mexican cheese blend
• 1 firm avocado, diced
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 small vine-ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 4 scallions, green and white parts, chopped (I forgot these)

MAKING IT

1. Heat the broiler to high and blacken the poblanos on all sides, 12-15 minutes. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover tight with plastic wrap or place in a paper sack; cool for 10 minutes, then peel, seed and chop. (This worked- I'll vouch for it)
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for pasta. Add salt and the pasta and cook al dente.
3. Heat a saucepot over medium heat; add the olive oil, onions, and garlic and cook until tender, 6-7 minutes. Add the butter to the pan and when it melts, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the stock and milk and bring to a simmer. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, the cumin, and the coriander and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cheese with a wooden spoon in a figure-eight pattern until the cheese melts.
4. Drain the pasta and toss with the sauce and the chopped poblano peppers. Toss the avocado with the lime juice. Serve the mac-n-cheese in shallow bowls and top with the tomatoes, avocados and scallions.

SERVES
8 as side, man. Recipe said 4, but gee whiz.

Valentine's Card Party

I found some valentine's that were given to and given by my older brother when he was a tot. I scanned them up, printed them out and bedazzled them. Why mess too much with a good thing? I had the design girls over to do some of their own handiwork as we enjoyed some snacks. They ended up with things apparently too cool for me to photograph-anyway, enjoy looking over their shoulders as they work.

(Check out the bunny bow tie)

Fruity Trio of DELIGHT!

I put together three fruits, a teaspoon of sugar and found myself in pure ecstasy. Wha?! Yeah. That's right. It was pretty darn good. 1. bananas, 2. blackberries, 3. kiwi. Try it for yourself. (Also try the chocolate almond croissants at Le Quartier. Delish! That's the pastry in the background, BTW.)