July 2023 – The Solo Geographer

Camping and Quilting

I visit the National Quilt Museum and find inspiration.

Finally, my friends, I got to do some traveling! I didn’t go far. I just went two and a half hours south to Paducah, Kentucky. I’ll focus most of my post on one of the things I did there, the National Quilt Museum!

I love sewing, and a few years ago I got into quilting. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but now that I look back, of course I like it. I really like how soothing it is to cut out shapes of fabric and sew straight seams. It’s a lot less stressful (sometimes) than sewing clothes. I have only finished a couple of full size quilts, but I’ve done a lot of smaller quilting projects like wall hangings and mug rugs. I have a couple of quilt tops I need to quilt together, but all in good time, I’m sure.

I left after work on Sunday. I dropped the dogs off at my mom’s and headed for a little campground in the city.

My little tiny tent and my camping chair. I have a bigger tent somewhere, but it’s a bit of a hassle when it’s just me camping. So I brought my cheap little walmart 2 person tent. Maybe I should have brought the higher quality one as it rained a bit, but the cheap one held up, so I can’t complain. There’s a picnic table right behind where I was standing for this photo, and that’s where I set up my cookstove and water jug.

Since the campground was more of an RV park, there was also free wifi, so I spent the first night watching Jaime French videos on Youtube because I couldn’t sleep. Not because I was camping, but because I’ve dealt with insomnia since I was small.

The next morning, I waited out a storm, made breakfast…

Then drove around Paducah looking around until the National Quilt Museum opened. And I am SO glad I went! It was beyond amazing. I’ll share some of my favorite quilts. Unfortunately, I forgot to snag the artists’ names on some of them, so I won’t show them out of respect for their work. I don’t want to share it without proper credit. There were also a lot more quilts I didn’t get photos of, so I highly encourage you to go to the museum if you get the chance. They’re always changing exhibits, and the employees are knowledgeable and very friendly.

The outside.

20230717_102736 — I like how the blocks were turned around to create the twisty lines.

20230717_103132 — These are “common” pineapple blocks, but the color values going brighter towards the center give it a glowing quality. I love the name, Fireflies, as it really evokes that image in my mind!

This quilt is done by Velda Newman and she had MANY amazing, very large quilts. Some of the quilts took up almost an entire wall! I chose this one to share because, well, I love birds (even seagulls). She is a true artist.

This is “Infinity” by Nancy Ota.

This is “Yellow Bird” by Claudia Clark Myers

This is Dragonfly Jacket by Marilyn Badger. I’d love to experiment more with quilted clothing, so seeing some in this exhibit was awesome.

“Geisha and the Serving Girl” by Claudia Clark Myers

“Marie’s Treasure” by Marilyn Badger. I love it because she used crochet elements in her piece and I love to crochet.

“Harlequinade” by Beckey Prior and quilted by Jackie Brown

“The Honeymooners” by Karen Sistek and Nancy Sterett Martin

20230717_110633 — Does it look like there’s a mermaid in this? I think it looks like a mermaid!

“Reflection #3” by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry

What’s really remarkable was being able to recognize some of the pieces as hand quilted. I did get some close up photos but I neglected to either get the full quilt or the name of the quilter. Others were machine quilted (my preferred method because I am not patient enough to hand quilt and entire one!). It really is remarkable how something that had such a utilitarian function as a blanket has morphed into such an amazing art form. Even simple nine patch quilts were a way for the quilter to express themselves and their artistic creativity, and some have become award winning art pieces.

I’d love to go back to the National Quilt Museum soon, especially as Paducah is so close. I’ll post about my trip to a mound site in a couple days, but before I sign off, I’m going to leave one last photo of my favorite quilt. It’s a miniature quilt, one of my favorite kinds to make, and it depicts a scene of one of my favorite places.

Drinkin’ Whiskey and Rye

It’s rye bread day!

Okay so not really. I don’t drink very much, though I do like a good whiskey every now and then. But I did bake rye bread!

I haven’t posted in awhile because, well, I got overwhelmed with work and stuff and I started running again so I have even less time, but it’s my day off so I cleaned my stove and part of my counter and baked bread. I also ran three miles but that’s beside the point.

Last week, I did actually bake zucchini bread from my recipe book but COMPLETELY forgot to take photos of the process. It was delicious enough that I’m going to make it again, so I can document it. I also have some travel plans next week so I hope to update the blog with those photos and adventures.

Some of the ingredients. . . So true story, I forgot to by rye flour and didn’t want to buy a whole bag, so my dad brought me some from the bakery, along with caraway seeds you can see in the little bag. I need to buy a jar of yeast but I keep forgetting to grab it at the grocery store.

For this bread, I scalded milk (in the microwave because I am lazy and the burners were still drying off from scrubbing the stove), and added butter, salt, and some brown sugar. I didn’t use all rye flower, I also mixed in some all purpose white flour in so it wasn’t super dense (just a little dense) when it was baked. I slowly added in the flour a cup at a time.

It created a sticky dough, which is common for rye. I actually wasn’t a rye bread eater for most of my life. Like many kids, I’m sure, it had too strange a taste for someone accustomed to white bread and wheat bread. Now, I like it a lot. My palate has changed a lot over the years, and it’s more broad. Which is super helpful when I go to new countries and try new food.

No kneading required for this dough! I put it in the oven to double. Again, with the pan of boiling water to keep things warm and humid.

Punching, or pushing, the dough down will forever be my favorite part of baking bread. That and the smell of yeast.

This bread was too sticky to really handle, but I managed to “pour” it into a baking dish. I inherited my grandma’s old pyrex ovenware dishes, so I was pleased to find the exact size I needed in the cupboard. I don’t use this dish as much because it’s more flat on the bottom. I mostly use it for jello actually. But it was perfect to bake this bread in!

It looks super close to the edge but the bottom was fully on the counter so don’t worry! I tried to form the dough to stretch the skin a bit. It’s hard to explain without showing you a video, but it’s a little trick I learned in culinary school to make the bread look nice as it bakes instead of having weird lumps. It wasn’t super even because of how sticky the dough was, but it looks rustic. That’s it, rustic.

I sprinkled caraway seeds on top, but realized after it baked that they didn’t stick to the bread in spite of the sticky dough. My dad reminded me of egg wash, and I completely forgot to really do it (though I did add some after the fact so SOME seeds stuck!). Also pictured: my really, really delicious expensive coffee.

Oven Ready! My stove looks so much more photogenic now that it’s clean, but you can’t really tell either way!

Now that is a handsome loaf.

And it’s pretty good too! Note all the caraway seeds under the rack! Oh well, I’ll remember next time. I’ll definitely make this loaf again. I may try and see if I can put it in a square pan for more even sandwiches for my lunch box. But I’ll definitely be packing my lunches with this bread! It’s not very strong a rye flavor, probably because it has a 2:3 ratio with AP flour respectively. So it’s perfect for me, though I’m slowly loving stronger and stronger rye flavor.

I’m currently working on a ginger bug, so I hope I can make ginger beer style soda this coming week. I didn’t take any pictures of the process because I kept failing at it, which is a story in and of itself. It may still fail, but it’s holding on for now so who knows. It smells good anyway!

Maybe I’ll do a coffee post soon! I have been drinking so much coffee lately, at least 2-3 cups a day. Maybe it’s not ideal but I did work up to it. But anyway, I have 4 or so different ways I like making it and it might be fun to talk about. Til next time, my friends!