First, something quick and easy and yummy. My new favorite salad topping, pickled garbanzo beans.

Because we love garbanzo beans, right? And you know we're all about the condiment here at Splatgirl Creates.
These are a great way to hearty-up a green salad, and they keep in your fridge for just about ever, getting tastier the longer they sit. Like three bean salad except with only one bean :)
Just drain and rinse a can of garbanzo beans and put into plastic container with a tight sealing lid. Dump in a 1/2c. or so of your favorite vinegar. Seasoned rice vinegar is nice, but I ran out so for this batch I used apple cider vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar instead. Add about a teaspoon of salt and the seasonings of your choice. I reached for my quick and easy seasoning answer to lots of stuff, Penzeys Sandwich Sprinkle, but something spicy or curry or smoky would be lovely as well. Close up the container, give it a good shake and tuck it into your fridge to let steep for a couple of days. Then just start spooning them over your favorite salads. Like I said, they keep for just about forever and just get better the longer they sit.

So then, you'll recall I've been mumbling for a while about getting started on a quilt for my very own, and maybe you saw the mockup I posted to Flickr the other day:


It was a quickie because my patience for screwing around with graphics programs is fairly limited, but just enough to give me an idea of where I thought I wanted to go in terms of color and general style. And today I managed to sew up a little sampler of that digital mock-up:


You can see where I marked and started to applique on the red dashed line, and that I gave that idea up in short order. Those bits were really freakin small, my applique skills sort of suck, and I decided it wasn't a method that was going to get me what I was after.
Anyway, you get the idea.
And then I went back to the drawing board, because I decided that once I tweaked that pattern and made it big enough to be the ~90" x 100" that I'm planning, it was going to be too boring and with just too much orange. Not enough action on the center of the bed.
With the quilt, I mean.

So here's my round two from today with the same general idea:


I'm liking this one much more, but unless I can come up with an interesting way to piece or quilt it, it's still lacking something for me. More columns of narrower stripes? Maybe a thin red horizontal line through the center? Add in a print? (I have several prints that look awesome with these colors, so I'll definitely plan a print or two for the backing.)
I'm annoyingly indecisive, I know, but do give me credit for the fact that I think I've actually decided on these colors. For me, that's half the battle, because you know how I love me some colors.
I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Labels: quilting sewing fabric