Have you enjoyed looking at my postcards? Well, they’re for a good cause, one that touches too many lives.
POSTCARDS BATTLE CANCER
FIBERART FOR A CAUSE AT
INTERNATIONAL QUILT FESTIVAL – HOUSTON
Fiber artists from around the world have donated more than 2000 fiberart postcards to raise funds for the American Cancer Society at International Quilt Festival-Houston.
Choose a wonderful fiberart postcard for each $30 donation to the American Cancer Society. Payment is BY CHECK to the ACS with 100% of funds raised donated to the ACS.
The Fiberart For A Cause booth will be on the Main Aisle in Special Exhibits.
Fiberart For A Cause has already raised $53,000 and our goal for IQF-Houston is to raise the total to $100,000 donated to the ACS in only eighteen months.
Visit the FFAC website for a preview of the fiberart postcards and more information.
Questions? Send an e-mail to: Virginia@VirginiaSpiegel.com
OK, Fortune makes fabulous 32″ rolling pins to foster her pasta urges… Do I get points for making four new couches for bringing along loaves of rising bread? Oh yeah – yard and a half of nice basic duck aka canvas, a little bit of pressing, a little ripping, some very simple edge finishing and voila – let the little loaves lounge comfortably.
By ripping the fabric hunk into quarters, I got four nice fat rectangles that are a little bigger than my original “pastry cloth” come couche which turns out to be the same size as my bigger tea towels. Now I’m ready to make more than one batch of bread at a time, no prob.
OK, check out the last postcards!
And if you’re in Houston at the big show, I hope you’ll support FiberArt for a Cause which put together this great fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society. How? By buying one (or more!)of the over 2000 postcards that were donated by quilters all over the world!
I can learn a lot of things from books and pictures. I can learn some things by comparing internet sites. Every once in awhile though I wish for a human being style teacher.
As luck would have it, I turned on the little kitchen TV just as Julia Child was introducing Lauren Groveman to make pumpernickel bread (segment one of that show). OK, there were all the normal players — molasses, instant coffee, chocolate and an unusual addition – prune filling! I enjoyed watching Ms. Groveman mix the dough by hand and knead it vigorously. I was amazed to see her really bang the heck out of it at the end of the first rise. After a little more working the dough, she rolled the dough into a flat rectangular-ish shape and started to shape the dough. She was quite forceful in tamping the roll onto itself as it became a loaf shape. Rather baguette-shaping-like as Julia pointed out. But then, the surprise!
Ms. Groveman pushed her hand deep into the end of the loaf. Think that you have formed a tube by rolling up the dough, there’s actually room to put your fingers inside the center of that roll. She then elongated the ends of the tube. Folding the “ears” she formed, she crimped and tamped them into the under surface of the loaf.
Holy cow! Now THAT was a useful thing to see. She explained that the dough really needs to be told what to do, and you want to prevent those big air pockets from forming where the dough ends come together. AH HA!
I’ve often wished I could take a bread baking class, say at King Arthur… ok, I’d probably flip out if I could take a class with St. H, but what I really want to learn is how to shape loaves and deal with that part of it. And that probably is best learned by watching an experienced set of hands do their thing.
Here you go, faithful viewers, the latest postcards plus the hands that are going to the houston show, by Mom and yours truly.
