Kim’s Mountainside Quilt & a gluten free pie crust recipe...

Hi Friends,

I hope that your week is going well! I’m custom quilting an incredible quilt…that I’ll share soon. Also, trying to keep up with sharing the fun quilts that I’ve been quilting lately. Like this one that Kim made. Plus, I share my thoughts on quilting designs that run vertically on a quilt, my opinion on minky backings, and I even share my favorite gluten free pie crust and apple filling recipes. This is a good one!! Enjoy!

The pattern is called Mountainside by Vanessa from Lella Boutique, and it’s made with her Smoke and Rust line of fabric. This is such a cool quilt. The combination of fabrics… colors, prints and the pattern…such an awesome option if you’re looking for a guys quilt.

I used my favorite 8020 from Winline out of Ogden, Utah. I also used a cream Omni thread from Superior Threads. They have such great threads!

On a quilt like this one I wanted to pick a fun deal that would create some awesome texture, especially with all the negative space…and it turned out great!!!

This is my Southwest design!! If you notice from the image below, the direction is different than how I quilted it on Kim’s quilt. The reason it’s turned sideways, the backing has minky on it and I only pin minky onto the machine on the two cut ends with the selvages running down the sides…because of the not so lovely stretch. The quilt had to be turned sideways to fit onto the minky backing. The bonus…I actually love that the design is going vertically down the quilt, instead of the normal horizontal direction. The direction of the quilting design isn’t competing with the mountain peaks in the quilt pattern. It’s a win win, if you ask me. If I ever want to run a computerized quilting design down a quilt vertically, because I think it would look great with the pattern and fabrics, I do it!! Unless, minky makes me only go one direction. So, don’t be afraid to have quilting designs quilted vertically on your quilts. Sidenote…some quilting designs do suggest that longarm quilters turn the quilt sideways, and quilt the length. They just look so much better vertically!! So as to not confuse you, quilting designs are typically quilted horizontally on a quilt.

With that being said, there are times when I have designs picked out with my client, and then I realize the quilt has to be turned…usually when the backing is minky…and the design just wont look good sideways on the quilt. For instance…recently, I had a client drop off a national park panel that she wanted quilted, and we decided on our Kindling quilting design. She had minky for the backing, and I realized when I laid the quilt out to make sure that the backing was big enough, that I would have to turn the quilt sideways and quilt the length of the quilt…so we had to change gears and pick a new design. Kindling is a fun design, it just wouldn’t look good sideways. We settled on another design and it looks great!

I love how simple lines can create such a fun texture. I like Southwest quilted at a 5” height, and there is no backtracking. It’s one of the many quilting designs that I offer in my shop. Southwest is a unique take on a chevron…however, it actually has more of an arrow texture to me…hence the Southwest name.

A few more pics of the fabrics…such cool prints by Vanessa.

Some more close ups…

And…look at that cool texture on the minky backing!! I love the solid 90” wide minky from Shannon Fabrics, it shows the quilting beautifully. I personally think the embossed or textured minkys compete with the quilting. Let the quilting create the fabulous texture, and you’ll love it every single time. At least I do.

Even though I have more quilting to do, I am going to take a break the day before Thanksgiving and make some gluten and dairy free pies with my sister, who also eats gluten free. This is the apple pie that I made last year.

If you or someone that you love eats gluten free…here is the recipe. I also don’t eat dairy, so its dairy free as well.

Gluten free and dairy free pie crust, and its flakey just like a regular crust. Recipe vis Gluten Free Gourmet.
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup cornstarch (100%)
1/4 cup potato starch flour
1 cup rice flour (I love the Bob’s Red Mill white rice flour…its so smooth)
1 rounded tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tsp. salt
dash of sugar
1 cup crisco
1 egg, cold
1 T. GF vinegar
4 T. ice cold water

Note: to insure that the crust is actually gluten free, you need to make sure that all of your ingredients say that the are gluten free. Even simple things like vinegar, aren’t always gluten free unless they say so.

More rice flour for rolling.
Blend flours, xanthan gum, salt, and sugar by hand with a pastry blender. Cut in the crisco in small pieces with a pastry blender until combined. In a seperate bowl beat the egg with a fork, then add vinegar and water, then mix into the flour mixture forming a ball. You can knead it a bit because the rice flour is so light. Refrigerate for an hour or longer. Then I used some plastic wrap with rice flour when I rolled it out to help it go into the pan easier. This is enough for a crust and pie shell. Bake according to the filling recipe or for a pumpkin/cream pie bake on 450° for 10-12 minutes. Hint: I have used our dry container on our vitamix and ground up regular white rice, for the rice flour. It was easy! Or, you can just buy the rice flour. You could use 1/2 c shortening and 1/2 cup dairy free butter, if you'd rather not use a cup of crisco. The vinegar from Walmart is GF. I also got a pie mat to roll the crust onto which makes it sooo much easier to flip and add to a pie dish. If there are any cracks or rips in the crust, use a spoon to smooth it together. I used the tip of a spoon to create the fun scallop edge.

If you’re interested in the filling recipe…

Apple Pie Filling, family recipe:
1 cup sugar
2 T. cornstarch (100%)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup GF flour (1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour from Bobs Red Mill, is my go to flour)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 T. lemon juice
5 cups sliced apples.
Mix all the dry ingredients, pour lemon juice on apples to help them not brown. Mix well and pour into pie crust. Break up 2 tablespoons of dairy free butter on top the apples before adding the top crust. Bake at 400° for 50-60 minutes. I cooked it for 60 and I'm at a higher elevation. I was thinking I'd need to cover the edges of the crust so they didn't burn, I didn't and its a nice golden brown.

Thanks for humoring me. I know that simple things like eating pie, can be difficult for those of you who can’t eat a normal slice of pie. I was just going to share the picture of last years pie, but then thought someone may be interested in a recipe. Enjoy! No worries, this won’t be a regular thing. I do have a gluten free instagram account where I share recipes or finds, you can go check it out here: @gluten.free.leisha

Have a great week!! Thanks for stopping by. - Leisha