Every day in June #s 13, 14, & 15

The streak is still going. 25 miles on Monday with Coty, and then two short days, squeezing rides in between thunderstorms or at the end of a long day. I am finding that the first few strokes on the pedals are like a deep breath. Riding a bike makes me feel like a kid sometimes. Pedal, breathe, coast, lean into a turn, stand up and pump going up a hill, lean way down gripping the lower bars, back parallel to the ground, fly downhill. I finish each ride coasting down the street and then a few pedal strokes to shift to a higher gear so the next day's start will be easier. I turn into the driveway, a slight uphill, and stand up on my bike over the bump and down the driveway, like a jockey at the end of a race. I am that ten year old girl who dreamed of race horses and pretended to win the Derby.

******

I was very sad today when one of my students, an Afghan woman who wears a hijab, explained to me that the reason she hadn't come Monday or Tuesday was that she was afraid to walk from her apartment the half mile to the center. Someone might be angry with her because of the gunman in Orlando, she said. I am afraid, she said. Drivers passing by would not know, of course, that her husband has a Purple Heart and that he fought shoulder to shoulder with American Marines in his home country, the country he had to flee because he fought with the US. I couldn't tell her not to feel afraid because she is right, her fear is not irrational. Someone might see her hijab and be angry. There could be some backlash. I could only say I'm sorry you feel afraid and tell her that I pray for her protection. She asked if I could give her some fabric so we pulled out bags of brown and purple, her choices. She will make beautiful headbands with embroidery and earn money for her handwork and be delighted that she is able to help her family with the skill of her hands. When I was leaving the building, she saw me and waved and smiled and blew me a kiss. I wanted to cry for all the crazy, terrible, unjust, beautiful, messed up, sweet, tender things in this world.

I came home with two teenagers - one from Congo, one from Burma. They are beautiful, bright, thoughtful girls. They swam for two and a half hours, laughing and lounging in the pool.

******

We are reading aloud again. Coty reads and I cut fabric or press quilt squares. Deep jewel colors - purple and teal - and goldenrod in simple squares are the start of a new quilt. I am working at it slowly, but reading together in the evenings will speed it along.

******

It's morning now, after a night of storms. The air is cooler and fresh. I hear a wren. The coffee is brewing. I will sit on the porch for a bit and read. It's a very good way to start a day.

Where do the saris come from?

For the last three years I've made quilts for the Sari Bari auctions. The saris are sent to the US quilters and we sew them into quilts that are auctioned for the benefit of Sari Bari. Those quilts are some of my most favorite of the ones I've made in these last few years.

In October, this article was posted on the Sari Bari blog. I loved reading about the process of buying, sorting, and using the saris in the Kantha quilts that the women make.

I have a stash of saris from three years of quilt auctions. I'm feeling the draw to pull them out and work with those fabrics again ...

This year's quilt ... in process back in March/April

Helloooo November Ramble ...

What? November? Whirlwind of a year, but that's what they all say, right? Coty has an explanation for why time seems to speed up up as you age. As you get older each year that passes is a smaller percentage of the years you've lived so relative to your life, each year is proportionately less. That's why they seem to speed by faster and faster.

For example, when you turn six, as my grandaughter Clara did in September, you have lived six years and each of those years is 1/6th of your life. When you turn 60, as my sweet husband will do next March, each year is 1/60th of your life. Even I, who had math nightmares in college, know that 1/60th of a pie is a whole lot less than 1/6th of a pie -  or year, as the case may be. That 1/60th of your life was tiny, it sped by, Christmas seemed to come so much sooner than it did when you were 6, when that 1/6th of your life dragged by at a snail's pace. You all have probably already thought of this years ago, but numbers don't come naturally to me so when he told me this some time ago it was quite a revelation.

Anyway ... it is a rainy, rainy morning here. Pouring. It's supposed to do this all day and I couldn't be happier. I will stay inside and finish the decluttering of my sewing studio, put everything that is currently piled up in the dining room away on the shelves in the fabric section of the garage, finish prepping and send off the latest installment of "Gramma's Craft Club" to Clara, and practice straight line quilting with the walking foot on my old, old Singer.

*****************************************************************

It's Tuesday now. Election day. I voted for Town Council. That was the only race on today's ballot in my town. Turnout is always so low for these non-presidential year elections. I heard someone talking on the radio the other day about how the local elections are the ones that really affect our day to day lives in our communities. Who gets elected today will determine how much more needless retail development is allowed in my town, how many more housing developments get built, whether or not a bike path is built or parks maintained, whether or not this community is welcoming to a diversity of people or only interested in attracting high-end development.

******************************************************************

I started watching Paula Reid's Craftsy class on machine quilting yesterday while I prepped the quilt sandwich. It's pretty good so far. I am convinced that Paula's two table method for prepping the quilt and pin basting is far better than crawling around on the floor like I've been doing.

********************************************************************

Sometimes you find exactly what you're looking for! That happened last Friday. I went to a local antique mall in search of something to use for displaying all the scarves that the women of Make Welcome have sewn this fall. Our sister business, Journey Home, had two craft show/sales coming up and we needed something to hang all those scarves on. I looked at old apple orchard ladders, beat up step ladders and other hanging options and was just about to give up. I decided to walk down one. more. aisle. And there it was. The perfect rack.

Dusted it off and filled it with scarves for the Front Porch Sunday Market.

We'll use it again on Thursday evening at the Silent Images, Women in Focus event 

on the Artisan Marketplace.

 

 These wool/tweed/linen patchwork scarves, lined with corduroy, are my current favorites. They're made from a mix of old wool skirts, donated wool yardage, design sample fabrics, and purchased corduroy. I'm hitting up thrift stores now for more wool and linen items that we can cut up and use. 

 

What do you think?

And that rack? When it's not doing duty at shows and sales, it'll have a spot right in the corner of my studio for hanging fabric. Win/win! 

Three for tonight

1. I got home today and the good old cat has talked to me practically non-stop. He has also gone in and out and in and out and in and out, happy to walk around his territory and roll on the driveway, happy to lie in the sun on the deck. He has followed me from room to room. Just now, he is lying on the throw rug near my chair. When I get up, he will jump up and go ahead of me, anticipating where I will go next. He will voice his opinion about where he wants me to sit down in loud meows. When I do sit down, he will find a spot near me and lie down. He wants to be close. He is the doggiest cat I've ever seen!

2. On a completely different subject, I continued my search today for the right sewing machine. I am going to learn to machine quilt in my 59th year and it's time for an upgrade! A few weeks ago, I looked at a really wonderful used Bernina 710. Today I looked at a Brother VQ3000 (out of my price range but fun to look at) and a Juki 2010Q. The Juki is an interesting machine. It only sews straight stitches, but my can it fly - up to 1500 stitches per minute. Whew! It is also very sturdy - really almost an industrial quality machine. It comes with a heavy duty walking foot and can sew through just about anything. I still want to look at Viking and Janome machines and read some more reviews. Anybody out there have a recommendation? I don't care about embroidery features but I do want a wider throat for ease in quilting larger quilts.

3. Finally, I'm looking forward to watching this video about the Gee's Bend quilters. Thanks to Kristin Nicholas for posting the link.

Hello August, four days in

Enough catching up, don't you think? Oh, there's more, always more, but it's a new month so time to move on.

Here are a few things I am loving these days ...

Monday long rides with Coty
We've been taking longer bike rides, usually on Monday mornings, though we had two nice long rides on a little getaway a couple of weeks back - Tuesday and Wednesday rides, 42 and 22 miles. I am loving these long rides. In the countryside we ride through, the ripening corn is tall now. As we pass, the honey fragrance of the cornfield envelops us. Roosters crow and cows stand in a line under the cedar trees along a pasture fence line or wade up to their bellies in a muddy pond. We see red-tailed hawks on power-lines or atop tall snags. We catch the whiff of a skunk that has crossed the road in the early morning or see the remains of an unfortunate black snack, hit by a car as it warmed itself on hot pavement. The cotton plants are flowering now. Yesterday, we rode 33.4 miles. I was dragging at the end. The last few hills felt higher and longer than the last time I'd ridden them, my quads and knees weary, the bandana I tie around my head totally soaked. I checked the temperature on my bike computer as we pulled into the country church parking lot where we'd left the car and it said 95 degrees. No wonder I felt wrung out. Next week, we'll start earlier!

Garden tomatoes
It's that time of year. The German Johnsons I planted in the top terrace are ripening. There are not nearly enough of them, however, to satisfy the desire for vine ripened tomatoes, so I go to our little local farmer's market on Monday afternoons to replenish our supply. My sister, who has a larger tomato patch than me, has also shared some of her bounty. Really, there is nothing quite like a garden tomato, just picked and warm from the sun, sliced up and eaten with just a twist of freshly ground salt and pepper.


Recorded books by Ivan Doig
I listened This House of Sky, back in May. Masterfully narrated by Tom Stechschulte, Doig's memoir recounts his growing up years among sheepherders and ranchers in Montana. His widowed father grudgingly resorts to asking his mother-in-law to live with him and help raise his son. The lives of father, son, and grandmother become interwoven in unforeseen intimacy as they share the hardships of ranch life, growing up, and growing old. I've also listened to three of Doig's novels: Whistling Season, Work Song, and Sweet Thunder. Of his writing "creed", Doig wrote:

“If I have any creed that I wish you as readers, necessary accomplices in this flirtatious ceremony of writing and reading, will take with you from my pages, it’d be this belief of mine that writers of caliber can ground their work in specific land and lingo and yet be writing of that larger country: life."

Doig died in April of this year. Here is the NY Times tribute to him.

Designing a quilt around some of my wax fabrics from Chad
Back in February, Coty went to Chad. He came home with three gorgeous pieces of wax fabric for me. I've been looking and looking at them and been loath to cut into them, but I finally took rotary cutter to two of them and began designing a sort of medallion quilt. I started with one of my favorite quilt patterns, Flying Geese. Then I drew from the free form cutting ideas in quilts of Nancy Crow and patterns in Cultural Fusion Quilts and starting cutting and sewing curved sections of fabric together. Finally, I did something inspired by a pile of quilt blocks I picked up at an estate sale a few months ago and did some improvisational cutting and piecing. I don't know how this quilt is going to end up, what it's going to look like, whether or not I'm going to like the finished product, but it's a learning process that I'm enjoying.

 Please excuse the fuzzy quality of this picture. It was taken in less than optimal light!

Almost daily Snapchats from New York City
Back in early July, Andrew moved to New York. I am missing him so much, but he's great to send me snapchats several times a week. Street scenes, skyline vistas, Central Park-scapes, office views. I love seeing what he's seeing and I can't wait to visit and see the sites with him.

What are you loving these days?

Catching up #7: One more quilt

 

 I finished the binding on Levi's cowboy quilt before they left so he could take it home with him. I wrote about it here while it was in process. I think he likes it!

Catching up #6: Another little quilt

This little quilt was made for Matthew and Kailie as a memento of their wedding rehearsal dinner and the wedding party celebration we had here in NC several months after the wedding. I finished it up right before we went to Matthew's graduation back in May ... in time for their first wedding anniversary!

I had some fabric left over from their wedding quilt so used it to make half square triangles with one side a piece of off white cotton. The squares were used to decorate the tables at the rehearsal dinner and all the guests were asked to sign a block, using a permanent fabric pen. Even the kids at the dinner signed blocks, as you can see. Those are some of my favorite blocks.

At their NC party last November for folks who hadn't been able to join us at the wedding, I used a piece of the same off white cotton and had people at that party sign it. This piece was used for the back (sorry, no photo of the back).

I hadn't planned it this way, but had just the right number of gray, orange and blue HST's to make a chevron design. I had the orange sari fabric with white zig-zag on it in my stash and that was the perfect fabric for the border. Some antique buttons, a bit of ric rac, and some embroidered flowers from the orange sari embellish the front of the quilt.

It was fun and easy to make and will, I hope, remind them of all the loving family and friends that celebrated with them on their special day!

Catching up #2: A Quilt Reveal

I love showing you quilts but can't always do it when they are in process because they are so often gifts. Erin and Luke celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on June 5th (really??? 10 years! hard to believe). I'd been working on their quilt for ooooh, three or four years and was very glad to finish it and get it in the mail in time for their actual anniversary.

I suppose I wasn't actively working on it that long, but I did start collecting fabrics quite a while back. I also quizzed Erin on colors and quilt styles that she liked. She mentioned the Double Wedding Ring and together we picked a few fabrics. Fabric shopping with her was helpful and gave me good ideas about color and fabric styles. I also purchased a Marti Michell Double Wedding Ring template set a few years ago.

Maybe a year and a half back , I started cutting fabric. Lots and lots of little tiny arc pieces which were chain pieced over quite a few months. I would work on the quilt and then put it aside, pull it out again and have to re-read all my directions and start over. Did that a few times with both the arc piecing and the "clamshell" construction. (See here to get an idea of how it came together. This isn't the template set I used, but it's a helpful graphic).

97 "melons" with 1,358 tiny arc pieces sewn around 42 center diamonds later, I was done with the top! I chose vintage looking print for the back and used a Windsor blue marbled fabric to bind it. I'm pleased with both choices. The long arm quilting was done by Rebecca Verrier-Watt and, as always, her work is top notch!

I like to embroider my quilt labels and then hand-stitch them to the back.

Happy anniversary, Erin and Luke!

**********

And thanks, Lindele - for reading, for your comment, and for your love of fabrics and quilting that inspired me so long ago. Wished we lived closer and could sew together!

Sari Bari Quilt auction going on now ...

Click here if you want to bid on Kokata Meets Provence. Let me warn you that when I try to go to that link in Internet Explorer, it doesn't work. Chrome and Firefox seem to be fine, but in Explorer, I get a message that the quilt is unavailable. It is still there, but only til Wednesday. There's just one bid so far, so it's at a very low price for the quality and beauty of the quilt, if I do say so myself.  And forgive me, but I'm afraid I don't think the pictures on the auction site do the quilt justice.

There are many, many other gorgeous quilts being offered. Here's the link for the general auction site. Go buy a beautiful quilt and give hope to women who are being freed from the sex trade in India!

Round 2 of the auction should be online by this evening. Even more beautiful quilts, including Kandyce's.

Lots going on around here these days.  Make Welcome classes, quilt sewing, triathlon training, and a backyard project. More later, friends ...

"Kolkata Meets Provence"

It's all done and on its way - this quilt I'm calling "Kolkata Meets Provence." Why the name, you ask? (And even if you aren't asking, I'm going to tell you if you read on)  It was like this ...

The quilt design evolved in the making. I described that process here. One day when the squares were being assembled on my design wall a friend came over. Her immediate comment upon seeing them was, "It looks like French Country."  I hadn't made such a connection but as soon as she said it, I pictured tablecloths I'd seen in specialty shops imported from France, linens and fabrics that evoke a particular place and design style.

I embarked on a little quilt related research project into just what we mean by French Country when we are referring to textiles? What is it about those sari fabrics that call to mind Provence?

First, color. Blues, a certain rich golden yellow, and white. Of course, there are other color combinations in fabrics from Provence, but these are very signature colors.

Second, pattern. Small florals, paisleys, stylized flowers, intricate borders.

Here are some examples from the web:

from Provence Soleil

 

 

from Provence Decoration

 

from A Touch of Provence

 

 



 

 

 

and these last four from a store right here in North Carolina that I had the pleasure of visiting in my quest to learn more about the fabrics of Provence. French Connections, in Pittsboro, is a delightful shop with a mix of French and African fabrics, African baskets, carvings, antiques, and more. I could have spent much longer there than I did. (I was on my way to Chapel Hill and didn't plan nearly enough time to spend in the shop before I was scheduled to meet Joel). It was a feast for the eyes and also a nostalgic journey, bringing to mind shopping in markets in Cameroon and Kenya. I will definitely be going back and would love to meet the shop owners and learn more about their NC/France/African connections. 

 

Scroll up and down and then look back at the picture of the quilt. See what I mean about the French country/Provence design colors and motifs? And how they show up in the sari fabrics I received for this year's auction quilt?

 

But there's more ... there's a history here that is represented by these fabrics and I've started to understand a bit of that, too.  In the pre-industrial era, India was well known for the quality and beauty of its handwoven and hand-dyed and stamped textiles. By the early 17th century, these textiles began arriving in France, via the port of Marseilles. Known as Les Indiennes, they became quite popular among both the common folks and the royal court and a copycat French fabric industry sprang up. The design motifs, Indian in origin, became the signature style of Provence.

 

You can read more of this history, here and here. I've also read a bit about Indian fabric production and importation into France in a book Coty received for his birthday.



 

In reading about Indian textile production, my mind has wandered back to the day in the summer of 2009 when we visited a small Indian handloom and hand block-printing fabric factory. If I can find those pictures, I'll post some of them.

So many connections in the making of this quilt, probably much more than you wanted to know, but I have not only enjoyed the process of making this time around, but found the making greatly enriched by the recollections, online and in person fabric design search, and history study its making has prompted.

Sari quilt process

I am endlessly fascinated by the process of making quilts. This latest quilt for the upcoming Sari Bari 2015 Quilt Auction is no exception. I received my saris in the mail and was less than impressed with the selection of recycled saris that had come my way. They were dark, mostly navy and white plus two that were mustard orange yellow. The prints were mostly large, except for one small floral print. The only thing I could think to do was ditch the yellows and go with blue and white. Like Delft.  Like my lovely blue and white plates, collected over time and hung on the wall in our big room. Surely, with perhaps a tone on tone white fabric and the blues, I could make a go of it. Perhaps, but I felt a bit skeptical.

Thankfully, the Sari Bari Quilt Auction quilters are a generous lot. On our facebook group, several women offered me saris in different colors and then to my great delight, I found out that three other women from my quilt guild, The Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild, were also making sari quilts this year. We arranged to bring our fabrics to the guild meeting and we made some trades. I ended up with some lighter blues as well as some smaller florals and interesting designs.

My idea began to change. I started seeing photos on said facebook group page of some of the quilt blocks that were being made. I was inspired by the ways in which women were highlighting the design elements of the saris by isolating them with fancy cutting and surrounding them with border fabrics. Hmmm???

Next, I started thinking about plates. As I said, I have a small collection of blue and white plates. Some of them have borders around the edges. The saris have borders around the edges. Hmmmm? Another design option. Highlight the sari borders by using them around central squares.

I started cutting. Fancy cutting interesting shapes within the saris and strip cutting borders. I cut out a couple of larger design elements and framed them in white. And then the quilt started to take shape.

The quilt now has a central medallion which was one of the larger shapes that I cut and framed. I started placing my "plates," some with plain centers and interesting borders, others with white borders and interesting centers, around the medallion. My friend, Amber, came over and helped me move blocks around. We turned them on point. We played with color and design arrangement. And I kept making blocks.

In the process, I posted some pictures and asked about setting the blocks on point around the center medallion. I was beginning to think this was the way to go. I've never done anything on point, so I had to learn. I read some tutorials, watched some videos, and learned about the math of side and corner setting triangles. This, my friends, is truly amazing. Anyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a math person. But dabbling in the math of the quilt was fun. Hypotenuses, formulas to determine triangle sizes, and the like.

At one point, I pulled out graph paper and colored pencils. Drawing a picture helped me get a better handle on what I wanted to do. It also helped me understand the math. And coloring. Who doesn't like coloring. It's been far too long since I've done any coloring and it was fun.

I am closing in on finishing the quilt now. I have decided on block arrangement. I've cut and interfaced and starched. I've stitched and trimmed and pressed. I have one more row of blocks to complete so that the center medallion isn't exactly center from top to bottom. That way, as it drapes on a bed, it can hang a little below the edge. You know what I mean, right?

Then I have those side and corner setting triangles to do, but they will not be as hard as I thought. So, I'm closing in on finishing the top. And then there are the backing fabric and quilting decisions to be made. The process continues ...

Sewing, sewing, sewing ...

(sorry, fuzzy)

My machine's been humming away.

A few weeks ago, I decided to put together a quilt for Levi's birthday. I've been collecting cowboy fabrics for a while so when I got going, it came together pretty fast.

I started with a center medallion of fancy cut cowboy patches with blue sashing and a braided rope fabric frame. Then the flying geese, which I love, and a plaid from my stash ... and it just kept growing from there. I'm hand quilting it now. That's a new skill for me, but since I got a free quilting frame that was being given away at my last guild meeting, I figured it was time to learn.

The Cowboy quilt was "unwrapped" over skype on Levi's birthday on Monday. A bit more quilting to do and it will be on the way to that sweet grandboy.

Next up. Rice bag play.

I am experimenting with rice bags for the next season of Make Welcome sewing. Tote bags. Wrist clutches. It's been fun and I'm learning as I go. You'll probably be seeing more rice bags in the months to come. Our Burmese students eat a lot of rice and they bring their rice bags to class. So far, we've upcycled them into pillows and a few tote bags. We've only used the burlap ones so far but today I played with the plastic fiber bags. Ironing is tricky.  Too hot and it melts. We'll see.

Tomorrow I get to go and talk to a local quilt group about Make Welcome. What a privilege!

Wedding recap #1: A quilt, of course

I am home now from a wonderful, whirlwind, joy-filled week of wedding prep, celebration, and then a bit of post-wedding relaxation with family.  I looked forward to this wedding week for so long, thought about and prepared for it for months, and it seems a bit surreal that it has come and gone.  Let's relive it a little, bit by bit so I can savour it some more, shall we?

I'll start with the quilt.

I started making quilts before Jonathan and Kandyce got married.  They received this quilt, and Thomas received this one. Sorry, Erin and Luke, yours is coming ... a nice 10th anniversary present, perhaps.  (note: today is their 9th anniversary, so I've got a year!).

So, of course, I made a quilt for Matthew and Kailie.  It started with winning a group of squares as part of my quilt guilds block of the month way back in October.  The Solstice Star pattern in gray and aqua was a pattern and color combo that I loved and I decided way then that it would be the start of M and K's quilt.

Lots of chain piecing with those lovely blues and grays ...

and the quilt grew, square by square ...

I had some trouble with the border.  It started out as a wide orange border, which was too much.  The orange was cut down and with the help of Amber and Kay's eyes for design, it evolved into a much more detailed border of half-rectangle triangles in grays broken up by varying sizes of blue rectangles, all mirroring the fabrics in the quilt.  It will eventually be bound in orange.

We arrived in Denver on Tuesday and spent a lovely evening with Kailie's family, getting to know family members that we hadn't met yet.  Over Barry's delicious salmon with saffron cream dinner, Karen's Italian salad, and pie we laughed and told stories and made connections ...

and then it was time for giving the quilt ...

I think they like it.

The quilt came home with me to be quilted and bound, but it'll be back with them by the time Minneapolis winter comes!

Flying Geese and a new favorite Corn bread

Do you know what a Bed Turning is?  I didn't, til yesterday.  

I went to the Cabarrus Quilt Guild show and sat in on the Bed Turning.  Seventeen vintage quilts were stacked on a bed.  One by one, they were lifted and held up for us to view by two gloved guild members.  A third woman told us where and by whom the quilt was made, the fabrics used, the pattern and some of its history, and other interesting facts about the quilt or its maker.  I wish I'd thought to jot down some of the details of these quilts, but I didn't, so a couple of pictures will have to suffice.

 A scrappy log cabin quilt backed with plaid (wool?) flannel

 A Double Wedding Ring quilt, which we were told is one of the most popular of all quilt patterns.  Since it was often considered a "best" quilt - reserved for the guest room or special company, many quite old examples of this quilt have remained in pristine shape through the years.

I wandered around the show for a while, noting that I really like the traditional patterns.  I don't like "cute" and I'm not a fan of embroidered quilt tops, especially.  There weren't many of what is nowadays considered the modern quilting aesthetic.  I spent time looking at this Goose in the Pond design, was drawn to a couple of Around the World and Irish Chain quilts.  I also found that whenever Flying Geese were incorporated into a pattern, I stopped to look longer.  Maybe it's because once you learn something, that spark of recognition and identification with the process makes you want to linger.

Landscape Triple Irish Chain

and lots of flying geese!

Moving on...

I made corn bread last night.  I don't think I will ever go back to Jiffy Mix.  I got a new camera lens, too, so now you can view this delicious corn bread while I play with my new lens.  Oh, and those little bronzy green globes of goodness on the plate ... the state fruit of North Carolina (who knew?!). Scuppernongs.  

See the little rainbow in the corner.  How did that get there?

OK, that's enough.  How about the recipe:

Apple Cider Cornbread (Gluten, dairy, and sugar free, oh yea!) 

1 cup corn meal (not corn meal mix!)

1 cup almond flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)

2 eggs

1 cup good apple cider

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 scant tsp. salt

1 TBSP. blackstrap molasses (if you're a purist and consider this sugar, leave it out)

6 TBSP. coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a cast iron Dutch oven or 9 inch skillet, melt the coconut oil.  Once it's liquid swirl it carefully around the sides of the pan.  

Mix the dry ingredients (corn meal, almond flour, baking soda and salt)

Mix the wet ingredients (eggs and cider).  I also tipped my Dutch oven and poured a little of the coconut oil into the wet ingredients, but you can skip this step if you want.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry.  Stir briefly to mix and then pour into your coconut oil covered pan.

Bake for 12- 15 minutes.  (I didn't time it. Sorry.  Just watch the edges and make sure it's firm in the center)

Really, really moist and delicious.  We ate it with roast chicken and spaghetti squash with pumpkin sauce (also dairy, gluten, sugar, and nightshade free.  Yes, I'm on a strict dietary regimen just now.  Hence the elimination of all of those in my cooking these days.)  But more on that some other time.

My husband needs a haircut and we're going out to lunch here with our family.

Happy Saturday, all!