No-Sew Fabric ART!

"Duke" Fabric on Stretched Canvas by Barbara Yates Beasley

Before Christmas I put together a 10-day series of Christmas crafts and gluten-free cookie recipes for people to do by themselves or with their child, mom, friend-- even thinking about the crafting gave me a huge jolt of creative aspiration.  I am gung ho to take that creative surge into 2020-- I will call it "my 2020 Vision."

While I love fabric art-- art quilts and the like-- I do not own a sewing machine, and confession, I am not a good seamstress/sew-er.  But I absolutely drool over the quilts I see that express feeling and perspective in much the way that artists do without other media.

So, I have been spending quite a lot of time on Pinterest lately, and guess what I found?  I found a delightful way to do "fabric art on canvas"-- in other words, to paint a picture on a canvas with pieces of fabric-- no sewing required!

Fabric Art on Canvas

Here are some examples with links to their sites where the artists tell about the process of making this particular fusion of quilting and "painting" or mosaic. 

1. The portrait of "Duke" above is a work by Barbara Yates Beasley who specializes in animal portraiture.  She describes Duke as an empathic little guy at a B&B who looks to offer a little extra loving to people who are missing their own doggies.  This beautiful piece of fabric on canvas art is not for sale, but if you go to Barbara's site here, you can see available pieces for sale and she is open to commissions for you to have your pet depicted on canvas this way.

2. The above fabric mosaic on canvas was downloaded on Pinterest by the artist Kristina Jones.  She also has some other beautiful mosaics with public domain that you can look up.

"Red Hibiscus" by Ruth Warren

3. Above, artist Ruth Warren creates the work called "The Red Hibiscus" using both fabric pieces and tissue paper.  She tells HERE how she did the shading that was necessary to delineate the petals on the flower.

Soft Art

Work of artist Serena Garcia Dalla Venezia HERE

There is something so warm and inviting about the 'soft art' tapestries of Serena Garcia Dalla Venezia, an artist working from Santiago, Chile.  You can see a little more of Serena's soft art and a little about the process of creating it at her page HERE at Cargo Collective.com

GRANNY WANTS TO RUN WITH THE ARTISTS...

If you are like me, you want to take at least one of the pictures above and take a look at how it is done and try to replicate the process in some small way.  Let's be bold this season-- even if we don't have a sewing machine or we do but aren't inclined to sew, we can buy some canvases at the dollar store and find enough recycled worn clothing to make a start with a small fabric art project.  I'm game!  Are you?  If you do a small (or large hahah) project, please let me know and I would be so pleased to highlight it and your journey here on this blog.

All the best!  ~Cynthia

HOW ABOUT THIS WORK OF ART??  

                YUMMY VEGAN ICE CREAM SUNDAE!

Fab DIY Chocolate Maple Walnut No-Churn Vegan Ice Cream Sunday. Click on picture or HERE

Yummy Vegan Chia Nog Pudding

I am extending the Christmas season a tad so that we can enjoy some more of that nog flavour that we were just getting into!

This chia not pudding recipe is:

• vegan (no eggs, no dairy). I am a vegan who considers raw honey as just nectar passed through a bee... some call us bee-gans.  Sub for the honey in the recipe with maple syrup or 4 dates.
• gluten-free (no gluten proteins)
• full of chia protein, which is the form that chia carbs take!
• full of chia's pretty balanced omega fatty acids (good for the brain)
• very tasty in that recognizable noggy way
• sweet, but not cloyingly sweet like the commercial nog
• can be eaten all year long or just saved up as a Christmas tradition

INGREDIENTS FOR CHIA NOG PUDDING

• 14 oz/414 ml   full-fat coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons  raw honey or maple syrup or 4 soft pitted dates
• 1 teaspoon       ground cinnamon
• 1/2-1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons      vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons   chia seed (or 10 tablespoons chia gel*)

(Makes 2 large puddings or 3-4 smaller servings)

METHOD:

1. If using chia gel, about an hour in advance, stir about 2 cups of water into 1/2 cup of chia seeds in a mason jar.  Stir well to keep seeds from sticking and then put into the fridge.
2. If using four dates to sweeten, combine the following in a blender: coconut milk, dates, vanilla, spices.  Process until well-mixed.
3. If using raw honey or maple syrup, combine the coconut milk, sweetener, vanilla and spices and stir in a heavy-bottom saucepan over low heat to bring all elements together. (Do the same with the blender mix using dates).  When heated (but not boiling), remove from the heat and stir in the chia seed or chia seed gel until smooth throughout, and spoon into a serving bowl or individual cups.  Refrigerate for about 2 hours for a perfect blend of ingredients and the best nog experience of the season!
4. Eat when set!  Use your favourite Christmas garnishes-- picture shows a garnish of dried cranberries.  Puffy coconut whip would be a dream.  Raisins would go well with the nutmeg-cinnamon spiciness.

Click below for some delicious Chia Seed Breakfast recipes:

                                        Enjoy some chia seed recipes at your breakfast table!

Best Hummus Recipe (Extra Garlicky, Vegan, Gluten-free, Low Fat)

Here you have what our family has come to call the BEST Hummus.

Why?

Because to our tastebuds, it is just simply the best tasting hummus!  

Where the recipe calls for 4+ Garlic cloves?  We really amp that up-- I think I used 7 today.

There is no olive oil or other oils-- just the tahini-- to carry to oily mouth feel.  Please feel free to add a little olive oil if you desire.

We enjoy the smoky taste of tahini, but if it tastes a little "off" to you, go ahead and use peanut butter or some other nut or seed butter (hemp seed would be tasty).

We likely use about a 1/2 - a full teaspoon of sea salt, but really not much is required if you trust the garlic and tahini to carry the flavour.

I also buy dry garbanzos and cook them up in my Instant Pot (electronic pressure cooker) until they are soft (today's batch of beans were kind of old and I had to cook them for a record-breaking 40 minutes on the bean/chili setting, but normally 20 minutes in the pressure cooker works fine.  Organic chickpeas from scratch works best for us.  But chickpeas from a can will work.

I used a blender today.  A potato masher, or even a fork, also does the trick.

The red sprinkle is organic Hungarian Smoked Paprika.  Go ahead and garnish with what you like: olive halves, cayenne, Middle Eastern spice blends, capers, minced garlic.... you're the chef!

If you like this recipe, you might also enjoy my recipe for BEST Garlic Bread-- (yeah, lotsa garlic)-- found with 3 great pasta recipes (scroll down on the page when you get there)

https://hubpages.com/food/3-Not-So-Common-Healthy-Delicious-Gluten-Free-Plant-Based-Spaghetti-Recipes (and recipe for Best Garlic Bread)

5 Delish Vegan Christmas Salads

Salads are not usually the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Christmas dinner, unless you are doing a Christmas potluck and someone assigned you a big green salad to offset all the richer fare.&nbsp

Think about it.  Festive salads are generally the fresh piece to offset all the cooked and baked and sugar'd up stuff that even dedicated and disciplined vegans "allow" themselves during the time of feasting.  A fresh salad is often all it takes to quell an over-eating of something a little richer than what you are used to.

The following salads are either new and different, or vegan take-offs on traditional salads.  I hope you find one that you want to try!

1. CANTALOUPE, RED ONION AND WALNUT SALAD

Find this delicious sunny brunch salad @Giadsy.com

This great-looking canteloupe, red onion and walnut salad is a true Mediterranean delight-- from the island of Sardenia where people lead very long and healthy lives.  Besides the canteloupe, onion and walnuts, the salad shows up in the above picture with arugula and a lovely fresh orange dressing.  The author states that usually watermelon is the choice, but she uses cantaloupe because it is more available all year round.  If you see watermelon somewhere, you might want to sub it.  Go HERE to get the full recipe.

2. APPLE, GRAPEFRUIT, POMEGRANATE SALAD

                  This tantalizingly beautiful red-and-green salad is found @Forks Over Knives


Several years ago, the Forks Over Knives story of how it is possible to live a healthier life without animal foods-- to actual reverse major health crises-- was screened all over the North American continent.  Today you can find thousands of vegans who identify that movie as the turning place in the way they live and eat.  This recipe is one of many at the Forks Over Knives site.  Take a look at it HERE, and when you get time, take a look at some of the other fantastic recipes they have.


3. MARINATED TOFU, AVOCADO AND SPINACH SALAD


A wonderful salad for that Christmas visit from a good friend!  Brittany @ I Love Vegan

This splendid salad has that Asian ability to satisfy all the taste points in your mouth-- and a recipe for the yummiest toasted sesame and soy dressing that you will want to try on other salads.  You can find the recipe HERE.


4. QUINOA CONFETTI SALAD

This cheerful-looking salad is good anytime of the year, but the colours are really Christmas-y! Find it @ the Adventist Veggie School

Quinoa is a pleasant-tasting, somewhat nutty-flavoured grain.  It is gluten-free and a favourite substitute for wheat and other grains.  This salad makes a lovely one-dish meal for anyone who is not voraciously hungry.  It is also a great addition to the other salads at the bar.  Go HERE to find the full recipe, including the recipe for the dressing.

5. WARM GERMAN POTATO SALAD


This potato salad recipe comes from the Alberni Supper Club and is found @ Veggie School

There are many potato salads out there but my husband is craziest about the Warm German potato salad.  It had a place of honour at most of his childhood and youth important family dinners.  The original "bacon bits" have been vegan-ized using tempeh crumbs (recipe in the blog).  Find the recipe for this warm potato salad HERE

If you want to try another potato salad favourite of his, go HERE





`10 Days of Christmas Crafts 
and Gluten-Free Cookie Recipes