Day 96 – Spaghetti and Meatballs

What is your favorite food to eat? What if you could stitch your favorite food onto your quilts?

My absolute, hands down, favorite meal is my husband’s spaghetti and meatballs and today’s design is inspired by this yummy dish!

Speaking of food and favorite meals, last night Josh and I watched Food, Inc, a movie about the food industry in America.

Even though Josh and I are natural health and diet advocates, this movie still opened our eyes to the very real health dangers and hidden costs associated with our current food industry.

Way back in high school and college, I ate terribly. Candy and sugar were my mainstays. I would eat two or three candy bars a day and meals were typically pizza or a hamburger.

I got really sick as a result of this diet, but the weirdest thing about it is I didn’t KNOW I was sick. We associate sickness with sore throats, runny noses, and fever. Diet sick is very different.

I could burp louder than any guy, I would wake up at night with horrible stomach pain, and in the daytime I was tired and lethargic. I accomplished very little because I felt so terrible all the time.

It wasn’t depression, acid reflux, or irritable bowel syndrome, as the doctor’s I went to suggested and medicated me for. It was simply eating a bad diet.

So I changed my diet completely. I cut out all sugar, all processed foods, all dairy, and all for awhile all carbs and lived only on vegetables, some meat, seeds, and nuts. I was working near a fresh produce stand at the time and bought 90% of the food that we ate from a fresh, local vendor.

It wasn’t more expensive. It actually cost less to buy local, but it did take more time to shop for and prepare fresh foods. But then again, nothing is faster than driving through a drive thru window!

The transformation to my body and health was tremendous. I felt better, lost the excessive gas and stomach pain, and began to get my normal energy back. The food we eat really does determine what we can do and how we feel on a daily basis.

But it’s easy to forget this and it’s REALLY easy to fall back on the old habits of convenience food. After watching the movie last night, Josh and I realized how far we’d moved away from the healthier diet we used to have.

But it doesn’t take a lifetime of commitment or a zealot’s flair of enthusiasm in order to eat healthier. It’s simply a choice we make three times a day. Picking an apple over a candy bar. Picking water over soda pop. It’s really that simple!

So now that I’m off my food soapbox, let’s learn how to stitch Spaghetti and Meatballs!

Inspiration – McTavishing really is still my favorite quilting design of all time. It’s easy, it’s gorgeous, and it fills large amounts of your quilt quickly.

But I also love Pebbling and want to use it more often, but it takes so much time to pebble large areas of your quilt that it doesn’t feel like it’s worth it.

So by combining the two I think we get the best of both worlds: faster fill with gorgeous texture!

Design Family – Branching. McTavishing is a branching design and when you combine pebbling with it, things don’t change much about how the design is formed. This should work just about anywhere on your quilt no matter how big or small.

Difficulty Level – Intermediate. Neither of these stitches are very difficult, but simply require a little bit of practice before you can memorize the shape and style of the design.

Directional Texture – All Directions. McTavishing has one of the most flowing, organic textures that looks a lot like water or wind.

Suggestions for Use – Definitely use this in the background of your quilts, around applique, or complex quilting motifs. You can fit both designs in just about any area and no matter where you put this design, it’s going to look great!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day