The July challenge for the “2022 Monthly Color Challenge” from Patterns By Jen is based on Purple sumac.
I used to think that all Sumac was poisonous but learned that the herb “Sumac” is edible!!
I came to this understanding when we were visiting in Turkey and our host said that we were going to eat Lahmajoun!! Michael and I were SO excited about this because we had seen Anthony Bourdain pontificate on the wonders of this treat and we had determined that we WOULD have it when we were in Turkey.
Lahmajoun is basically a flatbread (think thick pizza crust) with ground meat and vegetables pressed into the dough, as opposed to sitting on top of the crust like our pizzas.
Here are the creators of the magic…..
Once layered, it is popped into a stone-fired oven and comes out looking like this……
But, what does this have to do with Sumac??
To eat the slices, you sprinkle on a bit lemon juice, and top with fresh Sumac leaves. You then fold it in half and enjoy….
One funny story…. our hotel in Istanbul wouldn’t tell us where we could find Lamajoun because it was considered “peasant food”. A few days later we were on the tram that traversed the city and I looked out and saw a restaurant that was advertising Lamajoun. We got off at the NEXT stop and had lunch!!!
But……back to quilting!!!!
Since I had already cut my background pieces, there were only seven purple squares to cut…..
The first step was to create a Square-in-a-Square design using the purple squares and the background triangles.
It was simple work to add the triangles to each side of the square…..
….but now I had to trim it down to 2-inches!
To accomplish this, I used a water-based marker and drew some guide lines on my ruler….
Now I could line up the markings with the corners of the square…..
…and trim one side…..
Turn it around and square up the other side…..
Soon I had seven Square-in-square blocks…..
It didn’t take long to get the block sewn together…..
And now for the glamor shot!!!
(I was in a hurry this month, so no purple embellishments!!)
This was a fun block make and even more fun to recall the memories!!!
Do certain designs bring back fond memories for you??