Soup Mix

This is a fun block - not that all of the blocks in the Southern Album Quilt offer their own type of fun.  But this block is one of my favorites because it just has so much personality.  I love my mother's homemade vegetable beef soup.  And I've become somewhat of a soup chef in my own household.  I found out pretty quickly as my kids got older and had jobs and cars and obligations that soup was one of the few things I could cook that would make everyone happy, could be made at any time of the day and be ready whenever anyone wanted to eat, and would last a couple of days. So for me, soup was the ideal menu plan.  I have one basic chicken soup recipe and one basic beef soup recipe and vary the ingredients so I can mix it up. 

So as you're planning this block, play with it. It's all about the vegetables found in soup.  Use reds or oranges to represent the tomatoes.   Most every household in the south either grows tomatoes or has a neighbor that blesses them with sacks of the vegetable (that is really a berry) during the summer. I'm always reminded of Steel Magnolias with this part of the block when Shirley MacClaine declares that all Southern women grow tomatoes and wear ugly hats to church! 

Likewise, a bright yellow for the corn can help "punch" things up a little on your quilt. I found a yellow that had a design on it that reminded me of corn kernals.  Greens go well for the okra, of course, but some of the women I quilt with used purples and blues for the okra pods.  Who says you have to stick with the obvious?  Not me. And the triangles that represent the bean blocks?  The sky's the limit.  Just look at the shelves of canned beans or dried beans at your favorite grocery store.  It's a rainbow of bean colors. 

Couple of things to keep in mind when putting this block together.  First, it's always a good idea to lay your block out before you start piecing it.  Look at the layout, compare it to the book, and then look at it again.  It's really, really easy to have part of the "bean" triangles pointing the wrong way. Second, piece the block before you applique on your okra.

Above all else, have fun.  And don't be surprised if you have a hankerin' for your mother's homemade soup before the block is all put together.