Quince jelly and pattern drafting

Dumped out the lime marmalade tonight and made quince jelly instead. Chop fine about 4 lb quinces, cover with water, simmer for ~45 minutes, pour through a fine strainer, then add sugar and lemon juice to taste, enough pectin to make a nice gel, and pour into jars. I hope I got enough pectin. In theory there should be no pectin needed at all (quinces being high in pectin), but my isopropyl alcohol test was reading “low pectin”, so I added a bunch more. I think it will jell well.

And thus (in theory) ends my jam-making for the year. I say “in theory” because I still have a couple pounds of white guavas, and I’m not sure whether I’ll greedily eat them all (I LOVE guavas) or make them into jam. The problem is that I think they’d make fantastic jam, but I don’t really eat much jam/jelly and I love eating them fresh. So it’s a battle between my craftsy “ooh! I could cook with that!” side and my gluttonous appetite for fresh guavas. I suspect it will largely depend on whether I get into sewing as soon as I get up tomorrow (thus distracting me from guava jam-making). I am cheerfully obsessive, but only about one thing at a time. (Well, usually.)

Speaking of sewing, I have been wrestling with pattern-making software. I have been trying to work through the book on fashion design, which has instructions for how to create a pattern using a paper sloper. I am beginning to realize that these methods do not adapt themselves well to computerized patternmaking. It’s incredibly laborious. I have lost patience with the patternmaking software and have started working in Adobe Illustrator, which may or may not work out either. I am considering working through a class in how to draft patterns using Patternmaster, my pattern-making software.

But first, I am trying to get myself back into sewing, because I have a bunch of tutus I need to put together before I can jump solidly back into theory.