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Pomegranates • Giveaway

Elizabeth E.

Where does inspiration begin?

Does it start here? How about both places? Today is a pattern announcement, a quilt top done announcement and the best part: a giveaway!

My friend, Kenna Ogg of Madison Cottage Design, is launching her line of batiks from Banyan Batiks (made by Northcott) and asked me to help her share the pictures and flavors of her line of fabrics. And at the end of the post, be sure to enter to win a fat quarter stack of these beautiful fabrics, rich in the tones of fall and winter.

So when she sent them to me to dream up a quilt, I kept thinking about my friend Karen’s pomegranate tree, and how she was always so generous with the fruit:

Pomegranates come on in the fall and into winter, so the two ideas merged into one.

(Posed under a citrus bush)

I arranged the fabrics, trying to get a feel for the richness of the color, then one night drew up the quilt idea in my Affinity software, and a quilt pattern was on its way!

I drew up a pomegranate shape, adding the bit at the top (the calyx), then traced it onto fusing material, cutting out the center of the circle so the quilt wouldn’t be too stiff. I then cut around the outside and fused it down to a four-patch.

All are on! Now the borders.

It’s a fun way to show off the luscious tones of this line of batiks. I had a hard time photographing them in the night when I was working, so here’s a photo from Kenna:

This is what she’ll send the winner of the giveaway: Twenty Fat Quarters. Yes, you can make the Pomegranates quilt from that. But now you can also score a discount on the pattern, as I’m launching it at the same time. Head over to my pattern shop on PayHip, navigate to the pattern and for a 30% discount on this pattern enter the following code at checkout:

PomegranatesOPQuilt30

There are three places you can enter the giveaway:

The giveaway is now closed.
Congratulations to Esther, who wrote:
“Love the fabric and the pattern! Pomegranates and the pomegranate tree are beautiful. The tree and fruit provide habitat for birds. Maybe this will be the year I plant a tree or two, there are a number of varieties, some with pink arils and lighter rind that I think would make a nice combo with the standards. I think there are many references in the bible and poetry as to their beauty and symbolism, though right now I can’t pull one out of my memory. As far as harvesting the arils, I just “go for it” since I’m only cleaning one at a time. If I was ambitious, I’d make pomegranate jelly. I like to use the arils in a salad of winter greens, with slices of bosc pear and fuyu persimmon and a vinagrette.”

Here, on this blog (I’ll pick a winner on Thursday evening, and email the winner). OR, on my Instagram account. OR on Kenna’s Instagram account. And of course, you’ve figured out by now that if you enter all three places, that’s three times the chances. I will mail your name and address to Kenna and she’ll send them out. Good luck.

Leave me a comment below, telling me what you think is the easiest method to get the arils (the seeds) out of the pomemgranate: get on an old shirt and head out to the picnic table and just go for it, or submerge the fruit in a water bath, letting the arils sink to the bottom while the pith floats to the top. And of course, since I love your stories, any pomegranate story or memory you want to leave me will make me smile.

A red-stained juicy pomegranate smile!

Published by Elizabeth E.

I quilt when I can.

44 thoughts on “Pomegranates • Giveaway”

  2. I’ve never bought a pomegranate so never tried getting the arils out. This is probably cheating – I buy a pack of four at Costco. The package is full of the arils, beautiful in color and crunchy. Just today I had cottage cheese with pomegranates for breakfast. Yum! Those batiks are luscious and are perfect in your quilt. Both are winners!

  3. I open it up and hit the opposite side several times with wooden spoon. They just shake loose. I haven’t had a pomegranate for years.

  4. What a wonderful quilt and great backstory!!!!! And I love both the colors as the quilt turned out as well as the most colorful version on your pattern front. Good job! Poms are such a handsome fruit and I love the arils in salads and personally, I get those puppies out any way I can 🙂

  5. Nice! I loooove batiks! And I have never before seen a picture of pomegranates on a tree! I turn the pomegranate quarters inside out and start picking the seeds out. No water involved. That way it’s easier to snitch a few while I’m working 😀

  7. Love the pomegranate quilt – really beautiful batiks! For getting the seeds out, the only method is cut it in half, hold over a bowl and whack it with a spatula/spoon several times. The seeds will shake loose

  8. Love the quilt! I hand the pomegranates to my husband and he employees the brute force on them!

  9. That fabric is amazingly awesome. I’m embarrassed to say that I just buy the seeds in a cup these days.

  10. My daughter loves getting the seeds from pomegranates. She just sits down with a towel and bowl in her lap and starts picking! Thanks for the nice give away.

  11. Don’t really know but they are hard to get out. I Love your quilt and the fabric is Beautiful!!

  12. Thanks for sharing your design process on this beautiful quilt! I didn’t know the submerge in water trick, so i just took a spoon to the one I bought not long ago and carefully extracted those lovely nuggets.

  13. I have never eaten a pomegranate so I have no idea how you get the seeds out. I’ll have to see if I can find instructions if I ever want to try!

  14. What gorgeous fabric and a great quilt pattern! thanks for the giveaway chance.
    I’m another one who has never dealt with a pomegranate so will leave those ideas to others.

  15. I just saw a video of someone with their pomegranate; they cut it in half and walked it back with a cutting board and all the sees dropped out.

  16. We traveled to India in 2014 when we were living in Saudi Arabia for my husband’s work. We took a cooking class from a husband and wife team in their very small home. They were sellers of spice and herb mixtures to make Indian dishes and chai. She taught us to slice around the pomegranate and then submerge it under water to prevent the juice from going everywhere. It is such a fond memory!

  17. We traveled to India in 2014 when we were living in Saudi Arabia for my husband’s work. We took a cooking class from a husband and wife team in their very small home. They were sellers of spice and herb mixtures to make Indian dishes and chai. She taught us to slice around the pomegranate and then submerge it under water to prevent the juice from going everywhere. It is such a fond memory!

  18. I love the way this turned out. The fabrics are so warm and beautiful and the pomegranates are wonderful on the design. We are enjoying a bumper crop of pomegranates this year on our tree. Our technique is to cut them in half and extract the juice with one of those pull down juicers, OUTSIDE!!! The first time my husband did it inside it looked like there had been a bloody massacre in the kitchen. I do love adding the seeds to my cooking, but I’m not a fan of just eating them.

  21. When we were kids we called them Chinese Apples, which probably isn’t very PC now. I cut the calyx off flush with the top. Then looking at the exposed top, you can see the segments or chambers that separate the inside. Score the skin on the outside, along an imaginary (longitude) line, that starts at the point where one of the sections meets the skin. Sort of like slicing an orange. Then peel back that section and the arils will be exposed, and a gentle flick will dislodge them. A video is worth a thousand words https://tinyurl.com/y5ymnmon
    Your quilt is lovely too!

    1. Great Video! I’ve attempted every method ever heard or seen – but usually do a variation on Tracy’s theme, gently score and then tear open into 2 approx halves – tap all over the peel, gently encourage the seeds to pop out into container. Love them in salads. {{{ Love the fabric too! }}}

  22. When I was a child my mom made Pomegranate jelly. I still remember what a mess it made. There was juice everywhere. Sadly our Pomegranate tree this year has no fruit. Varmints ate it all before it got ripe. 😦

  23. Beautiful fabric and color combinations. I like purple with a little aqua. I’ve never had a pomegranate. Their color is amazing though!

  24. Years ago, I ate in a 5-star restaurant in Gubbio, Italy. The salad was wild greens, paper thin slices of beef and pomegranate arils. Olive oil and balsamic dressing. It was wonderful! I can ‘taste’ it in my mind today!

  25. I anxiously await the arrival of pomegranates in the local grocery stores every year. Long ago, I watched a youtube video that showed how to remove the seeds by submerging in water. It works so much better than the way I had been doing it which left red juice squirts all over my kitchen! Those fabrics show the pomegranate colors perfectly! duchick at gmail dot com

  26. This is a beautiful collection of fabrics.
    Pomegranates: My husband stands at the kitchen sink and scores around the top and down the sides. Then he rips it apart and nudges the seeds out with his fingers, but mostly his thumbs. I help by sitting on the couch and sewing while I watch TV.

  27. I have a pomegranate sitting on the kitchen counter waiting to make a big mess. I might just try the water bath method. Thanks for the pattern offer and giveaway – it is a beautiful quilt.

  28. Elizabeth your quilt is beautiful and a perfect showcase for these fabrics. It sure brought back special Christmas memories. When I was growing up at Christmas we always got an orange in the bottom of our stocking and a pomegranate in the top right next to our candy cane. The middle of the stocking was filled with little gifts, some chocolate, some nuts and some ribbon candy all wrapped in little plastic bags. We knew we were at risk of fire punishment if we ate our pomegranate in bed so we always waited until after gifts were opened and breakfast eaten to take our old pillowcases from the cupboard and sit with our pillowcases over our lap, with our pomegranates, peeling them apart and enjoying the little morsels of flavour. I just now realized it gave my parents an hour or so of peace and quiet or perhaps a short nap😉Last year I was seeing my littles over the holidays and I stopped at a Dollar Store to pick up towels and introduced my grandchildren and great grandchildren to the tradition.

  29. I have only ever purchased pomegranates twice, and that was during the year I had cancer in 2017, as I was trying to eat healthier. I don’t get them anymore because it’s too much for one person and they tend to go bad on me before I can use it all. My boyfriend doesn’t like them, otherwise he’d help me eat ’em up. But I had found a tutorial online that I used, and it worked wonders. It’s too much to type it all here, but here’s where I went… https://www.shelovesbiscotti.com/how-to-easily-remove-pomegranate-seeds/
    I was VERY thankful for this tutorial!
    You’re quilt is awesome! I love everything about it!

  30. Love your pomegranate quilt, Elizabeth! I’ll have to try your water method for extracting the seeds.

    When I was a child, my mother would buy one pomegranate every fall. She just cut it into quarters and we picked the arils out—very messy! My mother was a clean freak, so this was an extra special treat.

    Thank you for the generous giveaway!

  31. Waterbath or buy them at Trader Joes. I have a friend who lives on a farm and they try every scheme know to man but they come back to picking them out and ending up with pink fingers. Such a pretty color for dye!

  32. Beautiful quilt! You always make the colors and fabrics SING in all your quilts! I hate eating pomegranates but my Hubs and sons love eating them. I do like their flavor so I am happy to buy pomegranate flavored items. It is easier that way.

  33. The water bath sounds easiest, but I have never dealt with a pomegranate. The fabric is beautiful.

  34. Oh, gosh, Elizabeth, this is probably not the contest for me. I LOVE the fabrics and your quilt is delicious, but I have never figured out the appeal of eating pomegranates. They seem like an awful lot of work for not much of a return. I wish all the pomegranate lovers lots of luck!
    Hugs,
    Celia

  35. Oh I love Poms! I use the under water method – they are so good in salads. I love your quilt!

  36. The fabric and pomegranate pattern work so well together Elizabeth! We don’t see many pomegranate here in the stores, so scooping them out would be a novelty. Please don’t include me in your giveaway. I have been a most grateful recipient of your generosity before!

  38. My younger sister introduced me to pomegranates one Thanksgiving and I was so surprised as she was not much of a foodie. I loved them and now watch for them every year. She’s gone now so they have a special meaning for me, always reminding me of her and the introduction she provided me. What a sweet gift. Love your pattern and the fabric too.

  39. Love the fabric and the pattern!
    Pomegranates and the pomegranate tree are beautiful. The tree and fruit provide habitat for birds. Maybe this will be the year I plant a tree or two, there are a number of varieties, some with pink arils and lighter rind that I think would make a nice combo with the standards. I think there are many references in the bible and poetry as to their beauty and symbolism, though right now I can’t pull one out of my memory.
    As far as harvesting the arils, I just “go for it” since I’m only cleaning one at a time. I’ve bought the pack of arils at Costco but I don’t use them up before they go bad. If I was ambitious, I’d make pomegranate jelly. I like to use the arils in a salad of winter greens, with slices of bosc pear and fuyu persimmon and a vinagrette. My dad used to make a tea with dried pomegranate rind, I think it was for a dental issue.

  40. Love the fabric and new pattern, they are perfection together. I’ve never had much luck eating pomegranates, although I love the flavor. Definitely have to try the water bath method.

  41. These batiks are gorgeous!!! Pomegranates are a favourite and I usually make a big mess eating them! Lol

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