classic summer coleslaw and cheater's BBQ sandwiches

Summer may be winding down where you are, kids heading off to school and all that jazz. But here in Texas, it's still one point five million degrees outside, my littles aren't in school, and technically summer doesn't end until September 23rd, so it's still summer in my book.

I thought I'd share one of my favorite summertime recipes - classic summer coleslaw. Far superior to the pre-made coleslaw dressings fo SHO. And it is so hilariously simple. And it goes great alongside my cheater's slow cooker BBQ sandwiches.

I call this cheaters BBQ, because no self respecting Texan would actually believe that a slow cooker can give you authentic smoked BBQ flavor. It can't. But it is far cheaper, easier, and weeknight friendly. It's also great to make for a crowd. Make this now and save your money to go out for real BBQ on a date night or something. No sense in spending $15 a lb on the real stuff for your whiny kids who won't appreciate it anyway.

sunday stitch vol 9. - sergers and aquisitions

 

Our local library is one of my favorite hangouts. Yes, I am a nerd. But where else can you take your kids in the dead of summer that's air conditioned, kid friendly, and full of free entertainment?! They do a free story time for kids once a week, which means for 30 minutes I am only responsible for one kid and can puruse the non-kid sections of the library freely. Well, with a baby. But that's pretty close to freely.

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon the quilting section and found Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, also known as, 100 things I didn't know I need to make RIGHT NOW. As much as it pained me to check out a book on quilting and admit that I am an old lady, I checked it out. (For the record, I'm only 30)

I've made 2 blocks so far. They are about 6" square when you're finished, so the fabric pieces that make up the blocks are rather small (like, some are 1.5" x 1.5"). A great way to use those tiny scraps that I can't seem to part with.

Block No. 1

Block No. 2

But the most exciting thing that happened this week, you know, other than this insane stuff, was the resurrection of this serger! Bah da da DUUUUUUUM!

This was a gift from my grandma a few years back for my birthday, but I was never able to get it to work. As you can see from the image below, it's somewhat old...

Haven't been to West Germany lately. Hear it's lovely this time of year. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

The geniuses over at City Craft got it up and running for me in no time. Watch out. I am going to serger EVERYTHING. Is serger a verb? Yeah. I'm going to go with yes.

I immediately bought three spools of neon red serger thread. Obviously. Like that was a choice or something. Henry likes to pretend they are milkshakes. You can see his little hand stealing one out of the photo.

This week I'll be working on learning my rockin awesome new-old machine. The best You Tube video I could find so far is in Spanish. That will definitely make this process easier. Ole!

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Haven't posted much on the parenting front lately. I haven't been holding out on you. It's mostly that's because - wait for it - the kids are kind of actually well behaved right now.

I totally just jinxed it. Yep. Henry's in the corner throwing an epic fit. Uuuuuuuuughhhhh.

sunday stitch vol. 8 - quilt as you go pillow sham

I'm venturing out of my comfort zone and trying some new things. This week I wanted to give quilting-as-you-go a shot. The technique has appeal. No piecing or measuring or planning, really. You just design the piece as you go and quilt it as you assemble it. I may be a planner in most areas of my life, but I prefer to keep my creative endeavors more loose if I can.

I used this tutorial from Let's Eat Grandpa - which by the way is the coolest blog name ever - as a go by but changed it up a bit. Her piece was more organic. I wanted my QAYG piece (yep, I just made up that acronym) to be a bit more linear to coordinate with some quilts that I've been working on...but more on that later.

check it out - Initial K Studio

I love to celebrate the milestones and accomplishments of my friends, so today is a special day.

Kristi and I have been friends for about eight (wow...EIGHT?!) years. Graphic Designer has been her day job, but modern quilting and crafting is her passion. We worked together for many years at the same firm doing designey things. Patient friend that she is, she helped me make my very first legit quilt (after a miserable attempt to figure it out on my own) after Henry was born.

She recently left her corporate gig - I know a little something about that - to relieve the all too familiar burnout and reconnect with her passion. This week she has launched her online shop filled with limited edition and one of a kind modern quilts. Swoon!

Hop over to Initial K Studio and bask in the colorful, modern goodness. These quilts are perfect for couch snuggling or baby bundling. Kristi is a graphic genius, so of course they are beautiful, and meticulous, so they are heirloom quality and will last practically forever.

Congratulations, Kristi!

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sunday stitch vol. 7 - building a quilt empire

I have now brought my sister-in-law, Meredith, over to the dark side. Of quilting.

OK, quilting doesn't really have a dark side (probably).

Either way, I have sucked her into a hobby from which she cannot possibly escape. Muhahaha.

I spent a Crafternoon this week teaching Mere how to make and assemble a half square triangle quilt block in a herringbone pattern. She learned that quilting is 85% ironing, 13% math, and 2% actual sewing.

Look how great it turned out!

This baby is going to be made into a pillow cover on our next sewing date. I'm trading sewing lessons for babysitting my 2 crazy children. Let me assure you, I'm getting the better end of this deal.

I worked on my 3D block for August's quilt club. I've never attempted to sew hexagons before; they have a Y seam at each intersection which makes things interesting. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'll share more on this in a couple of weeks.

A question for my quilty friends out there - my sis is in need of a sewing machine. What would you recommend for someone wanting to get their feet wet into quilting (that doesn't cost half a gozillion dollars)?

Until next week. Stay quilty, my friends.

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chicken lettuce wraps

Last week I got a magazine from my neighborhood in the mail. Yes, my neighborhood is apparently fancy enough to write and publish a monthly (quarterly?) magazine. I mean, we have a golf course and a country club and people roam the streets in golf carts, but let me assure you, we are members of neither.

We do pay $50 a year to the HOA to have American Flags placed in front of our house at every patriotic holiday and have pretty flowers at the neighborhood signs. And it supports our local Girl Scout troop. So we're not total Scrooges.

At any rate, thankfully there are some even fancier people in the 'hood that put out this circular. This month amongst the 57 pages of ads there was a recipe for healthy chicken lettuce wraps. I couldn't stand the taste or smell of Asian food while I was pregnant with Max, so I'm making up for lost time now.

Surprise of the century, my kid actually ate this. The kid that has not willingly put a vegetable in his mouth in 2 years. I guess if you dice it all up, he wasn't as offended by it? He even wanted Sriracha on it. That's my boy.

the cupboard under the stairs

The space under the stairs in our house has been the bane of my existence since we moved in over a year ago. It is totally underutilized, wasted space - which drives me insane. The (cheap-o) builder didn't design any storage into it. Thanks a lot. Our stairs are absurdly narrow at 34" so a closet of any sort was really impractical for the cost we would spend to put it in.

Mostly it has been a collection area for crap.

On a good day, it's empty or just contains a couple of stray toys or a Rubbermaid tub. On a bad day (which is most days) it is a catch all for shoes, things needing to go upstairs or to the garage or to Goodwill or to the garbage. It is right next to my sewing table so in my dream world it would be filled with Martha Stewart-esque built ins to house my fabric stash, not an uninspiring pile of junk that sucks out my creativity. But this is real life, not my dream world, so it has been the item that sat at the bottom of a to do list that would seemingly never get checked off. 

Until Saturday. DIY to the rescue! The weather outside was gorgeous. Max was napping. Henry was running around outside, and Design Milk had posted to Instagram their 5 favorite reading nooks. 

Light bulb. 

sunday stitch vol. 6 - quirky rag doll

This week I tested out another pattern from Let's Sew Together - the quirky rag doll. My fellow TCU Interior Design Grad friend, Katy, needed a special something for her soon to be niece, Posey Tate.

The doll took a surprisinglly long time to make, about 4 hours. The pattern wasn't quite as easy to follow as the Robot that I made a couple of months back. The dress and hair in particular were kind of tricky to follow. I do think I'll make it again, but I'll definitely alter the pattern.

On a related note, if anyone needs any doll yarn mullots, I've got 2 that I can give you a great deal on.

Cute, cute, cute.

And thanks to my embroidery machine, I was able to whip up a monogrammed swaddle blanket as well. The mom to be and auntie to be were thrilled, so I'm a happy lady.

What have you guys been sewing this week?

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