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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