Kaoru Marie

I made some progress on my Prince Charming quilt in the past couple weeks.  I finished the half square triangle block for the corners of the main block.  I recently came across a tutorial on how to create 4 HSTs with two large squares of fabric.  I can't remember where I first read it, but a quick google search provided this Half Square Triangle Tutorial .  The nice thing about that tutorial is that the blogger provided an easy formula for determining the size you need for the two initial squares of fabric to yield 4 HSTs (although I think her formula is for a block including seam allowances.) The original tutorial I read didn't provide such information so it took some time for me to figure out the sizes I needed.  Eventually I figured out that for a finished (meaning, after it's all sewn together) 3"x3" square, I would need to start with two (2) - 5.5"x5.5" squares. After those suckers were done I moved onto the flying geese blocks.  I wasn't su...

P recently bought the book, ' How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written ' and was very inspired to make the Bloody Mary recipe that is in the book.  It has a ton of ingredients!!  As P read the list of ingredients and instructions out loud to me on how to make it I could feel myself starting to salivate because it sounded so good! It has been awhile since I've had a blood mary and when we have made them at home in the past we usually just bought a blood mary mix and added vodka.  Despite the complexity of the recipe in the book we both wanted to make it and luckily P wanted to make it a whole lot more than I did because he went out last Sunday just to pick up all the ingredients.  Then when he came home he realized he forgot the horseradish and he refused to make any without it so  he went back to the store just to pick up the horseradish. He did make a couple adjustments to the recipe.  He used m...

I took a calligraphy class several years ago and the instructor had us use a thick drawing pencil to become accustomed to writing the strokes before we actually used a pen nib and ink.  Whenever I want to practice calligraphy strokes and styles I'll take out a pencil and practice. So.....sometimes when I'm a bit bored in a meeting, or if I want to pretend like I'm busy writing down important information, I'll practice my calligraphy with a pencil.  Capital letters always give me a hard time and I'm always tweaking each letter to best suit my writing so usually I'll practice those the most.  Here's a scan of one of my practice sheets: If you've ever wanted to learn calligraphy, then I highly highly recommend starting with a pencil before jumping right into it with a pen nib and ink.  The pencil I used in the above image is a regular red colored pencil so I believe I colored in the thicker strokes.  But I really like the  Staedtler Mars Lumograph p...

This past weekend I got my order of Tula Pink's Prince Charming fabric!! :)  This was my first time ordering fabric from Hawthorne Threads and I was pleased with the quickness with which I received my order.  I was a tad bit concerned that they didn't include an invoice or receipt with the package, but there were no issues with the shipment so I'll definitely order from them again. Tula Pink's Prince Charming Collection As I mentioned last week, I didn't have a pattern in mind for this quilt, so I spent most of Sunday sketching ideas with the NFL playoff games in the background.  I developed a couple ideas and eventually decided I needed a pattern that would highlight the frogs and turtles; I think these will look good as 6"x6" finished squares. Fabric and Pattern Sketch I totally f'd up fussy cutting the first two frogs.  I have a 6"x24" ruler and completely forgot that I couldn't just cut along the narrow sides because I n...

Soon after I first discovered how awesome quilting can actually be, I thought it should be pretty easy to develop my own patterns. I mean, I'm an engineer! How difficult could it be? Apparently, I need a refresher course in basic geometry because I totally F'd up my first pattern. Thankfully, I actually like the outcome, BUT it's definitely not what I initially wanted and I spent an embarrassing amount of time agonizing over the correct measurements so that next time I can create the pattern as it was intended {by me}. Here's a photo of the pattern I sketched for a 16"x16" pillow cover: Initial Pillow Cover Pattern Look at those pointed corners! (and my old engineering paper.....awwww, I love that stuff) Annnnnnnnddddd, here's how it turned out: Little Apples Pillow Cover ACK! What happened to the pointed corners???!!!  Don't get me wrong, I love how the pillow looks, but my heart sank when I first sewed a couple blocks together and reali...

I have been following the lovely gals at IPB living for quite some time and always marveled at their quilts and blocks and close-up photos of the most beautiful fabric. After seeing one of their recent finished quilts I had had enough. I needed to learn how to quilt! The gals gave me some recommendations on how I could start learning and off I went on the interwebs searching for more clues to unlocking this mysterious world of quilting. I came across Moda Fabrics and was thrilled to see they have so much information and free patterns ! Since I was terrified of screwing up my first quilt I picked a pattern that looked easy for a first time quilter and lo and behold, it was made with the Little Apples fabric collection (by Aneela Hoey ) aka one of the most adorable collections I had seen. I HAD TO HAVE IT! The quilt top was super easy to make, but I think it took me way longer to complete because I was so anal retentive about how I wanted the colors and designs to line up. I spen...

I'm still new to quilting so I'm gradually discovering all the talented fabric designers.  This week I came across Tula Pink and completely fell in love with her Prince Charming collection.  I finally bit the bullet and bought a bunch of fabric from the Prince Charming - Honey collection from Hawthorne Threads .  It seems I'm a tad late to the Prince Charming party because it took some time finding an online store that had all the pieces of a collection in stock.  I seriously cannot decide which print is my favorite: the frog, turtle bay, or dew drops. Frog Prince in Honey (Tula Pink) Turtle Bay in Aqua (Tula Pink) Dew Drop in Storm (Tula Pink) Oh boy, I am so excited! Now I just need to go pick up a couple kittens to complete my quilter-spinster persona.  Oh, and I need a quilt pattern.

My mom found a fabric store near her that I think is a Japanese fabric store.  The store is called Momen+ and is in Torrance, CA. There's not much info on the store's website, but there are 12 reviews on Yelp and they are all pretty positive.  I have yet to visit the store, but my mom went recently and bought a couple mini quilt block kits and she mailed them to me!!!!!!  Best mom ever! :) I came home on Friday to a package and was so thrilled to find two mini quilt block kits with pre-cut Japanese fabric: Here are some close-ups of the fabric.  I think the owl print is really adorable. Don't these look like origami paper?? So even though I've been quilting for a couple months, I haven't made any blocks consisting of small shapes.  I've been wanting to try making a disappearing nine-patch block quilt  in order to get more practice lining up seams {just perfectly!} but that requires buying more fabric, which I don't want to do until all my ...

You know what I've been loving lately?  My Nespresso Pixie ! I'm very grateful that P and his parents spoiled me for xmas with this super fun machine. Here she is in all her glory on our hideous somewhat white tiled kitchen counter!  She actually looks a lot more red in the photo than in real life. Nespresso Pixie! In case you're wondering, the cup did not come with the machine.  It's a Bodum espresso cup that we got at Crate and Barrel.  I think these cups are super adorable.  Here are a couple shots of the cup: Creamy Espresso Goodness Most of the espresso flavors are intended for small cups of espresso, but some are for larger cups, called Lungo.  I'm a big hockey fan so I've been calling these " Luongos " and P said we should call them "Robertos" (haha!). The one thing about the Pixie that I didn't expect was the noise the machine makes when it brews the espresso.  It's really loud, but it doesn't last that...

I very recently started quilting and one of the first things I had questions about when I finally got my first fabric order was: Should I pre-wash the fabric before quilting? I so badly wanted to dive right in and start measuring and cutting, but the fabric I bought had lots of red and white and all I could think about is what happens if I don't pre-wash the fabric, I finish my very first quilt, wash it, and then see that all the colors bled? And what if there is shrinkage???   I searched the interwebs for quite some time hoping to find some answers, but some people said do it and others said it didn't matter.  I just couldn't decide what to do based on what I had read so I decided to go with my gut.   I'm used to sewing clothes and hemming pants and I've always been instructed to pre-wash the fabric before sewing.  So......I pre-washed my fabric before I started quilting.  And guess what?  I'll NEVER DO IT AGAIN! First of all, I bought one layer ca...