Back to the Grind

We managed to cook dinner for friends from Mexico over the weekend and had a really nice time. They've offered to help me practice my Spanish. I also took a trip to a very nice little cross stitch shop I discovered by the school Lucas teaches at! It is called Moore Stitches and it had everything and more than I could want. I walked away with a few charts (Brittercup, By the Bay Needleart, and Prairie Schooler), some silk embroidery ribbon for my CQ block, and a bit of lovely thread. I will definitely be returning (especially since it completely escaped my mind to buy any fabric to stitch on!). I also took an intarsia class and made a (lopsided) heart.

I definitely need to practice before I take on any intarsia projects I've been planning. I am thinking that I'll keep making these squares with hearts in them and maybe sew them into a baby block or a teddy bear sweater. Then, of course, I'd have to learn to make the bear.

I also had a friend and colleague, Yuka, over for some knitting. I rarely get to knit with friends and don't have any quilting friends in the area, so it is very exciting to me when I get to share my passions with friends! I got her started on the rolled brim hat but she didn't have the right needles so we'll have to try again soon. While we knitted, I finished the rolled brim hat I'll be giving my mom for her birthday in September.




Yuka was very generous and brought me a gift when she came to knit, a gift I had been wishing for...a mold to make onigiri.


Onigiri has been a favorite of mine ever since one of my college roommates returned from her year abroad in Japan and started making it for us. It is rice with a filling inside (tuna, salmon, chicken, etc) and the rice triangle or circle is then wrapped up with a bit of seaweed. When Lucas was studying in Taiwan, I went to visit him for a week and I wanted to eat onigiri at the 7-11 everyday. By the way, 7-11 is way better in Asia than in the U.S.! I wish we had their 7-11's.

I finally got the baby quilt top put together! I debated for quite a while about adding the red borders but in the end, decided I liked it better this way. I'm excited to get quilting on it.


I have intended to work on my crazy quilt block and did manage to get a little embroidery done. I was really excited about how easy it was to learn some of the stitches. Now I need to get brave and put some serious work into it!