My Blog

It’s been over a year since the studio closed due to the pandemic. At the time I was distressed, and rather uncertain whether I wanted to move classes online. I went with my gut and came to a decision that online was not my jam. We got a puppy instead;) With no rent to pay we thankfully had the benefit of that choice, many weren’t so fortunate.

I wasn’t sure if I’d made a big mistake, but in hindsight taking a break from the studio was revitalizing. I think if I hadn’t hit pause I’d be burnt out by now. I see it all around me, and feel grateful I was able to spend the year focusing on my family and sharing my studio space with them. I didn’t really add any new creative interests, but I was able to deepen my love and knowledge of gardening, cooking, baking, and yoga. I’ve come back to the studio from my break inspired.

We all need to remind ourselves that regardless of all the feelings of the past year, the ups and downs of fear, uncertainty, doubt, joy, hope, love and gratitude that we showed up daily. Maybe not at our best, but we did.

In the words of my kind yogi friend Marcia, “I guess this is really what a life of practice is: meeting yourself right where you are at, and just as you are.” I’m so thankful I listened to my intuition and could do just that.

I celebrated a little seasonal transition, claimed Valentine’s Day officially over and changed out some cushions.

I love this color way and seeing its return.

It’s also nice to see a little sunshine in the locations of the house not usually as bright.

Turns out I remember how to sew;) After staring at a sample for my Magic Numbers workshop started months ago, I made some adjustments and it all came together to my liking.

Well, almost. I connected the rows into pairs and will try to get at least one of the pairs connected each day this week.

Part of this progress is that Boss has finally been able to chill for brief moments in the studio, opening up the sewing part of my life again.

He’s been the best distraction, 7-months old, silly, mischievous and playful when not napping. The most strong willed dog I’ve ever had.

It’s been a while since I’ve been here so of course I’ve done a lot of cooking and baking in between. This whole post could easily be food photos. Links are affiliate if you find yourself drawn to something.

With no family around this year we forgot about Easter and in a weird twist had planned to celebrate Saint Patty’s day. As a child my mom often made corn beef and cabbage (I just learned that’s not an Irish dish) when my Pappi would come over. My favorite part was the cabbage with a healthy dose of white vinegar. This was the first year I pressure cooked it and that method will become the norm.

In my 20s, living in Flagstaff I discovered Saveur Magazine. With my cultural anthropology background I loved how the articles covered food from the perspective of the people and their culture. It just made trying something new more engaging and sometimes personal. This magazine and living in Arizona blossomed my appreciation for food’s ability to care less about borders. Yes, the U.S. has been termed a melting pot, but we’re also a tossed salad.

The first of many from this mag was a recipe for Irish Soda bread. More than good with golden raisins and toasted the next morning with a smear of butter. I’ve had it written down for years and finally bought the New Classics to have it in print. Be sure to try the hot and sour soup if you get a copy.

I make a lot of broth and freeze in jars with straight sides. Mostly from all the cut vegetable bits and peels, cheese rinds or bones around. I get a craving for pho at least once a month and generally do a recipe combo from Nom Nom paleo’s and Nguyen’s Pho book in the pressure cooker, but we occasionally will just heat some for breakfast and whisk in an egg and some spinach.

I always improv making fried rice and was never really impressed with my efforts. The cookbook Quick and Easy Chinese changed that. It isn’t generally a book I’d buy because upon first glance it just looks well…too generic. It’s part of a series (Korean, This, Vietnamese) that I now own the whole collection of because:

A). I apparently like to collect

B) The ingredient lists are things you have in your frig or pantry

C) It had recipes for both hot and sour soup, Kung Pau chicken and something called almost-instant noodles which pretty much is a deal breaker for me

Add some frozen potstickers and it’s a meal. When school was full on and soccer practices abundant this became my thermos ready meal to hand hungry kids in carpool. I like to use Tj’s pancetta instead of ham.

Our sunny weather came on pretty strong, but before that I was still making a lot of easy comfort food. I’ve shared this recipe before as my favorite Shepards pie and the first recipe thought of when the potatoes need to be used. I discovered it’s also printed in this cute little book called Sunday Suppers which I’ve now gifted several times.

PCC is our local co-op. I worked there for awhile when Jefe went back to school. I was always pleased when Tiger Mountain chili was in the soup bar and bought their book, Cooking from Scratch specifically to make it. I’ll take my cup with a sprinkle of cheddar and some oyster crackers or tortilla chips please.

I’ve fallen off the band wagon a bit with making something really hearty and nourishing for breakfast, but if we have some leftover lentils from Madison’s Vegetable Soups book I throw an egg on it in the morning. I love to toss in a Parmesan rind while it simmers.

While thrifting I found a couple of whoopie pie pans that I obviously needed. I’m kind of a sucker for kitchen things like this and it fit in my little convection oven which was a bonus. They also stack way better than my bundt pan collection;)

After wading through my cookbook collection and learning way more information than I needed to know about the origins of whoopie pies and how to make them I settled on this excellent recipe from Deliciously Vintage. I cut the amount of cream cheese filling, but I like the idea of mini cakes and these would travel well to the lake for a picnic.

Baked: New Frontiers in Baking is moving up the list of good baking books. I’ll have a rootbeer chocolate cake to share soon, but these banana espresso chocolate chip muffins were my vehicle for the brown bananas this round.

Speaking of bundt pans not stacking, I also have a collection of cakelet pans with the same issue. Smitten Kitchen Everyday has my go-to blueberry muffin recipe, mostly because of its use of frozen berries. I noticed that she also had a marbled bundt cake recipe and thought that might make a cute spotted bunny. One kind of looked like it was smiling;), The cake was moist and tasty, but the molds where too small and the shape easily broke. No one complained, but I’ll use a full size pan next round.

On my second round I went with a yellow cake from King Arthur. Though they looked like a murder scene after I frosted them with a chocolate fudge several people commented on how they tasted like a cake their grandmother use to make. Some said the same of the root beer cake I mentioned above. I think that not too sweet, dense and moist pulls us from the airy boxed cake mix type. Regardless, I love them sharing a memory.

As mentioned, I’m not one to celebrate Easter beyond a good excuse for family, ham, scallop potatoes and apparently a slight bunny collection issue, but I couldn’t resist these little $1 egg cups at Target and replanting some of my succulents for a few little neighborhood friends and one bunny loving friend.

I’m hopeful we’ll all be able to be together soon in the studio around the beginning of June and am thankful people are planning and looking to this brighter future.

If you live in Colorado, Texas, Alaska, Nebraska or California I’ve got teaching on the calendar and to those of you that have reached out, I’ll keep you posted here about the studio’s status once I catch up on those students that had reserved open studios prepandemic. I’ve been informed my contact form isn’t always working so I’ve provided my email there.

Thank goodness spring’s here and we’re able to spend more time outside with friends, including Boss’s girlfriend Fiona:)

Cheers peeps. xoxo, Katie

Closing in on a year of this bazaar journey I’ve found myself reflecting a lot about keeping a positive mindset and a little more emotional than I expected. It’s hard to believe a whole year has passed, but some of the seasonal chores that distracted me in the beginning and counted as small wins, the cobwebs and dirty windows, the weeding have come back full circle reminding that indeed it is true.

Sew Katie Did is currently the correct tense for me and I’m giving myself a free pass. I fell in the snow injuring my thumb. Turns out thumbs are important for sewing, but I did move things around on the design walls and finally am loving two quilts that have been up for two long.

Mentally it was good timing that The International Quilt Museum posted on the first day of Quiltcon Together a photo of my Psychedelic Baby quilt that is now part of their collection. A good reminder that even though I chose to not teach online this year in order to focus on my family, I’ve done good things. It’s a win;)

I loved that quilt so much I recreated it with some changes. This quilt was the seed that led to my favorite strip piecing workshop “Strip Tease.”

Looking back my optimism of the duration of the pandemic was a little off. My thought was for every day of it I’d make a house block. You can see how far I got with that.

Fussy cutting all those doorways was a great distraction and use of prints. I see a baby quilt in the future.

Winter distracted us briefly here in Seattle, but there are signs of spring. It was great to have the routine mixed up for a few days. Since the snow landed mostly over a weekend we were actually able to really enjoy it. It was pretty fun to see Boss’s love for it as he’d ‘snorkel’ around.

COVID has changed some things for me in a positive manner. I’d love to say that making more time for my love of cooking and baking is likely here to stay at its present rate. It has been my biggest distraction besides the Boss.

Regardless of working with a solo induction burner and a small convection oven I’ve had more time to enjoy the process because there simply was no rush. And on another note/win our kitchen plans are all drawn up and finalized!

I put affiliate links to all the books if you’d like to make something yourself.

The snow inspired me to break out my snowflake pans. The Vanilla Bean Book I’ve mentioned before is a keeper for the banana bread and brownies alone, but the almond picnic bread here was delish. I skipped out on the almond topper because of the pan and went with a browned butter ‘glaze’. The author has a cookie cookbook out now and if I wasn’t functioning with an oven that can only hold about 5 cookies total I’d be adding it to my collection.

The exception for cookies is shortbread in a pan or sometime soon a rosette. Martha Stewart’s recipe from her cookie book is one of those that the ingredients are always here.

I think I mentioned Flourless in my last post. In my opinion pudding and a ripe banana are a match made in heaven, so lately when we’re on the edge of committing to Nutella banana bread or not I’ve been going with the butterscotch pudding. I love that it doesn’t require egg yolks since I’m not a practical planner when it comes to the producing something with the whites.

It’s also time to try to clear last spring’s fruit from the freezer before it shows up again. This rhubarb snacking cake didn’t last long nor will the empty spot in the freezer. I’m new to Alana Chernila and her book The Homemade Kitchen, but have several recipes bookmarked after this impressive start.

My neighbor Henrietta Rollin’s eggs went into making these bacon and egg breakfast tarts from Chicken and Egg. This is one of those recipes that looks fancy but is super easy to pull off with frozen puff and whatever you have in the frig. We’re trying it next with pancetta and those left over sun dried tomatoes I’ve been trying to find a home for.

Mad Hungry has my favorite guac recipe. We probably make it once a week. I’ve found that cutting a round of Trader Joe’s waxed paper works well in place of plastic wrap for keeping it from browning, but it generally doesn’t last that long.

Nom Nom’s asparagus and eggs require a skillet and a broiler and about 6 minutes of my time, so when I start to see skinny asparagus in the market we whip this up with whatever leftovers we might have. I love the lettuce wraps too.

My family declared Martha Stewart’s mac and cheese from her America Food cookbook the best they’ve ever had. The crispy bread topping is key.

It’s nearly impossible to get a good photo of a stir fry, but if you were to add one paleo cookbook to your collection I can’t recommend Paleo Takeout more. I’ve gone on a good run with all the stir fries. I’ve never met a Kung Pao I didn’t like, but this book’s recipe is as close as it gets to my favorite from an Ann Arbor restaurant. I usually stick with regular tamari, cornstarch and serve over rice since we don’t have to go paleo.

My oxalis are some of the happiest houseplants, perhaps it is a March celebration. Happy Saint Patty’s.

Boss had a dermoid removed from his eye. He looks all cute here but it only took him a day to fully weaponize the plastic cone by cracking out a huge piece of it.

Our furniture, trim and knees thanked us when we replaced it with a softer one. Nothing like a clumsy, huge, vision impaired puppy. I’m so glad he’s healed and the cone is gone.

I forgot the mess that dogs create and finally pulled my older magic numbers quilt out so the newer quilts wouldn’t get ruined with the constant clawed stretching and muddy paws.

It took a few paint samples as always, but I found my new bedroom paint color, Benjamin Moore’s Aussie Surf.

I wanted something cozy and it was hard to beat the Pure Periwinkle we painted 9 years ago, but we (I) was ready for something new.

I’m loving it with the Daredevil of the hall and Jalapeno in the bath.

That’s kind of it peeps, nothing frilly here.

I’m embracing being outside in the garden again, it’s a welcome distraction. Walking in some sunshine with Boss and perhaps some soda bread is in my future. I hope you’re all hanging in there too;)

xoxo, Katie

‘Balentines Day’ has been absorbed into our family vernacular. Backstory is Roan couldn’t pronounce the letter ‘V’ when he was fresh to talking.

And its day is just around the corner. I’m not huge on the holiday, but this year celebrating anything seems appropriate.

And I am a big fan of the heart shape.

This shape is classic and I would guess never lost its appeal in some circles, but I believe my heart fascination is linked to my late 70s-80s childhood when it seemed to be everywhere. I had mugs, I had stickers, I had sparkly t-shirts. Its geometric shape merges in such a happy way with quilting and I love its adaptability with improv to create an irregular wonky shaped heart.

A storm last month knocked out our power in the middle of the night so we weren’t aware the basement’s sub pump wasn’t functioning. This facilitated the Christmas clean up that I’d stashed down there, but not put away. Since I was there I decided the Balentines decor should come up. It’s not our first rodeo with water in the basement so everything was up or in totes.

The mix and match of the pillows is getting a bit ridiculous, but using them as samples for workshops is always a good excuse to make more.

The half square triangle pillows merged with Christmas and are hanging on for Balentines.

Some of the Christmas stuck around too since their theme seems to jive.

So many pillows. We cracked up that we were a bit like that insurance commercial about old people being schooled before we all snuggled in on the couch and realized how comfy we were. Old people know stuff. It also made us realize that we can’t wait to kick off our shoes at someone else’s home and catch up sitting on THEIR couch.

Besides distracting myself with changing out pillows, I’ve been debating a new paint color for the bedroom. Pure Periwinkle has stood the test of time and two homes before we went neutral with Heavy Goose. I decided to go a new direction with a very green blue called Amazon Surf. I liked both colors with the red of the tansu chest and their tranquil feel, but if now isn’t a time for change then when?

The heart quilt is on the bed and some new ones with variation are in progress.

Besides the string quilt at the top of the post that I have a tutorial here, I created two other quilts with the heart shape that I use for class samples. I love my crushed hearts because, a) it’s purple and b) it’s got the best background of a mix of said purples.

Splintered Hearts is the other. It’s gotta be one of my favorite improv technique workshops to teach and even if you aren’t up for hearts the block lends itself to all sorts of design opportunities.

And of course there’s been cooking and baking. We’ve been having a Marvel movie marathon here, so I’ve been somewhat watching with a mix of my usual nose in a stack of cookbooks. Here’s just a few of the books I pulled from this week. (all are affiliate links;)

I found myself with ready to expire half and half, whipping cream and ripe bananas, plus a craving for pudding. I made my usual chocolate from Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe and tried a new to me butterscotch that was amazing from Flourless. Both poured over slice bananas. Delicious.

Looking through The Secret Lives of Baked Goods: Sweet Stories & Recipes for America’s Favorite Desserts I realized we had everything for rice crispy treats. I place rice crispy treats on the same bar with s’mores, everyone needs at least one a year. I had a little decorating error that ended with cutting it all into little bars and giving away to the neighbors kids. Not sure why I was thinking anyone needs one large rice crispy anyway?

The first day of the honey bundt cake with honey frosting from The Vanilla Bean Baking Book: Recipes for Irresistible Everyday Favorites and Reinvented Classics didn’t wow me, but the texture and flavor intriguingly bloomed after a couple days. Recommended by a student, I haven’t made a single thing from this cookbook that hasn’t impressed me.

I love plain pound cake with a cuppa coffee or tea. I’ve talked about Casella’s A World of Baking book before. It’s not a glitzy book, but it’s my go to for classics. I still want to try the tomato soup cake.

It’s bad, but I’ve started not just making heart shaped things, but collecting them. This is a problem when you’re a thrifter;) It started last year with the IKEA heart lamps from Ebay.

The heart bowl was a thrift find. Actually, pretty much everything on this shelf was thrifted. If you’re a Lord of the Rings follower you’ll know what I’m talking about when the words, “My Precious” were uttered from my lips upon seeing that bowl on the store”s shelf. Same with the pink Catherholm.

I blame Crate and Barrel for making this cute heart trivet that I had to have. Anything to distract from looking at the state of my kitchen. We’re getting close with our design though.

AND I blame IKEA for tempting me with these cute little jars to fill with candy for all my GALentines. They were just too cute to pass up.

Boss is my BIG valentine this year, all 50 pounds of him.

Happy Balentines and cheers Peeps, xoxo Katie

and P.S.

Hey there;)

In my attempt to stay upbeat, I’m celebrating the small successes/wins in accomplishing literally anything.

Here’s why, I read that the word “anxiety” was trending on Twitter and it made me realize people in my small world were using the word more themselves in text and conversation. We were all feeling fatigued and unproductive. These are normal feelings when your world’s turned up-side-down, but I wondered if it was time to step away from the news a bit, and focus on small projects to mentally cope and gain some feeling of control in all this crazy.

Falling under the category of “if I only have time, I would do this” was to organize/or delete 7200+ photos into albums. I started it one morning rather impromptu, and it held my focus here and there through out the day. It was a small win, but filtering through the photos of our house reminded me that it’s so easy to forget all the big wins already made on its progress.

So this blog post isn’t the usual patchwork that you all signed up for and since design inspiration is something that circles through most of my obsessions I thought I’d share some of the house developments to celebrate the small and big wins.

We knew this house was “The One” when its listing popped up late on a Friday night. We were the first in Saturday morning and to place an offer. After 9 months of looking we knew it was a star player. We saw past the carpet and bars on the windows to see the house was well loved and had good bones.

Bye bye to sparkle paint and flowered carpet. Off with the 80s prom dress curtains and the Renoir Parisian cafe border wall paper. Yes, that actually exists existed.

We knew once we took up the carpet that there wasn’t any wood flooring at the front of the living room. We’re guessing this was once the porch and the old couple had absorbed it to make the living room larger. There was zero insulation down there as well.

There were different stains through out so having them match really gave the house more cohesion.

The previous owner, “Old Man Joe” as we call him had a wood shop in the basement. In my opinion, this is a horrible idea, but a testament to how much his wife loved him, for sawdust magically appears there, no matter how much I’ve vacuumed.

He made wood EVERYTHING for the house including the fireplace mantel. See those tiles? I’m sure there’s a story behind those and we still have a matching bathroom sink that has to go. A signature design for sure.

Since the brick was sanded in spots we decided to just paint it all. I’d like to restretch the wood print in the second photo to fit the opening, but that might be a small project that never sees a win.

The fireplace isn’t up to code and maybe on the list to come down next summer. The brickwork inside and out needs help, and we don’t exhaust an oil furnace through the chimney anymore. Once it’s gone and the new hearth set back we’ll gain space, light, and a better walkway flow to the adjacent little room. I’ve got all sorts of free-standing fireplace dreams on my pinboard.

The dining room windows I have to admit grew on me, especially once the bars were gone.

The mustard tint was dated, they were single paned, but the morning light through them was cheery and they opened. Plus there was a ledge for plants.

It was hard to decide, but we went with a lined obscured glass on all the east side windows in the living and little room. Our neighbors on that side are so close that the privacy is welcome. Someday we’ll finish patching the drywall surround.

The grid front window isn’t missed.

I love the front windows. We’re a total fishbowl from the street, so though I enjoy waving to people I know and don’t know from my couch we’re messing with the idea of panels and plants for privacy instead of a solid fence.

Here’s a little more realistic photo of what it all looks like in the morning and after I’ve moved the cookbooks out. At some point we want a front door with windows and be gone security gate.

There’s that pass through next to the fireplace to what was likely in the past a third bedroom. We call it the little room, Claudia’s or Chris’s room. There’s a small couch with storage that can be made into a bed.

Again with the wood, carpet and bars.

When we took the closet doors off to do the floors we discovered that the backs were modge podged with old posters and magazines, including the World’s Fair when it was in Seattle. There was an unconvincing conversation about them being art pieces in the living room, but I thought they should be hung and displayed where they belonged. Looks like I can count that under ‘win.’

My small win for the weekend was getting my cookbook collection into its new and expanded home. I think this storage will be temporary, but I’m excited to organize them in one place. The artwork and some houseplant rearranging will likely be the next win.

When we received the keys to the house we hosted a ‘post it party’ which basically meant we provided a keg, post it notes and sharpies and requested people post their ideas for what we should do to areas of the house. If you’d like to see the post about that it’s here. I highly recommend doing this if you find yourself with a fixer, it was really fun and we wouldn’t have thought of some of the perspectives.

Like these for above the mantel.

And for the walls.

We’re likely to welcome you to our 10 year remodel still in progress 40 years from now, but we’ve enjoyed the process and creative outlet, especially as a focus now. We’re so grateful.

I guess I’m mentally preparing myself and my family for the long hail in this current state and I want our home to be a visually/functional/happy place to help make that easier., especially with remote learning happening here soon.

Whether it’s sewing, cooking, gardening… I hope you’re all finding an outlet and focus for energy that’s beneficial to your mental health.

Keep it up. xo Katie

p.s. I made you lemon sour cream pie;)