Supper Club: June 2014, Eat Local

I either I was in a former life or I should have been a 50's housewife that threw fabulous dinner parties. I tried to host a few back in college, but what college student has the time or the money? I surely didn't. Back then, it was so much easier just to say "Oh, the [football] game is on, let's get together and watch it with food and beers." 

A couple years ago, I decided to start up a dinner club and call it Supper Club. The premise is themed dinner parties, once a month, potluck style. Jake warned me about going overboard with my decorating. Perhaps I did. But that's how I like to roll.

Supper Club June 2014

Theme: Eat Local. Each dish must include one locally sourced ingredient.

The morning of the party, I picked flowering oregano from my friends' garden for decoration.

The setup on our patio. OK, so I did go overboard and rent the chairs. They were only $1 each for the weekend (and the guy at Taylor Rentals Arlington was super cute.)

Hey oh! Beer cocktails!!

Yum.

Dessert: Strawberry angel food cake trifle, made in honor of Jake's bday. But he wouldn't let us sing to him.

The crew for the inaugural dinner. Great friends, homemade food, and tasty drinks make for an awesome evening. 

Cinco de Mayo 2014

Once, I threw myself a birthday party, secretly. At least I think I did it on the down-low. Enough chit chat, let's just look at the pretty pictures. 

According to Pinterest, it ain't a party unless you have fancy paper straws and homemade tissue tassels suspended from bakers twine.  

Sparkling sangria! Whut, what!? I used this ridiculous recipe which makes one super tasty AND super strong beverage. I was too cheap to throw the fruit out and cooked it down into a chunky compote after the party. Not shown, frosty margaritas and refreshing beers.

Food! Potluck style. Carnitas. Enchiladas. Sriracha fruit salad (drool). Spanish style rice. Oh and let's not forget the taco and nacho bar. 

Not sure how we had room for dessert, but we did. First up, Nom Nom Paleo's Mexican pot de creme. I left the cream off so that people could pick between real cream and soy whipped topping. Hey dairy doesn't like some of us. 

And finally, cake. Not just any cake. A homemade margarita cake, infused with Patrón Silver. Apparently, I made Sam cut the cake so I could take photos =)

The cake was based on a this lime chiffon cake recipe I found on the interwebs. The frosting is my reduced butter swiss meringue buttercream infused Patrón and lime juice. In case you are wondering, I have yet to recreate this cake. 

Triangle Baby Quilt

Triangle Baby Quilt

sizing (forgot to measure it in my scramble to finish, made with 4" tall triangle ruler)

Top: "Better Than Yesterday" Blogger bundle from Pink Castle Fabrics

Back - Robert Kaufman Illustration Ink, Science Fair, Equations in Black

Binding - Kona in Ash (Gather Here)

Filled with 100% cotton batting. 

Machine sewn with 100% cotton thread.

Machine washable (cool wash, tumble dry low).

This quilt has a little bit of a backstory to it. After I "mastered" string quilts (sewing long strips of fabric together), I became bored with it and wanted to work on something more challenging. So I went with triangles. 

The first 120 triangles.

It wasn't so bad, mostly just time consuming. That may or may not be an artifact of my OCD ways. Some quilters will layer their fabrics and cut multiple triangles at a time (either by hand or with a fancy die cutter). I just can't do it. My ruler slides around and I end up with uneven cuts. I'd rather take the time and just cut each edge individually to ensure all my pieces are even. 

Had to cut 100 more because I mathed wrong.

The finished quilt top had a short stint as wall decoration in our old apartment. At one point, friends from out of town commented on it. I made a mental note that they liked it. The top has since sat in my UFO (unfinished object) pile. I knew it wasn't a project that I wanted to donate, but wasn't quite sure where it would end up.  

Fast forward to recent times; our aforementioned friends announced their pregnancy (hooray!!) and I instantly thought about this quilt top. The colors are fun and bright without being too babyish and also gender neutral. Kismet! 

And just about the same time, one of the many fabric shops I follow on Instagram posted a photo of quite possibly the most perfect print that I could have dreamed of to make this quilt complete. The print included math, physics, and chemistry equations/symbols/graphs. Call me a nerd all you want (I resemble one), but the parents to be are an engineer/scientist power house and I knew they'd appreciate it. A fun, functional, and educational quilt? Check, check, and check!

Ha,the binding is pretty much the same color as the paint on my walls.

Close up of the back. I had to stop myself from buy an entire bolt of this print.