Busy Busy

Here are my squares for Nettie of A Quilt is Nice. I started reading her blog and oohing and ahhing over her sewing projects prior to this virtual quilting bee, so it is fun to submit blocks for one of her creations.

I am finding that my quilting style is becoming more and more improvisational. It has been so fun to be create a piece of artwork piece by piece, or to come up with an idea in my head and then try it out.



I really loved all of the fabrics that were sent, but was drawn to the large printed birds and green. The birds became the focal point of both my blocks. The center piece of this block was my starting point.



I love the sea horses.

In non-sewing news, the weather has been nice and sunny and warm this past week and I have been getting outside on some runs. A coworker of mine gave me a free entry into the St. Patrick's Day 5K around Lake Harriet on Saturday. It felt like running amongst a heard of cattle, but was very fun. I have been going back and forth in terms of the rest of the racing season. With work being so busy, it has been nice to just train how I want to train and not worry about a specific training plan. Who knows, maybe I'll be inspired to start a training plan as the weather warms. After three years of running injuries, it is so exciting to be running as much as I want. I am so thankful!

Cottage Quilting Bee: Emily the Strange Quilt Block

I've gotten some questions about what a virtual quilting bee is, so let me take a moment to explain. Basically, a group of individuals agree to participate for a year and each person is assigned one month. My month comes in October. What happens is I will pick out some fabrics and a quilt theme/style, then divide up the fabric so that each person will receive a little parcel in the mail with fabric and instructions. My fellow bee-mates will then sew up a nice quilt block for me and send it back. So, when it is not my month to send out fabric, I receive little parcels of fabric from the other bee-mates and complete blocks for them. Tina, over at Little Blue Cottage is our fearless organizer and is our distributor and receiver of fabrics and quilt blocks. With the Cottage Quilting Bee, the are actually more than twelve people so some of the months will have two people sending out fabric. March is one of those months.

Emily The Strange
Viv selected sent out some dark fabrics and included some lovely little pictures of Emily. I was not familiar with Emily The Stange, but have since learned she is a "counterculture icon." Wikipedia describes her as a character that began to surface on stickers at concerts to promote a company called Cosmic Debris. She's 13 years old and has an affinity for black cats. Here is what I came up with:




When Viv suggested incorporating hearts, I jumped at the chance to try making a pretty heart block Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio designed. My hearts were on a much smaller scale, but her tutorial was very helpful.



Emily the Strange.

I am looking forward to seeing all the blocks together in a quilt. My bee-mates were very creative and pulled out all the stops with reverse applique, embroidery, and buttons. Take a look at our flicker page.

In other news, I found a fabulous local quilting shop today! I love shopping for fabric online, but have been looking for a fun little shop to use. Glad Creations is a shop in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. They have an extraordinarily large selection of fabrics and supplies in a small space. Upstairs classes and social sewing events are held. The staff there was also very friendly and helpful. They were busy helping customers select fabrics and cutting the entire time I was there. I was happy to see that they carry quite a bit of Moda and a really nice big selection of Kaffe Fassett. I got a selection of Basic Grey's urban couture line. There are several other shops I would like to visit, but they are out in the suburbs and I wanted a quick trip today. I will definitely be heading back to Glad Creations.

Second Annual Polish Dinner

I grew up in the Chicago area with Polish grandparents. We were fortunate growing up to have my mother's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Bodzewski, close by. I have countless memories of them... For awhile, they would come over once per week and watch me and my brother Evan while my mom did errands. Everyone would come together at their home for Christmas Day. There were even special nights when Evan and I got to stay overnight. I remember sitting with my grandmother and asking her to tell me stories. Stories about my mom when she was growing up and stories about me when I was too young to remember. I also asked my grandmother to tell me about times when she and my grandfather were young. Unfortunately I don't remember many of the stories, but I do remember hearing about fancy evenings out with the other polish couples... balls, galas, special events. Chicago is known for having a large polish immigrant population.

Grandma and Grandpa: Helen and Ludwig Bodzewski

Now that the years have gone by and my grandparents have gone on to heaven, I have been thinking about how to hold on to my memories and create new ones with family and friends. Even though I can't remember all the stories, I can remember the food. We used to eat barshch (beet soup), pierogis, polish sausage, sauerkraut... Last year Jim and I hosted our first Polish Dinner. It was so much fun, we decided to make it an annual event. Here is the menu I came up with:

• Barshch
• Pierogi: Blueberry-Apple and Potato
• Golabki (stuffed cabbage leaves)
• Kidney Bean Salad
• Drambuie Liqueure Ice Cream

I created the menu and made everything but the ice cream. I requested Drambuie because it was a favorite of my grandfather's. Jim did a great job finding a recipe for the ice cream. My biggest mistake last year was underestimating how much time it would take to make all the food, so made everything over the week prior to the dinner. It made a big difference and I was able to relax the day of the dinner and enjoy the meal and company. Here are some pictures.



These napkins were my first sewing project. I chose the variety of colors because we have fiestaware place settings in every color. We enjoyed the very first use of these napkins at the dinner.


The table was set and decorated with candles. We used every single chair in the apartment. Including two folding chairs that made an appearance from the garage.

Barshch or Beet Soup
Pierogi!
Cooking in the kitchen. The golabki are in the two pots on the stove. Cooking offered the opportunity to be nostialgic. My mom helped me out long distance over the phone.

The dinner was a success. I'm thinking the challenge next year will be polish pastries...

Cottage Quilting Bee

I had a great time making the blocks for the first month of Cottage Quilting Bee. I made two log cabin blocks: one traditional block and one "wonky" block. This was my first time trying the log cabin style and I found the tutorial Darci posted here and here very helpful.



This is the traditional square that I made. I made this one first and had a lot of fun with it. I was trying to see what it would look like to have two sides of the square the same fabric... think it looks good. After that I just pieced randomly.

And now the wonky block...



This was my first time using the "wonky" uneven edges and it turned out ok. I wasn't thrilled with the final product initially, but it grew on me the more I looked at it. Part of what caused the problem was that I cut two sides on the same go-round and for some reason that made it harder for me to figure out. I was able able to finish it though and plan to keep trying these types of blocks. Comparing my blocks to the others, it seems I ended up with more pink and less green than others. I can't wait to see how they all come together!

Back again

I disappeared in January. After getting back from a vacation over Christmas, my attention turned to the upcoming social work license exam. After several years of logging work and supervision hours, I was finally able to apply and test for my clinical license. So, January was spent studying. Now that I've passed, I feel like I can be a normal person again with interests and hobbies and actually have time to do them again. I've been staring longingly at the fabric I received from Darci for the Cottage Quilting Bee. Now I can actually start playing with them. I've never made log cabin blocks before, but am excited to try. Also on my list to complete are some napkins and coasters I started months ago- they actually were my sewing project! We are hosting a Polish Dinner later on in February and I would love to use some snazzy napkins to dress up the table. It's amazing all the project possibilities...

Midweek check-in

I got myself into the pool on Monday! After taking a look and seeing that three lanes were wide open, there were not excuses left to skip it. It went well although I could definitely feel the time off. Just focused on doing three-hundreds with thirty second breaks. As much as I dread the water beforehand, I do enjoy it and love the tired feeling in my shoulders when I'm done. Tonight I worked out work stress in spin class.

I'm super excited about two opportunities this coming year: my first virtual quilting bee! There are a whopping 17 people in the project so there will be some months where two people will send out fabric. The other is an improvisational quilting project.

What's up for the week...

Tentative plan for the week...
Monday: Yoga class, then 1 hour swim or run
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Spin Class, then either Pilates or Bodyflow
Thursday: Pilates on a roll, then 6 mile run
Friday: Short run and then swim 30 minutes
Saturday: Pilates or Bodyflow and then Cycling
Sunday: 7 mile run

I am going to start swimming again this week... Even though it's scheduled twice, I'll be happy to get it in once. I do not heart swimming but I know I need to get back into it. As a group fitness junky, I am excited about the new classes on the winter schedule this week. Thursday a class called "pilates on a roll" which will somehow incorporate a foam roller.

In other news, I'm expanding the blog to include the sewing and crafting I've been up to. I'm hesitant to do so because of all the beautiful crafting blogs I have been watching for the past several months. At the same time, I'm looking forward to joining everyone.