Quilting Bee Catchup

  • August 31, 2009 9:04 PM

I haven’t posted about my Quilting Bees for a while, and in fact, I’ve joined one more — for European Quilters only. I’ve also now got the Bee links on my Crafts Tab. Here’s some of the blocks I’ve been making…

3-July

String Quilt Block

This block was for Stitches and Scissors in the SewConnected 3 Bee. She asked for a String Quilt block. This was my first time doing paper-piecing, but it was very easy with this tutorial. Hopefully, it doesn’t screw her up that mine makes a diamond-shape rather than a square.

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Coin Quilt Block

This block is one of my favorites that I’ve made – mostly because of the colors. Crafty Lady Crafts in Another Quilting Bee sent the greens and white without any specific directions. I added in a bunch of my favorite greens with it. I liked how it turned out so much that I’m thinking about recreating it with some of my leftovers…maybe a pillow, or table runner?

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Retro Kitchen Block

For this block, Messy Karen in Another Quilting Bee requested some kitchen-themed blocks that pop off of her retro kitchen print. Once I finished the pot, I realized there was a little blue and red pot in the print too. :)

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Dutchman's Puzzle Block

This Dutchman’s Puzzle was requested by Mama & CO for our first Eurovision Quilter’s Bee block. Unfortunately, after cutting the fabric, I discovered that the fractions were blacked out for me on the tutorial page, and then I misread her directions on the final size. I sent it back to her before I messed it up further, but hopefully my big seam allowances will allow her to still use it.

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Quartered Log Cabin Block

Quilt Dad in Sew Connected 3 sent these vibrant prints and requested that we make a log cabin, and then cut it into quarters so he can mix and match them in a Bento Box type of quilt. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

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Maverick Star Block

This block is a Maverick Star, created with this tutorial for Oh That Ashley in Sew Connected 3.  Everyone is making different-sized stars, all with the same background.  I look forward to seeing her finished quilt.

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My Sew Connected 3 Quilt Top

This is my quilt, so far, for Sew Connected 3. I sent out Fall-colored fabric and asked for bold and modern blocks. The blocks I got were all very different, but they go well together. I outlined them with a sash and am now just waiting for one or two more blocks to finish it up. The back is going to be a mixture of three vintage sheets with brown, yellow and green patterns.

Bicycling on the Coast

  • August 25, 2009 10:50 AM
2009-08-22 Biking in Oostend

Thomas on the empty beach

As a kid, I lived just a few miles from the beach – close enough to bike to it. It’s funny that I was so close, but never went. Recently, Thomas and I rode the train two hours to take our bicycles to the Belgian Coast. There’s a great boardwalk following the coast and we chose a 10-mile stretch from Oostende to Westende-Bad to trace. We had a great time riding, picnicking, swimming and sunning.

2009-08-22 Biking in Oostend

Sunbathers on the beach

2009-08-22 Biking in Oostend

Birds on the erosion wall

It was interesting to see some differences in the beaches I’ve been to and the Belgian one. There were a few…

  • Erosion walls every mile or so
  • Sail boats in the distance
  • Life guards in kayaks
  • Restricted swimming areas
  • Oyster catcher birds on the beach
  • People using rafts in the ocean
  • People playing catch in the ocean
  • Men in speedos
  • Sunbathers using fabric walls to block the wind
  • Rescue helicopters overhead
  • Bunkers with old anti-aircraft guns across the street

Oostende was a really cute town and easy to get to by train. I’d love to check it out again. Maybe next time we can ride from Westende-Bad to De Panne. They make it easy with a tram that runs along the boardwalk and bicycle rental places all around.

Ramstein with Cousins

  • August 20, 2009 5:09 PM

Day 21 – 22: This is the end of our EuroTrip. And what better way to end it, then by visiting family – we headed to Ramstein, Germany to visit my cousins for two days. They’ve got three adorable kids – 1, 3, and 7-years old – and we had a great time playing with them.

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Up and Down Stairs

Unfortunately, I got a bad headache while I was there and felt kind of out of it, but while I was feeling okay, the kiddos were great fun. We hiked in the woods, visited the cows down the street, drew with sidewalk chalk, played hide and seek, and climbed all over Thomas. Well, I didn’t climb on him, but they thought he was a human jungle gym.

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Drawing with Sidewalk Chalk

My cousin is in the Air Force and gave us a tour of the Ramstein Air Force Base. Wow, that place is huge! It’s like a complete American city in the middle of Germany. It was really weird to see US post office boxes, American police cars, Burger King, etc. They took us to the Macaroni Grill on base for dinner, and Thomas and I marveled over the service – free refills, ice cubes, English menus, free water, doggie bags. These are all things you wouldn’t see in Belgium.

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Hiking with Sticks

They also took us to the American grocery store on base. Honestly, I felt a little depressed going there. I saw all kinds of products I missed from the US, (cheese dip, ranch dressing, cake mix) at rock bottom prices, but we didn’t get anything. Part of it was because we couldn’t carry anything on the motorcycle, but part of me wrestled with the fact that I didn’t NEED any of that stuff. I can live perfectly fine in Belgium without it. This doesn’t mean I won’t stock up when I go home, but I did a lot of debating over Want vs. Need.

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Talking to the Moos

The final day, we packed up and headed home through Luxembourg. After 3 weeks, Thomas and I were very eager to get home and didn’t stop long, but Luxembourg City looked like a really cute town to visit again sometime.

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Riding the Human Motorcycle

So that’s it…we can now say we rode a motorcycle on country roads through 7 countries over 3 weeks. We measured it out and found that if drove the same mileage in the US, we would have gone from Atlanta to Seattle. It was a wonderful, memory-filled trip. I feel like I got to connect with Thomas, learn more about myself, and discover new places.

I’m still working on a few more photos from Austria, Munich, and Southern Germany, but I skipped ahead and edited the rest of the photos from this leg of the trip. They’re posted on Flickr:

Sweating with 400 of My Closest Pals

  • August 19, 2009 11:27 PM

Note:  Whoops, I had trouble with posting this earlier.  Sorry if you see it twice.

Though I enjoy hiking, biking and kayaking, I’m not big on exercise-exercise. I can’t stand running or working out in a gym, and I’m not coordinated enough to keep up with aerobics…but last night, I joined 420 of my fellow Brusselians for a workout in the park.

Aerobics in the Parc

In the Summer, Friskis and Svettis, a local exercise club, holds free aerobics classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights (7:30PM) in Parc Cinquintinaire. I met up with Stephanie and Ali to give it a try and it was a blast!

The group was male and female, all ages, and all levels of fitness. We were arranged in a circle around a leader showing us the steps, everything from jumping jacks to running in circles.  I can feel it in my legs today.

I’m not sure I was doing all of the moves correctly, but I tried to just keep moving for the full hour.  And because it’s such a big group, no one really cares if you’re stretching right when they’re all stretching left.  We had a great time and I will be back again.

The Romantic Road and Beyond

  • August 19, 2009 11:00 AM

Day 19-20: On the next part of our EuroTrip, we followed the Romantic Road, a country route through lots of little medieval towns. I’m sure it’s got it’s charm, but after some of the other routes we rode on, I just couldn’t get over the touristy push of this one. The Romantic Road signs were even labeled in Japanese. My biggest excitement of this route was finally capturing a photo of Thomas and me in a street mirror.

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Say Cheese!

The next day, on our way to a nature reserve, we saw some storks feeding in a field and decided to break early.  Across the street was a grouping of 3 lakes, so we took a walk around them.  Those who know Thomas will know what he’s doing in this photo — catching frogs. There were a ton!

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Thomas catching frogs

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Got one!

The other break we had was fun because the town name is our last name. We drove around until we found a sign that we could pose by.

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Thomas poses by the sign

Our last name is Swedish (Thomas was born there) and is spelled has two dots over the O. This town didn’t have the dots, so I made sure to correct the sign with real rock dots.

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Dallas shows how it's correctly spelled. :)

Thomas has been catching up on his blog with some great entries from the EuroTrip.  He’s picked some different photos and focuses on different aspects of our trip than I do.  If you haven’t already, be sure to check them out at: http://sprocket.io