Progress

First, a picture from tropical Copenhagen!! (Tropical is a relative term, of course.)


I've made a total of ten blocks (four pictured below) for the baby quilt (deadline April 18th!) - not quite sure how I will arrange them - darker blues fading to lighter ones? half and half? It's a great way to use up my scraps (see above), though! I've been trying to squeeze in 1 hour and 20 minutes of quilting each night - a friend just sent me several seasons of Will & Grace (yes, I'm that far behind with US tv), so it works out to four episodes of quilting each evening!


Happy Easter to those who are celebrating it. I have guests arriving this evening from Estonia! I'll end with two photos from an Easter past (in Romania). The three-hour midnight service in Botoşani is something I will never forget - the photo is from my friend's apartment next to the church. The eggs came the next morning (after about four hours sleep), along with a frightening jellied rooster dish and the most delicious cozonac with chocolate and walnuts.

On a Coaster Roll!

Another set of coasters completed - and the start of another quick project (below)! I'll be visiting a friend in a couple of weeks and am hoping to have a little baby quilt finished as a gift - the little one will be celebrating his first birthday soon! It's inspired by a quilt in a calendar I received as a Christmas gift - the AQS Quilt Art 2007 Engagement Calendar (week of March 12th) 'Parallel Universe' by Susan Roberts. I'm trying to challenge myself to be more random. Hope to post some progress on the baby quilt next week - in the meantime, I'm delivering these blue coasters to Copenhagen this weekend!

She Sews!

Finally! Just two little sets of coasters as gifts, but still, it's some sewing! The little carrot ones are an Easter gift, the other set, a thank you gift. Hope to get one more set of coasters finished this week as a gift for a friend I'm visiting this weekend. Can't say enough about how easy these criss-cross coasters are - definitely a nice way to break in my new sewing space (same apartment, just rearranging things). Picture below from the new sewing room: Take a picture quick! Things are actually organized!

Where does the time go?!

Just wanted to check in: Finally standing still here in Vaasa for a while, but now I have had some visitors! Very nice.

Thought I would post a recipe and a photo (from Helsinki in December), since there is nothing crafty going on in my life. I did move things around in my apartment last weekend and now have a new creative space. Hoping to get in there on Sunday!

Moosewood Cardamom Coffee Cake

1 pound (4 sticks or .45 kg) butter or margarine, softened
2 cups light brown sugar (470ml)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (10ml)
4 cups flour (940ml)
2 teaspoons baking powder (10ml)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (12.5ml)
1/2 teaspoon salt (2.5ml)
1 Tablespoons cardamom (15ml)
2 cups sour cream (or yogurt or buttermilk) (470-500ml)
1/4 cup light brown sugar (60ml)
1 Tablespoons cinnamon (15ml)
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped (60ml)

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Butter and flour a 10-inch (or larger) tube or bundt pan.
In a LARGE mixing bowl, beat butter with 2 cups brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and cardamom in a separate bowl.
Add the flour mixture, 1/3 of it at a time, to the butter mixture, alternating with the sour cream. Stir just enough to blend after each addition. Don't beat or otherwise overmix.
Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts in a separate small bowl.
Spoon approximately 1/3 of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half the nut mixture, then add another third of the batter. Cover with remaining nut mixture, then top with remaining batter. Lightly spread into place.
Bake approximately 1-1/4 hours or until a knife inserted all the way in comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a plate. Cool at least 30 minutes more before cutting into it. Enjoy with some cardamom tea or coffee!

Sneak Peeks

Just a quick post - thought I would post a few little
peeks at what I'm working on. Last week at quilt group we had a swap - I came home with a pile of these terrycloth samples from 1967 and 1968 and an idea for what to do with them.


Also, here is the progress one of those sets of criss-cross coasters I mentioned the other day.


I'm traveling a bit in the next few weeks, but will be back to posting regularly in early March. Have a great weekend!

Easing Back into Things Quilty

Ok, Friday I promised to get back to my quilting life over the weekend.... I did clean up the quilt room and I was actually crafty today!!! As of result of this craftiness, though, I'm not going to post a photo of the cleaned up room, as it is now a disaster once again! I hadn't even plugged my machine back into the wall after my holiday travels until today! Today I helped a friend (Olivia's other mother) create a big brother for Click. Pick will soon be on his way to his new home in Germany. While helping, I got started on two sets of gift coasters - hopefully I'll be able to finish them soon....

Thanks to everyone who left nice notes on Friday's post - I will get back into my Hedgeghog email soon, too. (I liked Jenni's comment about hedgehogs hibernating - Aparently, this hedgehog needed to hibernate for about six weeks.)

Here's one photo from my holiday travels (better late than never!) - December 26th found me in Riga, Latvia.

I'm Alive!

Apologies for not posting for so long and to those who have worried about my absence! Everything is fine. After the holidays, I promised myself I wouldn't start sewing or posting again until I cleaned up my sewing room. Bad plan. I haven't done either for a whole month!! Life has somehow gotten in the way. Luckily it's Friday, so I will tackle this this weekend and will be back online very soon!