V and Co: That one time Zumba almost killed me

current state of my sewing room= very messy (you can't see the real mess, I'm just showing you the sort of messy part

Im still in the middle of crazy over here. 

With the kids out of school for the summer, and me still in the middle of a large deadline…I find that I wanted to distract myself for a minute and talk about that one time that Zumba just about killed me. 

This is a story about the last time I EVER SET FOOT IN A GYM TO DO ZUMBA. Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to hit all CAPS...but I was yelling, so I guess CAPS were in order. As I've mentioned before on the blog I go walking most mornings (except the mornings that feel -20 or colder) I feel like it's been a good way to moderately work out.
So when a friend asked me to go to Zumba, I was like "Nah, that's okay." But then a couple of my friends were going to the same Zumba class and they were having a blast.  All talking how awesome it was and when a song would come on the radio they would all squeal and start doing some of the moves. I must admit I felt like I wanted to be part of the I'm a mom who goes to the cool Zumba class club for a second. And well, the next time they were going I asked to join in on the fun…just to prove that I don't need anything other than my walking in the mornings to keep this body in pristine…well, not in complete and utter crash and burn mode.
I went in skeptical of the hype.
The music started.
And the feet started a moving.
I.
FREAKING.
LOVED.
IT.

Oh yes I did. At the beginning I was nervous, and would shyly laugh off the fact that I didn't know all the moves that clearly the rest of the class knew due to past class experience... but I quickly caught on and then the next song came on and I learned the steps, the teacher combined all the steps, added the moves, and then we were able to add the extra turns and "hippage"and I was in HEAVEN.

Yes, the Latin in me was in full swing and I just could not be stopped. I was smoking' and I had a blast.

Quickly I was accepted into the Mother's going to Zumba Tribe and  I was part of the club of friends that would hear a song on the car radio and envision the moves that go with that said song, maybe throw in a one handed swing in the air and shoulder and upper body action, not too much that would be considered dangerous while driving, but just enough to look like you are a 38 year old mother thumping to some shakira song.  Yep, I felt super cool for like a millisecond. (not really but shut up)

I believe it was the 3rd time going to class that I walked  with a "I've got this" look in my eye…and pretty sure I owned the place.

cause lets face it...I was good, and the 65 year olds in the class just could not add the extra hippage and latin sass I had flowing through me.

I bet it was my cockiness that did me in. Whatever the case, my glory days of Zumba was about to be cut short.

That day started off just like the rest (or rather the last two times):
Wind in my hair, music pumping in the background, and the hips, shoulders, arms and feet ready to go. I warmed up  doing a little moving of the body

And away we went.
Oh Yes...
I was on fire.
I was doing extra turns and it was around the last song that it happened…at the height of my dancing at the 10 am Zumba class career, that I had to kiss my beloved class goodbye.

It wasn't apparent at first, but every time I turned there was a slight slowing down that my brain would do and it would throw me off for a second. I shook it off and I didn't let it deter me…I didn't think too much about it.  We ended the class all glistening of perspiration…that's classier and sweat in case you didn't know, and we set off to our separate ways till next time. eh, well not for me.

As I drove home I felt a little like it was too hot in the car, and I felt like I was getting car sick. Shook that off and kept thinking of the fun class…but I got home, got a hot shower, and as the day went on, I started to feel like I was on a docked boat. AND I felt like I was still car sick.
By the next morning I tried to get out of bed aaaaaaand...

On the floor I went.
WHAT IN THE? WHY IS THE ROOM SPINNING? AND WHY IS EVERYTHING MOVING IN SLOOOOOOOOWMOOOOOOOOOTION?

I tried to walk but I was pretty much dizzy and felt sick to my stomach and every time I tried to move my head. The "spinny-dizzy-foggy" feeling wasn't going away. And it wasn't getting better as the day went on.
Pretty much, I had to hold on to things as I tried to move from one place to another…otherwise:

In the next few days I had to cancel going to Zumba, and any other things I was planning on doing.  Walking and moving my head was annoying. I just wanted to sleep the sick feeling away. And driving? Forget it! I wouldn't be able to look over my shoulder or look from side to side without feeling like I was stirring my brain around. I just kept telling my friends and husband: "It's like when I turn my head everything stays put then slowly moves back into place." and the nausea…no fun. My friends snickered, but I assured them "I have a Condition." The husband just smiled and nodded, and kept trying to give helpful hints like "Vanessa, seriously, just go to the doctor if it's that bad." 

I contemplated calling the doctor, but I'm pretty sure I knew what was happening. 

I had had an ear infection a few months prior (like 5 months!) and I am not the betting type, but I bet my equilibrium off-ness was due to said fluid in ear, and all the awesomeness I did in the twirling sass department in the Zumba class had just set the already sensitive fluid in my ears on spin cycle like in the washing machine. 

So Instead of having someone who has a medical degree and who could probably give me antibiotics for what was probably still the effect of extra fluid in my ears...

I decided to suck it up, and not go to the doctor.

because most likely he'd probably look in there and be like "Nah, it ain't THAT bad." and be all "Well that sucks for you, don't do Zumba again, here's a bill for visiting me. Just see the receptionist to pay it. Thank you come again."

No, instead I looked like I was constantly trying to walk the tight rope and not fall off for about a month. As the month went on I would have more and more time between feeling sick and dizzy…randomly yelling out as I was falling "I'M GOING DOWN!" 

And well, that was it. I was never to go back to my hip swinging awesome twirling 10 am Zumba class ever again. Because even though my hips could handle it…my equilibrium couldn't. 

Sigh. Oh well, walking is still better for me, and I probably would've gotten too good and everyone else would've felt bad.  So really its a good thing I can't go anymore. 

You're welcome Zumba class.

If you are going to be in Shipshewana Quilt festival please say hello! I'll try to be somewhat normal and  act not scared out of my brains. But I can't promise anything.

We'll talk soon. :) 

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V and Co: Modern Miss In Fons and Porters Love of Quilting Magazine Summer 2014

 Remember a few months back I showed off a baby quilt I was working on?

 And then shortly after that I showed pictures of Mary and I on her Love of Quilting set?

 YAY! I can finally direct you where to find the instructions for this lovely "Modern Miss" baby quilt.

Please find it in Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine Summer 2014 edition. It was a wonderful experience to work with Fons and Porter and F&W Media on set and with the individuals. I'm very grateful for the experience, and am excited to get to hang out with Mary next week again. :)
have a fantastic weekend.
We'll talk soon…I'm working on writing about my Zumba "accident" so watch for that in the next few days. :)

Well Hello June- I'll be in Indiana soon!

 HELLOOOOOOOO! So I unintentionally took May off of blogging. A lot of things have come due and I had to use every single moment to get things done in-between soccer, baseball, volunteering at the kids' schools, and running around like a mad woman AKA: being a MOM. Whoever said I was going to miss my kids being little, WAS RIGHT! Holy hannah, if anything having little kids made it that we stayed home and did more things around the house. Now it seems like we have about 2 milliseconds from the time the kids start walking in through the door from school and all the great programs they are in. No, please don't tell me I over schedule my child if I'm running around nuts…REMEMBER I HAVE FOUR OF THEM. So each one being involved in 1 maybe 2 things…is what I'm talking about. It makes me happy though, I actually enjoy looking at our schedule and trying to figure out how to get who where and then listen to what they did and learned. The school system we are a part of includes music into their program so each of my kids when they reach 5th grade get to pick an instrument they will learn (if they so choose to) so far we have a trumpet player (who is playing for the High School Marching Band next year!!!), a cello player, and we have just picked up a viola player with our 3rd son. Our daughter is the only one that hasn't picked an instrument…but she's already eyeing a few…So yes, I miss my days of little kids running around my ankles giving me an excuse to complain of no time to myself…but I'm loving the teen, preteen ages we have going on and watching them turn into little adults. Each one with their own personality and own talents. Very great and fun…but busy. :)

 This last month while I have been working a lot my peonies I planted three years ago finally bloomed.

The blooms got so large they drooped down to the ground, so I cut them and placed them in a mason jar and put them in the daughter's room. She got off the bus and screamed as she walked into the house that someone had taken our pink flowers, to which I told her to go to her room and check out where the pretty flowers went. She was very impressed with how pretty they made her room, and how pretty they smelled. It was a picture perfect kind of moment…and it needed to be documented because normally we are a hot mess of a story. :) 

NOW lets talk about some of the stuff coming up! This last month I got to help teach 8th graders in Family Consumer Science at my kid's schools, and then I got to teach 4th and 5th graders how to do "Quilt Math" and create a small quilt at my other kids' schools, I also got to speak to my local quilt guild, here in Cedar Rapids, about building a bridge between modern and traditional quilters…WHAT A FANTASTIC CRAZY MONTH OF TEACHING and TALKING. So lets keep the momentum going and lets announce that yours truly will be hanging out with some big guns in the quilting world first at the Shipshewana Quilt festival:

I will be doing a Workshop on how to make this lovely lucky stars table runner. Based off my quilt pattern.

Aside from teaching the table runner class, I'll also be demo-ing twisted flowers and this double edge dresden plate.
 I'll will also be on a panel with some other fantabulous women. Ami Simms, Mary Fons, Karen Eckmeier, Penny Haren, and Kathy Brown. All these women will be teaching and doing lectures as well. I'm Very excited! Please check out how to pre-register and all the other wonderful classes.

And then second I'm also teaching at:

 And I can't even list off all the talent that will be there! Too many!

 I have two workshops at QuiltCon One of them focusing on triangles. HST, Flying Geese, 60 Degree Ruler Triangles, Paper Pieced Triangles, and Wonky Triangles.

The second work shop will be all focused on Ombre fabrics, how to work with them and how to make them work in your quilts and projects. Fun will be had by all. 

Open Enrollment for the Feb 2015 schedule is here. 

Now if you don't mind me…I have to get back to a few lose ends and then we'll be able to talk some more. :) 

Summer 2014 Quilts And More and other pretty summer colors

used with permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved

 If you haven't already checked it out, check it out now, the new Quilts N More has hit stands and my Ombre stripe bags are in there with instructions. It's a super easy tote bag perfect for your summer needs. In 5 summery colors even! :) I'm always excited when I get to contribute to this magazine. And what a wonderful issue to be able to contribute to: SUMMER!
Because let me tell you something. I need summer weather to get here. Its been rather gloomy/rainy/thunderstormy here with a few tornado warnings.
I don't think I'll ever get used to that. But I've learned that 72 hour kits are super important and using any phrase with the word "sump pump" is normal. Had no idea what a sump pump was till we started looking at houses here…and now I know they are crucial, and even back up sump pumps are strongly suggested.
Also after almost three years here…and being this close to Minnesota and Wisconsin, I can still say I hear the accent…but it doesn't sound completely foreign to me…and I know when people ask for a "BEG" they are saying "BAG" with the accent. I don't double take anymore and that sort of worries me…or it just means I'm assimilating to the northernish midwest…and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The weather here though…is something else. No, seriously…it can be something completely different from what you just had 5 minutes ago. Yep. Wacky weather.

This picture taken in my sewing space while uber gloomy and stormy…is of my enlarged version of my lucky star quilt.

Just like my lucky star Christmas pillow I made…this is just one block made large to finish at 48" square. Another perfect baby quilt. :) This is the workshop I'll be teaching at the Modern Quilt Guild in Kansas City this July. I'm very excited to go and teach this as it's super fast and fun. I'm thinking of making one in each of the 5 ombre stripe colors…but first I have to finish a couple of large deadlines that have been piling up on me and I seem to keep making small headway on them...

Conditions around here haven't changed…the cat overlord seems to be getting smarter than the average cat and is dismissing my decoy fabric I put down, or sometimes it's a race and she is obviously winning because she gets to my project before I can get the decoy fabric down…and then she KNOWS its decoy fabric and the whole mission of not having her butt on my project by putting out decoy fabric is ruined. Just have to be smarter than the cat V… just have to be smarter than the cat...

I at least am grateful to be working on a very fun yellow project, that is helping with the gloom skies and the fact that I will never win against that cat.

She has been added to the hashtag of #catsthatsew on Instagram. 

I also have buck the dog…but he's less in my space…he still hangs out in the daughter's room while she's gone till she comes home. As much as my husband would like to say that that dog is the family dog or his dog…that animal sure spends a lot of time waiting till the little half pint girl gets home, or loves all the attention the little half pint girl gives him while playing dolls on him or watching movies with him and putting bows on his ears…I'm pretty sure she's always going to be a dog person. 

Okay enough rambling…off to finish something…anything! :) 

We'll talk soon.

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Where I've been

Truth be told the blog is still very quiet.
Truth be told...I've been very busy. I've gone places, to teach, to volunteer, and to talk.

On a side note: A lot of you know that I'm Mormon, and go to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A lot of you are too...so you totally get that not only am I mom, pattern creator, fabric designer...I'm also a Primary President. :) It's a wonderful calling. Time consuming? Yes. Almost like a job? YES. Some of you who don't know what that means...it means that I volunteer my time to church service without pay and my "calling" is my job. A Primary President is over all of the little children ages 18 months to 11 years of age, and their sunday school programs, and our Boy Scouts and our version of Girl Scouts (Faith In God) programs. It's a lot of work...but if I were to pick a job (which I don't but if I did) I would pick Primary. The children are my people. They get me, they like my silly faces, and they are just plain awesome. Kids are cool.
So when I'm not doing all the other things I do...I'm doing that as well. Which adds more to my load but I happily do it.

These last few weeks I've had the opportunity to travel within my now home state of Iowa to hang out on set of the PBS show Fon's and Porters Love of Quilting.

 There I got to show Mary Fons how to make my kaleidoscope block large sized, all ran smoothly...but there is something I realized right there and then in-between episodes while someone took pictures of me and Mary:

We have an AMAZING talent of making awesome faces.

I cannot lie...I have NO IDEA what I was doing or saying. I know what it looks like I'm doing...

It looks like I am trying not to blow chunks. But I can honestly say that I had a blast, it went smoothly, and Mary makes being on camera EASY.

I did manage to keep my arms more by my sides than say in this picture:

HEY I'm wearing the same shirt...

MAYBE THE SHIRT IS THE PROBLEM!

whatever the case...

 Mary's a wonderful individual and "working" with her didn't feel like working, it was great to get to know her a little better, and I'm SUPER excited to get to be at the Shipshewana Quilt Festival in June together as well. Stay tuned fore more fabulous faces from both of us...I'm sure.

 During my time at Love of Quilting I got to watch one of the QUEENS of quilting Liz Porter of Fons and Porters, while she taped a future episode for the show.
I totally played my cool and didn't like geek out on her or anything...till Lunch when she personally asked me a question...and my mind went blank. Was it a hard question? Nope, just "So what are you going to do today?" I couldn't even remember the project I had brought to do with Mary for the website. I stared at her like a deer in headlights. I finally came to, and told her...

 Afterwards a couple of the other of the show's guests asked to take a picture with her...I jumped in and got one too. :)

Also these last few weeks I've taught classes:

A couple of classes at my local quilt store Pineneedles Sewing Center. What a fun time that was! The ladies were so fun, and we laughed a little too much...but we were productive! We had two full days of sewing, creating quilt blocks and playing with texture. I am super lucky to personally know Jill, who is the owner and a fantastic individual (and so FULL of knowledge) and to have a great quilt store close by. Super lucky indeed.

 Another close-ish store to me is the WONDERFUL cute little fabric/yarn store in Iowa City called Home Ec. Hands down Cody (owner) is one of the kindest, sweetest, friends I have gotten to know here in Iowa. She's so genuine and I Love LOVE teaching classes there. Not only do I have a wonderful really close to me local quilt store...I have a second one just a hope skip and jump away (on the highway) :)
I'm feeling very blessed to have these two stores, and my time with Mary.

Of course I feel bad that it takes me so long to talk about these things here on the blog...but if you come check me out on instagram:

 You get to see a little more behind the every day scenes...and whereabouts.

Now if you don't mind me...I need a cookie. Because I am still need to finish things for places I will be, and for other things I've said I would do. :) One must keep ones strength up and Chocolate Chip cookies are the best way to do so.
We'll talk soon.
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