this and that

Though I doubt that winter is done with us yet, I always think of daffodils of being a sign of spring. Milder temps overall with a little rain here and there.

Some health concerns and a toe injury put a kibosh on my walking this past fall. I had been very dedicated about my walking program and was routinely walking 3 miles 5-6 days out of the week. I feel like a slug when I didn't get out there but when you are not feeling quite up to snuff it is easy to blow it off. The weather turns cold and it is even easier to want to stay in your jammies and robe and forget about going outside. All excuses, that didn't stop me in the past. Then too, I had promised DJ that I would not drive if I was not feeling well and had to take medication for it. BUT that situation seems to be mostly behind me so I figured it was time to start back again. Wednesday I found out just how out of shape I had become. I did 6 laps or about 1.7 miles and my back and knees were begging me sit down and stay there. Not good! Yesterday my muscles along my shins were protesting "what! are you nuts, lady?" but I did 5 laps in spit of their screaming. Maybe I am pushing this too quickly? I stayed home today and will try 5 laps every other day for now. After all I worked up gradually from 5 laps up to 12 over time---when the lower numbers was getting too easy to do then I would add one more and do that level for a week or two and then increase it again. SIGH I'll get there but hate that I am starting over from scratch.

I try to run all my errands while I am out if possible. As background: one of the Belles had an unfortunate home flooding while they were out of state for the birth of their granddaughter. The house is in terrible shape with fallen ceilings and all the flooring on the first floor has to be replaced along with the drywall. Needless to say, my friend and her husband have had to move into temporary housing while these repairs are being made. All the sewing supplies that she has available to her now is what she had taken with them on their trip to her daughters. Lois and I had helped her earlier by washing some of her quilts that had gotten wet--Linda C did not trust that to the clean up crew since this was the initial washing. I just kept them here at the house till I knew they were in housing rather than a hotel. Since I was already on the road and she is now about 10 miles from me, I ran her quilts up to her along with my green stash. I found out at our meeting on Tuesday that she needed some greens for a BOM for one guild, some for a nickel swap for another and something for a project the Belles will be doing. Two of us had said to just "come over and raid our stash" at the time. Since I was headed up to her house anyway, I delivered it right to her door. When you only need little bits it was not worth the shopping trip--she could shop my stash, LOL.

After driving around with the stuff from the sewing room closet reoganization that was destined for the thrift store for several weeks, I finally got most of it delivered to one shop on Wednesday. I drug the last container back in the house though--the cut out patterns--to re-organize it a bit better by bagging up each pattern jacket with the cut fabric into ziplocs. I should have thought to put the size on it but they can do that. Then some of the papers in my "rolling office on wheels" were disposed of. One good thing was that I found some notes that my friend Marilyn had asked about on Y-seaming. I set those aside to run over to her on Round 2 of errands. DJ took the two portable file boxes I emptied off my hands or they would have gone with me to the next thrift store run.

The rest of the day I pulled out all the used rotary cutter blades that had piled up in three different locations. (My own stash in the sewing room closet, the ones that the Belles had turned in and the ones in the original packaging in my desk. My mom had sent a pile of them back with me last summer) We participate in the blade exchange program offered by L. P. Sharp so I collect the old ones and get new Olfa blades back for a very reasonable price. To my amazement, I had 37-45 mm blades and 45-60mm blades here! Who knew? I didn't send them ALL in but let's just say, we are set for blades for awhile once that order comes in. In addition I put in a thread order from Connecting Threads for us and will be ordering some bulk machine sewing needles once one of the girl's gets back to me about what she wants to add to it. (The needles works out to 32 cents a needle from Discount Embroidery Supply--good saving there too.)

I finished up the rest of the running after I walked on Thursday. Back to Walmart, the post office, back to the thrift store, Marilyn's house. Marilyn told me she was teaching a class on Twisted Sisters later in the month and I was invited to come along with any of the Belles who might be interested. She was going to put in the order for the book/template for us. Should be fun--not sure what fabric I want to use to make it yet but I'll shop the stash first. No doubt, raid the donation bin to move that stuff along!

Norma and I planned on cutting out our versions of Cheese and Crackers today. Yesterday afternoon was spent washing and pressing fabric. To keep Skyler from parking on it there is fabric back into that wire basket but only temporarily. The forefront shows the other WIPs I have been actively working on--the next Santa block and my dish cloths. Three done which too 2 skeins and a bit off a third. I finished #3 last night and then started another before it was lights out. I still need to work in the stops and starts on them.

I decided to go with the queen sized quilt (pattern doesn't come in full) so needed 23 fat quarters. As I was pulling them yesterday I found a duplicate--then another one and another one..........what? Turns out I had two duplicate fat quarter bundles. Liked them so much that I bought them twice?? Not sure. I believe that they are the Aunt Grace "Friends Around the World" line from 2005. I MAY have purchased one bundle myself at the quilt shop with a full punch card discount but I am thinking my mom gave me stack of them as well. Because they were stored in two different places I didn't even realize that I had pairs! It is always good to visit the stash to remind yourself of what you have. After pulling fats, I have a better idea of which 30's fabrics have already been cut into which makes them a better candidate for "Two of a Kind" or "Cheap Trick" since either one can be done as a scrap quilt.

Anyway, before I started this post I had the top out all cut and boxed up in a project box. I have a bolt of muslin on hand but it is 36 wide so I could not follow the directions necessarily for how many strips to cut. There was some waste the way I had to cut it but I already cut the overage into strips for the triple rails. While I had the cutter in hand I also cut out the March "Be Positive" block base and rough cut for the appliques. All in all, a very productive day around here. The sewing room floor looks like it too!

Well, Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Not a big deal around my house since our anniversary is in late January. We both would rather celebrate that date. I have a card stuck in my desk for him and will make some sort of dessert for us--maybe watch a movie together tomorrow night if he doesn't have a college basketball game to watch. He is off the hook for flowers, candy and all that.

Guess that's it for now----thanks for stopping by!