Thursday check-in

This probably says it all---"I'd Rather Be Quilting".  (The T is a needle and thread and does not show up so well.)  Alabama does not require a front and back license plate so the front is open to showing off your team spirit, hobbies, your grandkids, whatever. Naturally I want mine to say something about quilting or sewing.  For years I had a heavy plastic type "license" that read "Quilter on the Move" that I had gotten at Quiltmaker's Workshop in Trussville buying it with some birthday money.   When I sold the 2nd car after DJ's passing, it was showing some cracks and I taped it up with packing tape and continued to use it on the Pontiac.  Well, last month when I was going to pick up Janet at the ATL airport, I noticed only a few pieces of the plastic remained.  The car looked naked!  I found this at Cafe Press , aluminum and sturdy.  Back in business, so to speak.

Mostly I have just been thinking about quilting.  Oh, I have had the machine sitting out since the Belles meeting 9 days ago but did not touch it till yesterday---and then it was only to swap out to the one I quilt with.   The grandmother had called to make arrangements for me to drop off the quilt on Tuesday.  She decided that I needed to put a couple quilting lines through her embroidered piece after all.  I drug it back home but also came back with a robe she needed hemmed up.  She knows I hate to do mending and/or alterations but this time I agreed to do it.  I set up the room to quilt which took longer than it did to actually do those two lines.  Then un-did the process, put on a walking foot, knit needle and fixed the robe.    I met her halfway and handed off the quilt on Wednesday morning as she was going to her daughter's in the ATL area for the day.  Tomorrow, I'll hand off the robe.

I did one other thing last evening on the machine when I put a buttonhole in the little bag I haul around with me when I walk to accomodate headphone jack.  The bag is just big enough to hold my cell phone, my drivers license, a small container of Purell,  lip balm, whatever.  I have also attached a lap counter (really a Clover knitting counter re-purposed)  to a decorative button hiding the Velcro closure, dangling by a piece of matching rat-tail trim.  My ipod shuffle just died and I don't know if they even make them anymore with the prolieration of cell phones with music apps.  I'm going to miss that thing!  Phone service is not so realiable for streaming, I am finding.

This chromebook is acting up too.  Keeps shutting itself off, the F key sticks but always has.  Last night the cursor got stuck in place and I couldn't power down.  I had to let the power run down completely and then this morning I was able to start anew while it recharged.  Isn't technology fun?  I see replacement coming its way at this rate.  I love this tablet's features and barely turn on the desktop anymore but do not love the aggravations!

Now that the park is no longer a muddy, puddly mess I decided I better get my behind out walking.   I've been at it for a little over a week going 6 or 7 laps each time out in addition to the 3-4 times out walking the lane with Oscar.  The park is a little over a quarter mile meaning I am going 1.68 or 1.96 miles.  The lane measures 0.36 round trip so add another mile to the daily totals.  I better be seeing that scale needle making some movement downward!!  Lately it is up a pound or two, then down, then up---aggravating.   I drag out of bed, feed Skyler, put Oscar outside till I get back, walk and feed him, hit the shower, eat breakfast, do laundry if needed.  A routine is established.

Monday was routine checkup day at the doctor's.  He congratulated me on the strides in the weight department,  "I knew there was something different about you today", he says. Then he was teasing me about getting ready to find some male companionship.  Mentally I am not ready for that!  Not even if I dropped another 30 lbs would I be ready for that physically.  Sheesh.   His long time nurse commented on the new hair-do.   I told the Doctor that the haircut might be part of the change in appearance.

Tuesday was binge cook day.  And laundry.  I re-set my phone, updated the desktop.  I'm keeping busy, just not sewing much.   I have been knitting a bit on this Mary's Blanket that Susan T suggested to me some time back.  Not sure which baby might get this as I know my sister Janet is apt to make her grandbaby one.  I just piddle with this anyway.   She made a beautiful feather and fan one that I think went to my nephew's baby girl.   I helped her figure out the pattern awhile ago and she ran with it!   Here is the POST where I showed and told about it.

Day is half over and I am still not sure what I want to do today.  I'll figure it out, LOL.  Read, sew?  No errands to run.  I've done the Dead Red series of books on Kindle by RP Dahlke recently on my friend Gene's recommendation.  THX for that!

quilt plans and making lists

A blogging friend who I have recently met and began following at  A Left Handed Quilter posed an interesting question today.  (Her alter ego Quilter BOB has separate blog and has some even more takes on quilting!!  Some that I agree with---a lot!  But I digress.......)

Anyway she asked

If you KNEW that you had only one more day before you died and in that day you could make one more quilt, what quilt would you make?

She named several styles of quilts and oh, there were some good ones to chose from!  I don't think I am what you would consider a MODERN quilter but the reasons/rants about that will wait for another day.  Scrappy, Traditional, more my speed really.

She also wondered if you would take that day to finish up a UFO or start something new.  I thought about it for a bit.  Actually I think about it a lot---no, not the only having one more day to live part but what I want to work on next.  I especially ponder this when I am working something like binding.  (The Row QOV is done but does not look appreciably different than it did  the last time I posted it on the blog but you might check the 2012 finishes for a better picture of it)

 So, even though I stated that I had three bed quilts that I have started and would like to see completed,  vaguely, "sometime this year"  (Popsicle Sticks, My Sunshine and Cheap Trick/Two of a Kind) I selected TWO different projects.  I guess I would have to beg for another day, LOL.

My choice would be to complete my Christmas JOY quilt begun with the Collinsville Rowers as a pass-around quilt. I fell in love with this quilt featured as a series quilt in the Fons and Porter "Love of Quilting" magazine the first time I saw it.  I guess it was quite a popular pattern and they sold out of the magazines it was in as they now sell the pattern as a booklet. Poinsettia row back in Sept. 2007 and then sent it on its merry way.  We had a retreat the following August and the rows were revealed then.  I take it out every now and again but so far it has not been completed.  Basically I need to find a nice Christmas red and a cream or white to make the checkerboard bits between the row elements.

And my other choice would be to make my version of Farmer's Wife Sampler.  I have been living with this quilt in my head for about 6 weeks or more.  I blogged about it in THIS post.

I have been studying the materials from Marti Michell that would allow me to convert the templates from the book into her perfect patchwork sets.  I have been editing out superfluous lines in case I want to foundation piece some of the blocks.  I have been drawing up more blocks in EQ from other sources to use them in my quilt.  I have tinkered with the layout incessantly and will most likely tinker some more.  I have spent a lot of time in BlockBase picking out blocks that I feel look better on point than in the original.  I have dumped the blocks that I would have no interest in making at 12 inches let alone 6 inches as the sampler calls for----too many pieces for me!   I have looking at what other bloggers have done and viewing all kinds of blocks on The Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long on Flickr.  I have joined a yahoo group to get other's input as to how THEY are proceeding with this quilt.  I have considered what fabrics I might use, over and over again.  I have my notebook set up with printouts and sheet protectors ready to go.    I am ready, mentally anyway.

Now I am NOT saying that it will look exactly like this----it is a sketch and what I will follow for the layout PROBABLY.   The quilt requires 111 blocks and I have 176 blocks in my EQ sketchbooks----some are already substitutes for the ones I didn't bother drawing up.  Some others, I like a lot better.   I see a few more that will NOT make the cut or be moved at the very least.   I love baskets and want to include some basket fabrics that my mom, Maggie and Sheila sent me so a few more of them will show up.  I DO like the distribution of color more of less, so may stick to that when actually making the blocks or closely anyway.

As much as I love 30's prints I keep coming back to scrappy.  I could go with Civil War or earlier 1800's repros but I don't think it will work for this.  I have dreams of some day doing a Dear Jane too---start at 6 inch and work down to 4.5 inch??   I do not care for the quilt on the cover----not my palette at all.  I can use my stash for the most part but will probably need some more background lights and blenders but not so dark that I can figure out what to use for sashing.  The sketch is also making it look like I don't have any sashing between the blocks until you blow it up bigger. In the drawing I had three tones of that taupey, golden brown going on.  That part is odd as well since I don't normally care for browns  I tried switching out to shades of green but there is a good bit of green in the blocks so that probably won't work either.  Blue would be out for the same reason.

So back to what my blogging friend asked----if I consider it that important to me, what is stopping me from getting started on this???  Uh, maybe that pile of pro bono quilts in my bedroom and the fact that I need to straighten up the sewing room before I can cut or press or make more of a mess by pulling out fabric bins.    For now, top of the list for me!   There are 12 quilts in there and 10 are mine, 2 are group members.  I make a promise now that once I get say 3 of thm quilted, I will at least cut out the 1st 10 blocks and get started on it anyway.  That would be a terrific reward project.   It will be on-going---many people aim for making two a week and figure on a year long journey.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Followup notes:
My New Balance 606's seem to be working out okay.  Even though I am not diabetic or circulatory impaired (thank heavens!) I got two pair of the socks to try out because they felt a bit thicker than the others.  A large bandaid to my heels is padding the still tender area so that helped too.   Still at 4 laps every other day but I think by Monday I am going to go 5 days out of 7.  It is just 1.1 miles and I don't feel taxed by the activity.  See how 3 days in a row goes first.

The binding on the Row QOV is done as yesterday afternoon.  It does not look appreciably different than it did the last time I posted it on the blog but you might check the 2012 finishes tab for a better picture of it.  I laundered it to get rid of the cat hair and it crinkled up beautifully.  I need to find out what kind of batting the quilt is using as I really like it.  It got a little fluffy around the edges of the quilt after I was done man handling it quilting it---maybe some sort of bonded cotton??

Supposedly there is some rain on the way in this evening.  We got a little over a half inch night before last but remain about 5 inches behind on our rain fall totals for the year.   We are in the 70's today with all that cloud cover and that kept it pleasant for walking.  Trust me, I am not complaining about that after the recent spell of 90's and blazing sun days.  So far the box fans and over head fans are keeping things comfortable in here.  Or at least it is until I decide to do something "stupid" like clean or dust!

I feel like a bit of a jinx today anyway----cleaning might be injurious to my health, at the rate I was going.  Mr. Fix-it told me I was just full of good news when I reported almost simultaneously that 1)  my right turn signal was going off like a hazard light does again and not working on the exterior of the car  2)  the blind I had just raised shirred off completely at the header on two of the three strings.    Fortunately it was just a bulb on the car and Cobb's didn't charge him for it.  The blind?  He bought the wrong size first and then we had to discuss whether the one other the adjacent window was alabaster or white. At my insistence, he got white and it IS a bit lighter in tone.  Why would I have approved alabaster when white was really cream and alabaster was overly tan colored??  Who names these things such weird colors anyway and why do we let them get away with it?  It is up and not going back.  I accept full responsibility for the color variance.  Now remind me what I said when the other one falls down, LOL.

Well, somehow I don't think my sewing room is going to get tidied up or bathroom any cleaner with me pecking on the keyboard.   Thanks for stopping by-------

catch up post

Well, it has been a few days since I posted. The first holiday of "summer" has passed. I tell you, it may not be summer by the calendar but here in Alabama it feels more like July 4th! A glance at the weather map shows a good part of the US is having a hot time of it as well. There are no effects for us this far inland from the first two named hurricanes but I sure hope that Florida got some rain and drought relief.

DJ and I basically stayed home though we did make a run down to Kohl's to find a pair of walking shoes. You may recall that I was trying to get started back with a walking program a few posts back. On Day 2 my shoes started chafing so badly that I barely made it back on the last half lap. (Huge blister on my left heel and irritation on the right.) That pair of shoes had never fit right! I had tried to pad the heel counter plus two pair of socks with some success. (If someone wants a pair of 9 Nike walking shoes these have barely been worn and I don't want to just toss them) Anyway, when DJ asked how walking went, my response was "how would you like to make an investment in me or give me my birthday money early? I need new walking shoes." We had to wait a few days till I could get a pair of shoes on first but found a pair of  New Balance 606  that felt comfortable as soon as I put them on---a little lower profile on the foot and should breathe better.   I wore them around the house over the weekend and gave them a spin this morning.  Should be okay on that gravel track I walk on.   My heel is still a bit tender so I am going to go look for new socks, NuSkin and/or large bandaids to pad it for a bit but no further breakdown.

I did manage to get the row quilt quilting completed after I marked some "piano-key like" lines on the borders.  After talking with Norma, I used 45 degree angled parallel lines 2 inch apart but they change direction and slant the other way once you reach the middle of the 4 sides.  I doubt you can see them on the picture.  Yesterday I got the binding applied but I still need to hand finish it----that is today's task.

LOL, you can see Skyler's rump over on his perch.  When I threw the quilt on the bed to take the pictures, I half expected him to jump on it.  It already was graced on the back side with some black kitty fur but I am going to wash it before I turn it in anyway.  I wrote May 31 for completion on the label so I best get to it.

And sew it goes--------

how goals become goals

My pal Norma is on holiday today---I think it is Victoria Day up there in BC---and we have been chatting on IM a bit.

I finished up the July embroidery block yesterday and started the next one which is an egg basket. Stitching has continued this morning.  Norma left to get her day started, that two hour time difference between here and there, after all.  I kept stitching and at some point I said this----

Linda J says

I am going to set up to quilt in a bit (meaning as soon as I ran out of thread in my needle)  

Norma says

tired of stitching?

Linda J says

no never! or seldom anyway

Norma says

lol

mix things up a bit? or you have a list of things to tackle too!

Linda J says

no, I just need to move that qov forward so I can turn it in next meeting

I have a list at least in my head I do

there are three bed quilts that I want to finish----cheap trick, pop stix and the Fab challenge

and of course that monstrous pile in the bedroom to quilt

Norma says

that never goes down!

Linda J says

and I want to start the farmers  wife sampler

those are the primary things

oh and the paint chip challenge August button up before that for sure

Norma says

your list is growing!

Linda J says

and while we are at it, more album blocks for that donation quilt

I really should ACTUALLY write it down

Norma says

it is easier to adjust if it is in your head!  lol

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And there you have it---stated goals though note that I did not leave a time frame for all this to get done with the exception of the one quilt I should be working on.

My mom called this morning with news that she had found some basket fabric, probably the very yardage I was looking for about two months back.  Quite the treasure trove apparently, LOL but she said my name was on it and I see a basket block sampler quilt for sure on my horizon.  Pals Maggie and Sheila had also helped me out when I needed some for May basket and Easter basket and there is fabric left for such a purpose.  Another one for the mental or written list.  OR some might go in the Farmers Wife Sampler since there are several basket blocks in it.

Also on another front, I am starting my walking program again after about a year and half of  laying off.  I have been trying to make myself get started for a month now.  This morning was it. I had tried his recumbent bike a few days ago but it hurt my knees and I would rather walk.  I am going to start slow and go everything day till I get back in shape a bit more and gradually increase my laps.  I went 1.1/4 laps this morning fairly easily so doubt I will remain at that level long.  Saying it out loud strengthens my resolve.  

I do not quite understand my husband's reaction when I came home though.  I have quilt group tomorrow so I had taken a couple things out of my car trunk so I can replace them with what I am dragging to the meeting before I came in the house.   He says "oh I thought you went walking"  I tell him I had.  He says "you don't look like you did"  not that he thought I was lying.   I guess since I didn't have my old walking outfit on and he didn't see the mp3 player around my neck past the things I was carrying.  Or I didn't look overheated and sweating enough???  I was not running nor am I ever apt to. The correct response should have been something along the lines of "Good to see that you moved beyond the thinking about it stage.  Proud of you, keep it  up"  In previous years he would be telling me that I was pushing it too much, I didn't have to go every day and get on me for being too gung-ho.  Do you want me to go or don't you?

Guess that's it---a row quilt is waiting and that flying geese row has my name on it.

well duh!

Math has never been my strong suit. Other subjects came far easier to me but math, nope. Boy do I need to correct a statement I made at the end of July about my walking tallies.

It hit me today, about the 4th lap in at 6 in the morning, that I had not walked 488 MILES since I started tracking my laps in May to the end of July. I had walked 488 LAPS at 0.28 miles/lap. DUH! Darn it anyway. Also turns out I miscalculated the laps too with simple mathematically errors in multiplication and then addition.

To date, the corrected number is 557 laps and 155.96 miles. DJ said I could almost walk from St. Louis to Bloomington, IL (my former home) with that kind of mileage. Wonder how long it will take me to get my mileage from Alabama to my parent's house?? About 675 miles from our front door to theirs. That would be a fun way to celebrate, wouldn't it? (Or how far to BC, Norma?) Well, I sure wouldn't trust my math on that one! About 50 miles a month x 10 months= May 2011 when we need to go back for our grandson's high school graduation anyway. Could that be right?

I think I was wise to dial it back---4 days on and then one off cycle. Far less discomfort in the back of my leg and low back. I am still toying with the idea of adding one more lap though. 8 is getting too easy but only if the body parts don't start squawking, LOL.

Make it a good one---------

finished to flimsy

Well, I got it this far anyway. Bridgecreek Blossom, pattern by Terry Atkinson. Approximately 54 x 70

I originally made 24 blocks so I have enough for a 2nd quilt but no more than scraps left of the jigsaw fabric or the blue inner border since I am using it for binding as well. The jigsaw print is directional so when I prepped them months back I was fussy cutting it to try to match it up the best I could. That made for a lot of bits and pieces for the scrap basket. LOL, with all that color the seams are pretty well hidden but I didn't want the horizontal lines jumping all over the place. I'll find something else to use when I am ready to finish up the 2nd one.

I am never crazy to be working on borders but this time it was good to be back at the machine a bit. Not saying that the sewing slump is over but I am thinking about pulling out the triple rail donation top I had started and get some more of it done this weekend. Skyler has been known to get up on the sewing machine table the last two days to cuddle a bit while I was TRYING to sew. I love the cuddles but forget about sewing with his "help" and attention. If he is not laying on it, then he is trying to burrow under it like he does the bed sheets, LOL.

This being the end of the month I totalled up my walking mileage for July ---180 miles! I have been at it since March slowly increasing my laps and normally going 6 out of 7 days when possible. In the last three months I have walked 488 miles, in circles, around the park trail. I had hoped to bump up one more lap but have had to back off of that a bit as I may have strained a hamstring a bit. My back of my left thigh and hip were trying to tell me something and I decided I better listen! I'll try to shave a bit of the time off instead for the time being. I can walk the 2.25 miles in 42-44 minutes now. The other modification to my plan: walk 4 days and then off a day to rest.

They spread some new pea gravel in the washed out spots in the park which I appreciate. Don't want to fall or twist an ankle! Since they do all this in a vehicle there are some areas where you feel like you are walking on the beach in sand and other little heaps and ridges that needed smoothing out or again, you might twist an ankle. When DJ asked me how things went, I told him about it so we went back in later with a couple of rakes. The park maintenance crew was there weed whacking by that time. We both are acquainted with the head guy so we offered to tend to what I thought were problem spots. Of course, if we get some significant rainfall it will shift again and/or flatten out just the way I like it, LOL.

Other than that, we are just trying to keep cool. High 90's are predicted for the next week at least and the weather people are saying August is the "worst month" UGH! I suppose all this heat before was just practicing up. Summer, what do you expect?

And so it goes--------

WIP Weds, wk # 28

Yesterday 5 of us went off to Qwiltz which has relocated from Bowdon, GA to the downtown square in Carrolton, GA. Since we are still displaced till August at our regular meeting spot, off we went on another field trip. Google said it was almost 49 miles from the spot where we congregated and piled into my car so not a bad drive.

Robbie had some fabrics marked down to 40% off plus another 10% off that as a sale special plus she had discounted patterns, books and notions as well. There are going to be some cool kids quilts made with some of that sale fabric but this is my booty. Kinda bright and wild, huh?

Well, I have been saying that I need a project or some fabric to get excited about playing with. I think that it will fill the bill. I am going to make this purse you see on the right. I don't care that the fabrics go with maybe two outfits in my wardrobe. I LIKE it, LOL. The two orange-y fabrics on the left end and the pink fats on the right end will probably not go for the purse but I purchased half yards, The purse calls for fats so I will have some leftovers to combine with those.

I may try the purse on something else first as I think I want longer straps and pockets on the inside. Till I know how the thing goes together I won't quite know where to place them in the scheme of things. It calls for a magnetic closer and I want a button and loop I think so it is just best to do a trial run.

We had lunch at a neat spot on the square in Carrolton called the Corner Cafe though there were two other places right by the shop that would have been fine as well. Robbie the shop owner recommended it as a place that had "great soup and sandwiches but funny names for them." If you check the link, you will see what I mean, LOL. I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to order but made a good choice as it was yummy!

Jane had said there was supposed to be another fabric warehouse type thing in town so we asked a couple restaurant patrons if they knew where it might be. One knew the street name and the name (Fabric Peddler) and that it was "on the way out to the college". Our waitress knew what was right next door to Fabric Peddler so she gave us their business card. From that, Jane plugged the info into the portable GPS. It turned out to be about 8 blocks from where we had been. It was all decorator weight fabrics but there was a neat antique shop in the same building so we poked around in there a bit before heading back to Alabama.


This is what I have been working on intermittently the last couple days---July block from Nancy Halvorsen's Calendar Quilts and Stitcheries. Like the others that I have stitched, I re-sized the blocks so the motif will finish at about 6 x 7.5. I have been working through each color thread so it looks like body parts are next, LOL. I have some audio books downloaded from camellia.net so I'll stitch and listen while I "work"

It remains hot and humid but hey, it is summer. The clouds were really darkening up when I got from GA yesterday but it took about 45 minutes for it to actually produce a couple tenths of rain.

The half inch of rainfall that came in Monday evening just made it miserable for my Tuesday morning walk though. Swampy does not even begin to describe it. There were also tons of gnats out in about 5 spots around the track. It was just dark enough at 5:40 in the morning that I didn't see one swarm and walked right into them. UGH! I was wet with sweat everywhere that I could possibly seep fluid but still couldn't cool off. I checked on the computer when I got home to find that readings of 94% humidity, temp of 72 and dew point of 70%. That might explain it. Thankfully, today the humidity was must have been down to something a bit more reasonable as it was not near as bad. I'll be bumping up another lap from 2.24 miles to 2.52 in about another week's time. Trust me, that would be hard to do if all days were like Tuesday morning.

Hope all is well with you. Thanks for stopping by-----

sewing...and loving it

What fun to sew again! For the last few days I have been working on my Bama Belles challenge quilt with the stack of fabrics that I showed you in my last post. I am using the Jungle Nine Patch pattern from QuiltWoman--now there is a website that could be a whole bunch of trouble!

At first I was a little confused as they refer to the strip pieced section as "Triple Rails" I guess that is technically what they are but terminology was throwing me a bit. I suppose that I was seeing triple rail blocks as you would use in a quilt layout. If you were to try the pattern, I would not skip the part about doing the swatches to keep the numbering part straight in your mind. It is vital that you have the visual for the 12 subcuts you make from the strip sets as that leads you into the sequence you need to make the nine patches. I was referring to it constantly!!

I had also wondered how vital it was to have strips measure 22.5 inches as they recommend using fat quarters. I had yardage, rather than fats for this so could I just use half the width of the goods? Well, you know how variable THAT prospect can be with stuff measuring 40, 41, 42 inches of usable fabric. My conclusion was that some strips it would not have mattered if they were a tad short but if six cuts were needed, I only had about an inch waste, if that. I cut them to size even if it meant setting the leftovers aside. Those are the perfect size for bow tie blocks, true triple rail blocks and whatever scrappy thing I want to do down the line.

The color is off a bit in the picture but this is where I left off last night. The bottom 4 rows are joined but I still need to sew the top two together to finish it up. BUT I don't want to border this as 1) it is big enough for a donation quilt as is and 2) I don't honestly know what I would use to do the job and/or if I would have enough of any of it. Though it is not shown in this picture, I made another row to add just a little bit more length since I tossed the borders in the design. I drew it up in EQ 6 to get the sequencing right. I would have added another framed challenge fabric block to the deal but I already cut the leftovers up into 5 inch squares to do a Puss in the Corner AKA Uneven Nine Patch, Billie Lauder style. I had cut extra sub sections from the strip sets so those came in handy. Some. I just had to re-arrange slightly--remove one color and add another in the proper sequencing while others were just fine the way they were. Very little extra cutting was needed.

I could piece the back from the leftover fabrics but I have a feeling I might need those for the bonus challenge quilt. I have a nice piece of a rust colored print that the church secretary donated to us so I may use that instead, if there is enough yardage. Chris will get a big kick out of that when I show her at our next meeting. I am pretty sure that piece of white/green calico came from her too. I'll finish this up today and then get ready to start the 2nd top from the green habitat stuff.

Other than that there is not a lot going on around here. We finally have some cooler mornings so I don't have to get out of the house quite so early to go walk. I have found that my pace is a lot quicker the last two mornings and less arduous without with mid 70's and high humidity factor. We have had a fair amount of cloud cover lately but no rain to speak of so that as kept the heat down. The city spread some new pea gravel where there had been some washout so that helps too. Less worries about turning an ankle. Also I had re-loaded my mp3 player with some new tunes. Walking to the pace of the music has made me feel like I was almost flying around the track instead of trudging and begging to be done as I was on Monday.

I am going to try to keep better track of my mileage and worked up a spreadsheet the other day. I used to record this stuff but it fell by the wayside when I had walked about as far as from here to Clarksville, TN. After all I have been faithfully walking since March of 07 so mileage would add up especially since I go around 3- 3.3 miles most of the time ( the least I ever go 2.2 miles) 6 days a week most weeks. If I had kept it up I would probably been through Kentucky (Paducah!) on the way to IL, in my mind anyway. I am not sure whose blog it was (Paula at Coffee Time Studio I was thinking?) that mentioned that she was walking and keeping track of the mileage and when she had walked the distance to a favorite quilt shop, she was going to get a special treat from that shop. Good plan!! Now if there were some kind of reward to make me keep a food diary other than knowing that a weight loss plan is easier when you have to account for everything you pop in your mouth--weigh, measure till you get the eye re-trained for portion size? I have unfortunately put a couple of hard fought to lose pounds back on doing things "my way". I know what I have to do. Even if it a royal pain.............

what you do on NYD, you will do all year long.....

.......so, I was sewing and chatting with Cher and Norma yesterday having our own little online retreat . What we do on NYD we do all year, right? We girls kept checking in throughout the day motivating each other and cheering on progress--what fun! Trust me, I avoided doing a mending project and no ironing yesterday either when finger pressing worked fine for what I was doing. BUT I didn't warn DJ in time when he went after a cobweb he has spotted. If he wants to clean all year, I will let him! Bless him, he had vacuumed up the sewing room mess when I left to walk the day before.

The project I chose to sew on yesterday served two goals for 08--it was a donation quilt and it was something from my UFO hamper (my old clothes hamper and it is stuffed to the gills. Well, there it is at the foot of the table with Pippi's wool throw over the top of it ). One of the Belles had two strips of Pioneer Braid done but was not going to be able to complete the project due to an upcoming move. She gave it to me at one of our recent meetings. I started three more strips as my sewing project yesterday. No way, no how, was I going to be quilting, cutting or working on binding---do my first love instead. Before I hung it up for the night. I had gotten 20 of the 27 strip additions done on them. I'll finish up the sewing today.

Earlier in the day I also made 11 rail scrappy rail fence blocks from some of the braid strips Ginny had cut since it was the exact size I needed, rectangles 2 x 5. I planned on augmenting those with a pile of shorter 2 inch strips I had pulled for an ongoing Pineapple Log Cabin. I briefly toyed with the idea of working on those simultaneously with the braid but that would require paper piecing tools laid out on a crowded sewing table. Try a few separately before I put the remaining strips away.

When making some backing the night before, I had cut some 3 1/2 inch squares and whipped up 4 3-D bowtie blocks before I started on the Braid bands. A fun and productive day all the way around!

I decided this past fall that I will make scrappy rail fence blocks and 3D bowties as an ongoing project from scraps of my works in progress. This is often from backing cutaways or from cutting a strip to use up the last of the yardage on a piecing project and so forth. When I get enough, I'll put a donation top together.

You see, I don't have a scrap basket at all, not after spending three full days cutting early one year! There may be a few chunks sitting around waiting for the next time I am cutting but that is it. I don't let them pile up or become enough to bag up anymore. Like a lot of us stashbuster devotees, what I maintain is boxes of cut, most commonly used sizes of squares or strips instead. I can always dip into those when I am ready to augment the rail and tie blocks. Often I drag them off to our quilt meetings to share if a block I have chosen for us calls for a particular size. Want to do a faux log cabin--no problem, help yourself to some strips! Another one I want to do is Short 'n Scrappy Project 3, Ducks in a Row from Claudia's Quilt Shoppe but in scraps. She did this as a BOM several years ago and I have been looking at the printouts in my files.

After looking at Norma's cool color catcher top, I looks like I should consider piecing some strings too. Don't you just love quilts that are hiding in your scrap bag all along?

I have been noticing that other bloggers are into cleaning up and reorganizing their sewing rooms and other living spaces as well. I did that too but no on NYD! One day last week I could not find something that I needed that I just KNEW was in my pull out hodge podge/file drawer of my desk. That led to shredding, clearing and filing stuffed away papers at about 8:30 at night. Then in order to get into bed, I had laundry to put away but had to shoo Pippi off the pile of sweaters and shirts first. The spot in the armoire where they belonged was in disarray. Let's those to make a better spot to put the clean ones away.

But there were t-shirts in there too---that led to reorganizing and tossing from the drawers below and spread over to the blanket chest as well. I really didn't mean to start on the closet, not at that late hour. It was close to midnight by that time but I was on a roll. I've lost enough weight to wonder what might fit now and started trying on my old clothes---yahoo, welcome back old, friends and some things are about 20 some lbs away from fitting well but I'm getting there. Some stuff from last year is way too big now and is headed to the thrift store--even better!

By that time I was hot, sweaty and too wound up to sleep so I started looking at some of the quilt magazines on my bedside table, under the table and in a magazine rack. Why was I keeping these things when there is possibly only one thing I would consider making?? So, another pile or two started-- intact magazines to go to the Friends of the Library and the rest, ripping out what I wanted. Should do that in the sewing room area too but not ready to part with those quite yet.

Finally by 2:30 in the morning, I was ready to turn out the light and go to sleep. Made for a short night when Pippi got me up with kitty kisses at 6:30 the next morning but at least the storage areas in the bedroom are cleared out. I would drag the pinned quilts out of the closet where I can get at them a little better---or least a few of them--but we may have house guests by month's end so best kept behind closed doors for now.

I don't know about walking today--I need to after taking the holiday off but it has gotten frigid out there. 19 when we got up though the sun is shining. When the breeze picks up, I am sure you could calculate in wind chill factors. DJ has told me to see about using the indoor track at the community center in the town north of us and take his checkbook to pay whatever the fees are--a fall back for cold and rainy days. I would rather walk outside if I can in the local park so will see how it is this afternoon and dress accordingly. 40 lbs gone as of this morning since last March. A bunch more to go but I am not dwelling on numbers, instead I plan to continue on the path I started in 07. No back sliding!

contrasts in style

At left my wedding quilt---Mom had started this top as a pass around project with the small quilt group in her town. I believe it was in the late 90's as I made a couple blocks for her after we moved south to Alabama. Not being able to find the pattern name or source, we named it "Fall City Baskets" after the one we saw in an antique store while visiting my grandmother who lived in Fall City, Nebraska at the time.

I have probably told you this story before but my husband and I were a couple for a very, very long time before we got married--one of those "are you sitting down?" moments when informing my parents. This top went to the hand quilters soon after my call. When we traveled back to Illinois to visit some months later, my family gave us a wedding reception and we were presented with the quilt and a trip to Sea Palms Resort on St. Simon's Island, GA. What fun! I love the quilt as it uses my beloved 30's prints, some real ones and repros. Mom has since replicated the quilt for herself--only fair since she gave us the original one.


So what should I see at the quilt show a couple of weeks ago? This one---wider handle, less "petals" in the arc. I believe that the owner/maker? said that the pattern was found in a magazine. Close but not quite it. Mom drafted hers up from the picture of the one we saw so that might account for some of the variances. While I like the scrappiness of the one at the show (and I am a nut for yellow fabric), I think mine is prettier and not as clunky looking.

I haven't even touched the machine in two days. I guess I have still found a way to wait till almost the last minute to work on that round robin after all. Two blocks are done, one is just barely started and I need 5 of them.

So what have I been doing instead? A big chunk of one day was spent getting an upgraded tracfone coded in over the phone and then adding the phonebook to it while deleting the numbers from the old phone. I guess the system in my area is switching from the old analog type and that would render the old phone useless. I didn't have to pay for it except for the time involvement. I kept messing up the text for the names and it was taking way longer than it should have to teach this old broad some new tricks.

Yesterday it was uploading some CDs into my music software and re-loading the MP3 player--twice. Danged error messages were messing up the works and only half of what I wanted got added due to some snafu or another. How could I upload to their software and it not recognize the format I used??? Annoying and again, time consuming.

What I DID get done instead while I watched the computer screens was some more knitting rounds on my headband tube to cover my ears while I walk (the ear muffs are pinchy and my hat makes my head sweat too much). I think I am about halfway there. I told Cher the other day that I would be lucky to have the thing done by spring but perhaps that was an exaggeration, LOL. Great ambitions to knit up some mittens from the same "Lipstick" Red Heart yarn---now that probably WOULD take till spring. DJ said I could make him some new headcovers from that pretty yarn---yeah, right! Two sets of those was enough, thank you very much.

On the trying to get fit front, this week I've added an afternoon stroll up and down our little lane a couple of times--a bit of an incline on both ends to boost the calorie burn but still haven't started my strength training though I have my ducks in a row. Definitely getting the 10, 000 steps thing in--more, if I have errands to run. I sometimes add an extra lap around the park as I did this morning making it 3.08 miles. My neighbor's are having a garage sale and have a bike for sale---I have considered it but then think of the added expense of a helmet, bike rack and probably will pass especially since I won't even get on DJ's exercise bike and pedal to nowhere. Keep walking for now.

So back to the machine with me and some stuff I have taped on the DVR--have my own little "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace" marathon this weekend.

This quilt was hardly "off the press" from it's binding application yesterday when who popped up from wherever it was that she was hiding on the other side of the bed? Yep, giving it the old kitty butt test. The quilt full out, front and back, can be see here. Nothing fancy with quilting--just ditch work to make the squares and frames pop. I did all but the binding, label and trimming on Friday along with the quilt you see below.

This one is Aline's positive-negative Friendship Star that she was working on at the sew-in last month. Her busy schedule will not allow her to quilt right now so I volunteered. Quilt Holder was not happy but this time I had asked him right after he had sat down in his recliner. I didn't quite beat him back to the living room. "Is this a really big one again?" he says. I'll turn it over to one of the Belles to do the hand finishing.

I thought I might share some pics of what I see on the walking trail. It is looking South down the Chief Ladiga Trail into Anniston where it currently ends just past the Weaver city limits. They are working on another leg of it ; however, it may be hampered by funding that was either rescinded or never was assured to begin with. That leg will connect with the old Fort McClellan and the Amtrak station in Anniston. Eventually it will connect with the Silver Comet Trail out of Atlanta to the east. Because this was a Rails to Trails project IO often wonder if this is the same view the engineer and conductor would have seen. Which train ran through I am not entirely sure, not being a native Alabamian--I don't think I have googled far enough to find out, LOL.

This one and ones that follow were taken in our little park where we have a non-paved track. It is a bit easier on the legs and feet than the asphalt so I do most of my walking here--sometimes even a little bit on both sections just for variety. There are 6 different groupings of these bushes, 6 to 8 in a group planted amongst the pines. I am not sure what they are though so maybe one of you can tell me--maybe some type of jasmine or magnolia? I do not think that they have any fragrance. At any rate they seem to be about the only thing in bloom right now other than real magnolias starting to come out on the mature trees.

one close up

even closer

This is the normal view throughout the park--one lap is about a quarter mile. I currently go 6 but will probably be upping it to 7 next week. (You can see some of the same bushes off in the distance.) It was really humid, almost foggy as we had a tad of rain early this morning---not enough to measure. DJ said there was dust in the rain gauge and that was about it. But cloud cover keeps it cooler and the walking, more tolerable.
I am off to the kitchen to throw some Shipwreck Casserole into the crockpot for our supper. One of those "anything goes" recipes -- use what is on hand or switch out the veggies, lose the rice, whatever. Mom used to make it when we were kids but I sure don't want the oven on for two hours! Then I'll finish this half done quilt from yesterday shown HERE --yeah, it is girlie. I needed a break from boy colored stuff and this has been pinned and waiting for months. Pinned stack down to 4 from 8 and I could possibly get one more done before Tuesday--progress till I come home with a couple more to replace those, LOL! And so it goes--peeling and slicing awaits.