Wednesday, June 22, 2011

13 Weeks - Week 3 Check-in



Quilt? Check! Recipe? Check! Pound? Check!

A good week, indeed. Here's week 3's quilt, and a little more detail, as well.



It's a fun, simple pattern that I tweaked just a little bit by adding some wonkified small batik panels. I love those things, have lots of packages of them, and think they make a great addition to a simple quilt. The pattern is simple, but loved by just about everyone that sees it. Fabric choice is the key.

The recipe this week was stuffed peppers. Who'd think I could live this long and have NEVER made stuffed peppers? Well .... can't say that anymore! And they were quite yummo!

Even with the stuffed peppers, another pound came off. I'm actually ahead of "schedule", but am keeping mum about how much in case I need to borrow some of it for a week that a pound didn't come off. :) Just one pound a week ... that's a good target.

I'm adding one more thing to my list this week - this:

This scarf - again, just a simple, simple project - has been sitting in this state for weeks! I'm going to finish it this week! I'm finding that putting commitments on the blog nudges my accountability (to myself) and I'm much more focused on getting things done. We'll see if it works for this as well!!!

Here's a little preview of the Week 4 quilt. What's it going to grow up to be??? Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

13 Weeks, Week 2

Week number 2 is a success! Here's quilt #2 (and FYI, expect to see it's twin in a couple of weeks)
Right now I'm happy playing with pretty fabrics in simple patterns, using up some of that stash!!

Pound #2 is also off. WooHoo!! In spite of the smoke cutting into my walking days!! (Today was the worst yet.)

Recipe of the week was a recipe I made up - chicken in oj, red wine, & mango chutney. Kinda sounds disgusting doesn't it?? It was WONDERFUL! That's a definite keeper! (By the way, for those of you that have access to a Fresh Market, they're having great meat deals on Tuesdays. Check it out!) (No affiliation - just a fan!!)

I'm really into this 13-week thing and see more of it in my future. I've also been very intrigued with the 12x12 quilting group (see them at twelveby12.blogspot.com or twelveby12.org) and think I may start playing along with their theme and their deadlines. I'm finding that this deadline thing works well for me. I shouldn't be surprised, tho, since my entire working life was deadline driven!! Looks like I'll be getting some quilting done after all!! Retirement is great!

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, June 13, 2011

13 Weeks - or - how I'm spending my summer, uh, "vacation"



Recently in my Morning Pages (daily journal, for those not familiar with Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way) I've been mulling over the best use of my newly-gotten retirement time. After all, I don't want to just waste it away! I've been looking forward to this for too long! I have quilts to be made, you know. So I thought about some of the posts I've read on other blogs, some of the activities of Facebook friends and I thought about making a (simple) quilt a week for a year. That would keep me focused and productive. But I know me. A YEAR??? Seriously??? Nope. Wouldn't happen. I took a step back, decided 3 months was a good trial period, saw that June 1 to August 31 was 13 weeks and "13 Weeks" is the result.

13 weeks. 13 quilts. 13 pounds. 13 new recipes.

There are a bunch of simple quilts I've wanted to make and if I stay focused, I could make one a week. And hey - I bet I could lose a pound a week. After all, that's the low-end of reasonable expectations for any weight loss program. And now that I have time to cook, it'd be fun to actually make some of those recipes I've been collecting. Yea, even while trying to lose 13 pounds. So I started on June 1 but it took me this long to finally write the blog post! :o) Wednesdays are my check in day so this is the update for last Wednesday, June 8.

So far so good! Here's the first quilt.


I wanted it to look like stained glass, and I think it kinda worked.

New recipe: blueberry frozen yogurt. Um .... fail! Yea it's blueberry-y, and yea it's yogurt, but ... it's not quite desert. Oh well; not all recipes work!

That one pound? Well it took me an extra day, but it's gone. Walking 5 miles most days (nix the smokey ones, though!) is helping that effort (and feels great, by the way! I couldn't have done that a year ago!!!)

So this is how I'm spending my summer weeks. Now that I've put it out in the blogosphere, I'm accountable (which should really help with meeting the goals!!) Anyone else wanna play?

Thanks for stopping by!