13 Weeks 2.0 (AKA "26 Weeks")

Soooo. My blog has been neglected this year. I want to change that. I've been thinking about doing a "26 week" thing and when I looked at the calendar this morning, I realized it's 26 weeks till I leave for my-next-great-adventure. How convenient!

In a nutshell, the original "13 weeks" was me deciding to lose 13 pounds, make 13 quilts, and try 13 new recipes - 1 of all of those, every week, for 13 weeks. It was pretty successful and I went on to lose a LOT more weight!  Now I'm ready to kick-start myself again, see if I can get the rest of this weight off, and get some more "finishes" on the list.

It helps to commit publicly, so my goal this time is: 1 pound a week (it's reasonable AND reachable), one "finish" every week (doesn't matter how big or small, as long as it's a finished project), one "declutter" every week (I am on a current roll of extreme decluttering), and writing at least one blog entry on my politics blog (so many things bugging me these days; writing helps. A lot.)  For the record, my extreme goal is 1.5 pounds per week, but I will be pleased with 1 pound. Keep the goals attainable. So off "we" go, counting down to the Great Road Trip 2014. I hope you'll come along for the ride.

I have not been idle, oh no sirree! I've taken up teaching again, so June found me frantically making samples to prepare for the 3rd quarter schedule. Here are some of the things going on:

 Classes have started already, and we're having a blast!

I've also finally delved back into my long-arm machine after a break of a couple of years. I miss the quilting part; I really enjoy it. So you see I should be able to get "finishes" done easily enough. Full disclosure: the last pic, above, is not yet finished - the binding needs to be sewn down. It's those kinds of things that have kept my UFO pile WAY too high.

On a closing note, I started a quilt today (another sample) that just might do me in. I made one block in about 5 hours. Yeow! Fortunately the quilt has only 9 blocks (24"), but still that is a lot of time! Stay tuned!

So let me get started with 26 Weeks and we'll all find out together how it goes. Thanks for stopping by!

Again, weeks have passed!

The past weekend was spent at The Olde Green Cupboard at our semi-monthly retreat.  It's so much fun!  I worked on samples for my 3rd quarter classes.  I'll be doing a series of quilts based on Jelly Rolls (and other 2 1/2" strips).  I got tons done!  I'm going in search of a new digital camera so I can post pics of the finished quilts.  (I think my students will like these classes, particularly since they'll be able to use fat quarters as well as Jelly Rolls.)

I brought my hand-dyes to show - lots of folks wanted to buy them but I won't sell since they're so labor intensive.  I WILL teach them how to do it, though.  It's easy - just labor intensive!  But WOW the results are worth it!

I bought a new Bernina yesterday; Artista 630.  Didn't want to go top-of-the-line since I don't have THAT much interest in the embroidery function.  I wonder how new quilters manage! Damn, but the machines have gotten expensive!

I'm planning my 1Q2010 classes now ... amazing!  Will I be this organized when I start teaching Philosophy?