Purple and Pounds

Gosh, I guess I should update the 13-weeks status. Funny how that has slacked off.  The idea of finishing a quilt each week kept me refreshed and eager to post something new, but I'm sure not putting much out here with the new goal of getting rid of stuff and finishing.  I'm definitely going to have to rethink this!  I AM still losing a pound a week, though (sometimes more), and I'm very happy about that. Still walking 6 miles most days - sometimes even in the rain (as long as it's really just a heavy mist and not a downpour!) So progress continues to be made.  The holiday season is here, though, and now it will be more challenging to resist those goodies that are everywhere at this time of year.

I have this much of "purple" done:

It's off to the quilters for now - sometimes that's just an intermediate step! - and then the rest of the "stuff " will be added.  I'm thinking I probably should have made the sashing bigger. The blocks are 6", the sashing is 1" ... I think a 2" sashing would've worked better, so I think I'll grab another basket of scraps and try it.  Soon.  As soon as I have an opening in the quilt schedule ....

Well, you just never know what life will REALLY bring, in spite of all your plans! That's what makes it so fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gymnasts, Royalty, and other stuff

Tomorrow I head out to the World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach, FL. Ah, 3 days of gorgeous quilts and shopping. How can that be bad?  I thought I better hurry up and post before I leave since I am, once again, behind.

I'm still meeting my goal of losing a pound each week. This reasonable expectation really has made life easier. I eat pretty much anything, just not everything. And of course I feel better. I've become kinda hooked on exercise - even to the point of walking in the rain twice last week.  A mild rain ... kind of a heavy mist really ... but still, rain.  I listen to books when I walk and zone out the rest of the world.

I didn't exactly finish anything last week ("finish" meaning the project is completely done - no more work to do on it): I got sidetracked by those red tumbler blocks I cut with the GoBaby a couple of months back. Here's how they started:

Here they are, a little further along, and borders being auditioned.

And here's the final product (I decided against any of the other auditioned borders ... too much red).  Soooo .... instead of getting something finished, I now have another top waiting to be quilted! I can't help myself - I enjoy it too much.  I named this one "Communist Gymnasts".  Ha!

Here's another group of little blocks that sort of fell out of my sewing machine this week (the "royalty").  You'll have to check back next week to see what they grow up to be!  Even I'm not sure yet!

And that was my non-eventful week. Check back over the next few days for pics from the quilt show.  Thanks for stopping by!

13 Weeks of Autumn - What's up, doc?

Happy Halloween to all my ghoulie & goblin pals! You'd think I could've done something Halloween-y this week, but I didn't.  Progress continues, though!

Another pesky pound has found it's way to some other equal-and-opposite-reaction place. An old "stereo" finally made it's way out of the house & will be Freecycled. And I finished this quilt:

Here's a closer shot, showing the cool bubble quilting:

Sometimes there are interesting things to talk about, but most of the time life is just day-to-day non-eventful (in a GOOD way). Still .... this is my place to keep track of things so here are some things.  I got this binding attached, so now it only needs the handwork: (I really like this quilt! It makes me happy to look at it. I will most likely keep this one for my own collection.)

And see all those threads on this batting?

Well, those are the thread snippets from de-quilting this little quilt: (which is showing only a corner ... it's not really that small!)

This quilt, and another just like it, were my experiments when I first got my long-arm machine. Needless to say they are horrible, so I've been de-quilting them so I can re-quilt and donate them. (they're perfect for kids, and LOTS of kids are homeless or in temporary shelters with almost nothing).  The de-quilting is somehow relaxing. Probably because it's totally mind-numbing yet there's the satisfaction of seeing progress made. (Hmmm.... can you "make progress" as you "un" something? (de-quilting = un-sewing). Well....actually I guess you can.

And that is my progress from the week and from the day. Don't eat too much candy! Don't get "skeert" by any wee spookie ones tonight. And most of all thanks for stopping by!

13 Weeks of Autumn - Update

Seriously. How does time fly by me so quickly?  Two weeks of updating to post!

OK I'm 3 weeks into the Autumn version of 13-Weeks, Reset version. I have indeed lost another 3 pounds. I have learned that the weight-loss effort is what's eating so much of my time. I walk 6 miles most days (I can't really say "every day" because some days it's not possible - or I'm just slugging!), and this takes me 2 hours.  Yea, I'm a slow walker, but still ahead of everybody on the couch! :-)  Also, since I'm not trained to be a healthy eater, this takes time as well.  The bottom line is - the getting-healthier issue eats up the largest percentage of my time and energy; this is OK with me!!!!

"Stuff" is getting out of my house. In the last two weeks I've gotten rid of stacks of books and more clothes.  I've also been sorting through and purging quilting projects.  Some projects that I start simply will not be finished by me, so I've prepared them for the Honeybee Retreat quilt-sale-room.

And I have completed projects. In week 2, I finished the Tennessee Puzzle quilt (see it here), and this week I did this jacket:

I want to make a bunch of jackets for my CA trip now that I know what kind of weather to expect.  This will be just enough!  I cut out a bunch of them during the Camden Retreat at Epworth By-The-Sea last weekend, so I'll be working on these for the next few weeks.

So .... 13 Weeks continues onward! I can deal with 13 weeks ... I'm still unsure of my ability to commit anything for a year, though! :)

Trivial stuff I want to keep track of:
What I'm reading: Fiction - To make a long story short, Jeffrey Archer. Classic - Uncle Tom's Cabin, Non-fiction - The Passion of the Western Mind, Richard Tarnas

Wednesday Check-In - Week 12

I almost forgot!


Wow, only one week left in my 13-week challenge to myself!!  This week was a success - quilt, check - pound, check - recipe(s), check.  Here's the quilt:

This one was a UFO that finally got done! I took this pic at the quilters (with my phone) when I picked it up from being quilted.  It's nice to be getting some of these UFOs done, as well as some "new kids on the block".


Recipes this week: roasted vegies (zucchini, red & yellow peppers, purple onions) which were a side-dish with grilled chicken & couscous.  The next morning the vegies were the base of another new recipe - a brunch frittata. A double!!


I continue to debate what my goals for the next 13 week challenge will be.  I think I've settled on what I'll do, but will wait till next week before I reveal (because I'll probably change my mind another 30 times before then!!)


This has certainly been fun!! Tune in next week for the recap!


Thanks for stopping by!

13-Weeks check in - Week 11

Another week flies by. Another week of summer gone (a lot of us in Florida say "thank you!" to that!!). School is starting for so many already! (I'm sure we didn't start till after Labor Day).  And the 11th week of my 13-week challenge is complete.  Report card?  Straight A's!!  (OK I know the apostrophe doesn't belong, but "Straight As" looked weird.)  Another quilt, another pound, another recipe.

Here's the quilt - another from Lynn Provencher's pattern "Cheech and Chong":

(I don't do very straight lines using Photoshop's eraser!!)  I tweaked the pattern again this week, using more than 9 fabrics, sewing them randomly, and adding a "chopstick" to the white blocks because I didn't like the way they looked - like big blobs of square dough.  I used the "remains" of the strip sub-cuts as the chopstick inserts. Cool! Less scraps!

Speaking of scraps .... this little jewel found its way into my house this week:

The Go Baby is definitely Oh Baby! I used the tumbler die to make quick work of my red scraps. If you haven't seen one of these demo'd, search the blogs - there are plenty out there!  Here's just one: 

Laura Wasilowski's blog

No affiliation with the product; just a happy customer!

Yes indeed another pound found it's way into droppage - woohoo! The recipe involved chicken, cream of chicken soup, ranch dressing, and panko bread crumbs.  It was quite good!

I'm narrowing down my options for my next 13 week challenge!  Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!

13-Weeks check in - Week 10

Wow, it's Wednesday already!  I've been running the streets today, melting my credit card. JoAnn's has the Go Baby cutter on sale and with all the blogging being done about that little gem, well .... of course I just HAD to have one! So now I do. And a bunch of dies to go with it.  Yeow! The cutter is cheap in comparison!  But what the heck - no one's goin' hungry because I bought this stuff!!


OK so what about the week?  It was great! Three check marks this week - quilt, pound, and recipe (roasted squash).  Here's the quilt:

It's the small version of the week 5 quilt.  This'll be another donor quilt - perfect for a wheelchair person. My sewing machine is at the Bernina home, waiting to get it's routine maintenance done.  They are backed up & it won't be ready for "a couple of weeks."!!!  Trusty Featherweight to the rescue! There are quilts to be made!!


I can't believe 10 weeks have gone by already. The summer months are almost over; hopefully that will mean a break in the weather from those of us sweltering in the heat.  It's hot here in Jacksonville, but my friends in (and near) Dallas have it even worse. What a brutal year for heat it's been!


Sewing weekends are coming up! Can't wait for the retreat at Camp Blanding next weekend!  Meanwhile - Friday night at Cinnamon's! Will I see any of you at either place?????


Happy stitching, or whatever your joy may be! Thanks for stopping by.

13 Weeks Check-in - Week 9

I am amazed at how fast the time has flown by! I'm noodling on ideas for my next 13-weeks, which I've already decided I will do. (Anybody else wanna play?) Maybe not a quilt a week again - those bindings are weighing heavy on my brain!  


Speaking of weighing ......... yes, another pound is gone. Yes another quilt is made. No I did not try a new recipe this week, although 1 tweaked 2 old ones - does that count? One was the beer bread recipe which was, again, a failure.  That recipe is just not quite right and has been tossed.


 Here's the weekly quilt:

(Whoops - forgot to crop.)  OK I learned a lesson from this quilt - I learned that I don't like the drastic contrast of the sashings to the coins. Doesn't it kinda look like the fabrics are in jail?  This quilt will most likely be donated to a senior's home since it's lap size.  Great for those that are wheelchair bound and tend to get cold.  Or maybe to a kid's place - it's a good size for a kid, too.  Any suggestions? My stack of quilts to donate is growing!!


When I headed out for my walk this morning, it was totally overcast which made me consider leaving the sunglasses at home.  Thankfully I did not! By the time I was on the second half of the walk the sun was bearing down & had burned off most of the overcast-ness.  There sure were a lot of people walking this morning! Twice as many as I usually see on my walks.


Well those bindings are yelling at me so I guess I better go tend to them.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Wednesday Check-In - Week 8

That was the week that was. (Some of you will "get" that!!)


OK so how did the week go? Swell, thanks!  Another quilt done, 2 more pounds gone (catching me up!!), and some more things off the do-list.  No new recipe this week.  In fact, I didn't cook much at all! I let Fresh Market do all the heavy lifting this week.


Here is the quilt, with a close-up:

I didn't start from "zero" on this quilt. I had pieces of it already done.  This came from a quilt-sale-room purchase a couple of years ago at the Honeybee Retreat (thanks, Debbie Puckett!). It finally aged enough to become a quilt :-).  


I still didn't get the sweater parts put together, but many other things gone done during the week. All in all it was a great week, full of successes.  Now if only I could beat KT at Words!!!!  She's definitely been kicking my butt lately!!


All this stuff made it's way into my house this week:

Dots and stripes and yellows play significant roles in my stash! The b&ws will be some of the backgrounds for our Christmas tree block swap.  Heaven forbid I should use only what's in the stash!! I also gorged on books and magazines yesterday. Gosh I do love books!!!!


I'm not making any extra commitments this week - I've still got the sweater lurking....waiting...hoping to become complete.  But let's face it - it's tough to get sweater-motivated when it's 97 degrees out!


Soooooo .... how's your summer going?


Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday Check-In - Week 7

I'm playing with the set-up of the blog. More changes coming shortly, but so far I like it.


Wow! My 13 week challenge is more than half-over!


Status for the week: Quilt? Yep. Recipe? Yep. Pound? Sad trombone sound (dang!!) But I did finish the sweater I mentioned in last week's post.  Now wouldn't you think all of that walking and sweating last week would've helped me lose that pound? Oh well ... I'll catch up!


Here's this week's quilt:

No pics of the sweater yet. I'll get one posted later.  I'm not really happy with the results, but at least it graduated from UFO to FO!!  One more thing off "the list".  


Recipes this week: beer bread, which tasted yummy but something in the recipe is not quite right.  Not enough liquid, I think. I'll try it again, though, tweaking it a bit because it was really good!  I also made grilled chicken and vegies (yellow squash, red pepper, purple onions) with chimichurri sauce.  I'll definitely be making that again!!  Remember last week's fennel trial? Well I grilled a steak on the George (Forman grill), then tossed a handful of the fennel/onion on said grill after I cooked the steak.  Wow, that was yummy!!


So I'm caught up on recipes, still even on quilts, but need to make up the pound!  This week's "extra credit" project is to sew the seams on another sweater (that I started when I was in CA) so I can add the edgings and collar.  We'll see if I get there!


I'm off to see the final Harry Potter movie!!!!  I'm happy about seeing the movie, but so sad to see it end. It's been so fun!


Thanks for stopping by!

13 Weeks Wednesday Check-in - Week 6

The week was good to me! Another quilt done, another pound gone, and two new recipes (now I'm only one recipe behind!)

I made the twin to week-2's quilt. Both of these will be leaving to go to their respective cancer-survivor recipients. I'd had this fabric in my stash for quite a long time. It's the Lorelei cancer-ladies fabric. I kind of hoped I'd never have to use it but now two of my friends are living with breast cancer. One of the ladies is SOOOOO "not pink" but I think she will still appreciate the humor of the fabrics. Hopefully I will not "have" to make any more pink quilts. Wouldn't it be nice to beat breast cancer for good?

My recipes this week were both from Cooking Light magazine. Pan-seared scallops in orange sauce with fennel and red onion, and pan "fried" halibut with cornichon tartar sauce. The scallops were good. Interesting served with oranges - so very "Florida"! (As a kid, I would dive for scallops when we visited cousins on Escambia Bay, and of course nothing says "FLORIDA" like oranges!!) I'd never had fennel before and find I still wonder what it tastes like. There was a LOT of it (two bulbs!) so you'd think I would've noticed a flavor but I did not. I can put the temporary blame on my malfunctioning taster. The med I'm on right now (hopefully for only one more month - woohoo!) has screwed up my taste buds so I'm not really sure I can give up on fennel just yet.

The halibut ... it was superb! Man-o-man it was good! Simply done. Flour, fresh lemon rind, thyme, a little pepper. Dredge the filets, pan "fry" using cooking spray (I used regular ol' olive oil - just a smidge is needed). Both recipes were fast-fast-fast! Less than 30 minutes from getting the stuff out of the fridge to on my plate. (I confess I am not nuts about the tarter sauce, though. But isn't that why we try recipes? Some win, some lose. The halibut was too good to cover with sauce anyway.)

Extras this week: I finished the bee sox - yay! They've been sitting around just waiting for the last few rows for longer than I care to admit.

(HAHA! This camera angle makes them look the feet are giant and the ankles are small! They are really "normal" proportioned socks!)

I also finished this knitted felted bag. All it needed was to attach the "strap". Now it's a completed project. Woo hoo!

Working through projects in various stages of UFOness is (at the moment) very satisfying to me. This week I'm going to finally put together the pieces of a sweater that has (have?) been knitted for I'm-not-admitting-how-long so it can exit UFO land as well.

Have you noticed a rather odd trend - sox, scarves, sweaters?? Where do I live? Oh yes ... FLORIDA!!! Yes these knitted items will be useful here. I'll just pile them all on my body on our one cold day next winter. HA! Who cares? It's fun!

The morning walks are brutal now (and still I knit!!). Despite the fact that I get out around 7:15, it's still so very hot and humid that I think "oh I won't walk 5 miles today". But usually I can endure. I get home with (literally) sweat dripping from the rim of my terry-covered visor. I never knew the tops of my hands could sweat. Lordy it's hot and sticky out there! I listen to audio books or podcasts while I walk. Currently I'm listening to Prey (Michael Crichton) and The Confession (John Grisham). Both are good walking/sewing books.

Well ... off to start week 7 (can you believe it already??). Thanks for stopping by!

13 Weeks - check-in for (really) week 5

It was a good week. The quilt got done, the pound got lost, the scarf got finished .... but nothing new got cooked (ah well - I'll catch up before the end!!) I suppose if something gets kicked aside while doing other things, cooking isn't a bad one to loose. Although I love puttering around in the kitchen, I confess that I'd rather be playing with fibers.

Here are the pics from this week.

The quilt. This is the same pattern as last week's quilt. That top border piece has black polka dots - you just can't see them in the pic. I'm always amazed at how different things look through the camera lens!

The scarves (they don't show well laying flat but you get the general idea). These scarves are from hand-painted yarns with hand-painted silk scarves as the drawstring. They can be worn loosely hanging, or scrunched up in all kinds of interesting ways. Of course this is Florida, so the chance that they'll both get worn in one winter is slim, at best! (But another trip to CA is in the confirmed-and-planning stage!!)

See more on drawstring scarves on Melody Johnson's blog Fibermania.

And the tray I finally finished! This is a fiber collage; I'm going to make some ATCs with the remains. I found a blog for ATC trades where you only have to send one ATC. THAT I can handle! (If you're interested in ATCs, see Lisa Liza Lou's blog here.)

I've mentioned this before, but working within a deadline is really working for me. Even more than that, though, is being accountable here on the blog. I think we push ourselves a little more - have more discipline - if we've told the Universe we're going to do something. Also, succeeding where you said you would is a big brain boost! It makes me want to do even more. Success feeds upon itself, I guess. (I definitely need to start doing some bindings, though! They're piling up!)

Although I will have to live to be 960 to explore all I want to explore, I am enjoying the extra hours that retirement provides. I don't think I'll ever get bored.

Oh by the way, Susan Brubaker Knapp has a great blog post today - full of photography tips. Find her here. (Photography is definitely not my strong suit - but I'm going to learn!!)

This week I think I'll also finish those Bee socks I've been working on ......

All comments welcome! I love getting comments! Thanks for stopping by.

Wednes... er .... Saturday check-in Week 5

Wow, how did those days get away from me? Well, here's the status even though I'm in the midst of week 5 already.

Quilt & pound - check. New recipe and scarf? Sad trombone sound (alas!!) Here's the quilt:

This is from one of the many free patterns you can download for use with pre-cuts. This pattern called for charm squares and layer cakes, but then you trim the 10x10s. I didn't like that, so sketched out the cutting from fat quarters and was able to get 2 quilts - this big one and a small one I'll donate - from the FQs.

Working with simple patterns (I call it "drone quilting" - no need to think) is having a happy side effect; I wake up each morning with zillions of ideas bursting out into my sketchbook. I guess my mind is wandering so much as I'm sewing that the creative part of me is able to be in full-tilt-boogie mode. I'm going to keep doing drone quilts for the remainder of the 13 weeks and hopefully my sketchbook will be spilling over with ideas that I can start putting into fabric.

The recipe was going to be grilled peaches (how easy was that??) so I'll probably get to that this week. I made lots of progress on the scarf but have another few inches to go before I can call it "complete". There was a trip to the yarn shop this week too for sweater inspiration. I almost made it out with no new yarn but on my way to the check-out counter I caved. Oh well - it's very yummy stuff!! I don't know what it's going to be when it grows up, but it'll be wonderful!

So onward with the rest of week 5. Happy Independence Day to all!

Here's the starters for this week's quilt:

Thanks for stopping by.

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!

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!