Pounds Busted, Week 3

Pounds Busted this week: 0
Pounds Busted YTD: 12

I figured this would happen with an 8 pound lost last week. I'm going to increase my activity this week and hopefully report a loss again next Monday.

Stashbusters, Week 4

Fabric Added this Week: 7 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 8.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 14 yards

Friday was the beginning of a sale at my favorite LQS. I needed 2 yards of a nice navy blue and when I went to get it there were several baskets of FQ's marked 20 for $20...I saw several I can use in upcoming projects and some brights so of course I bought them.

Showing Off

I realized that I never posted about my win!

Every year we have a Service Auction at church and people donate goods, services, parties, and anything they can think of that people might bid on.

My friend Anne donated a basket full of quilting goodies. She isn't a quilter, but she gave quite a good batch of stuff. There must be a story behind it that I need to find out. She does sew, so maybe it was a gift given to her by someone else.

There are several quilters at church, but surprisingly only I and the husband of one of them were bidding on this.

The basket



was filled with these (6 of the Elm Creek Quilt books by Jennifer Chiaverini)



and these great 1/2 yards


and these wonderful FQ's


And a book- "Beginner's Guide to Quilting" which I forgot to take a picture of and have already gifted away to a co-workers granddaughter that has started quilting.

The funny thing is that I'm the computer data entry person at this auction and keep up with the winning bids. I thought for sure John had beat me by $5. But a few weeks ago the Auctions organizer told me that I had actually won and I picked up the basket. I've always wanted to read the books, and although I'm not sure what I'll do with the fabrics yet, I'm sure it will be something luscious. I especially love the basket. It's currently holding some pink & brown fabrics gathered for an upcoming project. How appropriate. LOL.

Tackle it 2sday #2

Today I'm going to see how much I can get done on a Charity quilt. I have the fabrics in the dryer now. A nice bright focus print which I'll cut 6 inch squares of and some matching brights which I think I'm going to make pinwheels with. Not even sure how many pinwheels I need yet but I'll figure that out.

The non-quilty project of the day is several loads of laundry including bedding. I always hate doing that. Since I have this bad head cold it will include washing our pillows.

Of course I'm also going to be watching the Inauguration. What an exciting time in America. I remember watching the Inaugurations of Reagan, Clinton, and the most recent Bush, but I never felt then what I'm feeling today. I feel a sense of hope and change and really think we're in for a much brighter future.

Pounds Busted

I am feeling a little better today. I have the day off and am going to a Doctor's appt. later this afternoon. A follow-up visit from the dizziness and problems of last fall.

Decided I want to keep track weekly of my weight loss too. I officially started on January 5th. So here we go-

Week 1- 4 lbs.
Week 2- 8 lbs.

YTD- 12 lbs

YEA! I cut back on all the junk food and am keeping a food journal. I need to get motivated to exercise more. I can tell my body is feeling better over all. I have a stack of clothes ready to wear as soon as I lose about 20 more lbs. I can do this...

Stash Report, Week 3

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 1.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 3 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 9 yards

short post today as I'm sick. Don't know if it's a cold or the flu but I've been down since Saturday afternoon. I've gone through a whole box of Kleenex. Hope y'all are feeling well!

January Projects

Way back in August I was working on turning this fabric that Patty gave me

Into this...



It ended up being very small so I asked my dear friend tirane for some suggestions
on making it larger. We decided on adding a border of skinny flying geese
and then a border of small 9-patches. I think it will make a great quilt for a bird lover.

Then I got busy getting ready for that craft fair. This went into the UFO pile. I wasn't planning
on working on it till later in the summer. I knew I was going to have to buy some more drab colors as they are way out of the box for me. I hit the end of the year inventory in December at my LQS and all these colors were calling my name so I bought 20 FQ's for about $1.50 each.

For the last week I've been making these...



I miss my brights, but I wanted to do something with my overflowing boxes of scraps
so I also started turning these...



Into these



The makings of a "Rocky Road to Kansas" quilt. I have 20 of the 168 sections started. I am going to use some WOW scraps for the background color, but cannot decide what to do in what ends up being the center of each star. Just scrappy those too? pick 1 focus color? I found a lot of RRTK quilts online and they use 2 alternating colors like red and blue. Looking in my scraps I have a lot of green scraps and pink scraps but I can't envision using those. Black would be too dark. Creams would be too light. Any suggestions?

Scattered Scraps

I really need to figure out what's wrong with the USB ports in this laptop. Here is the Scattered Scraps Quilt. I couldn't fit the whole quilt in the picture that I took. Maybe I can take better pictures at Tirane's this weekend when I go for sit and sew.


Here is a closeup. I chose a dark green and brown for the borders because the rest of the quilt is so busy. I think it gives the eye a good place to "rest".



Please check back tomorrow for pictures of other projects!

Tackle-It-2sday

My hours at work were cut again, but the good news is that I now have most of the day off on Tuesday's. I'll only have to work the late afternoon shift (3-6:30). I was cut from 35 hours a week to about 25. Enrollment is down in my age group and we've taken my private kindergarten class to 2 mornings a week instead of 5. The other days they will remain part of the 4 year old class that they are with every afternoon.

Instead of being depressed and upset about it, I'm going to start using this extra time to tackle at least 2 projects. 1 will be something quilty, and 1 will be a household/other issue.

I spent most of this morning trying to resolve the computer/camera issues, and I still have several hours till work so I'm going to go see how many more skinny flying geese I can get pieced for the bird border. I have 20 sections done and should be able to get the other 20 done today. Then it will be on to the 6 1/2 inch 9-patch border.

So what are you doing with your Tuesday?

Computer Issues

So I get the new USB cable and now the computer won't recognize the camera. I've tried all the troubleshooting I can think of...you would think that things would work together better. Gonna keep working on trying to fix it, but in the meanwhile, I'll have to do this another way. I'll go buy a disposable camera, take all the pictures again that I wanted to post, get them developed on a disk, and be able to show them off tomorrow. Sorry for the delay!

Stash Report, Week 2

Fabric Added this Week: .125 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 1.125 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 6 yards

The only fabric bought this week was part of a Block of the Month kit.

I used up fabrics from stash for the borders of Stitched Scraps, started on borders for the Bird quilt, and also started working on some "Rocky Road to Kansas" blocks.

On Friday I realized that the USB cable for the camera had gone kaput. Bought a new one on Saturday and got it home and the mini is the wrong size! Was sewing too much yesterday and didn't want to go shopping, so today I'm going to take that cable back to Staples and will have to go to Fry's or Best Buy to get the right one. I have lots of pictures to post when I do! So please check back tomorrow...

Four!

In the last 2 days I've lost 4 lbs! I'm sure it's because I've been sick and all I've eaten is oatmeal, applesauce, soup, macaroni & cheese, and diet ice cream. It hurts my throat to eat anything hard, chewy, or especially crunchy. I know cause I was craving salt again and tried to eat a couple of pretzels.

I'm feeling a lot better and went back to work today. I may try to walk a couple of laps on the playground this afternoon with the kids. Depends on whether they wear me out before we even make it outside. I still don't have much of a voice, so thank goodness for my co-teacher. They listen to Ms. Jennifer better than they listen to me anyway. Especially the boys. She's younger and prettier.

If all goes according to plan I will have Stitched Scraps finished by the weekend. Borders are cut, I just need to press the top again and get them sewn on. I have the borders cut and ready for Spiderwebs, but am going to wait till our Sit-n-Sew at tirane's on the 17th to sew them because she's gonna teach me how to miter the corners. Can't wait to have these done.

New Year, New Me

I want my Mommy. I have a fever and a sore throat so I called in sick. I feel whiny and depressed. I'm going to go back to bed for a while and if i feel better when I get up I am going to sew something. Probably work on the borders of a couple of projects.

I watched "The Biggest Loser" last night. I have watched every episode of every season, but this season is different. It's the largest group of contestants they've ever had. The ladies actually look like me. I could see myself in so many of them. I sat at my desk and cried. I'm tired of looking and feeling this way. I don't have trainers like Bob and Jillian to work out with, (if I had a trainer that looked like Bob I would be in high heaven!) but I need to get back to eating the way I know I'm supposed to. I need to start walking again, except that because of my current health issues I can't really walk around the neighborhood. The doctors are scared I'll get dizzy and fall. There isn't a mall close anymore or I'd walk there. I think I'm going to research the local community centers and see what they offer for fitness classes. Or figure out a way to find someone in the neighborhood that will walk with me. There are a couple of ladies who walk together but they are very fast and I wouldn't be able to keep up with them.

At the end of 2008 with the health problems I was having I gained back some of the 70 lbs I'd lost in the first half of the year. I'd like to lose that weight this month and then start February back around my lowest point. I've been doing better with my eating the last few days but haven't gotten on the scale in about a week. I'm going to do that tomorrow when I'm (hopefully) feeling better. I'm going to put a tracker back on the sidebar here and start keeping track again.

May we all have a healthier and happier 2009. If you are losing weight or exercising, I'd love to hear about it. We can encourage each other.

January Goals

Just a few small sewing goals for this month. I am trying to get my butt back in gear with my weight loss and need to concentrate some time and effort there.

Sewing Goals:

1. Add borders to "Stitched Scraps".
   
2. Add borders to "Spiderwebs".
3. Make the flying geese border for the Bird Quilt.

Personal Goals:

I got a pedometer for Christmas. I am going to wear it every day and keep track of steps taken. I'm not anywhere near the recommended 10,000 steps a day, but maybe in less than a year I'll be at that point. For now I will be very happy with at least 10,000 steps a week.

I want to lose the weight that I gained back these last few months with the health problems and get back to what my lowest weight was and keep losing from that point. I have gone cold turkey from some of the foods I had started eating again. They will not be brought into this house anymore!

Stash Report , Week 1, 2009

Fabric Added this Week: 1 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 1 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 1 yard
Fabric Used Year to Date: 1 yard

I went to JoAnn's to get a new 6 1/2 inch ruler and some thread and made the mistake of glancing at the FQ's. They were on sale for .99 cents again. I noticed some new fabrics. My stash of blues is fairly small so I bought 2 blue FQ's. Then I noticed the same fabric in a gorgeous gold and bought 2 of those too.

My fabric used this week was in making some blocks. So 1 yard in, 1 yard out. I did OK this week.