10%

This week I officially have lost 10% of my weight since starting running. Yea me! Of course, the whole, not feeling like eating due to an upset stomach really helped things along. Now I just need to be very careful not to put it all back on with the traditional General Conference Dunkin' Donuts sitting in my dining room.

T-minus one week

OK, so we are exactly one week out. One week from this exact moment, I will be headed down to Baltimore for my big race. Sounds pretty good right? Well, except for the last little snag. My training partner and I have been sick. I guess it's better that we're sick this week, instead of next, but well, how annoying. Our last week to train, and we have not been able to. I'm starting to feel better. This morning, I was feeling pretty good except for the desire to throw up at any given moment. But seriously, other than that one little thing, totally feeling fine. My partner is a few days behind me getting sick, today she has a fever. Her kids had H1N1, and were really sick for several days. I really hope that we are both well by the time the race comes around. It's just kind of frustrating because we did everything so right! We started way early so that we could go slow and avoid injury. We trained smart, and hard. We extended our longest run to 12 miles, so that we knew that we could do it. And now this. Urg..... Oh well, wish us luck for our speedy recovery.

I would also like to say....

I would also like to say that I love Muse, and I am super excited to see Muse and U2 in concert in a little over a week.
Thank you, that is really all.

I would just like to say

I would just like to say that today I ran 12 miles. 12 MILES!!! And I did well on the run, and I will still be a functioning human being for the remainder of the day.
Thank you, that is all.

Another doll quilt

So I have had some rail blocks left over from Meckenzie's quilt for 3 years now. I did use some of them for a different quilt, but I still had more, so I thought as I was making the quilt for Meckenzie's baby sister, that I would do a doll quilt for Meckenzie while I was at it, and this is what I came up with.
This is Meckenzie's original quilt.

Here is the doll quilt.

Are you ready for this?

So this is one of my favorite quilts that I have ever made. It is for Jesse's brother's new baby coming in September. And it's super cute, so watch out.

It all started by centering around that elephant print. I knew that I wanted to do prairie points, so it all just kind of went from there.

It's really hard to see the quilting, because I found the perfect color thread that blends in well, but I had a lot of fun with the quilting on this one. I did it on Jana's mega quilter, and it only took me an hour and a half to do the whole thing. That included sewing down a prairie point two different times, and having to stop and get myself unstuck from that, and also reloading the quilt to do the borders on the sides. I did those freehand flowers like I had done on a previous quilt. Plus there are little flowers scattered throughout the quilting on the main portion of the quilt.

The pattern that I used for those square within square blocks was a little off. The largest triangles were just too small, so after cutting all of them I had to cut some more, which left a bunch of triangles for me to make a doll quilt out of. So I made her a matching doll quilt.

Another star quilt

So not that anyone reads this blog anymore, since I don't post very often. I'm guessing unless you have it listed on your blog update list, you don't come anymore.

Anyway, I did finish a new project. I actually have another one finished, but it's not given yet, so on the slightest possibility that this week Heather starts reading my blog, I'll wait until I've given her the quilt to post photos. But I'm just saying, it's stinkin' cute. So be prepared.

This quilt I made for my old college roommie Mary, and her cuter than cute little boy. It is another star quilt, and this is the 3rd one I've worked on. This time I did it different. Instead of cutting templates and piecing that way, I just stacked all nine fabric squares together, and made the cuts all at once. Then I sewed, and trimmed the excess. Super easy.

Unique tidbit about this quilt, it is a stash quilt. I didn't buy any new fabric to make it. Not even the back, batting or binding. But anyway, it turned out really cute, and I sure hope that it arrived at its destination today.

Let's hear it for training partners

So I have started to train for the half marathon that I am going to run in October. I know, most normal people don't need 5 months to train for a half marathon, but I do, and thankfully, so does my training partner. It happens that my training partner is my RS president, so it's nice for us to have this as we have been working together. This week we were up to 4 miles. I have done 4 miles in the past month or so, but it was before I was sick, and it was on a treadmill. I have decided that I am a treadmill runner, not an outside runner. On Saturday mornings when we go outside to run together, it's just awful.
And that brings me to my topic today. I now realize the importance of having a training partner. It is so motivating to have someone depending on you. I need to do my mid week runs so that I'm not so out of shape for my weekend runs. And, well, I would so wimp out on my weekend runs if it were not for Cindy. I would be walking through half of it. And it's obviously just because I'm too lazy, and don't want to run anymore, because as evidenced in the fact that I did complete the runs, my body was able to complete the runs. I saw a quote in runners world that was to the effect that battles are only won when you listen to your body, not your mind. It's all about what I have learned from Dean Karnazes, when your mind says no, see what your body says.
So yeah, the moral of the story is, I'm so glad for Cindy, and how she keeps me motivated, and keeps me going. And if you are going to train for something- get yourself a training partner!

Nate's big bed quilt

So, 2 years ago or so, all of my quilting friends finished their first baby quilts, and decided that they needed to then make big quilts for their kids who were moving up into big beds. They all had their second kids before I had Graham, so they were moving their kids out of cribs sooner. Anyway, since I didn't really have much else going on, I went out and bought the fabric for this quilt. When I was growing up, my mom made a log cabin quilt for each of us kids, so this is kind of like my legacy quilt. It was the pattern the my youth dictated that I make.

So I got the fabric, and started to cut the strips that I needed. Then well, life got busy. We were about to move, and I was about to have a baby, and well, it was just not a pressing issue. So it sat in a bag for a long time. Then sometime this winter, we decided that we were going to get Nate a big bed for his birthday. Well, that meant breaking out the fabric that I had started cutting, and get going on it. So within a few days it seems I had all of the blocks done. Then well, you all know the saga of deciding on the pattern I put them together with, and the result. Well, at that point Jana's mega quilter was broken, so I could not quilt it, and there was really no rush, because Nate's birthday is not until June. But then Matt and Melissa moved in with my mom, and she had a mattress she needed to get rid of, so we took it, and Nate got his bed a little early. One problem was that I didn't have the quilt finished. But Jana got her machine fixed, and she called me last week and told me that her machine was open and I could use it.

Let me tell you about the mega quilter. Well, I want one. Except I want like a 26" arm or something. Jana's is just a small size arm, so there is only about 6" of quilting depth. But that is more than my machine has on a quilt this size. (My machine has like, no quilting room on a quilt this size.) Anyway, it was totally fun, and easy too.

So I got it quilted, and came home, and did my borders, and got the binding done. Except that while I was sewing the binding on, something spilled on it, and it smelled really bad. Not that much fun to quilt on.

I took Nate to the fabric store to find some back fabric a while ago, and in an effort to pick something that wouldn't be too 3 year old, we picked these stars. (As opposed to a novelty print.) Anyway, Nate loves the stars fabric. I put his quilt up on his bed, and he went up to see it at bed time, and he got all sad, and said he only loved the stars, so we had to flip it upside down. Little monkey.

So I think that's it. There is the long story of this quilt that I have been working on for a million times.

I did it again!

So on Saturday night I ran another 5K. This time they sent me an email with my results, and I was actually a bit surprised. I knew about my time and pace. I ran a 32:40 which put me on a 10:30 pace. I had the exact same pace for all 3 miles. I wanted to slow down at the end, but just couldn't figure out how. (And my shins are still thanking me. I run on a treadmill, so it was quite a shock.)
Anyway, so they sent the results, and in my age group there were 99 women who finished, and I finished 44th. That by the way puts me in the first half of that group. Who would have thought I would have been in the first half? Crazy huh?
Anyway, I've mentioned it before, but I signed up for the half marathon in October, so I guess I'll keep on running. I need to make sure that I get out and run outside to train sometimes. You know, so that I don't break my shin bones.
So that's it. I just read that email and was shocked at my standing, so I had to share.

It's Christmas in March!

So last November I bought a kit to do this Christmas tree quilt. I saw it hanging in up in Needles and Pins and I loved it. I never got around to making it last December (wonder why?) and so it has sat on my shelf in the bag since then. I thought I'd try to make it for the next holiday. Well, then our ward is having a talent show tomorrow, and I said that I'd display a quilt. Ok, well, the problem with that is that the only display worthy quilt that I had on hand I had just given to Natalie for her baby. So I figured I had other wall hangings that I could do if I couldn't throw something together in time, but that I would try something. I looked through my stash, because another requirement was that I was not allowed to buy any new fabric. So then I thought I'd try this. It was actually not too bad to do, just three different sets of strips.

I quilted it in a silver thread, and that was a mistake. It looks nice, but it broke 4 needles in the process, and broke about a billion times. Then, since I'm such a glutton for punishment I also decided to use the same silver tread along with this variegated holiday thread to do a hand quilted embellishment on the border. I didn't think I would ever finish it. Both of these threads are difficult to work with individually, but together, wow. Shoot me now. But I finished. I even put a hanging sleeve on the back of it. Something I've never done before. I don't have a place to hang it, or something to hang it with, but maybe one day in the future I will. It's kind of a weird size. Too small for a lap quilt, but still kind of large.

So anyway, that is my latest quilt. I just finished the binding tonight, just in time for the talent show tomorrow.

Another quilt

So the last quilt that I made for Ashley was a hit at the shower, as they always are. But one girl in particular was oohing and ahhing over it. She is having a baby shower tomorrow. It is someone that I didn't really know until I was called to be the Enrichment counselor, and she is the enrichment leader, so now I work closely with her. Anyway, I like to make quilts for people who I know will appreciate them, and I know that she will. She was also commenting on how much she likes stars for babies. I had quilted stars into the quilt for Ashley. So when I saw this pattern I thought of her. She's having a girl, and I wanted to use some more funky fabrics, so this is what I came up with.

I decided to quilt flowers into the border, and on the center square. I was very pleased with the end result since I did it all freehand without drawing it on first.

Oh, and did you notice that this is the same pattern that I made that little pillow for Nate out of?

A Title Change

So I finally did it. I finally went and changed the title of a post ages ago that I made. It was titled something like A misbehaving apres-midi. Except, not exactly that. Look at my tracker on the side, and you can guess what the real title of it was. Anyway, that is how most people who don't know me find this blog, sickos out looking for something less than wholesome. And I just don't feel comfortable supporting that, so I decided to change it. I'm sure that the people who found it were quite disappointed to find that all that had happened was Nate dunking the baby toys in the toilet while I was taking a nap on the couch with infant Graham. Anyway, hopefully that will put a stop to it. Whew, that feels good, and is long overdue.

Afternoon Project

So I was supposed to baste and start quilting a quilt that my mom made for my grandma today, but I can't find my basting spray at the moment. I know that I just bought some, but I don't recall where I have placed it. So instead I picked some fabric to start working on this cool star quilt that I saw in a quilting magazine. If I had seen this pattern when I was making Nate's baby quilt I would have done it. It is just about exactly what I was looking for.

Anyway, as I had my fabric stash out Nate saw this yellow rainbow striped fabric and claimed it for his own. In fact, he said he would trade it for the big log cabin quilt I made for him. So I set out to start cutting some of the pieces. It is a template quilt, so it takes a while to get all of the pieces laid out right before cutting them. But I did it. And then I knew that Nate was not just going to let me take the blocks away, so I had to make them into a pillow. I guess I'll have to recut these fabrics to put into the actual quilt. Anyway, it's a cute little pillow and Nate seems to love it. So that is how we spent our afternoon.

And the Winner is.....

And the winner is Starlight! It was a crowd favorite along with barn raising. And to back you up Nat, Stained Glass was one of my early favorites. Now, I can't just do a quilt like the instructions say, because I'm a dork like that. This quilt actually was one of the first quilts that I have made from a pattern in a very long time. Mostly I just look at a quilt, and am too cheap to buy the pattern, so I figure out one myself. Anyway, back to the point. I kind of changed it up just a tad. Maybe you hate it now, but I like it better, and that's what really counts. Jesse finally helped decide on this pattern because one of his favorite Muse songs is called starlight. He asked if we could make it a musical quilt, but finally settled on that being the quilt's theme song. (Something every quilt needs, right?) Anyway, so now I need to put the borders on. Sisto's was having a sale last weekend, so I got some border fabric. Then I still have my 50% off coupon at Needles and Pins, so I can get the backing, and a 40% off coupon at JoAnn's will get me the batting. Not too bad.

ps. And don't mind the cat. Any time I put a quilt on the floor at all, Lizzie (and Graham for that matter) take that as an invitation to walk all over it.

Which do you think?

Ok, so I am making this log cabin quilt for Nate for when we move him up into a twin size bed. All of the blocks are made, but I need to decide which layout to use. I went ahead and laid out several different ones that I thought I would like, and now I need helping choosing which one is perfect. So comment on which one you like. If there is one that you think the blue and green ought to be switched, you can say that too. Tell your friends to come and vote too. I need a lot of help.

All Sevens

Fields and Furrows

Stained Glass

Cross Hatch

Whirligig

Starlight

Starburst

Barn Raising


Thank You!!!!!!

Another quilt

So last week I whipped out a quick quilt for my friend Ashley who is having a baby. (Any time now, I ought to call her and make sure she hasn't had it yet....) Anyway, it's a version of a pattern that all of my quilting friends are making right now. I liked it so much that I may make a full size one one of these days. You know, when I have a few hundred dollars to just make a queen size quilt just for fun. :) I love the backing fabric, it is swimming monkeys. Some play marco polo, some are doing synchronized swimming, etc. It's really cute.