Bonus day - Old Town sashing; Dawn's E.Light strings, and Friendship Chain started

We were given a "bonus day" up here in NW Wisconsin.  Actually, most of Wisconsin and Minnesota were put on stand-by today due to the extreme cold; numerous schools across the states closed.  What about your area?  I caught the nightly news and the USA weather map showed state after state in extreme cold temps -- did anyone else have a bonus day?

I used mine as best I could, certainly!  The brainstorm session for Old Town's sashing yesterday was successful, and today, all of the units were prepped and placed on the design wall.  

The units have yet to be pieced, so there's a slight disconnect in continuity in the photo.  All of the units appear to be aligned correctly; I think it's a GO for piecing. 

A partial collection of the blue string blocks were trimmed to size on and off all morning between trimming units for Old Town's sashing.

Much of the day, however, was spent in contemplation-mode.

Years ago, the school's Community Ed program inquired with me about offering some quilting classes.  I haven't offered a class since 2009.  My goodness, time has flown! And I've learned sooooo MUCH since then.   Heavy consideration is once again afoot about teaching a beginner's course of quilting fundamentals.  

The jury's still out, but a simple little pattern was brainstormed and fabrics chosen that could duo nicely as a crib quilt for Quilts for Kids.  We'll see where this leads in the next few weeks.

Dawn's Early Light progress; slow-"unstitch" Sunday

 

The blue string blocks have all been checked off.  EVERY drawer was sifted; the 1.5", 2", 2.5" 3.5", string and bonus triangles... the ONLY scraps of blue that remain are what's pictured here.  
Bonnie certainly is inspirational and I wonder if anyone else wonders how long some of her quilts take for her to create, not including the design time.  This one has been underway for me since last June.  Sure, sure... I haven't been working on it day and night, but the hours are still tallying to an impressive total.

Now, the de-papering begins!  Some of slow-stitch Sunday evening was spent in the chair, with feet up.  This counts, right??  Until I CRASHED!  Hence, why this post is hitting in the morning versus last night.

Excitingly, units are coming together at a quicker pace now.  
The red-star blocks done
Red-star blocks and neutral string units pieced
And then pieced together with the blue/strings HST units...

One more good day of sewing should see them all come together into the top. 

Mind over matter persevered! Not a sob-story looking for sympathy, just fact... this weather is sloooooowly starting to annoy me.  But Bailee's puppy-dog eyes won me over in the afternoon, and we bundled up, setting out for a walk to at least break the seal... which resulted in a 10K training run.  

Design Wall Monday is the number 1 goal for today on this bonus day off from school for President's Day, but probably not with Dawn's Early Light.  The Old Town mystery quilt blocks are currently taking up space on it.  I'll be breaking away from Bonnie's plans a little bit; my color choices would result in all the sashing units being pink, but... I don't want the quilt to be seen as a 'pink quilt.'  

Off to brainstorm...

Linking up with Kathy's Quilt Slow-Sunday stitching

Dawn's Early Light: blue strings for RSC

It's been a long time since I've devoted a full day to relaxing with some piecing up in the quilting loft.  I ventured up right around 8AM, turning on Virgin River, and continued piecing some blue string blocks for the Dawn's Early Light quilt.  A fair amount of time has clearly been spent in the quilting loft lately, because I only tune in to Virgin River while quilting... and I recall beginning the series right around New Year's.

Folks, this photo is quite misleading!  The tidy piles give the impression that much of today was neat, petite, smooth and organized.  Bahaha... but this is the current state after about 8 (EIGHT!) hours of piecing and burning through most of my scrap blue strings!  

The bag be empty, folks!

Half of the necessary blocks are completed, with the remaining half partially started.  The plan for tomorrow will be to check the 1.5", 2" and 2.5" bins for blue strips to trim down into strings;  if not, some yardage will be pulled to finish these up.

The red/white star block subunits for Dawn's Early Light have been machine-side as my leader-ender.

... and this was my sign to call it a day.  

With another 4-5" of fresh snow, the fire's been burning away all day.  

There are zero plans in my mind to head out running, much to the NON delight of Bailee girl.
I've officially allowed the weather to win and beat my mindset.  Ugh.  I've been in a funk...

Perhaps tomorrow though... 

A batch of soap was also prepped this afternoon while lunch was cooking.  This "Lavender Rose" is a new-to-me fragrance. It came home with me from a Florida flea market last summer, and seems to be holding its scent during the initial phases of saponification.  Some ground up oats were also added to the mixture to act as a light exfoliant.  Unfortunately, I'm on-hold for any more soap creation until I reorder some olive oil - going to give this olive oil pomace a try; seems to be a good deal.

Linking up with SoScrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge today.

UPDATES: Rainbow Scrap '25 (DEL); Emme Groomed; Old Town; and SMART goal

Meet Emme, the sweetest cockapoo ever!  Her owner struck up a conversation with me at Friday evening' basketball game, which led to me spending some JOYFUL time bathing, fluffing and grooming her yesterday morning. Seriously, JOYFUL!

There are some dogs who are cute, and then there's EMME! Her demeanor is top-notch; happy puppy. 

And once all dolled up, she and my Bailee played outside in the fresh 4+ inches of snow that fell overnight.  This is the first real snowfall we've had up here in Wisconsin this winter.

My goodness - seriously!  This much cuteness should be illegal!  She's sooooooooo soft, and huggable, and LOVEABLE!

After she departed, and a quick lunch... and the snowfall keeping me from running outside...
... the afternoon was left wide open to simply putz-putz-putz.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge was 100% in mind.  So, two-birds-with-one-stone:

The Dawn's Early Light red-star piles have been growing as my leader-ender.  However, with those units nearing completion, time was spent organizing the next unit.

PERFECT TIMING!  Blue strings!!!💙

Years and years ago, Bonnie's scrap system was implemented in the quilting space, so grabbing the bag of blue strings allowed me to get cookin' on these units straight-away once the papers were cut.

About an hour of late afternoon time was also devoted to assembling a few more Old Town quilt blocks;  half of them from the reveal step have been checked off the list.

What a gloriously 'putzy' afternoon in the loft!

And theeeeeeeeeen, the tiny voice in my head started saying, "just get on the treadmill.  C'mon, you have a streak underway of hitting those 10K steps daily; don't let this weather (and a small groin-muscle annoyance) break the streak!"

7:30 PM reality:

SMART Goal achieved:  8:15 PM

I'm nursing a small strain from a run earlier this week with Bailee.  Old age... what'cha gonna do?!?!  So this was nothing fancy; no running... but a good powerwalk for about 40 minutes on the ol' treadmill helped me check off Day #27 of 10,050 steps (cuz 10K would simply be too boring). 

#SmartGoals - you've got this!

Today's plan:  putzing, and an attempt at a 5K, groin-permitting.

Happy sunshiny Sunday morning.  

Linking up with SoScrappy '25 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Running in the New Year & Old Town quilt steps 7 & 8

**heavenly sigh**

Happy New Year.  Happy 2025.  Happiness to ALL in ALL you endeavor.

Imma start with the short recovery run that Bailee's puppy-dog eyes INSISTED we take this afternoon (I think she was feeling lonely and bored after I had been (almost completely, but not entirely) ignoring her while in the quilting loft for 6ish hours)

LOL.  Having taken the day off of running yesterday, it didn't take much convincing...

... even though t'was a bit on the not-so-nice scale outside.  I really don't mind running in cold weather, but that wind is another story.  Ughers!  BUT... I bundled, and we got out for a simple down-n-back to the corner.

Truly an easy run:  1.77 miles (11'37/mile pace).  The knees were apparent right off the bat, but by the end, they had loosened nicely.  When we ran the Half on Monday, it wasn't initially on the weekly plan; actually about 4 weeks too soon, but we only 'ran' it versus 'racing' it.  I wanted to end the year meeting my December goal of >100 miles having only done it once before in 2013. Despite, the knees were starting to become a bit tender during the last half mile or so. 

December wrap-up: 104.5 miles 👊, my second highest monthly mileage ever.

I use the Nike Run Club (NRC) app on my phone to track all my runs.  I LOVE this app!  There are plans available for many different race-lengths and/or for simple walks or runs a person may be interested in, all for free, and coach-guided for EVERY plan.  Today, Coach Bennett had us focus on the purpose of every run.  During Monday's Half-marathon training run, right around mile 8, he had us focus on two things that were going well, and then later at about 8.5 miles, two things that weren't going that great.
I was brain-dead.  I couldn't come up with ANYTHING!  Not a brag at all.  Just... wow; like I really couldn't think of anything that was going poo-poo.  

For the most part, life is good!  The run was clipping along.  Bailee is an amazing partner.  I LOVE running with her!!!  She really makes my time laced up SO enjoyable!  Things are going well with a couple colleagues who have also been on a fitness journey.  School, for the most part, is going swimmingly well.  Family is good.  AND, I've been on holiday break, and the stress had started melting away already last week.

So, I am knocking VERY loudly on the wood armrest of my glider-rocker.
Life. Is. Good!  And I TRULY hope the same is true for you!!!

Okay, now onto the quilting.

#Clue7done Trimmed and tidied right away; that certainly doesn’t always happen

And bless this guy; he schlepped up one of his Little Giant ladders to replace some dead bulbs in my quilting loft;  I was down to three from six, so some supplemental lights had been sufficing in the meantime.  And me?... I continued on with the Old Town mystery, cutting, cutting and more cutting of browns and neutrals for clue #8 for about four hours to completion.

And all of THAT while, making continual progress on the star blocks for Dawn's Early Light.

Bailee at least seems to be content now.  And after 45 minutes in my portable steam sauna (a Cyber Monday self-purchased Christmas present to myself), I too am quite content.  I am not an affiliate to Amazon or the likes, but maaaan oh mannnn, this Portable Steam Sauna has been one of my Top10 best purchases EVER.  The picture here is my POV to the sauna's window viewed through the steam from the chair that included 😊💆

Happy New Year, 2025.  And remember to #MakeItAGreatDay!

Old Town quilt - parts 5 & 7

POV mid-morning;  

Old Town quilt part 4 underway, with some Dawn's Early Light star blocks prepped as my L/E

When updating posts with quilting progress, specially from days of 6+ hours in front of the machine, it's sometimes difficult to track back through the day for specific highlights.  All quilters know that certain stages of quilting becomes monotonous, so these part 5 blocks were completed 4-at-a-time, double-sewing the corners to make some bonus HSTs.

AND... **drumroll**... the pressing AND trimming of the bonus HSTs happened right away.  I'm fairly certain had I sewn all the units first, I woulda crossed the threshold of major boredom pressing and trimming these bonuses.  

Clue #5 is now complete, and sometime last week (I think?), I already completed clue #6, so clue #7 was read, saved and started.

I'm only partway through the units with one corner sewn before closing up for the night.  The fact that most of the fabrics were pulled from my 1.5" bin is quite pleasing.  Tomorrow, these should be finished off lickity-split and then sewn to the hourglass units to complete the clue.  Then, #8.  From the sounds of it on the Quiltville FB page, some have reached their limit on Flying Geese blocks.  But this is Bonnie!  LOL. 

There was a small interlude of a roadtrip midday when Paul needed to pick up some pig feed and he invited me to ride along. Couldn't resist walking through these aisles, however it was easy to resist walking away empty handed.  

It's New Year's Eve, and we have long done away with remaining awake until midnight to ring in the new year.  So, I'm off to bed in order to get up for another full day in front of the machine before needing to head back to school on Thursday.  

Happy Tuesday.  And Happy (almost) New Year.

Life Interrupted; not really... Dawn's Early Light, Old Town Mystery, Wedding quilt & running

My intentions were good; the execution, however...

.... LOL. It's really been since JULY!?  Oy.  Whoopsies.

Awh shucks!

But life has gone on, and maaaaaaan oh maaaaaaaan, our Wisconsin 'winter' so far has been pretty non-existent!  There have been a few short stretches of snow flurries and a cold-snap.

Bailee-girl and I (and a dear coworker) made a pact to get back into running; thankfully Bailee's been amazingly supportive of me dragging her along, despite feeling like I'm a sleigh she's pulling along some days.

Duo Christmas 5K on our Brooke Drive

Having this extra time during the holiday break from school has been wonderfully enjoyable!  Walking, running, and a fair amount of quilting has ensued.

and yesterday, on December TWENTY-EIGHTH, even though I had COMPLETE intentions of a schedule rest-day, the sunshine & 40s won us over!  Imma be catching up on my running log that was started allll those years ago on my side bar.  Kinda excited to see "where" I'm currently at.  Check it out...

The current POV in my quilting space; quite tidy, neat and organized has been an ongoing goal anytime I get into the space.  Having everything out, ready and NEAT simply makes for efficiency!  

Bonnie's "Dawn's Early Light" has progressed as my leader-ender ...

 A wedding quilt was requested of me and my mother-in-law this summer, and lots of progress has been made between Thanksgiving break and this Christmas break from school on it.  All of the blocks are pieced; tomorrow the hope is to have the center together.

And of COURSE, Bonnie's Old Town mystery is on my list of active WIPs!  I'm just about caught up to Friday's clue #7; another couple of days will get me there.

Kiddo update:

Semester break for the Freshman; wrapped up her first classes at Madison Tech for Finance

MVP Back for UW-Eau Claire is Caitlyn's bragging rights this past semester

Still can't believe this former twig of a middle-schooler has developed into a 6-foot rugby player; currently in her semester break of Junior year, heading into a Chiropractic medicine pathway.

And oldest Cassie is off adulting up in Duluth as a FedEx driver.  What a schedule she's had this past month!!!!

Here's to another great week and another few days of project progress while still on vacation; I head back on Thursday.