JELLO Legs!!!

I am sitting in my "week-2" class right now on this Creating Math Excellence grant (ON BREAK, of course!!! I would NEVER blog during a class)...*wink*

My legs are complete jello! I just HAVE to blog this! I wasn't planning on running at all yesterday----I always take Monday off after my long runs on Sunday. But last night, after coming back from Taco-night at the local restaurant, I actually remained outside to do some yard work and NOT park my butt in front of the sewing machine! Go figure!!!

Anyway, after some mowing, weeding, and raking up grass for the horses, I was feeling a bit motivated. So....at 8:00, I laced up the tennies and ran my 3.2 mile route. Since I was feeling rather energetic, I decided to turn it into an AI (aerobic/speed interval) run and ran 2x2:00, 2:30 intervals.

OMGoodness!!!! My legs are sooooooooo "heavy and tired" today! I've had to walk up a couple of flights of stairs during our breaks, and.................wow! I feel like these legs aren't even mine!

Anyway---just wanted to blog this to remind me: CAREFUL when running two hard workouts back-to-back days!

THREE more finishes since Wednesday

I know my posting has been quiet lately, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been working and "smelling the roses" :0)

It's not all that amazing what can be accomplished when one who typically has three little ones underfoot no longer has them underfoot and one can fully concentrate on quilting time :0) In addition to the three finishes I'll be posting here, I've also spent a full day (Friday) down in Rice Lake (city 30 miles away with all the "non-small-town" shopping places) doing errands for DH and myself; I then spent all afternoon Friday at a HUGE Antique place, enjoying my time, no hurrying, no whining, no place to be.......*sigh*.......twas quite nice! I didn't come home with anything, but enjoyed looking at all the handmade quilts all the same.

So Friday = no quilting.

But, back to Thursday:
One of my "teammates" for these classes that I'm taking brought me this cute little package of goodies on Thursday once she found out I enjoyed quilting. The little story behind the package: back in 1989 she had taken a class on English Paper Applique, and she purchased this kit at the completion of her class with intentions of making a 4x4 setting wall-hanging. (The invoice is in the picture!) Yeah, well, like many of us, she never got around to it and just came across it, so she figured she might as well donate it to me. When I unpacked it, it was one square short, so a 4x4 setting wasn't possible (only 15 blocks total could be made.) So, I laid out a 3x5 setting, but didn't like it :0( Then-----a-ha! Why not make two???? V-iola! I created a 3x3 (which I intend to keep) and a smaller 2x3 setting for my friend who gave me the package.
I have called it "Hearts of Karma." Rather fitting, don'cha think? It still have the binding to hand-sew on the 3x3 I'm keeping, but the 2x3 was finished up today (Sunday).

Saturday morning rolled around and DH and I left the house at 8:00 am to go to New Auburn (town about 60 miles away) to pick up some pig food. The man selling the food had some good information, not just on pigs, and before we knew it, TWO HOURS has twiddled away while we just stood outside chattin'! The clock was almost chiming Noon time, so we decided to just head back home and not continue to Eau Claire (another town about 20 more miles away). We only planned to go to Eau Claire to hit the Sew Complete Quilt shop, but I was okay giving that up. About 10 miles down the road on our way back home, we hit the exit for Bloomer, drove down Main Street, and stopped at the Main Street Cafe. (Gosh, I feel like Amanda with all her fun village visits she's shared with us). Anyway, after a simple lunch of a grilled chicken sandwich, we (DH) decided to take the "back-roads" home. *chuckle* Have no fear, he did NOT get us lost......but....well, considering it was 1:00, and only should have taken 45 minutes to arrive back home, we didn't finally walk back in our house until 5:30. HA! We stopped at a few garage sales, a barn sale (where he bought an antique Stanley Planer something-er-other (which we later researched to be worth about $75 and he only paid $15)), we stopped at the local Agriculture Station where they have an "experiment" garden that we strolled through. Then, when we FINALLY thought we were heading back home (4:00), we swung into the Washburn County JR Fair to look through the animal exhibits. I saw so many of my students working diligently grooming their animals for the evening show!

Anyway, finally we arrived home! I was rather beat, even though I hadn't done much of anything all day, so I didn't feel like heading downstairs. Rather, I grabbed the Trip Around the Raggey World to finish up the clipping. Golly---that's a tedious process! But, at 8:00, I finished up and threw it into the washer right away. I completed the washing and drying today----this baby will be going up to the Farm to be used as a nice snuggler! Each block finished at 5", so is roughly 55"x65".

Finally, I woke up today (Sunday), and set the goal to finally finish up Cathy's Aunt Sukey. HOWEVER, before I could do ANYTHING, I neeeeeeeded to get out and RUN! I haven't run since Monday, so there were NO excuses keeping my feet from the pavement today. I drew out a map for my DH (he was still sleeping), and set out to tackle 10 miles! I haven't actually gone out and checked my actual mileage today, but I'm estimating I ran 8-9 miles. Considering the hilly stretch I ran, I figured that was close enough to 10 miles in my book :0)

After a quick shower and a bagel, I set straight-away to working on Cathy's quilt. I still needed to finish whip-stitching the connector strips on the back (to connect the three quilted pieces together), which I finished around 11:30. I then needed to quilt the border strips yet, so after marking the quilt design, I was able to finish all the quilting work by 2:30. Finally, after trimming and sewing the binding strips together, I spent the rest of the afternoon sewing the binding on. My hand-sewing is getting better and faster, but I still am not a fan when I'm "getting tired" and starting to lose patience. I wanted this quilt to be done! And finally, it is!!!!

Oh, I also forgot to mention that yesterday, while driving here-n-there-n-everywhere, I had taken the Baby quilt along and do some more hand-quilting. Now THAT hand-work, I don't mind :0)

So once again, a lengthy "catch up" post.

Family update: Cassie (via grandma) called and talked to me today for the FIRST TIME since she's been gone. Golly, she sounds so big! She's loving her time away (even though she DID admit to missing me); they were at my Sister's house this weekend, and on Tuesday they'll be going to my husband's parents (the other grandma), and on Wednesday they'll be going to Aunty Dawn's house (DH's sister). So----they'll stay busy again this week.

Sooooooo..........I don't have class until Tuesday this week. I hope to have some time to just tinker tomorrow downstairs. Now that Cathy's Aunt Sukey is done, I almost feel "empty." Gosh---is that really how I feel? No....not really empty....but......."enlightened"??? Oh, I don't know. I still hope to make two pillow shams with the remaining fabric, but I don't think I want to start that tomorrow. I still have some "antsy" feelings towards working and perhaps finishing the Oklahoma Backroads quilts, so I have a feeling THAT's what I'll work on!

Happy Quilting!

For Candace--and everyone else....

Regarding the "free-motion-meandering-heart" motive....

I have "modified" the "connected heart" motive used in the sashing of my Cathy's Aunt Sukey that is in the Quiltmaker January 08 magazine. This is also the edition that has Bonnie's Leader-n-Enders method as well as her Blue Ridge Mountain pattern.

I'm on lunch break from my class right now.......I tell ya...I can't SHUT UP!!! I just feel like I'm dominating the discussions, and I've apologized over-n-over today. Everyone just giggles, and say "Gosh---keep talking, your ideas are great..."

but still......


talk to you later tonight.........

Big "catching up" post with the Spinning Rails completion....

I want to take a moment and go back to Sunday once "grandma" and "grandpa" left with the girls......

Both Paul and I had some "odds-n-ends" to accomplish before we could sit back and do what we really wanted to do.....I started with a little picking up of the living room, which lead to taking some dirty clothes to the entry-way, which lead to picking up the entry way, leading to sweeping, and mopping, and organizing the shoe closet, which then lead to the bathroom, cleaning the mirror, and more sweeping, mopping, which lead to kitchen dishes, which ....... okay.......you get the point......

BUT, while I was doing all this, I heard "banging" on the roof-----DH was FINALLY putting some finishing touches on our roof (whew---it's only taken a year!!!), which then lead him to cleaning some windows, which lead to him bringing the ladder off the roof and up against the house to clean the BIG WINDOWS!!! Finally---the first time they've been cleaned since we built 4 years ago......

The nice part of all of our motivation: we now have a clean house and it SHOULD stay clean for the next two weeks since we don't have 6 little feet roaming around leaving toys lay, dishes lay, etc......

Oh---Oh---Oh-------but the KICKER of the day!!!!!! DH came in for some water---HOT OUTSIDE! And I just HAD to take a shot of his "tool-belt"!!!! What a hoot!!!!!!! I guess we have/had some wasp nests/hives in the peek of our roof, so he had to "arm" himself. :0)


So catching up time with some of my promised stories.....
First of all, the "Grandma scold"!
GMa and Gpa left at 11:00 on Sunday (old news), and it takes around 3 hours to get from my house to theirs. I knew they wanted to stop shortly at a store along the way, and I figured they MIGHT take a restaurant stop too...so.....I'm thinking 4:00, MAYBE 5:00 latest!!! So.....4:30 rolls around and I get a call from my SIL (who was waiting for them to arrive so she could take HER two kids over to Gma's and Gpa's-----yeah....they're loaded with FIVE grandkids this week!!!) Anyway, I started to get just a teeeeeeeeeny bit worried, but said to give them until 5:00.....
So....5:00 rolls around and no call. I tried calling the house phone---no answer. So I tried the cell phone---no answer! (The cell phone worried me because they should have it with them.) So now...my heads starts reeling just a bit and a little bit more concern starts seeping into my mind.

5:30---same thing!

6:00--same thing! Okay, but NOW I'm starting to go into panic mode JUST a bit.....I love my Dad, but his driving SCARES ME TO DEATH! So ......all the panic thoughts start whirling----"have they been in an accident----do I need to call police and try to hunt them down---who can I call to check on the house to see if they're home and maybe outside..."

So, we called DH's dad (they live 5 miles from my parents). First, we just asked for the church's phone number because Mom had mentioned needing to do some quick decorating for the VBS group this week.....NO ANSWER at the church, though.
So then I call MY sister (5 hours away) to see if she had a cell phone# of my SIL because she was also not answering HER phone now. I wanted to see if Gma and Gpa had contacted her..... My Sister couldn't help!! Ahhhhhhh

by this time, it's 6:30....still no answer at home nor the cell phone. Also, by this time, I have left 3 messages on each phone, with the last one being..."Okay guys---now I have officially gone in to panic mode---I sure hope you are just outside and can't hear the phone, because SOON you are going to have some police banging on your door trying to hunt you down..."

FINALLLLLLLY at 6:50, my mom calls, with a sheepish lil' nervous giggle. "I'm sorry hunny.......but we got home safely around 4:10. We just were swamped with so many things from unpacking, getting the other two kids, getting to church, etc....."
SO, after a good SCOLDING (which my mom took very well), we laughed about the "police banging on your door" message and hung up, BOTH having learned a lesson. My mom learned to NOT forget to call me, and I learned that EVEN THOUGH those little ones can me MONSTERS and drive me BONKERS, my life would be turned upside down if anything were to ever happen to them......


Okay......whew.....now for the "I saved a dollar" story.....
Yesterday, while running the 5 miles from town to home, many MANY thoughts ran through my head, ranging anywhere from..."hmmm, which quilting project should I work on first when I get home?" to "okay, I've gone about 25 minutes, so that's been roughly 2.5 miles..."
BUT, what topped ALL the thoughts is THIS calculation problem.....
"let's see---it's 5 miles home, and my car gets about 20 MPG (TERRIBLE, I KNOW!!!!), so I'm using up an amount of energy that is equivalent to 1/4 of a gallon. Since gas is $4.00 at this time, 1/4 of $4.00 is $1.00. Wooo-hooo....I'm saving $1.00----OMGoodness! That's IT?!?!? FOR all this energy?!?!? *sigh*
*giggle*...leave it to a crazy math-minded brain to "run" numbers while I run :0)

Okay-----now to tonight
(still with me????) Yes, yes, yes....I talked as fast as my thoughts.....so if my words aren't making much sense, then you have tapped in to the real me...... :0)


I know I had written that my goals were to quilt Andrea's Garden, but I was in the mood to piece once I got home. So.....I went downstairs, looked around and saw my stack of "left-over-rail-blocks" from when I was making the CC. Some of you may remember when I first talked about these blocks back on June 14th. And what's funny: once I laid them out tonight and looked through my stash again for some possible sashings, I ACTUALLY opened up my 1.5" strip drawer and pulled out JUST ENOUGH pink strips to make the sashing...I ended up NOT using any of the ones from the June 14th post.....

I have fallen in love with the "free-motion meandering hearts" motive!!! Hearts are so easy to make, and it's OKAY if they are different sizes and a bit "wonky" and not perfect....because, after all, WHO can make a PERFECT heart??!?? :0) By 9:30 I was putting the last stitches in; I once again used the "cheat-fold-backing-to-front" binding method, so it is now officially COMPLETE! I had thought originally of having this as a wall-hanging, but now, it actually is the perfect size and "look" to be a little baby girl quilt :0) I might donate this one to my mom's church for their baptismal baskets. (Which, BTW, Mom and Pastor decided to use my Baby Boy Rag Quilt for this Sunday's baptism. Yeah.....my first Charify Quilt is being used....)


Okay, if you're still with me, you should earn an award!!!! I can't remember exactly when I started writing this post, but it's present right down there...yup....just a bit down from here...."posted at: __________". Well, take that time and subtract it from 11:19, and that's how long it took me to publish this post.

Happy quilting everyone! I hope life is giving you lemonade :0)

I saved a dollar & QUIET house......

Hey.....wait.......shhhhhhhhhhhh............you hear that?????








ME EITHER! It's silent! No #1 being bossy; no #2 whining; no #3 tattling on the other two.........I'm FREEEEEEE----------
Grandma and Grandpa left at 11:00 on Sunday for a 2-week "journey" with them....*giggle*
Now naturally I will MISS them dearly, BUT I am enjoying some selfish "me" time! I do have a funny story about "Scolding Grandma," but I only have a few minutes this morning, so I'll save that for a later post......

My Math Grant class started yesterday and I arrived back to the school's bus garage around 4:30. Short story here......Sunday night, Paul asked to use my car for Monday. He dropped me off at the bus garage yesterday morning (there are 4 of us taking this class, so we are driving the school's van every day.) However, Tthis meant I would have no ride back home from the garage at the end of the day. However, he suggested (jokingly, as a last resort) if I could simply run home.......my response to that: BRILLIANT! He thought my reaction was sarcastic, but I was being serious! It's only 5 miles and since I hadn't run on Saturday NOR Sunday, it was perfect. So after running home and cooling down with a quick shower, I headed downstairs (WHERE ELSE?!?!?) I know the title of this post says I saved a dollar, but that story will have to wait until tonight....related to this run home!! :0)

I really didn't have a set project in mind, either. I had finished the OC Saturday, and had started auditioning backings for Andrea's Garden (AG), hoping to knock that one of my list! I went downstairs, looked around, and found pieces of 2 more Oklahoma Backroads (OB) blocks that I had started, but set aside once I started Cathy's Aunt Sukey. So, I pieced them together----and then feeling inspired to finish piecing OB, I needed space on my carpet, which was currently housing Andrea's Garden and the backing. So.......I took a quick "time-out" to snip, cut, and piece the AG backing. And naturally, once the backing was pieced and ironed, it made NO SENSE to fold it back up only to get wrinkled again.......Upstairs I went to tape it down on the living room floor. Back down I went to grab some batting......having no large pieces anymore, I spent the next 30 minutes arranging "left-overs" and whip-stitching them together. That finished, I laid the complete sandwich out upstairs, which is where it stil is.

So...back downstairs to work more on the OB. HOWEVER, upon grabbing the blocks to begin laying them out, I saw the stacks of the Around the Raggedy World (AtRW) quilt that I started last week, and KNEW I had been lucky so far that the piles were still intact! (They are all stacked in the proper order for sewing). So......I bit the bullet and finished piecing them together, which REALLY didn't take all that long....only about an hour. So this baby has now joined the upstairs projects; I'm about half done ragging the edges and I hope to finish tonight (Tuesday).

So.....that's about it.....I'm sitting here with about another 10 minutes before needing to head out for today's class. The good news: I should be home-home around 4:00!!!! That only means LOTS of quilting time again tonight! My goals: quilt AG and finish ragging the AtRW!

Happy quilting!

OC "done-done"

TADA!!

WOO-HOO! As hoped, I was able to finish quilting the OC today. Final dimensions are 68"x76". Perfect for a twin bed, OR as a wonderful couch snuggler (which is what it will most likely get used for up at the farm).



The quilting is a simple non-thinking meander and was finished lightening-quick. I used a swirvy-back-n-forth in the borders and left the pieced border plain. I had excess of the dark brown fabric, so I used that as the binding. I really wanted to use orange, but I didn't have anywhere NEAR enough (not even bits-n-pieces of different oranges).

The backing was posted yesterday, but here is another shot with the front also.

I know we all say we "love" our quilts, but......I REALLLLLY love this quilt :0) I used thinsulate batting that was given to me from a friend of the family. I like this batting; light, yet warm! And very easy to quilt.....

So.....number 5 of Peg's July Challenge has been met, but I still have others downstairs calling my name. Cathy's Aunt Sukey is still in the process of hand-sewing the three quilted pieces together; the baby quilt is still being hand-quilted, hmmmmm......what to work on next downstairs???? I think I may want work on my Spinning Rails next (from my left over CC rails).


Once I came upstairs after completing the OC, I found grandma playing with the girls, and grandpa resting on the couch. Clearly, he had had some beautifying by some lil' lady......*grin*

Happy Quilting

Belated, but finally acknowledging our Anniversary

Being out of town last weekend, I didn't/haven't gotten around to posting about our "special day" last Friday, 7/11/08.

Ideally, and eventually, I will make a list of ten things/reasons of what/why my marriage means to me, but with the day already beginning around here, I will need to save that for another time.

However, I am acknowleding our success, MUCH do in part to the absolute patience and understanding my DH has (towards me) ;0) At this day in age when divorce rates are exceeding 50%, I take pride in the 10 years we have been able to share.

Happy Saturday.

HA-larious post!!!

OMGoodness! Out surfing this morning, I came across Brandy's site linked off Peg's Quilting Challenge list....

You absolutely MUST read her Friday's post-----it simply brought me to tears (of laughter, that is!)