So NOT dixciplined!

It has almost been a year since I wrote anything. Sometimes life has a way of just moving on. I admire those who can post on a very consistent basis. I've made many pet quilts and quite a few little dresses. Here are a few and as soon as I get the others downloaded I will get them posted.







Just so you know the boys have not been left out, here are a few of the shorts I made for them.


I have made many shelter quilts. I got about two dozen done and then got them to the local shelter before Christmas!















I used the same fabrics several times in various ways to make these little quilts. This was a bunch of knit fabric that I wasn't sure would work. I think they turned out very nice.

I had made a top with these diamonds. Then it was suggested that I make shelter quilts out of it. So I tore it apart and made different sizes and put different flannel backs on them. Sometimes I have fun with backs. This one turned out nice. Sometimes it is hard to give them away. Then I think of the animals and these quilts are really not very big. They range from about 18" x18" (for cats) to 36" x 36" (for big dogs).

I am just NOT disciplined!

It has been wa-ay too long since I have posted. Life has been busy, busy, busy. There have been birthdays, anniversaries, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to keep us all busy! Plus I feel that I should post pictures whenever I blog and getting the pictures from the camera to the computer is not in my repertoire. DH is trying to teach me. I think it is hopeless. I have been busy making more quilts for our local animal shelter. As you can see...I got quite a bit of the same fabrics. These were knits, actually. I got some pre-quilted backing material and thought these fabrics were destined to go together.
All of these quilts are between 18 x 18 to 24 x 24. I had fun trying to come up with different string styles to make these quilts unique. It is fun to try different patterns, styles and quilting techniques.
This is the back on all the knit quilts. I used more of the knit material to bind them. Not every quilt is a string. One is a 4-patch and the one below is a 9-patch. I like many, many kinds of quilts. I admire the makers of complicated and intricate quilts. I know I have a problem with those kinds of quilts. If I were to attempt them, they would have to absolutely perfect. I would be tearing out seams left and right because I would not be satisfied and it would frustrate me to no end. That is why I like the string quilts.
There is no right or wrong to the way you do it. Just an infinite amount of variations! Most of these quilts are quilted very simply, stitch in the ditch or in straight lines or some such. I got a quilting foot for Christmas that I haven't tried yet. I have started on a rag quilt for a nephew. I do work on bits of charity quilts in between.
After I get done with the rag quilt for my nephew (great nephew actually) I will have to make a quilt for each of his two sisters. Ideas are just swirling!
These two quilts were made from fairly small pieces of flannel. This was my experiment using a foundation and just sewing kinda willy-nilly. I think they turned out rather pretty. The foundations were 6 x 9 so the quilts came out to about 18 x 18
I must admit that I was glad t when I ran out of these knit fabrics. I had fun making different designs, but I was getting tired of the same 7 or 8 fabrics. I was going to buy binding, but money is tight and if I used the knits, I wouldn't have to make another quilt to use the end of it. I even used the dark blue knit to bind the two flannel quilts. Look at the first quilt on the page and you will see that it has the last of the usable fabric and I used two fabris for its binding.














Well...the holidays kinda messed me up. I didn't want to stick to the Metabolism Miracle. I just had fun and tried to NOT get carried away. I know I didn't lose any weight, but I didn't gain any either! I need to get back into exercising. I used to walk a mile or more a day. When I really get into my quilting, that is all I like to do. I guess I am just going to have to find moderation in all that I do. This being a mom and a wife can be difficult at times. Difficult, but so very rewarding! So I started phase one again. Or at least I am trying to. We got ths jar of cookies. They are like Mother's frosted animal cookies, only way better. They are very hard to stay away from. They are so-o goo-ood!! I feel my day is successful if I have only one handful. LOL

This just seems to be my DH time for dental problems. He has to go in and have oral surgery. So I get to babysit him since he will be groggy. I hope it solves the problems he has been having.

Our son C has his big truck here. He broke a frame rail and he has been welding it back together slowly but surely. It's kinda nice, we get to see him almost every weekend. I like to see my babies, even though they are adults now. We have two grandsons that we don't get to see often enough. I am just glad that I can usually watch them when my son D and his DW needs help.

Enough for now. I really want to go to Wal*Mart and get a couple of things before they close!

It's only Tuesday

I know, I said I would update on Monday. Hey, it's only Tuesday.

I got some free fabric from a wonderful lady. Two boxes worth! There were a lot of pieces that were perfect for scrap quilting. Actually, it was all good for scrap quilting. Some of the pieces were quite large. I knew I would get tired of some of them after putting them into several quilts. There had to be something else I could do. I found Little Dresses for Africa. So I started making these little dresses. They also ask for shorts for the boys. I have some denim and khaki material stowed away. I will have to get it out and use some cute "boy" material and make some shorts too. I want to do this before I mail the clothes off. Some other things I want to do is make grocery bags. Become a little more green in our day to day life.

Why is it so hard to do this protocol? I feel so much better when I follow the guidelines. It is a lifestyle change. I so enjoy potato chips and Fritos and potatoes, and bread and so many other high glycemic foods. I am doing a little better this week. I know part of my problem is Thanksgiving. Why follow the protocol when I'm gonna blow it next week? I know I'm gonna blow it, I plan on it. There is a remedy for that in the book. So I should be good and then fix it later. Diane Kress says she goes on vacation, doesn't worry about what she eats, and then does this remedy (my words) to get back into the routine. That is what I should do. I am impatiently waiting for her cookbook to come out. It will be available in January, 2011. I am sure it will be another excellent resource.

We are getting ready for turkey day and all the guests. I am supposed to be cleaning the living room. I have been sewing and posting instead. I am a bad schnitzengruben! I am so glad DH did not marry me for my domestic skills! The LR should take me a couple of minutes. We want to shampoo the carpets on Thursday (this week). That means Punkers will be locked in the bathroom. She is getting to be an old kitty, 15 in February and we are having issues. She doesn't always go in the kitty box and that gets old really quick. We now shut her in the bathroom overnite. We don't like finding "surprises" in the morning, they are usually found with bare feet, ugh! She also gets put back in the bathroom if we catch her being naughty. You would think she would hate the bathroom, but she goes in there on her own and has a shelf she sleeps on. She does a lot of sleeping. She is still very bright and lively, loves her food and attention, so her time is not up yet. We just have to make accommodations.
It does get frustrating. The potty box is in the room with her. She seldom uses it for poo. She gets in to pee. I don't really understand. She is the only one who uses that one. We want to keep the carpets relatively clean until after Thanksgiving.

We are going to go visit family in southeastern Washington during the first part of Thanksgiving week. Then home to start work on dinner for 10! this is gonna be fun! Later!

Time flies, ufda!

Oh my gosh! It has been such a long time since I posted. Life somehow gets in the way of the things we intend to do, doesn't it? I am doing this for me, so I will try to do better with my posts.

I did indeed finish the spiderweb quilt. Inspiration came from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.
I have gotten a lot of inspiration from her website. I also got DH quilt done. I need to take a picture of DH's quilt, so I will publish in a different post. I have stayed busy. I found the Snuggles Project. You can only make so many quilts for the ones you love, well not really. When they start rolling their eyes, you know you have almost reached that limit. LOL This allows me to make smaller sized quilts to experiment with design and quilting techniques. If they're not perfect, the animals don't care, they have a soft hug for their stay at the shelter. I am fortunate that our local shelter is a participant and I asked that the quilts go with them when they find their forever home. I have made several quilts for them (as you can see, I had a lot of purple) and am working on more even now. I got two boxes of fabric from a wonderful lady in Beaverton. There were a lot of black and white squares cut and sewed in twos and fours. I put them together for the black and white quilt. I really like how that one turned out. I have several projects going at the same time. I have to be disciplined to make sure I finish them. I have a bad habit of getting to the very last piece of a project and then leaving it for something else. At the moment I am working on a quilt for me (again) and in between I work on the shelter quilts. Then there are the projects that I am collecting fabric for and are still just in my head. We will see how that works out.

I moved my sewing machine out of my bedroom. I do not have a dedicated sewing room. I moved my machine to the family room. I was tired of being sequestered in my bedroom. I still do the ironing and cutting and such in my room. Since this is my hobby and I don't have to worry about time lines and being efficient, it works for me. It is about 28 steps from my cutting/ironing spot to my machine. So I am getting more steps into my life (good). My ironing/cutting spot is on the floor. so I have to get down there. That helps with flexibility (better). All of it helps to keep me out of the fridge (best)! I am working on a rag, string quilt at the moment. I am working on it one square at a time. For every string I put on the square, I have to sit on the floor to cut it in my room, get up and walk to my machine (28 steps), sit down to sew, stand up and walk back to the ironing board (another 28 steps), lower myself to the floor to iron and then repeat. When I worked on son J's quilt, I was just moving around my room and lost 10 lbs. I hope this and the Metabolism Miracle, will be even better at the weight loss.

I tend to start sewing after I have taken son N to school. With the up and down and walking, by the time he gets home, I am tired. It's a good tired! I do try to get some house work done in there too. I am writing this in dribs and drabs in between strings.

I really believe in the Metabolism Miracle. I feel so much better when I follow the protocol. Yet, the high carb processed foods are so easy to grab and eat. Then the relentless cycle begins. Eating a lot of carbs make you want and crave even more. It is the time of year for so many of those high carb comfort foods, I am determined to find alternatives and do this! I need to get as healthy as I can for me, my family, and my future.

Breakfast, today, was not to specs ( the first phase of the Metabolism Miracle). I had cheerios and milk. At least I did use Splenda. Lunch is to specs. I had sauteed vegetables (onions, garlic, mushrooms, Mexican squash, and tomatoes over tofu Shirtake noodles with fresh marinated mozzarella balls. Tomatoes can be an iffy factor with carbs so you can use only so much. One tomato per meal. I stayed within the parameters of "free" veggies, so no carbs I need to worry about! During the first phase of MM, you are trying to give your body a rest from overreacting to carbs and releasing insulin. I know when I did this the first time months ago, I could really feel the difference. You would think that would be enough of an incentive to keep going, not to mention the weight loss, better sleep, and such. It is difficult to keep to the MM when the rest of the household can eat almost whatever they want *sigh*.

DH just got done with a two month mandatory overtime and very intense, temporary project at his work. Twelve hour days are tough. The overtime was nice, but I'm not sure it was completely worth it. Then while he was working on the lawn tractor he somehow cracked his rib. It is amazing how that can effect your entire body. He refuses to slow down. He is such a hard-working selfless person. I am very lucky that he chose me and continues to do so despite my many flaws.

Thomas is in a mood today. He is ripping around the house, in and out. He'll come running thru then u-turn to go back the way he came. I will hear one of the cat doors go ka-thunk (front of the house) then mere moments later I hear the click-clack of the back cat door and around he goes again. He is such a funny cat. He just ran up and bumped my leg. He likes to head butt your leg while you sit, anywhere. If you ignore him he just might bite to get your attention. i almost always put my hand down to pet him so I won't get those "love" bites! XD

I'm gonna try to post at least once a week, so I need to get busy and see you next week!

Midweek Mayhem

Well... not quite. Dear Hubby had a dental appointment today, so he messed up my schedule once again. I don't mind, I enjoy spending time with him. More on that later. I did get to do some sewing today. I am almost done! I machine sewed the binding to the front of the quilt. Now comes the tedious task of hand sewing the binding on the back side of the quilt. I will then get a picture of it on here so you can see the spider web design. The next quilt I am going to do, as I said, is for DH. I am going to make a laptop "sleeve" first. Gotta make pretty accessories for my new toy!

Let's talk about the veggies you can have: artichokes, artichoke hearts, aspargus, green beans, wax beans, bean sprouts, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, dill pickles, eggplant, onions and scallions, greens such as collards, kale, mustard, and turnip, kohlrabi, leeks, mushrooms, okra, peppers (red, green & yellow), radishes salad greens, summer squash, zichinni, spaghetti squash, sauerkraut, spinach, tomato (with limits), and turnips. That is a lot of food that has carbs but you don't have to count them! If you have pre-diabetes, type II diabetes, or suspect you are going down that road, I really suggest you get the Metabolism Miracle and read it. I am four weeks into step one. I can see a difference. Even better, I can feel a difference. I'll keep you posted.

We used to have a Ford Courier Truck. We did until our 23 year old totaled it. A few months back we bought another one. It is definately a project. We are so silly! We really liked our little truck. So we are attempting to recreate it, sorta. It is definatley it's own truck. It will be fun to make a close facsimile. Baby steps, we must remember, baby steps. It would be nice to have it the way we want, now. It's going to take time and money and both are in limited supply. Eventually we will have a nice little truck to do some work with. DH just won't know what will await him when he comes home after work. Craigslist is a wonderful tool and we have gotten several free things. Just think what I can do if I had a truck!

Back after a long break

It has been a long dry spell of no quilting. I finally got to sit down at my machine and sew on the most recent project yesterday. I'm almost done. I need to do a little more quilting and then put on the binding and then I'll be done. I didn't work on it at all today. I was lazy and played on the computer. I really need to get this done by Saturday. We will be in the right part of town to deliver it on Sunday.

I don't have a large dedicated space for my sewing. I have a sewing table. I just over run the bedroom when I have my sewing out. I have a portable ironing board on the floor for ironing seams. I get up and down a lot so I get my excersize. It is not the most efficient way to make a quilt. When I made my oldest son's quilt, I lost 10 lbs doing it. Then I have an armoire that I hide my material and supplies and projects in.

Speaking of losing weight. I think I am doing well. I feel better and some troublesome developments appear to be reversing. I should just go ahead and admit that I am reading and following a book called The Metabolism Miracle. This book just made so much sense to me. I never could understand why diabetic diets had so many processed carbs in them. Not all carbs are created equal and a lot of the processed carbs wreck havoc with your body. I could always tell when I had had too many processed carbs. One slice of bread could be too many. I would get very hot and flushed. I started this "lifestyle change" on January 26th. I have not gotten hot and flushed since January 27th. There are definitely restrictions on this protocol. They are actually easy to live with and they do not go on forever. Eventually you get to have some of those carbs back. You need to follow the rules so you don't get in trouble. I think it is very doable and there is room for a little indulgence. Once you get to stage three, you can almost live normal. This is a lifestyle change. I am looking forward to felling better than I have in years and reversing some changes that pre-diabetes and diabetes can bring on.

We finally got the kids married. Their day is February 14th. It was short and sweet and did the job. I think the important thing is, they wanted a ceremony. After two children, they both realized they couldn't afford one. They were just going to go in front of a judge. Then this opportunity showed up, and a small, but nice ceremony was possible and affordable.

We had a sad event happen too. On February 13th my DH's sister passed away. It was not unexpected. You're just not fully prepared. So DH was home all week and delightfully disrupted my schedule! It's not fun when mortality smacks you in the face. A comment his remaining sister made was that she was next. We were all thinking it, we just weren't gonna say it! DH is the baby of his family so theoretically he would be the last to go. I am the oldest, so I would be the first to go (my family).

We got our tax return and decided to help the economy by joining the ranks of households with huge TV's and portable computers. We got some necessities too. The fun stuff was more fun to buy.

The weekend

I don't usually get to work on my quilting over the weekend and this one was no exception. We did go to Wal*Mart to get some stuff and I got some more fabric for other quilts that I have running around in my head.

My diet...oh-um...protocol is going well. The one thing I find inconvenient, all the easy or instant stuff is loaded with carbs. Don't get me wrong, making a salad or scrambled eggs is not difficult. Just sometimes it is a whole lot easier to just pour a bowl of cereal. There is a lot more prep work involved without the carbs. My DH didn't marry me for my cooking skills either, he's the cook. Another thing that has changed, DH would cook pancakes or waffles or biscuits and gravy on the weekends. At this stage of the game, all this stuff is not allowed. I've got him reading about this approach to a healthy lifestyle so he can understand what is going on and hopefully he won't unintentionally sabotage my efforts.

I will admit that I seem to use a lot of eggs. I try to limit the yolks to 5 a week. You can have almost all the egg whites you want, they are pure protein. As a family we use a lot of eggs. I had started to collect egg cartons. They were piling up on the top of my cupboards. Anyone who saw them asked why I was saving them. I want to have some backyard chickens someday and I supposed it was for that reason. I had collected 48 cartons. We can only have 3 or 4 hens. Even if I had chickens now, I don't think they could fill those cartons anytime soon. I don't think the chickens will get here this year either. So I posted the cartons on Craigslist. I proposed a trade, one egg for one carton. I got 4 dozen wonderful, free range eggs. Some are chicken, some are duck, and I even got a couple of turkey eggs. What fun!

My DH usually works on Saturday and has Sunday off. This week, cuz of the Super Bowl, he had Saturday off and worked Sunday. We got the rugs shampooed, yea! We bought this house almost three years ago. We had the rugs shampooed at that time. It was time to do it again. I've said it before, thank goodness for company otherwise our house might never get clean. We would like to replace the carpets but will have to wait for a later date. I should be working on some more cleaning like sandblasting my boy's bathroom. I like writing in my blog better.

Our flea spot treatment arrived yesterday. After the wedding we will dose our cats. We have 6 at this time. We have Guido and Punkin. He's our oldest boy and she's oldest of them all and only girl.

Thomas, he is such a fun cat! We Call him Thup-Thup cuz that's the sound he makes when he rushes over to bump your leg.

And there is Fred, a small sometimes grumpy cat.

One of our newer acquisition (someone dump him) is Ruby. Poor Ruby, he has an identity problem, his name is Ruby. So we call Rubio, or Rubicon, or Rubix, or even Rubin.

Our sixth cat was another dumped cat. We named him Earl Grey. We don't have a picture yet but he is a smaller and younger version of Guido.