Friday Fix-up Etc. Saturday Report

I felt like I had been stagnating without running much lately, getting grumpier and lumpier. So Thursday we had enough of a break in the rain that I forced myself to go out to the lake. It was also the last lake run for the fall, since the time changes tonight. Starting next week we run in town from the running shoe store. The rain held off for the first couple miles, then sprinkled, then poured for the fourth mile. But what can you do? You have to get back to the car, and since you're hot, the rain feels good by then. And my mood was noticably better, so I was glad I went.

I also learned that Race the Dead was going to be Friday night instead of on Halloween, so since the objective is to have fun and run slow, I decided to leave work an hour early on Friday and go to the race. I won a "trophy". HA. It was pretty nice out, relatively. After almost 4 inches of rain Thursday night and Friday all day, the sun came out about 10 minutes before sunset, creating a beautiful sky and reflecting gold and pink on the remaining clouds. The race course was dark, bumpy, wet and passed a cemetery. Very fun, had hamburgers at the nice little host tavern afterwards and chatted with running friends I haven't seen for a few weeks. A motivating evening, and I'm not sore today like I thought after running two days in a row.

Finished up my October S.T.U.D. mini for Suzee and have it packaged up and ready to mail. I concentrated on the quilting this time - used a tinier stitch length and traced around the designs in the various print fabrics. I am please with the way it turned out and I hope she likes it. The theme was Woodland World.

Here is Grace wearing the outfit I made for the Patty Young fabric challenge in September. The sleeves are a bit long, but otherwise she really loved it. She and A spent last Saturday with us since M went to a men's retreat near here. We get to babysit for her tonight while A&M go to a church Halloween party. I wonder if she learned to crawl yet? Last week she had three good methods in mind but didn't achieve any forward motion. 1) get on hands and knees and rock away, 2) lie on tummy and thrash arms and legs as fast as possible, and 3) put head and shoulders on floor and creep toes forward until bottom is sticking up in the air. Fun to watch, I will say.

Today I made some monkey bread for our breakfast, cleaned up the pile of papers by the phone, sorted out all my running clothes and put away the sleeveless things, put aside some race shirts to possibly make a t-shirt quilt, changed the sheets, switched out drh's short sleeve and long sleeve shirts for the cold weather seasons, cleaned out my coupon pocket of my purse, found my keys (didn't take long), bagged up some things for trip to Goodwill later this week.

and... Hooray! Finally done with the shoe closet reorg.

Recent Projects

Two minis made for the My Favorite Quilters Teeny Tiny Mini Swap - I made the Civil War repro Bear Paw and sent to Lish, who made the 30's repro string quilt and sent it to me. Aren't they both just ... teeny? and cute.

This is a table runner made for my friend JG whose birthday is Halloween. She has always been a pumpkin fan - go figure. I got the amazing pumpkin fabric from Kimmie as a swap extra. I decided to make the back so JG could flip it and extend the use clear to Thanksgiving. Fortunately the front and back matched up and didn't shift while I was quilting it. I used black thread on the top and brown on the bottom. The quilting design is made in alternating lines across the width of the quilt - one is simple scallops and the other is more elaborate. Definitely a technique I will use again.

I'm working on a mini for the S.T.U.D. swap Woodland World, and it's about ready to go. It should be, because tomorrow is the last day of October, and that's the deadline! Just a bit of binding to finish sewing, then packing and mailing in the morning.

And for my friend Aimee who has the Friday Fix Ups http://adventuresandpursuits.blogspot.com/2009/09/join-me-for-fridays-fix-up.html - I have finished my shoe closet clean-up and will take a photo tonight! FINALLY.

Friday Fill-ins

From Friday Fill-Ins http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com/:

1. It was a dark and stormy night, and the rain hasn't quit yet!

2. ?? so I offered to take the books myself. (Can't think of an answer)

3. Rushing out, I thought I could get in my run before it rained again.

4. More rain!!! ...I think I heard a howl!

5. Shhhh... I'm trying to take a nap.

6. I haven't cooked a decent meal all week, so give me something good to eat!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to running the Race the Dead race, tomorrow my plans include house chores, sewing and babysitting Grace, and Sunday, I want to take a nap!

Questions and Answers

1. Where is your mobile phone? in my purse

2. Your hair? brown, short and scraggly

3. Your mother? artistic, smart, deceased

4. Your father? smart, talkative, deceased

5. Your favourite food? chicken

6. Your dream last night? rain (or was that real?)

7. Your favourite drink? water

8. Your dream/goal? staying organized

9. What room are you in? office

10. Your hobby? running, quilting

11. Your fear? losing people

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home doing favorite stuff: running, quilting, or with my family

13. Where were you last night? running in the rain

14. Something that you aren’t? mean

15. Muffins? banana nut

16. Wish list item? time to sew and think

17. Where did you grow up? Peoria

18. Last thing you did? ate lunch

19. What are you wearing? tan slacks, black/tan/turquoise print knit top, lt. khaki jacket, black earrings

20. Your TV? not used much

21. Your pet? none

22. Friends? fun, but not enough time to see them enough

23. Your life? busy and happy

24. Your mood? a little on edge due to the rain, long to-do list

25. Missing someone? my daughters - always

26. Vehicle? dirty

27. Something you’re not wearing? long sleeves

28. Your favorite store? TJMaxx

29. Your favorite color? green

30. When was the last time you laughed? this morning

31. Last time you cried? Sunday

32. Your best friend? funny and caring

33. One place that I go to over and over? post office

34. One person who emails me regularly? either one of my sisters

35. Favorite place to eat? home
In addition: old local tavern with the best pizza

36. Best Vacation? hiking in Rocky Mt. National Park

37. Dessert? chocolate cake with chocolate icing

38. Why do you blog? journaling

39. Skill you wish you had? swimming

40. Favorite trait in others? intelligence

Monday Calm

Kate at http://chroniclesofacountrygirl.blogspot.com/ asked some questions today:

What was the last thing you baked? 2 cherry pies for the church bazaar.

What was the last thing you tried on for size? some tops and jackets when I went shopping with my daughter - nothing looked good, though.

What was the last thing you purchased on credit? fabric. surprised? Just used my credit card and will pay when the bill comes. Not like I bought $1000's worth.

What was the last thing you purchased with cash? lunch at the church bazaar (bbq, chips, lemonade and raisin pie)

What was the last thing you took a photo of? mini quilt that I'm mailing to my swap partner this afternoon. Can't show you that yet, but here's a good one:

Quilt Festival Choice

This is a quilt top that my younger sister and I made for our middle sister. She got married in January 2009. We started this early in the fall of 2007. We each made half the 9-patch blocks, with tan or cream prints as the 4-parts and colorful prints as the 5-parts. We had a piece of drapery fabric with a large floral print to guide us in color selection, since we live in two different states.

She picked out the creamy rose and blue setting block fabrics and made the half-square triangle blocks because I was totally against making triangles! She came to my house and we laid them out, lining up the cool colored 9-patches on the rosy halves, and the warm 9-patches on the blue halves. Then we went fabric shopping for the borders. At the end of the weekend, it was all put together. Thanks to our husbands for entertaining each other with computering, golf, and nature hikes. Thanks that they get along, because that is usually what happens!

She took it home and had it professionally quilted, and then put on the binding. I don't have a picture right now of the finished quilt, but our middle sister and her husband love it and have it on their bed.

Thanks to Amy for again sponsoring a Blogger's Quilt Festival! Go click on a few!

New Acquisition

Scored! A giant outdated map on foamcore was being thrown away at work. I used clips to attach an ugly flannel-backed tablecloth - it's pink with blue butterflies, can you tell? Now it's a design board!! YAY. I'm so excited. Some leftovers from my most recent mini were on as a demonstration of how nicely the pieces stick. I'm so happy! I might hang it on the wall behind the quilt frame which you can see in this picture. Now I have some more things on there for current flickr bee blocks and a b'day gift project.

A Few Thoughts

I was doing some blog surfing (I call it chaining - following links in blogs found by links) and found these questions here at Chronicles of a Country Girl.

1. What is your absolute best asset? Not sure if it's my best asset, but I automatically jumped to overanalyze this question: my best physical asset? my best intellectual asset? my best asset in the talent department? my best possession? my best relationship? Whew. I think I have best assets in all those areas and can't really determine what is THE best. My smile, my ability to see the big picture and overanalyze everything, my sewing skills, my house, my sweet husband, my whole family...

2. What is the best thing that has happened to you in the past week? Well, I must here tell you that my short term memory is certainly not my best asset because I can't really remember much that has happened in the past week, but going out to dinner with friends is at the top of the short list.

3. What do you usually use to mark a place in a book you’re reading? I cut the fronts of birthday and other greeting cards we receive into strips about 1.5-2 inches wide and use them for bookmarks. Some of the really pretty ones are laminated on my Xyron. That way I feel I continue to enjoy the cards people are so nice to send.

4. How many times do you hit the snooze button in the morning? Zero.

5. What was the last thing you put a postage stamp on? A package to my sister including secret placemat swap, and some jewelry and a scarf I am loaning her to take on a trip.

Big Quilt on Frame

Last night and today I finally put a pretty big quilt on the frame. It's 84x84. My sister and I made it for a late wedding present for our brother and his wife. I'm using cotton batting for the first time. So we'll see how I like it. I hope to have it quilted in a few days, but my evenings will be busy this week, so it may not be finished until next weekend.

I really like the colorfulness of this quilt. As most quilts do, it kind of designed itself as we worked on it.

Off to run - perfect weather!

Scrap Pile Fun

Started looking through my scraps to make some little zip bags for my church bazaar. I also pulled out some vintage zippers probably intended for some projects years ago. Here is what I ended up with - a green/brown combo, brown/gold/rust combo, green/turquoise combo, and a bit wider one of pinks and greens. Unfortunately, the scrap box seems to be still just as full. But all I used are scraps except for the stiffening.

Now, since so many of the scraps were just too small to use in these projects, any ideas for using the tiny ones? I have a notion to cut them into 1.5 inch squares and make little charm quilts or something tiny. Doesn't that sound like a lot of work, though?