Something just for me!

There's not been a lot of progress on my October to do list since I've been home - a little binding, a little knitting but no real quilting or piecing so today I pulled out the blocks for my HeartStrings Anniversary quilt. This one is just for me and will be made from blocks sent to me from other HeartStrings members...I had intended to work on piecing this in February but with moving and traveling, my projects kept getting pushed down the list.

The original plan for this quilt included free form pieced letters (like Tonya's) but I was debating whether or not I wanted to take time to do them (and whether I was capable of making them look decent). They're a little *rigid* looking but I think they may just work - I'll continue on with them as I start assembling the blocks.


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I took a walk today

Click on photo for a larger view

Can you tell I'm having fun with the collage feature in Picasa 3? Check it out - it's free!

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Happy Birthday Chris!

Hard to believe my oldest son Chris turns 25 today. If you take a look at the bottom (L) photo of us taken in May of this year....you'll see that I must have had him when I was just a child!

As always, click on the photo to see a larger view

You'll all be glad to hear that Chesty's appointment went great! His knee is fine and all restrictions were lifted. He's been very confused today - wondering why I'm not carrying him up and down the stairs and lifting him up to sit beside me but after giving me a puzzled look, he's jumping and stair climbing all by himself.


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Weight-loss Wednesday

I'm a little confused about how much up or down I am for the week but my total weight loss is 9.6 lbs and I'm heading in the right direction although slowly, very slowly....

I did OK with exercise this week although I've been pretty homebound since we got back from Denmark. Need to drink more water too - with all the trips I seem to almost get back to the point I'm drinking enough, and then I leave home again.

At this point, I consider my goal reached - which was to have my pants fit better so I didn't have to go out and buy new ones. I wouldn't mind losing another 5 lbs so I'll continue on for now - I could stand to lose 25 but I'm just not that dedicated to it right now.

How did you do?


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November's postcard and some knitting

I was in the mood to work on something small tonight when I couldn't sleep so I pulled out my4000 Flower & Plant Motifs book to look for a tree. I didn't trace the tree from the book but used the idea of it to draw a tree that I could attach my leaf beads to. By the way, I bought this book after reading about it on VickiW's blog and I love it. Lots and lots of designs to use for embroidery, applique or even quilting.

This background fabric is not as pinky as it looks in this photo - it's more like a medium/light burgundy which is suitable for a fall theme postcard. I still have to finish the edges but I've got plenty of time before the November 25th due date.

I mentioned that I was going to do some knitting on my trip. The night before we left, I knit a few lines of the shawl pattern I wrote about a few weeks ago and just like the review - I found it very easy to knit but didn't have enough yarn here so I started a prayer shawl. I can't wait to find/order some yarn for the other shawl but I'm going to wait a while so I won't be tempted to put this one aside to work on the other one.

Chesty has an appointment today for an x-ray and then will see the surgeon. Cross your fingers that his knee has healed and they lift his restrictions.


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A couple finishes

It was raining this morning so while I was waiting to take photos, I worked on making and sewing on other bindings. Since the rain didn't stop, I took these photos over the railing in my kitchen. This HeartStrings top was pieced by Barbara in FL and quilted with Baptist Fans.

I got this binding stitched down this morning too. These blocks were made by the Quilting Queens, a local guild here in the Minneapolis area - I assembled and quilted it with freehand hearts. You can see I borrowed the sash border from Barbara's quilt although I used half blocks for mine.



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By the way

Wouldn't this make a great quilt? I love embroidering words on quilts and when I saw this exhibit at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, I knew that one of these days I'd have to recreate my own version in fabric.

I'm not a huge fan of Modern Art but the setting of the museum was beautiful and many of the photos I took while in Denmark were taken there.


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Back to work

Denmark photo's organized and another HeartStrings quilt bound but not much else accomplished today.

The photos can be seen at the link below and I'll take a picture of the finished quilt and post it tomorrow.

Denmark Photos


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It's been a long day

21+ hours of travel and we're home. Chesty gets picked up first thing tomorrow morning and we certainly won't do much the rest of the day but I'm looking forward to getting back to work on Monday.

We had a great time - the weather was gorgeous and the trees were in their full Autumn glory. Copenhagen is a great walking city and we did lots and lots of walking.

I'll upload some more photos later in the week but this was one I liked from the top of the Rundetårn .


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A virtual quilt show - Quilt 7

My favorite quick donation quilt - designed in EQ and probably the instructions most frequently downloaded from my MaryQuilts.com site.


I was thrilled to get this recent email from Crystal.

"I am attaching a picture of the quilts that the young girls made showing the ribbons that they won. In total the girls have made 20 quilts using your pattern. Several went to Project Linus, many went to a pediatric cancer doctor that treated one of the girls. He likes to give the quilts to kids that need an extra hug. A few have gone to children in our small church that were in need. The girls have really enjoyed making the quilts and your pattern was very easy for them to make with the sewing skills that we have been working on. Thank you so much for sharing your pattern with us. Many people have been blessed."


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A virtual quilt show - Quilt 6

Here's a more recent quilt and very simple. Also designed in EQ and pieced from leftover fabric from a quilt for Adam and a case where I ended up liking the leftover quilt better than the original quilt. Instructions are at my MaryQuilts.com site.




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Weightloss Wednesday

Well, I'm not home so there's no objective measurement this week but I'm doing lots of walking and I'm not eating too bad considering I'm away. We'll have to see what the scale says when I get home.

How did YOU do this week?


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A virtual quilt show - Quilts 4 & 5

These two quilts were made from a Quiltmaker pattern. A simple scalloped sashing between the string blocks is very effective. I don't usually do needle turn applique but these scallops were easy.

The first one was made just with strips and strings from the *cool* side of the color wheel...blue, green, purple, and yellow.

The second was made from leftovers from a blue and yellow quilt.




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A virtual quilt show - Quilt 3

Another favorite - I love scrappy two color quilts!

A simple quilt designed in EQ and again, I had help with the piecing from Mom who also made the small nine patch quilt shown at the bottom of the bed and the pillow shams for me. One of these days, I'll add instructions for this one to my MaryQuilts.com site.





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A virtual quilt show - Quilt 2

Purple and Orange - lots and lots of purple and orange half square triangles. This is one of my favorite quilts and somehow Chris managed to talk me out of this one and gave it to his girlfriend at the time.

From the book Spectacular Scraps: A Simple Approach to Stunning Quilts (Milner Craft) by Judy Hooworth and Margaret Rolfe (Paperback - Feb 28, 2006). If you don't own this book, I highly recommend it.

Edit: There was no second photo - just a failed upload of the quilt above - Sorry!

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A virtual quilt show - Quilt 1

Since I'm traveling this week and will have limited internet access (or maybe none) I decided I'd schedule a quilt show and show photos of some of my quilts while I'm gone.

First up is this Ocean Waves quilt
Designed in EQ, I pieced all the blocks and Mom helped me out by assembling the top and then I quilted it. Normally I prefer a more scrappy quilt but this was for Deb and she wanted two fabrics. It's quilted with Jodi Beamish's Waterworld Pantograph.




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Tying up loose ends

We head to Copenhagen tomorrow so we spent today doing laundry, running errands, and dropping Chesty off at the kennel. I'm heading upstairs now to pack.

Chesty won't be able to play with the other dogs this visit but they take good care of him. If you're curious - you can see a photo of him from his first visit in January 2007 - one thing I like about this place is they have cameras in place and normally we can check in on him via video when we're gone. We'll call to check on him and they have Keith's cell number in case they need to reach us.

I bought a couple new bags - a small wallet type purse that I can carry when sight seeing and a larger carry-on tote. I've got the Kindle loaded up with books, the iPod charged, and I'm debating which knitting project to take with me. I'm leaning toward the shawl pattern I showed a few weeks ago and I'm going to try to knit a few rows tonight - if that doesn't work out for me with the yarn I have on hand - I'll take some Homespun yarn with me and knit a prayer shawl. I've knit and donated a couple of those in the past.



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Bach, Beethoven and Brahms

Keith's taking me on a date tonight to dinner and the Orchestra Hall. We've been meaning to go again since last year when we saw the Chieftains but somehow it never happened and then out of the blue, he bought tickets for tonight. Fun!

Chesty update:

Still on full restrictions and he alternates between depressed (below) and demanding. He'll get another x-ray the week after we get back from Copenhagen.

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Postcard exchange

Not a lot of quilting going but I did manage to make the next postcard for our family postcard exchange. October's theme is Halloween but I much prefer an Autumn theme. Luckily, our *rules* allows you to either use the theme or choose your own.

The sunflower is from the book Ribbon Embroidery Bible - I love that whole series of *bible* books - Embroidery, Quilting, Ribbon Embroidery - I have them all.

As a reminder for those interested, I did post the postcard instructions I made up for the family on my MaryQuilts.com site.


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and now the front

Here's the front of the quilt I was binding last night - it's a HeartStrings quilt pieced by Deborah and sent to me for quilting and donating. Deborah pieces the cutest quilts and I always love getting tops from her to quilt.

Deborah's Churn Dash
Deborah's 30's Strings


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I like binding

The hand stitching part of binding that is...I admired my flower quilting on this HeartStrings quilt tonight while stitching down the binding.

And I also managed to finish my Wonky Trees. I need to remove my markings I made for the trees and letters and then I'll hang it up on the wall. As I was trimming this last night, I realized that while this isn't the prettiest quilt I've ever made, it was fun.



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Weight-loss Wednesday

A little more slow, steady progress

• lost 0.8 this week for a total of 9 lbs.
• Did more walking this week - I'm trying to get out more as it's better for my mental health when I don't stay shut in all day.
• A terrible job with the water again this week. I started off well but then slacked off again. I'm starting too late in the day to get the full 64 oz in and next week won't be any better because we're traveling.
  

How did YOU do this week?


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