San Antonio

We've been here a day and a half and I've explored the Riverwalk area, had a massage, read a book and relaxed by the pool. I still want to walk along the mission trail, visit the Alamo and the San Antonio Central Library (I have a thing for visiting libraries in the cities I travel to).

On a quilting note I did get started on the borders for the string quilt before I left home. I got the first inner border on, a pieced border partially sewn on, and have that to finish along with another final border once I get home.

A rainy day, a hike, and a honeysuckle scented trail

No quilting today at least not so far although at 1:24am I am considering working on the string quilt borders.

I almost didn't go for my hike today - it was rainy and cool and I thought the weather was too bad for a long hike. Luckily Keith and I were emailing back and forth about other things and he said I should go anyway. I spent 3 hours hiking along honeysuckle scented trails and came home feeling wonderful.

Another trip coming up on Friday. Keith has a meeting in San Antonio and I'm tagging along. Several years ago he worked for a company based in San Antonio but the kids weren't old enough to be left so I never got to go with him. I haven't been to Texas - unless you count flying through Dallas airport so I'm looking forward to the trip.

Strings

Can anyone explain how I can have finished 4 lap sized quilts without having that pile of strips and strings on the floor decrease at all??

Actually the 4th one is not yet finished - I put the blocks together today and just have to add borders. I am thinking of a striped pieced border sandwiched between a narrow and wider blue border.

So far I'm liking the Hourglass Strings better but its not unusual for me to not be crazy about a quilt at this point in the process. I've learned to wait until the top is finished and if I'm still not crazy about it - give the quilting a chance. It's amazing how much I like so-so quilts after they are quilted.

Photo's from Friday

Since I couldn't post these on Friday while I was up at the condo I'll share them now. I've posted the view before but it seems *new* with everything greening up for spring.

Chesty enjoyed the view with me.

Tagged again

I'm not very good at these but I'll give it a shot.

All That History
20 years ago (1986):Working as an RN, divorcing my first husband, single mom to Chris - 3 and Adam - 1.
10 years ago (1996): Remarried to Keith 7 years by this time, living in Tampa, still working as an RN, raising Chris and Adam.
5 years ago (2001): Working some, taking some classes, trying to decide what I wanted to be when I grow up. Quilting for about 6 months and loving it. Living in South Florida with Keith, Chris and Adam.
1 year ago (2005): Spending our 3rd year in the Atlanta area, brought Keith's dad to live with us and cared for him until he died in May. Chris graduated from college, Adam still in Culinary school, still spending my spare time quilting, traveling with Keith when I can.
1 month ago (2006):Signed up for the Breast Cancer 3 day and started training walks, weekends at the condo in the Georgia mountains, a trip to Boston, celebrated Adam's 21st birthday by visiting him.
Today: Breakfast with Keith, a trip to Home Depot to order carpet and flooring for the condo, my Weight Watchers meeting - 22 lbs lost since mid January.
Tomorrow: Put together my Blue string blocks, take a hike.
Tagging: I'll tag Norma, one of the newer members to Stash Quilts so we can all learn a little about her!

This day just kept getting better

My husband came home with flowers and a card for our anniversary AND reservations for a trip to Ireland in October. We've been trying to plan a trip there for 10 years and something always comes up - last year we had tickets booked but his Dad came to live with us and was too ill for me to leave him so we canceled.

I'm so excited but October is going to be exhausting - first we'll have the 10 day trip to Ireland, then the Breast Cancer 3 day, then my son's wedding. It's a good thing we're the parents of the groom and have no responsibilities except the rehearsal dinner since we'll be tied up the 3 weekends before the wedding!

Sometimes good things just happen

I was *stuck* at the condo today waiting for a guy to come measure for carpet when I read a message on the Stashbuster list about someone getting an early start on the stay at home weekend retreat.

Since I'd tossed my hexagon flowers in a tote to bring with me this weekend I decided I would *retreat* while I was waiting. I put some music on and spent the afternoon out on the deck sewing hexagons. It was a beautiful day and one I would probably have spent inside sewing at the machine had I been at home.

Then just as I was thinking what a wonderful day I'd had, my husband called from the airport saying his flight was already in and that he'd be at the condo in time to go out to dinner tonight. Since today is our 17th anniversary and I thought he wouldn't be home until late this evening this was just icing on the cake!

I wish I could upload the pictures I took today of the lake and trees from the deck but that will have to wait until I get home Monday.

Progress

Another quilt top finished.

21 pounds lost since mid January

34 miles hiked last week

$1,695.00 raised so far for Breast Cancer research.

******
Thanks to those who have already made donations to help me reach my goal. To make a donation in memory of someone lost to breast cancer or in honor of someone fighting the disease please click the link below.

Breast Cancer 3 Day

I made my deadline

I did finish both the quilts on Thursday that I wanted to get done before the weekend. The first was this log cabin quilt my Aunt made and the second one was a donation quilt I was asked to quilt for my guild.

Tomorrow I can get back to work on my string quilts.

Family Quilt Challenge/Exchange

Debbie's quilt
Ann's quilt (she's on the left)

Maureen's quilt

Mom's quilt (this is the one I got in the exchange)
Janet is Debbie's daughter-in-law and didn't finish her quilt in time for the exchange but it was her first quilt so maybe it was best she got to keep it.

Evelyn asked if I had pictures of the other quilts that were exchanged when I did the Toile quilt. I don't have those but my Autumn Geese was done for a family challenge two and a half years ago and I do have pictures of those quilts. The rules were simple - the quilt had to be a scrap quilt and have a minimum of 25 fabrics.

After everyone showed their quilt we pulled numbers out of a bowl to see which one we would win. It was random EXCEPT if we'd already previously won a quilt from someone we drew another name.

My Toile quilt was for the exchange after this one and my sister who hates scrap quilts made the rule that it had to have only 3 fabrics and applique - I think she was trying to get back at me!

We were supposed to exchange quilts again last June but life got in the way. I did get mine from Debbie but haven't yet made the wallhanging I'm supposed to make for Maureen. I guess I should move that up my list.

Thursday already?

I can't believe how fast this week is flying by. I've got my Aunt's quilt on the longarm and plan to finish it up today and then have a small lap quilt I agreed to quilt for the guild to get loaded.

The plan was to have both tops quilted before Friday so I could get back to my blue string quilts when we get home from the mountains on Sunday - not sure if I'll make that deadline. However, Keith is out of town tonight so I might just get finished if I get back to work. I decided I'm going to make a smaller quilt with the hourglass string blocks so I have enough of them - it will make a cute baby quilt - but I still have to piece more of the string blocks for the 2nd quilt.

I'm spending quilting time hiking both to boost my weight loss and to train for the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk. Yesterday I did a 10.3 mile hike which took 3 hrs and 15 minutes to hike and by the time I added travel time it was about 4 hours. Today I only did 6 miles but that was another 3 hours by the time I stopped by the post office to mail the taxes off.

I'm off to shower and then quilt the rest of the evening (and into the night if needed!).

Autumn Quilts

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Geese

I was living in Florida when I started quilting and missed the colors of fall so each year I make an Autumn quilt.

I'm looking at patterns for this year's quilt but haven't yet picked one. I have the fabrics - fat quarters brought over a year ago that are just waiting for inspiration.

I thought I'd share 3 of my previous quilts.

Autumn Cabin was last year's finish although the top had been made the year (2004) before that.

Autumn Leaves was designed in EQ5.

Autumn Geese was inspired by a picture in the first Nickel Quilts book. I don't own the book but had seen the combination of flying geese and four patch blocks and thought it would suit my fabrics. This quilt was given to my sister in one of our family quilt exchanges.

I'm getting a little tired of blue!

With all the leftover strips from the blue braid quilts I decided I needed to work on a string quilt. Pulled a bunch of blue strings out and tossed them with the strips and started making these string blocks.

I went looking for some ideas on layout and saw a pattern in the book Liberated Strings for the hourglass blocks and just had to try that with a few of my string blocks. So now I really like how the hourglass blocks look but I also like the string blocks I started with.

I decided that I'll make both quilts. I have plenty of strips and strings for two and so I've been working on both sets of blocks for the last couple days. The pictures were taken at different times so the colors look off but they ARE the same set of blocks.


I'm about halfway done with both sets but am off to Virginia for a few days for a visit with my Mom so they'll be waiting for me when I get back.

I won't have computer access while I'm gone because my Mom's computer got fried when she had a power surge last week but will check in on Sunday night when I get home. Hope you all get lots of quilting done this weekend.

Request for donations

I hope no one is offended by this post but I'd blogged recently about registering for the Beast Cancer 3 day to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research.

In that post I did not say why this was an important event for me. I lost my Aunt last spring to breast cancer and 2 of my sisters have struggled with this disease. I'm ready to help fund research to eliminate breast cancer before any more of my family is affected.

I'll be walking in memory of my Aunt Lillian and would appreciate the support of anyone who has had to face this struggle in their own family.

Since training for the 3 day - 60 mile walk is going to be such a big part of my life over the next few months I will be blogging about my progress and posting the link for donations. This link is also posted in my sidebar.

To make a contribution please follow this link:
Atlanta 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk - Mary Johnson

For questions or comments feel free to email me directly.

I'm well ahead of the suggested training schedule for the 3 day event so I'm feeling good about my miles logged.

Miles walked last week = 33
Miles walked this week = 34