Child Advocacy Center Quilt

Our quilting ministry at church is donating these small t-shirt quilts and fleece throws to the local Child Advocacy Center. I think we have about 27 throws and only about 4 t-shirt quilts. I am not surprised. The throws are so easy to make with no sewing; the t-shirt quilts take a whole lot more time and effort.

I picked up the colorful t-shirts at a local thrift store.

I used a cute flannel for the backing and binding that I bought at Walmart.

I had to machine stitch it sooo slow. I was afraid the needle would break on the printed designs. It slugged along. I hope this will make a little boy happy.

Ease into 5k

Finished up week three today! So far, so good, although the most I am running is only 3 minutes at a time. Week four will have me running for 4, 6, and 4 minutes between periods of walking. I managed a good pace today. The beautiful weather helped to motivate me.

 

A little this and a little that......

I pulled out my sour dough recipe the other day. Can you say yummy? The only negative about making it is, you have to plan for two days to mix, rise, shape, rise, and bake. It is worth it.

 

My son Elijah preached today. Very short visit home. Katie had to work so she didn't get to come with him. His message was so good! His dad and grandma came and they let me make their picture.

Got to give the puppy quilt to the little momma....

It was time to make more laundry detergent. I've gotten very fond of this stuff. I have been adding some citrus essential oils to it to give it a better scent. The recipe I use makes two gallons.

Passed my carry permit class yesterday. However I was a bit frustrated because they didn't count all my shots correctly, but it didn't matter. I qualified anyway.

And my last news is today I finished week 2 of my C25k program! Yippee! It was more difficult than it was on Friday. Not sure why. I know it is going to get harder and harder, so I am trying to prepare myself mentally not to give up, to keep at it, even if I have to repeat some weeks.

 

Finished Puppy Love

This has to be one of the cutest baby quilts I have ever made......

I used a very light gray thread to quilt it. Tried doing the machine binding but it just didn't work out. Ripped it out about three times before I finally gave in and hand stitched it down --- on the front. I used black thread for the hand work and you can't see the stitches at all.

 

C25K progress

I am pumped. Really. I did week two, day 1, of the eight week program. Yeah, I only ran 1 1/2 minutes at a time, alternating with 2 minutes of walking, but that is an accomplishment! It feels so great.

Week one was easy and today really seemed about as easy. Unless I wake up sore tomorrow, I am going to do day two; and i'll finish up the three sessions for week two on Sunday. This has got to be the best program ever for training to run a 5k. Slowly and consistently alternating between jogging and walking. I know it is early in the program but I am loving it. If you are even remotely interested look up "C25k success stories" on the web. Many folks start out very, very overweight and can do it.

On a different topic....

I decided to go ahead an appliqué the baby's name on his little quilt. I ordered some light grey thread to use for the quilting. Hopefully it will come tomorrow or Saturday.

I love to learn. Learning something new drives me. Quilting is my hobby of choice but now I have two new hobbies. Running (I hope, realizing it is still early in my training program), and shooting. I am taking my carry permit class on Saturday. It is a fun hobby too, and a good skill to have.

 

Puppy Love - top finished

Started Saturday. Finished Sunday afternoon. I think I am going to use a light grey thread, which I had to order. If the thread isn't here by the weekend I think I'll try to appliqué his name below the puppy like the pattern recommends. I wasn't going to do that because after I finished the other appliqué, I was over it.....I've had 24 hours now to chill about my not-so-good appliqué, so maybe I can give the name a try. His name is short, only five letters. This has to be one of the cutest baby quilts I've made. Check out Heather's book called Little Quilts 4 Little Kids. She has other, really cute patterns for both boys and girls.

 

Puppy Love

This is my next project. The pattern is by Heather Mulder Peterson, called Puppy Love. I think it is going to be adorable.

Haven't done appliqué in ages. Hope I haven't forgotten how.

 

First finish of 2013

I was so sick of this by the time I finished.......but

I love it. I pieced the back....

The cheapo fabric I used for the back and borders really caused it to crinkle up, but I like that look.

I also did my first machine binding. I've never really liked machine bindings. Maybe I was a quilter snob, that felt like you were somehow cheating if you did a machine binding.....

But it really turned out well. Even the mitered corners turned out good.

I think the key is to have thread that almost disappears on the front and the back. This would have taken me about four hours to hand bind, and I am pretty fast. I think it took me thirty minutes to do this binding. Wow, can't beat that.

 

Couch to 5k

I started something today. I really hope I will stick with it. The couch-to-5k training. It is a training program that is supposed to get you ready to run a 5k race in 8 weeks. You only train for 25-30 minutes three times a week, and it is basically alternates between short times of jogging and times of walking.

I found this free app that will guide you. it will tell you when to run and when to walk. nice! Today was really pretty easy. I ended up doing the 25 minute training and then another 30 minutes or so walking with my friend. Felt great! My goal is to run a 5k. I don't care about times but I just want to run and finish one. I have a friend at work who is just a bit older than me and she does 5k races. She is my inspiration!

 

Good fabric

I was excited to get this is the mail this week....

Most of it is from a Riley Blake line called "The simple life." I was so tired of working with shirts I decided to splurge for some cute good quality fabric. I have a baby quilt to do that I hope to start tomorrow, after I decide on a pattern. I love the yellow typeset fabric. It and the gray dots are a different line. They are my favorite, but I love the little banners too. And you can never go wrong with red and turquoise.

 

Krispy Kreme

This morning our pastor, who absolutely loves Krispy Kreme doughnuts, talked about doughnuts -- well, he was preaching on the mustard seed and the leaven from Luke 13:18-21......anyway, I've always wanted to try my hand at homemade doughnuts. So......

I found a copy cat recipe for Krispy Kreme

Oh my, my...

Can you say yummy?

That empty spot on the parchment paper.....it was good! Were they as good as Krispy Kreme? Not quite, but honestly, they were excellent. Not as light as the real thing, but still.....very, very good.

 

Shirt scrappiness

Finally got this monstrosity finished. Well, the top anyway.

All shirt pieces. Leftovers from various remembrance quilts, some thrift store shirts, and some of my son's shirt scraps can be found in this. Got the plaid border at Jo-Ann's along with a red plaid for the backing. You'd think after almost six years of quilting, I would learn how to pick quality fabric. Nope. Pretty poor quality.

I think I am ready to sew on some fine quality designer fabrics! And make something small like a baby quilt! No more shirt scraps for a while.