Sunday, April 22, 2012

One step at a time, P.I.T.A Top, Flamingo & Wins

Howdy Ya'll!!!

It's sunny but a bit chilly with the wind outside here in little ole' Barryton, Michigan. The birds are just chripping themselves silly and hopping for everything they got. 

First ~ I finally motivated myself to face the dreaded Treadmill this past week.  I have been putting it off forever as I was waiting for my other half - Steve - to show me how to work the darn thing.  Well.... Monday I finally grabbed the bull by the horns and took a few minutes of looking for the on button.  After a few seconds of pondering it, I was able to figure it out and was on my way. I was determine that I was going to make myself dedicate 15 minutes to it at the #2 speed.  Oh Vay!!  Did I feel that.  I came off the monster and had spagetti legs.  But I did it.... and told myself that I would do it everyday since I have a choice of staying where I was at with my personal circle of hell or grab the bootstraps & get to it.  So the circle is slooooowly being broken one stride at a time. Which isn't a bad thing seeing how I was able to quilt smoking cold turkey a year ago on April 5th.  I was doing good 'til yesterday when I got so wrapped up in my quilting day and missed my time.  So today to make up for it.... I did 30 minutes.  That works out just a smidge over a mile and worth 112 calories burned. After that it was a small bowl of oatmeal, cinnamon and dried cranberries...with a touch of brown sugar. Oh and there was the one slice of whole wheat toast.  Chicken breast for dinner tonight. 

But anyways..... it quilting news this week....
I got spent a couple of days re-sorting and general straightening of my meager stash, but I was able to local some fabrics for some applique work that is planned for the outer boarder of my Q&N Challenge top.  If you remember from my last post this was the one that was just driving me crazy.  I stood up to it .... refused to let it beat me..... and got the top done!! At least up to the point that was needed for the contest.  I know like it soooo much that I want it to fit my queen-size bed.  But the hair pulling has come to an end!  YEAH!!!!! Happy Dance Y'all!  LOL. 

I'm going to add a nice wide border of no less than 8" and add a nice time period-ish type applique of flowers vines & leaves.  The challenge to break us out of our quilty ruts and was called "They Choose, You Make." This was a new way for me to take part 'cuz this challenge was we were paired up with a partner.  We both had to agree with a pattern, then discuss what fabrics that the other partner had to use in the choosen pattern, and the size. Which is a big part to rather it would be just a top (twin-size or bigger) or if it was a small project -which had to be completily done & quilted.  So I got paired up with Debbieann from Canada.  We agreed on pattern & fabrics; those being the look of scrappy quilts, Civil War Era colors, and the pattern: Feedsack Common by Susan McDermott ( http://www.windhamfabrics.com/cgi-bin/fabricshop/projects.cgi?patternID=110 ) and we was off.  

But..... we just ended up taking it just a bit farther..... this is where we decided to make it even more special to each other.  We sent other a surprise Fat Quarter along with some other bits & pieces from our own tops to the other to use in the applique sections of our tops.  We also figured out that we both are using the same applique pattern that we both loved on another quilt.  It was tooooo funny. 

But here it is... done per the rules at least.  TADA!!!!!
 My P.I.T.A quilt top.


Q&N Challenge Top

Let's see what else this week.  I might have mentioned last week that I'm taking part in a Mother's Day Swap on my OST yahoo group. Well I got the first mini quilt/wallhanging finished.  I found this pattern on Fatcats.com I believe and embroidered it.  It only took me a couple of evenings of TV Time to knock it out and I finished it up yesterday with the sashing, snadwiching & quilting.  My choice was for an echo quilting pattern, by hand. I actually thought it came out better than I thought it would. It is mere finished 10" x 13" . And I'm on the last of my Blue Redwork telephones for the second mini nine-patch quilt.  Pictures to come when I finish it this weekend.





I also got some other things done..... like 3 ~ 6.5" blocks for a quilt and a label for another.  I can't show pictures of those yet as they are a suprise.  So yeah I've been busy as usual.  Someone asked me how I got so much done..... my answer.... I have no life....LOL.

Oh before I forget.... here is the picture that I promised last week.  This shows the bag & mugrug that I won from the March 17th Blog Hop.



Okay ..... Well I have rambled on again for the week. So I guess I should go work on the telephone block, from there I have 15 Scrappy Calico & White Blocks to make for a swap,  finish quilting my Feb. mini quilt, get started on tracing my applique pieces for the PITA top.  Then there is the..... and the............ well you get  what I mean.  It just never ends...LOL.

So Toodles for now,
Tricia

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