March Bee Blocks

Hello everyone, and happy Easter a day early! :) I'm sure I won't have time to post tomorrow, so I just wanted to quickly share the March Color Bee Shocked blocks that I put together the other night.

Our theme for this month was to make a star out of white-on-white fabrics with a blue star background. The fabrics were provided by our host this month and I really loved the blue background fabric!

I put together 2 blocks, both more traditional looking blocks. There were several people who had already made some wonky or paper pieced blocks. The point was to get a bunch of different looking stars so I went with something that I knew how to do. :) Hopefully our host likes them. She's putting together a quilt that will assemble the stars into a constellation for her husband which I think is an awesome idea!

I should keep this idea in mind for my father. He's a HUGE space nerd. He grew up during the space with Russia and has a closet full of astronaut pictures that are all signed and booklets from all of their missions. When he was a kid he used to sit under a card table with star maps and pretend that he was in a spaceship going to visit different planets and stars and things like that. Just one of the many things I love about my dad. :) So, maybe I'll keep this in mind for an Orion wall hanging or something like that. It would be a neat Christmas present for him for next year...

Anyway - hope you all have a wonderful Easter! Spring is almost here in full swing. The birds are back and the snow is melting. I think we're supposed to get a couple flurries between today and tomorrow, but then hopefully we'll start warming up! :) Happy crafting everyone!

Over the Rainbow Finished!

Hello everyone! I've got my first finished quilt of 2013! I should have had this finished way before the end of March, but such is life! It feels like I've done so much more sewing that I have, so I'll have to shape up here in the second quarter of the year. :)

 Here it is on our queen-size bed at home. It's not meant to be for our bed. The pattern I was going off of was for a twin-size bed. But, to keep us from using my Mario quilt every day, we're using this one since it's not as cold outside now. Someday it will happily live on the right size of bed...

As some of you might know, I started this quilt back when I was in 8th grade. I learned how to quilt at summer camp in grade school and then started planning this quilt with my mom. Good intentions on finishing it up right away were put on hold with school work, summer plans, then high school and then into college. I think the pieces of this quilt have moved with me at least 5 times during all of those years. To be honest, I'm surprised I didn't lose it!

So, this is my longest WiP ever, and I hope I don't have any other quilts that even come close to taking this long to complete! I had to buy the black fabric for the black squares and the outer border. I have no idea if I ever had the black fabric along with the others or not, but it all worked out. It's a little bit of a different shade, and the new fabric seems to attract cat hair more than the older type, but that's OK. It's a quilt just for us, which is unusual since I usually give my quilts away!


Here are some pictures of the quilting I did again. I used a rainbow variegated thread which I L.O.V.E. the look of on the black. I wish my stitches were more consistent, but I have plenty of room to grow! :)

My favorite part is the loopy quilting around the border of the quilt. It really stands out. Plus, the thick batting I used gives the quilt a really nice puffy texture that is lovely to touch. I have a lot of the colored fabrics left  over, so I'll need to figure out something to do with those. I used some for the scrappy binding. It worked out perfectly that I needed one strip from each color.

My mother and I are participating in the Hands2Help charity quilt challenge with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I think I'm going to use the left over bright colors along with some fabric from my mom's stash to make a bright and colorful kids quilt. There's a really cute fish pattern that I want to try out that I think would look awesome in all of the different colors. I think I'd use white as a background and then do a bubble/pebble quilting on the whole thing. Now that I've typed that, I really like the sound of it! :) There's still time to sign up if you click the link above! Both charities are such good causes to support!

In other news, my husband and I dyed Easter eggs today! I haven't done that in a few years, so it was fun to do it just the two of us. Right now they are happily in the refrigerator, but we'll see if I actually eat them or just use them for a decoration. Egg salad sandwiches do sound pretty good right now though - and with all the bright colors that seep through it's always fun to make.

 We're also planning on having a little Easter present off of our diet and got a Lindt chocolate bunny and a bottle of Petite Sirah wine (one of our favorites).

Lastly, I've also put together my March Package Pals craft package for another swap I'm in this month. I didn't make anything homemade (disappointing, I know!). The person that I am paired up with is new to quilting, so I thought it would be nice to pass along some of the simple patterns I've accumulated and also the grouping of block-of-the-month patterns I won the other month from a local quilt shop. To be honest I probably would never get around to making them anyway since I have so many other quilt projects going on! They have all of the pieces pre-cut in nice batik fabrics. I also included some candles and candle holders, some quilt marking pencils and some quilt labels. I hope she likes it!

The next thing I need to do and have shipped off by the end of the month is my Color Bee Shocked blocks. We have a theme of stars this month, so at least I know what I'm going to do for those. Another post when those are done will be coming up soon! Have a great rest of your week everyone and happy crafting!

Weightless Wednesday #5

Hello everyone! I can't believe another week has gone by and that it's almost April! March has just flown by. This week it was my goal to get down to 155 pounds to have lost a total of 20. Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it, but I did get to 156. 1 more pound to go, so hopefully that will be my Easter gift to myself!

I did manage to squeeze myself into those size 6 jeans that I bought the other week. There's a little bit of pudge that still sticks out on the top of the waistband, but all of my tops cover that up. :) I rent apartments for a living and one of my tenants came in to the office to talk yesterday. She actually complimented me on the jeans that I was wearing and then said, "But I could never wear those, you're so slim." I had 2 thoughts that kind of popped in to my mind at the same time. The first, and the one I went with, was THANKS! I thought it was pretty cool that someone had actually called me slim. But, the second thought I had was hey, this took a lot of work to get here, I wasn't born this way! There's no way for that person to know how far I've come, so I went with it as a nice compliment.

It makes me wonder though how many people I've seen in the past who are thin and slim and I just looked at them and thought they're just naturally that way. I bet there were plenty of them who had to work hard to keep that body slim and fit and my jealousy was unwarranted since it wasn't just given to them. It makes me look at fit people in a new light.

Going along with this whole body image thing... While watching the Today Show this morning they said that mannequins are starting to be more plus-sized. I just heard that the average mannequin is a size 4-6 while the average US woman is a size 14.



I think it's great that stores are going to put the clothes they sell on mannequins that look more like the average person. I remember going shopping and being very frustrated that the clothes on the mannequin looked no where near as good on me, even with trying on my bigger size. I think this will help to make the body image of women better. I've fallen prey to it many times where I'm jealous and envious of the people (or even the mannequins) that can wear a size 2 dress. I don't think they should go as far as to make mannequins that are obese, but mannequins that are average and healthy looking would be great. What do you guys think? Do you get mannequin envy?

Heaviest weight: 180
Starting weight: 175
Last week's weight: 157
This week's weight: 156
Weight loss this week: 1 pound
Total weight loss: 19 pounds

March Madness!

Hello everyone! It seems like I've been doing some scrambling around recently to get all of my March commitments done. It's been my own version of March Madness around here. Besides working during the week and then working out for about 2 hours every night I have managed to squeeze in some sewing. Here's what I've been working on:

I'm in a spring mug rug swap, so I finally have those put together. I need to add a label on to the back yet and then I can get them off in the mail! :) I hope my partner likes them. I used the tulip tutorial from Bee in My Bonnet.

I still need to put together a crafty package for the March Package Pals through C.R.A.F.T., but I know what I'm going to send out at least. And, I still need to put together the Color Bee Shocked block for March as well. I've got 2 star blocks planned, but we'll see if I get both of them done. It's going to be a mad dash to the end of the month this week for sure!

But, my largest finish that is coming up for March 31st is my over the rainbow quilt. I've got it all quilted up and all of the tails tucked in. Now I just need to make the binding and stitch that on!!! Here's some pics of the quilt.

So, have you been scrambling around this March? I'm hoping spring is just around the corner. I have high hopes for April since I'm still seeing snow flurries here this week. :(

Weightless Wednesday #4

Wow, I can't believe I've been having this series for a month already! It seems like I just started working out a couple days ago. :)

This week we stayed pretty much on track with our goals. For sustainable weightloss I can lose about 1-2 pounds per week and that's right what I did.

The best thing I did this week though, was go out and buy some new pants. I am now down 2 sizes! I used to wear a size 12, and that probably was pushing it. I had to stretch the waistband part as soon as pants came out of the dryer to help them widen out a bit. I dont have to do that anymore! I bought 2 pairs of size 8 pants this week and no muffin top in sight! I'm ecstatic! I'm actually debating taking one back to trade it in for a size 6, but I don't want to get my hopes up that I'll be down that far in the very near future. That could take a couple months yet.

The last thing to share is that this week we really added in some weightlifting. We met with a personal trainer for a free orientation at our gym and it was probably the best thing we've done for our workout. She showed us a 30 minute circuit that we can do every other day to help tone and build muscle. And boy did I hurt the next day after that! So, I hope that helps us get fit on a new level. :)

Heaviest weight: 180
Starting weight: 175
Last week's weight: 159
This week's weight: 157
Weight loss this week: 2 pounds
Total weight loss: 18 pounds

Next week's goal is to hit the 20 pounds lost mark! That is going to be a lot of work for sure!

Giveaway winners!

Hello everyone! I know I'm a day late in posting this, but I've been super busy just like the rest of you, I'm sure! :) Here are the winners of my giveaways:

#24: StasaLynn who said: Beautiful projects! And beautiful fat quarters. I am a new follower now - because I want to see your designs become quilts! Thanks for the opportunity! 

And then she also replied to her own comment (so she wasn't counted twice) and said: hahahaha... I got so excited I forgot to tell you my favorite quilt pattern... right now it is log cabin.

Well, I am also a fan of the log cabin pattern. I haven't tried it yet, but I love how you can make it look completely different just by changing the color patterns.

And, the winner of my second group of fat quarters was #89: Happy Cottage Quilter who said: I like stars and baskets. Thanks for the great giveaway!

I am definitely biased for stars. The first pattern I ever sewed was an Ohio Star block for a pot holder at summer camp while I was in grade school. I have no idea what happened to it, but I've been hooked on quilting ever since! I'm in my first online quilting bee (Color Bee Shocked) and I think I'm going to ask for star blocks for my month. Now, to decide if I want them to all be different or if I want a specific pattern!

Anyway - both of my winners have been emailed, so StasaLynn and Happy Cottage Quilter, please send me your mailing information. :)

And, in other news, I had just a few minutes for sewing today between church and working out. So, I made some spring flowers. I have 3 more pairs to make, and I hope they turn out a little better than the first two. I have a yellow, a red, and then a dark and light purple flower coming up. :) Hope you've all been able to spend this weekend sewing up your projects or having a great time! Happy crafting everyone!

Weightless Wednesday #3

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing well and enjoying March. It's hard to believe we are already in the middle of the month! I wish it would hurry up and stop snowing here so we can get into spring. I'm so ready for warmer weather!

Thanks for coming back for another of my Weightless Wednesday posts. My husband and I have been going strong with our work out and fitness goals and I have a tool to share with you that has helped us a lot. It's called My Fitness Pal. It's a website (and you can download an app for your smart phone!) that helps you keep track of your weight loss goals. You can track the exercise you do, the calories you consume, and your weight or measurements.

We've been using this tool for about a week now and it has been really helpful. You can search for different foods from restaurants, grocery stores, name brands - or you can scan the bar code on the groceries you buy. You can even enter in your own foods if you don't find it on the list (or add in the calories from an obscure local restaurant!). It will then plug in the calorie info and you can choose the serving size that you actually ate. Here's a screen shot of my tracking from today:

I know the picture is a little small, but it does a really good job of detailing out everything I've had to eat. I earned extra calories from working out today. Normally my goal is 1200 calories for the weight I want to lose if I don't work out at all. Since I put in just under 500 calories on the elliptical today I was able to eat a little over 1600 instead. You'll notice that I had 1/2 of a small, veggie pizza for dinner. Not the healthiest of choices, but I only went over my calorie goal by about 80 calories for the day. That's not so bad, and the pizza allows me to stay sane during the work out routine. :)

So, you can sign up for a free account at www.myfitnesspal.com. I love it and I'll probably still track what I eat even when I've met my weight loss goal. Speaking of... how am I doing? Here's how far along I am now:

Heaviest weight: 180
Starting weight: 175
Last week's weight: 163
Today's weight: 159
Weight loss this week: 4 pounds
Total weight loss: 16 pounds

I'm so excited that I keep going down and that I'm into the 150s!! I think I'm going to hit a plateau soon though, and the weight is not going to keep coming off as quickly anymore. Ideally I'd like to get down to 135 at the end of my journey. So, I still have 24 pounds to go. Right now, I'm pretty sure I'm lighter than I was when my husband and I got married a little under 4 years ago. I'm feeling great and I hope I'll have the willpower to continue! The best part is that now people are starting to notice that I've lost weight! :) Happy Wednesday everyone!