Wow, it’s been awhile, huh?

Oops. I’ve been lazy busy and haven’t updated. I have a number of finishes since the Polyglot quilt and those pictures will follow. I’ve been unable to sew, though, since the end of October because I’ve been on the road with my dad and now, staying with my grandmother.

Sam had a birthday!

My honey turned 48 this past Sunday! He had the entire weekend planned out. Ha. That meant little to no sewing for me! But, he had a good birthday and that’s what mattered. On Saturday, we slept late, then went to his favorite used bookstore. After that, we did a 5.5-mi walk and went to his favorite restaurant, Red Lobster. I hope he had enough shrimp to satisfy him until next year (I don’t eat the cockroaches of the ocean, even if they are good for you.) After Endless Shrimp, we were both pretty wiped out and came home and relaxed. I got a wee bit of sewing done and finished block 7 of the latest Swoon and prepped Blocks 8 and 9.

Sunday was pancakes for breakfast, church, and home to open his present. I made a quilt out of the fabric he picked out. Being a polyglot is his dream and that’s what the quilt says. The fabric is What A World! and has Hello in many different languages. Here’s a pic of the completed top and then Sam under his new blankie.


In the evening, we drove down to Alma, AR to see the Gaither Vocal Band in concert. It was excellent! Two of the boys texted to say happy birthday, so I’m thinking that overall it was quite successful.

I managed to sneak in a little bit of sewing Sunday and was able to finish up Butterfly Flesh tonight. I’m excited since that makes 2 quilt tops for Christmas 2013 ready to take to the quilter! Yeehaw!

Running update? I’ll get back to you on that. Haven’t been running much at all…yes, incredibly lazy, but have been walking lots so that makes up for it a little, right? Right?!?

Kilah’s Quilt is done!

Here’s the finished top:

I decided to make a siggy block for the back:

On the longarm yesterday:

It took me about 7 hours yesterday to finish the quilting. At the LQS, I was told I had to do FMQ because it was easier the first time around. She recommended I do the entire thing in stipple. I did do a lot of stipple, but I got bored with that, so it’s a mixture of a little bit of everything, though precious few specific things. I did write Kilah’s name on the quilt, but won’t tell where. Hopefully, they’ll notice it someday.
An up close of some quilting:

It’s in the dryer now and next stop is the post office. I’ll post after shots when they send them to me of Kilah with the quilt.

I really appreciate y’alls willingness to jump in and help, those who made blocks and Kate Spain, who donated all the fabric for the backing and binding as well as for one of the blocks (and then some).

Here it is out of the dryer. The wind nearly kept it upright by itself!

Here’s an up close shot after going through the washer. I love it!!!

Lots of finishes lately…

Here are some pics from the recent finishes, in no particular order.

From the Made in Cherry QAL:

From the SwoonAlong:

From the Swooning On A HopAlong:

From the talknt Handmade Swap:

Unfortunately, my swap partner didn’t have lots of personal stuff on her flickr page or on her blog. She has an etsy store and all of her pics are of the stuff she’s selling, so I ended up with no idea what she really likes. She did mention that she likes teal and orange together. There is precious little teal in this, but I like the overall effect. Though they’re not visible in the picture, I did quilt more geese into the flowered part of the pillow. And, it’s all quilted with orange thread, which I love!

I also made 152 polaroid blocks!! 76 went into the mail today and I’ll get 75 different ones back. (1 was for the swap hostess.) 150 make a quilt and now I’ll have an extra in case I absolutely hate one I receive or have already made. Here’re are the 76 that went out:

And, I made the 2nd bookshelf block for Manda in the BAMS swap. Phew. Here’re blocks 1 and 2:

This block includes the M Encyclopedia and a photo of Manda in Paris.

This shelf includes a book about Punctuation and an owl bookend.

I finished this top for my nephew, Trevon.

And, I think that’s about it. I’m still waiting on three blocks to finish up Kilah’s quilt. I understand that 1 has been sent from England and 2 from Washington, but they are taking their sweet time getting here!! As soon as they arrive, I’ll need an hour or two to add them to the last row, attach the last row and then add two borders. I haven’t prepped the backing yet because I’m not sure what the finished size will be, but I know it will all get here soon and I can finish that puppy and get it in the mail.

Y’all have a great weekend!

Running and Shoe Update

Since my last update, I had to take off for three weeks to go help my dad as he was recovering from back surgery. Since Wal-Mart doesn’t have a beautiful gym in Charlotte like they have in Bentonville, and it was topping 100F nearly every day I was there, I didn’t run for the entire three weeks. By the time I got back to Bville, and got to the gym, it was almost 4 weeks. A month! No running for a month. Do you know what that does to your endurance? It kills it. So, um, I’m starting back very slowly and to jumpstart that, I went and bought a new pair of running shoes. My Brooks Adrenalines were nice, but I went with a new brand this time and got…I don’t even remember. How sad is that?!? Anyway, I’ve put a few miles on them (yay!), but I’m not back up to 6-mi runs yet. The anemia issue has reared its head again and I’ve spent most of this week laying around feeling whiny and nauseous.

07.10 3.7-mi
07.11 3.69-mi
07.15 3.0-mi walk
07.16 5.6-mi

Total running miles for 2012: 152.55
Total shoe miles: 15.99