Welcome to the Jungle

Strange week. It seems as though there are so many family members (3) going through some serious or potentially serious health issues. Cousin Carrie (Kim’s sister) was diagnosed with liver and pancreatic cancer about two weeks ago. She’s had scans and biopsies, and the results aren’t good. I’m not going to go into details, but suffice it to say that we’re reeling.  Next,  my daughter Megan found a lump on her thigh. They did a scan of that this week and found out it was a benign lipoma, or fatty tumor. Thank goodness! Then my brother Steve is having issues with something in his throat affecting his swallowing. He was supposed to have that checked out, but somehow ended up getting a carotid artery ultrasound instead, which is just a baseline test for persons in their sixties. So, when I talk to him and start asking questions, he flew off the handle when I tried to clarify his conflicting statements. That’s so Steve. Arrrrghhh...   

But let’s talk about the sewing, because that is certainly much more cheery!

I finished the two quilts that I wanted to make out of the Happy Blocks I made as one of my Rainbow Scrap blocks this year.  My friend Ruby gave me some cute jungle fabric, and I planned to frame the 6.5” centers with 2.5” strips to make Happy Blocks. I chose 5 coordinating colors; red, blue, green, orange and yellow. When each color came up for its turn in the RSC, I made 10 blocks. I ended up with fifty blocks.

One quilt uses 20 blocks in a 4x5 setting, and the other uses 30 blocks in a 5x6 setting. 

Here’s the first one, measuring 40x50”. The color stripes are horizontal.

The backing is a cute multi-colored kid print, and my feeble mind cannot remember where it came from. Anyway, both quilts were quilted with a simple meander (stipple).

The second larger quilt measures 50x60”, and the color strips are set vertically.

The backing is this cute little multi-colored crayon print that I picked up from Hancock’s of Paducah last year (on deep discount).

In between quilting the jungle quilts, I was sewing the last of my yellow scraps into eight 6.5” crumb blocks. No plan for these yet....

I also sewed 15 more of these 8.5” Sawtooth Star blocks for the Christmas Stars quilt I’m making for my son and daughter-in-law.  I have nine left of this size and will get them polished off in the coming week. Then I can start on the 89 4” stars, which I’ve given myself September and October to finish.

In September, I’ll be tackling the Framed Four-Patch blocks which were a RSC’22 project. I have enough to make three quilts. Here is the first one slapped up on the design board. It’s using only the red and orange blocks.

I haven’t even started to work on the layout yet; in fact, some of the blocks haven’t even been trimmed yet. Hopefully I’ll have a top to share next week.

With that, I’m going to sign off. My friend Ruby and I are headed up to Park City to do some shopping today (retail therapy) - we both need to get out of the house and do something fun! Talk to you next week!

Linking to Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

Sewing Sunny Yellow and Walking at the Farm

My life has taken a turn for the mundane. Maybe it’s just the dog days of August, or maybe what seemed fresh and new in the spring and early summer is now wearing on me. By the time the seasons are about to change, I’m more than ready for a change too. Does that happen to you? And although Autumn should be making itself felt by this time next month, and it’s my favorite season, I always dread the long dark winter that follows. But no matter - for now there is lots of sunshiney yellow scrappy sewing coming out from under my sewing machine needle. And I have some more peaceful Wheeler Farm photos from our walk there this week. Shall we get started?

I decided this week was going to be dedicated to turning this pile of strings and strips into 6.5” string blocks. 

When the dust settled, there were a total of 45 blocks. The first thirty are pinned to the design board, shown in two batches of 15 blocks each, which is how I turn them over to our chapter of Quilts for Kids to use in kits.

The last 15 blocks were set aside to go with this chunk of cute farm fabric and some chambray that will make up a cute little farm-themed quilt. I’ll be sewing that top over the weekend. It could possibly be a finished quilt by next weekend, but at least by the end of the month.  As well, I’m hoping to baste, quilt and finish the two jungle happy block tops. 

I also sewed eight 6.5” Split Nine blocks in yellow. I’ll be linking up to Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I did get some more Sawtooth Stars sewn - these will be 8” finished. I’m way behind on the productivity rate I’d hoped to achieve on these, but I’m still hoping to get all the 8” stars done by month end. The only trouble is that in my quilt plan I switched out one row of smaller stars, which was going to be (20) 4” stars. Instead I’ll be doing 10 of the larger 8” stars. So that means I have to sew a total of 50 of those - and I only have 16 done presently.

Here are the eight I sewed this week:

And here they are with their eight friends from last week.

I need to pick up the pace!

On Wednesday, Cousin Kim came over and the three of us (Kim, me and Bruce) went walking at our favorite place - Wheeler Farm. We didn’t see the fox this time, darn!  But I snapped a few serene photos. 

Looking north toward the big milking barn and the milk house.

With the Ice House at the right, the north pond turns into a small creek

The same pond from the south looking north (different buildings, though).

For some reason, the ducks prefer the southern pond!

That’s it for this week. What have YOU been up to??

To my friends and family in Southern California, please stay safe. We’re all sending good thoughts to you!

More Donation Quilt Finishes

This week I was able to finish up two more donation quilts by quilting and binding them. The tops  were donated by Jo Kramer and her Community Quilt program and will be given as finished kid quilts to the Salt Lake chapter of Quilts for Kids.

Here is a cute basic transportation-themed quilt, perfect for a little boy. The interior squares received a crosshatch treatment and the outer red border was done with a stipple (meander). 

This little cutie finished at 38.5 x 43”.

The next quilt I call Picnic Kisses because of the red picnic check and the lips. :-) I just did some basic loop quilting.

Picnic Kisses finished at 42x48”.  These two little quilts, along with the three donation quilts I finished last week will be donated at our next QFK workshop in September. 

Once those were done and dusted, I got to work on making a dent in my yellow scrap bucket. Yellow is the color of the month for August in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. First this week were three Four in Nine blocks.  They will finish at 9”.

And then one of my favorites to sew, the Chaser blocks. I’m using black with white as my constant in these blocks instead of a light background. I think it’s going to look really sharp when all the colors come together for a quilt top party!  

The Chaser block is a Cynthia Brunz pattern, as is the Color Stix block, below. I plan to do Color Stix  for RSC24, and this is just my first - a prototype, if you will. It is Cynthia’s block for the current block drive for her Compassion Quilt program. Although she will have moved on to new blocks and a new drive long before I begin sewing these next year, I do plan to make the quilt(s) from these blocks and donate them to her when they are done. In other words, these will be dedicated to Compassion Quilts instead of Quilts for Kids. I don’t think the timing of the blocks really matters as the need for such quilts is always great, right?

In the coming week, I’ll be tackling my yellow strings. I hope to get at least 45 of them (6.5”, unfinished) made; I have plans for 15 of them this month and will donate the other 30 blocks to QFK for their quilt kit making. 

I also finished cutting out and began sewing the first (of 40) of this next size of star blocks for the Christmas Stars quilt. My goal is to have all 40 of this size done by the end of the month, so I’m 20% of the way there. 

My only other non-quilting news to share is that the vegetable garden continues to go gangbusters! Here is one bed’s-worth of carrots. This variety is short and stubby but good. It was all we could get at the time. But we have another half bed planted of the regular Nantes-type carrots we favor, and those are still a ways out.

The blackberries are almost done, the cucumbers have started producing, and the peppers and tomatoes are keeping me busy. I did roast a lot of Roma tomatoes this week (about 12 pounds worth), along with some garlic, onion (from the garden) and basil (also from the garden) to make some marinara. I’ll continue to do that as I collect the Romas in 12-pound batches. The slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are being shared and/or eaten by us on a daily basis. And of course, we have to have our weekly Bacon (Costco turkey bacon), lettuce and tomato sandwiches on a weekly basis! Yum!

Have a great week!

Farm, Food, Family and Four Finishes

I guess today is brought to us by the Letter F.  Fabulous! 

Family:

My grandson Easton was in town in July on leave from the US Navy, and we had a small farewell dinner with him before he left. Poor guy - I think his last several days here were spent doing farewell dinners with all the extended family!  Here we are after a great meal at The Bohemian - a European-style restaurant and brewery.

L-R: My son Ryan, his wife Kim, Bruce, myself, Easton’s girlfriend Madalyn, and Easton

Food:

I hit the -60 pound mark at Weight Watchers on Tuesday morning. That evening, it was our monthly card game night  (Hand and Foot) with my WW friends. I brought this fruit tray that featured some of those giant blackberries from our garden.

Four Finishes:

The Red Ribbons quilt has been bound and is officially done. It will go into my personal To Be Gifted pile for an occasion down the road. I had depleted my pile last May when I went to my Cousins Reunion. 

Red Ribbons was quilted with a basic stipple in the center and an up-down motif (heck, I don’t know how to describe it, but you can see it) in the light border. It finished at 53x66”, and was actually a finish for the month of July. The backing and binding are the same red as the outer red border.

I was able to quilt three of the five little quilts I have basted for the Community Quilts program; these will eventually go to the Salt Lake Chapter of Quilts for Kids. First up is the Tigger Baby Quilt:

I added the blue cloud border to the top and bottom of this already-pieced quilt to bring it up to 39x48”. The backing is a bunch of light blue fabric scraps sewn together.

The second Community Quilt was this little boy’s Star Wars number:

It finished at 39x48” and was backed with this bright yellow yardage from my stash.

The final little quilt was this adorable embroidered Little Girls quilt. It finished at 39.5 x 44”

Oh, this was such a joy to quilt! So bright and happy. There are loops and hearts throughout.  The backing was provided to my by Jo Kramer, and there is another piece of it for a future quilt.

But wait, there’s more!

I did start in on my yellow scrap sewing for Yellow August in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday to join in the fun with my fellow Scrappettes, LOL. 

First up, six anemic-looking Little Bricks blocks. This completes all the blocks I need to make a couple quilts out of these blocks. I’ll begin on those later in the year.

I finished the last 10 Jungle Happy Blocks, framing them in yellow. Instead of showing you the blocks, I have one finished top and one ready-to-web top to show you. This first one is 20 blocks and the color stripes are horizontal. It will finish at approximately 40x50.

The second quilt, with blocks just pinned to the design board, will have vertical color columns. It uses the other 30 blocks and will finish in the neighborhood of 50x60”.

I’ll finish these later this month, because for the next week I’ll be concentrating on finishing the last two little Community Quilts and cutting out - and hopefully sewing - the next 40 star blocks for my son and daughter-in-law’s Christmas quilt.

Farm:

On Wednesday, Cousin Kim came over. She, Bruce and I walked at Wheeler Farm, the County historical working farm that is down a few doors and across a busy road. We have to actually drive there unless we want to take our lives in our hands crossing that four-lane road.

We saw a red fox as we were walking in the back woods area. I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture, darn! But I did snap a photo of this peacock near the Old Milk House.

The cute baby goats and sheep melted my heart!

I also have a soft spot for the old farmhouse. One of my favorite things when I worked at the farm many years ago was conducting tours through the farmhouse and imagining what life was like 100 years ago. This is a side entrance that led out to what was once a kitchen garden.

And here’s a closing shot of the front yard area of the farmhouse, looking over to the activity barn.  I love having this farm a stone’s throw away from us and will miss it when we sell our house (downsizing) next year. 

Thank you if you’ve read this far, and thank you also to the Letter F for sponsoring today’s post (wink).

A Quilt Finish, Garden Pix and a Weight Loss Tale

Oh, there’s so much to share with you this week! But first I want to thank you all for the kind comments and personal emails on my International Sisters quilt that I shared last week. I appreciate your kindness and support more than you could know. 

In this post, I’m going to start with my quilting and Rainbow Scrap progress for the week, continue with a few fun happenings from the week, some pictures from the garden, and finish with a relatively long (for a blog post) narration of my weight loss journey to date. Each section will be separated by ******** lines, so if you don’t want to read about them, you can choose to skip along. No hurt feelings on my part, LOL.

I finished sewing my red scraps for July for the RSC, and will link up as usual to Scrappy Saturday. Here are 10 crumb blocks that will finish at 6” each.

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Eight Split Nines blocks that will also finish at 6”. 

Additionally, I finished quilting Red Ribbons, but it still needs its binding, so that reveal will be next week.

I also basted five kid-sized community (group) quilts and have begun quilting those. These tops are donated to me through Jo’s Country Junction Community Quilts program. I provide the backing and quilting/binding, and get to donate them to my local Quilts for Kids chapter. Here’s a sneak peek of the pile I intend to finish and reveal in my next post.

But I did have one actual quilt finish this week. It’s the light blue scrap quilt from last month. Better late than never!

It finished at 44x58”, so it’s more of a youth size than a little kid size. The backing also helped me use up a lot of scraps and chunks, a double win.

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This week we had the opportunity to join my son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, plus her boyfriend  and a couple family friends to attend a Beatles tribute band (Rain) concert in downtown Salt Lake City. 

They were very good, and one could *almost* believe we had time traveled back to the Sixties, 

L-R: Granddaughter Lauren, boyfriend Graham, 2 family friends R and R, Daughter-in-law Kim, my son Ryan, me, Bruce 

The next day, my friend Ruby and I went to see Oppenheimer, the movie. The movie was long (3 hours), and I have to admit I felt a bit lost at first. But the story is tight and masterful, and the various pieces are skillfully woven together as it progresses and things become clear. The acting was a master class of talent. If Oppenheimer doesn’t win all the awards for acting, screen writing, directing, producing and sound editing/engineering, there is no justice in the world! 

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In the garden, the blackberries have started ripening. They are monsters, but very sweet ones! I’ve been freezing them and see a batch of blackberry jam and lots of yummy fruit salad in our future.

And here are a few photos from the front flower beds at the end of July. Yes, you’ll see weeds in the flower beds. Just keeping it real. I limit my weeding to once per week. 

Front planter under living room window

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My Weight Loss Journey to Date

Last September 2022, early in the month, I had my first-ever bout of sciatica. At the time, I had gained back 20+ of my 35-pound pre-Covid weight loss. I was miserable physically and disgusted with myself overall. In the emergency room (the sciatica was that bad), they x-rayed my hip because I was sure that’s what it was - my bum hip. Well, it did show that I had extreme osteoarthritis in my left hip, but the pain itself radiated from the spine on the right side and was diagnosed as sciatica. 

I was determined that I was too young to feel that old, and embraced the physical therapy sessions with such gusto that I was released from physical therapy after three visits feeling much improved. Side note: I continue to do those core-strengthening exercises regularly. At the same time late last summer, I determined that it was now or never to get healthy. No more excuses; my health was and is too important. While I have been a Weight Watchers member on and off for most of my life (and continuously for the last 7-8 years), I re-dedicated myself to really working the program this time. It’s basically just healthy, common-sense eating. The workshops teach us everything from nutrition, to coping skills for various dining and family situations, and mindset adjustments. I’ll get into that more below. 

So, I was off and running, and by the end of the year had dropped another 15 pounds, in addition to the few I had previously managed to keep off, bringing me to approximately -25 pounds down at the start of 2023. I was fiercely determined to keep it going. 
Losing weight the right way is not fast. But think about it - we don’t gain it fast either. It usually just creeps on over the years. Good things take time, especially if your aim is to make it a lifestyle change. The time this journey is going to take me, whether weeks or months or years, is going to pass regardless of what goes in my mouth. So why not just take it slowly and steadily. I’ll get there. The weight loss wasn’t going to happen if I threw in the towel, so I just decided to keep going.

In February I shrunk out of most of my “jumbo” sizes and had to go shopping for some new things. I bought new season-spanning jeans and a couple tops. I reasoned that I was in interim sizing, so I didn’t want to invest a lot of money. So, Old Navy and Amazon to the rescue! I also started watching some select and carefully-screened fashion influencer You-Tube channels for women over 40 or 50. After being out of the workplace fashion loop for over a decade, and being retired, obese, frumpy and not really giving a hoot, it was fun to learn again how to dress to flatter my newly-emerging figure, put on makeup, and take care of myself with moisturizers, SPF, and other skin-care basics. I started taking an interest in ME, and it was eye-opening.

As moms and wives (and grandmas or caretakers - pick your hat) women are typically the last in line for our own attention. That was changing for me. It reminds me of the flight attendant admonitions on every flight to put your own mask on before you help others. Common sense. Self-care. To be sure, having a husband with an amputated arm who had to work hard to get his driver’s license back (independence, autonomy), to say nothing of all the adaptive things that go into everyday living, it was still very much on my to-do list to assist him. But he’s done it and is now independent again.

Throughout the winter, my mantra had been that I went into the winter as a caterpillar spinning a cocoon, and would emerge in the spring as a butterfly. Cute, eh? Screeeeetch!  First of all, here it is, mid-summer and I’m still metamorphosing. Thank goodness!

The analogy of my journey is better described not as a butterfly, but as an old space capsule re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. I picture myself as a passenger inside the capsule, being tossed and heaved by unseen forces, flames on the exterior, with a very hard splash landing in the ocean at the end. So much more apropos! I’ve had night sweats from Hell. Women store estrogen in fat, so as the fat melts off, the Days of Wine and Menopause return. Cue the estrogen therapy again. Previously plump skin is now looking decidedly crepe-ier. I moisturize, from the inside with loads of water-drinking and on the outside with 163 different moisturizers and skin care products (only a slight exaggeration, LOL). My taste buds have changed. I can barely stand artificial sweeteners now. And all of a sudden I like the taste of watermelon. But tea and cucumbers still make me gag.

Health-wise, my doctor is really pleased with me, too. He is totally an enthusiastic supporter of WW. I used to have to get cortisone shots in my knees every 4 1/2 -5 months, depending on how long I could tough out the pain. My most recent shots were at the beginning of July, fully ten (almost eleven) months from the last round. That’s progress. To date I’ve lost 57.6 pounds. Six more to goal, and then another 12 for good measure and to bring my total loss to 75 pounds. I’ll be in a healthy weight range and BMI, with all the attendant health benefits. My CPAP needs to be adjusted and serviced as it tends to overwhelm my smaller person. Sometimes I even sleep without it.

I’ve learned to like and respect myself and sometimes do a double take when I see my reflection in a window. I’m in in a position now to put my own needs first moving forward. I can do hard things, and I am strong physically, mentally and emotionally.  I will not go back. I feel some major changes coming in my life and I am so excited. Stay tuned. (And if you made it through this post, congrats and thank you!)