Swim, Snow, Sew

30 minutes of Swimmercize this morning, and then another 27 minutes of aerobic laps under direction of the coach, Sandy. So I reset the Ticker for this next week.

We have had a light dusting of snow off and on since last night. Since 11:00 when I was home from the swimming pool, Zeke has been in and out of the house about five times. I let him out the front door when he "asks". He finds his favorite place in the front yard and rolls and rolls, wiggling on his back. He just loves the snow and wants to really get close to it! I give up on watching him and go back to the sewing room. About ten minutes later I hear a "Woof". He is waiting on the deck by the slider to come back in. Dark photo because of the clouds.

Zeke feels that after every outing he should get a treat. Dad agrees, but I don't.

Yesterday and this morning I made some of the extra mini-blocks for Carolina Crossroads so that I can make the quilt top longer to fit our queen bed. I have constructed the 20 railfences, 20 and 35 of two kinds of 9-patches, and the 4 half 9-patches. Tomorrow the 20 Hourglasses! I want to get the extra Onio Star blocks made before Bonnie's new clue on Thursday.

I have been working on Secret Sister stuff again this afternoon, and having fun with it. Our Bee, SpoolSpinnners, will meet on Thursday evening, so I want to have something ready then.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Mango for breakfast

Granola bars, all set for needed snacks

Zeke at play

Healthy Habits report

1.) Trying to stop naming this to myself as "exercize and diet" and set a groove in my mind of "Healthy Habits". Small thing, but a better attitude for me!
2.) My minute meter for the week is 60 minutes short of my goal. I want to blame the school system for delaying the start of school on Friday, and thus the pool was closed at 8:40 AM. No class. missed 50 minutes of swimercise. I know that I still had a choice at that point and could have walked, but I didn't. Nevertheless, 181 minutes of intentional motion in the week. Good job for me.
3.) Food habits are improving. No stops at fast food eateries. Several days of apples for afternoon snack. Cut out bacon with my twice-a-week eggs. Still craved sugar and caved a couple of times.

Result: New habits forming little by little. (Weight down 1.5 lbs.)

UFOs, page 2

Another that I started just this past year in an internet Mystery.

24 purple and yellow 9-patches with an additional two rows. I need to figure out how to put them together. An alternate block of the opposite colors? Or just sashing? I guess that's what stopped me; I didn't know what to do next.

This is a 25th anniversary idea for Fons & Porter. I organized 8 gals from my bee to make these blocks in Amish colors and black. Everybody got a full set by exchanging them. I got two sets--one for me (and F&P) and one for the Guild small quilt auction. I got ONE finished, it hung in the Guild show and the bidding was so low I bought it back. Then I sent it to F&P for their project. To my surprize they sent it back--I thought they would give them to some charity. This completely made me not want to finish the second one! So here sit the blocks.

From 2001 or so, here is my Row Robin. I made the row on the bottom with spikey triangles. As you can see not everyone managed to make their row the same length! I have sewn the rows together with something inbetween--black? Again I reached a point where I didn't know what to do next--or maybe a deadline of something else intervened.

Healthy Habits: Our Strength and Stretch group was bounced out of our meeting/exercise room by a union meeting, so we met at a mall to walk. Our instructor even showed up after a while and lead us in stretches about four times during the hour. I had taken my trekking poles and so did not get the ache in my back--but boy did my legs get tired! And this evening my knees are aching. However, I did get in 60 minutes of exercise.

Bonnie Hunter has given us the sixth step of Carolina Crossroads, which is making 16 9 inch blocks out of the 3" blocks we made earlier. And some Setting triangular blocks. So it is now clear that this quilt will have the block set "On Point". That construction is calling to me for tomorrow.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Trekking poles

Esther's retirement party

Bonnie's abundant giving

Carolina Crossroads - Step 5 finished

Today I finally finished the "squaring up" of the 100 Hourglass blocks for Bonnie Hunter's Mystery, so I can say they are DONE.

I can't figure out how she is going to turn these five different blocks into an 80" x 80" quilt top! There don't seem to be enough of them to make that size. But, Bonnie will resolve it all.

Meanwhile I am giving some thought to what I will do for my new Secret Sister this month. This may not be something I can BLOG about until the end of the year, because, of course, she is in my quilting bee.

I added an exercise monitor on the sidebar, from TickerFactory.com. Though I only swim twice a week, I'm using a swimmer to log all my minutes of exercise whatever form it takes.

Sara

Steps today: 2050 + 35 minutes pool exercise

Gratitudes:

Helpful coach at the community pool

Jokes at the footcare program

Quilting present from Helen Worst

"Healthy Habits" report for last 9 days

I exercised seven days of nine.
I did not eat ONLY healthy foods, but I did better than previously. Putting in a lots of time on the Secret Sister quilt has kept my hands busy and my thoughts away from food (even away from the Food Network).
I planned my snacks to the extent that I had the appropriate foods in the house, and NO CHIPS! I gave myself permission to have one piece of Christmas toffee a day.
My weight stayed the same. This report is due on Mondays, so I'm late too.

Monday I purchased walking poles, they're like ski poles, but meant for hiking or walking. I have hopes that these will help me stand up straighter while walking and therefore not get the backaches that have discouraged me. Also, I need to not only SURVIVE our jungle and mountain hikes in Costa Rica after Christmas, but keep up with my 10 year old grandson for whom it is a special time with Grandpa and Grandma. So I chose poles that can be shortened to fit into my suitcase--naturally the high end of the price-range. I hope that expense will encourage me to USE them, even this week at home as I add twice a week walks from home to my exercise plan. [Ruler against wall to show scale.]

Today I walked completely around the outside wall of Meijers, and the pedometer said it was 1000 steps. By the time I had done my shopping, unloaded at home and eaten lunch I was up to 5000. So I am happy with that, especially since most days I do less than 5000. Of course the GOAL is 10,000. "Getting there, one step at a time" is my mantra these days. I've burned and crashed too many times before.

Food challenges of this week:
1.) Parishioners are giving DH, their priest, lovely Christmas food gifts, such as fudge, fruitcake and cookies. They sit on the kitchen counter all day. Tonight I am going to tell him to take them back to his office as my will power is lowering.
2.) Two potluck dinners at parties. I will try to stand on the other side of the room from the goodies and keep my glass full of something non-caloric.
3.) We need to empty the refirgerator before our trip. Plan: I must THROW away food, not consume it.

The Secret Sister quilt is in the wash machine. When its dry I'll get a photo of the whole top. Maybe that quilt needs a better name. . . . what would be fitting? "Red & White 16-Patch" is pretty descriptive of the center.

Sara

Steps today: 7723

Gratitudes:

Reunion group Christmas tonight,

Helped a lady in Meijer's with my punch recipe,

Talked to Sue on the phone for a minute.

Secret Sister quilt Top done!

Secret Sister quilt TOP finished today.
For the moment it is 43" x 37", which is odd, but the border can be cut down later. I have enough of the red border fabric to cover the whole back and make the binding, I think.

Took more time than I was expecting. Each step was fairly simple, but with pressing, and cutting and FIGURING. . . . here it is 10 PM. Saturday I can start layering it and thinking about how to quilt.

I like the corner cut in like this. Pretty easy with an on-point block plan, but I don't remember seeing it used much. Gives it a more "old fashioned" look.

My exercise today was the Strength and Stretch class Charlie and I attend for a hour. Today was our Holiday luncheon, but we did the full hour of exercise first. I even was quite responsible in what I ordered at the restaurant--and had no dessert. My pedomoter only reports 1100 steps. That hardly seems enough. Guess I'll have to do a Step Check walking on the driveway and counting my steps myself to see if it matches.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Freedom to work all afternoon on this top

Followed my plan

First day with pedometer

Exercise for today: walking for 10 minutes around the Meijers store before starting my grocery shopping. That was just one circuit of the outside walls of the mega-store. Then there was another 25 minutes in the store actually finding the things I meant to buy.
My pedometer reads 3520 for "steps" at 10:45 PM. That isn't very high. I will have to work on making more moves each day.

After I put away the groceries I sewed together some of the strips of blocks for my Secret Sister. Then I rinsed out a couple of new fabrics for the Mystery. I'm getting ready for new instructions tomorrow. Presuming that Bonnie can stay on her own schedule.

After dinner I took out the calf for the creche so that the ox has some company in the stable. My father made the stable from scraps of lumber for us, and included a small light inside the roof. This illuminates the interior and acts as a nightlight for the livingroom all through the season.
Mary, Joseph, the donkey and the angel are still on the window ledge, but moving along.


Sara

Gratitudes:
SUN for most of the day
friends sharing growing old
pleasant clerks at the store

Secret Sister progress

Despite weather forecasts of bad driving, I got myself out of the house at about 8:20 to go to the "Swimercise" class, and I even got all the contents together for a package to St. Louis and carried them with me. I was about 5 minutes late for the class, but I give myself high marks for getting out the door in time at all--other weeks I would have excused myself. Thank you "Quiltercize" friends for making me accountable. As FlyLady says, "You have to do this for yourself. You deserve it!" But it helps to know that others are working on the same project--even if that isn't Bonnie's mystery.

Having done my exercise, and organized my package at the Post Office, I reward myself by working on the next rounds for my Secret Sister quilt. I sewed the 2.5 inch four-patches together with the red and white fabric as bigger four-patches. They are now added to the middle section, and as I was cutting the setting triangles, I made a cutting mistake. Or a thinking mistake. I had bought JUST what I thought I would need, so now I will need more of this fabric--about six inches! Well, I got it recently because I didn't have any red with this much white in my Stash. I hope there are 6 inches left on the bolt!
Outside this there will be a narrow white sashing, and then a dark red wider border.
I will need to have it quilted and bound by a week Thursday. Since I hear Bonnie is going to tie up my time this weekend with another of her clues, I better work on this now.
Off I go to the local Joanne's!
--------------------

Found it! And enough of the "right" red for the outer border.

I also stopped at an outdoor-athletic store and bought a new pedometer, or STEP-ometer. This is the third or fourth I have bought, the first two fell off my waist and were lost. I think because the clip was not strong enough. So the last one was chosen specificly because it had a real spring in the clip, not just a piece of plastic. That one lasted a lot longer, but eventually also fell off--and BROKE into two pieces. That one only cost $12.

Today the only other one with a good, strong clip was $50. Here it is, tipped up so you can see the metal spring in the clip. Hmm, that's pretty pricey, but I decided I really wanted it for this Quilters-Exercize group ("Quiltercize"?). Need to be counting my steps so I know I need to move around more.

When Charlie got home this evening, he was delighted to find that his Christmas shopping for me was completed, and he was giving my present to me two weeks early! And he didn't even have to wrap it since I was eager to get it out of the box.

This machine claims it will even read my pulse, but it has taken me so long to calculate the length of my step in centimeters and get THAT entered, that I am not reading any more of the instruction manual tonight.

Sara


Gratitudes:
Slimfast to drink for lunch
Slush, not ice on driveway
Success in shopping for grands

Cute nine-patches

I did indeed finish the 100 little nine-patches for the Carolina Crossroads Mystery quilt. Here's a basket full of them with a sample display of four.

I decided the light yellow that was my second fabric for the "accent" position was too light to read as a medium. This position is supposed to be closer to the dark plaids. Luckily I looked through my Yellow Bin and found a brownish-yellow there that will do a better job. But perhaps these two fabrics will not be enough for the whole mystery! I will have to wait and see, and meanwhile hold back from rushing wildly to the fabric store, my natural inclination. I am going to keep the nine-patches that were already put together with the light yellow. But I replaced all the three-piece-strips with that yellow that had NOT been turned into nine-patches yet. So now there are three yellows in use, but only two that will continue.

These patches are smaller than I usually use, and the blocks are rather cute! I had nearly decided to get rid of my little bin of 1.5' squares and strips, but Bonnie may have converted me. Nevertheless, this is no way to use up very much Stash. I think we have enough blocks so far to make a top of 30" x 60". The final top is going to be 80" x 80", so we have a way to go.

The next Clue will come on Thursday, perhaps. Therefore I will have to work on something else during my quilting time.

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Today an offshoot group was formed from Stashbusters by women who need to have a REWARD in order to exercise. The founder proclaimed that she was going to only quilt AFTER exercising each day, and lots of us think this may work for us. After all, this makes more sense than rewarding oneself with food! Hence a new group.

I have joined and gave myself the following challenge, which I am calliing "Healthy Habits":

1) EXERCISE weekly six days: Strength and Stretch class with Charlie twice, Swimmercise at the community pool twice, and walk at least 20 minutes a day twice.

2) EAT healthy always, and plan my morning and afternoon snacks (so I don't indulge in "easy" pickings).

Then I went out to take my first walk in a long time--45 minutes was my plan, or at least two times around the meadow. Forget it! I went once around the meadow and was winded. Total time = 10 minutes. Guess I need to lower my expectations to 20 minutes, which may be divided into two separate walks. Better to be realistic about my expectations.

Tonight I took out the first shepherd figure for our creche.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Singing Advent hymn "At Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry"

Tuna pesto salad

Discovered three 'lost' evergreen trees in the snow