Saturday, January 18, 2020

Jelly Roll Heart Quilt & New Year's Happenings (1 UFO down...)

This is a lovely, modern Jelly Roll quilt.

I really like the way the pantograph echoes the heart shape.

On New Years Day I stuck with my traditional activity - a friend came over, we stitched the afternoon away, then had Chinese Food for supper.
I started the year off by putting these UFO blocks together - this was a Block of the Month project at the Caledonia guild in 2016/2017.  After I completed the blocks I decided I was tired of the colours - I think I have too much red/yellow/blue in my house these days.

I completed the quilting and the binding the first week of the year - a UFO knocked off the list and the start of a new box of Donation Quilts.

I am currently practicing Cathedral Windows blocks.  This is going to be a hands-on lesson for the Binbrook Guild on January 27th and I really don't want to make an ass of myself.  Today during the blizzard (which has now turned to rain, on top of the several inches of snow...tomorrow should be a doozy of a driving day!) I finished up the instructions.  I also washed and ironed the couple meters of white fabric for the kits.  Hands-on demos take a lot of work!

Here are two blocks stitched together with the additional two print squares added.  This is a good project if you like to do hand work - this whole thing is hand sewn.  The idea, if you want to make a large-ish project, is to make these four-sie units, which are nice and small and easy to maneuver.  Pile them up and eventually start stitching them together into larger units.  As you join these together, the additional print squares are added. 


NEW YEARS COMMITMENTS

Notice that I didn't say "resolutions"?  Not that it makes any difference. 
Anyhow, the story goes:
I'm part of an online forum with two groups.  One for weight loss and the other for exercise committments.  Foolishly, I stuck my nose into BOTH forums - I have committed to losing 10 pounds this year. Weigh-in day is Friday morning(s) and you have to report your weight change from one week to the next. What I like about that system is you know what you were eating for the past week, so you can tell very quickly if you are doing something stupid. Week 1 - up 0.8 (included the NY Chinese - bad!), week 2 - down 2.8 (lots of veggie soup & salads & few starches), week 3 up 1.6 (oh, way too much bad stuff).  This is looking like a roller coaster to me and I sure HOPE the trend goes downward.
In the exercise group I committed to doing three x 20-minute Youtube videos every week.  So far I've done yoga, Qui Gong, Over-50 Exercise, Classical Stretch Essentrics, a weird Asian (fun!) aerobics class, and African Dance.  The African Dance is my favorite so far.  Although the Over-50 Exercise is surprisingly strenuous, and I've had to pause it to go change from a t-shirt into a tank top. 
This past year I've been noticing that I often don't have the strength I used to have, so I'm trying to fight the clock and hang on to whatever pitiful bit of youth I have.  I can still do sit-ups, push-ups, and planks.  And I want to keep it that way.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please - share your wisdom...