We had some very chillly, gloomy days this week, but yesterday it started looking very nice, and today it's even better. I finally snapped a picture of the bowtie quilt which I hope to get to Bags of Love very soon. It was made with swap blocks from my online group. Most people made one or two blocks to swap, but Debbie and I decided to swap 10 blocks each. I made enough extra blocks to make this crib-sized quilt.
I took part II of my online walking foot quilting class on Thursday and, while my Elna doesn't cooperate when it comes to using fancy stitches to quilt, I did learn quite a bit that I can use right away. In fact, yesterday I quilted two Christmas table runners using things I'd learned in class. I just need to put the bindings on (by machine of course), and then I'll be able to take them down to the florist's to sell along with some Christmas stockings. Everyone seems to be getting an early start on their holiday shopping, me included.
I have a few other things I want to quilt right away, but those I'll save until gift giving time during the holidays. Most were made with "Snowflake Bentley" fabrics . Wilson Bentley was a Vermont farm boy who was the first to figure out that each snowflake is different from all the others. Beginning in 1883, he photographed the ones he caught, and his photos are now in the Smithsonian. Marcus fabrics has a line featuring a panel with 8" individual snowflake blocks. So far I've made two table runners and several hot pads and potholders with the blocks. I'm running low on accent fabric, unfortunately.
This morning we took a quick trip over the antique mall. It's usually closed for the winter right after Halloween, but this year the owner says he isn't reopening in May except to hold a closeout sale. We wanted to wish him a happy retirement and to see if there was anything we couldn't live without. I found a "Delft" (made in Belgium) plate that looks nice among all my other Dutch-themed things in our powder room. I have been looking for a small table for our front hall, but no luck. The plant stand covered with a quilt will have to continue there, maybe forever.
In my endless quest to lose weight, I started rowing this morning. The nurse practitioner I saw suggested that I row at least 5 minutes a day until Thanksgiving at which time it will have become a habit I won't be able to stop. I don't know about that, but today's session wasn't bad at all.
1 comment:
good luck with the weight loss. I am at a stand still. In recent years I gained 10 pounds and of course it is all in the stomach to thigh area with all the weight - with the joint and muscle aches it is hard to do a lot of exercise at any one time - I've been peddling and trying stretching exercise etc - I think I will give chair yoga a try too - I really and truly do not eat too much my metabolism is horrible I think.
I like a good antique/flea market the one really great one we had went out of business some years ago - there is another one now that I wander in now and then but it isn't as good
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