A Busy Day

It started with my first run since March. I went two times after the 1/2 Marathon but my heart (and knee) was into it at that point in time. 

I woke up this morning feeling really good, great even and I thought it might be time to slip on the shoes and give it another go. 4 months (ish) is long enough time to  rest the IT band that hurt so awfully after that long plog and I went for 30 minutes and I can honestly say that even at 6 am, it is steamy hot and humid in the deep south but much better than tying to go at it around 7:30am. I was finished before the sun topped the trees and was grateful. 

Now, why you might ask, am I doing this again in the hot of the summer? Well, I committed to doing the Rock n Roll Half Marathon again next year in February and am committing to do the Baton Rouge Beach in Dec. so I guess I need to get back in the groove.

When I "trained" for the 2012, I had exactly 18 weeks between commitment and completion and I mean from the day I strapped on the shoes to the day of the marathon. Nd frankly, for a minimally active person at 52, that really was asking a lot. But that is behind me (along with excess baggage) and Dec. is a long way away and I know I will do better and feel better and have better shoes this time!

But enough about me.... have you seen this pot of chicken stock? If you are a friend on Facebook, it may look familiar. I love chicken soup... it is usefull for many dishes and I intend to make three favorits (of mine) this week. Mexican tortilla soup, chicken curry and italian pasta i fagoli. Call me ethnic.

Now, I have also been hacking away at this most diffy of quilts, the 2nd Civil War Quilt and I used a layout similar to one I found at the Flickr site, except I used 9 on point squares for the center instead of 16. Now I will have to add boders borders borders to make it large enough to drape King, ven thou this means I may not be able to quilt it myself. C'est la vie!

I

Did You Miss Me?

Nah, probably not. I see it has been two months since the last posting and it feels even longer since. It is good to back away from things at times. Get some distance to see life in a different perspective.

I even stayed away from sewing for several weeks and I think I benefited from this as well. Even plogging. Haven't done that since the R n R 1/2 Marathon back in March. I think of it all as a vacation but don't think for one minute I've been sitting around watching Netflix and popping popcorn. (okay I have been doing that.....) but it is summer and the vegetables have been belching out of the garden and that means canning, peeling, freezing, pickling and not in that order!

I have cleaned out the freezer as well to see where we stand in there and now I almost can stand in there! Except it's a chest freezer so I would look rather silly. And cold.

What I really really truly want to do is get 4 or more quilts on the machine (one at a time, naturally) and knock them out. I bought a couple of new books which I wrote briefly about at Bright Hopes Quilting and found some new design I want to practice, but first I have to dredge the machine out from under piles of draping stuff.

Ever buy an exercise machine, or seen one set up in a bedroom, never used except to hang clothes off of? Picture a quilting machine then, all set up and recently serviced; just waiting for a quilt-top to be pinned in place. But I can't because I have been using it to hold projects on hold, ironing yet to do, some fabric I bought as backing for another quilt I can't seen to locate, bills paid that need to be filed and pincushions I am using to finish the last Civil War quilt that has me pulling my hair out. It's so cluttered, even the cat has issues.

Yesterday, I started tackling the excavation in order to get where I wish to be and I hope by Wednesday to actually have a quilt ready to go.

In a bid to re-enter the quilting room gently, I did complete this little quilt in one day.

It's for the Seasoned Quilter wall hanging at the shop.