Sunday, April 22, 2012

Giving the Left Brain a Break

The semester is coming to an end. All my assignments are in, and with 3 exams in 2 weeks I have decided to give my left brain a rest. My right hemisphere has taken over for the time being, and it feel great! I am finishing up two baby quilts for my neighbors' twin boys. Hopefully I will have pictures posted soon of the completed twin quilts.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

I'm Still Here

Wow, time is flying by so quickly! This semester has kept me very busy, and with limited time to be creative. Classes have sucked up a lot of my free time, and exercise has taken up most of the rest. Not to mention we basically skipped winter/spring in Southeastern Nebraska and have quickly jumped into summer...in March! My last post of Lee and I making the snowman in the front of the house, well that was the end of our winter. Needless to say I have been enjoying the weather on walks/runs with Penny and riding my bike to and from class/work.
It has taken me 27 years but I am finally in love with exercise! In the last six months I have lost 35 pounds and am the most healthy I have been my whole life. The most use my sewing machine has gotten lately is to take in my clothes, none of my old wardrobe fits anymore! For those of you that hate exercise but want to loose weight, give it a try. Try new things, join a gym with group exercise classes and try a few out, you may surprise yourself. The Y has great exercise classes that keep you motivated and that allow you to challenge yourself at your own pace. I absolutely love kickboxing, I get out all my stress and aggression by punching heavy bags 2 days a week. I also love running now, something I NEVER thought would happen! Working out for an hour 6 days a week has been great for my stress and energy levels and I have such a happier outlook on life, gotta love the endorphins! For those of you that don't already, try getting in a bit of "me time" by doing exercise, once you start the habit, you will never give it up. :)
As I said, I haven't had much time for crafts and quilting. I slowly managed to finish my cousins T-Shirt quilt top and back, with a bit of a measurement issue along the way. I was off by a small fraction of an inch on my squares I cut for the pieced blocks on the cheerleading side of her quilt. This fraction of an inch caused the blocks to be 1/2" too big. Rather than taking all the blocks apart and piecing them back together I just trimmed them down...the squares along the outside of these blocks are smaller than those in the middle, but I know Nicolette won't mind. I am a prefectionist, so this flaw is testing my urge to start over, it has also made me realize not everything can be perfect.
Today I am basting her quilt. I decided I am going to hand quilt this one. I have an idea for the quilting and it is going to be way too much work to do it by machine. Since I pieced both the back and front of this quilt I have to try and line the blocks up while basting. Rather than start pinning in the middle and moving outwards I am starting on one end and smoothing and pulling it in line as I go. Hopefully this works, everything is a learning process.
Speaking of learning....I signed up for my last semester in my undergrad program this week! It has taken ten years, but I will finally have a bachelor's degree next December! Then it is on to my master's. :) There is no rest for this girl!

How have all of you been? Hopefully everyone is enjoying beautiful weather like those of us in the mid-west, yesterday it was 91 degrees! I hope to get in more quilting and blogging time, but the semester is coming to an end, luckily I have the whole summer to quilt. Happy Spring everyone!